Camp Victory Baghdad Iraq. My stay at this base was nearly a vacation, no work, no guard, no duties at all and lots of interesting things to see. Part of my parent unit was stationed at this base and accordingly I was responsible to them; however most of them had no idea who I was or what I did, so I managed to keep a low profile and go mostly unnoticed. This allowed me about a weeks worth of time, and I spent it reading books and exploring the many buildings on what had once been one of Saddam Hussein's main palace grounds. The base was huge to say the least and being a lowly Specialist I certainly wasn't about to have a vehicle by which to get around. As luck would have it though I did have a pair of boots, time, and nothing better to do. With those things I set off to explore the base. The first thing I had to explore was the main palace, the pictures below will give a better description of it than I can, but the pictures taken inside simply don't do it justice as once again there were very few working lights in the building and thus most of it was too dark to take good pictures. To understate it, the palace was very stately. nearly the entire building was covered in marble inside and out, all except the ceilings which were intricately plastered moldings which had been beautify painted.  As nice as the molding and marble was it didn't stop there, often you would see scripting on the walls or fixtures which were gold. Not having a whole lot to do; my first day I wondered around the main parts of the palace and around the base just getting a good bearing on things. The second or third day I decided that I needed to dive further into the palace and started wondering around in areas I probably didn't belong, no matter though, no one said anything to me. I searched the building from top to bottom; going down into what must have been Saddam's workers living areas in the basements to tallest point of the buildings roof. I rummaged around all the areas from the main halls and rooms to the mechanical rooms where the heating, and cooling systems were. I walked around the top of the building admiring the views and surveying the surrounding areas, and found a hole in the roof where a single Tomahawk missile had struck Saddam's bedroom destroying the room but leaving the rest of the building undamaged, not even causing the roof above it to collapse in. I don't really remember in what order I did what over the next couple of days, but I explored the rest of the palace grounds, as far as I could reasonably walk anyways. I walked around the lakes and looked at many of the buildings that were in various stages of either construction and were being built, or in states of destruction from being bombed. Mostly I took my last couple of days really easy, did lot of reading. The chow hall was a 20 minute walk a way from where I was sleeping so making that trek 3 times a day took up some time. The unit I was staying with had found a gardening building with water amongst a bunch of trees so they had set up a "real" shower which to me was a true luxury. I hadn't had a real shower in months. even though we had had running water at the Petroleum University we hadn't had showers only a short hose in a bathroom stall with a drain in the floor that you had to squat to be able to use, and although the shower I had made at the Martyrs Monument had been worm at the end of the day, you only had 5 gallons, twice a week. This shower I could stand up in, I had as much water as I needed, and it had 3 walls that were shoulder high and a board I could prop up against the front for a door, worm water or no (and it was a no) this was a luxury. Life was good, I had 3 hot meals a day if I wanted them, showers, I was headed home soon, and nobody was harassing me or asking me to do anything, what more can a soldier ask for? About a week after I had gotten to Camp Victory my unit managed to get me on a flight back to  the U.S. and back to good ole Ft.  Huachuca. Most days and for most reasons I  hated going back to Ft. Huachuca, but not this day, this time I was looking forward to it, it meant I would soon be out of the Army.