Good news for family, friends and fans of Joe Roche and all his fellow soldiers of the 1st Armored Division: They are headed home!

In fact, we’ve received an e-mail from Joe Roche saying he has made it safely out of Iraq and is now in Kuwait.

Moving a functional military division is no easy process. This article in Stars and Stripes gives some idea of the details involved.

Joe expects to be in Kuwait for a while yet, as he has various duties there. One of the things the soldiers will be doing is washing everything. (Joe says the water pressure on the hoses that are used to wash the vehicles is strong enough to take a person’s hand off.) Then everything — and that means a lot of equipment — has to be packed to be shipped to the division’s home base in Germany.

There are a number of camps for coalition soldiers in Kuwait. One can get an idea of what they look like from these Washington Post “surround” photos (click on the links under the first photo to see others).

During the 1st AD’s stay in Iraq its press office sent out a daily newsletter, The Old Ironsides Report. Their final issue (pdf file) from Iraq provides a recap of the Division’s accomplishments during its 15 month deployment in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is too brief, and too modest, but worth a read nonetheless.

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