I saw three Albanian patients today.  They have a physician assigned to their unit and he does a great job taking care of his soldiers.  Only on rare occasions does he ask for our assistance.  Several times per week he joins us for our daily rounds and he likes to attend our weekly lectures.  This is not really about the patients, this is about our friends the Albanians.  I do not know how many Albanian soldiers are in Iraq, but we have a unit here on our FOB.  It is a unit of Albanian Commandos, which is their elite/special forces soldiers.  Of course they are not the caliber of our US Special Forces, but these guys are pretty cool.  They are part of the Quick Reaction Force (QRF in Army terms) for this base; in other words, if anybody tried to attack this base, they would have to deal with a large group of bad-ass Albanian Commandos.  In general these guys are friendly; they always smile and wave or say hello when you pass them on the streets.  They get up early in the morning and go to the gym in large groups and workout pretty hard.  And, they love our chow hall.  These guys can eat.  They do not always choose the healthiest foods, but most of our soldiers eat pretty crappy as well.  Most of the Albanians can speak more than one language.  I have a lot of respect for the Albanians.  Back in March, when shit started getting a little hot down here Spain and Honduras decided they had enough and packed up their bats and balls and went home.  Well, some of our friends responded - the Albanians decided to spend more troops and Italians extended their commitment to OIF.  That's what I'm talking about.  In times of true hardship, you learn who your real friends are.  The Albanians are our friends and I am glad to have the opportunity to work with these guys.

As an aside, this morning was incredible, it was actually cold outside.

Today is my nephew Harrison's second birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRISON!!!!