In late 2004, I was mobilized with an Infantry unit from Biloxi, MS, and by December 2004 I was in Kuwait. In Iraq by January, we maintained a position with an assigned AO, with a small patrol base as our living quarters. Being a temporary shelter and base of operations, we had very little contact with the outside world, except for letters and the occasional rumor spread over the company radio.\r\n\r\nCome August 2005, my date for taking leave came, and I was escorted to a nearby airfield where through various flights, helicopter rides, and convoys, I arrived in Kuwait for a trip back to the states. Having no communications or sources of information at our Patrol base, I sat watching news of Hurricane Katrina hitting the coast and demolishing everything, including most of the homes and training facilities in which we were based out of.\r\n\r\nThe Army could not take me back for 12 days, and I was left to find my own way home, or wherever I felt I should go, being there was no home to go to. All I had was my uniform, ID, and wallet. Lucky for me, I had friends in Dalls and El paso, I stayed with them untill days later I found part of my family in Lake Charles. I applied for a red cross extension, but was denied, and didnt even have enough time left on leave to help them evacuate for Rita.\r\n\r\nNeedless to say, september was a very hard month for us in Iraq, being from that area and fighting a war with no home to return to.