LEARNED THIS MORNING that CPT Patti and the rest of the Gators are staying in what once was the Baghdad Police Academy. Want to see where that is? OK - follow the link to the Interactive Map of Baghdad in the links section. (Timesaving hint: When the map has fully loaded you can save it to your system so you don't have to download it each time you want to look at it.)

Find the center of the map, then move due east (to the right) a little bit less than half way to the right edge of the map. Look for a block of green. When you find the green area click on the magnifying glass tool then click the magnifier on that green block. You may need to click five or six times before you can read the text on the map.

In the green blocks you should see the words Raiahin, Shaab Stadium and Saddam Hussein Hall. Just north (above) that you will see "Police College" in the yellow area.

CPT Patti and crew are living at the Police College, and are setting up their logistics base in the vicinity of the stadium.

Also confirmed with the Rear Detachment guys that our suspicions about the cell phones were correct - the Iraqi system is not compatible with western phones. So, no phone calls from our girl for a while...but rumor says new cell phone service to Baghdad will be established in June. Don't know if that is accurate or just wishful thinking. But we also here that e-mail may be established PDQ.

Hope so.