Another one of The Real World Brooklyn roommates that Ryan Conklin showed his scrapbooks to was JD Ordonez. One evening JD spent some time with Ryan in Ryan's room, looking through the books while Ryan worked on his memoir manuscript. As JD looked through the photos, Ryan told him stories about some of the interesting things that he did while he was in Iraq.One story was about when Ryan entered the house of Saddam Hussein's cousin, not knowing it was his. At first, Ryan was perplexed from seeing so many photos of Saddam in this particular house. Ryan asked the owner through an interpreter why he had so many images of Saddam. Through the interpreter Ryan found out it was Saddam's cousin. So JD the awed kid asked Ryan if he then killed him. Ryan said no, because no one in the house was doing anything wrong.
Perhaps being used to looking through Architectural Digest, JD also wondered if the house looked nice. Ryan explained that there were no nice houses in Iraq other than Saddam's palaces, but they had all become American bases.
In another story, Ryan told of patrolling in an area all morning and then having a deep-seated need to go wee as soon as possible. It just so happened at this time that his patrol group came upon a cove that Ryan regarded as the most beautiful spot he had ever seen. Accordingly, Ryan then took a wizz on it (perhaps to mark his newly claimed territory?)
An interpreter let Ryan know that the waters were where Saddam would go fishing. However, he explained that it wasn't regular fishing, but rather Saddam blowing fish out of the water by throwing hand grenades into it. Ryan found that to be unsportsmanlike.
JD sat on the bed with Ryan and Ryan told him some of the background on the things in the photos. Ryan pointed to where someone was making fun of an Iraqi soldier with a Walkman. Ryan explained that the thing that was funny about it was the Iraqis were always listening to Michael Jackson. In another photo, Ryan pointed out where someone had used a sharpie to draw a mustache on someone. He told JD that he wasn't kidding when he said all of his buddies like fake mustaches.
JD asked Ryan if was cold at night in Iraq. Ryan answered that out in the open desert, yes, it did get quite cold at night. He explained that that was why soldiers would dig a little pit and then have 4 or 5 of them lay in it, huddling close to keep each other warm while they slept together. JD noted that 4 or 5 guys spooning together in the outdoors under the moonlight would be fun. Ryan laughed at the thought, but given the circumstances of the location and the cold, Ryan let JD know that it wasn't fun for the soldiers at all.
The evening was a good time for Ryan to have some quality time with JD, letting JD know a little bit about what his life as a soldier was like.
