Legal Niches

Xbox Live's Major Nelson Visiting Troops in Baghdad

By gamepolitics

Larry Hyrb, aka Major Nelson, is currently in Baghdad.

The Director of Programming for Xbox Live tipped readers to the surprise 10-day trip in a blog post on June 7th:

I am a few hours away from stepping on a plane for the first leg of my journey to Baghdad, Iraq for the Iroq-Band competition taking place next week. I am honored to be asked to support the event, and I am looking forward to meeting many of service men and women that are Xbox LIVE members...

 

We'll be recording a bunch of video for upcoming Inside Xbox segments which will air next month. With all of the travel and security involved in this trip, my online time (blog posts, twitter, twitpics and flickr) will be extremely limited... I want to warn you that I'll be unusually quiet (which I am sure won't bother some of you) during my radio silence. 

Major Nelson arrived in Iraq on Wednesday. Despite the heavy security of a war zone, he has been providing numerous updates via Twitter. Some of his recent tweets give the flavor of the experience:

The Colbert [Report] people are leaving today, looks like we missed 'em.

 

It takes you back when the staff where we are staying have sidearms and automatic weapons.

 

Taking a scenic tour of downtown Baghdad aboard a Blackhawk heli.

 

Apparently I slept through a mortar attack last night. No one was injured.

 

Seems like Xbox 360 is everywhere on this base. The only thing they don't have is LIVE due to the poor connectivity.

 

Most popular games on the base? Rock Band, Halo, COD (any of 'em) and all sports games.

The pic at left is from the Major's ride-along with a Blackhawk sortie over Baghdad.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on June 13, 2009 (boomark / email).