MOSUL, Iraq – My last meal in Tacoma before I left for the middle East was at the venerable West End Pub and Grill. Anyone who’s known me for about 30 seconds knows I can’t get enough of the iced tea there – the stuff is often as dark as coffee, and I guzzle it by the pitcher.

I purchased a T-shirt during a meal there and promised to take some cool photos with it in Iraq. But apparently I wasn’t alone with my West End-Iraq love. Another guy went a couple of years ago, I learned, and he sent back photos of him in front of a tank.

Skip ahead to this week. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Sabatine of the 81st Brigade Combat Team’s 2nd Battalion, 146th Field Artillery Regiment is giving me a windshield tour of Contingency Operating Site Marez. We’re passing the boneyard – the spot of the base where the rusted-out tanks and other military vehicles left over from earlier wars sit and rust away. I mention to Sabatine that I should get a photo of me wearing my West End T-shirt.

I thought he was about to drive off the road.

Turns out, Sabatine is the guy who posed for a photo in front of the tank during his last deployment. He’s a regular at West End. He prefers the prime rib sandwich, while I’m a true believer in the carved turkey bacon melt. He knows most of the staff by name and has been going there for years.

Sabatine – this man of unparalleled taste and restaurant savvy – is exactly the guy we want to be a representative of the United States military in Iraq.