Time is a precious commodity, especially when it’s running out. Fighting Mr. Murphy and his law is always a challenge. The generator woes cost us precious time to set up our ‘home away from home’ which keeps things interesting.

All day on set day number two, electricity was the number one issue. The correct generators showed up, but with the wrong cable to connect them. Electricians figured out a workaround, and hooked everything up. Once we finally had electricity, other problems started appearing. Things that worked perfectly when we set up the studio in the states last week suddenly didn’t seem to work right. Mysterious hums and buzzes had to be found, tracked down and fixed. Extra cables were run to try and head off the evil Mr. Murphy.

Every year, soldiers volunteer to help set up. These guys work tirelessly, and do whatever we ask of them without complaint. One year, a camera tripod was left behind. Some troops took measurements and built a very sturdy camera mount out of plywood. Nothing is a problem for long. If we get little sleep during our time "down range," these men and women seem to get none at all.

Most of them work with us all day, then perform their regular duties; going on patrols, driving for the motor pool, base and perimeter security. Every soldier I talked to said their No. 1 goal is to get home to see loved ones, friends and family. Many have had children during their deployment, and many of those children have already learned to walk in their absence.

These statements aren’t complaints though. The men and women in our military know they have volunteered for this job, and they serve their country with selfless pride.

Seventeen hours after walking to work, having spent a lot of time the past two days scratching my head and wondering if there was really going to be enough time to pull everything together, I walked back to my spacious tent, confident most of the gremlins in the system, at least the biggest ones, had been found and fixed… hopefully. We’ll have to improvise around the rest.

Most of tomorrow morning - show day - will be filled with last minute checks. Does the music feed the sound system? Is it loud enough? Can the cameramen hear the director? Will the generator make it through the show? What else have I forgotten to do? Hundreds of questions will be asked; as many as possible will be answered. One thing I know for sure, all day long the curve balls will keep coming, and we’ll keep on swinging at them, right up until the show begins.

When the final countdown to the start of the show happens, for me, time will slow down. For some reason, it always seems to when I’m working on a live event. All the preparation of the previous two days will be put to the test.

The WWE will entertain the troops the best way we know how, and for a few hours at least, those men and women, many that have been in Iraq for a year or longer will have a chance to forget where they are, a chance to cheer and clap, to holler and most importantly to smile and have a good time.

And when it’s all over and the troops have returned to their duties, we’ll take apart what took two days to build, pack it all on pallets and put all our gear and ourselves back in the C-17 cargo plane for the long flight home.

Editor's Note: The preceeding was relayed from e-mail message reports from last week's WWE's Tribute to the Troops mission.

For complete coverage of Tribute to the Troops, visit the Tribute section on WWE.com. Also, Leave your holiday messages for the troops in the Forums on WWE Universe.

It’s five in the morning, and I am in a tent with twenty snoring technicians. If the sounds of helicopters thundering overhead all night, mixed with sporadic gunfire didn’t remind me how far away from home I am, the speakers blaring traditional Muslim call to prayer certainly made the point.

For the past six years, World Wrestling Entertainment has packed up a ring and an entire TV studio and shipped it overseas to entertain the troops for the holiday season. I have been a part of the technical production crew on all six Tribute to the Troops shows.

In the past six years, much in Iraq has changed. For instance, cell phones did not work at all the first year, but now, they do – sometimes. This year, the tent the production crew is staying in has a wireless internet connection available for a fee, and it also works – sometimes.

This year will mark the first time the Tribute to the Troops show is presented in High Definition. What hasn’t changed is the challenges the production crew faces in assembling an arena and TV studio in the middle of a desert.

Back home, two dedicated HD Television production trucks travel from event to event. These trucks were built specifically for producing World Wrestling Entertainment programs, and are packed full of the equipment required to produce the show.

When the WWE comes to Iraq, all the TV equipment comes with us, packed in boxes. Once ‘in country’, the production crew’s main responsibility is to un-box everything and start connecting the jigsaw puzzle.

My role on this show is audio engineer. All the music, the announcements, and every sound that happens in the ring are part of my responsibility, along with making sure cameramen and crew can hear the director and producer during the show.

Every year the production crew deals with what we call curve balls, and this year is no exception. Our first major obstacle this year, one that is proving to be a big one, is the distinct lack of electricity to power all our gear. A generator designed to power equipment from the United Kingdom had originally been brought in, but this generator, if we used it, would most likely destroy our equipment. A suitable generator was located somewhere in Iraq, but then, Murphy’s Law was proved again. The cable supplied to attach the generator was too thick to make the connection.

While the task of assembling an arena is daunting, sometimes even overwhelming, tomorrow the show will go on, as all shows must.

Editor's Note: The preceeding was relayed from e-mail message reports from the WWE's Tribute to the Troops mission. Names of the bases visited have been omitted at the request of the U.S. Army, so as not to divulge WWE's location in Iraq.

For complete coverage of Tribute to the Troops, visit the Tribute section on WWE.com. Also, Leave your holiday messages for the troops in the Forums on WWE Universe.