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.