FOB life

My knees hurt, actually every old injury from former car crashes, motorcycle accidents, skateboard falls and bar fights I have ever been in seems to have come back in the last month or so. My knees hurt the most though. At first I thought it was because I have been doing so much running after not having done it in a while but my new theory is they hurt because I live on a rock planet. I am either walking on rocks all day or on cement, I miss grass. We have regular sized rocks that we walk on all around our CHU’s then we have the large surface of the moon rocks spread sporadically throughout the base. We also have patches of pea stone and the ever present moon dust which is so fine it is like talcum powder. My personal favorites are the moon rocks and the moon dust. The moon rocks are about as big as my fist and when you walk on them your legs get a real stability work out, I blame them for my knees hurting. The moon dust is pretty much everywhere although sometimes you find small pockets of it where it is 5 to 6 inches deep. You usually find those spots by accidentally walking into them and not really realizing it until you have a face full of dirt. The moon dust is also what the dust storms mostly comprises of . There is an actually difference between a dust storm and a sand storm. Dust storms can literally be hundreds of feet high and can envelop whole cities and close down all air traffic for a region.. Sand storms on the other hand are usually only about 30 feet high and tend to blow through pretty quick. For the most part we have only really had dust storms here so far.

Constant noise is another fact of life here. All of our electrical power is provided by huge generators which run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They actually just replaced the ones over by our CHU’s to much quieter ones but you can still hear them. As a matter of fact the whole base’s electricity comes from generators so no matter where you go you can hear them running. By far the loudest thing here is the helicopters, we live on an old Iraqi airfield and the cavalry guys have a squadron of helicopters here that are also on a 24 hour rotation so no matter what time of day it is there is always a helicopter either taking off, flying overhead or just running on the runway.

There is no light here. In Kuwait the whole base was illuminated by portable gas powered spotlights. The spotlights were everywhere and they were set up much like streetlights back home so visibility was not an issue. But here there are no spotlights, some of the CHU’s have outside lights and the chow hall/ gym area is lit up but other than that there is no artificial light. This is a good thing I suppose since we are technically out in the middle of no where in a foreign country where ,yes, people still want to kill us. But it makes for a difficult walk when the moon is obscured by a dust storm or lately clouds or just does not seem to be out at all. I think it is on these night time strolls to the gym or chow hall that my knees are getting really banged up because you are essentially walking blind on rocks.

One of the more nerve racking elements here on the FoB, at least when we first got here, has been the local E.O.D. ( Explosive Ordinance Disposal ) unit here on base. Periodically throughout the month they blow stuff up out on one of their compounds which is about a quarter mile away from our CHU’s. I specifically remember one Sunday morning when we were all sitting around the CHU drinking coffee and working on our computers when all of a sudden there was a very large explosion followed by our CHU shaking on its foundations. Needless to say there was a little bit of running around outside with my rifle wondering what the hell was going on. Another time I was sitting outside my CHU drinking coffee ( there is a pattern here ) when I saw illumination flares being shot into the sky which looked like they were coming from the perimeter fence. Turns out that both times it was just E.O.D. getting rid of out dated munitions. But like I said , just a little bit nerve racking.

I would be remiss if I did not mention KBR ( Kellogg, Brown & Root ) in my FoB life blog. This company is heavily entrenched in the war on terror, that seems to me to be the most politically correct way to put it. Don’t get me wrong I really do not mind not having to do K.P. or my own laundry. But on the other hand I see how much money they are making both in Iraq and in Afghanistan and it kind of bothers me , war profiteering comes to mind. Basically every service you can imagine is run by KBR. Everything from the chow hall, gym, MWR ( Morale Welfare Recreation ) truck wash rack, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, truck drivers, laundry, grounds maintenance and vehicle maintenance are provided by KBR. They also supply all the CHU’s we live in and all the NTV’s ( non-tactical vehicles ) that we use on base at a rather large cost. It used to be that all those services would be provided by military personal, so when I hear the Army say that they have plenty of troops and that recruitment is up it makes me think that they are flubbing the numbers because they are not providing these services themselves any more. There are actually MOS’s ( military occupational skill ) that cover all of those services but the Army has replaced those military jobs with civilians. On the one hand it is nice because to be honest having to serve in Iraq and do my regular duties plus having to do KP and all the other banalities of military life would be a little bit oppressing. But on the other hand it annoys me that the government is spending so much money on these private contractors. A large part of the problem for me is the fact that there is no accountability. Recently in the news was a story about a Special Forces soldier that was electrocuted and killed in a shower trailer that was provided by KBR. Well it turns out that he was the 21st soldier to die by electrocution from poorly grounded equipment that KBR supplied. The family sued KBR and lost because there was not enough documentation to prove that it was KBR’s fault which to me translates to shoved under the carpet. But because they are civilian contractors they are not held to the same standard that their military counterparts are so they seem to get away with things that in the military would not fly.

That’s all I have to say about that ( said in my best Forrest Gump voice ) …………..