I know that on my last blog I said I was going to cover the different ethnicities here and the mechanics of the country but I recently had an experience that I want to put out before I do that. While it was happening it was absolutely miserable but as it is with most bad experiences I have had I can now look back and laugh because some of it was comical.
My section and some others were recently tasked to go out into the middle of no where and pull security for some engineers that were working on a project. The weeks leading up to this adventure were filled with days of gathering materials from cots to tents to burn latrines. Burn latrines are big wooden stall toilets in which you have to burn the waste at the end of the day. I had a lot of experience with them during Desert Storm so imagine my joy when I heard we were bringing them out to the field with us. We started our grand adventure early one Monday morning by meeting up with all the trucks from the engineers and some other elements out in the dust bowl. The dust bowl is a large open area here on base where the larger convoys stage their trucks before rolling out the gate. We were originally tasked as convoy security but ended up doing route security instead. This means that we roll ahead in our trucks about an hour before the main convoy and make sure the road is clear of IED’s and whatnot. Added to our convoy was a bomb sniffing K-9 unit and the base EOD team.
The convoy out went well and we had no problems which was a good thing. It was actually a fairly nice day, the sun was out and it was pretty warm. We arrived at the work site around noon and the Engineers went right to work offloading their equipment. The K-9 unit was deployed to search the area for IED’s or any unexploded ordinance that might be in the area. As soon as the dog got out of the truck we were suddenly surrounded by all the local dogs. This caused quite a scene and at one point I was actually preparing to shoot the dogs which would have sucked but there was a point where we thought that was what we were going to have to do. One of our guys finally diffused the situation by using a slingshot with rocks to shoo the dogs away ( don’t ask why they have slingshots, you don’t want to know, I will save that explanation for when I get home ). By the time the dog had sniffed the whole area and announced the all clear the engineers had unloaded all their gear and went straight to work. I am not sure what unit these guys were from but I do know they are a National Guard unit from Indiana and they do not fool around. They worked 24 hours a day ( except during hurricane Abdullah ) the whole time we were out there.
We were pulling security for the sight so we had a truck parked on each corner of the project area. When pulling security you must have a gunner up in the turret and at least one other person in the truck at all times. About 4 hours into the project the wind started to kick up and an hour after that it was gale force winds with a full compliment of dust to boot. By 6pm the few trees I could see were being blown sideways and we could not see anything beyond 20 feet. We had 5 guys in our truck initially but once we arrived on site one of our guys had to go help commo ( the communications section ) set up the radio station. Around 8pm we get a call on our radio that 3rd platoon would be coming out to our truck to trade it for one of theirs that was broken down. They were working in another portion of our battle space ( the area in which a unit is responsible) and their truck broke down so instead of having to go back to base to get another one they came and stole ours ( bastards). We were currently in an MRAP which was nice and big with a good heater, and what we got from 3rd platoon was a broken down HUMVEE that would not run so we had no heat. This would probably have not been too bad except that shortly after they dropped the truck off and we had moved all our gear over it started to rain. Not any silly little rain either, this was rain in buckets accompanied by the gale force winds and lots of dust. I am actually hard pressed to remember ever seeing a storm like this either here or at home, that is how bad it was, and we were out in it. Let me tell you that standing in the turret of a truck in a full blown storm like that goes beyond any words to describe it. We were truly “in the suck” as they say in the military. Around midnight I had had enough of being in the turret ( about 15 hours of enough) and decided to take my gear and go to the tent that they had set up earlier in the day. The tent was approximately 200 meters from where my truck was parked which is no big deal under normal circumstances. But with that rain and wind and trying to hump my rucksack ( Army backpack, usually filled with way too much stuff ) through the mud it was a difficult task to say the least. By the way, the mud out there was different then the mud on base. Out there it was like pudding and slick as hell, I almost face planted on many occasions.
I finally get to the tent completely exhausted and ready for some serious rack time, so I set out my sleeping bag, lay down and all is good in the world and then I completely pass out.. One hour later I am woken by one of my buddies who affectionately kicks me and yells “get the heck up, the tent is blowing down“. Mind you I have been awake for 30 hours and have only gotten 1 hour of sleep. I lift my head up and look to my left and ………yes, the whole end of the tent is gone and by gone I mean gone ( for my Face book friends there are pictures of this ). This really is no way for a civilized person of my stature to be woken up but this was the situation I found myself in that evening. As I madly scramble up to stuff my sleeping bag back into my ruck and try and account for all my gear the other guys are frantically stuffing gear under a tarp which is where I finally deposited my gear also. Once we got all the gear under the tarp we used some very wet sandbags to hold the ends down. All the guys that had been sleeping in the tent had originally come from the trucks that were pulling security. The Sergeant Major puts out a call for those trucks to take turns pulling up to the tent area to pick up their guys, the first truck in got stuck in the mud so no more trucks coming to the tent. That equates to Jim and one of the Terps (interpreter) having to walk out into the weather to get into a truck. My truck was too far away so I was sent to another one ( which in my humble opinion was farther away than my truck , string of curses). By this time the storm was in full gear and I was really not happy to be going back out into it but since the tent was disintegrating around me I really had no choice. I was totally soaked within 10 meters and the wind was gusting so hard that at times I would have to stop and brace myself against it. It was gusting so bad that when I stopped and braced, the wind would actually push me over the surface of the mud, kind of like wind surfing but different. The Terp and I finally reach the other truck only to find out that they were not expecting us so there was some arguing about what in the hell we were doing there. By this time I was in no mood for anything so I plainly stated I was staying and that was all there was too it. I finally pass out while sitting on someone’s rucksack and get about 4 hours sleep before I am woken and told that they need me back in my original truck ( not really my original truck , more like the broken down piece of junk that 3rd platoon had left us). I get back to my truck and I do not leave it ever again for the following 4 days of our stay out at the sight.
The next day all the trucks rigged ponchos over the top of the turrets, it rained a bit that morning but by the afternoon it had all cleared up. For the ret of our stay we worked 3 hour shifts on the gun and took cat naps in between as you cannot get any real sleep sitting upright in a truck with body armor on. By the second day 3rd platoon was kind enough to drop our MRAP back off to us and take away their HUMVEE, it was really nice to have heat again and I do not think we ever turned it off the rest of our stay.
On the third day my truck got moved to the southern part of the work site and part of our job was to observe the traffic that was using a bypass road because we were doing some work on the main road. The bypass road was really just open desert that the people were driving across to bypass our area which was completely blocked off. The problem was that about halfway down this road was a low spot where a lot of water from the rains had collected and created a big muddy mess. Around noon of that day we noticed that there was a huge traffic jam building up on the bypass road. Basically a couple of large trucks had gotten stuck in the mud and were completely blocking the road. So we had to call up the engineers who sent out a bulldozer to fix the road. Another soldier and I had to dismount and provide security for the bulldozer operator while he worked. So I am standing out there in the mud with all my gear on sweating my ass off as the sun has come out in full force and I have all these Iraqi men surrounding me gastrulating wildly and pointing at their stuck vehicles. I just want to mention that I do not speak the local language, so I basically just stood there with a goofy grin on my face and nodded a lot. The bulldozer finally pulls out all the vehicles and fixes the road but he is only able to make one lane. As soon as he moved the bulldozer, traffic from both sides starts to move forward and before you know it we have a traffic jam. It took about half an hour of cursing and wildly waving arms to get them to cross over one at a time but we finally got our point across and the traffic jam cleared up. The rest of our stay was pretty uneventful, although I will say that 90% of us never tried to sleep in a tent again. Never get out of the boat, words to live by.
And in the end the best part of the whole trip for me was I did not get stuck on poop burning detail.
Sergeant Major to me: Clarkson, you getting any sleep?
Me: Roger that Sergeant major.
Sergeant Major: Your not lying to me are you?
Me: Negative Sergeant Major, I wouldn’t lie to you about that sergeant major.
Sergeant major: You know it is illegal to lie to a Sergeant major about anything.
Me: No comment.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Comments
Unfortunatly I had to set my blog settings so that only registered viewers of my blog will be able to post comments. This is due to the fact that some hacker or some such person was posting comments on how to pirate software. So there you have it. I will be posting another blog soon. Just got back from 4 & 1/2 wonderfull days in the desert so I am going to sleep for 14 hours now.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Mud & Rain
Mud, I have had many experiences with different types of mud. From the grey mud at Ft. Bragg that is so slick that it is like grease. That stuff was really nasty and it was not odd for your truck to get stuck in it even if it was only a couple inches deep, that’s how slick it was. Or the nasty red clay mud at Ft. Benning that either wet or dry would eventually cover you and turn your clothes red if you spent any time at all out in the field. Even the clay mud at home which can be measured not only in inches deep but in feet. But nothing I have come across in all my travels comes even close to the mud we get here in Iraq. The mud is so thick and nasty here that it is like concrete. This is the type of mud that sticks to your boots and does not come off. It cakes to the bottom of your boots and as you walk more and more of it cakes on and squishes out from the bottom of your boot. You would think that as it squishes out that it would fall off as new mud was added. That is not the case; instead it just keeps squishing out until it covers your whole boot. The end result is that whenever you walk somewhere you end up with 10 pounds of mud on your feet. And when you finally reach whatever destination that you were headed to you have to find whatever you can to scrape the mud off. At one point they added pea gravel and regular size gravel to some of the really low areas around our bunker to fill holes and low spots. This seemed like a great idea when it was dry around here but turned out to be not so great when you add the mud factor. Now when you walk on those areas not only do you get mud but you also get rocks stuck on the bottom of your boots, very annoying.
Up here in northern Iraq we do not have a lot of sand. Instead the ground consists mostly of dirt and rocks with scattered pockets of moon dust. It is the dirt that makes the horrible concrete mud. The moon dust just turns into a slurry mess when it gets wet. This slurry can sometimes be up to 6 inches deep which a wonderful thing is when you are stumbling home in the dark and you step into a hole of it (string of expletives). The major thing about the mud is that it is everywhere and covers everything. A few of the roads here on base are actually asphalt but for the most part they are dirt. And of course the rest of the base is dirt so when I say the mud is everywhere I do mean everywhere, there is no escaping it. Even when it stops raining the mud persists for several days after words.
Currently we are in the middle of the rainy season here in Iraq. It is much cooler in the days and actually a bit nippy at night. Nothing compared to back home I assure you. The days are usually 50-60 degrees and at night it gets down into the 40’s. Not bad by Michigan standards but when you are used to 120 degrees it is a bit of a temperature change. Not that it is depressing enough being in Iraq but to add days on end of grey cloudy cold days sometimes with a steady downpour it all seems a bit too much. The days that I really enjoy the rain (Not) are the days that it is cold, wet and raining and we have to go out on a mission. There is really nothing quite like standing in a truck with the top half of your body sticking out rolling down the road and getting rained on. If you do not cover every square inch of your face it feels as if hundreds of tiny ice daggers are stabbing you in the face. If you don’t believe me try sticking your head out of your car window next time it rains. If you really do this and tell me that you did it I am going to point at you and laugh, best to just take my word for it, really.
The rain here can be anything from a constant drizzle to a constant downpour that lasts for days at a time. Which at home would not be bad since you would be able to stay inside or if you had to go outside you could just take the car? But over here (except on missions of course) everywhere you go you are walking. And if you are in your CHU and you want to take a shower or you have to go to the bathroom, guess what, you’re going to get wet. This is especially nice when it is 40 degrees and a steady downpour. The CHU’s are metal so you get that nice patter sound when it rains which I always enjoy (the sound of rain on a metal roof not rain) but the problem lies in the fact that all our roofs are flat. I do not think these things were meant for this environment because when it rains the roof usually leaks and to get it fixed you have to walk a mile to the Mayors cell to contact KBR to come fix it which usually takes a few days because everyone’s roof is leaking. The Mayors cell is where the base sergeant major stays and his job is to insure that everything is running smoothly on base and to solve any problems that might arise concerning basic services and housing.
That's it for Mud & Rain , my next group of blogs is going to cover the different ethnicity's and religions here and I will try and explain some what the big picture over here. Until then...............
Up here in northern Iraq we do not have a lot of sand. Instead the ground consists mostly of dirt and rocks with scattered pockets of moon dust. It is the dirt that makes the horrible concrete mud. The moon dust just turns into a slurry mess when it gets wet. This slurry can sometimes be up to 6 inches deep which a wonderful thing is when you are stumbling home in the dark and you step into a hole of it (string of expletives). The major thing about the mud is that it is everywhere and covers everything. A few of the roads here on base are actually asphalt but for the most part they are dirt. And of course the rest of the base is dirt so when I say the mud is everywhere I do mean everywhere, there is no escaping it. Even when it stops raining the mud persists for several days after words.
Currently we are in the middle of the rainy season here in Iraq. It is much cooler in the days and actually a bit nippy at night. Nothing compared to back home I assure you. The days are usually 50-60 degrees and at night it gets down into the 40’s. Not bad by Michigan standards but when you are used to 120 degrees it is a bit of a temperature change. Not that it is depressing enough being in Iraq but to add days on end of grey cloudy cold days sometimes with a steady downpour it all seems a bit too much. The days that I really enjoy the rain (Not) are the days that it is cold, wet and raining and we have to go out on a mission. There is really nothing quite like standing in a truck with the top half of your body sticking out rolling down the road and getting rained on. If you do not cover every square inch of your face it feels as if hundreds of tiny ice daggers are stabbing you in the face. If you don’t believe me try sticking your head out of your car window next time it rains. If you really do this and tell me that you did it I am going to point at you and laugh, best to just take my word for it, really.
The rain here can be anything from a constant drizzle to a constant downpour that lasts for days at a time. Which at home would not be bad since you would be able to stay inside or if you had to go outside you could just take the car? But over here (except on missions of course) everywhere you go you are walking. And if you are in your CHU and you want to take a shower or you have to go to the bathroom, guess what, you’re going to get wet. This is especially nice when it is 40 degrees and a steady downpour. The CHU’s are metal so you get that nice patter sound when it rains which I always enjoy (the sound of rain on a metal roof not rain) but the problem lies in the fact that all our roofs are flat. I do not think these things were meant for this environment because when it rains the roof usually leaks and to get it fixed you have to walk a mile to the Mayors cell to contact KBR to come fix it which usually takes a few days because everyone’s roof is leaking. The Mayors cell is where the base sergeant major stays and his job is to insure that everything is running smoothly on base and to solve any problems that might arise concerning basic services and housing.
That's it for Mud & Rain , my next group of blogs is going to cover the different ethnicity's and religions here and I will try and explain some what the big picture over here. Until then...............
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Here & Home
Here: I have to walk 150 feet to go to the bathroom or take a shower.
Home: Indoor plumbing, sigh.
Here: Soldiers (the good ones at least) have a heightened situational awareness. Meaning they pay attention at all times to what is going on around them while driving or walking.
Home: People don’t seem to pay attention to anything that is going on around them. I found myself thinking several times while at home and observing people that most of them would not survive a day in Iraq. People just seemed to be so self absorbed that they usually have no idea what is happening around them at any given moment.
Here: People actually respect personal space, meaning they do not crowd up on you and actually keep their distance.
Home: You have no personal space. In restraunts, bars even walking down the street people constantly bump into you or lean on you. Or my personal favorite (once again I am lying) people that feel the need to either grab you or stand 2 inches from you or both to have a conversation.
Here: Having to use bottled water to brush my teeth or just too simply drink.
Home: Water from faucets that you can actually drink, what a concept.
Here: Even the youngest soldiers have some idea of the schematics of both Iraq and Afghanistan in relation to the different religions and what is actually going on.
Home: I would have to say from my experience back home that maybe 1 in 10 people actually knew what was going on here in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I was actually amazed at the amount of well educated people that knew absolutely nothing about either one of these countries.
Here: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are very real and are topmost on people’s minds.
Home: A lot of people seemed to have forgotten that we are currently embroiled in not just one war but two. I also hate to say it but I actually ran into several people that really just didn’t give a damn about either war and could care less about them one way or the other. I have said this before and I will say it again, most folks are not affected by these wars unless they have a friend or family member fighting in them. Welcome to the “its all about me generation” if it does not affect me I don’t really care. (Disclaimer: I am not saying that all people that do not have friends or family serving feel this way but there are a lot of folks that do).
Here: We have a PX which is the Army’s version of a store, sometimes called a shopette. The one we have here at Sykes is very small and there is not much to buy there.
Home: The sheer amount of stuff that was available to buy in even the smallest store was amazing. The first store I went to when I was home was a gas station on the way home from the airport and I remember just standing in front of the drinks cooler and being amazed at all the different choices.
Here: Darkness, complete and total. It makes for great star gazing but really sucks when you are trying to navigate around the base and keep from breaking your ankles on all the wonderful rocks in the area.
Home: Everything is lit up. From streetlights to businesses to front porch lights. There are not a lot of places that are completely dark. Even out in the country you can see the glow from distant cities.
Here: No real personal freedoms. You can’t just jump in your car or truck and go for a drive.
Home: Being able to wake up at 3am and just get into a car and go to a store was awesome. Or the simple fact of being able to drive down the road and not having to stop at 7 police checkpoints in a 20 mile drive.
Here: You are always around people. No matter where you go on this base there is always someone around.
Home: You can find someplace to just sit and relax and not be around anyone either at your house or out and about.
Here: Our generators have to be fueled and serviced every day at 9am and to do that they have to turn them off. This means that every day when I get home to my CHU I have to reset my clock and my alarm and relog onto the internet (when it is working that is).
Home: Constant power all the time (except when you have a big winter storm, hope you are all enjoying the snow, I do not miss it )
Home: Indoor plumbing, sigh.
Here: Soldiers (the good ones at least) have a heightened situational awareness. Meaning they pay attention at all times to what is going on around them while driving or walking.
Home: People don’t seem to pay attention to anything that is going on around them. I found myself thinking several times while at home and observing people that most of them would not survive a day in Iraq. People just seemed to be so self absorbed that they usually have no idea what is happening around them at any given moment.
Here: People actually respect personal space, meaning they do not crowd up on you and actually keep their distance.
Home: You have no personal space. In restraunts, bars even walking down the street people constantly bump into you or lean on you. Or my personal favorite (once again I am lying) people that feel the need to either grab you or stand 2 inches from you or both to have a conversation.
Here: Having to use bottled water to brush my teeth or just too simply drink.
Home: Water from faucets that you can actually drink, what a concept.
Here: Even the youngest soldiers have some idea of the schematics of both Iraq and Afghanistan in relation to the different religions and what is actually going on.
Home: I would have to say from my experience back home that maybe 1 in 10 people actually knew what was going on here in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I was actually amazed at the amount of well educated people that knew absolutely nothing about either one of these countries.
Here: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are very real and are topmost on people’s minds.
Home: A lot of people seemed to have forgotten that we are currently embroiled in not just one war but two. I also hate to say it but I actually ran into several people that really just didn’t give a damn about either war and could care less about them one way or the other. I have said this before and I will say it again, most folks are not affected by these wars unless they have a friend or family member fighting in them. Welcome to the “its all about me generation” if it does not affect me I don’t really care. (Disclaimer: I am not saying that all people that do not have friends or family serving feel this way but there are a lot of folks that do).
Here: We have a PX which is the Army’s version of a store, sometimes called a shopette. The one we have here at Sykes is very small and there is not much to buy there.
Home: The sheer amount of stuff that was available to buy in even the smallest store was amazing. The first store I went to when I was home was a gas station on the way home from the airport and I remember just standing in front of the drinks cooler and being amazed at all the different choices.
Here: Darkness, complete and total. It makes for great star gazing but really sucks when you are trying to navigate around the base and keep from breaking your ankles on all the wonderful rocks in the area.
Home: Everything is lit up. From streetlights to businesses to front porch lights. There are not a lot of places that are completely dark. Even out in the country you can see the glow from distant cities.
Here: No real personal freedoms. You can’t just jump in your car or truck and go for a drive.
Home: Being able to wake up at 3am and just get into a car and go to a store was awesome. Or the simple fact of being able to drive down the road and not having to stop at 7 police checkpoints in a 20 mile drive.
Here: You are always around people. No matter where you go on this base there is always someone around.
Home: You can find someplace to just sit and relax and not be around anyone either at your house or out and about.
Here: Our generators have to be fueled and serviced every day at 9am and to do that they have to turn them off. This means that every day when I get home to my CHU I have to reset my clock and my alarm and relog onto the internet (when it is working that is).
Home: Constant power all the time (except when you have a big winter storm, hope you are all enjoying the snow, I do not miss it )
Home!
Coming home turned out to be a lot weirder for me that I thought it was going to be. The days leading up to my leave seemed to take forever but when the day finally came I had some kind of weird anxiety thing going on. I don’t really know how else to explain it. The first 5 days seemed to go by fairly slowly but after that they just seemed to fly by.
Three things stand out the most to me about my time at home on leave. Number one would be all the different colors. Everything over here is a brown reddish color. Occasionally you will see a house that is pink or purple but other than that it is mostly plain Jane. Green grass, trees with the changing leaves, different colored houses, different colored lights downtown, peoples colorful clothes, total culture shock. I actually went on several walks around town admiring all the different colors.
The number two thing that stood out while I was home was my complete inability to get any decent sleep for the first 5 days back. The realization that I eventually came to was that it was way too quiet. Over here there is always some type of noise whether it is the helicopters at the airfield or the generators that are constantly running. I am sure that jet lag figured in there also. All I know for absolute sure is that in that first 5 day period I only got about 20 hours sleep total. I also seemed to be in military mode for those first few days where I was totally wound up. After a few days I seemed to get used to the idea that I was actually back home. And of course by the time I felt completely at ease and relaxed it was time to go back.
But I have to say the biggest thing that I noticed while I was at home was how much nothing had changed. In this whole period of time where I felt like I had already lived a whole separate lifetime of doing things everyone back home had not done much except exist on a daily basis. I don’t want folks back home to take this the wrong way so let me explain myself. I was extremely elated to see as many people as I did and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at home and hanging with my friends, but at the same time I quickly grew bored and actually looked forward to coming back to Iraq. I think that part of it was the fact that most people had to work during the day so the only time I could hang out with folks was at night. But coming from a situation where I work 7 days a week and then going to a schedule of having nothing to do all day took some adjustment. I also think that with all the experiences I have had in the last 6 months, experiences that most people will never have (probably a good thing), made being home all the much weirder.
Before all my friends start thinking that I hated being home I will add some of the highlights of my trip:
Seeing Heather who was the last friend from the states that I saw before I left and hanging out with her for a night was awesome. Playing with my dog Smokey and sleeping on the couch with him. Pizza. Sleeping in a real bed. Drinking was cool but hangovers were not. Being able to smoke inside was a nice change. Hanging out in Trevors backyard and chatting.Hanging out with Lyn, Vinnie & krystal. Ron & Lisa's guy falkes day party. Hanging out with Jim A.,Stacy,Carly and Rob for Dart night. Seeing all my friends at the Arena and Blind Pig. Dinner at Knights steak house with my mom. Driving where ever I wanted to when ever I wanted to. Complete and total freedom. Real food with actual nutrients that have not been completly processed out of them. Fall colors. Raking leaves ( yes I actually enjoyed doing it ). Being able to choose what clothes I was going to wear.
Another thing about going home was the fact that I was in really good shape before I left. But while I was home, due to my own lack of motivation, I managed to gain about 10 pounds which took about 3 weeks to get rid of. There was also the whole traveling aspect. To put it simply the traveling to and from leave was absolutely horrible. You are literally treated like cattle during the whole process which really just sucks. I also had the austere pleasure of flying out of Detroit on Veteran’s day which was a strange experience to say the very least. A lot of people wanted to shake my hand and thank me for my service which was a good feeling. But on the other hand I was leaving home and not in the highest of spirits and talking to a bunch of strangers over and over again was a little overwhelming. There was one guy in the Atlanta airport that got my spirits back up with his simple statement of “ thank you for serving, go get those bastards for us” which for some reason brought my spirits back up. I am not saying that I do not appreciate the thank you’s I get just that sometimes it get’s to be a bit much.
In the end I would have to say that although I very much enjoyed seeing all my friends and family I almost wish I had never gone home on leave at all. Part of that stems from the fact that I had a sort of groove going over here and time was flying by for me. Then I went home and that groove was disrupted for about 5 weeks. It was hard to get back into things once I returned and time just seemed to crawl by. Of course the Army keeps rolling along and did not care that I was not back in my groove yet. Because 1 day after I returned I had the awesome pleasure of pulling 5 missions in a row. Talk about jumping in with both feet.
Three things stand out the most to me about my time at home on leave. Number one would be all the different colors. Everything over here is a brown reddish color. Occasionally you will see a house that is pink or purple but other than that it is mostly plain Jane. Green grass, trees with the changing leaves, different colored houses, different colored lights downtown, peoples colorful clothes, total culture shock. I actually went on several walks around town admiring all the different colors.
The number two thing that stood out while I was home was my complete inability to get any decent sleep for the first 5 days back. The realization that I eventually came to was that it was way too quiet. Over here there is always some type of noise whether it is the helicopters at the airfield or the generators that are constantly running. I am sure that jet lag figured in there also. All I know for absolute sure is that in that first 5 day period I only got about 20 hours sleep total. I also seemed to be in military mode for those first few days where I was totally wound up. After a few days I seemed to get used to the idea that I was actually back home. And of course by the time I felt completely at ease and relaxed it was time to go back.
But I have to say the biggest thing that I noticed while I was at home was how much nothing had changed. In this whole period of time where I felt like I had already lived a whole separate lifetime of doing things everyone back home had not done much except exist on a daily basis. I don’t want folks back home to take this the wrong way so let me explain myself. I was extremely elated to see as many people as I did and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at home and hanging with my friends, but at the same time I quickly grew bored and actually looked forward to coming back to Iraq. I think that part of it was the fact that most people had to work during the day so the only time I could hang out with folks was at night. But coming from a situation where I work 7 days a week and then going to a schedule of having nothing to do all day took some adjustment. I also think that with all the experiences I have had in the last 6 months, experiences that most people will never have (probably a good thing), made being home all the much weirder.
Before all my friends start thinking that I hated being home I will add some of the highlights of my trip:
Seeing Heather who was the last friend from the states that I saw before I left and hanging out with her for a night was awesome. Playing with my dog Smokey and sleeping on the couch with him. Pizza. Sleeping in a real bed. Drinking was cool but hangovers were not. Being able to smoke inside was a nice change. Hanging out in Trevors backyard and chatting.Hanging out with Lyn, Vinnie & krystal. Ron & Lisa's guy falkes day party. Hanging out with Jim A.,Stacy,Carly and Rob for Dart night. Seeing all my friends at the Arena and Blind Pig. Dinner at Knights steak house with my mom. Driving where ever I wanted to when ever I wanted to. Complete and total freedom. Real food with actual nutrients that have not been completly processed out of them. Fall colors. Raking leaves ( yes I actually enjoyed doing it ). Being able to choose what clothes I was going to wear.
Another thing about going home was the fact that I was in really good shape before I left. But while I was home, due to my own lack of motivation, I managed to gain about 10 pounds which took about 3 weeks to get rid of. There was also the whole traveling aspect. To put it simply the traveling to and from leave was absolutely horrible. You are literally treated like cattle during the whole process which really just sucks. I also had the austere pleasure of flying out of Detroit on Veteran’s day which was a strange experience to say the very least. A lot of people wanted to shake my hand and thank me for my service which was a good feeling. But on the other hand I was leaving home and not in the highest of spirits and talking to a bunch of strangers over and over again was a little overwhelming. There was one guy in the Atlanta airport that got my spirits back up with his simple statement of “ thank you for serving, go get those bastards for us” which for some reason brought my spirits back up. I am not saying that I do not appreciate the thank you’s I get just that sometimes it get’s to be a bit much.
In the end I would have to say that although I very much enjoyed seeing all my friends and family I almost wish I had never gone home on leave at all. Part of that stems from the fact that I had a sort of groove going over here and time was flying by for me. Then I went home and that groove was disrupted for about 5 weeks. It was hard to get back into things once I returned and time just seemed to crawl by. Of course the Army keeps rolling along and did not care that I was not back in my groove yet. Because 1 day after I returned I had the awesome pleasure of pulling 5 missions in a row. Talk about jumping in with both feet.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Out of Afric…. Um I mean Iraq
And here I thought getting into Iraq was difficult. We left Sykes at 2230 on Friday the 23rd and arrived at Detroit metro at 1230 Monday the 26th.We left Sykes in a C-130 much to the chagrin of all involved. Our problems began with a lightning storm above Balad which grounded our plane. Then due to Air Force rules we were not allowed to leave the plane and were stuck on the plane for over an hour waiting for the storm to abate. Once we got into the terminal we were told that we would be leaving in a couple of hours but that turned out not to be the case, go figure. Every 3 hours we would line up for roll call only to be told that they did not have another flight out for us. What happened to the original plane we flew in on I never found out. We ended up stuck in Balad for 11 hours; in case you were wondering the concrete floor there is not very comfortable for sleeping. Finally the next day they got a flight for us, a C-17 thank all the gods in the universe, and off we went to our next destination, Baghdad (oh Joy). We land in Baghdad and have to deplane again and spend 5 hours at that terminal. After spending 5 hours of trying to discern what the disembodied voice on the large speaker system is saying we hear that our plane is once again ready to take to the skies. So once again we grab all our gear and trudge out to the flight line and out to our plane for hopefully the last leg of our journey to wonderful Kuwait which as you all know is my most favorite place in the whole world (heavy sarcasm). In the end it took over 20 hours to travel what should have taken 3 hours, ah the joys of military travel. By the time we got to Kuwait all the scheduled flights out were gone so we had to stay the night there which worked out great for me as I had no sleeping gear with me.
The next day consisted of briefings, briefings and more briefings. My travel companions and I did discover a bit of valuable information, volunteer for the baggage detail. When flying in country all the flights are military cargo planes but once you leave Kuwait it is a chartered civilian aircraft. The deal is they need people at the Kuwait airport to load all the baggage into the belly of the plane. This occurs while all the rest of the people going on leave board the plane and get situated. The end result is you load the plane last and get to sit in first class all the way back to the States. I can not put into words how awesome that was. The people in the back of the plane were absolutely packed in like sardines and looked extremely uncomfortable. I on the other hand had plenty of leg room and the seat next to me remained empty for the whole trip to Germany and then to Atlanta, there was much rejoicing. After all the briefings we were taken to a very large warehouse where we had to deposit all our body armor and Kevlar helmets. For some reason the Army insists that you fly with body armor and helmets, like that would save you in a crash, NOT. Once we dumped the gear we then headed off to Navy customs, apparently they frown on bringing explosives and that sort of stuff back to the states, I can’t imagine why. After shuffling through all the various customs stations and getting cleared we were unceremoniously dumped into the lockdown area. This is a fenced in area that you cannot leave and are basically trapped inside until your flight leaves. We were only in there for about an hour before the call came down that the buses were there to take us to the Kuwait National airport. An hour and a half later we were at the airport and my buddies and I were loading baggage while the rest of the folks crammed into their seats.
Even in first class the flight home was absolutely grueling, I cannot imagine how lame it must have been riding in the back of the plane. The first leg of the flight took us somewhere in Germany. I say somewhere because by the time we got there I was so tired that I had no idea what was going on or where I really was. We were there for about 3 hours, none of which I can really remember. The only thing that I remember about Germany was that they had some really cool Jaegermeister shirts that I wanted to buy for my friends at home but I had absolutely no room to put them, bummer. The flight from Kuwait to Germany was only about 5 hours, the flight from Germany to Atlanta was 11 hours of pure and wondrous joy, I am lying. For some reason our flight took us way north, all the way to the tip of Greenland then across the ocean some more then through the top of Canada then south to Atlanta. I know this because they had one of those annoying graphic displays that show you on a map where your plane is going. I say annoying because I had to sit there and watch as the graphic of my plane flew directly over Detroit then continued on its merry way to Atlanta (Head spins around on neck, pea soup ejects from mouth). As our plane flew over Detroit I told the stewardess that I would gladly pull a DB Cooper and parachute into Detroit. Apparently she did not understand the reference and just looked at me strangely while she gave me my coke; they must not know who DB Cooper is in Germany.
We finally arrive in Atlanta around 0700 on Monday morning which I am going to say in the mildest terms was a complete shock to the system. Basically in a three day period we went from a totally barren world only to arrive into a bustling American airport full of business commuters and random travelers. It was a great feeling to be back on American soil but I felt a little bit like a stranger in a strange land. As soon as we got off the plane we were ushered into an open area where they had several temporary airline service counters. Basically you would go to which ever airline you were scheduled to fly on next and they would do what they could to get you the first available flight to your home of record (where you live). I was originally scheduled to leave Atlanta at 1400 and arrive in Detroit about 1530 but they were able to get me a seat on the 1230 flight for sure. They also put me as a standby for the 0800 and 1000 flight. Turns out the 0800 flight was absolutely booked but one of my fellow travelers and I were able to get onto the 1000 flight which we were both very grateful for. We almost missed out on the whole deal as we had waited to get onto the 0800 flight with no luck so we assumed the same would be true for the 1000 flight. We just happened to be walking past that particular gate on our way to the coffee shop when they called out our names as having seats on the 1000 flight. My buddy waited in the stand by line as I ran the OJ Simpson mile through the airport to grab our carry on baggage from the other gate. Usually when I travel in uniform I feel like a fish in a fish bowl, you tend to stand out. But when you are wearing a uniform and sprinting through the airport you garner much more attention, I did not really care because by this stage I was absolutely ready to be done traveling and just get home. Just as I get back to the gate they announce that they have seats open so my buddy and I do a quick victory dance and proceed to board the aircraft. Shortly thereafter we touch down safely at Detroit metro to begin our 15 days of leave. More on that in another post.
The military is not much of a timely organization but they are good at getting large groups of people to different areas, eventually.
The next day consisted of briefings, briefings and more briefings. My travel companions and I did discover a bit of valuable information, volunteer for the baggage detail. When flying in country all the flights are military cargo planes but once you leave Kuwait it is a chartered civilian aircraft. The deal is they need people at the Kuwait airport to load all the baggage into the belly of the plane. This occurs while all the rest of the people going on leave board the plane and get situated. The end result is you load the plane last and get to sit in first class all the way back to the States. I can not put into words how awesome that was. The people in the back of the plane were absolutely packed in like sardines and looked extremely uncomfortable. I on the other hand had plenty of leg room and the seat next to me remained empty for the whole trip to Germany and then to Atlanta, there was much rejoicing. After all the briefings we were taken to a very large warehouse where we had to deposit all our body armor and Kevlar helmets. For some reason the Army insists that you fly with body armor and helmets, like that would save you in a crash, NOT. Once we dumped the gear we then headed off to Navy customs, apparently they frown on bringing explosives and that sort of stuff back to the states, I can’t imagine why. After shuffling through all the various customs stations and getting cleared we were unceremoniously dumped into the lockdown area. This is a fenced in area that you cannot leave and are basically trapped inside until your flight leaves. We were only in there for about an hour before the call came down that the buses were there to take us to the Kuwait National airport. An hour and a half later we were at the airport and my buddies and I were loading baggage while the rest of the folks crammed into their seats.
Even in first class the flight home was absolutely grueling, I cannot imagine how lame it must have been riding in the back of the plane. The first leg of the flight took us somewhere in Germany. I say somewhere because by the time we got there I was so tired that I had no idea what was going on or where I really was. We were there for about 3 hours, none of which I can really remember. The only thing that I remember about Germany was that they had some really cool Jaegermeister shirts that I wanted to buy for my friends at home but I had absolutely no room to put them, bummer. The flight from Kuwait to Germany was only about 5 hours, the flight from Germany to Atlanta was 11 hours of pure and wondrous joy, I am lying. For some reason our flight took us way north, all the way to the tip of Greenland then across the ocean some more then through the top of Canada then south to Atlanta. I know this because they had one of those annoying graphic displays that show you on a map where your plane is going. I say annoying because I had to sit there and watch as the graphic of my plane flew directly over Detroit then continued on its merry way to Atlanta (Head spins around on neck, pea soup ejects from mouth). As our plane flew over Detroit I told the stewardess that I would gladly pull a DB Cooper and parachute into Detroit. Apparently she did not understand the reference and just looked at me strangely while she gave me my coke; they must not know who DB Cooper is in Germany.
We finally arrive in Atlanta around 0700 on Monday morning which I am going to say in the mildest terms was a complete shock to the system. Basically in a three day period we went from a totally barren world only to arrive into a bustling American airport full of business commuters and random travelers. It was a great feeling to be back on American soil but I felt a little bit like a stranger in a strange land. As soon as we got off the plane we were ushered into an open area where they had several temporary airline service counters. Basically you would go to which ever airline you were scheduled to fly on next and they would do what they could to get you the first available flight to your home of record (where you live). I was originally scheduled to leave Atlanta at 1400 and arrive in Detroit about 1530 but they were able to get me a seat on the 1230 flight for sure. They also put me as a standby for the 0800 and 1000 flight. Turns out the 0800 flight was absolutely booked but one of my fellow travelers and I were able to get onto the 1000 flight which we were both very grateful for. We almost missed out on the whole deal as we had waited to get onto the 0800 flight with no luck so we assumed the same would be true for the 1000 flight. We just happened to be walking past that particular gate on our way to the coffee shop when they called out our names as having seats on the 1000 flight. My buddy waited in the stand by line as I ran the OJ Simpson mile through the airport to grab our carry on baggage from the other gate. Usually when I travel in uniform I feel like a fish in a fish bowl, you tend to stand out. But when you are wearing a uniform and sprinting through the airport you garner much more attention, I did not really care because by this stage I was absolutely ready to be done traveling and just get home. Just as I get back to the gate they announce that they have seats open so my buddy and I do a quick victory dance and proceed to board the aircraft. Shortly thereafter we touch down safely at Detroit metro to begin our 15 days of leave. More on that in another post.
The military is not much of a timely organization but they are good at getting large groups of people to different areas, eventually.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Why I do it.
A friend of mine recently asked me why I do it, and why did I volunteer to go to Iraq. I usually answer with an off the cuff remark or just say that the economy in Michigan sucks so bad that I am just doing it for the money. But there are many reasons why I do it so here are a few of them.
I don’t want to be a fly on the wall, I want to actively participate in something that is bigger than my self, even if I do not totally agree with the initial motivations for the wars ( well at least one of them ). I do it for all the soldiers that have come before me and come home wounded or worse yet did not make it home at all. I do it in the hopes that none of my nephews, cousins, godchildren, friend’s children or for that matter any ones children have to go serve in these wars 15 or 20 years from now. I do it for money, I won’t lie. I do it for college money and for retirement money. I do it because besides all the unfairness in the world and even in our country I love America and am grateful to be a citizen of America. I do it because I enjoy being in the military and I missed being part of it even though there are some days I hate it. I do it because I actually feel as if I am making a difference in some people’s lives even though I do not personally know them. I do it because the very presence of U.S. soldiers in some parts of Iraq saves the lives of thousands of people that I feel deserve to be saved. I do it for the other soldiers standing there next to me. I do it because I want to see with my own eyes what is actually going on in the world and I do not want to rely on the horrible news coverage that our so called journalists report on. I do it because besides my sometimes negativity I still believe that I can help make a positive impact in the world. I do it so that all the people I know have a constant reminder that there are people still serving overseas and putting their lives in danger for them. I do it because I hate bullies and that is what I think most insurgents are and I honestly do not have a problem with the idea of completely eradicating them from this earth. I do it because I am deep down an adrenaline junkie and some where along my life I have lost all sense of excitement and I wanted it back. I do it because I have hit some kind of crossroad in my life and was not exactly sure which road to take. I do it because I feel it is making me a better person both mentally and physically.
And last but not least I do it for you, my friends and family, so that maybe even if just a little bit I can make you feel safer knowing that my fellow soldiers and I have your back.
And yes, my service here in Iraq on this current tour has changed the way I look at and feel about things to a certain extent.
I don’t want to be a fly on the wall, I want to actively participate in something that is bigger than my self, even if I do not totally agree with the initial motivations for the wars ( well at least one of them ). I do it for all the soldiers that have come before me and come home wounded or worse yet did not make it home at all. I do it in the hopes that none of my nephews, cousins, godchildren, friend’s children or for that matter any ones children have to go serve in these wars 15 or 20 years from now. I do it for money, I won’t lie. I do it for college money and for retirement money. I do it because besides all the unfairness in the world and even in our country I love America and am grateful to be a citizen of America. I do it because I enjoy being in the military and I missed being part of it even though there are some days I hate it. I do it because I actually feel as if I am making a difference in some people’s lives even though I do not personally know them. I do it because the very presence of U.S. soldiers in some parts of Iraq saves the lives of thousands of people that I feel deserve to be saved. I do it for the other soldiers standing there next to me. I do it because I want to see with my own eyes what is actually going on in the world and I do not want to rely on the horrible news coverage that our so called journalists report on. I do it because besides my sometimes negativity I still believe that I can help make a positive impact in the world. I do it so that all the people I know have a constant reminder that there are people still serving overseas and putting their lives in danger for them. I do it because I hate bullies and that is what I think most insurgents are and I honestly do not have a problem with the idea of completely eradicating them from this earth. I do it because I am deep down an adrenaline junkie and some where along my life I have lost all sense of excitement and I wanted it back. I do it because I have hit some kind of crossroad in my life and was not exactly sure which road to take. I do it because I feel it is making me a better person both mentally and physically.
And last but not least I do it for you, my friends and family, so that maybe even if just a little bit I can make you feel safer knowing that my fellow soldiers and I have your back.
And yes, my service here in Iraq on this current tour has changed the way I look at and feel about things to a certain extent.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Questions?
If anyone has any questions about what it is like being in Iraq or what is going on here please feel free to send me an e-mail and I would be happy to answer it or put up a blog about it.
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 ) …………..
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 ) …………..
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Don’t mess with the wild life……..
I saw a bee today. It was the first bee I have seen since I have been here. I have seen my share of flies and ants though. The one insect here that has proven to be a huge pain, literally, is the sand flea also known as the no see um. I am not sure if they are actually from the flea family as they fly but they definatly attack like fleas. Usually when you get bitten you don’t notice it until they are gone. The bites itch like hell and I am pretty sure that I may have permanent scaring on my legs from some of the bites I have gotten. The scaring is from itching the bites too much, this was before I had my mom send me every type of anti itch medicine there is. They actually take a chunk out when they bite you, it can be very irritating. Sometimes they get into your clothing and you get multiple bites in one area. Some of the spots that are bad are areas like around your boots and belt. For a while my roommates and I were getting chewed up in our CHU until we discovered that if you cranked your AC up to the maximum it would make them dormant or at least that is the theory.
There are also a lot of ants here. There are your garden variety black ants and then there are these weird looking indestructible ants that have really long legs kind of like a spider. The long legged ants are impossible to kill I have proven this by stepping on one nine times to include grinding my foot on one to no avail.
I have only seen one camel spider so far and it was a little tiny one. I don’t feel bad about this as I remember seeing one in ‘91 and they are nasty so I am fine with not seeing any more. I heard that one of the sergeants found a black scorpion in one of the latrines at the bunker but that is unconfirmed. We did find a dead scorpion which proved to be loads of fun in the form of scaring the crap out of people but that’s about it.
Surprisingly I have only seen two camels so far. I have been told that they are not such a big commodity to have here up north and that most of the camel herders are farther south. I have seen one horse so far and someone was actually riding it so that was cool. Most of the animals up here consist of herd animals such as sheep and goats which seem to be the majority with a few scraggly cows sprinkled in for good measure.
They have a lot of dogs here also. They don’t keep them as pets and rather treat them as a nuisance. The kids throw rocks at them, which pisses me off. It makes me want to throw rocks at the kids but we are not allowed to interfere. I did see two dogs humping in night vision and some donkeys going at it so that was entertaining , when you are in Iraq it is the small things.
And that brings me to another form of wildlife that the Army includes in its policy of not messing with the wild life, the local kids. As soon as we roll into a town or village the kids start coming in swarms and surround our vehicles. One day it was so bad that I felt as if I was in some kind of zombie movie with dozens of kids running towards our vehicles from all points of the compass. The end result was approximately 150 kids surrounding our trucks. We thought this was cool at first but after having several missions under our belts it has become a huge pain in the ass. It is a hard thing to deal with on several points. On one hand you want to help them by giving them food and water to help them out. But on the other hand you realize that no matter how much you give out it is never enough. The problem arises when you do start handing stuff out which causes an immediate riot. One of the major problems is that all the bigger kids beat the crap out of the little kids and take every thing that you have just given them from them. On our last mission we handed out some tooth brushes and tooth paste and I saw no less them five actually fist fights in a five minute period. One of our Sergeants explained it best. When you start handing stuff out they are grateful but then it starts fights and people get hurt which creates resentment which is the exact opposite of what we are trying to accomplish here.
I would say in some of the outlying villages we visit that those kids really do need help with food and water. But when we go to some of the bigger towns most of the people seem to be doing fairly well. One day I sat and watched as a group of kids begged some guys from another company for some water then when they got it they ran to another truck and tried to sell the water to those guys, crazy business. Not all the kids want you to give them stuff. Sometimes you get large packs of kids that want to sell you stuff, anything from cigarettes to sandwiches. I even had a kid offer me some whiskey in one town we visited, I passed on the offer as you never know what the hell they might actually give you. Same goes for the food, part of me would like to try the local cuisine but a bigger part of me does not want to end up on the toilet for three days if you know what I mean. One thing that the beggars and the sellers all have in common is an unbelievably annoying persistence. They will just sit and stare at you for long periods of time. I am not sure if this is a tactic they have developed by being exposed to American soldiers or where they got it from. But I have watched as they try and beg or sell something and get rebuffed then just stand there and stare until the object of their attention caves in. It is actually against Brigade ( the larger Army unit we fall under ) policy to give or buy anything from the kids but people do it anyways and that is part of the problem. There is also the problem of having all these little kids around these huge trucks that have really bad blind spots when trying to drive away. Or in some cases just driving in the town as they like to run alongside the trucks and dart in front of them.
The behavior is also vastly different depending on what type of village you are in. If you are in a Kurd or Izidi (sp?) village where we are fairly well liked it is still a swarm but they are not as rude. But if you are in a Sunni Arab village where we are not as popular they literally rip stuff out of your hands and try and go into your pockets and steal what they can. Another difference that we noticed has been that in the Kurd and Izidi villages the kids are boys and girls but in the Arab villages it is just boys.
Now I don’t want to come off as the big bad American that hates little Iraqi children, it is not like that at all. Rest assured we are doing some great things for the people here and are trying to help them as much as we can. Cant go into the details so you will just have to trust me on this one.
During the writing of this blog post I suffered through no less then 4 sand flea bites.
There are also a lot of ants here. There are your garden variety black ants and then there are these weird looking indestructible ants that have really long legs kind of like a spider. The long legged ants are impossible to kill I have proven this by stepping on one nine times to include grinding my foot on one to no avail.
I have only seen one camel spider so far and it was a little tiny one. I don’t feel bad about this as I remember seeing one in ‘91 and they are nasty so I am fine with not seeing any more. I heard that one of the sergeants found a black scorpion in one of the latrines at the bunker but that is unconfirmed. We did find a dead scorpion which proved to be loads of fun in the form of scaring the crap out of people but that’s about it.
Surprisingly I have only seen two camels so far. I have been told that they are not such a big commodity to have here up north and that most of the camel herders are farther south. I have seen one horse so far and someone was actually riding it so that was cool. Most of the animals up here consist of herd animals such as sheep and goats which seem to be the majority with a few scraggly cows sprinkled in for good measure.
They have a lot of dogs here also. They don’t keep them as pets and rather treat them as a nuisance. The kids throw rocks at them, which pisses me off. It makes me want to throw rocks at the kids but we are not allowed to interfere. I did see two dogs humping in night vision and some donkeys going at it so that was entertaining , when you are in Iraq it is the small things.
And that brings me to another form of wildlife that the Army includes in its policy of not messing with the wild life, the local kids. As soon as we roll into a town or village the kids start coming in swarms and surround our vehicles. One day it was so bad that I felt as if I was in some kind of zombie movie with dozens of kids running towards our vehicles from all points of the compass. The end result was approximately 150 kids surrounding our trucks. We thought this was cool at first but after having several missions under our belts it has become a huge pain in the ass. It is a hard thing to deal with on several points. On one hand you want to help them by giving them food and water to help them out. But on the other hand you realize that no matter how much you give out it is never enough. The problem arises when you do start handing stuff out which causes an immediate riot. One of the major problems is that all the bigger kids beat the crap out of the little kids and take every thing that you have just given them from them. On our last mission we handed out some tooth brushes and tooth paste and I saw no less them five actually fist fights in a five minute period. One of our Sergeants explained it best. When you start handing stuff out they are grateful but then it starts fights and people get hurt which creates resentment which is the exact opposite of what we are trying to accomplish here.
I would say in some of the outlying villages we visit that those kids really do need help with food and water. But when we go to some of the bigger towns most of the people seem to be doing fairly well. One day I sat and watched as a group of kids begged some guys from another company for some water then when they got it they ran to another truck and tried to sell the water to those guys, crazy business. Not all the kids want you to give them stuff. Sometimes you get large packs of kids that want to sell you stuff, anything from cigarettes to sandwiches. I even had a kid offer me some whiskey in one town we visited, I passed on the offer as you never know what the hell they might actually give you. Same goes for the food, part of me would like to try the local cuisine but a bigger part of me does not want to end up on the toilet for three days if you know what I mean. One thing that the beggars and the sellers all have in common is an unbelievably annoying persistence. They will just sit and stare at you for long periods of time. I am not sure if this is a tactic they have developed by being exposed to American soldiers or where they got it from. But I have watched as they try and beg or sell something and get rebuffed then just stand there and stare until the object of their attention caves in. It is actually against Brigade ( the larger Army unit we fall under ) policy to give or buy anything from the kids but people do it anyways and that is part of the problem. There is also the problem of having all these little kids around these huge trucks that have really bad blind spots when trying to drive away. Or in some cases just driving in the town as they like to run alongside the trucks and dart in front of them.
The behavior is also vastly different depending on what type of village you are in. If you are in a Kurd or Izidi (sp?) village where we are fairly well liked it is still a swarm but they are not as rude. But if you are in a Sunni Arab village where we are not as popular they literally rip stuff out of your hands and try and go into your pockets and steal what they can. Another difference that we noticed has been that in the Kurd and Izidi villages the kids are boys and girls but in the Arab villages it is just boys.
Now I don’t want to come off as the big bad American that hates little Iraqi children, it is not like that at all. Rest assured we are doing some great things for the people here and are trying to help them as much as we can. Cant go into the details so you will just have to trust me on this one.
During the writing of this blog post I suffered through no less then 4 sand flea bites.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
My opinion
Several people have asked me my opinion on a subject recently and I thought I would put a post up about it. The question is in relation to the recent release of some photo by the associated press showing a young Marine dying in Afghanistan. The main question being what do I think about it. My answer is this,would any of you or anyone in my family want to see a picture of me as I lay dying somewhere. I don't think so or I certainly would hope not. Now do I think that the military and the government have been avoiding pictures like this to help sort of sanitize the war for the people back home. I would have to say yes. But I think there are other ways to show the human side of these wars other than posting pictures of U.S. soldiers wounded or dying. I for one believe there should be more coverage of Dover Air Force Base when the flag draped coffins come home, or asking the families of the fallen if they can be present for the soldiers funerals. Personally I think it was irresponsible of them to post that picture especially in the light of the fact that the family asked them not too. Imagine being the family or friends of Nick Berg whose head was cut off, while he was still alive, early in the war in Iraq and knowing that there was a video of it up on the web for anyone to see. I just think there has to be a better way to show the sacrifices these folks make besides posting their deaths in a picture or video for all to see. That's just my 2 cents.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Missions
I actually was not sure if I wanted to do a post on missions but I decided that since this blog was for myself as much as it was for letting people back home know what I am up to that I would do it anyways just so that I do not forget what they were like. For me missions are the exciting part of this deployment so far. I will start this post by saying that the threat level in the areas that we have been traveling in are very low. Most of the violence is directed at the Iraqi Army (IA) and the Iraqi police (IP) forces in the area. That's not to say that when we go out we are completely relaxed, after all I did not grow old by being retarded and not showing some bit of caution ( this point can be argued by some I suppose :) For that simple fact the only time I get really nervous when driving around is when we are anywhere near an IP or IA checkpoint or base. As some of you have seen my primary job when we leave the base is as a machine gunner on whatever vehicle I happen to be traveling in on that day, although on some occasions I have been tasked as a driver when we do not have enough qualified people to fill all the positions. It is either the MRAP or an up-armored Humvee. I prefer the MRAP as it is a larger vehicle and the height of it allows me to see over the walls, when I am gunning, that they have along side most of the roads here.
My first mission here was a night mission and I will admit that I was completely freaked out. We had not gotten all our equipment in country yet so the only crew served weapons we had were SAW's ( squad automatic weapon ) which is the smallest of the three types of machine guns that my unit has. These days here in Iraq all night driving on paved or common roads is done in white light meaning everyone uses their headlights. I was in the last vehicle providing rear security so I got no benefit from the headlights as far as visibility goes. So the whole trip to our destination and back I had to use my night vision goggles. It was cool in the "cool guy army stuff" kind of way but it was a little nerve racking as your visibility with night vision is not as good as when you have actual light.
One of the many scary things was not knowing what to expect and really having no idea what to look out for. During our horrendous stay in Kuwait we went to many classes on convoys and what to look for as far as IED's and VBIED's but once you get here and actually try and put that info to use you quickly find out that the info was not really that good at all. Unfortunately since this is a public blog, meaning that anyone in the world can see it, I am not at liberty to say what they told us to look out for and such but trust me, not very useful information.
There are alot of IA and IP checkpoints along all the roads here. These are places along the road where the civilian traffic has to stop and show ID to continue down the road. We do not have to stop so all we would do was slow down through the obstacles they have emplaced at the checkpoints and continue on our merry way. We left the camp at a fairly late hour and I was surprised and a little unnerved at the amount of people still hanging about. We are not allowed to drive through major cities anymore so we skirt around them but you are still driving fairly near to the edge of the cities. So chances are you are going to see the general populace in your travels. But not knowing that on that first mission made it a little bit stressful at the time. I have taken many pictures here of what the houses and buildings here look like but none of them really do justice to the reality of it all. There are houses and buildings still standing that have obviously been bombed, shot up and blown up. The landscape definitely has an apocalyptic aura about it. Basically that first mission, seeing in night vision, made me feel as if I was on some sort of Mad Max / Road Warrior movie set.
A couple days after our night mission we went on a quick day mission which after the first one was a little less nerve racking as we had a little better idea of what to expect out there. The only time I really got nervous was after we rolled through a town that was completely packed with people. It was a little town and there must have been 300 to 400 people in the streets and hanging out around the shops doing business. But when we rolled back through that same town 3 hours later there was not a soul in sight. This was strange because all the other towns that we had rolled through on our way back still had people in them doing their daily business but this one was dead quiet. The reason this freaked me out was that every person that I have talked to that has served over here said that if you rolled through an area that is usually busy but when you roll through it is dead quiet it is a bad sign and usually means that you are going to be hit by something. So when we got to the town and I saw there was absolutely no one in sight I got extremely nervous about the whole situation. Nothing happened and we made it back through without incident but not a good feeling about that situation at all. Once we got back to base I asked about the town and found out that it is well known for its smuggling and foreign fighter activities.
One huge difference that I myself have noticed in my comparisons of the first gulf war and now are the driving habits of the locals. When I was in this region in 1991 the local people did not ever move out of the way of Army convoys. But now up here they will pull over to the side of the road as soon as they see you as you are coming towards them, sometimes as much as a mile ahead of your position. They will also pull over to the side of the road when you come up behind them. It makes you feel as if you are in some kind of presidential convoy. I was a little amazed at this at first until I saw a couple of cars that had obvious bullet holes in them then it made perfect sense. With the somewhat peaceful atmosphere here these days it is easy to forget that these people here have lived through the whole invasion and occupation of this country. If I had been here through all that I suppose I would pull over also.
A somewhat comical aspect but not really is the perception of us here in Iraq , as far as I have seen it. On that first day mission alot of folks gave us hand gestures that in America would mean " so happy to see you here, you are doing a great job" but apparently do not mean the same thing here. When we got back from our day mission we were talking about how it seemed most folks were happy to see us, giving us the thumbs up and waving at us. only to be informed by folks that have been here before that those gestures here do not transfer to the same gesture back at home. So now when we roll out I just return the gestures with a big grin on my face.
My first mission here was a night mission and I will admit that I was completely freaked out. We had not gotten all our equipment in country yet so the only crew served weapons we had were SAW's ( squad automatic weapon ) which is the smallest of the three types of machine guns that my unit has. These days here in Iraq all night driving on paved or common roads is done in white light meaning everyone uses their headlights. I was in the last vehicle providing rear security so I got no benefit from the headlights as far as visibility goes. So the whole trip to our destination and back I had to use my night vision goggles. It was cool in the "cool guy army stuff" kind of way but it was a little nerve racking as your visibility with night vision is not as good as when you have actual light.
One of the many scary things was not knowing what to expect and really having no idea what to look out for. During our horrendous stay in Kuwait we went to many classes on convoys and what to look for as far as IED's and VBIED's but once you get here and actually try and put that info to use you quickly find out that the info was not really that good at all. Unfortunately since this is a public blog, meaning that anyone in the world can see it, I am not at liberty to say what they told us to look out for and such but trust me, not very useful information.
There are alot of IA and IP checkpoints along all the roads here. These are places along the road where the civilian traffic has to stop and show ID to continue down the road. We do not have to stop so all we would do was slow down through the obstacles they have emplaced at the checkpoints and continue on our merry way. We left the camp at a fairly late hour and I was surprised and a little unnerved at the amount of people still hanging about. We are not allowed to drive through major cities anymore so we skirt around them but you are still driving fairly near to the edge of the cities. So chances are you are going to see the general populace in your travels. But not knowing that on that first mission made it a little bit stressful at the time. I have taken many pictures here of what the houses and buildings here look like but none of them really do justice to the reality of it all. There are houses and buildings still standing that have obviously been bombed, shot up and blown up. The landscape definitely has an apocalyptic aura about it. Basically that first mission, seeing in night vision, made me feel as if I was on some sort of Mad Max / Road Warrior movie set.
A couple days after our night mission we went on a quick day mission which after the first one was a little less nerve racking as we had a little better idea of what to expect out there. The only time I really got nervous was after we rolled through a town that was completely packed with people. It was a little town and there must have been 300 to 400 people in the streets and hanging out around the shops doing business. But when we rolled back through that same town 3 hours later there was not a soul in sight. This was strange because all the other towns that we had rolled through on our way back still had people in them doing their daily business but this one was dead quiet. The reason this freaked me out was that every person that I have talked to that has served over here said that if you rolled through an area that is usually busy but when you roll through it is dead quiet it is a bad sign and usually means that you are going to be hit by something. So when we got to the town and I saw there was absolutely no one in sight I got extremely nervous about the whole situation. Nothing happened and we made it back through without incident but not a good feeling about that situation at all. Once we got back to base I asked about the town and found out that it is well known for its smuggling and foreign fighter activities.
One huge difference that I myself have noticed in my comparisons of the first gulf war and now are the driving habits of the locals. When I was in this region in 1991 the local people did not ever move out of the way of Army convoys. But now up here they will pull over to the side of the road as soon as they see you as you are coming towards them, sometimes as much as a mile ahead of your position. They will also pull over to the side of the road when you come up behind them. It makes you feel as if you are in some kind of presidential convoy. I was a little amazed at this at first until I saw a couple of cars that had obvious bullet holes in them then it made perfect sense. With the somewhat peaceful atmosphere here these days it is easy to forget that these people here have lived through the whole invasion and occupation of this country. If I had been here through all that I suppose I would pull over also.
A somewhat comical aspect but not really is the perception of us here in Iraq , as far as I have seen it. On that first day mission alot of folks gave us hand gestures that in America would mean " so happy to see you here, you are doing a great job" but apparently do not mean the same thing here. When we got back from our day mission we were talking about how it seemed most folks were happy to see us, giving us the thumbs up and waving at us. only to be informed by folks that have been here before that those gestures here do not transfer to the same gesture back at home. So now when we roll out I just return the gestures with a big grin on my face.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A Day In The Life........
A friend of mine suggested I do a day in the life blog so here it is. Basically a day here is just like a day back home except that I am in Iraq and in the Army.
I start my day around 0700 when I wake up and do all my morning things such as getting my uniform on. I have to walk about 150 feet to use the bathroom and brush my teeth and shave. We have running water in the latrine trailer and in the shower trailer but it is non-potable which means you cannot drink it or use it for brushing your teeth. You have to use bottled water to brush your teeth which is annoying. There are pallets of 2 liter plastic water bottles between the shower trailer and the latrine so it is not too much of a pain in the ass but I look forward to the day that I can go to a sink and grab a glass of water. Once I am all ready I make sure I have my ID, dog tags and my rifle and head off to chow. You have to have your ID and rifle w/a 30rd magazine with you at all times even when you are wearing your Pt's ( Physical training uniform=shorts, t-shirt and running shoes ). It was an adjustment at first but after almost 4 months of doing it I feel naked without my rifle. Some people have had a hard time with it and have actually left their rifles in places they should not have. The result of that is you get to have your rifle tied to you for 30 days, even when you are showering. We have one guy that has left his rifle 3 separate times, I think he will be spending the whole deployment with his rifle tied to him.
The chow hall, gym and PX are all clustered together and they are about half a mile away from our SHU. It is not a bad arrangement but it is made bad by some of the stupid rules the host unit here has imposed. The host unit is the main active duty unit that is stationed on whatever FOB you happen to be stationed at. In our case it is the 6/9 cavalry from Texas. Basically the rules that I am referring to make that 1/2 mile walk a frequent occurrence during the day. It goes like this, you can wear your pt uniform into the chow hall and into the gym but not into the PX. Although you cannot go into the chow hall in your Pt's when they are sweaty so that means you cannot go and work out then go and eat. If you want to work out before you eat you have to go back to your SHU and change. Why not bring an extra shirt with you to the gym you might ask, because you cannot carry clothes into the chow hall. If you are in your uniform you can use the PX , the gym and go to the chow hall. But you cannot go to the PX then to the chow hall because you also can not carry any type of bag into the chow hall. This all may not seem too bad but when you are on a tight schedule and you want to go to the gym and you need something from the PX and you want to eat it gets pretty annoying. Another rule that we have here that we are all finding rather comical is that when you are wearing your PT uniform at anytime or your uniform after 1800 you have to wear a fluorescent glow in the dark safety belt. Not like we are in a combat zone or anyting, we refer to it as the sniper belt, meaning that it makes us all glowing targets. Though I will admit that it is really not that bad here as far as the threat level here on base but when I thought of coming to Iraq to fight in the war I did not think I would be wearing a glowing belt at night.
After a modest breakfast of watermelon and french toast sticks :) I walk over to the local bus stop. The base here is so huge that they have these little buses that run every 15 minutes 24 hours a day.The buses are driven by KBR employees, we call the buses scooby buses, I don't know why. Anyways there are three different routes that pretty much encompass the whole base. There is the red line, the green line and the blue line. So I jump on my bus and head off to work which starts at 0900.
Basically I am working here as an assistant to the supply sergeant, it is pretty damn boring. The only respite I get from this is when we go on re-supply missions for the teams. Then I get to roll out as the gunner on my MRAP, more on that another time. My day consists of sitting around waiting to do something. Our "office " is inside an old Iraq Army bunker. These bunkers are squat, 1 story, thick concrete shelters. There are 4 big rooms inside and in each room we have built wood walls to create separate offices. My job pretty much is comprised of doing everything that the supply sergeant does not want to do. He is a good guy so it not like he is screwing me or anything. But when it comes to running outside to retrieve stuff from the connexes when someone needs something it is I that does the running. Our connexes are about 200 feet away in the motor pool ( Motor pool= place we park all our trucks) area of our shop. Not very exciting at all, not exactly what I thought I would be doing when I volunteered to come here. Anyways I work from 0900 to 1200 then I take the bus to the gym and lift weights for 45 minutes then stroll over to the chow hall and grab a light lunch then back to the bunker. After lunch I work from 1330 to 1700,1800 ish. Although lately my buddies and I have been forming a coup and escaping at 1630 to go either to the gym to run on the treadmills or go for ruck marches outside.Sometimes if there is something going on we have to work extended hours which has been the case here lately but that will be changing in a week or so.
After evening PT we change our PT shirts and go grab dinner chow then come back to the SHU and hang out. I will usually check my e-mails and all that sort of thing then I either spend some time working on my Army correspondence courses or watching movies on my computer. Army correspondence courses are Army skill classes you can take online that equal out to promotion points for when you are trying to get your sergeant stripes. Which hopefully is something that I will be getting in the not too distant future. Army rank in the National Guard and in the Army is awarded through a point system for the ranks of E-5 and above. So when you are competing with all the E-4's in the state of Michigan for just a few sergeant slots it helps to have as many points as possible. I actually already have quite a few due to all the schools I have been to and with my Desert Storm experience.
So that pretty much explains a typical day for me here at COS Sykes, it really is not that exciting. Although we went on our first re-supply mission the other day and I have to admit it got the old heart racing but more on that in a different blog post.
I start my day around 0700 when I wake up and do all my morning things such as getting my uniform on. I have to walk about 150 feet to use the bathroom and brush my teeth and shave. We have running water in the latrine trailer and in the shower trailer but it is non-potable which means you cannot drink it or use it for brushing your teeth. You have to use bottled water to brush your teeth which is annoying. There are pallets of 2 liter plastic water bottles between the shower trailer and the latrine so it is not too much of a pain in the ass but I look forward to the day that I can go to a sink and grab a glass of water. Once I am all ready I make sure I have my ID, dog tags and my rifle and head off to chow. You have to have your ID and rifle w/a 30rd magazine with you at all times even when you are wearing your Pt's ( Physical training uniform=shorts, t-shirt and running shoes ). It was an adjustment at first but after almost 4 months of doing it I feel naked without my rifle. Some people have had a hard time with it and have actually left their rifles in places they should not have. The result of that is you get to have your rifle tied to you for 30 days, even when you are showering. We have one guy that has left his rifle 3 separate times, I think he will be spending the whole deployment with his rifle tied to him.
The chow hall, gym and PX are all clustered together and they are about half a mile away from our SHU. It is not a bad arrangement but it is made bad by some of the stupid rules the host unit here has imposed. The host unit is the main active duty unit that is stationed on whatever FOB you happen to be stationed at. In our case it is the 6/9 cavalry from Texas. Basically the rules that I am referring to make that 1/2 mile walk a frequent occurrence during the day. It goes like this, you can wear your pt uniform into the chow hall and into the gym but not into the PX. Although you cannot go into the chow hall in your Pt's when they are sweaty so that means you cannot go and work out then go and eat. If you want to work out before you eat you have to go back to your SHU and change. Why not bring an extra shirt with you to the gym you might ask, because you cannot carry clothes into the chow hall. If you are in your uniform you can use the PX , the gym and go to the chow hall. But you cannot go to the PX then to the chow hall because you also can not carry any type of bag into the chow hall. This all may not seem too bad but when you are on a tight schedule and you want to go to the gym and you need something from the PX and you want to eat it gets pretty annoying. Another rule that we have here that we are all finding rather comical is that when you are wearing your PT uniform at anytime or your uniform after 1800 you have to wear a fluorescent glow in the dark safety belt. Not like we are in a combat zone or anyting, we refer to it as the sniper belt, meaning that it makes us all glowing targets. Though I will admit that it is really not that bad here as far as the threat level here on base but when I thought of coming to Iraq to fight in the war I did not think I would be wearing a glowing belt at night.
After a modest breakfast of watermelon and french toast sticks :) I walk over to the local bus stop. The base here is so huge that they have these little buses that run every 15 minutes 24 hours a day.The buses are driven by KBR employees, we call the buses scooby buses, I don't know why. Anyways there are three different routes that pretty much encompass the whole base. There is the red line, the green line and the blue line. So I jump on my bus and head off to work which starts at 0900.
Basically I am working here as an assistant to the supply sergeant, it is pretty damn boring. The only respite I get from this is when we go on re-supply missions for the teams. Then I get to roll out as the gunner on my MRAP, more on that another time. My day consists of sitting around waiting to do something. Our "office " is inside an old Iraq Army bunker. These bunkers are squat, 1 story, thick concrete shelters. There are 4 big rooms inside and in each room we have built wood walls to create separate offices. My job pretty much is comprised of doing everything that the supply sergeant does not want to do. He is a good guy so it not like he is screwing me or anything. But when it comes to running outside to retrieve stuff from the connexes when someone needs something it is I that does the running. Our connexes are about 200 feet away in the motor pool ( Motor pool= place we park all our trucks) area of our shop. Not very exciting at all, not exactly what I thought I would be doing when I volunteered to come here. Anyways I work from 0900 to 1200 then I take the bus to the gym and lift weights for 45 minutes then stroll over to the chow hall and grab a light lunch then back to the bunker. After lunch I work from 1330 to 1700,1800 ish. Although lately my buddies and I have been forming a coup and escaping at 1630 to go either to the gym to run on the treadmills or go for ruck marches outside.Sometimes if there is something going on we have to work extended hours which has been the case here lately but that will be changing in a week or so.
After evening PT we change our PT shirts and go grab dinner chow then come back to the SHU and hang out. I will usually check my e-mails and all that sort of thing then I either spend some time working on my Army correspondence courses or watching movies on my computer. Army correspondence courses are Army skill classes you can take online that equal out to promotion points for when you are trying to get your sergeant stripes. Which hopefully is something that I will be getting in the not too distant future. Army rank in the National Guard and in the Army is awarded through a point system for the ranks of E-5 and above. So when you are competing with all the E-4's in the state of Michigan for just a few sergeant slots it helps to have as many points as possible. I actually already have quite a few due to all the schools I have been to and with my Desert Storm experience.
So that pretty much explains a typical day for me here at COS Sykes, it really is not that exciting. Although we went on our first re-supply mission the other day and I have to admit it got the old heart racing but more on that in a different blog post.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Welcome to Iraq
Finally after a rather boring stay at Camp Virginia we were told that we definitely had a flight out of Kuwait and that we had to be up at 0300 to finish packing and load the now hated semi truck. The truck and buses showed up at 0500 to take us back to the airfield. Once at the airfield we were put back into the tents from the day before which did nothing to convince us that we would actually be leaving that accursed place anytime soon. But to our surprise the KBR representative that is in charge of scheduling and departures came into the tent about 2 hours later and gave us the loading brief. The brief was humorous because it was the same rules that apply to civilian aircraft such as you cant bring weapons or explosives or liquids onto the plane. This was ridiculous to us as we were all carrying automatic rifles, body armor and live rounds ( bullets). After all we were getting ready to head to Iraq a war zone for goodness sake. So back out to the packing sheds to pallitize all our gear once again, it did not go as well the second time around. The guys that were in charge of loading pallets were not as good at it as the guys from the time before so this time we ended up with an extra pallet of stuff somehow. We then went back to the concrete pad where they split us up into 3 groups as we were all going to fly on 3 different planes. The leadership wisely put most of themselves on the first flight just in case all the flights did not take off on time, good call. After waiting around in the sun a bit more they started calling off names and once again we loaded the buses to go to the flight line.
As we started toward the flight line we saw the C-17 once again but of course we drove right past it and instead pulled up behind a C-130 which is a much smaller plane. The plane was running when we got there and I started having a serious flashback from my days with the 82ND Airborne. It had been 21 years since I had been on a C-130 and the last time I was in one I was loading up for a jump ( Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane ). As I entered the back of the plane with all my gear I got a whiff of the cargo straps and burning fuel that seriously brought me back to those days, it was weird. There were a lot of us to load and it was obvious from the beginning that several people had never been on a C-130 and did not know how to properly sit or how to buckle in as the loading process seemed to take forever. I was the last person on for my side which proved to be a very bad deal for me. The seating in a C-130 consists of webbed straps on a light aluminum frame which can be fairly comfortable when the plane is not fully loaded but in this case proved to be ungodly horrible. There are four rows of seats, two on each side divided by a web strapping "wall". So basically you pack in like sardines with one of your legs on either side of the legs of the person sitting across from you. At the back of the plane the row ends and then there are another set of seats set back about 12 inches for the aircrew to sit in. I was the last one on my row and literally had only one ass cheek on my row with the other half of me halfway onto the crew seats. This resulted in the uncomfortable fact of having an aluminum bar that stabbed me mid thigh for the entire flight. I honestly believe this is the most uncomfortable I have ever been in my entire life, and looking back on my life that is something to be said. We finally all got seated and they started loading the pallets, not only did they fit about 50 of us on but they crammed two of the pallets in there also, the pallets are about 12 feet by 12 feet so to say it was a little cramped is putting it mildly. Once they shut the rear door the heat really started to kick in, I was literally dripping with sweat within a few minutes, mind you this was a 2 hour flight. Most of us had stopped drinking water well before the flight as the bathroom facilities on a C-130 consist of a metal tube set into the wall about halfway up the rear ramp so that was a definite no go. I completely stopped sweating within 15 minutes of sitting on that plane, not a good thing. So off we went into the glorious sunrise for our trip into Iraq, I couldn't wait as by that time I figured nothing could be worse in the whole world as being on that plane.
The flight was unremarkable except for the fact of looking at my watch every 3 seconds to see if we were there yet. Once we got to the Iraq airfield the plane dropped like a rock and came in for a quick landing. They do not fly in low then land easily there as people will shoot at the plane so they basically dive bomb the runway and come to a screeching stop. Finally the rear doors open up and I get my first glimpse of Iraq.
It turns out Iraq is just as flat,hot and ugly as the rest of the wretched region. Once the pallets got unloaded we were able to get off the plane. This proved to be a little more difficult than loading as every ones legs were totally numb and we all felt crippled but we finally all stumbled out and followed our guide off the runway. We were met in a parking lot by the company of guys that we were replacing there in country. It was a bit of a letdown as we were all wearing our body armor and combat gear and these guys were just wearing their basic uniforms. I most definitely did not feel as if I had just landed in a war zone. Once we all had gotten off the runway they had us drop our gear on some buses and led us to the local chow hall for some much needed lunch. The chow halls here are just as crazy if not more than the ones in Kuwait. I had a delicious lunch of bottled water then headed back to the buses to wait for everyone else to finish eating. I loaded myself onto the bus and promptly fell asleep. Once everyone was back we left the airfield to go to our SHU's which would be our home for the next 9 months.
A SHU is a portable square or rectangle metal building. The square ones are 4 mans and the rectangle ones are 2 mans unless you are an E-6 staff sergeant or above then they are considered singles, rank has its privileges. They are set up in areas called pads and have about 30 in each row and about 6 rows. I have to say it is the best living arrangement I have had since I came back on active duty. I am in a 4 man which I consider to be better than the 2 mans. The 2 mans are usually reserved for the E-5 sergeants. The 4 mans are really just 2 of the 2 mans joined together in the middle. Each SHU has an air conditioner so if you are in a 4 man you have 2 air conditioners. There is a bunk an end table and a wall locker for each occupant. You also have 4 electrical outlets per person although two of mine are occupied by the Internet router and the air conditioner. We also have hard wired Internet which is awesome, the only problem I have with it is that they are charging us 85 dollars a month to use it which I think is a crime personally, I will be writing someone about that one of these days.
Once we all got off the buses we got into a mass formation and they started to issue out the keys for the SHU's.Once you got your key you went to your SHU to make sure the key worked then you were able to grab your gear and load it in. I was so excited to finally be able to unpack my bags for the first time in months, it was awesome. The rest of the day was spent unpacking our gear and exploring the base, our new home for the rest of the year.
As I said earlier we were all split up into three groups, my flight and the one that followed left on time ( the second plane came in 2 hours after us ) but the third plane was delayed and those guys did not land until 0100, talk about a long day. So after a much too lengthy stay in Kuwait and an incredible urge to kill the Air Force we all finally made it to our destination in wonderfull Iraq.
As we started toward the flight line we saw the C-17 once again but of course we drove right past it and instead pulled up behind a C-130 which is a much smaller plane. The plane was running when we got there and I started having a serious flashback from my days with the 82ND Airborne. It had been 21 years since I had been on a C-130 and the last time I was in one I was loading up for a jump ( Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane ). As I entered the back of the plane with all my gear I got a whiff of the cargo straps and burning fuel that seriously brought me back to those days, it was weird. There were a lot of us to load and it was obvious from the beginning that several people had never been on a C-130 and did not know how to properly sit or how to buckle in as the loading process seemed to take forever. I was the last person on for my side which proved to be a very bad deal for me. The seating in a C-130 consists of webbed straps on a light aluminum frame which can be fairly comfortable when the plane is not fully loaded but in this case proved to be ungodly horrible. There are four rows of seats, two on each side divided by a web strapping "wall". So basically you pack in like sardines with one of your legs on either side of the legs of the person sitting across from you. At the back of the plane the row ends and then there are another set of seats set back about 12 inches for the aircrew to sit in. I was the last one on my row and literally had only one ass cheek on my row with the other half of me halfway onto the crew seats. This resulted in the uncomfortable fact of having an aluminum bar that stabbed me mid thigh for the entire flight. I honestly believe this is the most uncomfortable I have ever been in my entire life, and looking back on my life that is something to be said. We finally all got seated and they started loading the pallets, not only did they fit about 50 of us on but they crammed two of the pallets in there also, the pallets are about 12 feet by 12 feet so to say it was a little cramped is putting it mildly. Once they shut the rear door the heat really started to kick in, I was literally dripping with sweat within a few minutes, mind you this was a 2 hour flight. Most of us had stopped drinking water well before the flight as the bathroom facilities on a C-130 consist of a metal tube set into the wall about halfway up the rear ramp so that was a definite no go. I completely stopped sweating within 15 minutes of sitting on that plane, not a good thing. So off we went into the glorious sunrise for our trip into Iraq, I couldn't wait as by that time I figured nothing could be worse in the whole world as being on that plane.
The flight was unremarkable except for the fact of looking at my watch every 3 seconds to see if we were there yet. Once we got to the Iraq airfield the plane dropped like a rock and came in for a quick landing. They do not fly in low then land easily there as people will shoot at the plane so they basically dive bomb the runway and come to a screeching stop. Finally the rear doors open up and I get my first glimpse of Iraq.
It turns out Iraq is just as flat,hot and ugly as the rest of the wretched region. Once the pallets got unloaded we were able to get off the plane. This proved to be a little more difficult than loading as every ones legs were totally numb and we all felt crippled but we finally all stumbled out and followed our guide off the runway. We were met in a parking lot by the company of guys that we were replacing there in country. It was a bit of a letdown as we were all wearing our body armor and combat gear and these guys were just wearing their basic uniforms. I most definitely did not feel as if I had just landed in a war zone. Once we all had gotten off the runway they had us drop our gear on some buses and led us to the local chow hall for some much needed lunch. The chow halls here are just as crazy if not more than the ones in Kuwait. I had a delicious lunch of bottled water then headed back to the buses to wait for everyone else to finish eating. I loaded myself onto the bus and promptly fell asleep. Once everyone was back we left the airfield to go to our SHU's which would be our home for the next 9 months.
A SHU is a portable square or rectangle metal building. The square ones are 4 mans and the rectangle ones are 2 mans unless you are an E-6 staff sergeant or above then they are considered singles, rank has its privileges. They are set up in areas called pads and have about 30 in each row and about 6 rows. I have to say it is the best living arrangement I have had since I came back on active duty. I am in a 4 man which I consider to be better than the 2 mans. The 2 mans are usually reserved for the E-5 sergeants. The 4 mans are really just 2 of the 2 mans joined together in the middle. Each SHU has an air conditioner so if you are in a 4 man you have 2 air conditioners. There is a bunk an end table and a wall locker for each occupant. You also have 4 electrical outlets per person although two of mine are occupied by the Internet router and the air conditioner. We also have hard wired Internet which is awesome, the only problem I have with it is that they are charging us 85 dollars a month to use it which I think is a crime personally, I will be writing someone about that one of these days.
Once we all got off the buses we got into a mass formation and they started to issue out the keys for the SHU's.Once you got your key you went to your SHU to make sure the key worked then you were able to grab your gear and load it in. I was so excited to finally be able to unpack my bags for the first time in months, it was awesome. The rest of the day was spent unpacking our gear and exploring the base, our new home for the rest of the year.
As I said earlier we were all split up into three groups, my flight and the one that followed left on time ( the second plane came in 2 hours after us ) but the third plane was delayed and those guys did not land until 0100, talk about a long day. So after a much too lengthy stay in Kuwait and an incredible urge to kill the Air Force we all finally made it to our destination in wonderfull Iraq.
Monday, August 3, 2009
The not so great escape
I wanted to call this blog entry how I learned to hate the Air force and want to hang them from poles and use them as Piñata’s but it was too long so I stuck with “the not so great escape”. I would never have imagined that it would be so difficult to get to a war zone in time of war. Our escape from Kuwait was so fucked up that I am sure that I will not even be able to come close to conveying the horribleness of it all into words. We had spent a little over 2 weeks in Kuwait and as I have said before we were all ready to get the hell out. Kuwait was really hot and miserable, about 115-120 in the day with the hot winds of death. Plus we were all absolutely tired of all the silly training they had us go through, over half of it had absolutely nothing to do with what we would be doing in Iraq.
We were scheduled to leave Camp Buehring on Thursday the 23rd. I say scheduled because when Thursday rolled around they announced that we were on 24 hour stand down and that we would not be leaving until Friday (crap). The previous two days we pretty much had off, Harbin, Lacriccio and I ( the angry old man trifecta )were so ready to go that we packed two days early. If it had not been so hot outside I believe we would have sat outside for 2 days to wait for the buses to come take us away. Sleeping on a cot and living in a tent with 65 other people will eventually drive you mad, more so when you are old. So the day finally arrives when the buses are scheduled to pick us up and take us to al saleem airfield which is where you go to fly to Iraq or to fly home if you are going home on leave. After baking in the sun for a few hours the buses finally arrived to aid in our escape. Before we could load the buses we had to load our duffel bags and rucksacks into a semi trailer Mind you there were a lot of bags. Each of us had to wear our body armor, rifleman’s kit, rifle and carry our Kevlar’s . We also each had a computer bag and an assault pack. After a short bus ride we arrived at the airfield and unloaded all our bags. At first they lined us up in a large open area where we could bake in the sun some more ( I already have a wicked tan or really bad skin cancer by the way ). After a while they decided to put us up in some not so air conditioned tents, I felt like a dehydrated plant in a greenhouse. By this time we were all questioning if we were actually going to be able to escape the hell of Kuwait. Just when total despair was about to set in they announced that they needed people to go unload the semi truck that had all our duffel bags and rucksacks on it so that we could palletize all the gear for our flight out. I was very excited about this prospect ( not really, they made me go ) and went outside once again into the scorching sun only to realize that it was cooler outside than it was in that damn tent. We made short work of getting our gear unloaded and loaded up and secured onto the aluminum Air Force pallets that they use to transport stuff on military planes then headed back to where the company was waiting. After waiting around again for a few hours they finally had us line back up in formation where they started calling off our names to load the buses that were going to take us to the flight line. We promptly loaded the buses with a great sigh of relief because by this point we were convinced that we would finally be able to escape ( Liiiieeeeeesssss!).
This was a very strange bus ride for me, the area that they had been keeping us was all new and had been added to an old Kuwaiti Army / Air Force base. I had not fully realized where we were until we got on the buses to head to the flight line. Once we got to the old part of the base I realized it was an area that I had driven around back in Desert Storm and that a lot of the old buildings were still there. But the weirdest part for me was seeing the old concrete aircraft bunkers just off the runways. When Iraq invaded Kuwait and settled in for their occupation they had been using that airfield and Army barracks to keep their planes and some troops. When the bombing campaign started in desert Storm that area was one of the first places hit and all those bunkers had been bombed. So rolling out there and seeing all those bombed out bunkers still sitting there after all these years was quite an experience for me. Anyways, they finally drive us out to the flight line where we can see a waiting C-17 military transport plane. The C-17 is a fairly large cargo plane and we were all happy to see it as it would mean there would be plenty of room for all of us and all our gear. So the bus pulls up but the doors don’t open, we sit there for less than a minute and the bus starts back up and starts heading off the flight line. My exact words at this time were NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO! Apparently no one was listening because we kept driving away. They then took us to a little waiting area where the Air Force people explained that there was a hydraulic problem but that they were going to fix it. So we waited for another hour then got back on the buses and headed back to the flight line. This time we stopped and they actually opened the doors and people started getting up to get off the bus, that is when they closed the doors and started driving away again. But this time they did not take us to the waiting area , they took us all the way back to the hot ass tent area. My spirits were crushed, I was not a happy camper and neither was anyone else.
So back into the tents of despair we go although this time they let us use two tents so I went to the other one and was pleasantly surprised to see leather couches and real air conditioning. By this time it was time for dinner chow so we all headed over to the local chow hall to get some food as most of us had not eaten all day. After chow we all headed back to the tents to be informed that it could be up to 12 hours before we would be able to get another flight, bastards!!. So with that bit of information we all tried to settle in as much as possible for the long wait. A couple hours later they ( the Lazy good for nothing piñata Air force) come back into the tent to say that they are going to move us to Camp Virginia and put us up for the night as we will not be escaping anytime soon, total buzz crusher. But before we can go we have to go outside and un palletize all our gear and load it all back into the wretched semi truck.
So after re-loading all our gear we load the buses and off to camp Virginia we go. Camp Virginia is the base you go to when you are done with your Iraq tour and are getting ready to go back home for good. I think they sent us to that base just to be mean so that we could go and see all the Joes that had already finished their tours and were going home, and here we were not having started our tour yet, dirty rotten bastards!
So we finally arrive at the camp and of course we have to unload the semi truck again, by this time we had moved those godforsaken bags in and out of that damn truck 4 times already. By the way the average weight of one rucksack was around 120 pounds and the duffel bags were not much lighter. They end up putting us in the same types of tents that we stayed in at al saleem, at least these ones had good air conditioning, and proceed to tell us that we will be there for 24 hours at least. Redrum, Redrum, Redrum.
The next day we had nothing to do but wander around and glare at all the bastards we saw that were getting ready to go back home. I did get a chance to eat a Big Mac which for some reason I was really craving as soon as I saw the McDonalds. It was good but not as good as back home. It was at that point that I realized I had not had any fast food for about 2 and ½ months and that I really did not miss it. At least I got to take my picture with a life sized replica of Ronald McDonald that they had sitting on a bench in the middle of the desert, strange world.
So as you can see our escape was not much of an escape at all. My next blog will cover our absolutely horrible plane ride and our glorious introduction to Iraq ( it was not really that glorious).
We were scheduled to leave Camp Buehring on Thursday the 23rd. I say scheduled because when Thursday rolled around they announced that we were on 24 hour stand down and that we would not be leaving until Friday (crap). The previous two days we pretty much had off, Harbin, Lacriccio and I ( the angry old man trifecta )were so ready to go that we packed two days early. If it had not been so hot outside I believe we would have sat outside for 2 days to wait for the buses to come take us away. Sleeping on a cot and living in a tent with 65 other people will eventually drive you mad, more so when you are old. So the day finally arrives when the buses are scheduled to pick us up and take us to al saleem airfield which is where you go to fly to Iraq or to fly home if you are going home on leave. After baking in the sun for a few hours the buses finally arrived to aid in our escape. Before we could load the buses we had to load our duffel bags and rucksacks into a semi trailer Mind you there were a lot of bags. Each of us had to wear our body armor, rifleman’s kit, rifle and carry our Kevlar’s . We also each had a computer bag and an assault pack. After a short bus ride we arrived at the airfield and unloaded all our bags. At first they lined us up in a large open area where we could bake in the sun some more ( I already have a wicked tan or really bad skin cancer by the way ). After a while they decided to put us up in some not so air conditioned tents, I felt like a dehydrated plant in a greenhouse. By this time we were all questioning if we were actually going to be able to escape the hell of Kuwait. Just when total despair was about to set in they announced that they needed people to go unload the semi truck that had all our duffel bags and rucksacks on it so that we could palletize all the gear for our flight out. I was very excited about this prospect ( not really, they made me go ) and went outside once again into the scorching sun only to realize that it was cooler outside than it was in that damn tent. We made short work of getting our gear unloaded and loaded up and secured onto the aluminum Air Force pallets that they use to transport stuff on military planes then headed back to where the company was waiting. After waiting around again for a few hours they finally had us line back up in formation where they started calling off our names to load the buses that were going to take us to the flight line. We promptly loaded the buses with a great sigh of relief because by this point we were convinced that we would finally be able to escape ( Liiiieeeeeesssss!).
This was a very strange bus ride for me, the area that they had been keeping us was all new and had been added to an old Kuwaiti Army / Air Force base. I had not fully realized where we were until we got on the buses to head to the flight line. Once we got to the old part of the base I realized it was an area that I had driven around back in Desert Storm and that a lot of the old buildings were still there. But the weirdest part for me was seeing the old concrete aircraft bunkers just off the runways. When Iraq invaded Kuwait and settled in for their occupation they had been using that airfield and Army barracks to keep their planes and some troops. When the bombing campaign started in desert Storm that area was one of the first places hit and all those bunkers had been bombed. So rolling out there and seeing all those bombed out bunkers still sitting there after all these years was quite an experience for me. Anyways, they finally drive us out to the flight line where we can see a waiting C-17 military transport plane. The C-17 is a fairly large cargo plane and we were all happy to see it as it would mean there would be plenty of room for all of us and all our gear. So the bus pulls up but the doors don’t open, we sit there for less than a minute and the bus starts back up and starts heading off the flight line. My exact words at this time were NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO! Apparently no one was listening because we kept driving away. They then took us to a little waiting area where the Air Force people explained that there was a hydraulic problem but that they were going to fix it. So we waited for another hour then got back on the buses and headed back to the flight line. This time we stopped and they actually opened the doors and people started getting up to get off the bus, that is when they closed the doors and started driving away again. But this time they did not take us to the waiting area , they took us all the way back to the hot ass tent area. My spirits were crushed, I was not a happy camper and neither was anyone else.
So back into the tents of despair we go although this time they let us use two tents so I went to the other one and was pleasantly surprised to see leather couches and real air conditioning. By this time it was time for dinner chow so we all headed over to the local chow hall to get some food as most of us had not eaten all day. After chow we all headed back to the tents to be informed that it could be up to 12 hours before we would be able to get another flight, bastards!!. So with that bit of information we all tried to settle in as much as possible for the long wait. A couple hours later they ( the Lazy good for nothing piñata Air force) come back into the tent to say that they are going to move us to Camp Virginia and put us up for the night as we will not be escaping anytime soon, total buzz crusher. But before we can go we have to go outside and un palletize all our gear and load it all back into the wretched semi truck.
So after re-loading all our gear we load the buses and off to camp Virginia we go. Camp Virginia is the base you go to when you are done with your Iraq tour and are getting ready to go back home for good. I think they sent us to that base just to be mean so that we could go and see all the Joes that had already finished their tours and were going home, and here we were not having started our tour yet, dirty rotten bastards!
So we finally arrive at the camp and of course we have to unload the semi truck again, by this time we had moved those godforsaken bags in and out of that damn truck 4 times already. By the way the average weight of one rucksack was around 120 pounds and the duffel bags were not much lighter. They end up putting us in the same types of tents that we stayed in at al saleem, at least these ones had good air conditioning, and proceed to tell us that we will be there for 24 hours at least. Redrum, Redrum, Redrum.
The next day we had nothing to do but wander around and glare at all the bastards we saw that were getting ready to go back home. I did get a chance to eat a Big Mac which for some reason I was really craving as soon as I saw the McDonalds. It was good but not as good as back home. It was at that point that I realized I had not had any fast food for about 2 and ½ months and that I really did not miss it. At least I got to take my picture with a life sized replica of Ronald McDonald that they had sitting on a bench in the middle of the desert, strange world.
So as you can see our escape was not much of an escape at all. My next blog will cover our absolutely horrible plane ride and our glorious introduction to Iraq ( it was not really that glorious).
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Kuwait
I can honestly say I liked this country much better when it was all on fire, at least the oil smoke blocked out the sun , it is too goddamn hot here. We were given the first 2 days here off to acclimatize and get our heads sorted out from the jet lag. It was a nice break for us and gave us some time to wander around the base a little more to find out what all was here. It gets light here around 0400 in the morning and it is not too hot around that time. It starts to get really hot around 1000 or so. And to be honest the heat is rough but would not be so bad if it were not for the evil winds of death. Usually between 1100 and 1600 the wind blows in from the desert usually around 30-40mph and it is like being in a blast furnace. You would think it would be nice to have a breeze or even some wind to cool you down but all it is is hot air blowing that is filled with sand. Seriously it is like having someone chase you down with a giant hair dryer and a sandblaster, absolutely miserable. I would like to now apologize to all the ants I have burned with a magnifying glass in my lifetime, Karma is a bitch. The chow halls here are absolutely insane, I see now how some people that deploy gain weight. There are 4 meals each day, breakfast, lunch , dinner, and midnight meal. The food is awesome which I am happy about. What pisses me off is that the chow halls here are also run by civilians and are 20x better than the ones back home. It annoys me because over here all the workers are Philipino, Indian and Pakistani and they do a much better job than the civilian American workers do in the states. My point being that it is a sad state of affairs when foreign nationals care more about their jobs and how they do them then Americans do back home in relation to feeding US troops.
The internet here absolutely sucks ass. It is all wireless and there are so many people trying to use it that it is almost impossible to log in. To top it off you have to pay for it which I think is a goddamn crime personally. I did get an awesome haircut here though, the guy shaved my head, massaged my scalp, powdered my scalp and gave me a 3 minute neck massage all for 6 bucks, pretty cool. The latrines here are all Port-a-Potties which is not too bad except when you use them in the afternoon then they are like shit saunas. Also when the wind is blowing in the afternoons you most defiantly do not want to be downwind of them. We also have shower trailers which are pretty nice considering we are in the middle of the desert. Basically they look like trailer homes and inside you have about 15 individual shower stalls and benches that run down the middle with sinks on one wall with mirrors. That is one thing I have come to miss is mirrors, sometimes it is just the small things.
Our first bit of training started on the 3rd day and consisted of a 3 day MRAP ( Mine Resistant Ambush Protection ) drivers training. I was really excited to be getting this training at first as we had been looking forward to it for some time. These are the vehicles that we are supposed to have once we get to Iraq. I say at first because very quickly during the class we all realized it was a big piece of crap. I call it the MCRAP. I am not going to go into too many details of it for OPSEC ( operational Security ) reasons. But I will say it is absolutely the most uncomfortable vehicle I have ever had the displeasure of riding in. I actually think that when I get back I may write every congressman I can get a hold of and let them know that some one pulled the wool over their eyes on this purchase ( a whopping $500,000.00 per vehicle ). For you folks back home paying taxes you should be pissed. The first day was all death by power point classes, the second day was supposed to be preventive maintained classes in the motor pool than some driving. The weather did not cooperate of course , the wind was extremely high and cut visibility down to next to nothing so instead we went back to the classroom for more classes then took the written test . So the third day consisted of all driving , 15 hours worth. We had 5 guys per truck and everyone had to have a turn driving through various obstacle courses and with different equipment. It was a grueling day sitting in the back of those things for so long. By late afternoon all the trucks were pretty much out of gas so we had to head back to base. Initially we were told that we were done but then they decided that we absolutely had to drive at night to get our certificates. I thought that they wanted us to drive with blackout lights ( special lights on all military vehicles for driving at night ) or night vision, but no, it was just so we could drive with headlights, absolutely retarded. Got back around 2100 got our certificates and promptly escaped back to the barracks before they could come up with anything else completely stupid.
On our 5th day here, Thursday the 6h we went to an IED class which was actually fairly informative. I hate to say it but you have to give it to the insurgents for creativity sometimes, that’s all I am going to say on that issue. Then Harbin and I had to go to the airfield to practice loading and unloading Blackhawk helicopters as flying in them is part of our job. We did that for a couple hours then headed off to afternoon chow. Around 1300 we had a really cool class on foreign weapons. How to take them apart and put them together and how to fire them. Did not have much else to do the rest of the day. Friday morning was really cool, we got to do a Blackhawk insertion on a mock up village. It was all very exciting although I must say that running with all that equipment in the desert sucks a lot more than doing it in Washington state, just saying. Saturday we had some more mandatory briefings and Sunday we had to do the MRAP rollover training, which did not seem to be too bad for most people in it but I was in the gunner position and it was not fun at all.
I actually had to look at my calendar to figure out what days we did what as I have no sense of time anymore, days of the week have no meaning at all these days. Everyone here is absolutely ready to get the hell out of Kuwait and get to Iraq. One of the main reasons we want to get there is we are all absolutely tired of living out of our bags. We have been living out of duffel bags and rucksacks for three long months so far.
Spent our last two days in Kuwait lounging around waiting for a flight out which was nice and relaxing but also a bit annoying as we all are absolutely ready to get the hell out of Kuwait. Our escape from Kuwait turned into a complete nightmare and that will be the subject of my next post.
One thing I would like to add. If you were ever in the mind to donate money to an organization let me suggest the USO. Those folks do an outstanding job supporting and helping us soldiers out.
The internet here absolutely sucks ass. It is all wireless and there are so many people trying to use it that it is almost impossible to log in. To top it off you have to pay for it which I think is a goddamn crime personally. I did get an awesome haircut here though, the guy shaved my head, massaged my scalp, powdered my scalp and gave me a 3 minute neck massage all for 6 bucks, pretty cool. The latrines here are all Port-a-Potties which is not too bad except when you use them in the afternoon then they are like shit saunas. Also when the wind is blowing in the afternoons you most defiantly do not want to be downwind of them. We also have shower trailers which are pretty nice considering we are in the middle of the desert. Basically they look like trailer homes and inside you have about 15 individual shower stalls and benches that run down the middle with sinks on one wall with mirrors. That is one thing I have come to miss is mirrors, sometimes it is just the small things.
Our first bit of training started on the 3rd day and consisted of a 3 day MRAP ( Mine Resistant Ambush Protection ) drivers training. I was really excited to be getting this training at first as we had been looking forward to it for some time. These are the vehicles that we are supposed to have once we get to Iraq. I say at first because very quickly during the class we all realized it was a big piece of crap. I call it the MCRAP. I am not going to go into too many details of it for OPSEC ( operational Security ) reasons. But I will say it is absolutely the most uncomfortable vehicle I have ever had the displeasure of riding in. I actually think that when I get back I may write every congressman I can get a hold of and let them know that some one pulled the wool over their eyes on this purchase ( a whopping $500,000.00 per vehicle ). For you folks back home paying taxes you should be pissed. The first day was all death by power point classes, the second day was supposed to be preventive maintained classes in the motor pool than some driving. The weather did not cooperate of course , the wind was extremely high and cut visibility down to next to nothing so instead we went back to the classroom for more classes then took the written test . So the third day consisted of all driving , 15 hours worth. We had 5 guys per truck and everyone had to have a turn driving through various obstacle courses and with different equipment. It was a grueling day sitting in the back of those things for so long. By late afternoon all the trucks were pretty much out of gas so we had to head back to base. Initially we were told that we were done but then they decided that we absolutely had to drive at night to get our certificates. I thought that they wanted us to drive with blackout lights ( special lights on all military vehicles for driving at night ) or night vision, but no, it was just so we could drive with headlights, absolutely retarded. Got back around 2100 got our certificates and promptly escaped back to the barracks before they could come up with anything else completely stupid.
On our 5th day here, Thursday the 6h we went to an IED class which was actually fairly informative. I hate to say it but you have to give it to the insurgents for creativity sometimes, that’s all I am going to say on that issue. Then Harbin and I had to go to the airfield to practice loading and unloading Blackhawk helicopters as flying in them is part of our job. We did that for a couple hours then headed off to afternoon chow. Around 1300 we had a really cool class on foreign weapons. How to take them apart and put them together and how to fire them. Did not have much else to do the rest of the day. Friday morning was really cool, we got to do a Blackhawk insertion on a mock up village. It was all very exciting although I must say that running with all that equipment in the desert sucks a lot more than doing it in Washington state, just saying. Saturday we had some more mandatory briefings and Sunday we had to do the MRAP rollover training, which did not seem to be too bad for most people in it but I was in the gunner position and it was not fun at all.
I actually had to look at my calendar to figure out what days we did what as I have no sense of time anymore, days of the week have no meaning at all these days. Everyone here is absolutely ready to get the hell out of Kuwait and get to Iraq. One of the main reasons we want to get there is we are all absolutely tired of living out of our bags. We have been living out of duffel bags and rucksacks for three long months so far.
Spent our last two days in Kuwait lounging around waiting for a flight out which was nice and relaxing but also a bit annoying as we all are absolutely ready to get the hell out of Kuwait. Our escape from Kuwait turned into a complete nightmare and that will be the subject of my next post.
One thing I would like to add. If you were ever in the mind to donate money to an organization let me suggest the USO. Those folks do an outstanding job supporting and helping us soldiers out.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Military time
Thought I would post this up since i write with Military time in my blogs.
Military time
100am = 0100
200am = 0200
300am = 0300
400am = 0400
500am = 0500
600am = 0600
700am = 0700
800am = 0800
1000am = 1000
1100am = 1100
1200am = 1200
100pm = 1300
200pm = 1400
300pm = 1500
400pm = 1600
500pm = 1700
600pm = 1800
700pm = 1900
800pm = 2000
900pm = 2100
1000pm = 2200
1100pm = 2300
1200pm = 2400
Military time
100am = 0100
200am = 0200
300am = 0300
400am = 0400
500am = 0500
600am = 0600
700am = 0700
800am = 0800
1000am = 1000
1100am = 1100
1200am = 1200
100pm = 1300
200pm = 1400
300pm = 1500
400pm = 1600
500pm = 1700
600pm = 1800
700pm = 1900
800pm = 2000
900pm = 2100
1000pm = 2200
1100pm = 2300
1200pm = 2400
It was kind of strange leaving Ft. Lewis . I expected that it would only be our unit at the air base getting ready to leave but it turned out there were 3 different units leaving that day for Iraq and Afghanistan. We got to the hanger around 1500 and after a couple briefings were able to wander around while we waited to load the plane. The USO is a wonderful organization they were there handing out gift bags with playing cards, snacks and toiletries. They also had a little shop off the hanger with free coffee and snacks. With a final farewell from several officers and high ranking NCOs’ the time finally rolled around to load the plane, so with a bit of apprehension we walked out onto the tarmac and loaded the plane.
Boy what a trip, 26 hours of flying and airport time. We left Ft. Lewis around 1700on Thursday the 9th and arrived in wonderful Kuwait around 0100 Saturday the 10th. Talk about some serious jet lag. The flight over was absolutely brutal. The plane had seats for 420 and we only had about 300 people but because of weight distribution we all had to pack the back of the plane. This was tough as each person is carrying a large assault pack, computer bag and an M-4 rifle with attachments. To say it was a little cramped is putting it mildly. After about 4 hours of sitting in such a cramped space my knees felt like they had been opened up and broken glass had been inserted, not a good feeling at all. We started the flight with our unit of 135 and about 60 folks from another unit. Then we had to fly to Colorado and pick up 100 more people. The flight to Colorado was only a couple of hours and was not too bad. We sat there at the airplane hanger for a break for about 1 and a 1/2 hours then loaded up and took off again headed for Minneapolis /ST. Paul. We arrived there around 0200 in the morning feeling a little bit worn out. We were able to de-plane for a nice 2 hour break and were greeted by the USO. If there ever was an organization to donate money too it would be the USO. We were greeted by 7 smiling ladies who handed out Burger King cheeseburgers and cold cokes. They had books that folks could take for free and all sorts of snacks and such. I was humbled that these folks took time out of their lives to meet us at the airport at such a late hour and take care of us the way they did. We left Minneapolis around 0400 for our flight to Shannon airport in Ireland for the first long leg of our journey. I had stayed awake Wednesday to Thursday night for the most part so when we boarded the plane I fell asleep and woke up when the wheels touched down in Ireland. We were able to de-plane while they refueled for several hours. Because of course it being Ireland the main section of the airport has a huge bar in it. It was a trip back in time for me as my unit stopped at that same airport on our return flight from Desert Storm. Of course the terminal was brand new and completely different from my last visit which had been 18 years previous. I chose to skip the beer as I have already checked the box of having a draft Harp and Guinness in Ireland. Instead I went with some nice hot Irish coffee. The prices were outrageous and I am now the proud owner of several Euros which I will now have to carry with me for a year. I honestly do not remember what time it was that we landed in Ireland as I was a bit out of sorts having traveled backward in time and being jet lagged and confused. After a nice break and several beers drank by most we got back on the plane for our final leg to Kuwait.
The flight to Kuwait took about 7 hours and it felt like I was in the 13th ring of hell. I am accustomed to flying and traveling but being in such a cramped space for so long pretty much had everyone extremely annoyed by the time we finally landed in Kuwait. Landing in Kuwait was a surreal experience for me. The last time I saw that airfield and terminal it was all pretty much on fire and the skies were blocked by oil smoke. This time around they had a new terminal and the runways were not cratered from cluster bombs. We got in around 0100 which was actually a blessing as it was only about 85 degrees out at that time. I was defiantly feeling weird about the whole experience , I would not say I was having flashbacks or anything of that sort but there was defiantly a weird vibe about the whole thing. For one thing I could not believe I was back there getting ready to go fight in another war in that region. . We unloaded the plane on the tarmac and loaded some buses that took us to a little rest area that had bins of ice water and some latrines. We were able to take a break and stretch our legs for a bit then we were loaded back up onto the buses for our trip to the FOB we were going to. We had to stop at al saleem airfield to drop off the troops that we had picked up in Colorado then we were off to Camp Buehring which was the base that we would be staying at for our hopefully short stay in Kuwait. All in all we spent about 2 hours on the bus which was annoying after our joyous airplane trip.
After finally getting onto base we drove to a briefing area and unloaded the buses. We were allowed to run over to the chow hall and grab breakfast which was awesome because all we had eaten in the last 30 hours had been airplane food. After chow we had to go through some briefings about the FOB rules, most of which are stupid in case you were wondering. We also had to have a briefing where they tried to convince us that Kuwait is a combat zone, it did not work we still don’t believe it. After the briefings of which 90% of them I cant remember because they gave them to us after we had all been traveling for 30 hours we got back onto the buses and headed over to our barracks area. The barracks are pretty awesome here, air conditioning and electric lights. Basically they are just huge steel support tents with plastic covers. A very different experience from my last deployment. We unloaded the truck that had all of our bags on it and moved into the barracks. Most people dropped their bags and racked out immediately , it was late afternoon by this time. Surprisingly I was not able to sleep so my buddy Harbin and I went a wandering. It was hotter than hell and a bit of a shock to the system but we forged forward because we had heard there was a starbucks on base and we are both coffee hounds. Sure enough there is a Starbucks here along with a Burger king, taco bell and a KFC. We wandered around for a bit then headed back to the barracks where I promptly fell asleep for about 12 hours, it was awesome.
Boy what a trip, 26 hours of flying and airport time. We left Ft. Lewis around 1700on Thursday the 9th and arrived in wonderful Kuwait around 0100 Saturday the 10th. Talk about some serious jet lag. The flight over was absolutely brutal. The plane had seats for 420 and we only had about 300 people but because of weight distribution we all had to pack the back of the plane. This was tough as each person is carrying a large assault pack, computer bag and an M-4 rifle with attachments. To say it was a little cramped is putting it mildly. After about 4 hours of sitting in such a cramped space my knees felt like they had been opened up and broken glass had been inserted, not a good feeling at all. We started the flight with our unit of 135 and about 60 folks from another unit. Then we had to fly to Colorado and pick up 100 more people. The flight to Colorado was only a couple of hours and was not too bad. We sat there at the airplane hanger for a break for about 1 and a 1/2 hours then loaded up and took off again headed for Minneapolis /ST. Paul. We arrived there around 0200 in the morning feeling a little bit worn out. We were able to de-plane for a nice 2 hour break and were greeted by the USO. If there ever was an organization to donate money too it would be the USO. We were greeted by 7 smiling ladies who handed out Burger King cheeseburgers and cold cokes. They had books that folks could take for free and all sorts of snacks and such. I was humbled that these folks took time out of their lives to meet us at the airport at such a late hour and take care of us the way they did. We left Minneapolis around 0400 for our flight to Shannon airport in Ireland for the first long leg of our journey. I had stayed awake Wednesday to Thursday night for the most part so when we boarded the plane I fell asleep and woke up when the wheels touched down in Ireland. We were able to de-plane while they refueled for several hours. Because of course it being Ireland the main section of the airport has a huge bar in it. It was a trip back in time for me as my unit stopped at that same airport on our return flight from Desert Storm. Of course the terminal was brand new and completely different from my last visit which had been 18 years previous. I chose to skip the beer as I have already checked the box of having a draft Harp and Guinness in Ireland. Instead I went with some nice hot Irish coffee. The prices were outrageous and I am now the proud owner of several Euros which I will now have to carry with me for a year. I honestly do not remember what time it was that we landed in Ireland as I was a bit out of sorts having traveled backward in time and being jet lagged and confused. After a nice break and several beers drank by most we got back on the plane for our final leg to Kuwait.
The flight to Kuwait took about 7 hours and it felt like I was in the 13th ring of hell. I am accustomed to flying and traveling but being in such a cramped space for so long pretty much had everyone extremely annoyed by the time we finally landed in Kuwait. Landing in Kuwait was a surreal experience for me. The last time I saw that airfield and terminal it was all pretty much on fire and the skies were blocked by oil smoke. This time around they had a new terminal and the runways were not cratered from cluster bombs. We got in around 0100 which was actually a blessing as it was only about 85 degrees out at that time. I was defiantly feeling weird about the whole experience , I would not say I was having flashbacks or anything of that sort but there was defiantly a weird vibe about the whole thing. For one thing I could not believe I was back there getting ready to go fight in another war in that region. . We unloaded the plane on the tarmac and loaded some buses that took us to a little rest area that had bins of ice water and some latrines. We were able to take a break and stretch our legs for a bit then we were loaded back up onto the buses for our trip to the FOB we were going to. We had to stop at al saleem airfield to drop off the troops that we had picked up in Colorado then we were off to Camp Buehring which was the base that we would be staying at for our hopefully short stay in Kuwait. All in all we spent about 2 hours on the bus which was annoying after our joyous airplane trip.
After finally getting onto base we drove to a briefing area and unloaded the buses. We were allowed to run over to the chow hall and grab breakfast which was awesome because all we had eaten in the last 30 hours had been airplane food. After chow we had to go through some briefings about the FOB rules, most of which are stupid in case you were wondering. We also had to have a briefing where they tried to convince us that Kuwait is a combat zone, it did not work we still don’t believe it. After the briefings of which 90% of them I cant remember because they gave them to us after we had all been traveling for 30 hours we got back onto the buses and headed over to our barracks area. The barracks are pretty awesome here, air conditioning and electric lights. Basically they are just huge steel support tents with plastic covers. A very different experience from my last deployment. We unloaded the truck that had all of our bags on it and moved into the barracks. Most people dropped their bags and racked out immediately , it was late afternoon by this time. Surprisingly I was not able to sleep so my buddy Harbin and I went a wandering. It was hotter than hell and a bit of a shock to the system but we forged forward because we had heard there was a starbucks on base and we are both coffee hounds. Sure enough there is a Starbucks here along with a Burger king, taco bell and a KFC. We wandered around for a bit then headed back to the barracks where I promptly fell asleep for about 12 hours, it was awesome.
Monday, July 6, 2009
4th of July in Seattle
Whew what a weekend!
Apparently the Army decided it was okay to give us another pass, so we had Saturday and Sunday off as part of the 4th of July weekend. I was kind of bummed out at first because when I left Michigan on the previous weekend on that 4 day pass I decided to leave all my civilian clothes back at home. At first I was not going to do anything but after watching all the guys pour out of the barracks with destinations unknown I decided there was no way I was just going to hang out on base for the weekend. So I caught a ride to the main PX ( post exchange = Army's version of walmart ) and bought some shorts and a T-shirt. When I got back to the barracks I still had no idea what I was going to do but I knew that I would be absolutely pissed with myself if I stayed on base on my last night of freedom before heading off to war. So I called my friend Heather who lives in Seattle hopped in a cab and went to up to see her. The cab ride up there was unbelievably nerve racking as the cab driver had this horrible habit of over correcting with the steering wheel. Even when we were going straight down the highway she kept moving the steering wheel back and fourth. I felt like telling her I was not in the Navy and to stop making me feel as if I was on a boat in rough seas. After a harrowing hundred and thirty dollar cab ride I arrived at Jarret and Bugs ( another Heather so I will call her by her nickname in this post ) house.
They were having a BBQ and were kind enough to let me join my friend Heather there. I was a little nervous because Heather and I had not seen each other in close to 10 years but we picked right up where we left off before and had a great time. After several jello shots, beers and some awesome hamburgers Jarret, Bug, Clayton,Emily, Heather and I headed out to go to a block party that Heather knew about. On our way to the party the city started their fireworks show so we stopped to watch them. It was very cool, they had this huge barge in the middle of Union lake and the choreographed music was being played on a local radio station. So you had this awesome fireworks show and what seemed like hundreds of radios playing this music during the show it was really cool. After the fireworks we made our way down to the block party which was really what seemed like a 2 block stretch of residential streets blocked off for the event. Apparently it is hosted by a friend of Heathers and seemed to be quite a blowout. Unfortunately it was winding down by the time we got down there but it looked like it had been going pretty strong since early in the afternoon. They had mechanical bull rides and some sort of ramp that landed in a wading pool ( I never did figure out what the were using to launch themselves into it ) and of course mass quantities of alcohol. After hanging out for a bit and watching Heather talk to damn near everyone on the street ( seriously I think she knows everyone in Seattle) we scored some road beers and started heading back the way we came to link back up with Bug and Jarret who we seemed to have lost somewhere along the way. We met up at the local yacht club where Heather works and decided it would be cool to go hang out on the dock for a bit. We started to walk out on the dock but there was a boat moored at the end and we were a little nervous about going out there and disturbing them. Of course heather was not nervous about it since she worked there and went out and talked to them. It turns out they were extremely cool people and had no problem with us hanging out on the dock. They were so cool in fact that they gave us home made Ice cream that they had made and these really awesome cupcakes. After talking with them for a bit they decided to take their dog for a walk. As soon as they left the idea was brought up that we should go swimming. * side note: Heather and I have a long history of late night swimming with large groups of people with usually little to no clothes on.* So sure enough before you know it we are all in the lake in our underwear. It was absolutely awesome and felt great. After our midnight swim Bill and Priscella ( the boat owners) returned and after an awkward moment of getting dressed in front of them we all headed back to Jarret and Bug's house. We were all exhausted by this point so Heather and I headed back to her house to crash out. We walked and she forgot to mention the fact that her house was on top of a mountain, seriously I thought I was in San Francisco.
I enjoyed a lazy Sunday with Heather and Emily starting with an awesome breakfast at an awesome restaurant ( guess what, Heather knew the manager, go figure :) then a quick stroll through one of the many local street markets. I needed a ride back to Ft. Lewis so Heather borrowed a friends car and gave me a ride back. We arrived at Ft. Lewis with plenty of time to spare but I was unaware of the rules of having a visitor on base. It was so unbelievably stupid I am still in awe. I understand that they need to have base security and all that but you would think that someone with a military ID would be able to vouch for someone with a valid drivers license. No, that is not the case, after arriving at the gate I am used to coming onto base from we were informed that Heather had to have a visitors pass to enter the base. I was getting a bit annoyed after talking to the guard for a bit and told Heather it was no big deal I would just walk to my barracks. But oh no, I was told that No I was not allowed to walk onto base from the gate and we had to go to the Main gate. We drive 2 miles down the highway to the main gate to get Heather a pass to give me a ride to my barracks which were several miles away. After waiting in line at the "visitors center" we finally get to a service window where they wanted enough documents to make your head spin. By this time I was already late for formation and I went outside to make a phone call but of course my phone battery had died so no phone call. Then I was going to take a cab but of course I call them and it is a 45 minute wait. By this point I was absolutely pissed so I just decided to walk, apparently you are allowed to walk onto post from the main gate. So after a quick goodbye to Heather I start hoofing it. Thankfully after having run a ways a woman that had been sitting in the visitors center while I was there pulled up and offered to give me a ride the rest of the way. End result, missed formation, lots of push ups and harassment ( good natured) and a counseling statement which is really just a slap on the wrist.
So besides the stupidity at the gate it was easily as Clayton put it " the best time I have had in years" and it was. I honestly cannot remember the last time I have had such an awesome spontaneous night out like that. Definatly a memory I will carry with me for years to come.
So I would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to Jarret and Bug for their awesome hospitality, and to Clayton and Emily for being such awesome people and of course to my friend Heather for letting me hang out and have such a great night out in Seattle before I leave for Iraq. I would like to give a another thanks to Clayton who served in Iraq in the Navy with E.O.D. ( explosives ordinance disposal ) it was really cool to hang out with someone who has been there from the perspective of someone that is going there.
So I am dedicating this post to "The Lake Union Six" thanks again and I look forward to seeing you all again when I return from my current glorious adventure.
Apparently the Army decided it was okay to give us another pass, so we had Saturday and Sunday off as part of the 4th of July weekend. I was kind of bummed out at first because when I left Michigan on the previous weekend on that 4 day pass I decided to leave all my civilian clothes back at home. At first I was not going to do anything but after watching all the guys pour out of the barracks with destinations unknown I decided there was no way I was just going to hang out on base for the weekend. So I caught a ride to the main PX ( post exchange = Army's version of walmart ) and bought some shorts and a T-shirt. When I got back to the barracks I still had no idea what I was going to do but I knew that I would be absolutely pissed with myself if I stayed on base on my last night of freedom before heading off to war. So I called my friend Heather who lives in Seattle hopped in a cab and went to up to see her. The cab ride up there was unbelievably nerve racking as the cab driver had this horrible habit of over correcting with the steering wheel. Even when we were going straight down the highway she kept moving the steering wheel back and fourth. I felt like telling her I was not in the Navy and to stop making me feel as if I was on a boat in rough seas. After a harrowing hundred and thirty dollar cab ride I arrived at Jarret and Bugs ( another Heather so I will call her by her nickname in this post ) house.
They were having a BBQ and were kind enough to let me join my friend Heather there. I was a little nervous because Heather and I had not seen each other in close to 10 years but we picked right up where we left off before and had a great time. After several jello shots, beers and some awesome hamburgers Jarret, Bug, Clayton,Emily, Heather and I headed out to go to a block party that Heather knew about. On our way to the party the city started their fireworks show so we stopped to watch them. It was very cool, they had this huge barge in the middle of Union lake and the choreographed music was being played on a local radio station. So you had this awesome fireworks show and what seemed like hundreds of radios playing this music during the show it was really cool. After the fireworks we made our way down to the block party which was really what seemed like a 2 block stretch of residential streets blocked off for the event. Apparently it is hosted by a friend of Heathers and seemed to be quite a blowout. Unfortunately it was winding down by the time we got down there but it looked like it had been going pretty strong since early in the afternoon. They had mechanical bull rides and some sort of ramp that landed in a wading pool ( I never did figure out what the were using to launch themselves into it ) and of course mass quantities of alcohol. After hanging out for a bit and watching Heather talk to damn near everyone on the street ( seriously I think she knows everyone in Seattle) we scored some road beers and started heading back the way we came to link back up with Bug and Jarret who we seemed to have lost somewhere along the way. We met up at the local yacht club where Heather works and decided it would be cool to go hang out on the dock for a bit. We started to walk out on the dock but there was a boat moored at the end and we were a little nervous about going out there and disturbing them. Of course heather was not nervous about it since she worked there and went out and talked to them. It turns out they were extremely cool people and had no problem with us hanging out on the dock. They were so cool in fact that they gave us home made Ice cream that they had made and these really awesome cupcakes. After talking with them for a bit they decided to take their dog for a walk. As soon as they left the idea was brought up that we should go swimming. * side note: Heather and I have a long history of late night swimming with large groups of people with usually little to no clothes on.* So sure enough before you know it we are all in the lake in our underwear. It was absolutely awesome and felt great. After our midnight swim Bill and Priscella ( the boat owners) returned and after an awkward moment of getting dressed in front of them we all headed back to Jarret and Bug's house. We were all exhausted by this point so Heather and I headed back to her house to crash out. We walked and she forgot to mention the fact that her house was on top of a mountain, seriously I thought I was in San Francisco.
I enjoyed a lazy Sunday with Heather and Emily starting with an awesome breakfast at an awesome restaurant ( guess what, Heather knew the manager, go figure :) then a quick stroll through one of the many local street markets. I needed a ride back to Ft. Lewis so Heather borrowed a friends car and gave me a ride back. We arrived at Ft. Lewis with plenty of time to spare but I was unaware of the rules of having a visitor on base. It was so unbelievably stupid I am still in awe. I understand that they need to have base security and all that but you would think that someone with a military ID would be able to vouch for someone with a valid drivers license. No, that is not the case, after arriving at the gate I am used to coming onto base from we were informed that Heather had to have a visitors pass to enter the base. I was getting a bit annoyed after talking to the guard for a bit and told Heather it was no big deal I would just walk to my barracks. But oh no, I was told that No I was not allowed to walk onto base from the gate and we had to go to the Main gate. We drive 2 miles down the highway to the main gate to get Heather a pass to give me a ride to my barracks which were several miles away. After waiting in line at the "visitors center" we finally get to a service window where they wanted enough documents to make your head spin. By this time I was already late for formation and I went outside to make a phone call but of course my phone battery had died so no phone call. Then I was going to take a cab but of course I call them and it is a 45 minute wait. By this point I was absolutely pissed so I just decided to walk, apparently you are allowed to walk onto post from the main gate. So after a quick goodbye to Heather I start hoofing it. Thankfully after having run a ways a woman that had been sitting in the visitors center while I was there pulled up and offered to give me a ride the rest of the way. End result, missed formation, lots of push ups and harassment ( good natured) and a counseling statement which is really just a slap on the wrist.
So besides the stupidity at the gate it was easily as Clayton put it " the best time I have had in years" and it was. I honestly cannot remember the last time I have had such an awesome spontaneous night out like that. Definatly a memory I will carry with me for years to come.
So I would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to Jarret and Bug for their awesome hospitality, and to Clayton and Emily for being such awesome people and of course to my friend Heather for letting me hang out and have such a great night out in Seattle before I leave for Iraq. I would like to give a another thanks to Clayton who served in Iraq in the Navy with E.O.D. ( explosives ordinance disposal ) it was really cool to hang out with someone who has been there from the perspective of someone that is going there.
So I am dedicating this post to "The Lake Union Six" thanks again and I look forward to seeing you all again when I return from my current glorious adventure.
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