HERE IS A BLOG I WROTE ON 25 JAN, FRIDAY THAT I WAS NOT ABLE TO POST. IT CORRESPONDS TO SOME OF THE PICS BELOW THAT M POSTED.
It rained on Tuesday night and it was soooo muddy on Wednesday. Imagine that there is no dry land to step on AT ALL so there's not even any relief from it. I'm not even kidding. Here is a picture of the tent I stayed in. You can kind of see the puddled water right outside the door. The gravel kind of makes it okay in some spots, but it typically sinks into the mud after enough people walk on it and cars drive on it. It feels like you’re walking on about 4-6” of cake icing. Your feet sometimes get suctioned to it and it’s slick! Awful. I’d walk out of my tent and about 30 feet outside the bottom of my pants would be splattered with thick mud and my boots would be covered with the stuff. At the end of the day the bottoms of my pants were all mud splatter up to a third or the middle of my calf. Ugh. Everyone is like that, though, so there’s no reason to be self conscious about being muddy.
I’ve moved to a new and much smaller base. Below is a pic of me on the Blackhawk helo ride over. I look pretty cool with the sunglasses on. It actually wasn’t sunny, but you have to wear those so the dust doesn’t fly in your eyes when you’re walking to and getting into the helicopter while the blades are spinning. I think I would look even better than pretty cool except that my kevlar helmet is crooked, which makes me look like Private Benjamin. That and they squeezed 10 grown adults into the helo and piled all of our bags in between and on top of our l
egs. Here are a couple of pics looking out the window. One shows some agricultural farm land and the other shows some buildings in a small village. The helo ride was an hour and I didn’t take my eyes off of the scenery the whole time (except to pose for the picture). It’s sooo crazy that I was flying over the countryside. I mean, I have before, but it’s only been at night so this was the first real glimpse into what the Iraqi countryside looks like. I was surprised at how green it is and how much farms make up the land below. For some reason I thought it was all desert and desolate. I know they have pretty well-developed irrigation from the river and they have fairly wet and rainy winters, but for some reason I just didn’t believe how many farms there are. It was actually really pretty from the air. You could see the nice even rows of crops and the white greenhouses.
Anyway, back to where I am now. I think this is one of the most austere bases to which I have been. (See PX pic below that M posted. The PX is not the building...it's the container on the right of the building. Yep, it's in a shipping container.) My billeting is not bad, though. I am in a hardstand all concrete building with high ceilings and an environmental control unit (heater and AC). Here is a pic of my room. There are three lockers and three beds with real linens. It’s not bad. The only jarring thing was the 3 sets of zip-tie handcuffs randomly hanging on the coat hook on the wall. Yikes! I’m just not used to seeing stuff like that. I guess they use those in the States, but I just wasn’t expecting that as the room décor. I’m going to assume someone was using those as a creative solution for something else in the room and not their intended purpose. As far as the other amenities, well, there aren’t really any other than the necessities. The DFAC is typical buffet style, all you can eat with a dessert bar. It’s not bad. I had pretty good chicken fingers today and a nice bread pudding. The PX is open only part time and it only carries essentials, if they are in stock. It is very bare-boned. I haven’t been in it yet since it’s open very little and run by troop labor. I’ll let you know what kind of wares they sell once I get there.
I have a few more days here to get to know the place better and see what there is. I think this will be a good project.
I’ve moved to a new and much smaller base. Below is a pic of me on the Blackhawk helo ride over. I look pretty cool with the sunglasses on. It actually wasn’t sunny, but you have to wear those so the dust doesn’t fly in your eyes when you’re walking to and getting into the helicopter while the blades are spinning. I think I would look even better than pretty cool except that my kevlar helmet is crooked, which makes me look like Private Benjamin. That and they squeezed 10 grown adults into the helo and piled all of our bags in between and on top of our l
egs. Here are a couple of pics looking out the window. One shows some agricultural farm land and the other shows some buildings in a small village. The helo ride was an hour and I didn’t take my eyes off of the scenery the whole time (except to pose for the picture). It’s sooo crazy that I was flying over the countryside. I mean, I have before, but it’s only been at night so this was the first real glimpse into what the Iraqi countryside looks like. I was surprised at how green it is and how much farms make up the land below. For some reason I thought it was all desert and desolate. I know they have pretty well-developed irrigation from the river and they have fairly wet and rainy winters, but for some reason I just didn’t believe how many farms there are. It was actually really pretty from the air. You could see the nice even rows of crops and the white greenhouses.
Anyway, back to where I am now. I think this is one of the most austere bases to which I have been. (See PX pic below that M posted. The PX is not the building...it's the container on the right of the building. Yep, it's in a shipping container.) My billeting is not bad, though. I am in a hardstand all concrete building with high ceilings and an environmental control unit (heater and AC). Here is a pic of my room. There are three lockers and three beds with real linens. It’s not bad. The only jarring thing was the 3 sets of zip-tie handcuffs randomly hanging on the coat hook on the wall. Yikes! I’m just not used to seeing stuff like that. I guess they use those in the States, but I just wasn’t expecting that as the room décor. I’m going to assume someone was using those as a creative solution for something else in the room and not their intended purpose. As far as the other amenities, well, there aren’t really any other than the necessities. The DFAC is typical buffet style, all you can eat with a dessert bar. It’s not bad. I had pretty good chicken fingers today and a nice bread pudding. The PX is open only part time and it only carries essentials, if they are in stock. It is very bare-boned. I haven’t been in it yet since it’s open very little and run by troop labor. I’ll let you know what kind of wares they sell once I get there.I have a few more days here to get to know the place better and see what there is. I think this will be a good project.
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