Soldiers do have humor....


"The damn terrorists have sank to a new low. Roadside bombs, suicide bombers, bombs strapped to babies, but this…it’s just friggin wrong. "

Yesterday sucked. Three camps got attacked (including Tallil) and a bus was ambused in the morning and one guy killed. We only spent about 30 mintues in the bunker however but it's dang hot outside.

What is a pogue? (sp pog, pough) Instead of giving change the military gives out change in pogues (see the pic below.) If your change is for 2 cents, they round down and for 3 cents they round up so there are no penny pogues but only 5, 10 and 25 cent pogues. There are no penny pogues and frankly it's only a matter of time before the penny disappears in the states as well. Some pogues have become a collectors item as well and you can find them on ebay. Celebrities are also on pogues and below you can find Bush sr., JFK and Elvis below.






I've sent these pogues to Marsha. She may want the Elvis one as she collects Elvis stuff and then maybe she'll give them to her students at school.

I just got back from Bucca a few days ago. It's a prison camp and that about says it all. I thought Tallil was hot but Bucca was damn hot. Routinely it was 115 - 118 in the shade and with the sun glaring down on you it was hotter (130 -135 or so) still. Bucca is also at the edge of the Persian Gulf so it can be dang humid as well depending on which way the wind blows.

When it's that dern hot you unconsciously do things to avoid the heat like put your hands in your pockets.

Anyway, I also recently got a 'care package' (thank you VERY much Ken.) Inside were some good stuff like Blue Diamond smoked almonds (the best!), beef jerkey, gummy bears and some lifting straps (which I REALLY needed - Thanks again Ken) and Chocolate! Well, chocolate and Iraqi summer heat simply do NOT mix. Instead of getting a bag of chocolate I got a bag of gooyey, drippy, oily chocolatly stuff. Now I immediately put it in the fridge to salvage what I could but chocolate contains a lot of chocolate oil that makes chocolate 'good'! Without the oil mixed in, chocolate is a dry, bland substance. Eh, it's the thougth that counts. I REALLY needed the lifting straps.

I've been traveling quite a bit and just got back from Bucca. Bucca is a prison in southern Iraq and only about 5 km from Iran. It's very hot there and can be very humid too since it's also only a mile from the Persian Gulf. On the last day in Bucca we had to carry around our gas masks 'in case.' There was 'intel' that Iran 'might' do something. It's not something that one does without thinking... hmmm, could this really happen? Anyway, I'm back at Tallil and glad not to be traveling for a bit.

On the way to Bucca we stopped at a Burger King. Around the world in some VERY remote locations you can usually find either Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway or all four. It says something but I'm not sure what.


Here's a pic looking across the street from Burger King we stopped at on the way to Bucca with Amber in the foreground. About 10-15% of the contractors here are female. It's a tough environment and can be especially so for women. When I visit a camp, I usually stay in a tent on a cot with a sleeping bag and maybe a pillow. Women however, visitors or not, always get a hooch or container.




Bucca is Very desolate and on the way there we went though a fierce sandstorm. You don't drive during a sandstorm you stop and hope something big doesn't smash the windows. We were in an armored Tahoe so I took some pics. The winds are about 50-60 kts.

The dinar didn't 'hit' on 14 Aug as some guy's best friend's girlfriend's cousin on the internet said it would. I'm sorta bummed that I'm still stuck in this hell-hole called Iraq but the bright side there is good news about the dinar. Now there are real articles mentioning a 1-1 ratio between the dollar and the dinar by next year. I've given many people 5,000 - 25,000 in dinar who read this site and if you want some, just ask and I'll mail some to you. Hmm, I wonder how many people will reply??? Send me an email and I'll send you some dinar.
chrismccaslin@hotmail.com

Here's an interesting link too:
http://www.portaliraq.com/shownews.php?id=1112069

The caption is "What' s the point?"

The weather here sucks. It's dry, dusty and miserably hot. Usually when it's hot out, it's not even clear but a white dust is everywhere. This year has been somewhat cooler and we've had very few days over 120F. This week however the forecast is 120+ for every day of the week. Anyway, here's a pic.

So here I am in Iraq and I got a few personal questions from a friend in the states recently and I thought I'd answer them here since someone else might be interested in the questions and answers as well.

1. Do you have a personal life? Well yes, but only in the sense that my personal life involves people with whom I seem to work with everyday in one form or another. Officially there's to be no fraternization between military and non-military personnel but unofficially, I've seen it happen and unless someone complains, no action is taken on it. So in another sense no, I have no personal life here.

2. Am I running away from something, someone or just into money? No, I'm not running away from anyone or anything as much as I am running toward something. Frankly I was just a bit bored in the states and this opportunity came up and I really had no idea when I left for Kuwait what I'd be doing. I only knew it would be something very different and might be one of those opportunities that people sometimes wax poetically that they wished they'd taken. I knew there was a good chance I'd be shot at or have a mortar or rocket land near enough to wonder if my is updated. I also wondered whether or not it would bother/scare me and my attitude has been one of 'whoa, that was close, off to the bunkers!' One the road to this camp we drove past a place in the road where two contractors died about a week or so back. So you do have to think about it but if I die, I die. My biggest worry would be that I survive, but in a really fucked up state. (And yea, the money is good and I have no bills here.)

3. What do I want here? Well, I want something different. I want the experience. I want to do things that others say they wished they done if they would have had the chance. Well, living in a war zone is different. Other goals are to see some historical places that are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, I want to swim in one of Saddams' pools. Eh, there are other goals too, I just want to do something different for a while. I have a friend in Baghdad who works for the State department and he's having a blast (literally and figuratively - they get hit a lot there.) Anyway he recently sent a great pic of some members of this team nude sunbathing in Baghdad. That's different! I want to sunbath nude on a rooftop in Baghdad!

Today we got attacked. In the bunkers for about 3 hours. Generally the bad guys have very poor aim and manage to hit nothing more than dirt. Today our luck ran out and somebody was hurt, bad, but he should live. It's almost 10 PM as I write this and I can hear gunfire in the distance. I wonder if that's target practice or something else? Today I met with the 'mayor' of the camp. He's an Army reserve captain (O3) in charge of the camp and in 'real life' he's a federal employee in a cubical. On this camp he's the BMOC, back home he's a small fish in a big pond. It was a good conversation and upbeat. At the end, he told me he like to know about jobs at KBR.

This is funny!

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/08/youtube_of_the__2.html

Be careful when you quote Wikipedia.

Here's a pic of the moon over camp Scania.

Since I'm traveling for a bit I'm the Ops Manager's representative so now I give out some certificates. Here's a pic of me giving a certificate.

I'm at another camp for a few days. Camp Scania is about half way to Baghdad and it's a little cooler here (it's only 109 outside) but there are date palm trees here and patches of grass. Very little grows at Tallil unless there is irrigation. It takes a day to get here because we have to meet up with a military convoy and we stopped twice for possible IEDs on the road. We stopped at one place where a convoy was hit last week and two contractors were killed by an IED. I'm here since an employee 'lost it' last week and medical sent her home to 'seek further medical attention.' Now that I'm here I'm getting more of the story and evidently she and a fireman we're 'involved' and he dumped her and she didn't take it well. Now she was not looker to begin with and 'bi-polar' comes to mind when I think about her record. When she was here she received 'desert points' due to the low femal/male ratio but that probably wasnt' enough for Fireman Reyes and well... such is life.

People made the mistaken assumption that since you're over here in Iraq, you somehow 'agree' with all of the policy decisions made by the US govenment and it's leader. This is not the case even with Army personnel. This 'money' was given to me recently and I thought I'd share it.

Yesterday was the memorial service for Sgt. Ford. Sgt. Ford was a solder that was killed nearby on 24 July. See the posting below for 24 July. The Army does a very nice memorial and as you can see it was well attended. Ironically they did a photo story for Sgt. Ford using a song by Green Day. Green Day is very anti-war. Sgt. Ford was 20 years old, smoked a pack a day and his favorite movie was Space Balls. Sgt. Ford was from Nebraska and he had a friend here that knew him since 4th grade.

Today sucks. We've been wearing our PPE gear (flak jackets and storm trooper helmets) all day now in anticipation of an attack. I'm sure there's good reason to be doing this it still sucks to wear this stuff all day long.





Here's a pic of a camel spider that was found on base several weeks back. I lost the pics and wanted to post it then and only found the pic today. This guys is about the size of your hand.

I'm an Army contractor. I live on an Army base, I eat in an Army dining facility (not referred to as a 'chow hall'), I buy stuff at an Army PX, etc. but I'm not in the Army, I am a civilian. There is a TV network here and the service is provided by... the Army. Until recently two of the shows on one channel were The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (both Comedy Central.) About a week ago they were replaced with a bad sitcom called Raven. You've never heard of Raven and there's a good reason why, it's that bad. I suspect that TDS and TCR were not 'pro-Army' enough and were quietly yanked. In addition, AFN doesn't run commercials but they do run all sorts of Pro-Army and Pro-God and Pro-Good Citizen, uh, stuff. Now I'm not 'anti' any of that but there comes a point where I get tired of it being bombarded by it. Just as I think the Government shouldn't legislate morality, I don't think the Army should be doing the same thing. Some would point out that I have don't have to watch it, that I do have a choice. Yea, I turned off the TV.

Today I found that a friend quit. He's going to go back and pursue his education but he was bummed out in that he didn't like how he was treated at times here. Did he quit because of one reason or a combination of both or something that he didn't even mention? I'll never really know. Most people don't last more than 6 months. They either they don't like it or can't hack it. Some even say "it's too hot" (as if they expected something different in Iraq in the summer!)

I'm bummed that he quit but can't blame him at all. The allure of a 'normal' life in the states is very, very appealing. Time, in a way, stands still here. But life, in the states, marches on. You don't 'live' here, you just do your 'time.'

R/Chris