112809 How much Does a Contractor cost???

112809 How much Does a Contractor cost???

For planning purposes, budget planners at the Pentagon and White House
come up with a 'number' that represents the amount it costs per person
here in Iraq and Ghan. There are direct costs (pay, equipment,
bullets, etc.) and indirect costs (food, MWR, electricity, etc.) and
when added together and divided by the number of warm bodies here is
evidently somewhere between $500,000 to $1,000,000 per year. Dang! War
is hell and sure is expensive too!
At a minimum I'd say a third of the people at JBB are contractors but
it certainly may be closer to 50%. And come December 2011, any combat
troops here will then be designated 'training troops'. But any
contractors will still be...contractors. The weather here is pretty
nice but a bit chilly. One needs a coat in the morning and in the
evening on my 'commute' home.
The lows are mid-high 40s or so at night. It'll continue to get
colder and there'll be a few mornings when there'll be wisps of frost
out there too. This does make for a few nice sunsets as the pic above
shows. It's supposed to rain here this weekend which means there's
the potential for flooding and at a minimum, mud!
R/Chris

112609 Thanksgiving in Iraq

112609 Thanksgiving in Iraq

Yesterday was another Thanksgiving in Iraq. Here are some pics above.
The meal was much better than usual meals but not without some flaws.
For example there were two lines into the DFAC and I think the idea
was to let in groups of 5-10 or so at a time in order to keep the
crowd outside and not inside. Well, one line went a lot faster since
the SGT there seemed to decide to let in groups of 10-20 or so. Which
meant the line I was in went a LOT slower. Poor coordination. The
DFAC is run by Pakistani, Nepalese and Philippino and in these
countries 'colored rice art on the floor' is evidently pretty popular.
So there were many areas one could not walk and it made for congestion
inside. The English language is not a strong point among all the
workers either so no matter what you asked, the answer was always
"Yes, yes sir!" ('Does that turkey suck?' reply - "Yes, yes sir!") I
had a piece of pumpkin pie but when I bit down, 'crunch'! The pie was
not fully defrosted - Urgh.
But overall it was really nice. There was also a lot of carved fruit.
The peacock in the pic above is covered with fruit loops too. On
holidays it's 'traditional' that Army officers serve food so you'll
see that as well. And the 'bar' was just stocked with canned eggnog
and sparkling juice. Just another Thanksgiving in Iraq.
R/Chris

112009 Kandahar Rocket Attack

112009 Kandahar Rocket Attack
This came from my friend in Kandahar as they got hit by a rocket a few
days ago. We still get about 1 rocket attack a week here at Balad but
it's not a big deal. The bad guys have such lousey aim. The pics are
self explanatory.
R/Chris

112509 Traveling in Iraq and Actions Speak Louder than Words (pics 2)

More pics

112509 Traveling in Iraq and Actions Speak Louder than Words

112509 Traveling in Iraq and Actions Speak Louder than Words

I'm a contractor in Iraq working for the US Army here at Balad Air
Base (Joint Base Balad) in Iraq. I came over here over 4 year ago
because I got really, really of working in a cubical at a 'large
software company' in Seattle/Redmond Washington. I've known many
other guys who also were/are very tired of the same ole, same ole.
But I eventually found someone who knew someone who knew someone who
knew somebody (John Bishop) who offered me at job initially at KBR.
So without knowing too much about what I was getting into, I came to
Iraq. I really wanted a change. Actions speak louder than words. I do
computer stuff here and every now and then get to travel to exotic
locations here in Iraq such as Speicher Air Base and Marez Air Base.
The last few weeks I've been traveling. Iraq can be very green where
there's water and the Tigress river nearby flows all year round.
Traveling by helo carries inherent risks as well and the 50 cal is
'hot' when in the air. Helos also never travel alone as every now and
then, a helo goes down. As you can also see the accommodations are
generally Spartan at best but
to get a 'room' to myself is actually a luxury. More often than not I
can only expect a bunk bed (sans linen) in a tent. And like the
poster says 'actions speak louder than words.'

112509 Kids in Ghan

112509 Kids in Ghan
The pics from the previous post and this post were taken in
Afghanistan, not Iraq. Many (if not all) of the bases in Iraq and
Afghanistan are surrounded by tall fences. At Balad here in Iraq just
on the other side of the fence the Iraqis grow tomatoes and
sunflowers. In Scania (which is in Southern Iraq) there is an active
bartering/market right at the fence. Soldiers and civilians meet
locals and transactions occur right through the fence (it's just the
way it developed.) If you buy something that can't go through the
fence you can just toss it over the fence. In Kabul (the pics above)
local kids hang out on the other side for anything that might be
tossed their way.
R/Chris

111909 It's officialy the wet season

111909 It's officialy the wet season

It's offically the rainy season in Iraq. What this means is that
we'll have 3-4 months of wet, cool weather. It might snow here (like
it did two years ago) but it's unlikely.
There are also many, many bases in Iraq all the way from Basra in the
south to Mosul in the North. But in Afghanistan there really are only
two and those are Kabul or Bagram in the north and Kandahar in the
south. I have a friend (another SQL DBA) at Kabul who is leaving in a
few months as his year-long contract is up and he's going back to
Kansas and the wife and kids (anyone looking for a SQL job and
adventture???)
He's sent me a few pics of what Kabul is like and as you can see it's
right up to the mountatins. The village is pretty poor looking and
at Kabul airbase, 'footprint' space is expensive so the showers are in
a trailer on top of the trailer where the toilets are located. In
Iraq,
space is not a problem.
R/Chris

110309 Halloween, the best holiday and Lightning in the Desert

110309 Halloween, the best holiday and Lightning in the Desert

For Halloween I asked a former co-worker in the states to send some Halloween stuff for the coffee break room.  I  then decorated the break room and you can see my efforts in the pic above.  Frankly Halloween is the best Holiday.   Thanksgiving and Christmas have too much connection or association with family and loved ones.  And try as they  might, sitting at a DFAC table with coworkers for a Thanksgiving meal just isn't the same.  The DFAC does a great job  and there is (camel) steak, prime rib and even lobster but it's just not the same (it sucks and is kind of  depressing). 

Also it has started to rain here.  I don't think I've ever seen it rain in Iraq without lots of thunder and  lightning.  I remember it raining once when I was at Tallil where it was raining and lightning and thunder but it  was still so warm that what rain did make it to the ground quickly evaporated.  Dang good lightning show though.  Also there's so much lightning that it's possible to get some pics by just taking random pics.  I took about 30  pics at random times the other day to get the lightning pics above as well.  Unfortunately the pics really don't do justice to the amount of lightning there was but it does give one an idea.

R/Chris