043010 Things that want to kill me...and things that go BOOM in the middle of the night.

043010 Things that want to kill me...and things that go BOOM in the
middle of the night.

The weather now in Iraq is great. It's just barely hot during the
heat of the day and pleasantly cool at night and just right all other
times. It's also the time that snakes start moving around to find
that hunting ground for the summer. In all my time in Iraq I've not
seen any live snakes. I've seen a few dead ones that have been caught
and my reaction to seeing one of the worlds most deadliest snakes was
"that's it!?" Honestly the thing was barely 12 inches if that and
barely thicker than my pinky finger! So every week were told to be
careful of snakes.
Above are a few pics but what really should be noted is the comment
that "the biggest risk comes from soldiers turning to serpents for
entertainment...the cause of 85% of snakebits during Desert Storm".
LOL just soldiers? Ever seen a camel spider and a scorpion tossed in
a bucket to go at it? (hint - always bet on the camel spider!)
And the last few days it's been pretty dusty here at night and when
it's dusty, 'Akbar' out there just can't help but toss a few incoming
onto base. And so it happened last night. Around 9 PM, I'm watching
'Kindom of Heaven' and BOOM, the damn hooch shakes and I think "dang
that was close". So the alarms go off saying take cover, blah blah
blah but I'm not going to put on pants just to go out to a dusty, hot
bunker. I go back to the show. After the alarms stop, I did what a
few dozen other people did and finally put on some pants to go see
what got hit. I didn't have to walk far (as it was only a few hundred
yards away) and there are lights flashing on about a dozen emergency
vehicles. I can't get too close and asking 'what happened' is just
poor form. I don't seen any obvious damage and the self-service
laundry building is still standing so I go back to the hooch to bed.
A few years ago a round landing that close would give me reason to
pause. Now I just don't care. It's not a big deal.
R/Chris

041210 Zac Brown and USO Entertainment

041210 Zac Brown and USO Entertainment

Every now and then the USO manages to bring some decent entertainment
to the troops here in Iraq. Next week on 18 April is such a case when
the Zac Brown Band comes to Balad. This isn't a band that I would
hack their songs from Limewire or Bearshare but it is a popular band
and will probably be a dern good show and its FREE! (And it's
something to do.)
R/Chris

041110 In Iraq....it rains mud.

041110 In Iraq....it rains mud.

It's April in Iraq and surprisingly it rained the other day. Since
it's Iraq there's also a lot of dust in the air (as usual). So when
it rains just barely enough to wet the ground and if there's a lot of
dust in the air...it rains mud. It sucks, it's Iraq. Also the next
day after a rain is really sunny and lots of blue sky so there's a
silver lining to that dark cloud.

But overall the weather here is very nice stil. It's not too hot
during the day but is hot enough to work up a sweat on a run during
lunch. At night, it's nice to walk home wearing just shorts. Dang I
hate wearing pants here.

R/Chris

040910 Mine is bigger (and better) than yours

040910 "Mine is bigger (and better) than yours"

Competition and (in general) other hyper-masculine traits are not in
short here at Balad (or for that matter all military bases here in
Iraq.) You can see this at the gym and at work and for the most part,
it's all in good form. But like two neighbors vying for the best lawn
in suburbia America, I've noticed a similar bit of competition here
between the 1st and 2nd Battalion Commanders.

A while back ago, the 1st Battalion Commander got a gazebo for the
porch area and short afterward There was a similar structure at the
2nd Battalion. Next came a 'sun porch' (or tarp) at the 1st Battalion
and later the 2nd Battalion put up a nice steel porch. The other day I
noticed a gargantuan BBQ at 2nd Battalion (seriously - it has a
counter weight for the lid and could cook a whole cow!) that REALLY
puts to shame the 1st Battalion BBQ (which looks like a tetanus shot
in waiting!)

Anyway, see for yourself (pics above)

R/Chris
(to send me an email/comment, email chrisiniraqcomment@gmail.com)

040410 Question? - Send me an email

040410 Question? - Send me an email

I've seen questions posted in comments and generally cannot respond to
the sender since there is no 'reply address' associated with the
comment.
For this reason I've created an email account. Send your
questions/etc to chrisiniraqcomment@gmail.com and I'll do my best to
answer.

R/Chris

Why the U.S. will never leave Iraq.

040210 A good routine...is good

040210 A good routine...is good

Living in Iraq and working 12 hours a day every day demands a good
schedule. There is no 'weekend' to sleep in or catch up with personal
stuff like cleaning the hooch or going to the post office.
Fortunately too, most 'stuff' here is open every day (such as the post
office and PX) and many places are open 24 hours a day (such as the
gym and pools.) But it can still be very difficult to get everything
done and make progress.
Part of my schedule is getting a haircut every three weeks.
Fortunately I've been going to the same guy now for a while and I
don't even have to tell him how I want it cut. He already knows.
We also have the Iraqi Army (IA) on base and they drive around in
MRAPs that are painted blue. I have no idea why they like blue but
the US Army uses a 'sand brown' color.
Also I saw this freshly painted t-walls and thought someone did a
great job there. The USO has a service here where a soldier (only
soldiers/military) can come in and read a book and that video is then
sent home to the soldier's family. It's really a great way (for
soldiers) to keep in touch with their kids.
R/Chris

01Apr10 Kidnappings

01Apr10 Kidnappings

I had to stay at BIAP (US military side of Baghdad Internation
AirPort) recently on my trip to Kalsu and ended up being there 3 days
waiting for a flight to Balad. Camp Stryker (aka Stryker Stables) is
there as well and so I stayed in one of the hooches there and did
training for a unit that uses the program that we maintain. Anyway,
on the last night all military had to muster around midnight and the
next day there were obvious extra security conditions going on. I did
some asking and was told that someone was kidnapped the night
previous.
The bases are pretty big in Iraq and some are fairly close to outside
civilian populations. At any time there are hundreds, if not
thousands of contractors on any base of which more than half are
either TCN (third country nationals) or HCN (host country national).
There's a lot of security to get ON the base but frankly very little
to get OFF the base. (see previous posting 'Dude! Where's my
HUMVEE???')
While I can't confirm whether there was a kidnapping or not, I've
heard similar in the past and also there are more posters up such as
'Where's your Battle Buddy?' and this poster (see above). I do wonder
from where did they get the 11 year old kid to draw this poster
though!
R/Chris

PS - Yes, for some reason Camp Stryker is generally referred to as
'Stryker Stable' rather than Camp Stryker. I guess a horse stud ranch
sounds better than a summer baseball camp.