26 Nov 10 Why'd the turkeys cross the road...in Mosul?

26 Nov 10  Why'd the turkeys cross the road...in Mosul?

 

I use a Government computer at work and every day there is an Army 'pic of the day' that accompanies the standard security warnings when accessing any Government computer.  I was just a bit surprised to realize that there are genuine turkeys in Mosul, Iraq!  I honestly had no idea that one might find free ranging turkeys in Iraq and I have no idea if turkeys are indigenous to the area or if these turkeys are just escapees.    Here's the caption that went with the original pic.

"Soldiers in a Stryker vehicle stop for a muster of turkeys crossing the road in the outskirts of Mosul Nov. 3. The Soldiers are with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Sgt. Antonieta Rico, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Det. (Photo by U.S. Army)"

Why'd the turkeys cross the road? Obviously to get to the other side.

R/Chris

112610 Balad is 'a changing'

112610 Balad is 'a changing'

Yesterday we traveled to the west side to go to the DFAC there for Thanksgiving day.  I've not been over to the west side for several months now and there were significant changes.  One of the pics above shows what seems to be an empty yard.  The last time I saw this yard was several months ago and it was packed with portable buildings and military vehicles.  Now all of that is gone.  Maybe there'll be something in this yard soon as smaller bases close and then that equipment/infrastructure needs to go some place before it gets shipped out of Iraq and back to the US (or Afghanistan?)

The pic above of the building is the DFAC at Balad. 
Another pic shows the flags that hang from the ceiling in the DFAC.  All of flags are either state flags or sport teams flags EXCEPT this one that I saw from Cooley Law School.  In another life I would have gone to law school but I still very much appreciate my copy of Black's Law Dictionary.  Contractors (civilians) here in Iraq run the gambit.  Most (90%) are male and between 30-50 years old. There are some younger and a few older.  Dave (pic above) aka 'pops' is about 63 and certainly is one of the older contractors here in Balad (or Iraq).  About a year back he had a heart attack (or something close) and was flown out of Iraq on an emergency flight to Landstuhl Germany.  I'd say he was gone for almost a month and then one day showed up again at work! He's been going strong ever since but he's going home for good in March of next year.  I guess he finally knows when to say enough is enough.  I wonder how long will it take me to learn that lesson???
R/Chris

112510 Thanksgiving Day Meal

112510 Thanksgiving Day Meal

 

Having a Thanksgiving meal with your co-workers is very similar to having a meal with those distant relatives whom you tolerate for that special day once a year.    It simply is what it is so suck it up and deal with it as it will be over when it's over.  Anyway, here are some pics.  The two chefs are the Commander and Sergeant Major of the Battalion here.  In the military, the tradition is for the senior enlisted and officer personnel to serve at meals. This was done when I was in the Navy too.  The group pic is me and my coworkers here.  The turkey was deep fried in peanut oil and was really pretty dang good and only took 30 minutes to cook.  I've never had deep fried turkey until I came to Iraq and evidently it is much more a 'southern thing' to do.  The DFAC personnel also go a little crazy with paper-mache.  Heck, why 'not' make a paper-mache turkey out of discarded pop cans!?

Unfortunately Thanksgiving and Christmas can be very stressful times for those miss family and are unhappy about life in general.  The previous Brigade chaplain use to come around the Battalion office about once a month the say 'hi'.  The new chaplain hasn't been around in few months so maybe he's really busy or just has more territory to cover and is needed elsewhere.  Between now and Christmas there'll be about one suicide-prevention message a week now through the New Years. 

R/Chris

112510 Thanksgiving Day Menu

112510 Thanksgiving Day Menu

 

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Iraq.  The Army and Air Force really do a great job for those on base to make sure there is a really nice meal about once a month.  As you can see from the menu, Thanksgiving today is no exception.  I've been told by the DFAC staff that all meat served in Iraq (on US bases here) comes from the US but fruits and vegetables come from Jordan.  Any pies or milk products will come from Kuwait.  The cooking staff has to also be careful not to cook any pork or shellfish on the same surfaces as other meats in order to maintain 'halal' (Muslim food restrictions.)  And yes, today is still a work day

R/Chris

21Nov10 The war is winding down, I now have to empty my own trash....

21Nov10 The war is winding down, I now have to empty my own trash....

I returned to Balad on Thursday night a few days ago.  Fortunately my boss let me have next half day off so I didn't have to be in the office until noon.  Did I sleep in?? No...I got up at 8 AM (slept in a little) and started cleaning.  The dust was everywhere.  I usually clean on a continual basis (a little here, a little there).  And so after cleaning for 3 hours I then got dressed and walked to the office. 

Now the 'sights and sounds' at Balad are much different from Irbil.  You'd think that a small camp like Irbil would be quiet but just the opposite is true.  Since there is no power grid there, everything must run off a generator and there are generators everywhere (big and small) and each is a engine running at full power.  So at Irbil there is a lot of generator noise but Balad is frankly quiet.  Since Balad is also bigger there is more 'stuff' always going on.  At Balad you'll hear general auto traffic and people but fortunately no constant generator hum.
Friday night was in bed by 8 PM (as I was still bit tired from traveling).
Saturday night was poker night (Texas Hold'em).  Gambling (on anything) is prohibited by General Order 1A which applies to both civilians and soldiers here in Iraq.  So all that all we can play for is pride.  I came in 5th which wasn't too bad considering we started with 10 players that night and I ONLY won 1 hand the entire night!
Also in an effort to appropriately prepare for drawdown and eventual departure from Iraq, we've been told that several services will soon be reduced in the coming months.  The first to be reduced will be the office custodial services.  Currently some facilities have trash removed and are swept twice a day and others once a day.  As of Sunday 24 October 2010, office facilities now have trash removed and are swept/mopped every other day (it used to be once a day.)  We've further been told that "You are encouraged to empty individual trash cans into larger trash cans and dumpsters in and around the office buildings if needed between scheduled custodial services.  Extra trash bags will be placed in the trash cans on the days when trash is collected." 
As the 'war' winds down, the Army is seeking to reduce costs (of course), so I now have to empty my own trash (but only every other day.)  Such is life in Iraq...
R/Chris

 

17Nov10 More Gerbil Pics from the frontier post

17Nov10  More Gerbil Pics from the frontier post

Here are a few more pics from Gerbil (aka Irbil).  Iraqis (and more so Kurds) are not all poor.  In the (relatively) peaceful north there certainly are some Iraqis that have seen the financial advantage to a US presence.  One of the vendors at Irbil parks his BMW 7 series on base. While driving from the airport to the camp this was certainly not the only BMW I saw. Another pic is of a building that is being built by the locals on base here.  Poor construction seems to the rule rather than the exception in the middle east.  Another pic is of a feral dog here at Irbil. Generally, you don't see too many dogs in Iraq.  Dogs are considered 'unclean' by Muslims and aren't kept as pets like in the states. There are several that roam the base here and if any were to act hostile the Army here would have no choice but to shoot them.  For now the dogs are tolerated and docile and will gladly accept any food handouts (which the Army policy forbids as well.)  Another pic is of the inside of the tent I was in. On the last few days here I had roommates (up to then I was the sole occupant of the tent.)  These guys didn't like the tent at 70F so they cranked the heat up to 85F!  That was the first night and I wasn't happy that occurred.  On the second night I came in late and adjusted the temperature back to 70F.  There was some 'tent etiquette that should have been followed that wasn't (probably on both our parts.) 
Port-a-Johns are everywhere (thankfully) at all bases in Iraq.  They're generally maintained twice a day.  There are also 'Muslim' Port-a-Johns since the muslim tradition is to squat (rather than sit or 'hover'.)  So a muslim Port-a-John will be identified as such and will be much lower and will have foot outlines on either side.  The pic of 'Salahs' is the general store here on camp.

There are a lot of similarities between Camp Gerbil (aka Irbil) and an Army fort on the American frontier 100 years ago.  Back then a fort occupied a small defined area outlined by a log wall in a hostile frontier surrounded by indians.  There was an Army Garrison in charge, a local store, post office/pony express and barracks for soldiers and civilians.  (Yes, even George Washington's Continental Army employed civilian contractors!)  Today the fort is called a COS (Contingency Operating Station) and occupies a defined area outlined by barbed wire and Hesco barriers.  There is an Army 'mayor cell' in charge, a local store (run by AAFES), a post office (and WiFi Internet) and CHUs/tents for soldiers and civilians.  But instead of being surrounded by indians we're now served by Indians (and Pakistani, Nepalese, Ugandan) (DFAC, laundry, cleaning and security respectively). 
Sometimes the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same.
R/Chris

 

16 Nov Questions

16 Nov Questions

Q- In the photo of the tents, what is the concrete block in the center with the red cross painted on it?

Answer - Just about every base in Iraq experiences some incoming mortar rounds every now and then. Irbil get VERY little (the north is Kurd land and frankly peaceful. Kurds are also not Arab but are Muslim. Balad (in Suni/Shia territory) gets much more incoming. The concrete block is a concrete bunker where people can take refuge should there be incoming.

Q- Why are the showers and toilets called Caddilacs? What are they like? Gold plated or something?

Answer - Why call them Cadillacs??? I don't know. They are important though as having a clean place to use the toilet and take a shower can certainly make all the difference in the world when you're out....camping...in Iraq...for a year...or so.

R/Chris

16 Nov 1LT Ashley Henderson Huff went to Iraq and got a gym named after her

16 Nov 1LT Ashley Henderson Huff went to Iraq and got a gym named after her

Iraq can be a tough place and it seems a daily reminder here of the things that want to kill me. From working 12 hours a day (or more) everyday to the heat, the snakes, the bugs (which carry malaria and leishmaniasis (according the Vector Control, 1 in 50 mosquitoes or sand flies carry one or the other diseases)) and of course to the family/social separation, most contractors don't make it as long as I've been here in Iraq. Having said all that, I do have it easy. I rarely go outside the wire and I sit behind a desk for much of my job.

For soldiers though, they have to do that soldiering thing and that involves going outside the wire. I did my time in the Navy (long time ago) but still...

The gym here at Irbil is named after Ashely Henderson Huff. Ashley came to Iraq and was killed by a suicide bomber in 2006. These stark reminders are all over the place in Iraq and behind each there is a human story. The camp at Tikrit (Camp Speicher) is named after a Navy Pilot who was one of the first casualties of the war. Anyway, here are some links to Ashley's story.

http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/onlineathens/guestbook.aspx?n=ashley-l-henderson-huff&pid=19372488

http://www.soldierwall.com/wall.php?segmnt=47

http://ourfallensoldier.com/HuffHendersonAshleyL_MemorialPage.html

It also seems that everywhere I've been to there is the American icon, coke. Iraqis like glass over aluminum and Coke seems to be preferred over Pepsi. This is only an observation from the 'haji stores' that I've seen here at Irbil and at Mosul. Anyway, here are a few pics of me and Coke.

R/Chris

15 Nov Here in Irbil (aka Erbil, Arbil or Gerbil)

15 Nov Here in Irbil (aka Erbil, Arbil or Gerbil)

I finally made it to Irbil (aka Erbil, Arbil or Gerbil) and it's a very small camp in northern Iraq. There are probably only about 100 people here and that includes soldiers, US civilians and contractors and foreign contractors (TCNs). Walking around during the day I might see one or two people out and about. The biggest group I've seen has been at the DFAC and that might be 30 people or so. Anyway, here are some pics. The round structures are tents and inside are cots. Right now I've got a whole tent to myself. The pic with the twalls is the main housing area for permanent residents. Hooches are behind the twalls. The pic with the guard tower is the edge of the camp. Like all bases and camps in Iraq, the guard towers are manned by Ugandans. The pic with the far away shade structure is where I work. I actually work in the white building to the left of the big shade structure. And in the center of camp is a US flagpole. This is kinda cool since only a year or so back it wasn't authorized to fly the American flag. Evidently it was a sign of foreign invasion. Rules change...

R/Chris

11Nov10 Two Weeks at Mosul

11Nov10 Two Weeks at Mosul
I ended up being at Mosul for 2 weeks before I finally got a flight out. Mosul is a nice base and it's supposed to close next year but we'll see how that works out. Mosul can be a great to place to have been stationed.  It's got a Food Court with a Gazebo in the middle (see pic) and a few restaurants like King's Restaurant (see pic.)  Laundry serivce at Mosul was great too. You turn in your laundry in the morning and can pick it up that late afternoon in a nice square package with everything folded.  At Balad (my home base) there is a 24 hour CAP (combat air patrol) F16 always in the air.  At Mosul there is a blimp (see pic).  The blimps are actually very efficient.  The don't burn thousands of gallons of fuel and have onboard cameras that can read a newpaper on the ground.  Just about all the small bases have one or more blimps in the air.  Why doesn't Balad use efficent blimps instead of burining thousands of gallons of jet fuel a day?  Well, pilots don't get air time with blimps. The CHUs (containerized housing unit) at Mosul are 'dry' (no plumbing inside the CHU) so one has to walk to a  nearby Cadillac (shower and/or toilet unit).  The walk wasn't so bad at all.  Above are few pics of me on my way to the Cadillac.  Overall Mosul was a good trip but I'm dang glad to finally get out of there.
R/Chris

110910 Mosul Trip

110910 Mosul Trip
I've had to do some traveling over the last month and the first stop
was Camp Marez near the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. A lot of my
travel is via black hawk helocopter. As a contractor I travel the
same way that military has to travel to get from point A to point B.
In the pics you can see Major Beall who sat across from me on my
latest flight. You can also see some of the countryside around Mosul.
The highway runs right along the base too. There are also two pics
of what Camp Marez looks like at ground level. The pic with the sign
is the main street and it a dirt road. To keep the dust down the road
is kept wet and so it really makes for a muddy walk at any time of the
year. The last pic is another selp portrait. Such is life in Mosul.
R/Chris