Which truck is mine?

I had to share this one. We came out of the Dining Facility (DFAC) recently and parked next to my Explorer was a MRAP. That's a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. This particular one is a MaxxPro Dash and it's the smallest of the different MRAPs we have. That makes it all the more impressive next to my little Explorer. Imagine what it would look like next to a Prius!

Plastic Palaces

When I have limited time to get a post out, I have a few quick ones reserved to provide light reading for you all. Tonight's post is one of those.

Lest you all think that we have it too easy...working in a palace and all...rest assured, we don't quite have all the royal comforts. Our palace is essentially a very large house built for one family. The internal plumbing and septic tank (despite the "fabulous" third-world workmanship) is only designed to handle that one family. It has quite a bit of difficulty with the 200 or so personnel we have working in my building. The solution? What we like to call "plastic palaces".

So, yes, I am spending 6 months visiting a port-a-john multiple times per day. Fortunately, these are the cleanest port-a-johns in the world. They are completely cleaned out and pressure-washed with sanitizing fluid twice per day! So I guess we do have all the royal comforts after all...or something like that.

Now that I think about it though, I am not really looking forward to using the port-a-johns when it gets hot. Imagine 140 degrees inside a little plastic box with no air movement...

Happy 214th Birthday Navy Supply Corps

Today, we gathered local Supply Corps Officers to celebrate the 214th Birthday of the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. The first time for many while in a nearly land-locked country and working in the desert. We had about 20 Supply Corps Officers at Victory along with some of our Joint friends and another 8 Supply Corps via VTC from downtown. There was a beautiful hand-decorated cake from the DFAC for the traditional cake cutting - our oldest officer cutting was 63 and our youngest was 29. Our friends at the other end of the VTC matched us by cutting Zingers with a real sword they found some where. Despite the unusual location, the Supply Corps always finds an excuse to get together.

S'mores in Iraq

I just got back from having fun with the Iraqi Scouts. I haven't been for several weeks due to work conflicts, travel, etc. It was great to get back out there to interact with the kids. Today we did crafts, flag football, seed planting, logger's hitch rope tying and log relay, and finished with the best of all: s'mores! The flag football quickly turned into something closer to rugby...like soccer, but with hands and a football. The kids and adults had a great time and as always, s'mores dissolved into making marshmallow charcoal and playing with the fire. Scouts are scouts no matter where you are.

On that note, parents of scouts have amazing similarities also. I was watching the closing ceremonies today, with all the kids lined up before the flags to listen to the Iraqi Scout Master's Minute (story with a lesson). As I watched, I saw some of the Iraqi soldier parents execute a very familiar maneuver. They noticed their kids messing around and quickly moved from the side to a position in front of the kids with full eye contact and gave the "I'm watching you" move. It was immediately recognizable, Iraqi or American...the same.

Only in a war zone

You're not likely to see this sign in a Starbucks. No, only at a Green Beans coffee shop franchise on a Forward Operating Base in Iraq. Apparently, slung M-4s and M-16s are quite dangerous to glass display cases. This particular case has had the glass broken at least 2 times before. Those scones are pretty good by the way...ditto the little donuts.

Light posting

Sorry for the light posting lately. We have been getting ready for a visitor and that leaves little time to unwind at night, so posts suffer. I promise I have a whole slate of posts queued up for next week when things get back to normal.

Something from back home...

This post has nothing to do with Iraq except that I couldn't be there because I am here. I just wanted to share this great picture of Cameron (far left) and his fellow Cub Scouts presenting the Colors for the National Anthem during Scout Night at the Washington Capitals game. Since, Beth couldn't actually get that close, the picture is courtesy of the Jumbotron. The Caps won by the way.

It's not a UFO...

No, not a UFO...it's an aerostat - the technical name for a balloon or blimp. If you look in the two pictures about center you will see a white object in the sky. It is shaped something like a fatter, shorter, Goodyear Blimp. These are tethered to the ground and act as our eyes in the sky. Their sensor packages provide protection to the base by watching the surrounding areas all the time. Definitely a cool way to keep us safe.

Fine Art - Saddam style - Part 1

Buildings all over the Victory Base Complex have examples of Saddam-endorsed art as relief sculptures on their walls. I will post pictures of the best ones over time, but we will start with my favorite. This one is on the side of my own building, the "palace of all palaces". It is a sculpture honoring Iraq and its important history. Included are a date palm representing the agricultural richness, an oil well showing the great natural resources, a pyramid of Babylon, and Hammurabi giving the first written code of law. Oh yeah, and U.S. bombs coming to blow it all up. Such a joker he was....

SuperBowl and General Order No. 1

According to General Order #1, military deployed to Iraq cannot consume alcohol (and a whole list of other prohibited things). General Odierno, however, authorized a one-time waiver and everyone gets two beers during the SuperBowl as a "morale booster". There is a catch though. You must actually attend the organized function during the SuperBowl hours to drink the beers...that's 2:00am to 6:00am over here. I decided that I am far too old to stay up all night to watch the SuperBowl just to have two beers. It's not worth making the entire next day (work day) painful.

I did wake up in time to watch the last quarter in my CHU. Looks like I missed a great game, because the last 4 minutes were awesome. Go Steelers!

You live in a box?

Yeah, but it's a nice box! To balance the big picture thoughts of the last post, it's time to lower the level of discussion a little.

So, yes, I live in a box - a shipping container to be exact. These are the same intermodal ISO shipping containers that you see on large container ships, trains, and trucks. Ours are modified to live in...we call them CHUs for Containerized Housing Units and they are much better than tents! On the major operating bases in Iraq, nearly everyone lives in CHUs, although there are still some tents for transients and new arrivals waiting for CHUs. There are still some small fire bases/security stations that combat units ("trigger pullers") use where the living conditions aren't quite as nice. Some of these "trigger-pullers" get to return to the luxury of their CHUs on the big bases.

From the inside, you would never know that you are not in a real building. There are two types of CHUs, "dry" and "wet". For the "dry" CHUs, each 40 foot container is divided into 3 separate rooms, roughly 10x10. The most junior enlisted up to Majors/Lieutenant Commanders (O-4) are paired up two-to-a-room in these. Lieutenant Colonels/Commanders (O-5) like me also live in one of these, but have the space to themselves. We all have to go to separate trailers for toilets and showers. The other kind of CHU - "wet" - is divided into two rooms, sharing a bathroom with shower in between them. These are reserved for Colonels/Captains (Navy) and E-9s (the most senior enlisted). This all varies a little from base-to-base, but those are the general rules. Inside, we get a heater/air-conditioner, a wardrobe/locker, a bed with mattress, and a night-stand.

The CHUs are all lined up in rows with T-walls around them. The toilet and shower trailers are usually in the middle of several CHU rows. All of this combined with a billeting office and laundry service trailer make a village called an LSA (Logistics Support Area). My LSA is named "Omaha Beach".

The pictures are my row of CHUs and the inside of my room. It is bigger than my stateroom on the aircraft carrier, so I am not complaining at all.