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.