Vehicles at Victory

Hello again from Camp Victory; yup, still here. I thought I would share a few pics of the sights I get to see everyday. Its somewhat of a change from Nellis, where I get to see airplanes of all types, here I get to see helicopters, and not much else. Still, the "cool" factor of getting to see some of this stuff hasn't worn off yet. Enjoy the photos!

The ubiquitous UH-60 Blackhawk. I took this picture from one of the LZ's (Landing Zone) around the base. We do get a little excitement occasionally. Here are 2 V-22 Ospreys taking off from the base. There aren't very many of the tilt-rotors in country and the Marines are the only ones flying them operationally right now. They really are impressive, as fast as an airplane but with the ability to take off and land vertically.

I saw this MRAP the other day and just had to take a picture. "Have a Nice Convoy!"

Blackhawks at sundown. (My poor atempt at an "artistic" photo). Farwell for now!

5% done (not that I'm counting)

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've gotten a chance to update my blog, and so I'm taking a few minutes to let you know how the first week has gone. I'me pretty much settled into a routine now. I get up aroun 4 to skype with Patti, it's pretty much the only time there's enough bandwidth on the wireless to do that. Then I head to work for a couple hours before hitting the gym. Then it's back to work until about 7 in the evening, home to bed and all over again the next day.
I try to stay busy, but it's staff work, and that means doing nothing until I get information from other people. Basically I make up things to do until around 3 or 4 in the afternoon when my work really starts. Nice to know the Army needed me so badly I had to come here for 6 months to build PowerPoint slides!
Here's a few more pictures of the Al Faw palace. It's nice, I live in a trailer with 5 other people and I work in a corner office on the top floor of the palace. Weird...


Here's me and my friend Russ. We met at Vandenberg and he's deployed over here from Ft. Meade. What a small world that we met up in Baghdad, his office is just around the corner from mine even!

Here is the main rotunda of the palace, it really is impressive, even if the "crystal" chandelier is made of plastic. I think if you put a few rows of slot machines in here it would make a great casino!

This is one of the many columns throughout the palace. Sadaam was nice enough to put his initials on top of every one to make sure nobody forgot who built the place.

This is a picture of my office. Yes, I work in a hallway that is affectionately called "the submarine." One of the Navy Lieutenants that works in the office gave it that name and it stuck.

Here's the view from my "office." I get a pool-side view! Of course, the pool is closed (I wonder why?)

Housing at Camp Victory. All of the trailers are protected by concrete "T-Walls." These are the bathrooms/showers closest to my trailer.

Home sweet home for the next 6 months. The Army has spared no expense. At least we get air conditioning!

My "office" is in the Al-Faw palace, a resort that Sadaam built for himself. It is now crammed with coalition staff workers. Still, it is an impressive building to see.

Al Faw palace again, this time during my first dust storm. This picture was taken about 4:00 in the afternoon, long before sundown. I'm told this storm wasn't even a bad one!

Greetings from Baghdad!!

Hello from Camp Victory! As you can see from the pics I made it safe and sound and have started getting settled in. Life here in the deployed environment is all about establishing a new routine in totally strange environment. I live in a trailer, also called a CHU (pronounced 'choo') with a roommate. Our room is actually jusy one of 3 in the trailer, but it's enough space for the few things I brought along. It's kind of a pain to have to walk to a separate trailer to use the restroom or take a shower, but at least my CHU is really close. Some folks have to walk about 200 yards. It doesn't sound like a long way, except for the fact that everywhere in the housing areas is covered with several inches of loose gravel, which is about as hard to walk in as loose sand! The KBR contractors put down gravel everywhere in an effort to keep the dust down a bit and to keep it from getting too muddy when it rains.

Speaking of the weather, it hasn't been too bad lately. We've had a warm day or two, but for the most part it's in the 70's and 80's during the day. We did have some excitedment this week though, I got to experience my very first dust storm. The dust was finer than talcum powder and just hung in the air, almost like smoke, and got into everything! The hallway where I work (yes, "hallway" not "office") was hazy all evening long.

So yes, hallway where I work. The organization I work for just moved into the Al-Faw palace, which was a retreat that Sadaad built for himself to be able to get away from the pressure of being a tyrannical dictator. So many people to opress and murder and so little time! The place is crammed full of staffs for just about anythign you can imagine, and so space is at a premium. I work in an upstairs hallway that is divided in half by cubicle dividers. I have a "corner office" but I get to share the space with 15 people. Some of the Navy folks I work with have nicknamed the area "the submarine" because it's long, narrow, and so crowded that people can barely get to their desks if someone else is sitting down at their own. The nickname stuck, so now I can say that I deployed with the Air Force, to work with the Army and the Marines in a submarine. It really is a joint fight!

"So what is it you'd say...you do here?" In a nutshell, I create powerpoint presentations and send email, not too different than any other staff job. However, the work that I do is pretty interesting. In case you missed the President's speech a few weeks ago, or if you've been living in Bora Bora with no radio, TV, or internet for the last 6 years (I wish I was in Bora Bora), the Coaliion Forces are trying to turn the country back over to the Iraqi people. Part of that is ensuring the Iraqi government can defend itself, and secure the country, especially its borders. That's where my organization here is important. I work for the Multi National Corps-Iraq, a group that is responsible for training and supporting the Iraqi forces until theycan take over that security mission on their own. Specifically I work with the border enforcement department. I collect periodic reports and assessments from coalition teams on how the Iraqis are doing on securing their borders and running ports of entry. I then take all this information and pass it along to get briefed to General Odierno, the top U.S. Commander in Iraq. I get to see exactly how things are (or aren't) progressing, and I get to see what kinds of challenges the Iraqis are overcoming to get their country back on track after decades of abuse by Sadaam and the Baath party, constant war, crippling poverty for the general population, and countries on all sides that want to increase their influence and control over Iraq.

While I hate being gone from my family, I am excited to be doing the work I am. Although I disagreed with our coming into Iraq in the first place, seeing first-hand some of the impacts that Sadaam had on the country, I'm glad we were able to get rid of him and start the country on the long, tough road to being a true nation again.

Life at Al Udeid

Here are the transient tents we're staying in. Mine's the brown one (or was it the tan one?).

"The Bra" where most hanging out is done (so to speak!)

The latrines or "Cadillacs." I wonder if it's got a 30,000 mile warranty?

Things over here are the same, but different at the same time. Evidence the regular old Nissan Pathfinder, same as you'd find in the states, but the license plate let's you know you're not in Kansas anymore. Interestingly, while words are read left-to-right in Arabic, numbers are read right-to-left. Anyone have any idea why? I've yet to figure that one out.

Al Udeid must be a nice place to while away a deployment, they've even got volleyball!

Here I wait, bored and jet-lagged for a seat on a plane getting me to Baghdad. Since I'm going to be here for another 24 hours, I thought I'd snap a few pics and share what the living conditions over here are like.

First off, I'm staying in temporary quarters, so the folks that are here for there deployment are probably getting better quarters, but the common areas are all the same. The chow hall (sorry, "dining facility" or DFAC, we're not supposed to call it a chow hall) is pretty good. Open 24 hours and all I have to do is show my ID. Plenty of sun, sand, and all you can eat 24 hours a day...it's like I'm on a cruise!

The tent I'm staying in houses 48 people in bunk beds. The accomodations aren't really all that bad, you just have to get used to sleeping with a light on, since there is inevitably someone coming in or going out pretty much all the time. The bathrooms are in trailers called "Cadillacs" and are actually not too bad, though the fly strips hanging up outside the stalls betrays a liklihood of being a bit, shall we say, malodorous during the heat of summer.

I have wireless acces in the Coalition Center, an open air common area called "the bra" because the two huge white canopies over top look like..well...a bra (see the pic above). We also have access to a community center with pool tables, video games, and TVs (all playing Armed Forces Networkor, AFN). The weather has been good so far, highs during the day are around 80 and upper 50s at night. There's a nice gym, a coffee shop, and a pool, though I don't think I'll be utilizing the pool. Thw chow is okay, but it's tempered by the coffee being excellent.

Anyway, there's not much more to say, I don't really have anything to do here other than wait and check email while I've got access. I suppose it could be worse. Hopefully my next post will be from Baghdad!

Finally there! (Not really)

My last look at the U.S.

Here I am in Germany!

The beer garden in the airport terminal. Lots of folks took the opportunity to have one last alcoholic beverage before going into Iraq.

Back on the plane for Qatar!

Welcome to Al Udeid!

Well I finally made it! (to Qatar). I still have to wait on a flight to Baghdad, and so I sit here in transient quarters waiting. The trip was a unique experience, it was the first time I have ever been overseas, much less on such a long flight.

We left Wednesday afternoon from Norfolk 2 hours late (great start eh?). The air terminal staff announced it was because they were "adding more fuel to the plane" but then I thought, "why didn't they just fill it up to begin with, how much more can they add?" Funny though, about an hour and a half into the 30 minute delay to "add fuel" the flight crew showed up! When we got on the plane the pilot apologized for the delay because there was "a discrepancy" in the scheduled flight time. I'm guessing they stayed at the bar too long the night before.

Anyway, we got a fun 8 hour flight into Leipzig-Halle airport, Germany. All I got to see of Germany was the terminal during the 2 hours we waited for a new flight crew and more fuel. I did manage to have my last beer before 6 months in Iraq! Mmmm...German beer for breakfast.

We got another 5 hour plane ride into Qatar which would have been okay, except for the turbulence. The mountains over Turkey were beautiful, covered in snow, but the constant bouncing made it hard to appreciate. I got my first view or Iraq from 30,000+ feet as we flew right down the fertile crescent to the Persian Gulf. It was interesting because there is so much dust in the air that there isn't a definitive horizon, the sky slowly blends into sand or sea.

One of the first things I noticed, even from so high up, was the overarching presence of the petroleum industry. In the US you see highways, sports stadiums, suburbs, and shopping malls from the air. Over here you see oil tankers, oil refineries, and oil pipelines. There's the occaisional "city" which you can make out a the brown lumps with right angles as opposed to the brown lumps that are crescent shaped (sand dunes).

We finally got to Al Udeid on Thursday evening (there was a crossing of the Prime Meridian though) and got settled into our transient tents. It's not too bad, I get a bunk, a foot locker, and 47 roommates! Hopefully I won't be here for more than a day or 2, not because the conditions are bad, but because there's nothing for me to do! I'm ready to get to Baghdad and get to work.

I'll be writing more later, while I wait for a plane, again.

Back home for a spell

The Calico Hills at Red Rock. Ancient sand dunes turned into sandstone and colored by iron oxide, very cool!

Lorelei's first hike

Lunch Break!

Lorelei Awake

Lorelei asleep

ACST is finally over, and I got a wonderful (though short) time back home before I deparat the country. Patti and I managed to get a lot of stuff done around the house (painting, hanging light fixtures, etc.) but the highlight was a trip over to Red Rock Canyon just west of town. Lorelei got to try out her kid carrier and I got to play sherpa. She seemed to have a good time, and fell asleep about 30 minutes into the trip. It was a beautiful, and the best part...we couldn't see the Strip!