Day 64

Hi,
Well, I've finally got an internet connection to my room so I can start keeping up with this on a regular basis. I took some time in Kuwait to make some blog entries without actually posting them. Feel free to catch up. Pictures will be forth coming, I promise.

Day 51 – Benchmark 1 met

Today I am writing my Camp Buehring, Kuwait. It’s flat, sandy, and there’s no beach bar anywhere in sight. We all got here ok, even on that DC10 built in 1970 in which we flew. If there’s one thing they did with great aplomb, it was food. I think we got fed every 3 hours. It was good food, but when you’re jammed into a seat built based on the average body sizes of Americans from the late 1960’s, and in a jet with no way of moving in order to work off some of that rich food, the flight gets a little tedious and, shall we say, a bit backed up? We’re here and living in tents. It’s kind of like living in a C-141, but at least it is air conditioned. I have roughly 15 inches of space on either side of my Army cot. What’s at the end of those 15 inches you ask? Why, it’s another bunk filled with a sleeping soldier. At least it’s not Ft. Lewis with it’s cold, rain and fog. Wasn’t it nice of the Army to send us, for six weeks, to a training area that was SO much like our area of operation?
If you notice, I have added a special marker to my day. I have some personal benchmarks for this deployment; things that will happen only by the passing of time and days marked on a calendar. Benchmark one; I got out of the United States and into theater. I am not yet in Iraq, but that wasn’t the benchmark. I figure that if anything happens to me from this point on, the Army will have to leave me on orders long enough for me to get to benchmark number two. I have no intention of spoiling the surprise of the other benchmarks; they’ll be announced as those dates are reached.

Day 58 – Thanksgiving Day
When you can’t spend this day with your family, or your second family, it’s best to spend it with friends. I don’t yet know if the 287th is my 3rd family, but they’re moving closer to that designation. My second family, for those in the dark, is the 188th Army Band. Yesterday was an interesting day. I had to go get some equipment that I couldn’t get here. It was at the next post over, Ali Al Salem. I got a tour of the Air Base; concrete bunkers built by the French that were not good for anything now except for catching water; the dining facility on the hill called “The Rock”, with a nice view; and a few local shops to get some stuff for our driver. There were Prada hand bags there for $50 and Air Jordan shoes for $75 and pirated DVD’s for $5 apiece or 6 for $20.

Day 60
It’s Saturday the 29th and I’m having an interesting day. Tomorrow I fly into Iraq to my duty station at Tallil. This morning as I was taking care of some personal bodily issues it dawned on me that tomorrow I’ll be in a combat zone. I may never hear gunfire or see the enemy, but I’ll be there just the same.

Day 62
Today is my first full day in Iraq. I’m stationed at Camp Adder, Tallil, Iraq. We’re living in trailers called CHU’s, pronounced “chew’s”. There are three each two-man rooms in each CHU, and there are two beds in each room. Each room is about the size of a college dorm room. My room has its’ own air conditioner/heater, 5 electrical outlets, a cable tv hookup, two beds, two wall lockers, and two night stands. My toilet is about 200 feet away and the shower is about 200 feet past that. Porta-potties have been replaced by flushing porcelain toilets. (Thank goodness). When I go 300 feet the other direction from the latrine, there is trailer with 10 washers and 10 dryers. I’ll get pictures out at a later date. I found my office and we worked all day doing inventories of the equipment we’re getting from the unit we’re replacing. My office is in a building that I think dates back to World War 1, I’m not kidding. But everything here is so dirty and beat up, it may be only 5 years old. I’ll look into seeing if I can find the age of the building. Pictures of my office and building will be coming at a later date, like when I get around to taking them.