March 1

I can't believe that they are running out of certain things at the D-Fac. first it was Soy milk, they never seems to have that long, usuallly I'll get the chocolate. Now they ran out of chocolate, I can't eat cereal now. for those who do not know, I quit drinking milk in 1995, I read some bad stuff about it that grossed me out. don't get me wrong, I still love cheese, cream cheese, and will eat ice cream on occasion, but to drink milk in its pure form, no thanks. Now they are out of all energy bars, half the cereal and most fruit. they are down to apples and not-ripe nectarines. That's our world, being totally dependent to have food shipped to us. I wonder if problems in egypt have slowed down us getting food with the suez canal and all. Nothing else really going on, except that morale is a little down. I think the place is getting on everyones nerves at the moment, I'm just trying to keep everyone from choking eacher other!
Oh ya, I could talk about Charlie Sheen. He is facinating, the guys is very entertaining. I have been reading up on a lot of his stuff lately, his denial is off the radar. I do remember he was sober for a real long time and then I guess he just said, I'm tired of fighting it. Doesn't doing all those drugs just wreck his body? shoot he's 45, he's gotta feel it. I do agree with some things he says, he's entitled to do whatever he wants as long as he isn't hurting anyone. I just think though, how much good he could've been to humanity if he only would've given money blown on drugs and women to charity. He probably would still be married if it wasn't for the drugs. The funny thing is he's making all these media companies money yet isn't making a dime off of it.

The Dreaded Clickers!"

Another day off, same ole stuff but this time I have clicker duty. Sounds stupid? It is! We have to sacrifice 3 hrs of our life we will never get back, sitting at the front counter of the D-Fac, clicking if they are active duty and taking a running tab of other groups like DoD Contracters, department of state, collation forces. Basically, how many are eating, who, and at what time. I couldn't believe how many people eat in there for dinner, probably 900 in 3 hours It’s no-brainer stuff but the shift is 1700-2000, which stinks because, “when do I sleep?” I have to be at work at 2330. I try to take a nap before at 1pm and I only can sleep a half hour. The shift ends and my relief hasn’t shown up. The kitchen guy calls the coordinator, who is no help at all. I won’t get into the details but someone screwed up with the schedule. I call the Day shift NCOIC and tell her I’m currently stuck and if I have to pull a double shift I will not be coming in till much later. She says they have two flights going on simataneously but she will send someone down to relieve me in 10 m. By the time the relief comes I’ve almost been there an hour over. I got about 3.5 hrs sleep, enough to allow me to function. Am I annoyed? Of course, but when I was in the Navy, stuff like this happened all the time. What ticked me off was when I get to work Christian says the day NCOIC says out loud, “It wasn’t that big of a deal, he had the day off.” So what! That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in awhile. My day off is sat. 2400-1200, how does that help me get sleep for the next night shift on Sunday? I like the fact that Christian told me what she said, my crew is watching my back for people talking about me behind my back. I’ll remember that comment she made when it comes to future trust factor.
I was burned out bad by the end of the shift. I brief the day NCOIC and she says something about, “you had the day off.” I do at least give her credit for mentioning that to me in person, so when I explained to her what I explained to you, she says something like that’s true or I see. Touche! I decide to go right to bed after I pick up laundry, instantly fall asleep for 6 hrs, I wake up, I know I need to work out but want to sleep. I then proceed to toss n turn for 3 more hours. I can’t believe how that dreaded clicker duty messed my sleep schedule up, plus I missed a workout day. Today is our 1 month anniversary, big woop!! Seems like 3 months, someone in cargo actually had the nerve to say it was flying by, he probably has grown up kids and a wife he calls once a week. I have 45 days of freedom until the dreaded “clickers” start calling for me again!

Day of Rage?

We have not one flight on the schedule today. Why? The proposed "day of rage" that is suppossed to be an anti-government demonstration by the people of Iraq. They are following the example of what Egypt, Libyia and Bahrain have done recently. they say it shouldn't get that bad because the Iraqi President volunteered to cut his salary for the last month and give it to charity, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. I don't know if there will be retaliation on the base, It's a different clientelle, I think, not radical muslim in nature, but more of the poor, mainstream population that thinks their government is corrupt. i don't know, say a prayer for us over here today. One of my sergeants put it in perspective saying them hitting us at whatever exact location we are in is like throwing a grain of sand at something in an empty room and hitting dead-on

Hookah Mania?

The weather has dramatically improved in the last two weeks. The days are now almost up to 80 and the nights you pretty much do not need a jacket. It sure beats the junk that we were dealing with, the crazy rain, wind, and cold. It’ll be interesting once it gets hot, I’m use to that, but they have humidity here. I’ve been to Georgia in June but it still never got above 102, here it gets to be 120.
The young guys here are crazy characters. SRA Christian is constant entertainment. He does dispatch a lot he’s about 6’5, black but likes death-metal more than rap. Since my office is next to his, I hear the screaming for hours on end. He was raised an Army brat so he travelled a lot, he has some wild philosophies on life and a psychedelic past if you know what I mean. He, like the rest of most of the young crew, is obsessed with smoking Hookah, a middle-eastern form of flavored tobacco. I had never even heard of it until a year ago when one of my cousins mentioned it on facebook, I actually asked if it was marijuana. Hahaha They love to smoke it, they got the fancy pipe-thingey. I have no desire, maybe I’m scared I might get hooked on it. Christian invited me to the bazaar next to the main exchange, I initially wanted to turn it down, wanting to stick with my workout schedule, but I thought, “why not, it’s also a chance to hang out with these guys outside of work.”
We take the 16pax bus, we took a different route then when we went on the cultural tour. I swear, Christian, Foley, and Graham are an insane combo, it should be illegal to have them in the same vehicle. They are alternating between blaring death metal and southern Rap, Christian is driving with one hand, fist pumping with the other, Graham and Foley are talking about X-rated topics. I’m just rolling my eyes, smiling, shaking my head. It’s a good 20 minute drive, we have to drive around the airport, plus the roads are garbage, you’re lucky to go 20 mph. I’m listening to them and it brings me back to my Navy days, thinking back 22 yrs ago me, Siebert, Anderson, Porter, Hodder, Blair, and Cook (ya, crowded car) driving down PCH on our rare weekends off from the Duncan. Blaring music, and talking about X-rated stuff. Even back then, I was more of the low-key guy, just listening and smiling. It’s just funny, 22 years and not much has changed, except these guys have more technology at their disposal. Scary part is, I’m old enough to be all their dads, hey, I feel honored they even invited me to go, they never would’ve asked Sergeant May, sad to say.
Knowing from experience, it is a unique period in all their lives. The sad part with the military is, it’s easy to slip into a way of thinking that, in my opinion, is polluted. You end up cussing like there is no tomorrow, and think way too many dirty thoughts, and for some, the dirty thoughts turn into actions. With a place like this, however, most of these guys don’t get to act out anything, thank god. Even when I was in the moment way back in the Navy, I knew that lifestyle was wrong, but it is easy to kind-of get sucked into it. My theory on why guys get corrupted in the military and especially this group is the need to cling to something to bond with. They are young, away from family, and they got nothing but each other. You know, like me, I have my family back home so I feel grounded and secure. When you are in this type of situation, you have an incredibly strong desire to be accepted. I don’t think they know it yet, but this connection they have, it will never be stronger then it is now. You never forget things, but I talk to some of those old navy guys I mentioned, you never really get it back. Life now just gets too much in the way. For example, the other day I’m talking to my navy bud Darrel “Papa” Hatchett, and we’re laughing about the old times, then I hear a female voice in the background and he has to go. That's what happens when time moves on, You have a family, you grow a career or business, and the bond just never is the same. Most of my old navy buddies now just have me as a friend on facebook with very little interaction, it's sad but better then no contact at all. But I look at these clowns in this bus and realize the closeness of their friendships are getting them through this period of their lives, I can relate to it for sure.
We go to the bazaar, and of course, I forget my video camera and leave my camera chip in the downloader so now, once again, I can’t record anything. They had some real cool stuff, a lot of jewelry, ornaments, rugs, leather goods, house decoration stuff. They also had a lot of stuff you would find at a garage sale, reflected by a dusty tint. It is overpriced, but you are expected to barter, man I hate bartering, I always had to do that nonsense when I was in Korea. I didn’t buy anything, but I’ll come back to get a few things. The guys bought their Hookah stuff, I guess the tobacco stuff is $2 a shot while it is $5 in the states. I asked if the stuff gives you a rush and one of them said a little, probably from the lack of oxygen getting to their lungs.
We go back, same routine with the crazy music, the head-banging, and now their conversation has turned to XXX rated. Man, get me outta here, enough is enough! We get back, I eat a powerbar, do my Plyo workout, and then get hungry in the middle of it and have to quit the workout. It made me realize how much I have my routine down to exact times. Anyways it was good to get out and see that stuff, I just feel bad for their lungs to have to endure the Hookah sensation. Feel free to write a comment if the stuff is really that good or high over-rated.

Feb. 22

Pretty good work day today, tension between the shifts is easing, I want to make it work and by their actions it seems they do as well. We still got a ways to go but any progress is good. I got my first care package today, it was awsome! Everything i've been needing....except the flippin camera cord! Gina put the wrong one in, but they are easy to confuse, I will have to show her on the videophone what the connection looks like. I got 3 months supply of sprees, chocolate truffles, tapitio sauce, and protein powder, plus some great cards from my wife and kids! I might need to buy a camera, even though I've taken pictures of just about everything here, which isn't a lot. It was good to work the dispatch even if it wasn't that busy. Coordinating flight schedules, answering phone, computer data input, some stuff I already knew some I didn't. We usually have just two people that know dispatch so even though i'm their supervisor, I'm not very competent at it. It's like at an auto shop where the cashier probably doesn't know a lot about cars. It's not that hard, fake it till you make it.
I'm taking a break from working out, part of the P90 plan, but I have gone two weeks straight so my knees are thanking me. I'm starting to notice changes, it's exciting but I want it to go quicker. Only lost about 5 lbs but I'm gaining muscle. It's a sad reality but after 35 men really do lose muscle mass. When I was in my 20's I use to have tree trunks for legs, now they're branches! hahaha Everything is getting better, strength, cardio, and flexibility. The gut is so slow to lose, that's what I get for quitting beer at 40 and not 30. But it's very exciting because I now know that i will never stop working out while I'm here, that would be suicide. Mentally and emotionally I need it like I need food.
There is not much that amuses me here but I have been able to conjure up two things. When i was younger I would think of random things and trip out or look at people and bemuse to my friends my interpretation of their reality, it would make for some good laughs. Do it much less as I've gotten older, but just to try to break up the monotony of this blog, here it goes:


Laundry Guy: This is a complex process that if you don't do it right you may not get your laundry back, I may or may not be joking. But the laundry service guy at the front counter is Haji and he looks just like the soup Nazi except he has shorter hair. Same scowl, except he doesn't yell, but he does take his job to a very intense level. if you never saw the soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld, just skip this blog, it won't be funny. There is a precise way you have to get to the counter, fill out one form, sign one, sign out the other, fill another form, it's laughable but i understand because there is no computers. He just has that scowl, and says, "sign here", "sign here", "no wrong space, here" i just want to laugh, I still haven't gotten the routine right. I just think, "no soup fo you.....next!"

Sergeant H: As I have previously mentioned, the terminal has many different agencies: Navy, Contractors, United nations, DOD, and Army. Army's got it made, they work 8 hr shifts, and they always say we're the wimps! Well there is one of the LNO's (liason officer)I'll just call her sergeant H. she's late 30's, Puerto Rican with the accent and all, and mean to the Army personnel that come to see her to get their 4 day pass and get out of this hell-hole for a few. She barks orders at them, herds them like cattle, they put up with it because they want to get on the plane. She's very nice to us, but she has one of the worst wondering eye disorders I have ever seen. It's like serious 45% angle. I'm not trying to make fun of her, but it is the biggest challenge to not focus on her eye when talking to her. It takes every ounce of effort to look at the eye looking straight at you and not the other one. i almost dread having to talk to her because i know what is going to transpire. I'm thinking, "don't look, don't look, she's going to think you're rude." It drives me crazy , does that sound mean? i'm sure people look at my thinning hairline and think the same thing, and i don't even notice it! hahaha

Day Off II

Slept in, so awsome, I love sleep over her, it makes time go by faster. Talked to My wife and my mom. I feel real sad about my 4 yr old daughter Jenna, my wife says she is really acting up, defiant, not concentrating, just acting out of control. she thinks she is acting this way due to being gone. Then she says that with my two brother in laws Matt and Beto, and nephew in law Brendon, she's really clingy with them, just wants to be around them all the time. Obviously she is looking for that father figure since I am gone. It makes me want to cry, that I can't be there for her. But I need to put it in the back of my mind and continue to focus forward. I tell you, I'm going to have her near me every single second when I am back, making up for lost time. She just has to hang in there and so do I, Thank god she has such a great mom!
I also talked to Hatchett, my old Navy buddy, aka "Papa." We talked about the old navy days, usually he's so busy and always has to go fairly quick, but we talked a good half hour. We talked about some old navy buds but he had me in tears when we brought up some old things we had to do on the ship, tears because i was laughing so flipping hard. You wouldn't get it unless you served, so i'm not even going to explain. The navy had all these stupid procedures of etiquette that you had to do, traditions, some were so goofy, they probably had more of that stuff then any of the branches of service combined. It was good to laugh like that, it has been too long.

I'm on my way to breakfast and I hear the big voice say, "all clear!" That's not good at all, that can only mean we've been attacked. why didn't I hear anything before? I eat and noone is acting like we have been attacked, then I go to the terminal to get some pics from Mohr and I see a black haze on the horizon, I'm thinking "was there an accident on the flightline?" I see Nelson and he said we had gotten attacked, our C-ram took out one of them but there was one that hit close to something important, WOW!!! I'd say what, but I don't need to give the jack-butts any tactical advantage, yes the enemy does use cyberspace as a battle-ground. Noone was hurt, the area was empty , but that was too flippin close!!! Honeymoon is over, three weeks without an attack well thats history. I just have to tell myself over and over that god is protecting me, that no matter what happens around me, I will be safe.

Feb. 18

Today was a good day but stressfull at the end. good because it was my Friday and bad because I had to deal with some confrontation. I guess anything gets better with experience. When it comes to dealing with teenagers I teach and adults, i'm very different. With kids I'm strict, I'm consistent and fair with discipline, and I refuse to allow disrespect, does that mean I get angry, frustrated, and annoyed on occasion with kids? Of course! My patience level is still better then 90% of all americans. Adults, however, I'm still trying to feel it out. Adults are much more sensitive then kids and they will hold a grudge longer. My assistant NCOIC was telling me a certain story of when they first got here, and he was doing a shift brief, a crew member (part of our reserve unit), was talking when he was, he corrected her, and word has it this crew member was bitter for a long time. So when I talk to adults I try to be very calm, respectfull. do I let a few things slide that I see that i probably should correct on the spot,yes, it's something I need to keep getting better at, sometimes a let a few things slide to try to keep the peace, unlike as a teacher, i rarely let things go. But this personality of mine, I feel segeant "right" interprets it as me being soft, a pushover. It's funny though, SRA Christain said to the group last night after shift brief, "It's amazing but ever since you got here, everybody has been showing up to shift brief on time." Best compliment i have had so far on the tour.
Today was our NCO meeting where all the leaders of the groups go over things. I knew i would have to address dayshift taking my one of my only two dispatchers. i felt bad because i told her that if the command section took her troop, sergeant Delaporta,to be their network IT guy, that it would be hard to fight her over losing our dispatcher. I guess it sounds like i was agreeing but over 24 hrs of thinking and conferring with a few senior NCO's who "heard wind" (by the way, rumors spread quickly here and mostly everyone talks about mostly everyone behind their back) I decided to change my mind so i was going to bring it up with our top enlisted guy at the meeting to get the decision changed. I was nervous, thinking he/she would be angry and think I was a backstabber but can't a person change their mind? I felt I was backed into a corner and i didn't like it one bit. I had to write notes down, I had to have valid facts and statistics to back my point. Well, to make a long story short, we kept our dispatcher. I could say more but I better not, I'm just glad it's over and it was a good learning experience, I'm proud I stood my ground, I just hate learning the hard way. I think the tension between the shifts will increase, i just have to ride it out and sometimes take the high road. I know one thing that makes me feel good, that morale in our shift is very good, people are joking, smiling but there will probably be the worsening situation where the dispatcher and counter sup have not gotten along. I just need to try to keep them separated as much as possible. Anyway, I'm going to enjoy my day off, read, goof around with the computer, hey I may even watch a movie, haven't done that yet, work out and of course sleep a ton. I really hope i don't have to write about any more drama but I doubt it. Don't get me wrong, in general me and sergeant "right" get along fine back in reserves, we have known each other a long time, we just have different styles, different flaws, and different agendas. Somehow though, we need to make it work

feb. 17

Morale hasn’t been so great for me the last few days. Work has been a challenge and time is going by so slow. It seems like every hour here is like three hours back home. Man I’m even getting tired of the food already and it hasn’t even been three weeks. I’ve also had several people back home not return my emails, very annoying. That’s one thing that has always bugged me is when people don’t answer you back, in some cases it only takes a few seconds. It makes me feel not very appreciated
Work has been so up and down. At first it was learning the job on the fly, with all the different lingo’s, anacronyms, and concepts brought up, it has been hard to keep them straight. There are a few people that I am going to use a pseudo-name for their real name. I would only put stuff on this blog that I could feel comfortable enough saying something to someone straight to them if I had, but honestly this blog is for my friends and family to read and is honestly not inteneded for March personnel to read. If they do though, they will see names on here they won't recognize, such as sergeant "Right", sergeant "Jump-to", sergeant "tense", sergeant "middle ground" and so on. I have been making good progress on this and now there are new challenges to my job: Putting fires out, mending communication barriers, and keeping everyone happy. Day shift has complained about one item or another for the last five days straight, either cleaning issues or cargo baggage issues. These cargo issues seem to coincide with Gilman no longer being the bag supervisor, because when he was, there were no complaints. Things came to a head Tuesday when I stopped by the terminal when I was off to pick something up, proceeded to get an earfull about a pallet we were responsible for, not getting finished. I was annoyed because I particularly remember our assistant NCOIC telling me, “I gotta run back out there and finish the pallet,” now I'm being told it was only half-way finished. I took down notes so I could remember the numerous complaints and stickied them to me desk. I was going to talk to the whole section that night and explain in no uncertain terms they needed to get their foot out of their ---, I was tired of being yelled at! In hindsight this would not have been good to do because when you’re new you can’t assume anything, you still need to get feedback. Luckily my speech did not get really far. When I came in my assistant NCOIC was at my desk, printing the schedule. I was talking to segeant "right" and then thought , “I left all of my sticky notes on the desk,” he’s going to see them. I really just wanted to talk about everything on the notes to the whole night crew, before he saw them to get my message across. Sure enough he proceeds to ask the day NCOIC about the notes and explaining the situation. Before I know it, it escalates into a heated discussion between the night assistant NCOIC and sergeant "tense" the dust had settled, after the day people left shift, we discovered major communications breakdowns. On the day the discrepancy occurred we had asked day baggage guys if they could finish the pallet, which they in turn forgot that we asked them when confronted by sergeant "right". We then later discover that the issues days had with us, they committed the same discrepancies during shift change. The bottom line was though, that there are issues due to communication breakdowns and not a “lack of effort” thing. It is what it is, but that has been day shifts perception of night shift long before I got here, probably because our workload is slower then theirs. As annoying as this all is, We all want to be able to work together and not against each other. We do not want a “shift wars” occurring, so I’m just shutting my mouth, and that goes with trying to explain all the communication breakdowns occurring that involve sergeant "right" have been other scenarios where days are communicating an issue but are failing to do their research in seeing if there is a communications issue between thew shifts or even between their own people. These situations that I have followed up on I have discovered just that. I told sergeant "right" there are two sides to every story” and I’m going to keep hammering home that point. Just because the day shift complains about something does NOT mean they are not part of the problem. I think what I just said is going to be a thorn that will keep coming up. After all this drama I have a situation where one of my airman is offended by the way our counter supervisor treated her, so I have to get both sides of that story and be objective because the airman is also my friend. Then the day shift is trying to take one of my airman to day shift because they are supposedly short on people, but this airman is very valuable to us. Drama, drama, drama. I now see how my job is starting to unfold, as a politician. I was thinking though that this is great training for becoming a future school assistant principal. Quite a few parallels with satisfying different entities and finding common middle ground between parties. Anyways, I cannot allow this job to stress me to the point where I think about it after I’m off of work. I like teaching much more

day off

Today I celebrated my first day off. I cannot tell you how much this day meant. I was able to take care of some errands and workout without being rushed. I wanted to go eat but the chow hall wasn’t going to be open till 5pm I couldn’t wait that long. Went by Taco Bell but, can you believe it, they were out of ALL hot sauces!! Only in a foreign country... I went to the pizza place and ordered a small pizza instead. It was pretty good, it was just nice to take my time to eat it since I knew I could sleep in. They had some movie playing on AFN with Justine Bateman, haha, that was a blast from the past. She still looked pretty good but definitely more adultish, still remember her from Family Ties, so long ago. This movie was so cheesy, something about her losing her memory and no one liked her before her memory loss, I don’t know, this movie was at least 14 yrs old, couldn’t they think of anything better to play? I honestly have watched very little t.v. since I got here, but seeing Justine Bateman wanted me to not watch any at all.
I went to bed at 5pm and woke up at 5am, but I actually tossed and turned from 3:30-500, still it was nice. I walked to the auditorium, it was still dark. I plugged in my video phone and called my wife. Wow, what a difference it makes from just calling on the phone. My little Jenna was so excited, she was jumping all around. It was great, we all talked for a good 45 minutes. I was in a very good mood after that, I then went to the MWR tent and downloaded pics to email and then work out. Man I can't wait to get my computer picture cord. After eating I went over to the chapel for the cultural tour. It was exciting to get off the base, there were a few people from the unit on the tour, including Mohr and tech sergeant Miles. There were about 20 of us that boarded on a old looking school bus and off we went. The road was horribly bumpy and honestly, the scenery wasn’t much different from the base, lots of concrete barricades and barbed wire. It’s weird, for about 10 minutes you are technically off the base, to the left of the road is the U.S bases and to the right is the new Iraqi Army bases, theirs looked a little rough.

We soon came to an area the included an unfinished (cranes) palace and square looking man-made lakes, but we soon stopped into an abandoned compound. The first part was an area that served as a dining facility for sadam’s army and firing range? Ya kindof weird the proximity with both. Across the street is what they call Flinstone village, it kind of looks like that area outside of Palm springs that has dinosaur and cave replicas. Word has it that Sadams daughters were trying to flee the country, Sadam begs the daughters to come back (all are married), once they come back he murders all the husbands. Now his grandkids do not have a father so to put them in his good graces he offers to build this flinstone village (his favorite cartoon). We didn’t have time to go there but we could see from a distance it had graffiti on it fake bedrock cave walls.
Anyways this compound had one of the last murals of sadam on it so we all took pictures. We then went over to the palace with the cranes and learned sadam was still constructing it when the war started. We saw all sorts of mortar damage , it was pretty tall as well, about 15 stories. With all the rubble it was like going into a 800 yr old ruin. It was then I realized my battery for my camera had died.
I was so p______ed!! It’s not like I had taken a lot of pictures since I was having issues downloading them, how could it die? I was in an annoyed mood the rest of the tour. We did go to the top of the palace and got a look at the skyline.
It was very clear, and of course the area is very flat. You could see the high rise buildings in the background, not really high like other cities but you could still see them from a distance. We were able to see a unfinished mosque, I guess when sadam was building it it was going to be the biggest mosque in the world. The problem is the biggest in the world is the one that is in Mecca, so the Muslim community higher ups basically told sadam to stop building it. We went to another building, it was the same schpeel except this was the party headquarters for sadam. We had a tour guide from the USO, rumor has it that while we were planning to invade March of 2003, instead of his party officials planning to counter-attack, they’re all watching the movie “pretty woman.” Idiots. I also learned more of the pure evil that was sadam husein. I guess he raped hundreds or teenagers during his reign, many of them virgins, which in Islamic law means by losing your virginity before marriage, that they would be pretty much put to death if done before marriage. He had an empty olympic sized swimming pool he always kept empty so he would tie people up and force them to dive head-first into the pool.
He had a viewing room above where he would watch these tortures. It made me pretty angry listening to all this, some of the guys on the tour were taking stupid pictures, kind of just mocking the whole thing. I don’ t know, there was just too much prior killing that went on that made me not want to stay long. How could a human being go so wrong? He started out as an innocent baby, a playful kid I’m sure, I believe god gave us the gift/curse of free-will, I just don’t get where it all went wrong where he started choosing all his evil deeds. Some might use information gained from this tour as justification for why the U.S. started the Iraq war. This man had to be eliminated from power, but I still feel we paid too much of a price to do it. 700 billion dollars, 4300 u.s. killed and 32,000 wounded, I’m sorry I can’t justify it for taking out one evil man. People can say he was in the same category as Hitler or Mussolini but they were invading countries, in 2003 sadm was not, so yes I believe we acted too quick. I know my thinking goes against the common military philosophy but oh well. Don’t get me wrong, I always felt we had justification to go into Afghanistan, but Iraq….?
Overall the tour was interesting but annoying about my camera. I was also a little disappointed because I thought we were going to visit some live palaces that we are currently occupying. I heard they were in another area not too far, maybe some day. Three plus hours of seeing blown apart palaces was more then enough. This whole area we are at is Camp victory, and Army base. I heard they have a big exchange and a few more eateries, even a bowling alley. But to come here you need to bring one other person and make sure your iba is with you in case we get attacked. It is still a war zone, despite things like taco bell and the bowling alley, trust me the gunshots in the background have been increasing and are a reminder. Anyways I got back, turned in laundry and since the chowhall was closed, I had to eat tacobell without hot-sauce. Brutal. Time for bed, my first day off was over, the highlight definitely talking to the family on the videophone, the picture quality being much better then skype. They recommend you volunteer for things on your day off, but I think my next day it is going to be free and clear.

Civilian Contractors

Slow, slow night. We don’t have a flight until 825. What can you do? That is a common them around here, you are basically manning a post being on standby. Just about every job description I have seen has this dilemma. We went from about 150,000 in all of Iraq at the height of the war to probably 40,000. But the military must provide for the needs of its people so there must be manning of these different service categories. For example, the base sexual abuse response coordinator, or SARC, how busy could they possibly be, yet, it still has to be manned. This atrophy doesn’t only mingle on the military side but the civilian as well. I am surprised at the number of contractors fairly young, like mid 20’s, but overall a huge variety of ages, shapes, and colors. None of them have a huge workload, I talked to the fire inspector, probably early 30’s, and he says there hasn’t been one fire in the six months he’s been here, crazy! Why such a large need for contractors? Escorts. A lot of Iraqi citizens are tasked with doing things like cleaning repairing, and landscaping, but they cannot get on the base alone, too much of a security risk. An escort can watch up to 5 people, basically all they do is a little bit of paperwork and drive them around.


Civilian contractors make ridiculous money. I would think 60,000 is the bare minimum, most make 100+ K per year easy, up to 80,000 of it is tax free. I think of the lady that is the flight contract coordinator, she sets up all the flight for contractors, rumor has it she make about 180K and she is at her desk 5 hours tops per day, most of the time she’s watching movies. Some days she doesn’t even come in. Most will do a rotation of working 90 days straight with a 30 day vacation, paid for of course, as well as pay for your flight home. Some have it as good as 60/30 can you believe that? They also eat with us in the D-Fac so I’m pretty sure their food is free. This gig is one of the best kept secrets out there. If any of you are ever interested let me know and I can get some contact info. I would think the number one thing you would need is a clean record, I’m sure they would do a thorough background investigation. A lot of money is spent to keep us running in Iraq, I remember one of my ASU professors telling me in 2005 at the height of the Iraq war it was costing 1/3 billion dollars per day to keep us running here. Didn’t believe it at first but now that I’m over here, unfortunately it was probably true.
I finally get a day off tomorrow. I’m definitely going to sleep, can’t wait, but I have to keep my night schedule so it’ll be weird hanging out at night trying to figure out what to do. Definitely going to try to call people other than my wife and download picture onto the blog. Since we don’t have high speed internet for the MWR computers its very slowwwwwwwwww. I actually have an activity planned but due to OPSEC I cannot put in the blog until after the fact. It should be interesting. Oh I can’t wait to sleep! I was looking at my pay, I will be making twice as much as I do teaching, now if I can just save it (no you can’t borrow it, hahaha) so far I haven’t received any mail and only about three emails, a little bit of a bummer but people have their busy lives. It’s just funny when people say, “I’ll write you all the time.” Ya right. But I was guilty of it when my cousin was over here two times so I do understand not being on it.

Feb. 8

It's started raining like nobody's business in the morning. We had to assemble two baggage pallets for a flight in the pouring rain. It was a big-time drag but it had to get done, at least the army that was on the flight helped. Thyere was a brief argument between our bag sup and the army guys helping us. They kept stressing the wanted the generals bags on top, which I understood, but they repeated it like five times. Sra Gilman said in an angry tone, "I'm in charge of this pallet and We'll do it the way I say to do it!" Great, now I had to diffuse a potential ugly scenario, so I told him to put a lid on it. I don't think gilman realized there was an army captain out there who said, "his bags are going on top, you don't have to be on the flight with him and I don't want him to be pissed." It all worked out, but when its wet and cold, its easy to get emotional.

I later did my first P90X of the tour, Core. I was drenched and I was able to do it till the end. I've done it before, I've seen the results after a month, I just gotta stay on it. I weigh myself in 2 days. I then went to get my second anthrax shot and asked about getting some Ambien. I heard they're handing them out like candy here. They obliged, sweet!! I'm leery of having to take any meds but I'm sick of waking up after 4 hours and not follwing back asleep. It worked great, I still woke up, but this time only 30 min. before my alarm. I really miss home, but can't dwell on it too much

Feb. 7

I'm trying to read this publication and I keep getting sidetracked, looking at espn, doing this blog, and im'ing my wife. There is this im thing through the air force portal, it's pretty cool, it definitely helps stay closer. If any of you like football there were two things I found very interesting. One is this video highlight of the number 1 high school football prospect in the country, he still doesnt know what college he'll attend http://rivals.yahoo.com/video/recruiting-football/Jadeveon-Clowney-Highlights-3-890845 the other is about William "the Refrigerator" Perry, very sad story about the pitfalls of alcohol abuse http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2010/news/story?id=6091766 I don't think I mentioned our bathroom situation. We do not have bathrooms in any buildings on this base. They are called cadillacs, portable bathroom trailers. They work the same as other bathrooms but the problem is walking. If I want to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it takes me about a 2 minute walk. It's a real pain. Especially when i go to take a shower and its cold out there. It's just another nuisance in an ever-increasing number.

I found out I cannot use my video phone in my room, the bandwith is too weak. The japanese computer tech at the MWR tent who hardly knows english did point me to the auditorium, saying it might work in there. He was right, it does. They have some desks lined on the side and near it is a switch. I plugged my ethernet cable and it works. So now I can use my video phone, and the auditorium is open 24 hrs a day. But now it is a pain because I have to walk about 7 minutes from my CHU to get to it, meaning I have to get up that much earlier to do it. If have found with this place it's a lot about improvising. It will be nice to see them live on video I must add.

May left yesterday, he didn't even say goodbye to the crew from what I heard. I saw his bad side on how he interacts with the crew when we had some issues about putting standby passengers on his plane. It was just negative, he talked down to them and he was stern, the problem was he had no reason to sound stern, we were just trying to sort through an issue. He was doing this to gillman, who just looked at me and rolled his eyes. There definitely is a better way of doing it, I remember there was a short period with one of my 8th grade classes where they kept disobeying the rules, and I had to ride them for a long period. I remember I could see they were starting to shut down becasue I was riding them so hard so I had them start their assignment.
The difference here was the kids were breaking the rules, we were just trying to make a decision on a mission. The guys said they are making a shirt that says, "I survived MAY-HEM." Now that is pretty funny. That's something he needs to work on, but I am not to judge, I have alot to work on myself. He did tell me there were things he should have done or said differently, so thats a start. I wish him the best but I'm sure the other guys wish him something else. Not much else to write about, except I start the P90X today. I'm scarrrrrrred. haha

A few things

Today we have one flight, so I’m going to try to write about some aspects of life here at Sather:
Security: It’s tight everywhere. Guards posted at the D-Fac, the living area, other areas. I find it very interesting that they do not use Iraqi’s as guards but Ugandan’s. They may not be from Uganda but they are all very dark. I guess they do not want anyone with Muslim ties that could get swayed to do something stupid. There are concrete wall reinforcements everywhere to where some sections kind of look like a rat maze. We are all issued weapons, mostly M-16’s. we have to carry them around all the time except if we are going to the gym or the bathroom. It definitely gets annoying but it’s good to know I have something if the stuff hits the fan. Still, it’s very scary to think I have a ammo clip with 30 bullets in there, that I have the capacity to kill numerous people. What’s even scarier is people walk by all the time that have weapons and there is always a chance they could kill as well. But in order to stay sane you cannot think that way. You have to trust that security is doing their job and the people in uniform around you do not just “snap” one day. An interesting statistic, in the last year, not one person has been shot at Sather, but 11 people have been hit by vehicles. That’s why we are required to wear reflector belts at night. We have not been attacked by mortar fire since I have been here. I’m sure it’s going to happen soon. Last year this base was hit 32 times, I’m sure it will be scary when it does. There are bunkers everywhere but sometimes you don’t have time to get to them. The worst thing you can do is get up to move, shrapnel goes out and up. I’ll never forget a story one of the guys at March told me when he was in the Army, one of his guys tried to run for a bunker and the shrapnel got him in the neck, he bled out before they could get to them. All I know is if I don’t think deeply about it, it feels like we’re on any other base. There is no facebook due to information espionage on military computers and you have to be careful about what you take pictures of.
Food: Pretty good, I’d grade it an A for variety and a B for taste. You can get just about anything you can imagine with the exception of Mexican food. The ingrediants seems to all be American quality, for ex. The beef doesn’t have a weird taste or texture. The variety is crazy, last night I had baked trout and chili. The salad bar could be a little better but they have a ton of fruit. They also have a ton of desserts, big ole hunks of cheesecake, it’s scary. They have tons of things to drink, just like at Qatar, still good on drinking just water, well…I do drink soy milk and tomato juice, no biggie. I wish they had more Mexican, that would be nice. They have carving stations where it’ll be a pork loin, prime rib, or an actual turkey. The omelet station is off the hook. I’m pretty pleased with it but my wife’s cooking is still the best. Most of the cooks and servers are Iraqi, though they may be from Pakistan or India, I heard some cool Indut techno song playing when they were closed and cleaning the other day, they barely know English.
Life after work: Hectic to say the least, always stuff to do and by the time you do it you’re lucky to get six hours of sleep. With me being an NCOIC I have to show up before and stay after the shift so it’s like 13 hrs on and 11 hrs off. Laundry is one thing, luckily they have a service where you drop off you stuff, it’s about a 3 day turn-around, you have to get into a routine or you may not get something clean for awhile. I’ve been trying to get my ACN Video phone configured in my room but every time I go to the morale welfare and recreation room to talk to a tech about it, they’re not around, so that’s been taking time out of my free-time. Once I get that set up it’ll be great, I can talk on it to my wife for free and anyone else who has a videophone. Watch the Celebrity Apprentice episode on March 26, they will be focusing on marketing the video phone. If anyone is interested I can get one for you, 200 for the phone, 30/month for the service, ok no more sales pitches hahaha.
I have things on my agenda like going to the chaplain and find out more about services, finding out about the tours to Sadam’s palaces, and there are a couple of USO services that I want to do for my girls that are free. One is making a video of me reading a children’s story so Jenna will get a kick out of it. They have a lot of volunteer programs, I’m sure I will do a few, it looks good on my final eval. And of course there is working out. It’s huge, the gym, but the equipment isn’t like LA Fitness or anything. The cool thing is they have p90X videos and a tv. I have this on my ipad but the tv is bigger. I want to work out 6 days a week, deciding that one day I just need to go sleep early. As of Feb 3rd I weigh 228, or in other words, 2-2-many. I’m going to weigh myself every Thursday. It’s going to take a lot of will-power to work out that much but there really isn’t much to do. For this past week, by the time I get done doing stuff and working out, I have about 20 minutes to read the bible and then it’s off to bed. I want to get into that Stephen king book but I just haven’t found the time.

The Mission: Besides running the passenger terminal, I’m starting to see the big picture here. We are basically turning everything over to the Iraqi’s by my birthday, November 30th. We are going from have a force in the 4000’s to a force of 157 run by the State Department. There will no longer be a U.S. military presence here, in fact, all military has to be out of Iraq by Dec. 31st. It is pretty historic, we will be packing everything here up and shipping it out, it’s crazy. Honestly though, we will probably be gone before it starts picking up, and the worst part, it will get crazy here when it is the hottest. It’s been so cold at night I can’t imagine it being hot but I say the same about phoenix every year. Everything is going to be shutting down, starting april 1st the subway, taco bell, pizza place, all gone. I even heard that our housing will be gone and the remainder of the people here will be in tents. Pretty soon our air terminal, all aspects, will start training Iraqi’s to take over the port. That’s going to be crazy, I hear their work ethic is less then to be desired, and they are always late. But like I said, it won’t start getting real hectic till the summer and the summer we’re audi 5000. We completely destroyed their air Force during the first desert storm of 91 so we are trying to build it back. The size and numbers are a complete joke, I mean, a small third world country would whip up on them in terms of Air power. I was talking to a higher enlisted guy and he thinks from what he’s seen, the military is too weak and as soon as we leave, the country will go crazy again. One must remember that even though the Iraqi’s have a democracy, most of the political officials are Shia Muslim. Sunni’s are the majority Muslim but also the group that swore loyalty to Saddam Hussein. History has always shown that when the minority rules the majority (think South Africa apartheid system), violence will prevail. Stay tuned for the next four month to see if anything historic happens here

First Week

The first week:
.
I have finally found time to write, and also keep getting frustrated with my camera thing. I now realize I did not bring the right cord to download pictures off the camera. I may have to suck it up and go buy a new camera and mail this camera back. I was really looking forward to getting some pictures on the blog but all in due time. It’s been a rough five days but I think I’m finally getting into a routine…doesn’t mean it’s good. May 31 is our leave date and right now it seems a lifetime to go. I spent the first two days getting briefed by Master Sergeant May, who I was taking over for the NCOIC of the night shift. I had corresponded with him through emails and got the impression that it is an easy job but there were some problems with personnel. So far both have been further from the truth. He basically told me countless stories of all the quirks of the people under me, some positive but most were negative. As I expected, most are between the ages of 20-23.

We have our people (from my reserve unit) who I totally trust, Nelson who is my assistant NCOIC but is pretty much running it right now due to his prior active duty experience and 5 weeks here already; Mohr, I have known forever and we have gone on two annual tours together; Clark who I have known for about three years; and Taylor, who I do not know very well because she has only been in the unit for six months. The rest are the young pups. He made it sound like the guys are decent at their jobs, but immature and have terrible attitudes. After talking with Nelson and a few others, the reason they have the attitudes is they can’t stand him, and the reason they can’t stand him is because of his methods of communication. It’s been a very toxic atmosphere to say the least. Clark said, “we are so glad you are here,” I’m thinking, great..here we go.
Personally I like Sergeant May. He is two years younger than me but looks and acts older. He is very much into his Baptist beliefs, and we had a few really good conversations about our faiths, but I think his personality and theirs of the young lads is like bleach and chlorine; mix it breath it and you may die. Today is my third shift as a supervisor and so far the guys all seem like they work hard. I have talked to each one of them and seem pretty friendly. I can’t get too buddy-buddy with them just in case I ever have to lay the hammer down. I have had a few laughs with them already, they say funny stuff, act funny, brings back memories of how me and my shipmates use to act with each other when I was young and dumb. I think May said and did some things that could never be repaired, but I am also sure that some of the guys screwed up, they just didn’t deserve to have it reciprocated back to them in the manners May used.
The other part not true was this job is easy. It’s not when they are doing things, saying things that are completely foreign to what you’re use to doing as a reservist. The two days May briefed me, he sat back for long periods and watch movies, of course that seems easy, but I don’t have that luxury. If something bad happened, he would know exactly how to respond because he has been here 4 months. If I were to sit and watch movies and they come back saying, “we have a passenger complaining and he wants to speak with the NCOIC,” I would be freaking out. So what I now have to do is kind of humiliating but necessary to win the respect of the guys I’m over, I have to do their jobs. So the first night I’m in charge, it’s raining outside and I forgot to bring my rain jacket because it was sunny, I go out there and start helping build a baggage pallet. Now you might be thinking, “you’re a tech. sergeant, you should be an expert.” Well two things there, one is we only do this job only 36 out of 365 days a year, or 10% of the year. Two, when you are a tech sergeant in the reserves, you are a paper pusher, I have to worry about everyones training, getting to appointments, and all other nonsense. We rarely ever do the job. But, when you come to a war zone, they don’t care, they expect you to know the job.
I told the guys they need to refresh me on the aspects of pallet build-up, that we never do it at my home station. We knock out the stuff and I hear later from Nelson that the guys like me because I helped them do that and I was personable. I need to keep helping them until I am proficient in all aspects of the passenger terminal. It is frustrating but I need to keep being engaged. Learning by doing is uncomfortable, but in my case, very necessary. I don’t want to bore you with details but we are a small aerial port, we don’t have 747’s coming in and shipping people 3,000 miles across the sea, that’s too dangerous. We have destinations around Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. To go home, one would need to take these little hops until you at least get to Al Udeid in Qatar Military units pay for flights just like we would at home, except they have a fund given to them for such purposes.
When they run out of money or just don’t want to pay, we have a standby process. You also have to remember that C130’s and C-17’s (the two main planes we see), are cargo planes, so someone on standby may get bumped due to a cargo load. It’s very complex, a lot of regulations to remember when running this system. So like I said earlier, it’s not going to be easy for awhile. My hope is that by the time the four months is up I can truly say I deserve to be a master sergeant.

touchdown

We are finally about to takeoff on the c130. We are crammed in here literally
like a sardine, it's crazy. We are almost 6hours late leaving. I should real
annoyed, tired, or whatever but I'm not. The wife gave me a very good verse
about fear is not from the lord,that he will take care of everything. It's
crazy to think I am calm and not tired. I am a little worried about the pallets
they loaded on, it seems like a lot for such a small plane. But that's the job
of the loadmasters, to properly calculate the weight and reconfigure it so the
plane is balanced. We are riding in on a c130 because of maneuverability. To
be honest with you, the enemy loves to try to shoot down our planes, so we do
two things: keep the flight times top-secret, and do what is called a combat
landing, we will be going in at night so that will help. What does combat
landing look like? I'll tell you in about three hours, hopefully I don't become
a victim and puke! To think we flew in a c130 to Germany in 93 when I was in
the army national guard. At least we stopped each night instead of all the way
through. We were supposed to get in processed, get a little sleep, and report
for half of the shift at 600, but who knows now? It would be nice if they just
told us to show up at the start of our regular shift. Who knows, we're in a
war-zone, gotta just go with the flow. I took a few pictures but we are with a
lot of other airmen, most of who have been deployed before, so I didn't want to
look goofy, taking a bunch of pictures. I have four and a half months ahead of
me so plenty of time. Two things are key the next three hours, oh ya we made it
up in the air: to get through not drinking anything and to not have to go to
the bathroom. These planes are only equipped with a little hose-thing, I don't
know how the girls do it. I used the bathroom before I left, but I am thirsty
and I forgot to bring water. Problem is when you drink you eventually gotta go,
so wish me luck with all of this!...I think we are about halfway through the
flight and my butt is killing me!! The seats are web-net type and they are
awful. Can't move or do anything, just need to say a prayer so I can get this
off my mind.....yaaaa we landed safely, this is my home for the next four and a
half months.