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