5/23

Random thoughts:

I was proud of my guys yesterday. We had one of the dreaded, "thru-load" planes that go to multiple destinations. so we had to get people off that were terminating here, take the baggage pallet of the plane, then combine it with the bags of the PAX going from here to AlUdeid. of course this happens right at shift change, chalk up another week I miss Sunday service, we can go 7 hrs without a flight then conveniently, week after week, have flights scheduled starting 10:30 am, what is it, the logistic planner not believe in god? So we have to take apart and build up a baggage pallet right when we were supposed to get off, no one complained, we did it, but then ATOC said that because there were toolboxes being loaded, we may have to bump pax, which meant that people may have to get their bags off the pallet if they were bumped. That was our cue, we (the night shift) was outta there. The day cargo people didn't seem to like it, too bad, wasn't our fault, either LOG planning or load planning dropped the ball. The old McGuire guys would had left right at shift brief, which by doing so, were throwing me under the bus because I would then proceed to get chewed out by day shift, which would then start or continue our civil war. These guys do care, they are professional, and I'm gratefull.
But everytime something will go right, there is a monkeywrench. Sergeant W was late for the third time, I told sergeant S he's now the assistant NCOIC and sergeant C he is the NCOIC but none of them seem to want to do anything about guys showing up late, I refuse to deal with it anymore, this is there crew now. All I know is they are setting a terrible precedent, I documented tardiness, dealt with it, assigned extra work, now these guys are letting stuff slide. Now the guys that had stuff said to them are going to feel unfairly picked on. Oh well, I tried, they are going to have a big mess down the road, guaranteed, people will start showing up late left and right. I was late one time since I was here, because I could not find my id card, but I called 10 minutes before shift brief to let them know so it's not technically being late.
The cadillac kept losing power last week, it was wierd, we got on maintnence about it and guess what happened? Someone stuck underwear down the toilet, not even underwear, drawells!! It is so sick it's not even human, there is no way a military person did this, had to have been Haji or Ugandan. I told one of the contractors, "what the hell?" and he says, "exactly, that's where this place is located!" He's right, but man it's Just wrong!!
It's now in the 100's, with the humidity, the heat totally saps your strength, to where just walking to and from the DFAC/fitness center/shopette seems risky.
There are continued assasinations of Iraq's military leadership by Al qaeda, it goes to show they are a long ways away, they as in their police force, from taking the reigns. I mean, people are just able to walk around with silencers and just capping people in broad daylight, C'mon?!!
I saw a caption on CNN saying that Baghdad got hit with bombings and 20 were dead, I would assume civilians, not our military, i coul've sworn I heard some rockets way in the distance this morning.

time is going way too slow, the last week has seemed like a month.

One of the freight NCO's will not tell us how to pronounce her last name, it is some eastern european, polish sounding name. One could easily deduce how it might sound, part of the problem is its there a part thats "vlj" with vowels before and after. She refuses to tell anyone, she just says, "call me "tp." TP? Do you know what I think when i thnk of the initials TP? remember the cadillacs?....We all think it's silly and actually a little unprofessional, I don't tell people "call me sergeant T.O" Very nice person, but i don't get the initials. the next time I have to address this person, I'm going to just go for it and try to pronounce their name

I forgot to mention the other day, at the end of Jenna's melt-down she says, "daddy,I don't want you watching football when you get home, I don't want to watch it with you anymore?" She's killing me, thank god for DVR, but I may have to put her to bed early on satuday and sunday. I was sad she was crying but it was a little funny how she mentioned football all of the sudden. seriously, I will be focused on them much more