Mob 2008 Blog

Besides the internet being out, there were no trucks coming in and out of the FOB due to weather.  This meant no mail for anyone.  

Well, today the trucks got in and I got a bunch of great stuff.  (oh, and the Internet is half fixed.)

First were my textbooks to arrive.  While not really a tremendously great package, my classes started and I was really sweating getting them in time.

The first of the really great packages was from my girlfriend’s close friend, Jenny.  She had 300 copies of the photo of all my DFAC staff made.  I just got them here, and they are awesome. I’m sure that these pictures will mean a great deal for the staff here.  These guys work hard for years at a time and ask for almost nothing in return.  (Note, we are looking to do something very special for them all.  It will be long term thing they can enjoy.)

Finally, and my no measure least, is my buddy Bruce.  Since I left, he has been sending me some of the neatest care packages.  I guess he really knows me, because he is always sending me tools.
Today I got a 24 volt cordless tool set!  It’s great.  He even sent me all the attachments and such for the cordless screw gun.  I don’t thing that I had the package fully opened when I had the Allen wrench out of the package, and fixed the handlebars on my mountain bike (It’s impossible to get standard tools around here.  Everything is metric!)

Then I already started to draw up plans for the rest of the stuff I’ll be making.  With these tools, I can challenge the deck that I’ve wanted to build on my pod (really!)

My roommate came back to the room, saw the tools, then look at me and I swear I saw the fear in his eyes!  Me and tool, in Iraq; nothing good can come from this!  

So, now I just have to find a few extra hours in the day to really get to work!

Ok, so off to the deck project!  (Um, I wonder if I can make a hot tub out of some vinyl liners, an air hose, and sandbags?)
BTW, here is a picture of a sunset that I’ll be able to watch from my new deck!

Ok, a little while ago, there were 3 fiber cables cut in the Mediterranean.  This meant slowness or outages here in Iraq (and many other places.)  
Here is a link to a story about it…

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/mediterranean-c.html

Apparently, this happened last January when the same 2 fibers were cut!

http://www.ripe.net/projects/reports/2008cable-cut/index.html

(Thanks Paul M for the links and the insight.)

Then to make matters worst, the internet provider here on the FOB is having massive equipment failures and needs to replace their equipment.  So they estimate that they will be down for up to four days.

What really sucks is that my college courses started this week!  UGGG!!!

So don’t expect many postings or emails from me (or anyone else at Bucca) until after January 6^th.

Sorry.

Well, Christmas is over here in Bucca and I’m still trying to catch up with the work!  As always, our DFAC staff went way overboard and put on another breathtaking presentation for both sight and taste!  The food for Christmas was even better that Thanksgiving (as if that was possible!)

The displays were mind blowing.  There was a full color Nativity scène made from butter!  There were more cakes that I can count.  The fruit carvings were everywhere.  In fact, I’m not even going to be able to show you a quarter of what they did with this blog entry as I don’t have that much space to post all the pictures.

Speaking of pictures, my job for the day was to photograph the over 10,000 soldiers that came through the DFAC with Santa.  That’s right, we had a Santa complete with sleigh, reindeers, and even gifts for the soldiers.

So I was taking pictures all day and now have over a thousand pictures (most of the pictures where taken on the soldiers’ cameras, but I used mine for those that didn’t have one.)

Turns out that Santa in the desert is a huge hit!  Our Santa was a great guy!  (Although his wife doesn’t know he is in Iraq.)  

So without anymore babbling, here at the photos.



Note, the above cake was four feet high by 8 feet wide!

I really miss my pup here.

Luckily, a few days ago, I got to play with the K9 units around here.

There are two dogs.  One is Lux (the male) and then Luca (the female.)  Both are top notch dogs (and total “hams” when you know how to interface with them.)
When I was a police officer, I handled a K9 for a little while.  He was a 120 lbs bloodhound named “Sam.”  

I’ve never seen a female dog used for attack and protection before.  But despite Luca being a real sweetheart when you have her away from others, she is one of the meanest police dogs I’ve seen in quite some time.  

Here are some pictures of the dogs and their training.

In my line of work, there is a very real possibility of “going native.”  It’s a condition similar to Stockholm syndrome.

One of my good friends here gave me a complete set of local clothing (well, this is the Kuwaiti style of dress, not Iraqi.)

I just thought you might enjoy it.  What do you think?

A few days ago, I received my Christmas gift from my girlfriend.  She had been telling me how hard she had been working on it, so I was very excited to see what it was.

I opened up the package and there was a DVD.  Of course, I ran to my pod to play it to see what was on it.

For the next 27 minutes and 16 seconds, I was speechless.  My girlfriend had tracked down most of my family and best friends over 3 states and met with them to create a video message for me.

As each person came on the screen, I was stunned.  She put together a few dinners with my buddies just so they could make their recordings.

She met with my buddy Bruce, who took her to the Touch-a-Truck event in the county so she could meet with members of my dive unit.  They all had words for me on the video as well.

Then, and this was the most selfless part, she suffered through Thanksgiving with MY family!  I can only image what that was like for her.  8>)

I am really speechless on what to say about the whole video.  To see how much my friends and family supports me was so touching that I can’t find words.

At the end of the DVD, were a few shots of my kitty and my parent’s dog.  It ends with a shot of my house.

Seeing the time that my girlfriend put into the whole production, the thoughtfulness, and careful planning she went through was amazing.

I’m not a fan of holidays.  I really don’t like them all that much.  Add to that here in Iraq, I’m twice as busy during the holidays to prepare for them, and I wasn’t looking forward to Christmas much this year and I wasn’t having a great time these past few weeks.

Getting this DVD was like being visited by all three of the Christmas ghosts (past, present, and future) and having them show me my life.

I don’t know what else to say, except I’m very lucky to have that many people that care and love me back home.

Merry Christmas to all!

Today is the BIGGEST hump day there is.

“It’s not Wednesday,” you may say, and you would be correct.

However, it IS hump day.  How so?

Well, for those of you that read this blog (both of you), you may have noticed the little counter on when I return.  Today, that counter struck 180 days.


In NJ there is a law that we can’t be deployed for more than 1 year (360 days.)  So that means that my deployment has hit the halfway point.  Better yet, I should be HOME before that 360 days is up, so it is even a little less.

What this means for me is that for every day I have been away from home, I just need to be away one more day.  This works second by second (15552000 seconds so far.)

So, I can start to really count down now.

15552000
15551999
15551998
15551997

Oh, you get the idea!

My Niece, Amanda is in her local Girl Scout Troop (1138) and they have been collecting Girl Scout Cookies for us here to give out to the soldiers and the local children.

She told me that she was going to send me a box of cookies.  I was expecting a few boxes of different kinds.  What we ended up getting was two HUGE boxes, packed to the brim with just about every flavor of cookie the Girl Scouts sells.  (BTW, did you know they came out with new flavors this year?)

After the troops took a couple of boxes (many soldiers didn’t want to take any once they found out the rest of them will go to the local children,) I brought the first box out one of my trips to the locals.

I couldn’t even get a picture of all the boxes of cookies there were so many!  The local kids loved them.

Since this was such a great gesture of generosity, of not only the Girl Scouts of Troop 1138, but of the surrounding community, I’m going to do something I haven’t done on this blog…

I’m going to shut up.  Instead of trying to tell you how amazing it is to see hundreds of kids, women, and grown men smile and cheer for boxes of cookies, I’ll just post some of the pictures.

Of course, I can’t show the locals' faces, but I think its clear what a simple gesture like this means to them.










Troop 1138, I thank you, The locals thank you, the new Iraq thanks you!

Actually, it was more like; “You need to host a dinner for the 40 most influential Iraqis in Southern Iraq.”  Everyone from the Mayor of the Basra providence to the commander of the Iraqi military in charge of Southern Iraq, to the police chief of Um Quasr to all the local sheiks and tribal chiefs.

The first I heard about it was four days prior to the event. But it was only for 20 people.  The morning before the headcount jumped to 40 people.  We had over 45 guests in the end.

So I was in a room filled with the most important people shaping Iraq from Baghdad to Kuwait.  What a great feeling.  I got to speak with most of them (and pictures that I’ll cherish for my life.)

One of the funniest things was the fact that we gave them “US Cavalry”, “Ranger Joe’s”, and other military gear catalogs.  They are in the process of standing up entire police forces, and military units and they love to see the gear that they can get!

So how did it go?  Well, we are planning to do it again in February.  With the additional time, we can do lots more planning and make it even better for them.

Being in charge of the DFAC, I was running around like crazy trying to make sure everything was perfect.  I almost ended up driving to Kuwait the night before to pick up flatware and glasses!

Here is a picture of me with some of the Iraqi Army officers.

Hit it with a hammer, of course!

This was an ordinance that we found the other day.  Of course the normal amount of horsing around has to happen first!