After a mere 23 hours in the air or on the road (COP Cashe to Bagdhad, Bagdhad to Kuwait, Kuwait to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Abu Dhabi to Sydney and Sydney to Cairns) I have made it to Cairns. Pretty nice place, I think it is smaller than Fayetteville, but much, much nicer. Definately a tourist destination, but very well maintained and set up. I am staying about a block from the Esplinade, a boardwalk that runs around the lagoon to the harbor, very cool place.
I checked in at the dive shop, they had the camera that my sister sent, so I am messing around with that some.
On the plane from Abu Dhabi I ran into an Irish lady that lived in Australia (she is a contract instructor at the Australian University in Kuwait) and she gave me some info on the city, things to watch out for, etc. Her points: This is the cyclone season, why on earth are you going there? (Great Barrier Reef, HELLO?); Oh, you are a diver, watch out for the jelly fish, this is their season (thanks, I will); don't swim in the river, there are crocodiles there (yeah, I saw the movie, thanks); Check out Port Douglas (sounded like a nice place).
I am now in a country that has indoor plumbing, people regularly pick up their garbage, has an under ground sewage system and most everyone speaks english. I can also drink out of the tap without really worrying about it.
On the flight I read an awesome book: A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. He was a child soldier in Sierra Leone (my last Africa mission was to train Nigerian, Senegalese and Ghanian soldiers to go into Sierra Leone with the UN), very well written, kind of graphic, but I think everyone should read it so folks will see how parts of the rest of the world are. I couldn't put it down. Very gritty, you really felt how the child soldiers were recruited and brain washed. Happy ending, though. Please check it out.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Kuwait
Well, the rumors of Kuwait being frustrating are far from true. We arrived here this morning about 0430, had a couple of briefings and folks are pretty much making stuff easy for us. The travel folks helped me out with a visa for Australia (who knew you needed one?) and country clearance (once again, who knew?). I had brought my passport which made things a whole lot easier. There are a couple of more appointments, then I am off to Kuwait International Airport for the 17 hour flight to Australia.
The trip to FOB Striker was very surreal. In order to go on leave you have to leave your weapons and ammo with the team, and I had to go on a convoy with another unit. That was the strange part - - no weapon, getting into someone else's truck. When I looked around at the soldiers in the convoy I got that really old feeling - - they were all about 19 or 20ish. Once we got rolling we heard that there were two "significant events" (translation: IEDs) on our route, one detonated with no damage or injuries, the other was found by the Iraqis. That added to the strangeness.
The platoon leader was also a female. The myth that females only do combat support jobs safe in the rear has been thrown out during this one. She led the platoon through a route that had two IEDs on it in less than 12 hours, no problems at all. She also was a SCUBA diver, so when she heard where I was going she was very jealous. The MRAP driver was from NC, down near Maxton and Laurinburg (literally Indian country - - that is where a lot of Cherokee Indians settled, as well as Lumbee Indians). He was mostly Cherokee and chatted away the whole time once he found out I was from FT Bragg. Conversations in an MRAP or HMMWV are kind of strange: Everyone wears a headset with a microphone and there is an intercom for internal conversations and everyone monitors 2 radio nets. So, when you are chatting away and a call comes over the radio, all chatter stops, everyone listens to the radio call, then the conversation picks right back up.
Nothing else is really blogworthy, just the fact that I am here and getting ready for the flight out of here.
The trip to FOB Striker was very surreal. In order to go on leave you have to leave your weapons and ammo with the team, and I had to go on a convoy with another unit. That was the strange part - - no weapon, getting into someone else's truck. When I looked around at the soldiers in the convoy I got that really old feeling - - they were all about 19 or 20ish. Once we got rolling we heard that there were two "significant events" (translation: IEDs) on our route, one detonated with no damage or injuries, the other was found by the Iraqis. That added to the strangeness.
The platoon leader was also a female. The myth that females only do combat support jobs safe in the rear has been thrown out during this one. She led the platoon through a route that had two IEDs on it in less than 12 hours, no problems at all. She also was a SCUBA diver, so when she heard where I was going she was very jealous. The MRAP driver was from NC, down near Maxton and Laurinburg (literally Indian country - - that is where a lot of Cherokee Indians settled, as well as Lumbee Indians). He was mostly Cherokee and chatted away the whole time once he found out I was from FT Bragg. Conversations in an MRAP or HMMWV are kind of strange: Everyone wears a headset with a microphone and there is an intercom for internal conversations and everyone monitors 2 radio nets. So, when you are chatting away and a call comes over the radio, all chatter stops, everyone listens to the radio call, then the conversation picks right back up.
Nothing else is really blogworthy, just the fact that I am here and getting ready for the flight out of here.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wasting Time at Striker
Round one of the travel is complete, I am waiting near the Bagdhad Airport until 8 PM tonight to get on a manifest to fly to Kuwait. Currently, I am at FOB Striker, one of the huge FOBs that surrounds Bagdhad International Airport. There is a nice gym here, I will probably head there next. I got here on a convoy about 0430, got a bunk at the temporary quarters (4 other folks in the tent), one of the other folks in the tent decided that he had to turn on the light right at 0700, just to help everyone out. After he left I just turned the light back off.
As I understand it, Kuwait is the hardest part of the trip, that is where you have to go through customs and make all of the arrangements. I will let you know. Kind of funny, throughout my military career I have done some things that weren't easy and a lot of folks either quit or didn't try at all (Airborne School, Ranger School, Special Forces Qualifications training) and I am sweating what some admin punk will say to me in Kuwait, sigh. I has to be easier than the 25 mile road march during Special Forces Assessment and Selection, probably easier than 8 weeks with no food and sleep (Ranger School), might not be easier than Airborne School, alls I had to do was jump out of an airplane 5 times there. I will let you all know.
As I understand it, Kuwait is the hardest part of the trip, that is where you have to go through customs and make all of the arrangements. I will let you know. Kind of funny, throughout my military career I have done some things that weren't easy and a lot of folks either quit or didn't try at all (Airborne School, Ranger School, Special Forces Qualifications training) and I am sweating what some admin punk will say to me in Kuwait, sigh. I has to be easier than the 25 mile road march during Special Forces Assessment and Selection, probably easier than 8 weeks with no food and sleep (Ranger School), might not be easier than Airborne School, alls I had to do was jump out of an airplane 5 times there. I will let you all know.
Just a Quick Update
Whew, another quick couple of weeks. In the past two weeks we found out that the Task Force that we have been working with for the past 4 months has been ordered up to a new sector in Bagdhad and they will not be replaced. Instead of a new unit, another unit is expanding their area to cover ours. Because the new unit is stretched kind of thin, one of the things that we have had to do is move from JSS Tuwaitha to COS Cashe South.
We had to say goodbye to the Iron Knights and hello to the Gators, our new task force. We have also had to leave the quiet JSS and move to the bustling COS Cashe South. It was tough saying goodbye to the Knights, great bunch of folks, easy to work with, great support for the team. The Gators have been working in the area just to our south, so they are no strangers to us or the area. BG E has worked with the Gator's commander before and I have talked to him once or twice, everything should work out pretty well. LTC M, the Knights Commander, was pretty bummed out, they had been here for 10 months and had made a lot of personal and emotional investments in the community, they will be sorely missed.
Some of the side benefits of the move from the JSS for SWATT: A real chow hall (no more microwaved pizza pockets and hot wings for lunch), a much larger gym and new living quarters: A Containerized Housing Unit (CHU), ours happen to be Wet CHUs meaning they have a bathroom (shower, toilet, etc) attached to the CHU. Basically they are about the same size as a small single wide trailer. Nothing too extravagent and we are all trying to figure out if we are better off here rather than over at the JSS. Hmmmmmm.
One of the side challenges is that we haven't figured out the internet situation, so I have not been able to update the blog too much. I can hit email from the military line, but that is about it. There is a computer lab here that has internet connection, so I am currently typing with about 35 other soldiers right now.
Also today I start my mid tour leave: I am heading down to Australia for a weeks worth of diving and general hanging about in Cairns, Australia. I will let you all know how that goes. The first step is going up to Bagdhad to catch a plane to Kuwait, then off to Germany to figure out the rest of the trip. Should be interesting. I am booked for a live-aboard dive trip in the Coral Seas and on the Great Barrier Reef and my sister (not gonna say it was my older one, she doesn't like it when I point that out for some reason) is sending my underwater camera to the Dive Shop where I am getting on the boat. If everything works out and I can get some good photos, I will post them here to the blog.
First task once I get to civilization: Connect to the Internet and find out what happened on Survivor. Don't send any mail traffic about the show, I haven't seen the latest episode.
We had to say goodbye to the Iron Knights and hello to the Gators, our new task force. We have also had to leave the quiet JSS and move to the bustling COS Cashe South. It was tough saying goodbye to the Knights, great bunch of folks, easy to work with, great support for the team. The Gators have been working in the area just to our south, so they are no strangers to us or the area. BG E has worked with the Gator's commander before and I have talked to him once or twice, everything should work out pretty well. LTC M, the Knights Commander, was pretty bummed out, they had been here for 10 months and had made a lot of personal and emotional investments in the community, they will be sorely missed.
Some of the side benefits of the move from the JSS for SWATT: A real chow hall (no more microwaved pizza pockets and hot wings for lunch), a much larger gym and new living quarters: A Containerized Housing Unit (CHU), ours happen to be Wet CHUs meaning they have a bathroom (shower, toilet, etc) attached to the CHU. Basically they are about the same size as a small single wide trailer. Nothing too extravagent and we are all trying to figure out if we are better off here rather than over at the JSS. Hmmmmmm.
One of the side challenges is that we haven't figured out the internet situation, so I have not been able to update the blog too much. I can hit email from the military line, but that is about it. There is a computer lab here that has internet connection, so I am currently typing with about 35 other soldiers right now.
Also today I start my mid tour leave: I am heading down to Australia for a weeks worth of diving and general hanging about in Cairns, Australia. I will let you all know how that goes. The first step is going up to Bagdhad to catch a plane to Kuwait, then off to Germany to figure out the rest of the trip. Should be interesting. I am booked for a live-aboard dive trip in the Coral Seas and on the Great Barrier Reef and my sister (not gonna say it was my older one, she doesn't like it when I point that out for some reason) is sending my underwater camera to the Dive Shop where I am getting on the boat. If everything works out and I can get some good photos, I will post them here to the blog.
First task once I get to civilization: Connect to the Internet and find out what happened on Survivor. Don't send any mail traffic about the show, I haven't seen the latest episode.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The JSS
I live and work out of a Joint Security Station (towards the bottom end of the scale of US Bases - - Foward Operating Bases being the 5 star deluxe locations, Combined Operating Stations are the next step down, Combat Out Posts third, Joint Security Stations next to last and Patrol Bases on the bottom of the heap). On the post we have our 11 man team, 8 support folks (guards, commo guys, etc.) and our 5 interpreters. There are supposed to be another 15 or so MPs coming to the JSS next week, I will let you know about that.
The compound is sitting on the larger Tuwaitha compound. For those of you with an Iraqi history background, this is the compound that housed Iraq's nuclear research facilities prior to 1981 when the Israeli's bombed it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Nuclear_Research_Facility
JSS Tuwaitha sits on the north side of the compound, COS Cashe South sits on the south side of the compound. COS Cashe South is where our US Task Force counterparts are housed, the Iron Knights of TF 1-35, like I said in my previous post, good folks to work with, they truly understand the nature of the mission and are working hard to transition the security of the area to the Iraqi Security Forces. They provide most of our logistical support and provide units to partner up with the National Police. On our side we have the 3-1 National Police Raid Company and Special Forces platoon in two buildings just outside our gate (the picture to the left is me at the flag raising ceremony, turning over the JSS to the Iraqis). These two units are the units the NP use for conducting arrests and raids in the area. Pretty good units, we are working to increase their training levels.
We have our own gym, Superman's favorite room, it has a pretty good selection of weights and apparatus so there is no problem with working out and such. Inside that gym are our two treadmills, which tragically, I have broken one of. The treadmills are from a Canadian company, I won't say which one, but Canadian runners must be elf-like in build and must only need to run for 15 or 20 minutes to hit their training goals. I gotta tell yah, the treadmill I broke was not designed for the clydesdale pounding I guess I put on it. I was about in the middle of a 12 mile run when I felt something snap in the treadmill, and that was that.
Since that day, I have decided to run outside exclusively. Our compound is walled in, and is L-shaped, so I run on a trail, just inside the walls. I joke around that we have two running courses on the JSS - - one running clockwise and one running counter-clockwise. This might sound silly, but I normally average about 2 seconds a mile slower on the counter-clockwise route, so it must be harder. The trail (both couses) is about .2 miles around according to my running partner the trusty GPS. I can get some good speed built up on the long straight away, but have to slow it down when I hit the parking lot - - there is a lot of weaving between things parked there. My longest run on it was 9 miles (I ran out of time), I normally go for about 5 or 6 miles every other day and am planning on one long run on a weekend. This morning was a 6 miler, and it was a little chilly, I had a pleasant memory about Aunt Faye's BEST GIFT EVER - the North Face running gloves she sent me about three years ago for Christmas.
The compound is sitting on the larger Tuwaitha compound. For those of you with an Iraqi history background, this is the compound that housed Iraq's nuclear research facilities prior to 1981 when the Israeli's bombed it.When we take a helicopter ride out of COP Cashe, you can see the destroyed reactor. The US spent a lot of time ensuring that it was cleaned up and all the radioactive material was removed from it, so it is safe, I think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Nuclear_Research_Facility
JSS Tuwaitha sits on the north side of the compound, COS Cashe South sits on the south side of the compound. COS Cashe South is where our US Task Force counterparts are housed, the Iron Knights of TF 1-35, like I said in my previous post, good folks to work with, they truly understand the nature of the mission and are working hard to transition the security of the area to the Iraqi Security Forces. They provide most of our logistical support and provide units to partner up with the National Police. On our side we have the 3-1 National Police Raid Company and Special Forces platoon in two buildings just outside our gate (the picture to the left is me at the flag raising ceremony, turning over the JSS to the Iraqis). These two units are the units the NP use for conducting arrests and raids in the area. Pretty good units, we are working to increase their training levels.We have our own gym, Superman's favorite room, it has a pretty good selection of weights and apparatus so there is no problem with working out and such. Inside that gym are our two treadmills, which tragically, I have broken one of. The treadmills are from a Canadian company, I won't say which one, but Canadian runners must be elf-like in build and must only need to run for 15 or 20 minutes to hit their training goals. I gotta tell yah, the treadmill I broke was not designed for the clydesdale pounding I guess I put on it. I was about in the middle of a 12 mile run when I felt something snap in the treadmill, and that was that.
Since that day, I have decided to run outside exclusively. Our compound is walled in, and is L-shaped, so I run on a trail, just inside the walls. I joke around that we have two running courses on the JSS - - one running clockwise and one running counter-clockwise. This might sound silly, but I normally average about 2 seconds a mile slower on the counter-clockwise route, so it must be harder. The trail (both couses) is about .2 miles around according to my running partner the trusty GPS. I can get some good speed built up on the long straight away, but have to slow it down when I hit the parking lot - - there is a lot of weaving between things parked there. My longest run on it was 9 miles (I ran out of time), I normally go for about 5 or 6 miles every other day and am planning on one long run on a weekend. This morning was a 6 miler, and it was a little chilly, I had a pleasant memory about Aunt Faye's BEST GIFT EVER - the North Face running gloves she sent me about three years ago for Christmas.
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