The End of the Earth

Things in the suburbs of Bagdhad are going just fine, there hasn't been a Significant Activity for over a month, so I think the National Police are all over it. Currently, the Iraqi High Command is directing several operations in areas on the borders of their area, not sure why, but I am happy that they are planning and directing operations. 3-1 had one of the missions and executed it as well as any mission I have seen them do.

BG E giving last minute guidance to his company commanders:

The mission was 2 days ago, in an area called the Brick Factory, the main brick factory for Bagdhad. There is a town there, about 50,000 people and a huge brick factory. I call the area the end of the earth - - it is on the far western edge of our OE, and the road actually ends shortly after you turn into the brick factory. It is pretty much the post apocolyptic vision - - - dark, dank, very polluted, raunchy area to live in. There are 400 brick ovens, fueled by crude oil, the exhaust is pumped straight out of the ovens. The EPA would go nuts in the joint. There is a permanent cloud of crud that hovers over the area, the day we went this was compounded by a major sand storm, so crud + fine sand + no breeze = 3 years taken off of the team's life expectancy.

The stacks of bricks with dirt on top are actually houses. 2 or 3 families live in there, the funny thing is, even though it is a crummy area, most of the houses have a satellite TV dish on top of them. I guess they watch pirated soccer games and soap operas from Turkey, as well as: Oprah (BG E's favorite show), The Doctors (a close second), Knight Rider (the orginal series) and the Dukes of Hazard.

Anyway, you get the idea. On an earlier mission in the area, we ran into a suicidal donkey. The donkey would walk down the road, cutting in front of each of our vehicles, stand there for a few seconds, look right up at the driver and give the "just run me over, please, put me out of my misery" look. When the donkey realized he wasn't going to get run over, he would go to the next vehicle. Kind of funny, but also pathetic. The donkeys have to pull huge carts of bricks from the ovens to the loading dock, and raw bricks to the ovens, so, not a really good job for a donkey. There isn't a whole lot of automation, most of the work is done by people and donkeys. I guess this is good because if the factory was automated, then all of those people and donkeys would be out of a job. I am pretty sure the donkeys wouldn't mind, but the people would head straight towards the insurgency recruiting office.

I think if I am reincarnated I want to be a horse in Kentucky or a dog in Germany. That would be the best life, definately not a donkey in Iraq or Haiti. If I had to be a donkey, I think I would want to be a donkey in Indiana, maybe in Western North Carolina.

Other notes:

I started my Army Ten Miler training plan this week, I am already two runs behind, todays tempo run kicked my ass, I couldn't keep the target pace for three miles. I am sure the runs will improve.

We had a Law/Judicial Conference at one of the big FOBs, we got there about 9:15, right before the chow hall closed for breakfast. Smelling French Toast, me and 6.5 headed straight to it, after we made sure our NP buddies were chai'd up and settled in. I had a big stack of French Toast, 6.5 go an Army omlette. Not sure if any of the readers have had an Army omlette, but they are pretty good, but they are only available at the bigger chow halls - - our tiny chow hall here does not offer them for breakfast, nor do they offer French Toast - - the fluffy kind that is made with Texas Toast sized bread, so it was a pretty big deal.

80 days to Kuwait, and no Kevlar.