Well today is the first day without my counterpart to coach me along. Things seem to have gone ok. The day just speeds right by. I have been taking time out to do my Physical fitness. The Dining facility here lets us have as much as we want which is a problem for me. The last 3 nights they have had cheesecake and Micca can attest to what it's like when I have free access to cheese cake. They also have the best cookies and they have baskin robbins icecream. Sometimes I wonder if I should just skip the main course and go for the desserts. The main line is ok. There is enough of a variety. There is also a taco bar as well as a pretty good salad bar. Bottom line is if I am going to stay somewhat fit I will have to have a physical fitness program. Today I ran 3 miles on the little track they have set up. The hours here are rather odd so I ran around noon. I don't know how much longer I will keep that up. Today was about 90 but didnt feel to bad. I just drink lots and lots of water.
Lets see what other things of note happeneed today. Well this is a multinational camp of which the polish are in charge. The Polish General had a dinner last night for the americans that were leaving and to welcome us. It was a private affair which was kind of nice but it was nothing special to speak of.
Today I wanted to find the range so we could shoot next week. When I got out there I found the polish special forces shooting away (you can insert joke here) We had a one sided conversation where I talked and they acted like they understood what I was saying lol.
Back to last night. I stayed on the airfield until about 0030 local time to see off the guys we were replacing. I also took a pair of night vision googles and tried to video tape the Chinooks (BIG BIG helicopters with 2 rotors) I havent viewed the tape as of yet but I think you will get the idea of what it looks like when looking through NVGs.
HMMMM i a little more time before my meeting.... so you ask what is my normal day like. Well I get up about 6 and shower and shave, I have to walk about 100 meters to the shower and bathroom. Head over to breakfeast about 7 and I get to work about 8. Work until 11 then do PT and eat lunch the back to work about 2 until 4 or 5 then eat then back to work from 6 to 8 or 9 or so. These are the hours my polish counterparts work so I kind of mirror what they do.
Well thats all for now now new pictures but I will take some of my living spaces and post them tomorrow I hope.
Brent
Friday, April 4, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
My night time routine
Thought I would share this, I kind of have mixed feeling about writing about this because I don't want to scare everyone.
My routine begins before dark. I plug our christms tree lights in. You may ask why Christmas tree lights? Well there is a small walkway between our 2 rows of our trailers and it gets very dark at night. These lights light the way to our bunker. Then I go to dinner and work out then have a meeting about 2100 about general army stuff. I usually go to shower next which is a little ordeal. The shower point is about 100 meters away not to mention the latrine is also there. What a pain in the but in the middle of the night to have t get up and walk to go pee. Well us innovative male soldiers have found a use for our empty water bottles. They get reused and then disposed of in the morning. With all of the water that we drink it is not uncommon to have to get up to go to the bathroom 3 or more time in the night.
Alright, now that I have showered I can settle in for the evening so I usually do some email and a little blog or what not. After I am done with my computer I close my laptop and turn everything off. I cover everything with towels so the dust is caught on something bedies my computer and monitor. THe dust is absolutley incredible. Then I set my sandals by the door somewhat staggered and ensure my door is unlocked. Then I crack my window just a little so I can hear the Indirect fire (IDF) warning alarm all the better. We now have an early warning system that tells us when thier are rockets and mortars heading our way. Then I crack my chemlight and hang it by the door. When I turn the lights off it is very dark and I need to see a bit so I can make it to the door and slip my sandals on.
Ok now that everything is in place I can go to sleep. So far I haven't had to utilize any of my preperations. But its always best to be prepared :)
My routine begins before dark. I plug our christms tree lights in. You may ask why Christmas tree lights? Well there is a small walkway between our 2 rows of our trailers and it gets very dark at night. These lights light the way to our bunker. Then I go to dinner and work out then have a meeting about 2100 about general army stuff. I usually go to shower next which is a little ordeal. The shower point is about 100 meters away not to mention the latrine is also there. What a pain in the but in the middle of the night to have t get up and walk to go pee. Well us innovative male soldiers have found a use for our empty water bottles. They get reused and then disposed of in the morning. With all of the water that we drink it is not uncommon to have to get up to go to the bathroom 3 or more time in the night.
Alright, now that I have showered I can settle in for the evening so I usually do some email and a little blog or what not. After I am done with my computer I close my laptop and turn everything off. I cover everything with towels so the dust is caught on something bedies my computer and monitor. THe dust is absolutley incredible. Then I set my sandals by the door somewhat staggered and ensure my door is unlocked. Then I crack my window just a little so I can hear the Indirect fire (IDF) warning alarm all the better. We now have an early warning system that tells us when thier are rockets and mortars heading our way. Then I crack my chemlight and hang it by the door. When I turn the lights off it is very dark and I need to see a bit so I can make it to the door and slip my sandals on.
Ok now that everything is in place I can go to sleep. So far I haven't had to utilize any of my preperations. But its always best to be prepared :)
April Fool's a little late
Many technical difficulties
Ok so I wrote an entry for today but it timed out.... lesson learned, I will copy before I sumbit just in case lol
Today was a pretty good day. I'm slowly learning my duties and all of the people I will have to talk to on a daily basis. I am replacing 2 soldiers so my job will keep me a little busier... well a lot busier than i thought. I will be worling with the polixh making sure thier Hummers get fixed by the american forces that are here. Sounds simple but well it's more complicated. I will have to give you an example later. My other job is to account for much of the property on the camp.... that job is going to be overwhelming at first but I think after a couple of weeks I will get the hang of it.
I have posted some pictures of todays activities that took me out to the airfield to send off some of the guys that my group is replacing. I also took some pictures that I had taken previously. Our internet is running horridly slow so it takes about 5 min to upload one picture.
Well its getting late again although I dont fell like sleeping I probbably should. Damn the jet lag lol
Ok so I wrote an entry for today but it timed out.... lesson learned, I will copy before I sumbit just in case lol
Today was a pretty good day. I'm slowly learning my duties and all of the people I will have to talk to on a daily basis. I am replacing 2 soldiers so my job will keep me a little busier... well a lot busier than i thought. I will be worling with the polixh making sure thier Hummers get fixed by the american forces that are here. Sounds simple but well it's more complicated. I will have to give you an example later. My other job is to account for much of the property on the camp.... that job is going to be overwhelming at first but I think after a couple of weeks I will get the hang of it.
I have posted some pictures of todays activities that took me out to the airfield to send off some of the guys that my group is replacing. I also took some pictures that I had taken previously. Our internet is running horridly slow so it takes about 5 min to upload one picture.
Well its getting late again although I dont fell like sleeping I probbably should. Damn the jet lag lol
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
30 March
The last couple days have run together. We arrived in Kuwait at about 2130 local time which is 9:30 PM it took us 17 hours from the time we left Atlanta to the time we landed I Kuwait. From there we inprocessed and headed out to meet with our convoy at about 0430. We didn’t get any sleep that night and have only had a few cat naps as I type this. It is currently 2130 local time 0n the 31st of March. We didn’t make it to Camp Echo tonight because we got a late start. Even though we arrived on time to pick up our convoy they were on crew rest until 1100 hours since they didn’t arrive until 0300 that morning. The trucks that we rode in were very well equipped. They had as much armor on them as the Hummers do which was quite comforting as we crossed into Iraq at about 1230. There were several camels walking around the fence and the polish troops jumped out and took the opportunity for a photo op with the camel. It was quite humorous. As we drove along Kathy (the truck driver) took the time to point out many of the features about Iraq. Mainly she pointed out some of the IED craters left by IEDs… duhhh lol.
We arrived at Tallil (Camp Adder) about 1630. They put us up in a nice trailer with some AC and I got a chance to take a shower for the first time in 3 days. The Dining facility was absolutely amazing. They say Camp Echo is even better. If that is the case I am going to have some difficulty losing the weight I want to. Well maybe not today was 101 degrees and it was pretty overcast for the most part. I am told that Camp Echo regularly sees temperatures in excess of 120 and often 130. It was Kind of funny today during the convoy one of the trucks blew a tire and the entire convoy pulled over to wait for it to be changed. Loren and I were standing between trucks pulling security as we waited and we commented that we should get out of the truck exhaust. We moved but the exhaust seemed to follow us. We quickly came to the conclusion that it was just damn hot. Don’t forget we are wearing our Bullet proof vests and helmets. The new vests with all of the protection easily weigh 45 lbs but I am guessing that the bigger ones are pushing close to 55 or 60. I do feel really safe but It is very difficult to move.
Forgive me if I ramble, but I’m a tad tired and just typed todays events as I remembered them.
We arrived at Tallil (Camp Adder) about 1630. They put us up in a nice trailer with some AC and I got a chance to take a shower for the first time in 3 days. The Dining facility was absolutely amazing. They say Camp Echo is even better. If that is the case I am going to have some difficulty losing the weight I want to. Well maybe not today was 101 degrees and it was pretty overcast for the most part. I am told that Camp Echo regularly sees temperatures in excess of 120 and often 130. It was Kind of funny today during the convoy one of the trucks blew a tire and the entire convoy pulled over to wait for it to be changed. Loren and I were standing between trucks pulling security as we waited and we commented that we should get out of the truck exhaust. We moved but the exhaust seemed to follow us. We quickly came to the conclusion that it was just damn hot. Don’t forget we are wearing our Bullet proof vests and helmets. The new vests with all of the protection easily weigh 45 lbs but I am guessing that the bigger ones are pushing close to 55 or 60. I do feel really safe but It is very difficult to move.
Forgive me if I ramble, but I’m a tad tired and just typed todays events as I remembered them.
THis is actually 29 Mar
Hello everyone. I’m writing this today the 29th of March. It is about 10:00 AM local time and I’m currently in Leipzig Germany. I’m writing this knowing I won’t be able to actually post it until later. We are waiting for the aircraft to refuel. I’ve been stuck on that plane for just over 8 hours. I will soon reboard and head out for another 5 hour flight to Kuwait. I certainly don’t envy people who travel internationally all the time.
This flight is rather odd in that it is not all military. We have about half contractor and half military. Another thing that I find funny is how we can just carry our weapons right onto the aircraft. They did make us remove our bolts from our M4 rifles but we didn’t have to do anything to our pistols. I guess I should quit trying to apply common sense to some things.
The man that is in the seat next to me is an Iraqi national that left Iraq when Saddam invaded the first time in 90. He left his current job to go back to be an interpreter. He said he had been at the same job for 16 years but this was to lucrative of an opportunity to pass up.
This flight is rather odd in that it is not all military. We have about half contractor and half military. Another thing that I find funny is how we can just carry our weapons right onto the aircraft. They did make us remove our bolts from our M4 rifles but we didn’t have to do anything to our pistols. I guess I should quit trying to apply common sense to some things.
The man that is in the seat next to me is an Iraqi national that left Iraq when Saddam invaded the first time in 90. He left his current job to go back to be an interpreter. He said he had been at the same job for 16 years but this was to lucrative of an opportunity to pass up.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
They call it freedom flight
Well today was another busy day. We started out by qualifying with our 9mm pistols which was farily easy for me. They pop targets up at different ranges form 15 to 40 meters and you shoot them down. Then we went to the M4 range. That was a little more difficult for me but I got it done nonetheless. In theater we will carry both weapons. I feel very fortunate and kind of special since most people coming through here only get one or the other and I get both. It made for a long day on the ranges though.
After qualifying we got our transportation brief. We were told the plane we will be flying on is called the freedom bird. Yeah it makes me wonder who the smartass was that got to nickname that flight.
Today things have finally started to hit me. I think everyone else is feeling somewhat the same way. I am both anxious to get to where I am going and get to work and part of me would rather just go home. The latter of course isn't an option. I do miss Micca and the kids terribly already, but I think that is pretty much understood by all.
I appreciate the posts and would love to hear from anyone about anything. I will hopefully start posting some pictures soon once I can find a better connection.
Later for now
Brent
After qualifying we got our transportation brief. We were told the plane we will be flying on is called the freedom bird. Yeah it makes me wonder who the smartass was that got to nickname that flight.
Today things have finally started to hit me. I think everyone else is feeling somewhat the same way. I am both anxious to get to where I am going and get to work and part of me would rather just go home. The latter of course isn't an option. I do miss Micca and the kids terribly already, but I think that is pretty much understood by all.
I appreciate the posts and would love to hear from anyone about anything. I will hopefully start posting some pictures soon once I can find a better connection.
Later for now
Brent
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Back in the blogging saddle (maybe)
It has been awhile since my last entry. So much has happened. First and foremost Micca and were married on the 29th of February. We enjoyed our 21 days together before I had to leave. I sit here now at Ft . Benning working through the mobilization process. We are suppose to leave on Friday which would put us in Kuwait before the end of the month. I hope I hit the ground before the end of the month since there are many advantages in pay. We should only spend a short time in Kuwait (less than 24hours) and convoy out to Camp Echo.
I am excited to get this part of our deployment over with. Our accommodations here are ok but honestly I would rather be in Iraq so I could get settled in and into my routine. We still have a couple days of training left. So far we have received our new high speed equipment. The new helmet is nice but the body armor seems to grow more and more. With all of the plates and accessories it weighs in around 45 lbs. I don’t know if we will wear every piece of it since we won’t be in a high threat environment. So far I have 3 duffle bags of equipment they have issued. I processed through medical yesterday and felt fortunate to only have to get 2 shots. I got my 9th Anthrax shot. They told me I could get 250 bucks when I get back for a pint of blood since I had more than 6 shots. Today we finished all of the personnel stuff like life insurance and pay and what not. Tomorrow will be spent in the classroom and the day after on the range. The weather should be nice as it is a very nice time of year to be in Georgia.
Well that’s all for now I hope to be more diligent in my blogging in the future.
If you have questions or what to know more please feel free to post your questions and comments. That makes it easier for me to have something to write about.
Brent
I am excited to get this part of our deployment over with. Our accommodations here are ok but honestly I would rather be in Iraq so I could get settled in and into my routine. We still have a couple days of training left. So far we have received our new high speed equipment. The new helmet is nice but the body armor seems to grow more and more. With all of the plates and accessories it weighs in around 45 lbs. I don’t know if we will wear every piece of it since we won’t be in a high threat environment. So far I have 3 duffle bags of equipment they have issued. I processed through medical yesterday and felt fortunate to only have to get 2 shots. I got my 9th Anthrax shot. They told me I could get 250 bucks when I get back for a pint of blood since I had more than 6 shots. Today we finished all of the personnel stuff like life insurance and pay and what not. Tomorrow will be spent in the classroom and the day after on the range. The weather should be nice as it is a very nice time of year to be in Georgia.
Well that’s all for now I hope to be more diligent in my blogging in the future.
If you have questions or what to know more please feel free to post your questions and comments. That makes it easier for me to have something to write about.
Brent
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