Kuwait

Hello,

Today is September 12th. I have been in Iraq for four days. I'll try to bring you up to speed on what' s happened so far.

August 29th-September 5th
I reported to my mobilization station in El Paso, TX. I spent the next week going through briefings, recieving vaccinations & getting paperwork in order (among other things.) The mood among our group of mobilized soldiers and civilians was upbeat. We all knew we were headed into a dangerous situation. However, we all believed in the merit of what we had stepped up for and were prepared for what was ahead.

September 5th-September 8th
On September 5th we hopped on a 22 hr flight to the middle east. The plane was comfortable and the flight crew provided excellant service. However, resting comfortably in a semi-upright position was diffucult. We stopped in Germany for a few ours so the plan could refuel an so on.

Our journey came to an end in Kuwait. When we unloaded the first thing to hit me was in intense heat and humidity. And mind you it was around the middle of the night. I cringed to think what the daylight sun might bring. We assembled in an airplane hanger and waited for the buses to arrive and to get some information on what would happen next.

After several hours we departed in several buses under police escort with each bus staffed with armed gunners. Besides the gunners each of us soldiers had our personal weapon too with instructions to defend ourselves as needed.

When we arrived at the camp we were unloaded and were greeted by staff who helped us with our bags and spirited us away to our suites. We were provided a hot meal, showers and a comfortable bed. We slept in till noon the next day......NOT! (I wish) Ok let me back up. When we arrived our bags were dumped on the ground and after a few hour we were herded into a theater (the time was around 1am) were we watch some welcome videos from the General and some that reinforced safety concepts. After awhile we were divided based on were we were going and sponsors lead us away. Well that's the way it worked for everyone except me. See I didn't know my units precise location or was group they fell under. So I went to find the Medical Command Liason to see if they could shed some light. I explained my problem to her and she drove me over to an equipment supply warehouse where I picked up about 100 lbs more of stuff to haul around with me. Once I cleared there it was well past sunrise. I hopped back in the vehicle and was shuttled over to flight manifest and billing to recieve temporary houseing. I reexplained that I didn't know where I was going so how could I schedule a flight. All this finally registered with the liason who called her assistant to have them start making phone calls. So I drove around with her as she ran some errands. I couldn't get any temporary housing either cause that was assigned based on where you were going and that was unknown at this point. We went to breakfast in a nice dining facility. The food was great and I got to watch fox's Bill O'Reilly as I chowed down. Once I was done I drove around some more with the liason. Her assistant eventually got some info and simply told me I was going to Baghdad. So for now that was great that meant I could get cot to sleep in and put my name on a list for a flight. And I did just that.

I dragged my bags into a large coed bay that had dozens of cots sprawled across the floor. I unpacked and finally laid down for some rest. I woke up around 5pm and ventured out to explore the PX building. It was a nice place. I was big and housed two libraries a food court, a movie theater, an education office, a Red Cross Office, an internet cafe and a variety of vendors in addition to the regular PX which is like a small Walmart. I used the computers in the library to send out some emails then I strolled around the place to see what it had to offer. After getting some dinner in the dinning facilty I headed back to my room to relax a bit.