Motor Pool

I bet your wondering what kind of work I do here. Our unit is a ground ambulance unit. However, for all medical emergencies they use the Medevac helicopters. So our medics work at medical centers in the area and the rest of us maintain vehicles and facilities. And we do convoys about twice a week to transport patients from one medical facility to another. And there's a blogger talking about one of those. Besides that our team is down at the motor pool maintaining the vehicles and keeping the premises presentable. Take today for example we have some visitors coming next week from higher on our chain of command. Well here in the motor pool we've been working to get this place presentable. For starters you know how most people have junk drawers. Everyone is familiar with this concept. Well here in the motor pool we have junk tents and junk conex's. A conex are those things you see being dragged by trains and on the back of trucks. Anyway it won’t do for a Cornel to swagger and stumble through one of those. So we’ve spent some hot days in the sun this week hauling things out getting rid of the junk and organizing the more useful items. Today I spent an unhealthy amount of time cleaning out a dusty tent. Let me say a word about the dust. Now before I got here I was told that the sand in Iraq is finer than sand on the beach in Illinois. So I thought ok I’ve handled fine sand it won’t be so back. But this stuff is not the fine white stuff of sandbox fame. No No, it’s dirt, literally. It never rains so vegetation is scarce to none existent. And with no moister or plant life to hold the sold in place it just blows around. And it gets in everything. I can taste it in my mouth right now (yum yum). Anyway I was given the mission of cleaning up with long dusty tent. There was junk everywhere, old training manuals, binders, cleaning supplies, various cables and cords all just all kinds of stuff. And of coarse it was overlaid (and underlaid and saturated with, and wallowing in) plenty of dust. But by the time I was done the place looked brighter and the place was ten times better. So that’s one project I’ve worked on I work with the Supply Sgt. quite often and basically pitch in where help is needed. I’m not much of any use to the mechanics so as their ripping vehicles apart I stay out of their way.

This unit has been here for about 7 months. I’m just getting here and they’re already starting to make preparations to head home. Apparently entities way up the chain of command sent me in to replace a soldier who had gotten pregnant. But they didn’t check with the unit to see if that was necessary. Cause in theater here my MOS isn’t even used. But the superiors simply saw a slot open and they filled the slot. It looks like it will work out great for me. For two reasons one I got here just as the really hot weather is dissipating. And secondly, my tour won’t be as long as most others have had to endure.
I just wanted to say about the propaganda in the media. I catch the news from time to time and many times the picture that the reporters and analyst are painting is far from what the reality is here. I was watching one CNN reporter broadcasting from the area and from the way he was talking you’d think that the enemy was just overrunning us here. Let me assure you the enemy isn’t even close to overrunning anything. The most they can do is pester a military facility, overrun it? Not happening. Also the Iraqis love us. I meet and talk with them all the time. Their happy we’re here and grateful for our help and sacrifice to make their lives better. Syrians and Iranians perpetrate the violence you see in the media; that’s what the Iraqis that I talk to have told me. What your military is doing here is a good thing, be proud.