The Final Days of O4'

The stepped up security has certainly altered the way Mayor Cell and IPP are done. (If you're not familar with those terms glance back to prior blogs) I won't give very many details as to exact operations, you can certainly understand why. I will say that the level of the seriousiness of those duties has gone up significantly. Daily there are briefings on the rules of engagement, so as guards we're empowered to "deploy, engage and destroy our enemies in close combat" (http://www.108soc.com/soldiers_creed.html). Should we be confronted by them while at our post. Additionally large numbers of guards are posted around post at key locations that weren't guarded as such in the past.

I bring this up because I was assigned to Mayor Cell for Seven of the last Eight days, including today. I actually volunteered, I really liked Mayor Cell before all the changes and additional duties that were added on. Another side effect of doing Mayor Cell all those days was my personal free time was eaten up. Mayor Cell is a twelve hour dutie, that's 6am to 6pm. So when I sign-in at 5:45 (early sign-in is required) it's still very dark and at 6:15 in the evening when we're released the sun has long set for the day. So I've gotten no daytime hours to do anything basically. My laundry has piled up, I need to pack to prepare to move, I'm backed up on emails, and just a whole host of things have simply gone undone.

For all my complaining I really do enjoy the actual tasks I've gotten this week. My least favorite was being apart of a team that stood in front of the PX for extended hours checking ID's and conducting frequent body searches. Besides that I got several tasks that I liked I got to work with the electricians as a security escort for one last time and things like that.

In the morning I leave my room at about 4:45 am and I don't return till the end of the day at around 7:00 pm. And normally when I get back I head straight for the shower, from there head straight to bed and hit the sack at about 8:00 pm so I can get my 8 hrs in by 4:00am. Aside from not being able to get anything done, this schedule is great for me. I love this early to bed, early to rise routine. However, with all this I haven't seen or held a conversation with anyone in my unit in the last week. And since mid week last week our units main office (called the TOC) has been staffed by people from the new unit that's replacing us. So when I sign out in the morning and in at night I've had no contact with unit members their either. So I haven't been keeping up the news of what's happening with our unit in terms of redeployment. On friday I got wind that some big changes are happening and we're getting out of here this week. I'll fill you in on that and write and entry looking back on 04 and forward to 05 next time I get a chance. For now it's 5:35 am and I have ten minutes to get over to Mayor Cell and sign in.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Baghdad Iraq! It's currently about 6 in the evening Christmas day here. Today we had some steady rain that dampened spirits a bit.

My unit had a Christmas Eve party yesturday evening. Since I'm the unit's only cook currently in the area I got the happy job of barbacuing about a 100 lbs of assorted animals. We had jumbo hot-dogs, hamburgers, ribs, chicken breast and whole chickens that we grilled up. Things started with a strikkle at about 3:30 in the afternoon. People started showing up and munching on the chips, cookies and snacks that were laid out. At about 4:30 the brickets were nice and white and ready to get cookin'. Unfortunately, I was just handed these items when it was time to cook them. And wasn't given any chance to prepare in advance. So everything is like frozen solid. You don't want to be cooking meat that's frozen solid. But I didn't have much of a choice. We had a small microwave that wasn't going to be able to be of much help. We didn't have any sinks to run hot water of it for any length of time, nor did we have very much the time. I was afraid if we didn't get something ready quick that our hungry troops might wanna take a bit out of me. So once the brickets were ready I decided to put some hot dogs and hamburgers on cause I could make a large quanity of those pretty quickly. I opened the 18-pack of ultrajumbo hotdogs and found them to be encased in a block of ice. So ran to the microwave and did what I could to defrost them. So I popped those on one of the grills and them put some ribs and steaks on the other grill. At about 6:30 people were getting kind of full and we played games and mingled until about 7:30. Then came time for the gift exchange. All the gifts were passed out and then we went around the room and opened them individually and showed everyone what we had gotten. There's a really funny story here. If you get a chance ask me to tell it to you. My secret Santa got me book on learning arabic and a Koran. I tell you the Koran was at the top of my christmas list. Wow how'd they know?

Christmas morning I got up early as normal at about 4am. Then I headed over to the MCI phone trailer what was offering free calls for the holidays. And I made some holiday calls till about 7 then headed to breakfast. The Dinning Facility I normally go to was closed in preparation for the christmas lunch and dinner. So I hiked over to one of my other favorites and halfway through the meal they evacuated the place and searched the place and personal presumably for any threats. Security has really been taken up a couple of knotches since that suicide bomber struck up north in Mosul. I have to admit as I sat in the Dinning facility at the Christmas lunch celebration I did briefly feel a sense of vulnerability and insecurity. I thought it's be a great target to strike a crowed Dinning Facility as soldiers celebrate Christmas. But I didn't let myself dwell on that. I just reminded myself of the extensive security checkes that I had to pass through to get in and all the extra measures that they were taking.

In addition to being Christmas it was also the Sabbath today. This is now the forth week of holding a Sabbath Morning SDA service. We had five in attendence this morning up from our average of three. That shows that the word is getting out and some of the SDA's are coming out of the woodwork. Chaplain Cuzzins leads out and he and I are becoming fast friends. We've spent a number of afternoons talking and fellowshiping together, it's been great to get to know him.

There are many exciting developments with my unit here. We are winding down our deployment. Our replacements are here, they arrived on thursday. And this week we'll teach them the ropes and get them connected with our contacts around the area. I'll post a few more updates this week and give some more details.

I gotta fly. Merry Christmas!

Robin Williams & Company

Hello All it's another cold day in sunny Iraq. There's not much of anything new around here. I'm still working up in the motorpool and carry on those day to day tasks that I've talked about at lenght in the past.

But I wanted to mention an event that took place yesturday, that was pretty cool. Take a minute to watch the news clip (entitled, "Robin Williams Entertains In Iraq" under the Video subgroup 25 Sec.) and skim the article at the following link then I'll talk about my experience there.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1103048661448_98457861/?hub=Entertainment#

Now if you look at some of the other articles on this from Fox News and CNN and so on you'll notice that it's dark behind them that's cause that's the show from the day before that was somewhere else. Only the pictures from the day are from here at Camp Liberty (Video Says "Camp Victory" That's the old name it was changed about a month ago.)

The event took place down at the PX which is one of the biggest in theater. It's only a short walk from my trailer area. They have a good sized wooden stage set up down there where people come and perform. The last person we had was Wayne Newton. He didn't interest me much so I didn't go down there. Anyway I got there at about 9:00 am to get a good seat. And already the line was a block long to get autographs. I decided that getting a good seat was more important than getting an autograph. So I took a good seat in the second row in the middle. It was a good thing I did that too cause autographs weren't down till after the show. So all those people in line not only missed out on some good seats but also pretty much wasted their time there since the signings took place on the other side of the couryard. To get the crowd warmed up there was a 1st Cav Band (1st Cav is the main Active Army Division on post). It was a group of 1st Cav soldiers that had started a rock band. They were surprisingly good.

As they were performing four helicoptors flew overhead. Now helicoptors flying over are quite common. But these four sort of flew around the crowd and dipped a bit as they did then landed behind the PX. Once again that's not unusual since the landing pad is behind the PX where hundreds of helicoptors take off and land daily. Anyway shortly thereafter while the band was still performing there began to be a comotion to the left of the stage. And reportors began to line up and then a small crowd emerged. A tall man with four stars, who was preceded by tactically dressed bodyguards with high power weapons was the first person that I was able to pick out. And the name tag on his uniform confirmed that this was General Richard Meyers (www.dtic.mil/jcs/core/chairman.html) Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. Leading the way in was another soldier with two stars on his uniform, this was General Chilarhi who heads up the 1st Cav. He confidently stroled onto stage and took the microphone. He welcomed us and introduced the Chairman who came up and thanked us on behalf of america. Then he introduced Leeann Tweeden (www.leeanntweeden.masefx.com/) who is a supermodel she was the MC of the program. Let me tell you the soldiers where quite dazzled with this stunningly beautiful woman, and she wore a an incredible outfit to compliment her body well. Then John Elway (johnelway.com) came up and talked about how much he supports all of us and so on. He signed a bunch of footballs and threw them out into the crowd. And he launched a few that I was sure would come back to earth in Iran somewhere. Then next up was comedian Blake Clark (http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800169810&cf=mm) . He stared in Waterboy (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120484/) as "Farmer Fran." and he was a riot. He had us rolling in our seats. Additionally he was a Platoon Sgt. a Lt. in Vietnam and so he shared with us some of his experiences. Most of the news articles that I read on this even didn't even mention his name. I'm not sure why, but he was there and put on a great show. Then it was time for the master. In fact when the first announced this event the commander didn't say that General Meyers was going to down at the PX. And the others were also a happy surprise that iced the cake. The legend Robin Williams was the superstar in our midst and he lived up to his reputation. I don't need to provide a link to help to clue you in on his identity. He was able to take the common things around us such as a bottle of water and use it to make us laugh to tears. He entertained us for about half an hour then it was time for autographs. I didn't stick around for that part.

This event was wonderful and I'm so glad that it was brought to us here. They don't come hear cause they need to make a few bucks. These stars watch the same news that the rest of us do. They hear about the suicide bombings and roadside deaths due to homemade bombs and all the danger. And they stick there necks out to come here to Baghdad Iraq. To come to our PX that doesn't even have a paved parking lot. To come and personally tell us soldiers that our work is meaningful, our sacrifices appreciated and their pride in us strong. Speaking for myself I can say that it mean't a lot to me.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came and went this week. They made sure to feed us well around here. The DIFAC (Dinning Facility), in-fact all three of them, put on quite a celebration. For those of you familiar with banquets that SDA academies and colleges put on, I would liken it to a Thanksgiving Banquet. I attended the one at my favorite DIFAC. The entire place was decorated from floor to ceiling. All decked out with thanksgiving colors of brown and orange. The tables all that nice table clothes and were covered with thanksgiving paraphernalia. And the food was great. Not only did that have all the fixin’s of a traditional thanksgiving dinner. But they also had rib-eye steaks, several varieties of chicken. This DIFAC serves an area largely housing units from Louisiana. So they had an extensive array of Cajun dishes. Most of them looked delicious, however being either shrimp or pork all I could was admire them and savor the aroma. The selection and variety truly was incredible. They had football going on brand new flat screen televisions set up around the building. They really did a good job at putting on quite the festival. Before the meal kicked of they had a number of neat things outside. They had Indian teepees set up, people walking around in costumed as Indians, pilgrims and even a turkey. They also built a Mayflower ship that sat in the middle of the courtyard. A small plaque on the side served to educate the curious on the history of the Mayflower. The ship was used as a platform for the General to give a thanksgiving address and for the chaplain to offer a thanksgiving prayer. Off to the side of the courtyard they had a pen surrounded with chicken wire. And inside they at four turkeys huddling together and being chased about by costumed Indians. It was a lot of fun. I took some pictures so I’m hoping to get those developed and make those available on this site. Of course no matter what the military puts on nothing can substitute a thanksgiving in a simple home surrounded be family with a home cooked thanksgiving dinner. I guess that’s apart of the sacrifice.

Well it’s true an SDA chaplain has arrived. I have not yet been able to hook up with him yet. And I learned at 11 am, that he was conducting an SDA service today at 10 am. But now I have his contact information and I’m going to look him as soon as I finish here. I am eager to talk with him and get involved in whatever activities he might be arranging.

I got to call a few of you on Thanksgiving Day, well it was still Wednesday in the states but here it was Thursday. It’s been months since most of us talked so that was a nice blessing. I even called CLC to send a happy thanksgiving their way. And don’t wait for me to call you, I sent out my phone number in an email a few months ago. Don’t be afraid to use it.

This week the climate continued it’s downward spiral in temperature. Most nights you can’t even walk to the bathroom without putting on a sweater or something. And in the mornings everyone is bundled up with long underwear, winter jackets, thick fleece overcoats, gloves and everything else to keep warm. So winter is moving in for us too.

I kinda like Mayor Cell....

Can you believe it? This whole week I've probably spent maybe three hours at the motorpool. That's a big change considering that's mostly just a single morning for me. This week I've had Mayor Cell three times. I had it on Monday, Thursday and Today (Friday). If you're not sure what Mayor Cell is I've written a few bloggers about it in the past that can bring you up to speed on it. For starters, I've really grown to really enjoy having Mayor Cell duty. Most people have no love for this assignment. In fact I've never met another single person who says they like it. But that's ok I'm accustomed to being in a class all of my own. Down at the motorpool, there's not really anything to do. Most of the tasks I do there are simply jobs that are invented to keep me doing something. I can put in a full day, with those busybody tasks and at the end of the day nothing useful's been done. However, at Mayor Cell in contrast, I get all sorts of tasks that got more to them. And the crews of foreigners, locals and Americans that I work with are all great to work with.

Let me explain that we get tasked out to various crews of contractors. And we serve a number of different funtions. First, we serve as (QA) Quality Assurance/Control, we make sure that work is actually being down. Many times we have count the number of trash cans emptied or the number of restrooms cleaned. To make sure that the workers don't just clock in and then go and aimlessly drive around for a few hours. Secondly, we serve as Force Protection, we make sure that these team of locals and foreigners aren't getting involved in any foul play such as stealing, planting bombs or things of that nature. Thirdly our presents serves to legitimize the work of the crew. For example if the vehicle needs fuel they just can't pull up to a feul point and say fill me up. We pull up and I need to request the refill, or they aren't getting one. And Finally, we serve as crew protection. If out crew were to encounter anything hostile in nature. The escorting soldier provides protection for the crew. That's just four items to give you an idea of what our duties as escorts encompasses.

Take Monday for example. I got tasked out with the crew that cleans the Port-O-Johns. There's gotta be hundreds of them in the area. And I had to fill out a sheet with the count of how many they did. I had a great time with that crew. I worked with three locals, I quickly learned their names and we were all fast friends. Although there was a definate language barrier we still found ways to communicate and establish some comraderie. That's true with all the crews I worked with this week. These guys like what they do and have fun doing it and I have fun with them. And we talk about our families many of them are young guys in their early 20's and they have wives and a few have a child or two. I show them pictures of my pretty wife and they share pictures of their families and we all learn a little bit of where the other comes from. Many of them also have very sad recent tragidies too. For examply I worked with a fellow with a masters in electrical engineering, he drives trucks. And within the last month his family has had to cope with the loss of two loved ones. He lost a cousin and a brother, both victums of the the insurgents insanity. It is truly a pleasure to work with these men.

I'm going to request to be put on Mayor Cell everyday. Normally we send someone different everyday. But hey why send someone who doesn't want to be there, when someone's who's motivated is available?

This week I actually put into action my plan to get out on the week nights and start going to things. So I went to a praise session last night at the chapel. And I had a blast. It was the practice session for the praise part of the church service. And I got up there as a vocalist with the praise team. We sang some great songs. There's nothing like a spirit filled praise and worship session. Additonally, one of the chaplains who was there who I'm friends with told me that he met the new SDA chaplain on post. So the rumors are true an SDA chaplain is here. I have yet to bump into him but I'm sure I'll make his acquaintance shortly. I really look forward to joining his ministry team. On tuesday night I went to a bible study that just started it was the first night. And we're covering a Purpose Driven Life (book by Rick Warren). I had started that book in the past but never made it through. The master sgt who's leading out is really a dynamic leader and really inspiring. I look forward to going on this jorney with him through this incredible book. It was just he and I. But that's ok, God's word says where two or more are gathered the Lord is present.

65 F buuurrr....Time to dig out the winter coat.

This morning was typical of the recent climate we’ve been experiencing. You see it was down right cold. I almost went so far as to put on my snivel gear (army equivalent of thick long underwear). I was almost shivering, even though I was fully dressed down in my uniform with pants and long-sleeves. I don’t know how much more I can take of these 60 F temperatures. I’m going to have to start wearing my winter coat out there in the mornings. I checked weather.com and the temperatures were between 59 and 60 F. Talk about brutal. You may laugh….I know you in fact cause I also checked the temperatures for the same time frame in the Midwest was about 32 F with a real feel of 28 F. So 65 F might not seem cold to you, but I’m digging that gore-tex coat out.

Our main division here on the post is on their way out the door. The First Cavalry Infantry division is rotating out. Units come and go, but a whole division rotating that’s a lot of people. Some of the effects are becoming evident around here. See since there’s the biggest thing on this post, they’re the big fish in this pond. And they pretty much set policy and so on around here. Anyway the bolts have really been getting tight around here with a stricter approach to the rules. For example for a few days this past week we were on a heightened alert. So we had to wear our full battle rattle uniform everywhere including body armor and helmet. Then when exercise time rolled, we were allowed to go down to the gym in our PT uniform as long as we were wearing our armored vests and helmet. And a new policy was made that PTs weren’t allowed, we had to wear our regular uniform to the gym and change there. And at the gym there aren’t any locker rooms or anywhere to store your things you just lay in somewhere along the wall. That whole thing just added so many steps to my already tight morning routine. That’s just one example of some of the changes around here.

Today I went to a new Lutheran service that’s started up on Saturday mornings. Since there are no SDA services available I thought it might be a nice thing to look into. This in fact was the very first one to be held. It’s not even on the schedules yet that are posted around post. But I drop by the division chaplain quite often and he knowing of my interest in a Saturday service made me aware of it. I guess the word hadn’t gotten out yet so it was just the Chaplain, the Chaplain’s Assistant and I. But you know where two or more are gathered right. The service was slated to begin at 9am. It’s just across the street from the dining facility so I ate a late breakfast and waltzed over about 8:40. The chaplain and I chatted then jumped into out worship session. I really did enjoy it. And I plan to keep going. That is except if the rumor is true. I’ve heard a rumor, from the head chaplain in our area that an SDA chaplain will be arriving next week sometime. So if that’s true I’ll attend whatever services he starts up. And I’d be interested in joining his ministry team. That could be very rewarding.

If it were possible the amount of work down at the motor pool has gotten even slimmer. That’s incredible since I thought I had nothing to do before. Sure we are doing projects here and there of emptying storage trailers and reorganizing things. But you get everyone on something like that and it’s down with in a few hours then you have the rest of the day. Everyone is starting to get to the point where they just want this whole thing to be over with and get back to their normal lives.

Working In The Trenches

The rains have stopped for now. And the sun has come out. Just in time too cause we were swimming in mud around here. Things have dried out around here and it's been pretty nice the last few days. I'm not sure how long it will last. The skies have grown grey and looked threatening a few times since. But haven't dumped water on us like it did before.

This place is really getting crowed. We're starting to have some of the replacement troops coming in and there are soldiers everywhere. The line for lunch at the dinning facility goes out the door and to the parking lot. It's crazy. We've never had that before. I hope that the wheels start turning soon and this clog will be cleared up.

Today we had to dig a trench. See our office phone service comes to us by a cord that is rolled out along the ground. Well last week some workers accidently cut our line. So we strung a new line and today we had to bury it. So we got the shovels and pics and we dug a trench for about 100 yards to bury the thing. I guess this is the forth time this has happened. I hope this is the last too.

Remember that blogger for a while back when we spent the whole day putting up some new barriars outside our trailers? Well the Mayor decided that he wants to change it again. They've given us a hint as to what there lasted idea is, we'll see when they actually come through and implement it. It's just a little frustrating when you spent a day and put our back into something and it's undone so quickly and easily.