Dust!

Most people's experience with dust in the United States is that thin layer of dirt that covers everything after they've neglected to clean for a few weeks. Here in the middle east, "dust" means something entirely different. This is a picture that was taken at almost 10:00AM. The sky was darkened by the amount of dust in the air. This isn't the worst it's been since I've arrived in theater, however, it was still quite filthy. This brown out condition tends to happen whenever the wind picks up to high sustained speeds. Yesterday, wind speeds were over 45 knots in some areas, which brought back fond memories of Kansas. Below are two pictures that were taken while standing on the porch in front of our office.

Baath Party!!

Part of the tour I took one week ago led us through the Baath Party house. The Baath Party being the controlling party of Iraq prior to the invasion in 2003. The luxury that these people lived in, while the average person less than a mile away was living in poverty is sickening. That being said, the use of marble and the extreme lavishness that these buildings held was overwhelming. I really would have enjoyed seeing what the buildings looked like before they were destroyed by JDAMS and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The above picture is of the lobby, just as you enter the party headquarters.

The swimming pool, supposedly it was never filled with water, and was instead used for the elemination of opponents. The wall not shown has a large "stain"

Looking out from inside the lobby . . . you can almost imagine how beautiful this would have looked in its prime.

I don't have very many pictures of me on here, so I figured I would load a couple up. These were taken at the Baath Party House and the Victory Over America Palace respectively.

Victory Over America Part 1.

There are many things in life that can be classified as Ironic. Alanis Morissette even sang a song about it. In that spirit, I present to you the palace that Saddam Hussein so ironically named "Victory Over America."

The palace, from a distance, looks quite stunning. The cranes that sit around the palace give the appearance that the reconstruction of the palace is under way. In fact, when the war started in 2003, a French company was building the palace for Saddam. After the breakout of the war, the French left the country, and their equipment stayed behind.




This is on the second level of the palace, inside of the grand ballroom. to the right, just behind the column, a JDAM was dropped in, and is a major source of the destruction that you see in the room.


Looking out from the balcony. All of the water was a sign of power for Saddam. As you can imagine, in a desert, the more water you have, the more powerful you are.


A picture from the roof of the palace.


The tour of the palace was really eye opening. It's hard to imagine that a leader of a country could build this palace while the people in his country starved and fought daily for water and basic needs. In the next installment, it'll be time for a Baath Party!

FOBulous

As promised, I said I was going to post about mobile home entertainment. . .well . . .here it is.

In the first picture, you'll see the finest in CHU entertainment. I have a 22" LCD hooked up to my Mac Book Pro. Below the LCD Monitor, you'll see the speakers. The speakers aren't much, but they work well for what I want them for. Below that is my Xbox 360. It's really not much, but it serves me well in the few hours i get to spend in here every day.


In the second picture, you'll see one of the best parts about being in Iraq. Cheap DVD's. I'm not saying they're completely legit, but hey, they're sold on post. They're relatively expensive here, at a cost of $2.50 per movie. In another base, Scania, I can get 6 for $10. I guess you can't win em all.



I've really started settling into my job here. I love the schedule, the job, and the fact that I have my own room. It really hasn't sank in yet, but by the time it does, I'm sure it will be time to go home. Only a few short months now, and I'll be out of this place and on to bigger and better things.

For the next installment, I'll show you a little bit of Camp Stryker, my home away from home.

Trailer living

Life at Camp Stryker (my new home) is quite different than my previous six months at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Nearly every aspect of life is different, from my daily tasks to my living arrangements. I never thought I'd find myself living in a mobile home, but here I am living in a room in a trailer. Part of me feels like I should put a chair out front and start drinking beer with my shirt off. Thankfully, this urge is impossible to fulfull here since I can't drink here (not that I drink anyway).


The picture above is looking down the row of trailers just outside of my door. The concrete T-Barriers are for our protection, and are all around our CHU (Container(ized) Housing Unit). Well, that's the grand tour of my new trailer life. In the next installment, we'll talk about mobile home entertainment.

Where We Pick Up Your Trash

"Welcome to VBC CST, where we pick up your trash" or so goes the handwritten note scribbled atop the mouse pad at my desk.

Below is a picture from the staging lanes where I work.



As that message would indicate, one of the many tasks I have here is picking up the trash that convoys leave behind in our staging yard. In only a few short weeks here, I've come to realize how truly disgusting some people can be. I won't go into too much detail, but lets just say I've found bottles full of, uhmm, well. . .bodily discharges that I really don't care to deal with. I suppose that's how I really EARN my pay here.

A new kind of post

Well, I've decided that I'm going to try and update the blog as often as possible, now that I have a little more free time with my new job. So, this begins a new life for the blog, known as the "Picture of the Day" feature. As often as possible, I'm going to post a picture, and then describe the significance of it, and also give a little update about what's going on in my life. . .so, without any further waiting, here goes.


Posted above is a picture of my new workstation. As you can see, there is quite a bit going on here, so, I'll try and explain a little bit about what's going on. On the right hand side, you can see the green monitor. That monitor is attached to the "NIPR" computer. This computer is used to access, process, and store unclassified information. The computer on the left is the "SIPR" which, has access to the SIPRnet . A network used for accessing classified information. And no. . .you can't see anything classified in the pictures :-) On the far left . . . . .well, that's my personal computer. Have to have something to do when I get bored, right?

Well, that's what my office looks like at 4 in the morning. Until the next time. . .

Forty Hours

Forty hours ago, in the middle of a heavy rain storm, my ride north pulled in to the Victory Base Complex staging yard, signaling that I was finally at the end of my journey. The ride north was nothing, if uneventful.

After arriving in the staging lanes, I inspected all of my baggage, which rode outside of the vehicles throughout the rainstorm. Luckily for me, most of my electronics remained dry. Some of my clothes were a little damp, but nothing that a little airing out wouldn't fix. After unpacking and cleaning, I was given the day off to rest and prepare for the long day ahead. My shift was to begin at 6:30 AM and run until 6:30 PM. This means that I will be working 12 hours per day at least six days per week. Many weeks, It is quite likely that I will be working seven days per week. For those of you who are not math geniuses, that means I will be working anywhere from 72-84 hours per week. That is twice most American's normal work week.

Despite the long days, I think I will enjoy this position significantly more than my last job. Posted here are a few pictures of my new home and job.

The Army never fails to . . . .

Disappoint.

For the last two weeks, I have been attempting to leave Kuwait on a northbound convoy, and for the slightest few moments this morning, I almost escaped.

By the luck of the draw, I had managed to be assigned as a passenger with the crew that I used to go North with. I felt very blessed to ride with the people that I know and I'm friends with. Smith and myself spent nearly a half hour strapping down my boxes and bags in preparation for our departure. No sooner than I had handed my last bag into the cab of the truck, did my former platoon sergeant walk over to the truck and tell me, completely straight faced, that I would not be leaving today, and that I would need to pull all my bags off of the truck.

Needless to say I was quite angry over the incident, especially after I found out that reason I wasn't on the convoy. . .was that I had to take a mandatory E.O. class. So much for placing the 'mission first.' I'm quite interested to get on the road and see how different things are, or might be, now that control of the country's battlespace has been handed over to the Iraqi government. Luckily for me, there is another convoy leaving shortly, and I'll hop a ride on that one. So, until Baghdad. . .