A Beautiful Evening

Well it’s Monday night 2230 hours and I am sitting outside with my laptop wearing my PT shorts, t-shirt and my A’s cap on under a clear starry sky watching the less than full moon coming up from the east! It’s nice and breezy and it feels rather nice out, although I imagine we must be in the lower 90’s about now. I got a nice La Carolina cigar that I just lit up and a cold bottle of good ole H2O to enjoy with the cigar, am listening to the Wreckers new CD “Stand Still Look Pretty” which is a great CD. The artillery is pounding out a few rounds and the Blackhawks and Chinooks are coming and going from the airstrip nearby. I’d probably be doing this from inside the hootch but we still don’t have internet up and running as there were problems with the hardware, and they are sending us new hardware. I know that Carmen can’t wait to see my mug shot on the webcam once we have the internet up and running. It’s been a busy day to start off the week, officially as of today I have 300 days left here in theater but hey who’s counting! This past weekend was the first decent one I had here since I arrived up north. I actually slept late on Saturday before showing up for work at 1000 hrs and yesterday slept in and cleaned every inch of the room trying to get rid of the fine dust/sand that seems to make it’s way everywhere. I swept, dusted and mopped the entire hootch, rearranged the room and threw out some empty boxes while listening to some nice jazz and drinking my Peete’s Coffee, just like back home! Dad I think that I would have passed the white glove test had you inspected the room, and don't worry mom all my clothes are folded nice and neat just like when I was 10 years old! It was nice being able to get that done before having to go to work at 1300 hrs.

These days leading up to the weekend went by like a blur. There is so much going on between working with the Aussies who are developing the training and are getting the necessary equipment for the Depot training that will begin in late August. I really like working with the Aussies, they are the Radar O’Reillys, their accent and charm works wonders in getting required items from all over the place. Their “can do” attitude is contagious and these guys get things done quickly! Meetings with the Army Corps of Engineers who will be the guys managing the contracts for the refurbishment, building upgrades and new construction at the depot. The site visit with the contractors who are bidding for some of the contracts for depot integration which took place last Thursday, and was one hot (temperature wise) affair. I also got to work with JCC-I (Joint Contract Command-Iraq) reps who are the ones handling the depot integrator contract and some of our life support contracts. CPT Greg S (Air Force) and Liz A. a contractor working for JCC-I have been doing a great job and supporting us big time. It’s great working with the two of them, they are both from the Midwest, flatlanders and are big Cubs fans so we pretty much hit if off from the start and worked some late hours getting things taken care of. On top of that we have life support issues to resolve like setting up DFAC’s, Dept of Public Works support for the depot and other key things that we need to get in place for the Iraqi’s before we can kick off the Depot training. It’s tough with only five of us here, all must chip in and we work well together as a team.

Today after breakfast and a quick chat with HQ 6, it was non-stop meetings. First on the agenda was the PMO meeting with the Iraqi’s. The meetings obviously take a little longer when you have translators, and some of the discussion gets lost, but they do understand some Yankee humor and that makes our meetings go by quicker and lightens things up a little bit. Today was the first time that BG S actually came up here for a meeting which means I saved my self a trip to the IZ. After the meeting I took him to see what has been going on at the Depot in terms of construction, and the drive gave us a chance to talk about our families, he has 4 girls and a boy, and to get to know each other a little bit better. Later in the afternoon I had to attend a meeting where all the tenants on the Iraqi side to include US advisors met to discuss ongoing issues and construction projects that will affect others. The way things have been going in the past sort of reminds me of Sun, where the business groups are off doing great things that in the end impact other groups. My project for example requires that some units have to move because they have encroached the depot footprint so we need to find them other billet space for their Soldiers. I was still mad that some Iraqi buffoon while driving a tank rammed into and destroyed about 12 feet of the exterior wall. The Iraqi General who commands the unit whose tank caused the damage had the audacity to say that it was caused by a new tank driver who was learning to drive. My comment to him was that’s what tank trails are for and what the hell was he using the main road to learn how to drive for? Some other tank also took out one of the poles for our high voltage lines, so I have SSG G the admin NCO ordering jersey barriers which we will have to get installed by each of these poles to prevent this from happening in the future. Stuff like that costs money and since there are few trees out here, there is no money to grow on the trees and you and I are the ones who are paying for these repairs. I know that the money to repair the fence would buy a few good cases of some nice Mahoney Vineyard “Las Brisas” Pinot Noir!

The Iraqi’s still have to set up an accountability system (one is in the works) in their Army which would allow them to hold Soldiers financially accountable for damage to government property like the fence or pole. The Iraqi solution for now is to throw the Soldier in jail for a week or two, where taking some pay away from them would probably do the trick in terms of getting them to understand that these incidents have consequences. Believe me if they lose some pay mama back home will not be a happy camper and we all know don't we guys what happens when our better halves are impacted financially by us doing something stupid!

I didn’t get out of the office until 2130 since I had to finish up some reports to higher and get things ready for tomorrow. The good part of staying busy is that you really don’t have time to think about home and time flies rather quickly.

Well that’s about it for now, the cigar is almost burned to the stub, its getting late and I have to get up early so I can hit the gym before I go to work. Thanks for all the emails, I am trying to get to each one little by little. Hope all is well with all of you back home and I know that many of you are hitting the road for the 4th of July, stay safe and don’t worry we got your 6!!

The Colonel