Finally Getting There

This was a quick week, for a couple of reasons, having Monday off eats up a day, but more importantly all of us have been busy here at the PMO. We have been submitting additional PR&C's for a couple of buildings that had not been approved yet by the finance folks, plus some additional generators, security and the 800 meter road that we still have to figure out the name for.

We still have some sewage and water issues, that I will be able to speak with our head engineer from the IZ who is coming up here next week and he can see for himself the issues we have, and if we get his okay then we will be able to make the necessary repairs to get running water and sewage on the depot.

Today we went ahead and inspected the Small Arms Facility with the Corps of Engineers, the Contractor and AMC. It was my first chance to do this and at least with the Corps of Engineers and the AMC reps I knew that if I didn't catch something they would. I had been going to the work site daily since I got back from Qatar because the contractor had been given a 2 week extension and I was getting calls from the IZ asking me about the status of the facility. Our punch list of deficiencies was not that long and except for an oversight between our plans, the Corp of Engineers and the contractors regarding an additional security fence the deficiencies were minor and should be taken care of by tomorrow COB. We are still waiting for the two large fans that are somewhere between Baghdad and here and the bridge crane motor which is also on its way. It's amazing what took place in these 120 days, the building looks a lot better and once we get the equipment installed this will be a great facility and will enable the Iraqi Army to fix all their weapon and weapon systems. I will try to add a couple of pictures these next few days so you can see what it looks like.

The other two parts of the puzzle have mixed results. The equipment that was ordered for this facility and two other facilities had been ordered in July and should have begun arriving in September. I had been working with the folks in the JCC-I office as to these dates and slippage in arrival dates. When I left for Qatar I told the folks at the office that more than likely the first shipments would arrive when I was gone. I got back and nothing, I checked with the Supply Depot because sometimes our shipments get routed there, but nothing. After bugging the JCC-I rep in the IZ since Sunday I finally got an answer that the shipment still hadn't left Kuwait. I thought this was odd since the shipper had said that they were planning to ship a truckload in late September. I was not a happy camper, as I have got a facility that is ready for beneficial occupation and now the equipment isn't here to install. On top of that two shipments are somewhere on the ocean and I more than likely won't see those until November/December.

The other piece of the puzzle is Soldiers. We have already started training the first group of Soldiers, another group start boot camp next week. Since HQ's wants to start repairing weapons in December they have asked if I wanted to divert some of the Soldiers graduating this week from boot camp to the Depot via a one time 3 week small arms repair course. We discussed it and the Aussies said yes they could run another course for some more Soldiers. This will enable us to get these Soldiers through the level 1 Depot training and they will be available to work on the weapons once we start operations.

Right after that it was off to church, clean the office, grab my favorite dinner, vegetable curry on rice and since it was Saturday I splurged and grabbed some onion rings. Right now I'm listening to the Denmark-Spain Euro 08 Qualifier, it's 1-2 for Spain with a couple of minutes to go. Tomorrow since I have off I can stay up late tonite and sleep in tomorrow. The game is over Denmark 1 Spain 3, that's a perfect way to end this blog. Guess I will go outside and shoot the breeze with the guys who are watching some college football outside and smoking cigars.

I just got mail delivered and my nephew Trevors "Flat Trevor" finally arrived after being in transit for almost 26 days. Rumor has it he was hanging out at BIAP for a week or so avoiding flights up to Taji by missing his show time, so he could chill out and not have to do any work back here at Taji. Now that Flat Trevor is on board, he'll be kept busy and will have some great stories and photos to share with his class back home.

Aupa Espana y ZHP!!

The Colonel