Back in the Saddle

Well they say you miss a day and you miss a lot, my R&R kept me out of Taji for 3 weeks to be exact by the time you add in the travel times between the FOB and the airports of debarkation and embarkation. I finally arrived back late Wednesday evening the 15th from BIAP. I for a while didn't think I'd be leaving BIAP when the choppers arrived, besides the confusion that was evident there was some cargo that needed to be thrown on the UH-60's which had not been manifested. So I just waited outside along the flight line and tried to listen in on the pax rep and the crew chief as they began to discuss the situation. Besides being hard of hearing having your earplugs on with the roar of the choppers in the background and if I caught every 3-4 words I was lucky. After 15 minutes we were good to go and we made our way to the choppers. Except for assisting the guy next to me who had never flown on one of these birds before get his harness and seatbelt on it was an uneventful flight and Major Young much to my surprise was waiting at the helipad and took me back to the hootch and gave the keys back to my Durango and it was gassed up and had been washed.

The next day was information overload between reading my email inbox that luckily maxed out on 9 January which made it easier to review the 400+ new emails. The status updates from the PMO staff regarding everything that had gone on while I was out, and the cold that I had made it for a looooong day. By 1830 I was whipped and called it a day.

The good news while I was out, the 4 star general and undersecretary of the US Army visit went very well. Construction continued on the depot structures with only one building substantially behind on it's timeline. The best part was that as was given to me via oral comms the Depot Integrator contract for the Depot was officially awarded and the new Depot Integrator, the JCC-I folks, the PMO and AMC staff had their first face to face meeting the previous week.

I had missed the snow from the 11th but the mud was evident and at least with the cold weather and night kept most of us from tracking the stuff all over the place. It has been colder than a witches +#$ the past few mornings, lows 26-29 and that 40 yard walk to the latrines every morning or late at night is more of an adventure and brings back those cold memories of when I was here in 90-91.

Looks like they are finally trying to build a sidewalk outside of DFAC 2 because there is none and with no street lights the term roadkill takes on a new meaning. Our laundry drop no longer has a one day turn around, but it is now two days which is a bummer especially for us athletes who could get a quick turnaround on our PT gear. The artillery guns up until last night had been quiet for more than 3+ weeks. Late last night around 2300 hours a couple of salvos were launched and once again it was quiet on the western front. Father John the 1st CAV priest is no longer here so we once again have the previous priest who rotates through on Saturdays. Don't know what order he is from but since we do about 10 Hail Mary's during mass I would bet my money that he's a Marianist.

I have had many meetings since I have been back, especially with the new Depot Integrator. Dropping the CLIN's (Contract Lines) for the various services that they are contracted to cover. I had a meeting yesterday with some of the folks from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) who will be assisting us managing this 2 year contract which is worth millions.

Today being Sunday I got a chance to sleep in and try to rid myself of this damn cold. It also gave me a chance to do some major late winter cleaning in the room. It sure needed it and is finally clean and uncluttered.

Tomorrow I am back to running and will have some fun burning off those couple of pounds I gained while enjoying that great Bavarian and Italian cuisine. Rumor has it that I would have been asked to leave Garmisch had we not left when we did since the quantity on hand of hefeweizen beer was dwindling at a rapid rate and rumor has it that I was the main culprit for large spike in consumption! It had been over 20 years since I last had hefeweizen on tap and to be honest with you I could drink that stuff while eating sausage and cheese for breakfast! Hey as the saying goes "it's five o'clock somewhere'!

Well that's it for now, this coming week looks like we will be having some visitors up to depot and I believe that with the Depot Integrator ramping up we will be having many VIPs coming through to see what's going on in the depot.

Time seems to be going by so quickly and this is the last big push for construction and the Depot Integrator mobilization, and with all that still needs to take place the remaining time I have here should go by quickly.

The Colonel