Colonel TS's Deployment Adventures: Back to the Grind!!

The morning of our flight I was wide awake at 0500 hrs so I got up, finished packing and headed down to the restaurant for a quick bite to eat before heading to the airport. George and I had agreed to meet at 0700 hrs so when it was 0705 I called his room and no one answered, I called again later with the same result. I finally knocked on his door and woke him up, I guess he had received a wakeup call and fell to sleep again. We were out the door at 0735 for what was to be a 60-75 minute ride to the civil airport, where we had a 0900 show time. What a rip off here in Jordan for us tourists, they get 10 Jordanian Dinars (JD) for transit visas and then when we left we had to pay a 20 JD departure tax.

The C-17 arrived late and once on board we were told that we’d be there for at least one hour until take off. I fell asleep and woke up when we were in the air. We got to BIAP and it was just strange thinking that only 75 minutes away I was swimming in the dead sea and the pool enjoying some downtime and here I am back to the real world of Iraq.

View from the 5th Floor at the Marriott

SSG G the AMC rep picked me up, I went to get my weapon and we arrived back at the AMC compound on FOB Liberty. I got the rest of my gear, changed ate chow and then I got shuttled to the Liberty Helipad. Fortunately for me my folks up in Taji got me booked on a evening flight so I wouldn’t have to spend a day in BIAP.

I think they and I both thought that this was going to be one stop flight but I guess they figured I needed to check out some FOB’s that I never have been too before I leave Iraq at the end of my tour. I was going to be getting off at the 6^th stop. So I had the chance to see the following FOB’s from the darkened sky; BIAP, Falcon, IZ-Washington, Rustimaya (which still stinks as bad as the last time I was there), Prosperity and finally Taji. We got a chance to fly over everyone’s favorite Baghdad neighborhood Sadr City, it seemed calm even though just days earlier all hell was breaking loose with the militias and the IA and Coalition Forces.

My replacement COL DJ Dunn who I had met when he was over here in October as part of their recon and Major Young were at the Helipad to pick me up. After shooting the breeze and getting a quick update on what had occurred while I was out, I was finally dropped off at my hootch. Inside although warm the hootch was covered with a light layer of dust everywhere. I had left the AC on but set high and while I was out it reached 97 outside so with the AC on and the constant dust storms they had caused all the dust.

It was nice to be back at my home away from my real home, though the same familiar faces were gone since the TND crew deployed back home last month and are already back with their loved ones. Since the new crew that replaced them didn’t want to pay for internet service the guys dismantled the router and switch so the few of us who are still here from the original group no longer have internet access in our hootches which sucks big time. SSG Gamboa our NCOIC left with that group and he’s at Fort Riley going to some NCOES classes. Major Young’s replacement is also here and she’ll be out of here soon and I know that she’s looking forward to seeing her three children and husband back in Arizona. I too am getting short but am too busy at work to even think about getting out of here yet!

I have already started the left seat right seat with DJ and all is going well. I signed for the Generator Repair Facility at the Track Depot and the remaining 3 warehouses on the Wheel Depot. The Receiving Facility will be signed for on Tuesday, so things are finishing up on most of our buildings. Now we are in the training phase here at the Depot. The first 20 students completed initial Level I Depot training class and start the level II class tomorrow. On top of that the 60 day OJT at AECOM for the M1114 project kicks off on Tuesday. We originally were supposed to receive most of the students graduating from the OJT but as usual plans change and now were will receive a paltry 16 Junood.

It’s starting to get hotter out here and my goal is to finish up my tour without it reaching triple digits, somehow I got a feeling that I will not meet that goal. Well that’s it for now, I will update the blog in a few days.

Before I forget here are some pics from when I was in Jordan that one of the guys took.