Day one of my part in the Multi-National Force Review Committee. It was actually easier than I expected. I worked hard doing my homework and prep. I spent 4 hours with the files the day before. Hoepfully I can get that down to a more manageable time.
The questions came easy since I had spent so much time with the files and took decent notes on what I wanted to quiz them about. As expected some were easy to decide and others were difficult. In the end it comes down to your own judgement. As I have said before - the culture under SH was one that did not tolerate people admitting to anything - otherwise they were killed. They grew up in a culture of deception. I did my best to look them in the eye as much as possible. I'm not sure I'm that good at reading people, but I at least feel better when I do that. They won't hold my stare for very long.
I won't share results or specific cases, but you should know it is quite a cross section of society and situations.
I'll stop before I accidentaly say something I shouldn't.
Because of the manning situation I'm not on the board tomorrow. This week I am kind of on a one day on one day off. That will allow me to review files on the off days.
Had hoped to watch Alien vs Predator Requiem in the small "movie room" in the MWR facility attached to the gym - but it was such a bad copy and bad plot I only stayed for the first 30 mins. The daily rag Stars and Stripes I have referenced before does not get here dialy. That's kind of a bummer. SO news that way is a few days old. I still have some access to TVs and I can burn my precious internet time on foxnews.com but I usually do not. No jackals here that I know of.
To clarify something from a reader - The showers and bathrooms are in metal trailers - not tents. It' s kind of like a locker room arrangment. The sinks and showers are in one trailer and the toilets are in another trailer. Kind of annoying - but I see why they do it to make management of the blackwater easier.
Thanks for your prayers and support.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Calm Before the Storm
Greetings. The schedule has me on my first board starting Saturday. Then I'm on for the next 6 days...and probably next 6 months.
with moderate temps it is hot in the day and cold at night. We've had the maintenance people out for three days in a row looking at the heat/cool system and they don't seem to know the problem or don't care. Ok so I have this one bunk bed. I sleep on bottom and kind of store my gear on top. This a large tent with 10-12 rooms like this one each with 4-5 bunk units in it. They are separated by thin wooden walls. I also have a "locker" pictured below. I actually have two. I bought the carpet you see to help make it a little more homey so I can put my feet down and not instantly be covered in dust/dirt.
Here is the outside. Note the lovely curb appeal of the bunker/shelter right outside the door. Perfect for those late night mortar attacks (none of those yet...but I'm sure one day they will come). Shower and Bathroom facilities are in a separate trailers just about 50-100 yards down the road. I'll get some picks of Downtown and the surrounding areas in the coming days so you can see the rest of my little town. No pics of the internment facility or the detainees - big no no.
Today I wanted to share some about my current living conditions. I took some pics of the tent we are in and of "my room" - it is kind of a mess, but there is no real need to straighten too much. It's all temporary anyway. Although it could be months before we get into metal housing units. I did make my bed for you. It's standard desert living. Even
Here is the outside. Note the lovely curb appeal of the bunker/shelter right outside the door. Perfect for those late night mortar attacks (none of those yet...but I'm sure one day they will come). Shower and Bathroom facilities are in a separate trailers just about 50-100 yards down the road. I'll get some picks of Downtown and the surrounding areas in the coming days so you can see the rest of my little town. No pics of the internment facility or the detainees - big no no.
The other thing I wanted to write about are my thoughts heading into Saturday. I am reading A Table in the Presence - by a former USMC Chaplain. It's about his journey with one of the first units across the Iraqi border in 2003. It is very interesting. The insight into the culture and the way things were like for the people here has been very enlightning. Now as I sit on the eve of my first opportunity to come face to face with these people and be a part of thier lives - the consequences of my decisions weigh heavily upon me. Granted I am not the only one to review or decide, nor is my decision/vote in any way the final say, but it is clearly part of the process and is one factor in determining the future of that person for the near term. Pray for me and for wisdom to see the truth.
BTW - steak and crab leg night is Wed night in Bucca. Shrimp was ok - just like at Victory.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
From the middle of no-where
Today I'll try to recap our day trip from Buehring to Bucca. We were lucky enough to be "tied" to a large group so there were multiple black-hawk helos to carry us. The bad news is we were the end of the line becuase we were last to be added. That meant lots of stand around time waiting for our turn on the helo.
The other interesting part was our luggage. As usual the AF guys have way more "gear" than the other services. Insert your standard kitchen sink joke here. In fact we had so much stuff and we were the last group but did not have as many people as they had seats so they decided to pile all our stuff into one helo and then put people in the other two.
It was a nice smooth ride. We flew over very isolated desert. Nothing but flat lands and small hills all covered with sand for many many miles. Imagine Kansas plains but no green. All dry lifeless sand. Eventually we did get to some small groups of tents and structures where people lived. They were sproadic at first but then we did get close enough to some sort of greenhouse nursery area. I assume that is what it was. Lots of nice green in the sea of brown. Clearly planted and tended to thrive in this harsh environment.
As we got closer we could see the area of Umm Qasr. It looks to be a real city. I belive there is some sort of port/water access there as well.
One of the things we have from our travels is perspective, we've seen life in Kuwait for a week or two and life in Baghdad for a week or two, and now we can compare that to life in Bucca. Some things are better some are worse. I'll try to document those as time goes by. First impression is things are OK...not great but not the worst. It is smaller so the walk is much shorter than at Victory. We are in a large tent, but it has some plywood walls, "lockers" (I used quotes becuase many do not lock) and bunkbeds. After some searching and moving a time or two I found a bottom bunk I am happy with. Roommates seem ok.
We observed boards again today - things are slightly different than Cropper, but big picture it is all the same. Our presence helps these guys out a lot I think. They can rotate people in and out of the schedule a little more. Some of us start tomorrow. My first board is not till Saturday I think. They still don't have a good office for us to access computers and phones. But I can use the recreational facilities they have and type blogs like this one. I can get easy access to a PC here in the internet tent, but uploading pictures might be an issue. I'll have to figure out a plan for that one. They have many eating facilities here (Burger King, pizza, etc), but the D-Fac is plenty big and decent. Like I said yesterday they have DP. One issue is they do not have pumkin pie. I don't care, but my buddy has become addicted to Pumpkin pie at all the other places. I told him to find the "feedback/comments" box and write that one up. No "wings" caller either.
I'll cut this off and save more for another day.
comments:
AFN did block the commercials for the S-Bowl. I was able to see the main parts and then over the series of the next few days I caught a majority of the game at different times.
The other interesting part was our luggage. As usual the AF guys have way more "gear" than the other services. Insert your standard kitchen sink joke here. In fact we had so much stuff and we were the last group but did not have as many people as they had seats so they decided to pile all our stuff into one helo and then put people in the other two.
It was a nice smooth ride. We flew over very isolated desert. Nothing but flat lands and small hills all covered with sand for many many miles. Imagine Kansas plains but no green. All dry lifeless sand. Eventually we did get to some small groups of tents and structures where people lived. They were sproadic at first but then we did get close enough to some sort of greenhouse nursery area. I assume that is what it was. Lots of nice green in the sea of brown. Clearly planted and tended to thrive in this harsh environment.
As we got closer we could see the area of Umm Qasr. It looks to be a real city. I belive there is some sort of port/water access there as well.
One of the things we have from our travels is perspective, we've seen life in Kuwait for a week or two and life in Baghdad for a week or two, and now we can compare that to life in Bucca. Some things are better some are worse. I'll try to document those as time goes by. First impression is things are OK...not great but not the worst. It is smaller so the walk is much shorter than at Victory. We are in a large tent, but it has some plywood walls, "lockers" (I used quotes becuase many do not lock) and bunkbeds. After some searching and moving a time or two I found a bottom bunk I am happy with. Roommates seem ok.
We observed boards again today - things are slightly different than Cropper, but big picture it is all the same. Our presence helps these guys out a lot I think. They can rotate people in and out of the schedule a little more. Some of us start tomorrow. My first board is not till Saturday I think. They still don't have a good office for us to access computers and phones. But I can use the recreational facilities they have and type blogs like this one. I can get easy access to a PC here in the internet tent, but uploading pictures might be an issue. I'll have to figure out a plan for that one. They have many eating facilities here (Burger King, pizza, etc), but the D-Fac is plenty big and decent. Like I said yesterday they have DP. One issue is they do not have pumkin pie. I don't care, but my buddy has become addicted to Pumpkin pie at all the other places. I told him to find the "feedback/comments" box and write that one up. No "wings" caller either.
I'll cut this off and save more for another day.
comments:
AFN did block the commercials for the S-Bowl. I was able to see the main parts and then over the series of the next few days I caught a majority of the game at different times.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Home sweet Home
We finally made it to Camp Bucca. A quick blackhawk-helo ride in. It was all very uneventful. It will take me a fe days to get settled in and post pictures and stuff. Just wanted to let you know I am here and safe.
BTW - they have Dr Pepper - wahoo God is GREAT!!
BTW - they have Dr Pepper - wahoo God is GREAT!!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Unbelievable
Today started early, a 0600 show for a bus to the airport. That obviously messed up any plans we had to see the Superbowl. But I was able to get up in time to eat breakfast around 0540 and I was able to watch the last 4 min or so of the game in the D-fac. I saw both teams score and the exciting finish – there is a God. You might think my title is related to the unbelievable upset the NY Football Giants put on the Patriots. It’s not. I’ll get to that in a minute. It is unbelievable to me though that the Pats didn’t just walk all over the Giants. They had so many weapons and were so good all year. Even when the Giants played them close a few weeks ago they still came out on top and I figured that would help the Pats to really crush the Giants this time and make sure they went undefeated. In a sense I wanted the Pats to win for Brady – I think he is a great football player, but in other ways I wanted them to lose. This loss only enhances the mystique of the Miami Dolphin’s undefeated season. And I’m not fond of the Pat’s coach so I’m ok with the Giants being champs. But you didn’t tune in to read my thoughts on football – you can get football commentary on any website.
The TEA blog is the only place you can truly see a miracle. The pic below is of my long lost laundry. Yes it finally caught back up with us today. We departed Baghdad Airport around lunch time and flew on a C-130. It was blue. It was a Japanese Air Force C-130. We all kind of laughed as we exited the building and saw the large blue C-130. As usual we were surrounded by young Army troops (most of them going on some kind of R&R break) and I overheard one of them say “I didn’t know they made blue ones?” I thought it was funny. The crew passed around “safety instructions” on a card printed in English on one side and Japanese on the other.
Ok so back to Kuwait. We flew south to Ali Al Saleem (or however you say it) AB (otherwise known as The Rock) and made it to the transition spot to go elsewhere in theater. I just have to say the Lord continues to shine on us. When we got to the place to sign up for transpo to Bucca and we made it just in time to get on today’s bus from Ali to Camp Buehring (literally by just a few minutes). And it sounds like we’ll depart tomorrow for Bucca on a helo. Bucca does not have a runway – so no fixed wing flights. During the few minutes were there gathering our bags one of our MSgt’s asked a few questions and quickly runs into the guy who knew where our laundry was. He made a call and then someone else made a quick ride across the base and cha-ching our laundry was back. If you remember it was “cleaned” here at Buehring a couple of weeks ago when we were here last. We had completed the necessary training and were told we’d sit there for a week waiting on our flight. Then the next day they changed the plans for us to fly to Baghdad. Many thought for sure those clothes/uniforms were gone forever.
The good news is we have linked up with many others going to Bucca and that will help the mighty military machine actually get us there – strength (and importance in getting a flight) in numbers. The bad side is we are all together and we’re in a giant open bay tent with 50+ of our closest strangers.
Just so you know the last day in Baghdad was another disappointment. Nothing but silly paper shuffling. And to add to the disappointment, this morning we had to say goodbye to one of our nine. He stayed for the chance of glory there at Camp Cropper. I was able to hit the weekly chapel service Sunday night so I guess it wasn’t all bad. I wanted to get a group shot of us at the “Welcome to Camp Victory” sign, but that never worked out. Oh well. We’ll get one of all eight when we get to Bucca. The pic below is one of me back at Camp Victory. I think this building is/was a mosque that is next to the building where we were working.
The TEA blog is the only place you can truly see a miracle. The pic below is of my long lost laundry. Yes it finally caught back up with us today. We departed Baghdad Airport around lunch time and flew on a C-130. It was blue. It was a Japanese Air Force C-130. We all kind of laughed as we exited the building and saw the large blue C-130. As usual we were surrounded by young Army troops (most of them going on some kind of R&R break) and I overheard one of them say “I didn’t know they made blue ones?” I thought it was funny. The crew passed around “safety instructions” on a card printed in English on one side and Japanese on the other.
Ok so back to Kuwait. We flew south to Ali Al Saleem (or however you say it) AB (otherwise known as The Rock) and made it to the transition spot to go elsewhere in theater. I just have to say the Lord continues to shine on us. When we got to the place to sign up for transpo to Bucca and we made it just in time to get on today’s bus from Ali to Camp Buehring (literally by just a few minutes). And it sounds like we’ll depart tomorrow for Bucca on a helo. Bucca does not have a runway – so no fixed wing flights. During the few minutes were there gathering our bags one of our MSgt’s asked a few questions and quickly runs into the guy who knew where our laundry was. He made a call and then someone else made a quick ride across the base and cha-ching our laundry was back. If you remember it was “cleaned” here at Buehring a couple of weeks ago when we were here last. We had completed the necessary training and were told we’d sit there for a week waiting on our flight. Then the next day they changed the plans for us to fly to Baghdad. Many thought for sure those clothes/uniforms were gone forever.
The good news is we have linked up with many others going to Bucca and that will help the mighty military machine actually get us there – strength (and importance in getting a flight) in numbers. The bad side is we are all together and we’re in a giant open bay tent with 50+ of our closest strangers.
Just so you know the last day in Baghdad was another disappointment. Nothing but silly paper shuffling. And to add to the disappointment, this morning we had to say goodbye to one of our nine. He stayed for the chance of glory there at Camp Cropper. I was able to hit the weekly chapel service Sunday night so I guess it wasn’t all bad. I wanted to get a group shot of us at the “Welcome to Camp Victory” sign, but that never worked out. Oh well. We’ll get one of all eight when we get to Bucca. The pic below is one of me back at Camp Victory. I think this building is/was a mosque that is next to the building where we were working.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Uuuhhhh – could I get a Volunteer?
Today is Saturday – I think. It’s tough to keep track when the days seem the same. Everyone jokes that it’s like Groundhog day around here. Same routine day after day. Ironically it is Groundhog day today. The shop we’ve been working in gathers together on Saturday nights and watches a movie and socializes…today they are watching…you guessed it - Groundhog Day. I declined the invitation. We don’t know most of them and you know me…the stand-offish guy.
We kind of finished our oh so meaningful task of putting files away. There is a Navy Lt that is appreciative of our efforts. I think she saw the task as a major part of her many month deployment and we knocked it out in just a week or so.
I’ll recap the groundhog day for you just for grins:
0630 wakeup – shower – shave and dress
0715ish – breakfast – it was Saturday so I splurged with an Omelet and a doughnut (usually it’s just cereal for me)
0800 walk around the palace to our building
0815 open the large metal containers and begin placing loose papers amongst thousands of files
1100 quick check of work e-mail
1130 lunch – salad, plus a small taco salad mix on the side
1215 walk back around the lake, this time walk along the edge of the water on a sidewalk/path just above lake level – just to be different
1230 we had finished most of the papers so we started closing up
1300ish more files brought out from the dungeon (or wherever she was storing them)
1315 put the movie MASH in the dvd player while we sort a few thousand other pages into numerical order
**** we all looked and wondered how “different” the current deployment would be with alcohol. No alcohol here in Iraq – at least not any out in the open. ********
1400 we begin taking the sorted papers and putting them into the files outside
1630 or so – we cry uncle and start closing up
1700 ish back to the tent
1705 quick hop on the info dirt road, webcam with family,
1830 dinner (106 types of wings – if you were wondering…I watched as some guy played along with him and had him say it over and over again by asking “how many?” We postulate that he just adds a number each time it is wings night at the optional bar.)
1930 back to the tent to draft TEA blog, read, watch a few minutes of a movie on my laptop.
2300 sleep
Ok I know we aren’t working that hard or long hours, but I wanted to give you my groundhog day schedule because that’s the thing right – same thing over and over. Clearly it’s only been a few days and I was lucky enough to go over to Camp Cropper and watch some boards so that helped break it up as well. The guys who work in the shop are on 12 hour shifts with a crew at night for continuous 24 hour coverage. 7 Days a week with a ½ day off every 2 weeks or something like that. Like I keep saying – we could have it worse.
For those readers who are unaware you should also know that this is not where we are supposed to be or the job we are supposed to be doing. They brought us here (Baghdad) for a couple of days orientation…almost 2 weeks later – still here. We are all pretty grumpy cause hey – we are AF and we are used to the easy life. I was going to complain some more but I’ll stop.
The larger event of the day that I did not address in the routine was a call from the Navy O-6 for a volunteer. He asked if one of us (preferably an officer) would volunteer to stay and be an assigned board member at Camp Cropper. We debated it over lunch. One of the Lt’s volunteered. Since I’m never sure who is reading…I’ll let that Lt tell the world/family that he is staying Baghdad for the remainder of his 6 months. The funny part is two of the Lt’s flipped a coin for it.
None of us are excited about breaking up the nine. We not a close family mind you but we mostly get along. I’m personally sad cause I like the guy and he has a great movie collection with him. Oh well. I considered the volunteer, but decided against it because of the relative lack of facilities at Cropper. They rely upon some of the other bases for some facilities and I wasn’t real fond of that. Although there were many positives for it – more steady yet less taxing schedule, dorm like housing vs metal sheds, inside plumbing vs portables. Anyway – he jumped on the grenade.
Word is we leave Monday – at least that is the consistent story two days in a row.
We don’t know when we’ll leave but we are all praying it will be late enough for us to stay up and watch the Superbowl in the middle of the night (0200 kickoff). One thing we have heard is AFN (armed forces network) cuts out the commercials and puts in their own…we are all bummed about that.
No pictures today…I was not inspired to take any. If I can I’ll load a previous days picks, but no promises this late at night for uploading on the unpaved info-highway. No jackals either. A reader suggested I get some wings from Pops and use them as bait for the Jackals then take a picture for the blog. Funny.
We called Bucca today and they said – yeah you guys have about a million boxes in the corner waiting on you. We asked if our laundry was amongst the pile…they couldn’t tell because if it was it was inside a box. Never the less – good things await us!!
We kind of finished our oh so meaningful task of putting files away. There is a Navy Lt that is appreciative of our efforts. I think she saw the task as a major part of her many month deployment and we knocked it out in just a week or so.
I’ll recap the groundhog day for you just for grins:
0630 wakeup – shower – shave and dress
0715ish – breakfast – it was Saturday so I splurged with an Omelet and a doughnut (usually it’s just cereal for me)
0800 walk around the palace to our building
0815 open the large metal containers and begin placing loose papers amongst thousands of files
1100 quick check of work e-mail
1130 lunch – salad, plus a small taco salad mix on the side
1215 walk back around the lake, this time walk along the edge of the water on a sidewalk/path just above lake level – just to be different
1230 we had finished most of the papers so we started closing up
1300ish more files brought out from the dungeon (or wherever she was storing them)
1315 put the movie MASH in the dvd player while we sort a few thousand other pages into numerical order
**** we all looked and wondered how “different” the current deployment would be with alcohol. No alcohol here in Iraq – at least not any out in the open. ********
1400 we begin taking the sorted papers and putting them into the files outside
1630 or so – we cry uncle and start closing up
1700 ish back to the tent
1705 quick hop on the info dirt road, webcam with family,
1830 dinner (106 types of wings – if you were wondering…I watched as some guy played along with him and had him say it over and over again by asking “how many?” We postulate that he just adds a number each time it is wings night at the optional bar.)
1930 back to the tent to draft TEA blog, read, watch a few minutes of a movie on my laptop.
2300 sleep
Ok I know we aren’t working that hard or long hours, but I wanted to give you my groundhog day schedule because that’s the thing right – same thing over and over. Clearly it’s only been a few days and I was lucky enough to go over to Camp Cropper and watch some boards so that helped break it up as well. The guys who work in the shop are on 12 hour shifts with a crew at night for continuous 24 hour coverage. 7 Days a week with a ½ day off every 2 weeks or something like that. Like I keep saying – we could have it worse.
For those readers who are unaware you should also know that this is not where we are supposed to be or the job we are supposed to be doing. They brought us here (Baghdad) for a couple of days orientation…almost 2 weeks later – still here. We are all pretty grumpy cause hey – we are AF and we are used to the easy life. I was going to complain some more but I’ll stop.
The larger event of the day that I did not address in the routine was a call from the Navy O-6 for a volunteer. He asked if one of us (preferably an officer) would volunteer to stay and be an assigned board member at Camp Cropper. We debated it over lunch. One of the Lt’s volunteered. Since I’m never sure who is reading…I’ll let that Lt tell the world/family that he is staying Baghdad for the remainder of his 6 months. The funny part is two of the Lt’s flipped a coin for it.
None of us are excited about breaking up the nine. We not a close family mind you but we mostly get along. I’m personally sad cause I like the guy and he has a great movie collection with him. Oh well. I considered the volunteer, but decided against it because of the relative lack of facilities at Cropper. They rely upon some of the other bases for some facilities and I wasn’t real fond of that. Although there were many positives for it – more steady yet less taxing schedule, dorm like housing vs metal sheds, inside plumbing vs portables. Anyway – he jumped on the grenade.
Word is we leave Monday – at least that is the consistent story two days in a row.
We don’t know when we’ll leave but we are all praying it will be late enough for us to stay up and watch the Superbowl in the middle of the night (0200 kickoff). One thing we have heard is AFN (armed forces network) cuts out the commercials and puts in their own…we are all bummed about that.
No pictures today…I was not inspired to take any. If I can I’ll load a previous days picks, but no promises this late at night for uploading on the unpaved info-highway. No jackals either. A reader suggested I get some wings from Pops and use them as bait for the Jackals then take a picture for the blog. Funny.
We called Bucca today and they said – yeah you guys have about a million boxes in the corner waiting on you. We asked if our laundry was amongst the pile…they couldn’t tell because if it was it was inside a box. Never the less – good things await us!!
Friday, February 1, 2008
FORE!
Friday is Steak and Lobster night here in Baghdad. I don’t like my steak cooked in mass quantities so I avoid that but I love seafood! I had a big plate of fried shrimp, scallops and lobster tails. Work today was another day of filing. We helped the local office properly file mucho paperwork that has been sitting around for a while. It’s grunt work and it stinks, but they need it done and they are busy elsewhere and it gives us some (not so meaningful) work. I try to look at the positive and say I could be out digging a ditch or be somewhere with people shooting at me. It was nice outside so I tried to take advantage of that and volunteered to be one of the guys out helping to store the papers in some outside metal containers.
Since the weather was nice we walked back from lunch. One of the buildings along the way has this perfect balcony overlooking the lake. We’ve seen guys hitting golf balls into the lake and
since it was nice as we walked by we made ourselves at home. Here’s a pic of my buddy Brandon teeing off into SH’s lake. I’m not much of a golfer (as many of you know) so I just watched…and took pictures. I’m not sure where they got the g-balls from. I’m guessing someone (ahem) borrowed them from a driving range or something. They had many boxes full of g-balls up there and quite an assortment of clubs. So we watched Brandon hit a few then went about our merry way back to filing. Ahhh the luxurious life in Baghdad.
Closed Captioning: Why don’t they use it more? It’s a great service all can enjoy. They have the giant screen TVs scattered around the D-FAC, but of course it’s loud in there and you can’t hear what is being said. Why don’t they just turn on CC? Then all could enjoy – only if they want to. I was especially frustrated today at lunch as the Simpsons were on. As many of you know I’m a big Simpsons guy and so I sat next to the TV so I could watch. It was the PIEMAN episode. I couldn’t hear the words but I basically got the gist of it.
I’m also including a pic of that silly unfinished palace I keep mentioning. I had forgotten to load it up yesterday so here it is for you to see. I think it was originally the Victory over Iran palace, but then changed to V over America – but then we kicked his tail and now it’s not so much a completed palace any more. There should also be a pic of me standing in front of the palace. This shot was taken from the Flintstones place across the lake. You guys can google the palaces and get more accurate info than I can make up and input with my slow internet.
Since the weather was nice we walked back from lunch. One of the buildings along the way has this perfect balcony overlooking the lake. We’ve seen guys hitting golf balls into the lake and
since it was nice as we walked by we made ourselves at home. Here’s a pic of my buddy Brandon teeing off into SH’s lake. I’m not much of a golfer (as many of you know) so I just watched…and took pictures. I’m not sure where they got the g-balls from. I’m guessing someone (ahem) borrowed them from a driving range or something. They had many boxes full of g-balls up there and quite an assortment of clubs. So we watched Brandon hit a few then went about our merry way back to filing. Ahhh the luxurious life in Baghdad.Closed Captioning: Why don’t they use it more? It’s a great service all can enjoy. They have the giant screen TVs scattered around the D-FAC, but of course it’s loud in there and you can’t hear what is being said. Why don’t they just turn on CC? Then all could enjoy – only if they want to. I was especially frustrated today at lunch as the Simpsons were on. As many of you know I’m a big Simpsons guy and so I sat next to the TV so I could watch. It was the PIEMAN episode. I couldn’t hear the words but I basically got the gist of it.
I’m also including a pic of that silly unfinished palace I keep mentioning. I had forgotten to load it up yesterday so here it is for you to see. I think it was originally the Victory over Iran palace, but then changed to V over America – but then we kicked his tail and now it’s not so much a completed palace any more. There should also be a pic of me standing in front of the palace. This shot was taken from the Flintstones place across the lake. You guys can google the palaces and get more accurate info than I can make up and input with my slow internet.
Another picture of note is the tent. I’ve been taking pics of most of the tents. You can see this is the garden variety, but with sandbags. That’s the new aspect. Just in case a mortar or something goes off next to us we have some protection. The tent is in pretty bad shape, it’s kind of falling apart, but at least it is close to the shower. Wahoo.
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