DAY 0-3 NOV 28-31

DAY 0-3 NOV 28-31
We are so far so good. I still don’t have an address for our 1-year layover in Iraq, but we should get it soon. I am currently writing this from our barracks area – one big tent, hot in the day, cold at night, but better than staying outside. We did have a decent sized white kangaroo rat in here last night, so I’m being careful not leave any food stuff around my cot. We’re sleeping on cots with our sleeping bags. I will save this to a thumb drive to load up to you in an email after dinner.

We had to remove the bolts from our weapons so that we couldn’t hi-jack the plane. What sense does that make? We have no ammo, but we have to remove the bolt – do we turn them in to someone? No, we put them in a pocket. We are on the honor system to not bring knives or lighters on the plane (we can trade them for matches). Really, if I’m going to hi-jack a plane with a knife, am I just going to give up my plan because you said no knives on the plane? Needless to say, I still have my knife.
Our flight was uneventful. I don’t know what kind of place it was, but it had 11 seats across (3 on each side and 5 in the middle). It had about 45 or so rows going back. We took off from the Peterson Jet Center and flew for about 4.5 hours to Ganer, Newfoundland. I had a window seat, over the wing, and it was remarkably loud all the time. It was cool inside and they gave everyone a blanket and pillow. The in-flight dinner was a choice of chicken or lasagna, of course I took the lasagna. It was actually good for airline food. The were some in-flight movies, but mostly I played PSP (SOCOM) with the Commander, Ryan, Castro, Travis, Randall, Joe and Chief. It took my mind off the pain I felt inside – if only temporarily (you never get rid of it, just bury it under work or play or something for a bit at a time). There were some in-flight movies, but the sound sucked and I didn’t watch them.

After Newfoundland, we took off across the ocean to Ireland and landed in Shannon (wherever the fuck that is). For that in-flight meal I had a choice of chicken parmesan of beef stroganoff – chicken for me. It was also decent, but not as good as the lasagna. We stayed there for a little bit, and I was able to use the PSP for email and text messaging. I took a short nap there and then we took off again. This time we landed in Kuwait City (no real meal, just a sandwich that I didn’t eat because I wasn’t hungry and I slept most of the flight) and took a bus to Camp Guehring (or Uidari) – it was about an hour and a half ride. Curiously enough, the windows were covered, I guess under the childhood premise that if we can’t see them, they can’t see us. Although I would have thought that the police escort was a dead give-away.

We arrived at the camp and had an inbrief and scanned our cards (before midnight on the 30th, so I get combat pay and tax free for November). During our inbrief we were told that the bad guys had people watching the plane we came in on and knew exactly how many had come in, who we were with, where we were, and where we were going. That is not very comforting, but I suspect that it was mostly just an attempt to get everyone in the mindset of OPSEC. We found our barracks and our bags and then went to midnight dinner. Then I went to find the phone center and the internet. As it turns out, the ATT phone centers are down for about a week and so the whole camp is using the 20 phones there. I waited in line for about 2 hours for 20 minutes of phone time. It was very well worth it – and I would have waited for many more hours for the chance to talk to you, to hear your voice again. Luckily I managed to get online and do the email thing.

It’s funny. They’ve been giving us these huge OPSEC briefs about not taking pictures of anything that could be identifiable and to make sure you watch the background and stuff like that, and so I was careful when taking pics to keep that in mind and I’ve noticed one thing – there are no terrain features that rise above the buildings. I could take a 360 degree panoramic picture from my barracks and see nothing but buildings that look exactly the same all around.

I’ve noticed that NTC at Fort Irwin is a very good simulation of the terrain and ground here. The sand you have in the shotglass there is about the same as it is here. Here, the sand is a little bit finer, but not too much. It looks like in the distance there is a dust cloud hanging over the landscape, but I can’t be sure that that is what it is.

The weather is actually quite nice, with highs in the 70s and 80s – not as hot as NTC, but still pretty warm – especially for winter. At night it gets cold – about 40 or so, but it feels colder because of the temperature differences.

There is a great variety of units and uniforms here; there are civilians in shorts and t-shirts, and there are Special Forces guys in all sorts of different uniforms and English troops and troops from other units. You name it, and someone is wearing it. So far, we haven’t put on the IBAS or Kevlar, but I know that before we go into Iraq, we will.

All of our equipment is here, except we can’t seem to find two of our MILVANS. I’m sure they are here, its just a matter of where. Nevermind, we found them.

I was supposed to go to an IED brief but it was full-up, so I guess I’ll go tomorrow or the next day.

I also found out today that I will be going into Iraq sooner than I told you yesterday. Now, the Single-Ticket Express people (that’s me and the other XOs), will be going up probably on the 4th (so, maybe I’ll have better comms then).

Some of the things I noticed here yesterday:
Water tastes better when you’re thirsty and its not so hard to drink.
People (Soldiers) will buy stuff for no reason if you give them the chance.
Back at the manifest, after we left Garcia and went to the other gym, they had foozball and other games and stuff lined up (probably under the assumption that restless hearts and minds would tend to wander) for Soldiers to do. They also had a mini-PX where they made sure Soldiers with money could spend it. Its not like they had been gone for any period of time, and in fact hadn’t even left yet at all.
Here, the line for getting into the PX in about 100 meters long at any given time and there isn’t really that much to buy inside. I didn’t get any Kuwait souvenirs like I did in Newfoundland and Ireland because I’m pretty sure I’ll be back through here in a year or so.
Last night, from the bus windows, the soft sand looked exactly like snow.
Airplanes are cold.
Barracks smell like ass, but you get used to it.
You don’t feel much during the day when you have to wear gloves all the time – although my silk underwear feels pretty good to the touch =)