DAY 12 / DEC 10

DAY 12 DEC 10
This morning, we woke up too late for breakfast – probably around 0900 and my first stop was the phone to call home. I knew my wife would be worried and I didn’t want to keep her waiting any longer than necessary. I found the ATT phone center and using my newly purchased card, called home. She was relieved and hearing her voice is like a cold bottle of water after a hard work-out. Simply refreshing.
Having missed breakfast, we wandered around the camp, looking for what there was and getting a general feel for it.
FOB Warhorse is not what I expected. To be honest, it is less than I had hoped for and I had done my research. The FOB is very drab. The roads are all gravel of different sizes ranging from pebble to softball size. The sand is fine, like moondust and is everywhere. Hesco barriers are around everything and make the whole place look like a construction site. The CHUs (Containerized Housing Units) are also less than expected, but shouldn’t have been. They are about 15 feet long and 8 feet wide and hold 2-3 people. The look like miniature trailers with hesco barriers or sandbags coming halfway up the sides. Everything is still flat and dull colored – there is no brightness is color anywhere. The phone center and MWR building have concrete barriers around them. There is a small PX – about the size of a gas station store, and has about the same selection. It is run by Hajis, who don’t have great standards for cleanliness. There is also a Haji-mart (or a Iraqi National Store) area where Hajis sell stuff – mostly DVDs and other electronics. The DVD variety is relatively wide and they even have movies that aren’t out on DVD yet – like Goblet of Fire, Chicken Little, and Zathura – which are still in theaters. They also have some movies that are just coming out on DVD, like Dukes of Hazzard.
I picked up three movies – GoF, Chicken Little and Zathura – for $10 for two reasons. One, I can send them home and my kids will love them; two – I wanted to see what kind of quality they were. The quality is roughly what I expected – a bit grainy, but tolerable – especially for the price and for the fact that they aren’t out of the theaters yet. The quality of the new release dvds is equal to a regular dvd – I’m sure its just a DVD rip – but who’s asking?
There are two gyms on the FOB. One is really nice, I think (I haven’t been in it yet), and the other is smaller. The “Cash Gym” (named for someone named Cash I suppose), had drinks, Gatorade, Pepsi, Coke, etc for free – in fact, everything in there is free. It seems like a nice place to hang out.
There is a theater on the FOB that plays movies all day. I haven’t checked it out yet but I will someday soon.
After lunch, we linked up with the BN XO who took us to the BDE TOC for a quick inbrief on the situation and whats going on – the different projects in the city, how we are helping the Iraqis take over, what the enemy is doing and how to counter it. The FOB itself has been relatively inactive as a target – for whatever reason – but there are still IEDs on the roads from time to time.
After the meeting, we met up with the CPT from the company we are replacing here and talked all about what we are going to do, what is staying, what is going, and how we are going to do the Relief in Place –RIP. They weren’t expecting anyone from our unit for another two weeks and so we unprepared to do anything quite yet. They are not moved out of their CHUs to make room for us, but place to be moved out in about a week so that when the main body of our unit gets here, they can slide right in without having to spend time in the transitional tents.
The uniform on the FOB is Kevlar and weapon at all times.
For dinner, we had a huge plate of spaghetti and steak. The food is decent and plentiful and I’ll have to pick up doing PT again if I don’t want to get fat. I plan to do some PT tomorrow if I get around to it.
The weather is nice – 70-80 during the day, and cools off at night to a comfortable sleeping temperature. But, it is December – winter. The summer will be much more painful.