DAY 13 / DEC 11

DAY 13 DEC 11

FOB Warhorse

Woke up around 0800 today and dug through all my bags to find my other uniform and towel and took a shower. It felt good, the water was hot and because I took it quick, I had plenty. The showers are all out of trailers with about 6-8 stalls in each one with sinks for tooth brushing and shaving. Each stall has a small curtain. The shower trailers are cleaned once a day by Hajis who work for KBR (Kellog, Brown and Root).

After a shower, we went to the NETOPs and talked to them about the network and what we would have available, what they were leaving behind, etc. I managed to finally pay my bills on line, email some family and call home. Many more are waiting, I�m sure. I also managed to email the commander and let him know the situation here and what we were dealing with as far as the network and housing was concerned. The 1SG here was supposed to send the housing diagram down to them yesterday, so I asked if they had finished it and if they had to send it up, because my BN XO was breathing down my neck for it.

Whoops, one thing before NETOPs and after the shower. I took a load of laundry to the laundry shop. They have a quick turn around and told me I would have my clothes back after 1600. The laundry system works like this: You put your clothes in your laundry bag and carry them down to the laundry building, wait in line and then put your clothes in a little basket where you show the Haji behind the counter what you are wanting washed � a maximum of 20 items per bag (a pair of socks is one item). He then checks off the appropriate boxes on a little check sheet and you sign that its accurate and he gives you a copy and off you go. We have to turn our ACUs inside out, I guess because it protects the Velcro and zippers better.

We went by Brigade to talk to the S6 section and on the way ran into a Captain Chaplain who asked us if our Chaplain was there yet. When we told him �no� and that he would be coming later, he asked if we knew what �flavor� he was. I had no idea what he was getting at and I�m sure the stupid look on my face gave that away. When he asked again and started rattling off denominations of Christian religions, I told him the best I could that I thought he was Protestant. And very unlike all the Chaplains I�ve ever known he responded somewhat snidely, �Well, thanks, that narrows about down to about 200 subdivisions.� Well, gee, sorry if I don�t know what itty bitty piece of religion our chaplain subscribes to. He went on to explain that he had some books and stuff for Soldiers and wanted to find out whether our Chaplain wanted it based on his denomination. I don�t really care, but it seems to me that it doesn�t matter what denomination the Chaplain is, what really matters is what denomination each Soldier is, and in that case he should leave all of the stuff he has, regardless of what denomination its for. And, in retrospect, that Chaplain is lucky that I narrowed it down to protestant for him, I should have just told him that our Chaplain was Christian.

The rest of the morning was spent waiting for lunch. Not a lot to do once we�ve contacted all of our counterparts here, so we went to the Cash Gym (which I call the Cash Bar � its only a small gym with a few weightlifting things) where we got some free drinks and took out the pool balls to play a round or two before lunch. It was here that I had my first actual encounter with a Haji. After I won a round, he asked to play and, being the winner of the last game, I played him. It was close game, with both of us missing many shots that should have been made, and in the end, I lost. No big surprise, I�m not a pool player by any standard. But, I must say that the encounter did not really change my preconceived notion of the Haji. I still feel that most are somewhat shifty. I realize that this feeling is more or less completely unfounded, but its still what I feel. I hope that how I feel about Haji does not affect how I treat them.

Lunch was as expected, a little of this, a little of that, nothing new and exciting, but not bad. I grabbed an ice cream on the way out as a treat for all the hard work I�d done this morning.

After lunch, we checked to see if we had gotten a response from the commander, but had nothing.

We checked out the PX again, but nothing had changed since yesterday and off we went to kill some more time.

I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what dreams I had for my CHU. I hate the dismal atmosphere of the area and am intent on brightening it up, even if its just a little. So far, I�ve planned to put a porch on the front, with an enclosed deck. The open areas (windows) will be covered with a bug net and the roof will be plywood and will be somewhat openable. It will rotate on hinges about 45 degrees with long wooden poles to hold it up and hopefully catch some sort of breeze in the summer without letting in the blazing sun. I�ll put some sort of door matt out front to keep the majority of the dirt out of the CHU. I hate how the HESCO barriers look and would like to do something to make them more eye appealing, more home-like. I was first thinking that I could put up wood planks to make it look like a fence, but nixed that idea because I think Haji might steal the wood (not very trusting am I?).

- A Side Note �

Haji: As far as I know this is not a derogatory term, although somehow I feel like I might be using it in a derogatory way. My understanding of the word is somewhat who has made the Hajj to Mecca at some point in their life. I might be wrong. But, it has become a relatively universal term for any Arabic type person.

- End of Side Note �

Back to my grandiose CHU improvement ideas. Instead of the wood planks, I thought about plastic picket fences (like you can buy in the gardening section of wal-mart), but then I thought those might be too tacky. So, now I�m mulling over the possibility of stucco for the hescos with a little flower garden or shrubbery on top. It think it would be do-able and not too difficult. The issue would be getting the stucco material here � and paint if I decided that I needed that. The stucco would look decent, and not be worth stealing.

I would also like to put up a ladder to roof and maybe put a floor on top of the CHU so that I could have a little deck up there. I think that that might be against the rules, but it would be nice. If I could have a deck, it would be more like a sunshade with Astroturf-like carpet and bug netting all around.

Maybe I should call Extreme CHU Makeover and see what they can do.

The personal satellite stuff is stuff off-limits according to the BDE Commander, so all these people who have them here and want to sell them are somewhat SOL. We can�t buy them and they have no reason to take them home � so it looks like they might be stuck with a $4000 satellite internet system. Maybe they will leave them behind and eventually our command will let us turn them on.

We had dinner and then went back to company area to check on the email from the commander. He finally responded but did not have the room assignments and apparently didn�t get them from the 1SG here at all. I�ll have to go in tomorrow and talk to this 1SG to see what the deal is.

I�ve began to take two drinks in the DFAC at all meals. One to drink with my meal and one to take with me for later to stay hydrated. Because they have the bottled Gatorade in their, it makes it easy to take one back to the cot and sip on it throughout the day.

Tonight, I�ll sleep again on a cot with a sleeping bag and fall asleep to Depeche Mode on the MP3 player. The more I listen to the songs, the more I relate to each one in some way or another. I usually don�t make it through the first song before I fall asleep, but I�m sure that the rest of the MP3s provide for some interesting dreams.

I�ll try to remember and write them down once I have writing material more readily available.

About once a day we hear what sound like explosions nearby, but they aren�t. We just had some that hit somewhere far enough way that we couldn�t see the explosions, but we could feel the shock wave. Back home, the artillery range is many miles from our house, but sometimes we can feel the shock from those and they rattle our windows in their frames. So, I�m not worried about these that we can only hear and sound like they are far far away.