DAY 18 / DEC 16

DAY 18 / DEC 16

            Today was supposed to be the big day, the day the company came in, the day we could begin to start thinking about getting some work done.   And, it was all for naught.  We waited patiently at the hanger, waiting for helicopters to come in (and some did come in), we set up our little booth, had our keys all laid out nice and neat so it would be very efficient to just have them sign for a key and then walk the short 200 meters to their new living domiciles.   No one came to us.  Our company is apparently not a priority and so, they are still at LSA Anaconda, waiting for helicopters to take them here.

            Today, we finally got to move into the actual CHU where we will be staying for the next year during our all expenses paid vacation to an Arabian desert.  We moved in and examined them, and tried to make the best with what we had.  I managed to get in my CHU a bed and mattress, a small table, a refrigerator, a coffee set (pot, beans, filters, sugar, etc), a small three drawer dresser (plastic), and a soccer ball.   Now, a soccer ball may not seem like much, but because they don't  have them in the PX, I think it was nice to get.   The reason that some of this stuff is here is because the people moving out either don't want it, don't need it, or don't have the room to take it back and so, they leave it for the next guy – which is very nice, if you ask me.   Some people left stereos, lamps, magazines, a hoofa, electrical cords, heaters, brooms, chairs, homemade desks, and other great stuff.  I fully intend on leaving anything I think will be handy to the people that move in after me.

An interesting thing about the furniture and how it relates to a conversation that me and my compatriots had earlier today:   We were discussing how whenever our unit goes somewhere, we plaster the area with our symbol – which is a nice symbol, I think.  When it went into palaces across Iraq it put the symbol everywhere, on the walls, on the floors, made giant wooden ones for the plazas, actually paid someone to etch it into the marble, even.  So, our unit has a tendency to go crazy with their insignia.   Someone noted that even after we leave a FOB or palace, there is no way to completely get rid of all the symbols we put, because we put up so many.  Now, the interesting part:  in one of the CHUs we got the keys to, there were premade shelves and beds and cabinets that had been left by the previous occupant.   We checked these shelves, to make sure there weren't any bad things left behind and what did we discover?  Lo and behold, the cabinet was made from scrap wood from a DFAC sign that had none other than our unit insignia on it.   I was shocked because I don't think our unit was ever on this FOB very long, but apparently they were here long enough to leave at least one mark that still exists here.

My neighbor and co-worker happened to end up with a CHU that already had an existing ORBITZ satellite dish and decoder and we was able to buy out the other Soldiers contract for $200.   I don't consider myself much of a TV watcher, but once he got it hooked up and rolling and there was actually TV on the TV, not just AFN, but about 30 channels of news, movies, shows, and music videos.   The music videos seem to be the best thing on, and it's hard to describe how music can make you feel so much closer to home – especially when you haven't had it in a couple weeks.   I was quite envious of his good fortune and schemed ways to take it from him… no, not really, but I was envious and determined to find a way to mooch off the system (with his permission of course).   I noted that the received had a COAX "out" on it and thought it would be easy to get a long piece of coax and run it from his receiver, across the roof and over to my CHU without too much difficulty.   I determined to make it work tomorrow.  We had flights to see in.

We waited until the last bird arrived at 0200, and when it didn't have our people on it, we went back to the CHUs, having accomplished really nothing for the day, but being fully prepared for tomorrow, when we should get our people in.   We were told that the birds began coming in at 0930, so around 0300 I went to bed and slept.  I discovered that I needed to get a lamp so that I wouldn't have to go all the way to the door of the CHU to turn off the light.  Once I turn off the light in the CHU, it gets to be pitch black, there is no ambient light from outside, or anywhere else.   With a desk lamp, I could have just reached up and clicked it off.  A lamp is in my near future.