DAY 8 / DEC 6

DAY 8 DEC 06
I went to bed early (2300) last night because I was able to call home early. This morning, I woke up at around 0500 and couldn’t go back to sleep for the life of me. I got up and went to the shelter and called my mom and I finally managed to talk to David and Illyana in Washington without any difficulty. They don’t understand why they get an echo of what they are saying and also don’t understand the delay in voice because of the satellite delay. I think it bothers them a little, but I guess they don’t have any choice but to get over it. I feel bad for them because by the time I see them again it will have been over a year and a half since I last saw them. I hope they don’t hold it against me in the future. I just wish they could come stay with us.
Today we are set to fly out of some airport about an hour from Beuhring and fly into Baghdad. We will stay the rest of the day there and then take a helicopter to Warhorse. We were told this morning that we will not be able to take a carry-on bag and so we have to find someplace to stuff the carry-on we brought with us. Because of the extra room freed up by having to wear IBAS and Kevlar, I was able to reload my B bag and stuff my carry-on into it.
I don’t forsee using the internet before we leave and so leaving the names of cities isn’t any big deal.
It’s pretty warm today, maybe in the 80s, and the sun really sucks the energy from you as you walk to the klick or so to the DFAC.
I found out a little more about where we are going. Its about 1.5 klicks long by 1 klick wide and all of the barracks are in the middle. Our area is in one corner and the BDE is in another corner. The DFAC is somewhere in the middle. My job, once we get up there, will be to figure out where we are going to stay and to hopefully get some stuff from the leaving units to help us with out job there. The rest of the company will come sometime in the middle of the month.
Had dinner after a short nap and ran into another Small World incident. I ran into Major Feger, my first company commander, back at Fort Drum. We talked for a few seconds, he’s with the 2nd Brigade and is staying in Kuwait as a reserve force – so the Army can say it only has X number of troops in Iraq and doesn’t disclose the other XXX that are hanging out in Kuwait in case things get hairy.
We went to draw ammo around 2000, but the BUB is still in progress and now they apparently don’t really know when we are going and so don’t want to give us any ammo before the last possible second. So, now we sit, with all of our shit packed up, trying to catch a few ZZZs before they call us at the last second to go.
I have to pack the computer up and so will finish this off here, for now, and more to come after we arrive at Warhorse and begin to get settled in.