The next couple of weeks were just dedicated to settling in. Imagine picking up your entire life, packing it into 4 suitcases, moving to a foreign country, and living out of those 4 suitcases while trying to learn a new job. Oh, and no runs down to the local pub to blow off steam. It makes every day interesting. It really, really sucks living in an open bay barracks with no idea when I’m getting permanent housing. It’s not so much the open bay, but the fact that I could be moving any day, so I can’t unpack. I can’t put up the drawings done by my kids or leave out my computer. Everything has to be tucked away each day I leave for work. Also, lights are only on from 1700-2200. A lot of people work shifts, so you’ve got to be quiet and respectful.
Now, the really interesting adventure in the barracks had to do with post housing deciding to “upgrade” our bay. A couple of the many bays in our building, the “I” building, have these cubicle types of partitions that separate each set of bunks. Essentially, every two people get a little private area in the bay. They decided to install these partitions in our bay. For the better part of 3 days, they installed them. Most of the time in the afternoon, but Sunday they decided to start about 0800. I’m glad I was already getting up to go to church! When they started on Friday, I noticed this odor and my eyes would burn when I lay down in my bunk. I was exhausted and the sand was blowing around, so I just crashed and didn’t think anything about it on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, it was really starting to bother me. I spoke with a couple of the other guys in the bay and they said the same thing. One guy said it felt like CS burning. I went to the housing office and reported it that afternoon. They had the fire department come through soon after that. They walked through the building and then left. Guess what they decided to do? They pulled the fire alarm around 2130 hours, right before I was getting ready to crash. I wasn’t thinking, and I threw on some shorts and my flip flops. I stood outside for about an hour and watched the fire fighters go through the building. They taped off a perimeter. A few more “official looking” people came in. I went over to the gym and watched the NASCAR race with some other soldiers. About midnight, they decided they weren’t going to clear the building for reentry until the entry until morning, and everyone needed to go across post and stay in the tent housing. I was in a t-shirt and flip flops. I got luck and I ran into CW4 Kono. He works right behind me in the command center. He had a car and drove me over to the tents. He gave me a pillow, sheets, and blanket, which was a god send. I crashed in these open tents in a bunk with the lights on. I think I slept about 3-4 fitful hours with all the other folks coming in and out. Chief Kono had agreed to pick me up at 0900. I had nothing to take a shower with or even brush my teeth. I obviously called into work and told them I’d be a little late for my shift. Chief picked me up and took me back over to my building. They still had it closed. They let me
go in to get shower supplies and my uniform, but I had to go over to the gym to shower. The “experts” were in our bay testing the air. In fact, they were right next to my bunk. Apparently, I was at the epicenter. They about 10 people running around trying to figure it out. I stood there as I gather up my stuff and told them the problem had started when they installed the partitions. It was like light bulbs started going off everywhere. Man…I could have told them the night before. They let everyone back in the building about an hour later, except for those of us in that bay. We had to gather up all our gear and move. Pain in the ass! I finally got over to work about noon.
I got to take a 3rd trip off post to Ali Al Salem Air Base. Phil Speth and I went to meet up with the guys coming back from the Space Conference. They’d left all their gear at Camp Arifjan while then went to Qatar to the conference. We took all the stuff up to Ali Al Salem to synch up before they headed back to Atlanta. We had quite an adventure going from the Army side of Ali Al Salem to the Air Force side and back to the Army Side. It’s all the same air base, but you’ve got to go on and off and through check points each time. The Army side didn’t like the stamp the Air Force side had put on our secure to secure paperwork and we had sit around for a “higher up” to decide that one Colonel, one Lieutenant Colonel, and 4 Majors that had just been at the
Air Force part of the post 5 minutes earlier weren’t a threat. Typical military security snafus. The crew we were transporting was COL Henderson, the ARCENT Chief of Space, LTC Zellmann, the Deputy (and my boss), MAJ Kimbrell, ARCENT Space Ops, and MAJ Gardner, 1st Space BDE reservist here for the exercise and conference. All stuffed into an SUV with Phil Speth and myself. Needless to say it was interesting. COL Henderson has a quick wit and he had all of laughing while packed into the car like sardines. It was a pretty funny site. Phil and I dropped them off and headed back to Camp Arifjan. We got back around 11.00pm.
I’m starting to settle in more. The job is getting easier. I’ve developed a schedule for each day. The work-out and new diet is starting to work. I refuse to step on a scale, because I don’t believe in weight watching. I like to set goals and go after them. I’d rather just check myself once a month to see how I’m doing and not every day. My goal is to get in great shape and get my weight down below 180. I realized early here that they feed us to well. It’s way too easy to feed your face at the DFAC (chow hall) each day. I stop the TCNs (Third Country Nationals) who work at the DFAC from giving me the normal portions. I try to just get half portions. It took me a month or so to figure out what was available at the DFAC, but I’ve got a system down.
Here’s my typical weekly diet.
Concentration on the Following….
- Protein
- Low Carbs
- Fruit
- Smaller Portions
Breakfast
Scrambled Eggs, Omelet or Boiled Eggs
Hash Brown
Bacon, Ham or Sausage
3-4 Pieces of Fruit (Cantaloupe, Honey Dew Melon, Watermelon, Strawberries)
Gatorade
Snack
Peanuts or Nutra Grain Bar
Lunch
Tuna Salad, Egg Salad, Chicken Salad or Deli Sandwich or Taco Salad
Chips or Noodles
Jell-O or Pudding
Gatorade
Snack
Piece of Fruit
Dinner
Meat, Fish or Wrap
Vegetable
Salad
Pudding or Pie
The two big events (to me) for the months of June/July are my birthday on June 27th and the Kuwait version of the Peachtree Road Race. My birthday was no big deal to everyone else here, but it’s huge to me. The weekend of the 26th, 27th, and 28th was supposed to be the big weekend for my 40th birthday party down in Destin. I’d been planning the thing for about 5 months when I’d gotten orders to deploy. Postponed! Not cancelled! However, it was kind of a bummer to finally get to this date, and here I was in wonderfully hot Kuwait with no cocktails surrounded by people I barely knew. The nice thing was so many people back home reached out to me. I got tons of birthday wishes from friends on Facebook and Plaxo. I get birthday wishes via email and cards. I got some really nice packages from my family. Thank you to all of you. It made it all a little bit easier. I’m 40 years old now! (I did get to meet Wee Man of Jackass fame. Picture above. He signed my picture wishing me Happy Birthday. :)
Anyway, back to the run. The race is scheduled for 0500 on July 4th. I ran a 5K the weekend before my birthday and did pretty well. I’m definitely getting better. I found out that our Deputy Commanding General (DCG) is a big runner. MAJ Corey Gerving is the Senior Space Ops officer that is replacing MAJ Phil Speth. We’ve been getting to know each other. We were talking about the DCG at the morning shift change brief one morning being such a good runner. I told Corey I was running in the 10K race. He bet me a pizza I couldn’t beat the DCG in the 10K. Now, I’m 40 years old. The DCG is 51 years old. But….he works out like a fiend every day! Surely I can beat him right?
The day of the race came. There are a couple of significant things to report before I talk about the race. First, when I signed up for the race on the 23rd of June, I was given number 40 as the 40th person to sign up. How random is that? I then found out the morning of the race that this was the 40th running of the Peachtree Road Race. Now, this race in Kuwait is actually officially a
part of the race in Atlanta. We’re timed group #12 and our results are sent back to Atlanta to include with theirs. Anyway, how about that for a sign! 40, 40, 40. I’m no Jose Canseco or Barry Bonds, but I’m part of my own 40-40-40 club! I can only see this as a sign that somebody wanted me here! J One more event that played into this weekend. I got my room assignment on Wed. I moved all afternoon and evening on Thursday. This was significant, because I actually got a good night’s sleep on Friday night before the race! My roommate is no here on Camp Arifjan. I’m not sure where he is, but I’m not complaining. I’ve got a room to myself right now.
On to the race….nice set-up, much like the one in Atlanta. Lots of energy and enthusiasm. They had music blasting and tones of volunteers. My unit, USARCENT, is based in Atlanta, so we’ve
got a lot of people that are familiar with this race. The only thing really missing were the Atlanteans along the road handing out beer! There actually were some runners that dressed in costume just like they do in Atlanta. Anyway, the gun went off and there we went. I started out pretty fast, but the DCG took off like a rocket. I thought to myself “Oh Crap!”. He was fast, and I couldn’t keep up. My goal was to try to run in 48 minutes or less, so I just settled into my pace and let the race happen how it was going to happen. I did really well for the first 3-4 miles (5Ks). I was on pace. But…I started to tire. I started falling off pace by 10-20 sec for KS 6,7,8. However, much to my surprise, the DCG started slowing down more. I began to reel him in. I caught and passed him at 7 Ks. Now I just wanted to stay focused and get as close to my goals as I could. I knew I wasn’t going to get 48 min, but maybe I could make up some seconds at the end. I did have some energy left (a little) and picked up the pace over the last K. I ran it as fast as I’d run the first. I finished the race in 51 minutes flat. I beat the DCG by almost a minute. I was very pleased. I ran pretty well, and now I have a baseline to work up from. J (Though the race did whip my behind. I was a wet noodle at work that day.)
This pretty much sums up June and the beginning of July. I’ll check in again soon!
Now, the really interesting adventure in the barracks had to do with post housing deciding to “upgrade” our bay. A couple of the many bays in our building, the “I” building, have these cubicle types of partitions that separate each set of bunks. Essentially, every two people get a little private area in the bay. They decided to install these partitions in our bay. For the better part of 3 days, they installed them. Most of the time in the afternoon, but Sunday they decided to start about 0800. I’m glad I was already getting up to go to church! When they started on Friday, I noticed this odor and my eyes would burn when I lay down in my bunk. I was exhausted and the sand was blowing around, so I just crashed and didn’t think anything about it on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, it was really starting to bother me. I spoke with a couple of the other guys in the bay and they said the same thing. One guy said it felt like CS burning. I went to the housing office and reported it that afternoon. They had the fire department come through soon after that. They walked through the building and then left. Guess what they decided to do? They pulled the fire alarm around 2130 hours, right before I was getting ready to crash. I wasn’t thinking, and I threw on some shorts and my flip flops. I stood outside for about an hour and watched the fire fighters go through the building. They taped off a perimeter. A few more “official looking” people came in. I went over to the gym and watched the NASCAR race with some other soldiers. About midnight, they decided they weren’t going to clear the building for reentry until the entry until morning, and everyone needed to go across post and stay in the tent housing. I was in a t-shirt and flip flops. I got luck and I ran into CW4 Kono. He works right behind me in the command center. He had a car and drove me over to the tents. He gave me a pillow, sheets, and blanket, which was a god send. I crashed in these open tents in a bunk with the lights on. I think I slept about 3-4 fitful hours with all the other folks coming in and out. Chief Kono had agreed to pick me up at 0900. I had nothing to take a shower with or even brush my teeth. I obviously called into work and told them I’d be a little late for my shift. Chief picked me up and took me back over to my building. They still had it closed. They let me
go in to get shower supplies and my uniform, but I had to go over to the gym to shower. The “experts” were in our bay testing the air. In fact, they were right next to my bunk. Apparently, I was at the epicenter. They about 10 people running around trying to figure it out. I stood there as I gather up my stuff and told them the problem had started when they installed the partitions. It was like light bulbs started going off everywhere. Man…I could have told them the night before. They let everyone back in the building about an hour later, except for those of us in that bay. We had to gather up all our gear and move. Pain in the ass! I finally got over to work about noon.I got to take a 3rd trip off post to Ali Al Salem Air Base. Phil Speth and I went to meet up with the guys coming back from the Space Conference. They’d left all their gear at Camp Arifjan while then went to Qatar to the conference. We took all the stuff up to Ali Al Salem to synch up before they headed back to Atlanta. We had quite an adventure going from the Army side of Ali Al Salem to the Air Force side and back to the Army Side. It’s all the same air base, but you’ve got to go on and off and through check points each time. The Army side didn’t like the stamp the Air Force side had put on our secure to secure paperwork and we had sit around for a “higher up” to decide that one Colonel, one Lieutenant Colonel, and 4 Majors that had just been at the
Air Force part of the post 5 minutes earlier weren’t a threat. Typical military security snafus. The crew we were transporting was COL Henderson, the ARCENT Chief of Space, LTC Zellmann, the Deputy (and my boss), MAJ Kimbrell, ARCENT Space Ops, and MAJ Gardner, 1st Space BDE reservist here for the exercise and conference. All stuffed into an SUV with Phil Speth and myself. Needless to say it was interesting. COL Henderson has a quick wit and he had all of laughing while packed into the car like sardines. It was a pretty funny site. Phil and I dropped them off and headed back to Camp Arifjan. We got back around 11.00pm.I’m starting to settle in more. The job is getting easier. I’ve developed a schedule for each day. The work-out and new diet is starting to work. I refuse to step on a scale, because I don’t believe in weight watching. I like to set goals and go after them. I’d rather just check myself once a month to see how I’m doing and not every day. My goal is to get in great shape and get my weight down below 180. I realized early here that they feed us to well. It’s way too easy to feed your face at the DFAC (chow hall) each day. I stop the TCNs (Third Country Nationals) who work at the DFAC from giving me the normal portions. I try to just get half portions. It took me a month or so to figure out what was available at the DFAC, but I’ve got a system down.
Here’s my typical weekly diet.
Concentration on the Following….
- Protein
- Low Carbs
- Fruit
- Smaller Portions
Breakfast
Scrambled Eggs, Omelet or Boiled Eggs
Hash Brown
Bacon, Ham or Sausage
3-4 Pieces of Fruit (Cantaloupe, Honey Dew Melon, Watermelon, Strawberries)
Gatorade
Snack
Peanuts or Nutra Grain Bar
Lunch
Tuna Salad, Egg Salad, Chicken Salad or Deli Sandwich or Taco Salad
Chips or Noodles
Jell-O or Pudding
Gatorade
Snack
Piece of Fruit
Dinner
Meat, Fish or Wrap
Vegetable
Salad
Pudding or Pie
Tea or Soda
Camp Arifjan is divided into multiple zones. There does not look like they have zones for any organizational purpose, but rather just added to them according to need. I currently live in Zone 1 in the “I” Building. I work in Zone 2 in Bldg 505. I hope to move to permanent housing in Bldg 507, right around the corner from my work soon. There is a DFAC in Zone 1 called The Oasis. It’s run by the Kuwaitis. There’s a DFAC in Zone 2 run by us. Zone 2’s DFAC is much better! The Oasis is nicer and you get to eat with real silverware, but the food is nowhere near as good. The Zone 2 DFAC is in trailers rather than a permanent building and you eat with plastic silverware (not good for always over cooked steaks), but the food quality and selection is
so much better. Also, Zone 1 is where the movie theater, big PX, and gyms are. There’s a Zone 6 where the tent city is located for more temporary personnel and it has the biggest PX. I don’t venture down there yet. I’m still figuring out Zone 1 and Zone 2.
When or if I ever get a room, I’ll probably become just a Zone 2 person. I got a bike from MWR. I figure a bike will be good to ride to and from Zones to work-out and to go to the movies. It’s a pretty nice mountain bike. You sign them out. You just have to take them back one a month for maintenance and cleaning. They give you a helmet, lock, and lights on the bike for night ridding. I’ve not ridden a bike for years!
Father’s Day came and went. It was sort of a sad day, because I wasn’t with my kids, but I got to talk to them and Ang. I’ve realized that I’ve got to steel myself. I’m here and I’m not going home till September or leave. It’s part of what soldiers go through. You can’t let the separation get you down. You have to develop a rhythm, a daily system so that you can click the days off. You can’t dwell on what you don’t have. You have to concentrate on doing the job and moving on to the next day. I’m starting to settle in. I can feel myself hardening emotionally. I don’t like it, but I know it’s necessary. I’ve been through separation with the military, but never anything quite like this. This is really something new for me, and I’ve realized something new for Ang and the kids. We’re all cooping. For now, I’m really concentrating on my rhythm, so I can settle in and Ang won’t worry about me. That’s really the takeaway from my Father’s Day. Perspective….being away from family and friends on important holidays really helps you to appreciate better what you have.
Camp Arifjan is divided into multiple zones. There does not look like they have zones for any organizational purpose, but rather just added to them according to need. I currently live in Zone 1 in the “I” Building. I work in Zone 2 in Bldg 505. I hope to move to permanent housing in Bldg 507, right around the corner from my work soon. There is a DFAC in Zone 1 called The Oasis. It’s run by the Kuwaitis. There’s a DFAC in Zone 2 run by us. Zone 2’s DFAC is much better! The Oasis is nicer and you get to eat with real silverware, but the food is nowhere near as good. The Zone 2 DFAC is in trailers rather than a permanent building and you eat with plastic silverware (not good for always over cooked steaks), but the food quality and selection is
so much better. Also, Zone 1 is where the movie theater, big PX, and gyms are. There’s a Zone 6 where the tent city is located for more temporary personnel and it has the biggest PX. I don’t venture down there yet. I’m still figuring out Zone 1 and Zone 2.When or if I ever get a room, I’ll probably become just a Zone 2 person. I got a bike from MWR. I figure a bike will be good to ride to and from Zones to work-out and to go to the movies. It’s a pretty nice mountain bike. You sign them out. You just have to take them back one a month for maintenance and cleaning. They give you a helmet, lock, and lights on the bike for night ridding. I’ve not ridden a bike for years!
Father’s Day came and went. It was sort of a sad day, because I wasn’t with my kids, but I got to talk to them and Ang. I’ve realized that I’ve got to steel myself. I’m here and I’m not going home till September or leave. It’s part of what soldiers go through. You can’t let the separation get you down. You have to develop a rhythm, a daily system so that you can click the days off. You can’t dwell on what you don’t have. You have to concentrate on doing the job and moving on to the next day. I’m starting to settle in. I can feel myself hardening emotionally. I don’t like it, but I know it’s necessary. I’ve been through separation with the military, but never anything quite like this. This is really something new for me, and I’ve realized something new for Ang and the kids. We’re all cooping. For now, I’m really concentrating on my rhythm, so I can settle in and Ang won’t worry about me. That’s really the takeaway from my Father’s Day. Perspective….being away from family and friends on important holidays really helps you to appreciate better what you have.
The two big events (to me) for the months of June/July are my birthday on June 27th and the Kuwait version of the Peachtree Road Race. My birthday was no big deal to everyone else here, but it’s huge to me. The weekend of the 26th, 27th, and 28th was supposed to be the big weekend for my 40th birthday party down in Destin. I’d been planning the thing for about 5 months when I’d gotten orders to deploy. Postponed! Not cancelled! However, it was kind of a bummer to finally get to this date, and here I was in wonderfully hot Kuwait with no cocktails surrounded by people I barely knew. The nice thing was so many people back home reached out to me. I got tons of birthday wishes from friends on Facebook and Plaxo. I get birthday wishes via email and cards. I got some really nice packages from my family. Thank you to all of you. It made it all a little bit easier. I’m 40 years old now! (I did get to meet Wee Man of Jackass fame. Picture above. He signed my picture wishing me Happy Birthday. :)Anyway, back to the run. The race is scheduled for 0500 on July 4th. I ran a 5K the weekend before my birthday and did pretty well. I’m definitely getting better. I found out that our Deputy Commanding General (DCG) is a big runner. MAJ Corey Gerving is the Senior Space Ops officer that is replacing MAJ Phil Speth. We’ve been getting to know each other. We were talking about the DCG at the morning shift change brief one morning being such a good runner. I told Corey I was running in the 10K race. He bet me a pizza I couldn’t beat the DCG in the 10K. Now, I’m 40 years old. The DCG is 51 years old. But….he works out like a fiend every day! Surely I can beat him right?
The day of the race came. There are a couple of significant things to report before I talk about the race. First, when I signed up for the race on the 23rd of June, I was given number 40 as the 40th person to sign up. How random is that? I then found out the morning of the race that this was the 40th running of the Peachtree Road Race. Now, this race in Kuwait is actually officially a
part of the race in Atlanta. We’re timed group #12 and our results are sent back to Atlanta to include with theirs. Anyway, how about that for a sign! 40, 40, 40. I’m no Jose Canseco or Barry Bonds, but I’m part of my own 40-40-40 club! I can only see this as a sign that somebody wanted me here! J One more event that played into this weekend. I got my room assignment on Wed. I moved all afternoon and evening on Thursday. This was significant, because I actually got a good night’s sleep on Friday night before the race! My roommate is no here on Camp Arifjan. I’m not sure where he is, but I’m not complaining. I’ve got a room to myself right now.On to the race….nice set-up, much like the one in Atlanta. Lots of energy and enthusiasm. They had music blasting and tones of volunteers. My unit, USARCENT, is based in Atlanta, so we’ve
got a lot of people that are familiar with this race. The only thing really missing were the Atlanteans along the road handing out beer! There actually were some runners that dressed in costume just like they do in Atlanta. Anyway, the gun went off and there we went. I started out pretty fast, but the DCG took off like a rocket. I thought to myself “Oh Crap!”. He was fast, and I couldn’t keep up. My goal was to try to run in 48 minutes or less, so I just settled into my pace and let the race happen how it was going to happen. I did really well for the first 3-4 miles (5Ks). I was on pace. But…I started to tire. I started falling off pace by 10-20 sec for KS 6,7,8. However, much to my surprise, the DCG started slowing down more. I began to reel him in. I caught and passed him at 7 Ks. Now I just wanted to stay focused and get as close to my goals as I could. I knew I wasn’t going to get 48 min, but maybe I could make up some seconds at the end. I did have some energy left (a little) and picked up the pace over the last K. I ran it as fast as I’d run the first. I finished the race in 51 minutes flat. I beat the DCG by almost a minute. I was very pleased. I ran pretty well, and now I have a baseline to work up from. J (Though the race did whip my behind. I was a wet noodle at work that day.)This pretty much sums up June and the beginning of July. I’ll check in again soon!
