June - July Continuing Update w/ Pictures :)

OK. I’ve been gone a little longer than I intended. Today is Monday, July 6th. It’s a little over a week after my 40th birthday. I’ve been here in Kuwait with US ARCENT for 37 days. I’ve now been on active duty for 120 days! Only 280 days to go!

I’ll start my catch up here with the 1st week in country. We went right to work on that first day. MAJ Phil Speth is the guy Jim Schultz and I are replacing and our trainer. Still struggling from jet lag, Jim and I staggered into our first day on the Command Operations and Intelligence Center (COIC) floor. We definitely could have used a day or so to at least try to get our bodies somewhat on track. Oh well.

Now, I have to be very careful here as I speak about my job and where I work. To gain entry to the floor, you have to at least have a secret clearance. About everything that happens where I work is secret / need to know. However, I can give some overviews. (To put it in perspective, there are no cell phones, Blackerrys, iPhones, cameras, recording devices, etc. allowed on the floor.) You have to go through two levels of security to even get in. We working a desk area at the front of the command center close to the projection screens. When we go there, we had 3 computer screens with programs we monitor.


That first week Phil Speth turned the fire hose on us again. He jumped right in and went at us with all the things space soldiers due for current operations here on the floor. We rolled on Friday, Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and Monday from 7am to 6-7pm each day. This is also when we found out that we’re going to work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 12 hours shifts. Jim volunteered for the night shift, so I’m working 6am-6pm. Not thrilled about working 12 hours a day for the next 10 straight months. I fear that burn-out will happen much quicker working this kind of schedule. However, we were given Sunday morning off to sleep in a little and go to church. I needed just to try and catch up to the time change a little.

The following week we continued training on Monday and then started our shifts on Tuesday. My entire concentration right now is on learning the job and trying to get into a battle rhythm. Survival deployed is dependent upon developing a schedule, a system, a rhythm to each day. It’s the only way you can get over the “suck” and get the days clicking by. Here’s a look at a typical day I’m trying to organize for myself.


0500 Wake-up
0500-0530 Personal Hygiene
0530-0600 Breakfast
0600 Report for Shift
1130-1230 Physical Training
1230-1300 Personal Hygiene
1300-1330 Lunch
1800 Off Duty
1800-1900 Dinner
1900-2000 Return Emails, Write Letters, Blog
2000-2200 Personal Time (Wash clothes, watch movie, phone calls, etc.)2200-0550 Sleep

The rub is that any deviation to the schedule like a long day at work because of a significant event, or I miss my lunch time work-out because of a meeting and I’m off. I’ve got to make it up. I’m told that we’re not going to get Sunday mornings off, but that’s BS. I’ve got to work on that. I need at least one sleep in day to recharge for the next week.

I actually took this scheduling issue to my network of Army friends that I’ve made over the last few months. Every person that replied said that no soldier could maintain 12 hours a day 7 days a week and mentally survive the deployment. From the infantry soldier that walks patrols every day to the commander to the support folks, all take a break. You have to have rest, even a short one, to maintain any focus.

I took the issue to my boss. He didn’t agree with me on a better way to sustain ourselves during this tour, but he agreed to sit down with me after the 1st quarter (3 months) to re-evaluate. That’s something at least.

The first week in addition to trying in our job, we in-processed. We had to go by the STB to get a checklist. (The military loves checklists.) Here’s where we go to the armorer to get assigned a weapon. Because we in Kuwait and not Iraq or Afghanistan, and because we don’t carry a weapon here, I got assigned a 9mm pistol. Yay! We go to the transportation office and get our driver’s license. You have to sit through a class about how bad a place Kuwait is to drive in. I’d already seen that first hand. We have to hit the admin folks, the supply folks, and the security folks. One of the things that has always drive me crazy about the military is you have to give the same paperwork to different people (and many times the same people after they loose it) each time. Everybody wants a copy of the same orders. You’d think we’d be able to give one copy and they could share it, but not in the military. Anyway, it’s a lot of trudging around in the heat.

I’m definitely not getting climatized quickly. It’s hot and I sweat. My undershirt is usually sopping wet a couple of times a day. It’s amazing to, because the humidity is only like 10%

I had one of those random events happen to me. My big brother in my fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, at the University of Kentucky’s name is Derek Duncan. He’s the guy that convinced me to join LXA. I later also become very good friends with his brother Jon Duncan, who was my brother John’s roommate in the fraternity house. Many, many years ago I’d met most all of Derek and Jon’s extended family. One of their nieces was Meena. She was quite a bit younger than me, cut I remember that she was a college cheerleader. Anyway….she’d found me through Derek and Jon on Facebook. She’s now living in California and a cheerleader with the Oakland Raiders. We started chatting, because she’d read that I was being deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and she’d been to Iraq on a moral trip with a group from the Raiders. We agreed to stay in touch and try to link up if we could. There are 130,000+ troops in Iraq and about another 25,000+ in Kuwait. What are the chances? Well I was sitting at my desk doing my usual stuff one day when I get a phone call. She and her group were on Arifjan. She’d used the information I’d posted on Facebook and asked the LTC escorting them if he could find me. He said no problem, and he did. She and the other Oakland Raider cheerleaders were staying in the very same building I was staying in! We agreed to meet for lunch. I got to sit and catch up with her among the rest of the cheerleading squad who’d come on the trip at the mess hall. It’s not every day that 5-6 beautiful women sit down in a military mess hall.  It’s was a nice little break in the day.

We got another nice break in the training and in-processing that same day. The Space team from Atlanta is in for an big exercise the unit’s doing. MAJ Speth, SSG Holscher, and myself drove up to Camp Buehring to check out the exercise and meet everyone. MAJ Jim Schultz wasn’t able to catch a ride with us, so he got to catch the Blackhawk helicopter up. It just do happened that Meena and her group were going to Camp Buehring to perform that night. Small world! However, I didn’t get to watch the performance. My unit’s base camp was set up a good distance from the center of Buehring out in their own tent city.

It’s interesting driving through Kuwait during the day time. I took my camera and got a good handful of pictures. The whole country’s a desert. Even close to the Arabian Sea it’s arid. You know how you drive through certain parts of the US and each has a color signature? You go through Georgia and you see green trees mixed with colors like from the azaleas and the dogwoods. You go through Florida and you get the light green of the palm and pine trees mixed with the blue skies. You drive through the mid-west and you get either the combination of colors from the leaves in the fall or the new buds in the spring. Even in the winter, you’ve got the drab gray, but you’ve still either got white or green. In Kuwait, it’s just brown. It’s sandy, dusty brown and it’s everywhere. Even the few trees and bushes they have are brown, because they’re usually covered with a layer of dust. I’m was just struck by all encompassing the brown layer of dust was.

It was neat to get to see some of the architecture. They build everything out of concrete. Even the water towers are made of concrete. You’ll notice from the picture that they look like martini glasses. That’s because they’re concrete instead of steel like the ones we build. Heck, we’ve got a regular round steel one at Camp Arifjan, but when you leave they’re all these martini glasses.

We drove north towards Iraq for a good part of the trip, but then turned west from the coast. We stopped by Ali Al Saleem AFB so that I could pick up a 9mm holster from RFI. I was carrying my pistol with a clip of ammo in my pocket. RFI is you get new equipment from. I’d gotten everything but a holster issued from the RFI at Camp Shelby.

From there, we headed north again for Camp Buehring. This post is located right on the border of Kuwait and Iraq. This is where all Army personnel that go into Iraq start from. Here they go to the range for more weapons training and prepare to move into Iraq. CPT Rob Disney and CPT Warren Read are just a couple of my friends who’d already been through here. One of our landmarks was a dead camel. I’m serious. Apparently, camels lay down and die in the desert. Folks here just let them lay and let the desert claim them. This one had been dead a couple of weeks according to Phil and you could only see about half of it. It won’t be a land mark much longer! Our “turn left just past the dead camel” will only work for a short time!

We got to Camp Buehring, jumped through hoops to get on the post (which is standard practice), and then headed to the airfield to pick-up Jim. He’s just made it in time to catch the chopper. He wasn’t to happy, because he’d had to wear his body armor and helmet. We then headed over to the tent city. It’s amazing what the Army can do on just a patch of dessert. They’d set-up this huge command center. Absolutely amazing! COL Henderson, LTC Zellmann, and the rest of the Space team were there. We also got to meet the ARSST team. They’re a group of reservists from Colorado. MAJ Brett Garner was the team leader. Really nice guy. So, we got the group together to take a picture. COL Henderson wanted an entire group picture. Realize that’s this is not easy to pull off. You have to get special permission from the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) to take a picture inside a classified area, but we got one. We’re all right outside the command post. Pretty cool group pick, except Jim forgot to take off his reflector belt, which we all have to wear at night, and the flash lit it up like a light bulb. That was about it for our trip to see the exercise. We had dinner with the group, and then the four of us headed back to Camp Arifjan. We got back around 2300.

That's what I've got for now. I'll be back shortly with more on getting settled in, my birthday, getting a private room, and the 4th weekend.

The First Two Weeks in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait

(Sorry for some of the redunancy. I wrote this at work and then uploaded it at my bunk.)

Quick note: I’m back in the Army now, so I’ve got used to talking in “Military Time” or using the 24 hour clock.

Convert Military Time: http://www.spacearchive.info/military.htm

We arrived in Kuwait City late on Thursday the 21st of May. 8 hours of a day gone just like that! We loaded up on buses for the trip to Ali Al Saleem. It was interesting because we were told no personal electronic devices and we had to keep the curtains closed on the bus. Most of the soldiers (as soldiers do) just went to sleep, but I’m the curious type, so I peeked. Airport, desert…..not much to see. It was dark by this time. What I did notice was that everything was so lit up. They have artificial light all over the place.

Kuwait City Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait_City

We had a sort of strange stop mid-way through the trip. They had an area in the middle of no where secured with concrete barriers. We stopped here just for a break. It was simply a gravel area with lines of porta johns and stacks and stacks of bottled water. We spent about 30 minutes here and then headed on.We arrived at the Ali Al Saleem Air Force base around 2000hrs. We went thru formation and then a quick in-processing. My first experience on a desert post. Big warehouse type buildings and lots and lots of tents. We were starving, so MAJ Jim Schultz and I went to find dinner. We just had missed chow, which closed at 1930hrs, but guess what we found on this little dessert Air Force base? McDonalds! They really are everywhere. Quick dinner and then it was time to find our bags and look to catch the bus to Camp Arifjan. We were told that one of our guys was supposed to meet us to help us get to Arifjan.

Ali Al Saleem Air Base Info: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/ali-al-salem.htm

We found our bags and then we found MAJ Phil Speth waiting for us in the MWR tent.

What is MWR? http://www.armymwr.com/

Phil had a nice surprise for us. He’d been able to get an SUV with a co-pilot to take us and our gear to Camp Arifjan. Very nice! I had not been looking forward to lugging 4 very heavy bags on a bus to another post. We policed up our gear and headed out about 2200hrs.This ride was my introduction to Kuwaiti highways and Kuwaiti drivers. We wound our way out of the security gates at Ali Al Saleem and jumped on the highway. What struck me at first was how well lit the roads are here. You seriously don’t need head lights. They have very bright street lights that line up and down the center of these 3-4 land highways. The second thing that struck me was how everyone drives here. It’s like driving in Atlanta only faster and they pass you any way they can. Phil was giving us the low down as people were flying past us, and we were riding with the flow. They pass on the shoulders. If they can’t pass, they get right up on you and blink their lights until you get over or they find a way to pass. On top of all that, driving down the road and we go from three lanes to zero lanes. There were no lane lines! That’s when everyone decided that 4-5 wide was OK. It was like being in a Daytona 500.

Kuwait Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait

It took us about 1 ½ hours to get from Ali to Camp Arifjan. Ali is on the northern border close to Iraq. Camp Arifjan is on the south western border near Saudi Arabia. The entire country is about the size of Rhode Island, so you blink your eyes (or miss and exit) and you could be at the border. We rolled into Camp Arifjan about 0030hrs. It took us about 15 minutes to get through the gates. We had to check our IDs and paperwork 3 different times. Being a combat zone there are some pretty stringent rules, even though this is an allied country. You have to have two people in the vehicle to leave post and both have to be armed with ammo. You have to have a signed letter. You have to have a risk assessment and you have to document all leave time, mileage, etc. every time you leave and enter a post. Finally, you have to get out and clear your weapon before you drive on to post.Anyway, we finally got to the housing office late that night. It’s called the “I” building simply because it’s shaped like an I. We checked in and of course they could find none of the paperwork that had been turned in on us, but they found us nice little bunks in the open bays. Apparently, t his is the transition barracks where everyone stays before the deploy into Iraq, re-deploy, or for short stays. We’re told that we get on a waiting list and we’ll get to move into Bldg 507, and residential building for ARCENT folks staying here for the long haul. They have two person rooms w/ TVs and fridges in this building. So, for now we’re in the open bays. We moved in to our bunks in the dark of course. Thank goodness for Phil and MSG Stewart who road along as Phil’s TC. They helped us haul all our gear.I was given an upper bunk, but there were a lot of bunks available, so I went back down to the desk and had them switch me to a lower bunk. I wasn’t to interested in jumping up and down out of bed each day. We each one locker…..picture this….we have all the gear the Army’s issued us since we mobilized. I have 4 large bags. No way this’ll all fit in a wall locker. They have these cages for extra stuff going up and down the middle of the bay, but they were all full. I was too tired to worry about it. I just laid down and crashed. (Even with the snoring and people moving around at all hours.)

The next morning Jim snagged a cage and we threw all our stuff in. One less thing to worry about…your stuff disappearing. (BTW, they logisticians estimate they issue soldiers deploying today about $17,000 worth of stuff. American tax dollars!) We cleaned up and headed right to work for the 0800hrs morning shift change brief. No chance to fight off the jet lag! Phil jumped right in and started training us. Again…just like in Atlanta…put the fire hose in my mouth and turn it on. Neither of us had every done this job before, so everything but how to use the computers was brand new. These are the points where my stories get very vague. Jim and I are going to work at US ARCENT’s forward command center. It’s highly secure and most everything we look at every day is classified SECRET. (This is already driving my Dad crazy.  I can’t give him many details.) I leave this part with it’s a desk job, and I look at a lot of screens all day until something happens in my area and I have to spring into action.Anyway, this was the next couple of weeks. Sleep (fitfully), eat (good chow), work, and work-out.

They have fantastic facilities here. They’re as good or better as any post I’ve been on since mobilized. That includes Ft. Jackson, Camp McCrady, Ft. Gordon, and Camp Shelby. The gyms are equipped with every piece of equipment you could want. They have flat screen TVs all over the place to include the gyms and mess halls. They’ve got fast food joints like Taco Bell, Burger King, and Pizza Inn. (I’ve avoided them so far.) The chow halls have salad bars, specialty bars, tons of fruit, and Baskin Robbins ice cream (which I’ve also avoided so far). That part is as bad as Camp McCrady from the beginning.

And I digress back to the parts that are no fun.....you have not privacy. Someone always snores. People work on different shifts. You have no space for your stuff. And, lights don’t go out until 2200hrs. I really can’t wait to get a room. How long will we have to wait is the question….I’m just trying to settle into a rhythm. We’re working 12 hours shifts 6.5 days a week. Jim volunteered to take nights, so I’m working 0600hrs – 1800hrs.

I’m trying to work into a system where I work out and shower at lunch. I then have my time after shift change and chow for laundry, phone calls, checking e-mails, and ultimately sleep. We’ll see. They say the first 30 days is the toughest part.

It is hot, hot, hot here! The average temperature since I’ve been here has been about 115 degrees. When I walk across post at lunch time (about a 15 minute walk) it feels like I’m cooking. The thing is…there is 0 humidity. I sweat, but just from the heat. You carry a drink around or lay it on a desk and there never is a ring. That freaked me out the first time I saw it. I’d forgotten about a fountain drink that I got from the mess hall and when I remember I was like, oh damn, I’m going to get paperwork wet. No condensation!

Items to Send in Care Packages

Many of you have asked what items you can send to me while I'm deployed. I want to first say thank you in advance. I would never presume that anyone would send me anything other than their love and support (except for Ang and the kids...you guys have to send me stuff:)), but know that if you chose to anything you send is always appreciated and shared with other soldiers I live and work with.

I'll share a quick story about a gift I received that moved me more than anything (except maybe those wonderful pieces of artwork that Trey and Audrey like to send me LOL). For those of you that don't know, Derek Duncan is my big brother from my fraternity at the University of Kentucky. He's the one that recruited me into Lambda Chi Alpha and recruited me into officiating basketball (which I still do today!). We spoke for the first time in many years on the phone while I was mobilizing. Wonderful conversation and baseball and politics the two topics that we both love so much. Well, a couple of weeks later I received a small package. It was filled with individual cards written my the youth volleyball team coached by Derek's wife Jenny. Each was inidividually written and signed by about 8 players. I'm sitting here with tears in my eye even thinking about those little notes right now. I pull each of those notes out one by one and read them at night and my spirits soar each time. Amazing stuff....

Anyway, little things like that are many times what a soldier needs to remember why we're here and what we're fighting for. The future of freedom for young children. However.....if you would like to send other nice goodies, here's the kinds of things that I need or would enjoy.

First, the don'ts...... no magazines with "suggestive" material and no alcohol. These are stricly prohibited "in theater" (war zones).

The Do's.....

- colgate toothpaste travel size
- gel shaving creem travel size
- sun screen
- enery bars/breakfast bars
- iPod gift cards (I can get music and rent movies.)
- paperback books
- hard candy
- any homemade goodies wrapped or ziplocked very well
- phone cards (Domestic cards are fine. I can call through a US switch to use them.)
- other than that's the rest is up to your imagination :)

One more....many of you have probably heard of the PX. The full name is AAFES Post Exchange. It's about the only place we spend money. :) We buy snacks, drinks, esstentials, stuff like that. You can buy gift cards at https://thor.aafes.com/gcs/default.aspx . These are great to include in care packages. It's interesting here on post that they don't have any change. They have bills, but no coins. You get these silly little AAFES card board pieces for coins. They look like play money. I've found it better to shop with gift cards or my credit card to avoid these things that I'll never use.

Don't worry about sending DVDs. I snagged about 600 movies from another soldier and put them on an external hard drive, and we get to see all new releases for free at our theater.

Please do me a favor and should you read this and send something, post what you sent on this blog. This could be a wonderful way to share and for all of us to talk about the wonderful ideas you guys have to help soldiers like me.

Thanks again to any and all. I look forward to conversing with you in some shape or form over the next year.

(BTW, I'm limited on what pictures I can take, but less load up. They're pretty weird about taking pictures here. However, should I go into Iraq at all, apparently you can take all the pictures you want there.)

My First Week at Camp Arifjan

My trip began by reporting to Atlanta Airport at 12.00pm to check in on Wednesday, May 20th. 8 hours later we climbed in a plane. Thank goodness for the USO and WiFi. :)

http://www.uso.org/

We flew on a DC-10 charter flight with Omni an airline I'd never heard of till then. The nickname of the flight is the "Freedom Bird". It's the flight that takes soldiers to and from the states for leave/RR. I was lucky enough to get a first class seat. These seats were based on first come first serve by rank. They started at Colonel (O-6) and had seats all the way down to O-2 (LT), E-8 (Master SGT), and W-3 (Chief Warrant Officer). I fall about in the middle as an O-4. We flew 6 hours to Shannon, Ireland, took a break to refuel and change crews for 2 hours, and then flew 5.5 more hours to Kuwait City, Kuwait. Combine that with the 7 hours we lost from Atlanta and that's a 18.5 hour trip. Not to bad. :)

We loaded up on buses at the Kuwait International Airport and headed over to Al Al Salem Air Base for our initial inprocessing.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/ali-al-salem.htm

It was a strange ride in that we weren't allowed to open the shades on the bus or listen to personal music players. Strange rules in a much, much different country.

We unloaded at Ali Al Salem Air Base and grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds. (Yes, they had McD's even in the middle of the desert.) Here we caught a really nice break. We were supposed to take a bus from the Air Base to Camp Arifjan. Each of us had 3+ bags filled with all the wonderfully heavy equipment the Army had issued us. Our compadre with Space Ops, Major Phil Speth, acquired an SUV to pick us up. No small feat when you consider he had to borrow the vehicle (not easy), get someone to come with him as VC (vehicle commander), come armed with ammo (you can't leave post without being armed), and get a mission letter from a LTC (O-5) or above. Great job Phil!

The trip to Camp Arifjan was about 1 1/2 hours. Crazy trip. No real speed limits. Kuwaits pass on shoulders and many times there were 3-4 lanes of traffice doing 120K (about 90 mph I believe) with no lines.

We arrived a Arifjan about 0030 (12.30am) Kuwait time. Now keep in mind that this is 7 hours ahead of est and 8 hours ahead of cst. We checked into the open bay transition barracks in the dark. Thanks to Phil again and to MSG Stewart (VC) for travelling with us and helping us lug our stuff to our bunks (2nd floor). I finally crashed about 0130.

That was the trip. I'll be back to talk about the 1st week later. :)