Departures and Arrivals...and Departures and ...

Well everyone, I'm finally settled in. It only took about two weeks! I realize it has taken me a while to write something, but really, I haven't wanted to do anything but get caught up and settled in from all the traveling and screwups in between. So here is the story in a nutshell and an update on my location:

The last couple of weeks of CST at Ft. Dix were just a matter of keeping my mouth shut and going through the classes. When I finally got to the airport in Philly to come home I realized how much that 5 weeks of training had taken out of me. I got home on Nov 8th and was scheduled to leave for Iraq on Nov 23 which gave me a nice two week break. I spent most of the time doing nothing but hanging out with my new wife and enjoying being at home with nothing to do...mostly drinking wine and playing playstation. The only thing I didn't enjoy about my break was the fact that I knew that every day I spent at home could have been a day spent over here getting this over with. The two week 'holding pattern' at home began to wear and by the end of my time I think Nickey and I were just ready to get it over with. One highlight of my time at home was to be able to spend some time with my friend and Tri coach. He helped me express my dominance in PS3 while also helping me realize how much fitness I'd lost in the past two months and how 'soft' I'd become. Thanks Bro.

So after two weeks of taking it easy and soaking up the good life in good ol' St. Pete, the only thing left to do was leave. Nickey drove me to the airport. It was a quiet ride. We both just wanted to get the goodbye out of the way, and start ticking off the days on this deployment. It was a quick goodbye. Nic did her best to keep the tears to a minimum and I tried to hold them back until she pulled away! It went okay, and my travels started. The first leg of my journey was from Tampa to Baltimore. That flight went off with out a hitch. Once I got to baltimore, I had a cool 12 hours to sit and wait for my military flight from Baltimore to Ramstein Germany. I stayed up the whole time so that I could sleep on the long flight over the Atlantic. I've done this flight many times, and it was about the same as I remember. Mostly drifting in and out of sleep, grabbing a meal, and then going back to sleep. Again, that flight was uneventful and I arrived in Germany feeling like maybe this trip would go smoothly. We were scheduled to depart Germany after about a 90 min refueling stop. So we deplaned, and hung around in the terminal at Ramstein Air Force Base. I say that because you'd think that if we deplaned as military personnel, on a military base, flying to another military terminal, we would simply just reboard the plane and proceed to our final destination. What I forgot to take into account was the fact that once we left Baltimore on our Mil flight, we were now a part of the military machine. So when our plane was called, we began to walk back to the plane and what did we encounter??? A security checkpoint like you get at a civilian airport! The only difference was at this security stop, we had ONE person working the metal detector and another doing pat downs!!! Those of you who know me well may say that I'm a little dramatic, and to you I say 'you may be right' but I found this not only as an inconvenience, but an an insult! We didn't even leave the rest area in the terminal! To make matters worse, we were asked to basically undress when we went through the metal detector even if we didn't have any metal! I passed through the metal detector without a hitch and was reprimanded because I was wearing a plastic belt and boots! After 24+ hours of traveling, standing in line for an hour in a security line in order to fly to a war zone was almost too much to handle without giving someone some lip. Needless to say I was beginning to get salty. The flight to Kuwait was pretty uneventful and we arrived at around 0300 local. We had to then catch a bus to the base in Kuwait where we were to attend some additional last min training. After a three hour wait in the parking lot we were on our way to Ali Al Saleem Air Base, Kuwait. Our arrival there was handled pretty well. We had personnel ready to meet us, do our paperwork on-site, and get us to our tents to begin adjusting to the jet lag and catch up on our sleep. Over all it took about 2.5 days to make the journey. Over the next couple of days in Kuwait, I spent most of my time sleeping and attending training.
After about a week we were notifed that our airlift was ready to take us to Baghdad International Airport or BIAP. From there we were all supposed to catch our different flights or helos to our Forward Opertaing Bases known as FOB's. I had a funny feeling when we landed because when I tried to get airlift to my FOB (FOB prosperity) I got a sort of blank look. Without going into too many details I'll sum it up like this: My orders were changed sometime after I left the states, and I wasn't informed. Also, I didn't have airlift to my supposed 'new' location. Upon checking all the databases, my reporting instructions were still listed as FOB Prosperity, but I was being told that I'd be reporting to another FOB. (NOTE: From here on out, I will not mention names of FOB's, including my current assignment because of security concerns.) This would made it difficult for anyone to set up my travel arrangements...that is if anyone WAS making my travel arrangements. After a few hours I realized that since my orders were changed, I was basically left to arrange my travel on my own. The problem is that my 'leadership' is located no where NEAR BIAP and had no inclination to arrange my travel. So I began to make calls, and go to desks throughout the travel area trying to pirate my ass onto a helo to my new assignment. At every turn, I got the traditional military answer: Sorry sir, that ain't my job. I dealt with this for about three days! Once I was close to hopping a State Department Helo, only to be turned away because I had too many bags (all of my baggage was mandated by the Air Force and contained not ONE item of civilian clothing or equipment). I finally got in touch with someone at my FOB and they told me that I had 40 mins to get ready because a convoy was leaving and coming toward my area. I furiously ripped open my luggage to get all my battle rattle ready to depart on a convoy. Once it was done, I met up with the convoy commander. It turns out that the folks I would be rolling with were a route clearing team. Basically, they roll out and LOOK for IED's and roadside bombs! I was like WTF? But the commander assured me that they were not on mission and were only at BIAP to pick up some spare parts. The vehicle I was loaded in is the picture at the top of this post. Its called the 'Buffalo' and I'm sure you can see why. It stands about 14 feet high and weighs around 72 tons! It was a bumpy ride from Baghdad but I was glad to be rolling and one step closer to my home for the next six months. After a quick stop at another FOB, I was finally home...and what a home it is!
The FOB I'm at is about 200 meters square! You can almost throw a rock from one side to the other. There are no shops, stores, BX/PX, or anything. There is a guy who's here once a week to cut hair and that's about it! The whole camp is covered in fist sized rocks (to keep the fly's and rodents down). The 'gym' is a few weight benches located between two sleeping trailers. We have two latrine/shower trailers and one chow hall. The rest of the base is sleeping trailers and admin trailers. I work with a small group of State Department civilians who are part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team. I'll talk more about them in the next post. Basically, I'm in charge of keeping their Secure, Nonsecure, and commercial internet connections running as well as secure/nonsecure phones. I'm also pretty much the 'computer guy'. I'm not sure why, cuz I'm not very good with computers...well I THOUGHT I wasn't good with computers. The problems that are brought to me are almost comical. So I guess to everyone concerned I AM the computer expert (just don't tell anyone)! I've also been setting up AFN satellite dishes in different buildings so that the folks here can get Armed Forces Network T.V.
So that's about it. There is more to tell, but I have six months to bitch, gripe, and complain about everything to YOU ... my faithful readers! The good news is that since I'm in charge of the internet, you can rest assured that I will always be able to post those bitches, gripes, and complaints on my blog. Until next time...and it won't be so long this time... -OUT-