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« on: July 31, 2009 6:19 PM »
Thought I'd start a post about my trip. I'll take pics to add to the descriptions.
I left 11 June, went to Fort Benning, Georgia where they lost the 15 of us for a couple days, sent us to another part of post for mobilization training. After 2 weeks, we flew to Kuwait where we spent a week doing 8 hours of training. A highlight is when I sat in a big motorized Humvee rotisserie to train us how to react when the overloaded beasts finally tip over. Now, these humvees look roomy when you look at them in the U.S., but stuff all the radio equipment in there and add a bulky vest, a rifle, and a helmet and I can't even move around while upright. They hung us upside down in the simulator and said, "Ok, get out." Everbody else dropped to the ceiling and climbed out. My dumb ass must have looked like I was caught in a spider web, because I was. So that was Kuwait. Fuck Kuwait.
So now I'm in Al Basrah, Iraq, or 20 minutes outside of it, anyway. We're about 20 miles from Iran, which is comforting. We took this base over from the British, who left officially as of yesterday. I think yesterday's mortar/rocket attack had something to do with that, but thats just me.
Now the British had different standards of "base protection." The British also had 6 pubs on base. The Dutch were allowed to have hashish on their person, so you can see why not much got done. We're in the process of converting their chain-link and concertina wire fences to concrete walls, which is where I come in. I escort/direct one team of many made up of iraqi construction contractors who run cranes/forklifts and move concrete wall sections into place for "force protection," as they call it. This gives me plenty of time to sit and learn their language, their culture, etc.
They smell funny. I think its from a combination of no deodorant anywhere and the food they eat because I ate lunch with them a couple times and I had to take 2 showers those nights. I quiver from the flashbacks.
I live in a big tent with 40 other people. I have the top bunk. I did share a locker with someone, yes, share a locker with someone, but I scrounged up another locker that was 10 minutes away from being crushed and now I am the envy of the tent. I have my own locker, bitches. I shower in a trailer full of showers and shit in another trailer full of shitters. The showers and shitters aren't in the same trailer, and sometimes a hot shower just makes ya have to go, so sometimes I just pee in the shower. Good stuff. I kinda made that last part up. Kinda.
Life is good though. Simple. Not that physically difficult. The food is good. Can't complain. There are other ways to pay for school though, thats for sure. Until next time, Masallama.
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