Strangers...

December is now upon us and the holiday care packages have started showing up. Yesterday, we received a huge load of packages from our docs spouse. Her husbands company sent each one of us a care package. Afterward, we met up at the base chapel where the chaplain surprised us with more care packages. These were provided by a bunch of churches back in the states. Nice touch. The packages contained toiletries, candy, snack food, socks and Christmas knick knacks. What really did it was that many of them included notes and cards from children. Their words reminded us as to why we are out here. What impresses me is that many of these "strangers" do not have anyone that is serving in the military and yet they are taking the time and their money to do this for us.
God Bless America.

Navy Times

Good morning!!! The Navy Times spent a couple of days with our battalion. They visited a couple of det sites to check out some of the projects that we have going on in Iraq and yes, yours truly did get some face time. I have not been able to figure that out. I guess I have a tendency to stand out in a crowd.

http://mfile.akamai.com/21772/wmv/gannett.download.akamai.com/21772/streaming/wmv/seabeesswahut.asx

If that does not work go to www.navytimes.com

Look under Sailors in the Fight. Video: Seabees: The SWA Hut

Try, try again...

Hi there! I have been trying to update the blog for a few days now but for some reason it is not cooperating. It is going to be a while before I can download any more photos. My thumb drive was "borrowed", not sure when the unknown individual plans on bringing it back. The digital camera that I was using fell victim to the sand. Some of the brown stuff got into the len/motor area so I am SOL. It gets worse...most bases have exchanges(store) but since this place is so out of the way ours has to be brought in by convoy, it is going to be at least a month before I will be able to purchase another thumb drive and/or a digital camera. I'll keep working on it.
We had our first light show a couple of nights ago. At around midnight I was jarred out of bed by a throbbing feeling in my chest, ("I'm coming Weezy!"..Ha!) but no, it was only one of the cannons shooting "loom" rounds towards the city. Talk about a light show. It was like having a giant, super bright light bulb hanging from the ceiling right over my head. The shadows were dancing around but no one was moving. It looked cool. I'm not sure what was going on in the city but we are all okay.
There is talk that we will be leaving this base afterall and heading back for a couple of days of R and R before we get our next assignment. I am hoping that it is only a rumor as we actually enjoy being out here. It is a very remote place but we do not have to deal with the BS that goes on at HQ or at some of the other bases. I'll let you know how that goes.

Sand...

Well, I was on a bit of a roll with downloading photos and such but as luck would have it my thumb drive was "borrowed" and the digital camera that I was using fell victim to the sand. Sand gets into everything and once that happens, it's over! It gets worse. The military exchanges do a good job of keeping these items in stock but since we are out in the middle of nowhere, we do not have an exchange on post. They are only out here once and maybe twice a month. Well, as luck would have it they left the day before yesterday. So it is going to be quite a while before I can update my photos for you. Stand by...
Take care...

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!!! Well, I never would have imagined myself spending this Thanksgiving so far from home. I will tell you that the meal that we had was almost as good as any that I have ever had. We had smoked turkey, ham, steak and all of the trimmings. The chow hall was decorated top to bottom and although every one of us was thinking of home we kept the mood as festive as possible. We finished dinner and then the strangest thing happened. We normally walk back to our hooches together but tonight we gave each other some room. I guess we all had to unwind and in my case I had a few words that I sent across the evening sky, hoping that somehow my family and friends would hear them. Why was it so strange? We did not have to say anything to one another.
We are a tight knit group but the isolation (in being away from home) that we deal with can be too much to go at alone. So what do we do to get through the hard times? The average age of our reserve battalion is thirty seven. You would think that we would be all business out here but on contrary. We laugh and we laugh at some of the stooooopidest things. From the dumbest one liners to guys passing gas. Summer camp for grown men. It just does not stop.
Being in the military we have to accept the fact that what is working like a top today is going to be changed, for no reason, tomorrow. What do we do when that happens? We laugh. Yes, some guys blow their tops and go on and on about “This is all bull crap!” Blah, blah, blah! So what do we do about these guys? We laugh at them too.
Check this out….
Unlike some of the guys that are forward of us, we do enjoy showers with hot water. The army makes this possible for us. For some reason, some one decided to relieve themselves in one of the shower stalls and no, I am not referring to going number one. This person(s) decided to drop a load. We laughed about it. “Was it too dark out that they mistook the shower for a honey bucket? They smell about the same but come on!” The army decided to remove all of the shower curtains, even the ones that separate you from the guy next to you. Very uncool. So what do we do? We show up at the shower tent that evening singing, “It’s Raining Men”. The next day, the shower curtains were back up. Damn sailors. Ha!
That’s it for now.
God Bless You and yours….

Alfa Company

I need to tell you about the guys that make up Alfa Co., Det. XXXXX Iraq

CM1 Jones: Nice guy. Hard to read but we’ll see if we can crack him.
EO1 Vanhout “Cubby”: One of the coolest and most genuine people that I have met out here and anywhere else for that matter. The guy has twenty plus years of experience operating equipment and a fantastic worth ethic to go with it, so needless to say we look to him to guide us along.
EO2 Woodard “Woody”: Another good guy. I met him in Gulfport and I liked the guy from the get go. He is now in charge of our crew and he is doing a real good job of stepping up for us. He was asked to find someone to go outside the wire. He could have picked any one of us but he volunteered himself.
EO2 Gill, Marty: A funny, funny guy. Ex. I was playing some of MY music. I asked Marty if he minded it and he said, “No, of course not.” So I let it play. He comes back with the following line, “Excuse me sir, more salsa please.” Ha!
Even though he is dealing with a major issue back home, the guy will go out of his way to be there for anyone that needs him. In the short time that we have been out here he has been one of the people that just cracks me up but can just as quickly turn around and just listen.
EO2 Tew, Shawn: This guy rubbed me the wrong way from day one and I did everything that I could to avoid him. In a group he talks just to draw attention to himself. As luck would have it, I ended up being his roommate. After talking to him one on one I realized that the guy is pretty deep. The guy is one of the best operators I’ve ever been around and he can easily let his actions do all of the talking and bragging for him.

Unfortunately this line up did not stay together for very long. Cubby and Tew were ordered back to HQ so they both left our base a couple of mornings ago. Talk about leaving a huge hole. These two guys just cannot be replaced. Regardless, this band of brothers will move forward and hopefully, before everything is said and done, we will get the chance to be sent out on another mission and all of the crap will keep on rollin’!

Us and Them...

November 13, 2006
All right…it feels so good being able to log into this blog site and update it on a regular basis for all of you.

The first pic is of yours truly standing in front of one of the security barriers, Hescos that we are installing all around the base. The second pic is of our flag, actually, my flag. Monica shipped it to me from home. Normally, it hangs in our sunroom back home but I wanted to have it flown out here. I got the thumbs up from the base CO so here it is. Talk about one hell of a sense of pride flowing through me....

We are still working on clearing an area for the SWA huts that we are building. We took a break and I went over to the ridge line that separates our camp from the Iraqi Army camp. Yes, we are that close. I pulled out my camera to take some photos of their side of the fence, err, concertina wire. I heard a voice and I saw movement just to the left of me. The left being THAT side. I reached for my weapon, why? I am not sure but the thing is that since this a secure base and once we are on the job site we do not need to carry our weapons with us. So there I stood with no weapon and I looked over to where the voice came from. I did not see anyone so I started to walk back to my rig. As soon as I turned my back on the ridge line I heard the voice again, only closer. I turned and just 10 meters away from me was an Iraqi soldier waving me over, smiling. He was not armed but I kept my distance. He could not have been more than eighteen years old. He mumbled something to me and I assumed that it was a good morning. So I replied with a good morning of my own. He offered me some tea and I declined. I told him that I had to get back to work. I jumped back in my rig and I looked to the fence and he was still there, smiling and saying something more to me. I turned off the engine and asked him to repeat what he had just said. Through broken English, I made out that he was injured; he was shot in the shoulder while on patrol in a nearby city. He was ordered to get some rest. Our conversation did not last too long. I excused myself and he gave me a thumbs up. As I drove away I recalled a quote that I read, “The world’s leaders should let mothers resolve our political issues. There would be no more wars.” I wondered, “What happened to us? Why can’t we focus on resolving our issues, our differences, peacefully?”

Take care...

Good times...

As I have told most of you and I am sure that your friends and or family members that have served in the military have told you that the best way to deal with what we go through out here is by finding humor in everything that we do. That said…

Part of project is building security barriers around the SWA huts that we are building for the marines. The government has signed a contract with a company that invented the Hesco barrier. It is mesh grid square that has a flannel type material lining the inside of the walls. It is available in different sizes and they come stacked on pallets. Anyway, once lined up or if needed stacked, they are filled with dirt, sand and rock and they can stop small arms fire and absorb a number of mortar and/or rocket attacks. So, for a job this size we have been filling Hescos at a hectic pace, we managed to get ahead of schedule. Our project lead had the following conversation with our company leader.

“Nice work. Are we going to have enough Hescos for the job?”
“We should be good to go. However, we may need to order more dirt.”
“How much more?”

Blank stares all around.

If you don’t see the humor in this, wake up!!! We are in Iraq. Aside from oil, this country’s most readily available resource is dirt, sand and rock. It’s everywhere and it’s free!!!!

Next up….

“Hey Doc, I think I’m dehydrated.”
“Really? When did you urinate last and what color was it?”
“The color is fine, it just tastes funny.”

Ha! Doc was having a bad day so I had to find a way to snap her out of the funk that she was in. And I was kidding about the taste. It still tastes the same as it did as the day that I got out here.

Given the fact that we are just on this side of the horizon of having a heck of a bad day, the guys out here, especially the ones in my company have done a great job of keeping one another’s spirits up. Yes, the majority of the time we are laughing about something or someone but if that is what keeps us focused and more importantly, helps in getting us back home safely then we’ll keep the laughs going.


About the pic with Chuck Norris...

Chuck Norris does not tea bag people, he potatoe sacks them.
Chuck Norris' beard hides a third fist.

He was real cool. The more that we thanked him and Marshall Teague (Road House, Armageddon etc.) for coming out the more that they thanked us for serving.
I went up to take my pic with them and I leaned over to Chuck, "Nice to meet you Mr. Norris. I've been a big fan since Bruce Lee beat the snot out of you. I think that I can take you, at least now that you are pushing 100 you old bastard. Oh! 'Cheese'!"
and then I took of running.
"Just kidding Chuck!!!"
I woke up the next morning with a black eye and a broken rib. The man IS that good. I've been looking over my shoulder ever since.

Howdy!

Hey everyone...I spent more than an hour typing up a long entry for this log, I loaded to my thumb drive and tried to load it to the blog page...CLASS NOT FOUND??? but it did let me load the photos???? Whiskey , Tango, Foxtrot!!!

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing real well out there. Things could be better here but we'll get through this.

The mornings are getting unbelievably cold but during the day we can still get by with wearing a t-shirt. The tents do not offer a whole lot of protection from the elements. The slightest breeze causes the tents to shake but we've gotten used to that. Our project is moving right along. We, the equipment operators, are at about 45% completion which is good but now we are doing busy work. Mostly driving around the camp, grating roads and correcting the mess that the Iraqi Army left behind. Have I told you how cool it has been for us working with the Marines out here? These guys appreciate even the smallest "hook up" and we have been doing all that we can to help these guys out.

A few days ago, our convoy team made a trip out here. They brought in some of the supplies and the materials that we need to complete our mission. It was great to see the guys that we had not seen since leaving the other base. The trip from that base to here is a perilous one. To be honest with you, there every road, at least the high way/freeways in this country has been wired or bombed so any road travel can lead to a very bad day. The convoy team did not stay here very long. They headed back to base the same day. The following day, the Army brought in a couple more trailers full of gear for us. Unfortunately, that convoy hit an IED. They lost two members. Same road, around the same time of day. Just like that....

Take care.

USMC....

Good morning everyone!!! Yesterday, 10 Nov, we got a chance to celebrate the Marines birthday. Because of this event we ended up getting about half a day off. We fell into formation to view the ceremony that they have. We formed up on a ridge just above all of the Marines, when they were ready to fall out our Senior Chief called us to attention and we sang Happy Birthday to them. I know it sounds cheesy, in a Village People kind of way but you should have heard the response that the "Devil Dogs" gave us. Afterward, we headed over to the chow hall for one hell of a dinner: Prime rib, king crab legs, lobster and all of the trimmings....sounds delicious, right? And it was but the real kicker was that the base CO had REAL beer flown in just for us!! We only had two cans a piece but it was like being back home. I told the guys, "Man, now I know what the guys in the Shawshank Redemption felt like."

Well, the base that I am at now is much smaller than the last base. We have no paved roads, or sidewalks. No plumbing and the weather changes very quickly. The nights have been incredibly cold and the days do get rather warm. The buildings are either tents or a handful of wooden huts. The tents sleep up to 16 men (Male to female ration: 175-200 to 1) but the tents are old and beat up. They have little or no heating and cooling. That is why they sent us out here.
I am with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 18 (NMCB 18) and 21 one of us have been tasked with getting rid of the tents that the Marines are living in now and replacing them with 49 Southwest Asia Huts (SWA). Although these huts are made out of wood, they are insulated and we are installing top notch wiring, lighting and HAC. When we first learned that we were going to be working directly under Marine command many of were hesitant. We did not know how the Marines were going to take to a bunch of Sailors but I can tell you that this experience has allowed for me to look at the Marines in a completely different light and I will be forever greatful for it. These guys are incredibly faithful and loyal not only to other Marines but now to the Seabees as well....