Iraq-First Week

I finally am able to sit down and let everyone know how things are going. It seems like it has been a very long time since I started my travels, but I look back and it has only been a short time. I left Port Hueneme mid-day two Friday’s ago en route to Kuwait. The flights were not too bad, but my body was so out of whack. I had a red-eye from Hawaii Thursday night, did a quick drive up to Port Hueneme and right back to Los Angeles, and then had another red-eye Friday night as I flew to Frankfurt. I had a very short layover there and then completed my trip by flying in to Kuwait City International Airport. They have a military side of the airport for military flights, but I was on a commercial flight so it was no different than a normal international flight. I went through customs, picked up my bag and entered the terminal.

The gentleman that I am replacing, LCDR Steve Bowser, met me at the airport with a group of a couple others from the Battalion. I grabbed a final cup of Starbucks coffee and we headed to Camp Moreell. This is the Seabee Camp that was built during the initial build-up in 2002 and is the area that all incoming Seabees go to get equipment, initial orientation, and some training. As a side note – there was another Battalion that was passing through so I saw some old buddies in passing. One in particular was LCDR Frank Fernandez who is a guy that went through Officer Candidate School with me. He is now a Reservist and has been recalled to work somewhere in Iraq.

The initial plan was to catch a couple hours of sleep and then head in to Iraq, but Mother Nature had different ideas. There was a sand storm that socked everybody in and ended up canceling our flights until Tuesday. We spent a lot of time going to the flight check-in area and waiting only to find out that the flight had been cancelled. One time we were waiting with an Army unit and they told us to load up so we grabbed our gear and headed to the bus. Things seem a little suspicious since the bus appeared to be going a different direction, but we thought they must be flying out of another location. Well, they ended up taking us to another base, dumping us out and saying that we were to be ready to go at 0300 the next morning. The lead for the Army unit knew it had been cancelled, but never told anyone – especially us. We had to get a hold of our unit and they ended coming to get us a couple hours later. Well we finally flew out on Tuesday on a “Sherpa” plane. It was a small cargo plane with mesh jump seats on either side. It was a pretty uncomfortable couple hour flight with all our gear and an indication of what was to come. The flight was uneventful except using the “bathroom” which consisted of a funnel connected to a hose that drained out the back of the plane.

I am located on a very large Army Air Base with our unit tucked away in one corner. It is just like I remember things. Everything is dirty, sandy, dust colored and HOT!!! The high this week was a balmy 115 degrees which took them over 70 days in a row with 100+ degree temperatures. The living accommodations are much better than I expected. We are all living in trailers that have 1 or 2 people in each small room. Thankfully they all have air conditioners so at least sleep is comfortable. The unit has built a nice office area. The buildings are called SWA (South-West Asia) Huts and they are everywhere. There are also trailers, Sprung Structures (large fabric tents), or even offices in old buildings that existed previously. There is not much to see with just lost of scrub brush and sand. The sand storm that held us up earlier continued through the entire week and kept everything covered with a nice layer of fine sand. The galleys are decent and serve too much food – even if it is bland and very consistent. I am going to have to be careful or I may gain weight while I am over here. There is not too much running going on between the dust and temperature. I have run a couple of times, but it is slow and short. Work is going to keep me very busy, but I will hold off on that discussion until next week. I should be taking a trip this week to check on some of the troops at other locations, but I have quickly learned that is weather conditional.

I hope to have some pictures posted next week if possible. Email seems to be working even though it is very slow. The best bet is to use david.mcalister@att.net. I can’t get it from every location, but it is quicker than the other one. Hope everyone is doing well and keep those prayers flowing for all the troops over here in harm’s way.