MISSION SUCCESS

Another step closer to coming home. We have completed turnover with the new unit and had our Transfer of Authority ceremony on Tuesday. Similar to a ceremony marking when one Commanding Officer hands over command to the next Commanding Officer, this ceremony formally marked the handing off of the Multi-National Force-West (MNF-W) Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) mission from my Command to the new NCR. My counterpart in the new command is an old friend of mine named Jeff Kilian and we have crossed paths many times over our career. He is on my career path of lots of Seabee time and not so much Public Works or Contracts time. He is well suited for the position and will do great. I am able to walk away from the mission proud of my unit’s accomplishments, but also confident it is in hands that will make it even better in the future.

So where does that leave me. I have left Fallujah, but I am not out of Iraq yet. I am now at a camp in Southern Iraq for a week sitting on a board. I can’t pass on any of the details at this time, but it is something I have never done and will probably be one of the most memorable things I have done over here. Now getting here was another story. I flew with my group to Kuwait and the next day started my journey back to where I am. I was taken up to another Camp in northern Kuwait (one of the camps where I had a group of Seabees last year) to catch a rotary wing (helicopter) flight back into Iraq. The guys that took my up to that Camp did not really know where they were going so we drove around the camp looking for a place to check in for my flight. The flight was at 6:00 am the next morning so I did not want any snags and wanted to know exactly what time I needed to be there. We went to the base command building and they called around until we got ahold of someone that was flying where I needed to go. He said to be there the next morning 30 minutes before the flight. They did not have any berthing so we went to the Seabee Camp and they gave me a room to sleep in. It turns out the Officer in Charge of the Detail was a guy I had run into a couple years ago so that helped. We had some dinner and locked in a ride to the airfield the next morning. Now the fun begins.

I show up at this mysterious pedestrian gate to the airfield and it has a sign that says it will be open 30 minutes before the flight. There is no sign of anyone so I wait for a while and then a couple guys show up and head inside the gate. I follow them in and roam around until I find a place that looks like it should be for flight check-ins. Turns out that I was no where close to where I needed to be (I still don’t know where the right spot was), but they did have a flight heading north a couple hours later. It was by no means direct, but they said they would put me on it. I went and found a cup of coffee and hung out to wait for the flight. The unit that flew me was British Royal Air Force and the helo was one I had not flown on before so I was a little excited. The time for the flight came and we loaded up on the bird. It was a helo similar to the CH-53 which is a large single rotor helo that the Marines use. This one was configured differently, but it was similar. Well, I ended up getting the bonus tour of southern Iraq. We went all over the place before we FINALLY made it to my camp. It was nice because I had heard of all the places we went, but had no idea exactly what they were like. The Brits are in charge of this area so they were Brit bases for the most part. When I got of the helo, it was like any camp in the middle of no where. There was a tent and a port-a-pot and lots of tents in the distance. Luckily one other guy got off at this camp and he had a ride so I hopped in with him. They took me to the tent for the Board members and here I sit. Tomorrow is training and the board begins.

It is very non-organized so far. There are a bunch of us hanging around waiting for the board and so far no one has told us where to be or what time to be there. I guess we will figure it out. It is nice in a way since I can get some much needed sleep and PT so it is not all bad.
That is all for now, the next entry should be about me hitting the states (unless there is some excitement I don’t expect). I can’t wait to get home!!!