Tri-Dave

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2008-03-25T07:54:00.001-07:00

I have left Iraq, made it through Kuwait, and am in the United States. I am not quite settled, but at least I am in the states. Thanks for all the support over deployment.

REVIEW BOARD

2008-03-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

My final week in Iraq was doing something I never would have dreamed of before deployment or even a couple months ago for that matter. I was selected to sit on Multi-National Force Review Council (MNFRC) Boards for a week. These are Geneva Convention (rules for war) mandated and require each detainee’s package to be reviewed every six months to ensure they are still a security threat. The boards were hosted at one of the Theater Internment Facilities in southern Iraq. My original mission was done and I headed south with my unit only to turn right around and immediately head back north. While the arrival was difficult like I described in my last post, once the boards started, it made it all worthwhile.

The boards consisted of three members which reviewed each individual’s package the day prior to the board. The board itself started with ensuring we had the correct individual and then describing the allegations to the members and the individual. The individual was able to give their side of the story as well as provide any evidence or counter arguments to refute the charges. We discussed the individual themselves, the families, the area, the tribes, and everything in between. We focused on the future much more than the past as we were attempting to determine future threat vice arguing over if they did the acts. We had a host of information to include behavior at the internment facility, detainment specifics, and sensitive intelligence. In my opinion it was an exceptionally fair process to ensure the correct individuals are held while the lower threat individuals are slowly re-entered into Iraq. The concern of course is tipping the balance in an incorrect way, but the time is now as Iraq is gaining unstoppable momentum in its pursuit for peace, security, stability, and self reliance. All my cases were from the area I just served and I fully understand the situation in each populated area which assisted with my votes. It was incredible to have the opportunity to discuss an individual case face to face with the specific Iraqi and humbling to be able to vote on their future. My opinion after reviewing the package often did not match my vote after a board. It was one more opportunity I have been provided and will never be forgotten. While I am anxious and ready to get back to the United States, this extra week was one of the most rewarding of this deployment.

Now for the crabby part. I am stranded and my flight out of Iraq was cancelled. There may be one this weekend, but there is no guarantee. I am completely done here and ready to go, but instead it is sitting around looking at the walls of a tent while laying on a really bad matress. Lucky more me I packed light and the laundry has a three day turn around so it is the same clothes until I get to Kuwait. At least I have some PT gear so I can go to the gym each day to balance the dessert I am having at each meal. I need a helicopter!!!!

MISSION SUCCESS

2008-03-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

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!!!

GETTING CLOSER

2008-03-07T20:50:00.002-08:00

Things have been crazy here, but now that the underwater cable has been repaired our internet connection is back to its normal crawling speed. Not fast, but at least it will get somewhere on the net. Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. My relief is here and we have spent the last week transitioning things from him to me. I am not quite out of here yet, but it is starting to build. Transitions are always very difficult though. There are twice the people and not enough computer assets. Things I was able to do in thirty minutes take two hours since I am teaching while doing. The new team is enthusiastic and full of energy (which is a great thing), but it is just always hard to manage the days requirements, meetings, transition, packing and everything in between.

One interesting item was coming across a Chief who used to work for me when he was a junior enlisted troop in Key West. He keeps threatening to tell stories from down there, but I have told everyone that no matter what he says it is made up. J We spent the other afternoon catching up on where people were that we worked with. It was a nice stroll down memory lane.

On another important note, I just received my next assignment orders. I will be heading back to DC for a couple more years of beltway fun. The assignment is for the Commander, Naval Installations Command (CNI for short) which is the command which “owns” all the bases around the world. I think I will be in the Military Construction (MILCON) Department, but it is not for sure yet. It will all be based on timing. When I get home, I am the “Special Projects” guy for a couple months which really just means I get tagged with things they need to get done, but have not focused on yet. I will most likely be bouncing back and forth between DC and Norfolk for one of the projects. I should be in DC by late July or early August.

Thanks for all the support while I have been out here and I will let everyone know when I make it stateside.

GETTING CLOSER

2008-03-07T20:50:00.001-08:00

GETTING CLOSER

2008-03-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

ONE LAST BIG TRIP

2008-02-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the last week traveling way out west checking out some ongoing projects and to look at some potentially future work. It was probably the best trip I have had this deployment and really gave me a great perspective on some of the outlying bases, cities, and infrastructure. The week started with a monthly conference I have with the Operations Officers of the units which work for us. It is an opportunity to discuss issues, evaluate progress on active projects, pass along information about future work, and just have the time to all talk as a group. This has been very important since most projects have some form of coordinated effort and are executed by multiple units. This conference was supposed to be the week before, but the weather won and I did not fly anywhere. I did get to spend a bunch of time waiting for flights and not getting much sleep, but it comes with the territory.

After the conference, my Operations Chief and I started the second part of our trip which was a visit to one of the camps that are being constructed in the ongoing pursuit of pulling military personnel out of the population areas and allowing the Iraqi police to oversee the cities. No different than in the US. We don’t want a bunch of military vehicles and personnel on the street corners, but have no problem with police doing their job. Anyway, the project was going well, the team was motivated and doing the work quickly, safely, and with very high quality. The only downside to this part of the trip, but the length of the day. We did not get to bed the night before until close to 11:00 pm and had to be staged for the convoy at 2:30 am. That was tough. Well we convoyed to the project I was just talking about and then were picked up by another unit to take us to our final destination for the day. The convoy took us through a small town that I had never been to and it was amazing to see the day to day life. It looked as close to normal as a war torn third world country could look. People were out and about, stores were open for business, houses were being constructed, trash was being cleaned up, and it just looked and felt normal. It was along the Euphrates so there were palm trees along the shoreline and grass in some spots. All of this led us to one of the major Iraqi dams which was our next destination.

The dam was amazing. It was built in the late 70’s until the mid-80’s so it was more modern than most facilities in the United States. The design is Russian and it was built by Yugoslavians and Czechoslovakians. It provides significant agricultural irrigation and some power generation for the entire region. We went there to look at a couple projects were are working or planning, but the best part of the visit was getting a “behind the scenes” tour by a mechanical engineer who works at the dam. We went all over the facility from the sluice gates up top to the turbine rooms, control centers, and cabling/transformer areas. The stairs never seemed to end and we kept going down in to the depths of the dam and into the nooks and crannies. Quite the impressive facility. I would like to be stationed there; most of the forces live in the dam and have balconies that overlook the river. They are able to see sunsets and sunrises regularly and it just seems closer to home. Plus, the PT would be great. You could do stair runs every day or if that is not good enough, run up the ramp that goes from the bottom to the top of the dam. A couple of those and you would be hurting.

I am now back in Fallujah and cranking along. This week should be interesting as we are working through the start of a major project which has had significant coordination problems. There are also a couple organization changes that are occurring which always makes things interesting. The team is still doing great and everyone is safe and sound. I will put some pictures up soon, but the connection is absolutely horrible right now due to that cable break somewhere over here. They say it will be better in another week or so, but I am not holding my breath.

RAMUDDY!!

2008-01-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

I have heard Ramadi called that before, but I experienced it for myself this last weekend. I was in Ramadi to look at a bridge project being executed by an Army Engineer Company that works for us and it was a mess – the camp not the bridge. The camp is know for having very deep “moon dust” in the summer and when it rains it turns into the thickest, stickiest, nastiest gunk you can picture. It is not the “let’s go play football” kind of mud, but a type that goes with you everywhere you go. They have huge grates outside the buildings to try and scrape off what you can, but it really does not do any good. As for the bridge – it was going well and would replace some assault bridging with a more permanent solution. The cool thing was it is the same bridging I worked with back in 2002-2003. One of my main missions back before the invasion was to get the Marines bridging to cross certain key rivers during the march north. I worked with the Marines to find the right solution and then toured the factory in the UK to make sure it met our needs. The tech rep I worked with back then is back out here and still helping us out. It was nice to see the relationship is continuing.

On another note, the annual Key West Half Marathon was this past weekend. I have been training with the soon to be famous Camp Fallujah Seabee Regiment Running Club (okay really just 5-6 us running a couple times a week) and we had the course lined up. Well, after bad weather, eight hours stuck in the A/DACG (passenger waiting area), and more mud, I was stranded in Ramuddy. I scouted the camp for a dry part of the road, but ended up doing the Half Marathon on a treadmill. It was terrible. Bad enough to run on a treadmill for 13 miles, but it was in the corner of a room facing a blank wall with nothing to look at. The only entertainment was when the treadmill stopped after an hour and I had to restart it. Not quite what I expected, but I did it just the same. I can add it to the list of places I have run the race. My buddies Mark/Karen did the run in Key West (and sent an email to rub it in) and two of my running partners did the race in Fallujah.

This week has been crazy already and it is off again for a Conference and more project visits. The light is starting to glow at the end of the tunnel.

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

2008-01-16T12:04:00.000-08:00

SNOW – In Iraq!!! I never would have ever dreamed. Some say it has been sixty years since Baghdad has seen snow and others say Hell has finally frozen over. It has been really chilly, but I never expected to walk outside to flurries billowing around me. It was not enough to stick, but it definitely was snowing. Picture one of the early snows where it may even get fairly heavy, but it just blows around and then melts. Quite the picture. It has stayed cold since then with nightly temps in the low thirties and wind chills in the low twenties. Too cold for me.

COUNTER-INSURGENCY

2008-01-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

I am spending the week in Taji, Iraq at a Counter-Insurgency (COIN) Conference. It was fascinating information and potentially beneficial. It does not apply directly to the Seabees in the work we are currently doing, but with our significant Humanitarian Assistance missions around the world, the information could apply down the road. The conference was very Iraq specific, but the themes apply anywhere. The biggest take away is that the theme of Counter-Insurgency is British based and they have been using it for over a decade. There are good examples and bad examples of when the themes were used and what was interesting was the many times the British “forgot” what they had learned previously. The biggest deal was when the Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, Gen Petreaus, came and spoke to us. He was very interesting to listen to and brought an interesting perspective with his multiply tours over here. There were some dry speakers as well, but overall – very good conference.

The compound I was on was an Iraqi training base. There were many Iraqi’s on the camp and they were very friendly. Most would say hello as they walked by and I never felt threatened whatsoever. My room was a metal box (ISO container if you know what that is) with a tiny bed, desk, frig, and restroom. The nice thing was to have a bathroom, TV, and internet in the room, but the bad thing was the heater. It is has been extremely cold here with the temperatures dipping into the twenties at night and the heater was just not keeping up. It was set as high as it would go and it just barely blew any air out and what did come out was lukewarm. Needless to say, I spent the nights bundled up under the one blanket that came with the bed.

Last Friday was a big deal. I finished up my Fleet Marine Force qualification and received my Fleet Marine Force warfare pin. Similar to my Seabee Combat Warfare pin (think pilots “wings”), the FMF pin is something you wear on the uniform and shows people you qualified in that area. It was hard work, but very good information and I learned tons.

Otherwise, we are cruising in the new year and plugging away on our work.

COMMAND NEWSLETTER

2007-12-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

Check out the new link to the right side of the webpage. If you click 30NCR (Fwd) webpage that is the command webpage for out here. On the left side is a link to the "December 2007 Desert Buzz" which is the monthly newsletter. This month was highlighting the Operations Department which is my Department. Lots of stuff about what we do and some pics of my co-workers.

PICTURES - FINALLY

2007-12-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

Operations Team. These are the best 26 people in the Regiment. They are the ones that get everything done.

Briefing the Secretary of the Navy (most senior person in the Navy). He works for the Secretary of the Defense.

After the Jingle Run 5K.
My office. Not too much to say about it. Concrete, boring, bare, full of mold (you can see it on the walls), dirty, and the one window is all boarded up. Great place to spend 18 hours a day...

Group of us wearing hats knitted by a church group.

Christmas Day sitting on a sled outside the Dining Facility.
Shower in my berthing area. Spiced it up with a shower curtain from Mom.Old friend of mine Franklin Fernandez and me at a project site. He is the Operations Officer for one of the Battalions that works for us.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2007-12-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Nothing could be as good as being at home with friends and family, but we are getting by. Tonight was the First Annual (okay only one) THIRTIETH Naval Construction Regiment Forward (30NCR (Fwd)) Mingle Jingle. We have a courtyard around our buildings and turned it into a holiday wonderland. Someone built a fake fireplace and we had it burning with flashing red lights. Our camo netting was interlaced with lights of all colors and we had water bottles filled with orange and green chem lights. Thrown in some goodies, fake beer, Christmas trees, and santa hats and it was just right. I started the night with a Christmas Eve service that was readings and some really bad singing. It did have a candlelight singling of Silent Night. The day continues with a Jingle Bell 5K tomorrow morning and then a little time off. Really that just means the morning meetings are cancelled, but it is something.

I was on the radio tonight. It was a small radio station that broadcasts nationwide and they were doing radio interviews with different people. I am not sure what station it was, but I will try to find out.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a very Merry Christmas. Miss everyone.

HOLIDAY SEASON

2007-12-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

Time just seems to be flying by. It seems like every time I get a second to catch a breath, something pops up and I am suddenly behind again. The last week and a half were so hectic, but it sure makes the time go quicker. We had a BBQ today for the deployment’s “Over the Hump”. It is a time honored tradition of recognizing the middle of deployment and taking a breather. Since I arrived later in October then most of the people it is not MY Over the Hump, but I will take it.

I had one trip this week. It was only for a day, but it turned out to be very worthwhile. I have started hosting a group gathering of the Operations Officer’s so we can deconflict projects, address any issues, and talk about future work. This month’s meeting was at Al Taqaddum which was an old Iraqi Air Base. It is right along a lake which makes it almost tranquil if you are on that side of the base. It also has a bunch of old Iraqi aircraft which had been buried in hopes of hiding them from us and reusing them at a later date. It has a fascinating history.

The holidays are starting to build up. We have not heard if anyone is visiting for Christmas, but it would not surprise me. A church group of one of our guys sent knit caps for everyone. They were all hand knitted and in multi colors. You find people walking around the office with random color hats on.

I am continuing to study for my Fleet Marine Force qualification. It is a big long process to learn all about the Marines, their capabilities, and how they operate. I have my qualification board at the end of the month. It is a lot of studying but worth it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Thanks as always for the support from back home. It is very appreciated by everyone.

DECEMBER ALREADY

2007-12-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

Finally getting the routine down. I plan to upload an update each Sunday with the last weeks events. So far I have been behind, but I will try to be better in the future. I need to figure out how to get pictures posted. The last week flew by – I don’t know if it was lack of sleep or just so busy I did not realize it was already another week done. I can not believe it is already December. Hopefully December will go as fast as November.

I have not traveled since right before Thanksgiving and it was kind of nice to get organized. I have started a little running group that is working towards the Key West Half Marathon in January. We sneak (shhh don’t tell the boss) out a couple afternoons for a run and then do a longer run on Sundays. It fits in nicely between the normal meetings and the little time off. I am able to finish running, cool off and still make it to church before I have to get back to work on Sundays. The church is okay. It is more like a school auditorium than a church, but the building is not what matters. The gym is also nice. I have tried to start going to gym again, but have not been too regular with that yet.

I did stumble across the Camp Fallujah Hash House Harriers. I tried it out tonight and it was pretty fun. A small group, but seemed fun. We went crawling over walls, scaling Hesco barriers (big expandable bins you fill with dirt that are all over Iraq), and dodging razor wire. I only ended up with one slice on my hand. For those that don’t know the Hash is a running club where the send a couple people out to set a trail. We then run after them by following clues in an attempt to get to the end. We meet up at the finish and tell funny stories, sing some songs, and drink some beer (non-alcoholic or course).

I finished up my Navy War College program I have been working on for the last year and a half. Not nearly as tough as Jarrell’s graduate degree, it was still a pain and I am glad to be done. Now I am working on my “Fleet Marine Force” qualification. It is program you can do on deployment that teaches you all about the Marines we are supporting. It just helps know how to talk the talk and understand the capabilities of our boss. We have had a bunch of people take the Marine Corp Martial Arts Program. It is hand to hand combat training that goes up in different levels with different belts (kind of like karate). Something tells me I would get flung all over the place if I did that. Good thing it does not fit my schedule.

That’s about it for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

2007-11-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKGIVING!!!

Sorry it has been so long, but the computers are just so slow and they lock down the internet most of the time. Things have been going well so far. The staff that I work with are starting to come together and we are really jelling as a team. The Seabees out here are doing amazing things and making a huge difference in the entire environment out here. The mission is simple – support the Marines with construction support all over Al Anbar. Al Anbar is roughly 58,000 square miles in western Iraq in what used to be a horrible area. Now it has become the model of success and the threat has plummeted. I only hope we are having a little part in that.

I am living in an old beat up building. It is concrete and block with tile floors. There are a couple rooms in the side I live on and we all share two bathrooms. The bathrooms are not very nice and the showers just kind of spray into the middle of the room. You have to squeegee it after your shower just to keep from floating away. My office is in another old building (picture to the left) about half a mile away from where I live. It is not too bad of a walk and kind of nice in the morning and evenings. We have an entire walled complex that used to be some Iraqi training compound. There is even a pond nearby with geese that will chase you if they think you have food. There is scrub brush kind of vegetation, but it is better than nothing at all. The food is just what I expected. Lots of it and it allll tastes the same. Only disappointment so far was Thanksgiving lunch. They did not have turkey. I had to have a Philly cheese steak sandwich, but still enjoyed multiple desserts so it was still good.

I have done a fair amount of traveling since I got here, but it has slowed up now. There were lots of visitors and I had to host them. It was a big swing to all the sites twice over three weeks. The best so far was a ride in an Osprey. It was amazing. It is hard to tell how it works, but it feels so weird. The osprey has tilt rotors which start out facing up so you take off like a helicopter and then the tilt and face forward like a plane. The back is open so you have to hold on to your stuff as it transitions because there is a substantial tilt downwards, but the view is great. I am trying to get some pictures of the Ospreys, but so far I have only seen them at night when it was too dark to get pictures. Picture it the right is Frank Fernandez and I at a Combat Outpost. Hard to believe all these years later, we keep running into each other. He is the Operations Officer for one of the units that works for my unit.

I was really sick for a while, but have pretty much gotten over it. It is normal and everyone gets is as your body gets used to the new environment. It is just your typical flu-like cold and coughing.

We have had a couple visitors since I got here to include the Chief of Naval Operations (most senior person in the Navy) and the Secretary of the Navy (Civilian head of the Navy). They have been passing through fairly quickly, but both of them included the Seabees on their busy schedule. I got to meet the Chief of Naval Operations and actually briefed the Secretary of the Navy. They were both very complementary of what we are doing out here.

Nothing else too exciting, but thanks for all the support. Miss everyone and can’t wait to get home. Cards on the wall are from the Pre-First class at Christian Academy of Knoxville. The group is the Operations Department. They are the ones that make everything happen.

PICS WOULD NOT LOAD. I WILL TRY LATER

SAFE AND SOUND

2007-11-07T13:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to post something, but the connectivity is very bad. I am going to have to figure out a good solution for posting things. I am pretty much settled safe and sound. I have seen most of the units that work for us and visited most of the main bases. Things are very hectic and it looks like it will be a dead sprint for the entire deployment.

Quick funny story that summed up my entire travels over here. I flew out of Washington Dulles and as I was waiting to check in for my mammoth flight, they evacuated the entire airport for a "breach" in the security area. Next thing I know there are thousands of people standing outside watching the authorities scurry around. I thought I would miss my flight, but they ended up pushing it an hour. Here I thought Iraq would be the danger area and instead it is Dulles.

I will post much more later with information and pictures.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

2007-09-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well after a couple months back in California, it is just about time to head back to the lovely Middle East. I will start updating the blog weekly again by the end of October, but here is my new address for what it is worth. You can always find me at david.mcalister@mnf-wiraq.usmc.mil or mcalisterdh@gmail.com

LCDR Dave McAlister
30NCR
FPO AP 96601-1701

HOME AT LAST

2007-02-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been a couple weeks, but we moved camps in preparation for heading home. Besides the fact we lost our email accounts and all my usual sites were blocked, we have to be very careful as groups are preparing to travel. It is very important to not talk about dates, times, numbers, or routes. It can be a challenge as the families back home are trying to figure out when to come to the airport, but they do a great job of publishing the word with a recording the families could call. That saved the troops from telling stuff over the phone.

Turnover with the new unit went pretty well. It is very difficult when you try to give them all the information they need and history on the projects while also preparing to go home. Some of the departments go very quick, but the areas that have to inventory all the materials, tools, and equipment take a long time. Then you add in troops flying in from other locations, end of deployment briefs, and finally an excessive customs process and the days just get crammed. It took us an entire day for customs before we flew out. They go through every bag, every pocket, every zipper ensuring no one has contraband such as weapons, knives, war trophies, soils, etc. It is very invasive, but ensures things are done before you land in the states.

Bottom line is everyone made it home safe and sound. I will probably not update the blog for a while, but will try to post something every month or so until I deploy again. Thanks for all the support of me, my troops, and all service members. Everyone made it worth the sacrifice and your thoughts and prayers helped everyone through the tough times.

FREE AND CLEAR

2007-02-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

So far so good. I have not been locked up for my illegial half marathon and no one has yelled at me (at least not for that). Things are plodding along with lots of loose ends being tied so we can be prepared for the next unit coming in. I can't give any specifics on the transition, but I should be home within a month. I am very excited and can't wait to get back to California for some me time. Just to be able to enoy a cup of coffee without talking to the same people I have seen every single day for the last six months. Oh, and sleep - I can't wait!!!! Of course, I need to find a place to live and get a car since I sold mine before I left, but besides that - I am ready. Probably won't get to post much over the next couple weeks, but will update as I can.

HALF SHELL HALF MARATHON

2007-01-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

One of my many goofy things I do is run the Key West Half Shell Half Marathon each year. Thay may not seem too weird except I do it where ever I am located real time with the race in Key West. I have run it at 2:00 am in Hawaii, 4:00 am in California, and 3:00 pm in Kuwait. This year was the second time I ran it in Kuwait and it turned out to be a good year for me.

The skies were clear blue with just a slight wind as 41 runners from Navy, Army, and Air Force set out to conquer the Half Shell Half Marathon - Kuwait style. The weather conditions were great and compensated for the poor running conditions. Unlike the flat smooth course in Key West, we ran over gravel, boulders, up hills, and along service roads to get the 13.1 mile needed for the race. I had put the word out about the race and had an unexpected number of people express interest. Saturday (day before the race) I received a nasty call from the base installation manager to ask why I had not coordinated the race or written a memo (the Army loves their memos). I dutifully wrote a quick memo and went to see the Colonel and tried to explain this was not a formal race, just a bunch of people out for run. He did not buy it and went to get the approval of the gentlemen in charge of all Kuwait bases. He disapproved it so I was directed not to have it. To kick a guy when he is down, he did authorize me to conduct physical fitness on my own Sunday and it did not matter how far I ran. This just reiterated why it is time to get home.

Well, all the people still showed up on Sunday and I tried to explain there was not official start time or clock, it was up to them. I did not have the people on the course marking it or handing out water, because that may imply I was not following his order. Dutifully, I notified the runners the race was cancelled along with a map of the course and instruction on where to give times if they ran 13.1 miles as an individual on Sunday. We spread out some of the runners to maintain our covertness, but I still had 25+ show up at my doorstep to start at 3:00 pm local time. After they all agreed the race was cancelled and they were just out for an afternoon run, they set off in small packs of runners. Overall everyone did very well with 38 finishers. There were 4-5 new half marathoners by the end of the day and they were very excited. I finished with a co-worker (LCDR Lore Aguayo) in 1:34:32 which was one of my better times the last couple of years surprisingly enough. Our two speedsters (RP2 Margarito Barerras and CM2 Jeremiah Freye) finished in just under 1:30 at 1:29:51. Overall it was a good day of running and I think I may have convinced a couple of people to come run in Key West next year.

Chris Archer and Joe Wilburn.

Runners from Detail Cuba.

The Executive Officer (Lore Aguayo) ran with me for the race. She is obsessed with running and just about ran me into the ground.

Pil Park finishing.

They did a quick article about the run out here. Check it out. http://www.keysnews.com/305358634421060.bsp.htm <http://www.keysnews.com/305358634421060.bsp.htm>

JANUARY

2007-01-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

Nothing too exciting this week. Really starting to focus on projects and preparations for the next unit. Not even enough for pics. I do hope that everyone's plans and goals for the New Year come true.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2006-12-31T03:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!! The week has been hectic with trying to take a little bit of down time and appreciate the holidays while also keeping things headed in the right direction. For Christmas we started the day with a frigid 5K race (XO wond second in her age group and ENS Heather Hess won third in her age group with her fastest 5K yet-see picture). After a quick breakfast, I spent some time at the gym and then the Wardroom got together for a noon lunch. The food was pretty tasty (not quite as good as Thanksgiving) and I had ample portions of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and mac/cheese. And don’t forget the chance to eat more desserts than normal. We finished the day with a gift swap. Here are some pictures from the day.

Our Dentist jumping on his new mini-tramp.
The group again.

Our XO stole the "Man Candy Calendar.

The Chaplain was tipping back a couple of non-alcoholic frosty beverages.

New Years will be somewhat subdued. The chapel is doing a campfire tonight which should be fun and anytime I get to sleep in is a huge bonus. We are starting to focus on deployment back home which is always a nice thing to do.

I would really like to thank everyone for supporting the troops and I over here. The cards, gifts, and prayers are more appreciated than I can tell you and it makes being deployed that much easier. I only hope I have the chance to reciprocate down the road. As we look into the New Year, I am hoping for a more peaceful year, progress in the Middle East, and an opportunity to get re-connected with friends and family. Thanks again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2006-12-24T03:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all. Thanks to everyone that has kept my fellow troops in their thoughts and prayers over the past months and throughout the holiday season. The troops appreciate it and makes our time away from friends and family that much easier. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

TRIP PART TWO

2006-12-24T03:07:00.000-08:00

Finally home. This last trip was tough, but it is always good to see the troops and truly understand the great work they are accomplishing while overcoming challenges. Every location we went to was making great progress on items they needed to improve and working diligently on preparing for the next Battalion.

The second half of the trip did not go quite as planned and we realized quickly we needed to adjust our plans when our plan to Europe skipped Frankfurt (where we were supposed to go) and landed in Amsterdam. The airline was not prepared for this and instead of having everyone line up so they could work flights back to Frankfurt or to the next location (Madrid for us) it turned into a mob of people yelling and shoving their tickets at the ticket representatives. They finally separated the group into Frankfurt, Europe, and non-Europe groups, took our tickets, and said to hang out for a while. We shopped around some and then settled in to wait. What should have been fairly simple turned into an all day long nightmare with us finally being given a flight for later that night. Sure there were 8-10 flights to Madrid before ours, but they kept missing them as they were distracted by the angry mob. They were just overwhelmed and did not know what to do. We finally made it to Madrid, but our bags were no where to be found. This is when we realized the trip was going to be painful. It was late at night, our rescheduled flight to Jerez (near Rota Naval Base) was the next morning, we had not clothes or toiletries, had been traveling now for 36 hours, and needed a place to sleep. We found a hotel close by and grabbed 4-5 hours of sleep before heading back to the airport. Needless to say our bags were still not there, but luck was with us. We were passing back through Madrid the next day on the way out of the country so we should be able to get them. Rota was a good visit. The main project they are working on is a Combat town for the Marines so they can train on urban environments. It was coming along nicely and the troops seem to be doing very well. The camp still seems almost like a ghost town since it normally holds 300+ Seabees, but it is down to 30 for this deployment. Our luck paned out as we flew through Madrid and our bags were there. We picked them up, checked them in for our flight to the states and off we went. But guess what, even with the two hour delay in Philadelphia the bags did not make it to West Palm Beach. Now we were back in the same boat as before with no bags and a flight that left for Andros before the next flight in with our bags. We just left the airport and did not even wait to fill out the paperwork – we would be back in West Palm and could pick them up. Our visit to Andros went just as well. The first Barracks project they completed was being turned over to the base a couple days later and the next Barracks project was finally getting over some of the material issues they had been dealing with. Materials in Andros are very difficult since they all come in on a barge and our stuff is not the top priority. It is a constant battle to stay ahead of the work, but they are good right now. We heading back to West Palm, picked up our lost bags (the baggage rep had been calling everyone and trying to find us since there was no paperwork done – ooops), and drove to Jacksonville. The bonus in Jacksonville was that my Dad had flown in for the night and we were able to catch up and have dinner together. It was a very short visit, but well worth it. Jacksonville sure looks like a nice town once you get away from the base. Cuba was next on the list so off we went again and YES the bags finally made it. We were now able to pull out our stinky week old dirty clothes and do some laundry. I also did a couple of runs with some of the guys in the hills of the island which was great (but painful the next day). The weather was still well in the nineties so definitely not a winter feel there. Their main project is a steel bridge along the perimeter and they are making tremendous progress. The piles are almost all complete, the abutments are close, and bulk of the bridge itself was assembled along the banks. They will get as far as placing the main steel girders and the next group will place the wood decking and guardrails. One bonus in Cuba was seeing the “LT Dan Band” with Gary Sinise. They played all types of music and were very talented. The entire group was appreciated of the efforts of the troops in Cuba. Final leg of the trip was to fly to Norfolk, drive to DC and fly back to Kuwait. The bags made it, I had a chance to see Jennifer and a bunch of past co-workers, I actual saw my new Condo that I just closed on, and even had time to drive by the Seabee memorial before my flight. A long trip that I am ready to be home from, but it was worthwhile and I feel confident in where we are heading in preparation for turnover. Now it is back to tightening things up in Kuwait and we will be home in no time.

TRAVEL TIME

2006-12-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

Another busy couple of weeks. It is amazing that there are times when I don’t even have time to post an update. The week before last was spent trying to get ready for my next trip while also hosting the Operations Officer for the unit that will be relieving us. It was hard to balance giving him the information he needed while also making sure all the projects were in order for when I was gone. I have a new Assistant Operations Office named Ensign Heather Hess since we had to send LT Wainwright out on a new mission. She is getting up to speed, but Ben was only able to give he one day of turnover so she has had to learn on the fly. Heather is from North Carolina and has been with the Battalion for just over a year now. She loves horses and being in the outdoors so the Seabees is a good fit for her. She has been doing great since I have been gone and I know she will continue to do well in the Navy.

The trip began at midnight after working all day and it has been interesting to say the least.
Week One of our trip saw us in the Horn of Africa. For those that don’t know, the Horn is the north-eastern portion of Africa and includes all the garden spots such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Djibuti. Our first stop was Kenya to go check on our water well mission. This ranks up there with one of the most interesting life experiences I have had. The well team is drilling near a town called Garissa which is a good 6+ hour drive from the capital of Nairobi. Nariobi itself was fairly clean, but even in the main city there was lifestock walking the streets and an atmosphere of people carrying everything they owned. I saw a bunch of people pushing the two wheeled carts full of goods to sell or almost like a rustic fedex. Once we were outside the city the population dropped significantly and it turned into small villages along the countryside. We would go for an hour without seeing anyone and then a small group of huts would appear. There was lifestock all over the place to include beef (very thin), goats, sheep, camels, and stray dogs. There was the occasion small Africa-looking animal that you would see on National Geographic, but I was not sure what it was. The personality of the people changed as we went farther north as well. I was talking to the driver and he said that the majority of the country was very Christian influenced, but as you got closer to Somalia it turned Muslim. You could see the change almost immediately as we passed through one small town. The churches were replaced with mosques, the dress of the people went from Western(ish) style to the women wearing berkas and covering themselves. The people almost started to glare vice glance at us as well. The first well they completed was in a town called Raya and it was everything you would imagine in a magazine. There was one small school and the rest of the structures were made of sticks and mud. The people literally had nothing at all except themselves. They had been walking for miles every single day for some water and now they can go to the tap and fill up their buckets in town. That is what makes me proud to be a Seabee. Even with significant flooding in the region which prevented the team from moving to their next location they were able to deliver food for the world food bank and even rescue some stranded villagers. A great mission.

From there we went to Djibouit for a couple days and saw the progress they are making on the school bathroom facility and dormitory renovation. This time we were able to have dinner at a local Ethipoian restaurant which served an authentic dinner complete without silverware. We had to eat with our fingers and share the same plate with the group. After dinner they had a musical program highlighting the local dances of Ethiopia.

It is hard to explain, but they focus on moving their shoulders and necks in a rhythmic almost painful way. As luck would have it the last dance included attempts by us to join them and it was not pretty. None of us could get our shoulders to do what they were doing, but it was a great experience. As we flew out of Africa we spent 12 hours in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and had the opportunity to take a bus downtown and eat at a hotel. The food was not very good, the hotel was substandard by our normal likes, and their were beggers everywhere. Addis is a much larger town and it had a big, distant feel, but there were still cows tromping through the main streets. We were glad to get in the plane and continue our trek to Spain.

It was really neat - my friend Erik Karlson was in Djibouti the same time I was. We ran into each other in Bahrain and now Djibouti. It just reminds me on how small the world is.

THANKSGIVING DAY

2006-11-26T05:34:00.000-08:00

Ahh Thanksgiving. Nothing like a day to eat way too much and feel like you are a marshmallow for hours only to find the inner fortitude to eat more for dinner. I think I must have eaten at least three deserts over the course of the day. Overall the week has been tough for some reason, but Thanksgiving Day was a nice break. It started with the Camp Turkey Trot 5K at 6:00 am. This was a tough call for all of us since it a day we were able to sleep in, but a small group of the Officers got up and braved the cold to go run. It was chilly enough to need a toboggan, gloves, and a sweatshirt. The sunrise picture is of the finish line right after I completed the race. Our Executive Office is a running machine and she was the third place female which made her day. After the run, we went to the Dining Facility (DFAC) for a small breakfast before the massive lunch. I checked email real quick and then a couple of us finished off “LOST” Season 2. All the Officer’s met for lunch and after waiting in line for almost an hour we were treated to a wonderful feast with all the standards – Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, etc. It was really nice just to sit and enjoy everyone’s company for a while. After lunch we all went back to the Wardroom and watched a movie. Not too excited about “Nacho Libre”, but still enjoyable down time. The group picture is the whole gang in the Wardroom. Caught up a little on some personal stuff and then it was dinner time. I did squeeze in a workout somewhere around the face stuffing. All in all, it was a good day with my surrogate family. We have a very cohesive Wardroom and made the most of the day.

MILITARY SKILLS

2006-11-19T08:29:00.000-08:00

This past week focused on Military Skills refresher training for all the Kuwait Detail sites. The focus was on key topics and things which we can’t do in Homport. There are a bunch of training ranges throughout Kuwait so we were able to consolidate all the Seabees and do a couple days of great training. There were multiple sessions that everyone rotated through including Enhanced Small Arms Training, Shoot and Move Training, Squad Tactics, Terrain Models, Patrol Orders, and Battlefield Medical Training. Things went very well and the response from the troops was very positive. It was some early mornings since we were on the range before the sun came up, but it was worth it. Everyone needed the break from the day to day operations of the Battalion and it is always a good refresher on our core military skills.

A couple pictures again. First one is LTJG Chris Archer, LTJG Matt Saavedra, LT Mike Obeirne, and LT Jason Streem. Chris is the Material Liaison Officer who is responsible for procuring all our construction materials as well as maintaining our Central Tool Room. Matt is one of our Supply Officers and he is currently running the Logistics Cell for our Higher Headquarters in support of Seabee forces in this region. Mike is currently our Equipment Officer and soon will be down in the Horn of Africa as the Officer in Charge of the Detail there. Jason is our Battalion Dentist. He is relatively new to the unit so all this stuff is new and different, but he is willing to try anything and learn our way of doing business.

Other pictures are the Desert Horizon, a recent sandstorm, me and the sunrise, and one of hundreds of camel footprints.

MID-DEPLOYMENT ROUTINE

2006-11-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

It was down right cold the other morning. It has continued to get cooler at night, but I was shocked when I left my barracks the other morning and was hit with a blast of cold air. Now realistically it was probably not cold at all, but it was such a change from the daytime that it was shocking. It has been nice to not sweat all the time.

We ran our semi-annual physical fitness test this past week. It consists of stretching, situps, pushups and then a 1.5 mile run. Ben and I have been doing some killer ab workouts lately so the test was not too bad. I always hate the run since it is a dead sprint for me to get a good score. I did fine and got my normal Outstanding. In theory that means I get to have a sleep-in one of these days. I can’t wait.

We had a visit by one of our bosses this past week. It was kind of a surprise so we had to clean up for them quickly, but they were very impressed. The boss could not say enough good things about the unit and the troops that briefed their projects did spectacularly. They really showed off the professionalism that they maintain and I was proud at how well the projects are coming along.

Next week is a couple days of military skills training. It is a mini field exercise to refine our skills. Tons of logistical issues, but should be good training for all of us. Need to remain ready to execute any mission thrown at us.

This week I want to focus on another co-worker. LT Mike Obeirne is my Alfa Company Commander which translates into the Equipment Officer. His company executes all our earthwork, trenching, roadwork, berm construction, drainage improvements, and project site preparation. They also maintain and account for all our equipment to ensure it is ready for our missions. Mike joined us last January and has done a great job invigorating his troops. He is a Citadel graduate (just like the Commanding Officer), a big time joker, and all around mischief maker. He has recently been selected to go down to the Detail in Horn of Africa to replace the current Officer in Charge and will be missed here in Arifjan. As I have mentioned before, we nominate someone each week and he is usually in the forefront of the nominations. Mike is always ready to head to Vegas or the ski slopes and is already planning multiple trips as soon as we get home. He has been a nice addition to our team.

NOTHING TOO EXCITING

2006-11-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

November – Hard to believe. Every time I look at the calendar I am amazed at how quick things are going. It seems just like yesterday (okay maybe last week) that we arrived in August. The weather is definitely better, still not good, but better. We had some rain this last week. It was not too much but definitely to wet the ground and give everything a very distinct smell. It is almost like water on a very dusty hot car. It almost smells burnt, but not as strong. They have had a bunch of water problems here to include rationing, water breaks, and tank leaks. It has not affected us too much, but you never who when you will come across a flooded area or not have water for a shower. More an annoyance than anything else.

We are in the midst of saying good bye to the Reserve augment we had assigned to us and hello to the new group. I am always amazed that every single reservist put their entire life on hold when they are recalled. It works fine for most, but there are always the ones that the job they were doing is just not around anymore of it had to be filled while they were gone. There are laws that protect them, but it is always a fear when they are heading home. The new group is from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois area. I don’t know too much about them yet, but they seem to be really motivated and ready to get to work. It will be nice to get them settled and integrated with the rest of the group.

Been disappointed that I have been missing all the UT games this year. Seems like they are really playing as a team and pulling each other together to win. Next year, I am definitely going to be in Knoxville for a game or two.

Halloween around here was fairly tame. They did a nighttime 5K the night before. I dressed up as a box of water. Okay, it was short fused and I only had a couple minutes to throw it together. It consisted of a box around my waist. Weak I know, but better than 95% of the people that did not do anything.

We are having a surprise visitor this week to re-enlist on the troops. I can guarantee there will be pictures next week. You just have to wait to see who it is.

PHOTO TIME

2006-10-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

This week has flown by. Nothing too exciting so I am just throwing some pictures up.

The Beach on Praslin, Seychelles. The sand goes out for forever and the water is crystal clear.

A Coca De Mar (Butt Nut) from Seychelles. These grow all over the island and are their symbol. Even my passport stamp is shaped like this.

Goats in a tree in Djibouti. Wacky.

Djibouti Grand Canyon in the middle of nowhere.

Erik Karlson and myself in Bahrain. He was in my Officer Candidate School class and we were in Alaska together. It is a small world.

My wall locker when I got home. They had painted some of the office and put Spongebob and Britney Spears pictures all over the place.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - AFRICAN ADVENTURE

2006-10-24T02:04:00.000-07:00

Spent another week on the road. This trip was to Africa and then Bahrain. We started out with a four-leg flight to Djibouti via Dubai, Nairobi, and Addis Ababa. I will say that Kenya Airways is a really nice airline and they even had food I would eat. They did not try to serve us grey slop, the luggage was where it was supposed, the plane was not 150 degrees, and I did not almost end up in Somalia. Overall a good start.

Spent a couple days in Camp Lemonier, Djibouti with our Horn of Africa Detail. They are working all around the region with a couple projects close by and then more all over Kenya. We visited a school project in Tadjoura, Djibouti which was a three hour drive north from the Camp. It was some more work on a project Seabees in the past had worked on. The main focus was taking the current school and letting there be a male and female section so the kids had some privacy. They had just started so not much work had been done so far, but it will make a big difference when done. Driving there was an adventure as we crossed sections of the road that were washed out from a recent storm and saw Lake Adesa (I think) which was one of the lowest spots in the world. The terrain when from deserty to lava fields as we drove. They had another project in town which was to build a restroom for another school. This one had tons of attention as the kids lined up outside the fence to watch them work.

After Djibouti we headed to the Seychelles. They are an island chain WAY off the coast of Africa. The island we are working on is Praslin and our work is causing quite the stir. The arrival of a C-130 made the local paper and everyone new the troops as “those Americans working on the morgue and school”. They were almost like celebrities when they were out and about. The logistics have been a huge challenge there and they are living in a tiny cottage on the hospital grounds, but that is as bad as it gets. The troops are able to go to the beach on the weekends and play soccer with the locals at night. The beaches have gorgeous white sand and crystal clear waters. I almost felt guilty as I took a swim across this cove, body surfed in the waves, and drank a Seybrew beer at the outdoor restaurant. The only negative was topless older (much older) women and huge overweight men in tiny speedos. I am not sure at what point they looked in the mirror and thought they should be showing off that much skin.

Ended the trip in Bahrain where we have a couple troops maintaining some equipment and working logistics for projects around the area. They are doing fine, but the highlight was getting to see Erik Karlson. It even worked out where his wife, Kristin, called in on the webcam so I could see her and their little girl, Anna. It was so nice to catch up with each other.
I will throw some photos up later this week when I get my normal work computer.

OPERATION CATERPILLAR - COMPLETE

2006-10-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Operation has finally come to a close (thankfully). Here is most of the wardroom with our new additions as well as a couple pics of me. I am heading to the shower to shave this thing immediately!!!!

ITCHY FACE

2006-10-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last week was the last week of Operation Caterpillar and we all are so glad. My upper lip is driving me crazy. I can see it, I can feel it when talk, breath, eat, etc. It just needs to go. I will have pictures this week of the competition and winners. I don’t think anyone is planning to keep them.

The week also was a huge amount of one step forward and two steps back. Seems like everything we did to make progress was immediately turned around and we ended up at square one. The projects are progressing nicely, but we are seeing a drop in work and I spend tons of time making sure there are plans for continued work. The projects are out there, but it is so difficult to work through the approval process and get materials. Add on that everyone loves to change their mind and it just difficult. We also have been preparing for the Regimental Commodore’s visit. He is my Commanding Officer’s boss so we have to make sure things are squared away for him.

One really nice thing was this past Saturday. We had a Sport’s Day to celebrate the Navy’s birthday and it was so much fun. The day consisted of a round robin tournament in Soccer, Volleyball, and Ultimate Frisbee. The Staff is so small we raced around for three straight hours in all three sports. It ended with a cook-out and an afternoon off. The old Executive Officer (and my old roommate) was passing through town on the way to Iraq so we got to hang out with him for the afternoon and enjoy dinner together.

Below is one picture of us at sports day. The guy with the cheese was attempting to eat an entire block of cheese for $50. He made it halfway through and had to give up. It was not the highest quality cheese to start with so I could understand how he felt.

Heading to Djibouti tomorrow for the week. I will be there for a couple days and then down to the Seychelles and on to Bahrain. I will be able to see my oldest Navy friend, Erik Karlson, when I am in Bahrain. He is the Public Works Officer there on a one year tour. The week should be good and hopefully I will have some good stories and pictures next week.

Last picture is the Operations Staff. The girl on the left is our Admin Assistant. She is Culinary Specialist Second Class (CS2) Ramierez. The guy on the left is Senior Chief Ruffin. He is my Operations Chief. The tall guy is LT Mike Wainwright from last week, and then me.

Weather outside is breaking

2006-10-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

The weather has started to break a little. We are still reaching above 100 degrees, but the nights are a little cooler and you can tell that it is not as bad. We will have about 1-2 months like this and then it will get really chilly at night while still getting warm during the day. It makes such a huge difference to not feel an oppressive weight on your shoulders all the time. Don’t get me wrong, it is still very hot during the day, but getting bearable.

Seem to have caught up on some things this last week. We had our Management Assist Visit by the unit we are working with over here and it went very well. They inspected four different camps and looked at our project planning, execution, and management abilities. They had a couple of small hits, but it was nothing that can’t be fixed. Overall I was very pleased with the hard efforts by every project and team in getting ready for the visit as well as the willingness to learn better ways to do business.

Today, I am going to start introducing some of my co-workers. Hopefully I can get through them all over deployment. Even though most are married with families, while we are deployed we become our own family and really rely on each other for support. Today’s introduction is my Assistant Operations Officer – LT Ben Wainwright. Ben is (unfortunately for him) the one that works the closest to me on a daily basis. He sits at a desk right beside my office and we even installed a slide window so we could talk easier without getting up EVERY five minutes. The job ranges from just compiling reports to truly being my second when I am not around. It all depends on the individual and Ben definitely falls into the second group. We have worked very well together (he was a big unknown we I selected him) and he has learned so much. He pretty much knows what I am thinking or what my recommendation for particular situation would be. He still has to suffer through all the reports that never seem to stop being required, but he knows the expectations and gets them close to final before I even see them. I fully trust him for any meeting that I normally go to and he speaks for me when I travel. Enough good stuff about the guy. He is originally from Michigan and went to the University of Toledo in Civil Engineering. He was on a swimming scholarship so needless to say I am irritated every time he talks about swimming. He is married and his wife is back in California working as a nurse. He is very tall so I started calling him the Jolly Green Giant. He has been in the military almost six years and spent his first couple years in South Carolina (Parris Island) and Rhode Island (Newport) doing Public Works and Contracting kind of jobs. He has been a great addition to our team.

Last thing for the day is our Wardroom pictures. The Wardroom is all the officers and we have a small tent that we use for watching TV, hanging out, reading, or just getting away for a while. We built some benches in it and we also have some of the folding camp chairs. Nothing fancy, but it is where I can watch my LOST episodes on DVD or catch a football game in the middle of the night. The Junior Officers repainted the pink wall with some camouflage the other night and we continue to make funny pictures of each of us. This started as a joke with using cartoon characters for our pictures. I was awarded mine last week and you can check it out below. There is a runny Spongebob joke since I used Spongebob stickers on our ID’s during our last Field Exercise. It was so the guards would know people were assigned to our unit and not someone trying to sneak in.

TWO MORE WEEKS DOWN

2006-10-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

Time is just flying by. Every time I look at the calendar it is another week gone. Things seem to be just as crazy now as they have been since we got here. It seems like if I am not out at one of my sites checking on the work, I am trying to catch up on the never ending email and want for information requests. The Wardroom (All the Officers in the unit) has really jelled and we have a weekly dinner together to keep some form of normalcy. It is always in civilian clothes and even though it is at the Dining Facility we use a side room so we have some privacy. We always invite guests and there are some protocols on where you sit and when you can leave. At the end of it, we always nominate someone for “egregious violations”. The group always gangs up on someone and I have been nominated tons. I have “won” twice – once when I was gone. It all revolves around highlighting everyone’s screw-ups. The “winner” has to provide an improvement to the wardroom. This last week’s winner painted one of the walls pink – yuck!!! – to add a feminine touch. That has got to go. I am adding a desk lamp this week and I got a Command flag made for my previous win.

Well to top off (no pun intended) my shaved head, all the Officers are playing a joke on the Commanding Officer while he is gone. We started “Operation CATERPILLAR” the day he left which means we all are growing mustaches. It is awful. We all just look at each other and laugh. He gets back next week and I think we will all be glad to shave that upper lip. Kind of silly, but something to do.

Ran in a 5K last week. It was actually very large and my unit had a good turnout. It was more for fun than anything else, but still good competition.

Heading to Africa in a couple weeks to go check on the troops down there. Can’t wait to see how they are doing. Time is flying by and we are about a quarter of the way done with deployment. Keep those prayers heading this way for all my troops so I can make sure they all get home safe and sound.

SHAVED HEAD

2006-09-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Me working on the computer.

LT Mike Obeirne and myself.

FINALLY AN UPDATE - BEEN TRAVELING

2006-09-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been tough. I spent almost three weeks traveling to all the locations where my troops are located. It is standard for the Operations Officer (me) to visit each Detail (site we have troops) twice over the deployment in order to check on things and ensure they are able to complete all their missions. Last deployment I focused on just the locations in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, but did not travel to the Stateside locations. We learned that it was a mistake for me not to go so this deployment I will be traveling a bunch. The main focus when I visit the Details is to look at their construction project planning (how they will complete the project), project execution (how are they doing relative to the plan), and project management (the recording of the effort to complete the mission, cost, materials, and issues that need to be fixed). We have fairly inexperienced crews and they have spent the last couple years focusing on contingency construction instead of planned construction. All the troops want to do great things, but they need training on the construction practices that will benefit them in the future.

The trip started with a flight out of Kuwait at 0100 in the morning. Needless to say, I did not get any sleep before I flew. The flights took my Operations Chief and I all the way to Jacksonville via Germany and Chicago. We were flying to Cuba from Jacksonville the following morning so when we landed we were looking forward to a little sleep. Our bags ended up not making it so now we were getting nervous. There were a bunch of flights coming in that night so things looked okay. I finally got the call at 2:30 in the morning and to make things worse, I had to drive to the front gate to get the bags. We had to check in for our flight early so I did not get much sleep. The flight ended up being a Delta Airlines plane that had been chartered for the flight. There were tons of families on the flight and it almost felt like a normal trip. I had never been to Cuba so I was very excited about actually visiting there. The terrain was short scrub grass and a very tropical feel. I had lived in Southern Florida before so I knew what August was going to be like. I was not disappointed. It was hot and very humid. The first things we had to do was take a ferry to the main side across Guantanamo Bay. Tropical Storm Ernesto had passed over Cuba the day before so the bay was completely brown and choppy. We had a couple days on the island so I was able to see the entire base. Our main project is a bridge on the perimeter road (think Tom Cruise/Demi Moore riding along the fence in “A Few Good Men”). I was also able to get a tour of the Detainee Camp that is always in the news. It was very well maintained and not nearly as disgusting as I had pictured. It was very well guarded and everyone had a sense of taking care of the detainees and treating them humanely.

Next location was Peru and getting there was tough. Our flight out of Cuba was cancelled so we jumped on another flight which was heading to Mayport via PANAMA!! Not exactly what we were looking for and meant we would miss our flight, but it was that flight or nothing for a day or two. We were finally able to get into our rental car by 11:00, but then we had to drive to Miami. It was a long night with lots of coffee. By the time we caught another flight to Lima it was a day later and found us sleeping on a window ledge in the Lima airport keeping our fingers crossed for a flight to Chiclayo. We woke up freezing since we were used to 130 degree temperatures, but were able to jump on a flight early the next morning. Chiclayo is a small town in northern Peru where the Seabees were building two clinics, one school, and three water wells. The work was part of a Joint Task Force that was also doing some medical/dental exercises to support the Peruvians. This was the kind of projects that I joined the Seabees for. It is pretty amazing we are able to do contingency construction on one side of the world and humanitarian efforts on the other. The troops have had a really tough time due to logistical problems, additional projects, and a severe illness challenge. There were periods when 16 troops were in medical with major “Peruvian Death Flu”. There was only one troop who had not had an IV. One person had over 20 bags. They were very ready to finish up and get out of there, but the Peruvians were so thankful of the work they were doing. The group will be out of there in early October and after a quick stop in California, they are joining us at one of the worldwide locations.

Onward from Peru to Andros, Bahamas. This was another brutal travel with us running from gate to gate to make our flights. We arrived in Miami the next morning and after stopping for breakfast we waited in West Palm Beach waiting for our puddle jumper to the islands. Once again it was a Caribbean type of weather for this small group on a Navy Research Base. The main project here is a CMU block Barracks to replace some dilapidated trailers. This base it weird since it is both military and civilians to include one guy that has been on the base for 40 years. He has become part American, part Bahamian with a form of Pidgin for speech. The work was going well, but they were having to work tons of logistics concerns with getting materials so the project could always continue. The benefit of this group is they can walk from the barracks to the galley to the project site.
The trip continued to Rota, Spain with more flights, more sleeping in airports, and more jet lag. The group in Rota is supporting the base and a Task Force who conducts projects around the European Continent. They are also maintaining the Seabee Camp which is where we would have deployed if we had not come to Kuwait. Main projects there are to support logistics to Kuwait, maintain construction equipment, and construct an urban training area for local Marines. We had an opportunity to go off base one night and enjoyed an evening in Rota. It was fun to attempt the language and we all ended up ordering based upon gut feel guesses. Overall the meals worked out okay and we left with full bellies.
We were supposed to head to Africa after Spain, but there was a good chance we were going to be stranded in Ethiopia for up to four days. That did not sound like something we really wanted to do, so we headed back to Kuwait and will get to Africa down the road. Overall the trip was very beneficial and it was good to see the troops work. There were issues at each location, but nothing that raised any huge red flags. I have never been so glad to be back in Kuwait and now I can focus on the Details closer to home. I will try to be better about sending updates.

CAMP ARIFJAN LIVING

2006-08-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it is already time to update the blog. Seems like just yesterday I arrived here and now the unit we relieved is on their way home and we have the mission. The last of our group arrived so we are now working full force. This week I wanted to hit on the living at my base to give everyone a feel for life at Camp Arifjan.

Overall the base has everything you could ask for and in some instances the amenities are better than most stateside bases. I live in a PCB (Pre-Constructed Building) in the “1400 Block” neighborhood. It is like a “suburb” of tract housing with a bunch of buildings, all exactly the same, for berthing. Each one holds up to 50+ people so the troops are really packed in. As an Officer, we have more room and I even get a corner since I am the senior person in my building. There are bunk beds galore and a bunk of wall lockers that I was able to use for privacy screening. I created a little pod and even put my Seabee Flag over the entry for a little more privacy. All the lights are on one switch so you have to get used to sleeping with lights on or getting ready in the dark, but it should not be too terrible.

The gym is very nice. It is a large building with tons of equipment. So far it seems to get very busy in the mornings, but that is the only time I have made it so far. I am working on getting into a routine, but it has been hard so far. The DFAC (Dining Facility) is fine with decent food. Nothing great, but more than you could ever eat (they just keep scooping it on even after you tell them to stop) with the typical meat, vegetables, and salad. The chapel is a nice small tent with a wooden floor and pews. There is a small Exchange (shopping area) with the necessities. Not always the brand you want, but they will have the essentials. The other side of the base (Zone 1) has a pool that I checked out last weekend. It had five lanes and a general swim area. There is a movie theater, tv room, phones, and internet in the Community Center. A FREE laundry service that will clean anything you give them in two to three days and best of all a Starbucks. The outside is the same trailers as everything else, but the inside looks like a normal Starbucks (lights, bar, tables, chairs). I made a deal with one of my co-workers that if I shaved my head, he would buy me a Starbucks for every week I kept it clean. Well, today was the day so I am going to start drinking free coffee tomorrow. Just as easy to keep it completely shaved rather than deal with trims.

My office is a tent with some walls/doors built into it for offices. We have a couple of us working in the tent, but I can even close my door for meetings or just to get away. I did install a sliding door in one of the walls so my Assistant Operations Officer and I can communicate without getting up every five minutes. So far we really like it.

ARRIVAL IN KUWAIT

2006-08-13T05:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy week of trying to get settled in Kuwait. Our flight left out of California around lunchtime last Sunday and we had a brutal two plus day excursion to get here. The biggest delay was in Europe when they had to change out some small piece on the plane. The fix was only thirty minutes, but the travel time to go get the part was 5-6 hours. The delay resulted in us landing in the middle of the night and by the time we checked in, split up into different groups and got to our final camps it was later morning. All of us were beat, but I made myself stick it out until that night. The jet lag has not been too bad except in the late afternoons. I find myself falling into a fog and fighting to keep my eyes open. Hopefully after about another week that will go away. The turnover has been very smooth and the unit we are replacing was well prepared for our arrival. We are almost done and the other unit is ready to head out of here. All we are waiting for is the last group to arrive from California and we working full speed ahead.

The basic mission we have this time is to support the Army in Kuwait. There is a potential for missions up north, but none currently scheduled. We also have groups in Africa, Europe, Cuba, Bahamas, and Peru. Needless to say we are spread thin and it will be a challenge to keep track of everything. I will be traveling to each location twice over the course of deployment and maybe even three times depending on what is going on. I look forward to getting out and seeing the great things all our troops are doing. That is probably the best thing about my job. I get to see what we are tasked to do, see it constructed, and be able to tell the troops good job.

I have stumbled across a bunch of people that were in a unit I worked for about ten years ago. It is hard to believe they have grown up so much (and I have to). That is about it for now.

By the way - it is really hot!!

ARRIVED

2006-08-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Had a brutal three day trip, but I have made it to my final destination. Much more to follow, but wanted to start getting things posted. Look forward to keeping everyone informed.

DEPLOYMENT 2006

2006-06-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

My Battalion is getting ready to deploy again. Our main site will be Arifjan, Kuwait with three other Details in Kuwait, Details in Bahrain, Djibuti, Cuba, Andros, and Rota. We also have a group that is deploying to Peru for three months to conduct Humanitarian missions. It will be another busy six months supporting all services. I will give more details as it gets closer, but you can expect my weekly updates to start in mid-August. I am going to try and figure out how to have video on my blog and want to have a bunch more pictures.

Sorry It Has Been So Long

2006-01-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

I know it has been forever, but things have been so bus. I plan to write more in the next week, but wanted to let everyone know I am doing well. Dave

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2005-11-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all Friends and Family. My special thanks is being back in the states. I found a place to live last week and it is really nice. It is across the street from the beach and I can see the ocean from my living room. It even has a roof top terrace where I (finally) have room for the hammock. My roommate convinced the realtor to give us a nine month lease which really helps out since the next deployment is August. I was even able to get my household goods from the movers this week. I called on Monday morning and they brought them Monday afternoon so the place is full of boxes. Maybe by next week, things will be squared away and organized.

I flew in to Cleveland Thursday morning and had a wonderful meal cooked by Andi (okay help from Mom and Jarrell, but we know who was really in charge). Stanley even tried some leftovers. After a food induced nap, it was time for a viewing of the Christmas Story and then Phase 10 card game. I pulled through to eat some homemade Chili for dinner.

Remember our troops that are deployed over the holidays and say a special thanks for their sacrifices.

HOME

2005-11-19T09:08:00.000-08:00

Made it home to California safe and sound last night. More once I get settled, but wanted to thank everyone for all the support during the deployment. All the troops were very excited to see their friends and family.

NOVEMBER-FALL FOLIAGE/WEDDING BLISS

2005-11-06T04:18:00.000-08:00

How can it possibly be November? Time just seems to be flying in one sense and standing still in another. Flying when I realize the college football season is two thirds of the way through and I have only watched one game. Probably good this year seeing how the Vols are just continuing in to the toilet. Fire Sanders!!! Flying in the sense that Jarrell sent out some pictures of fall in Cleveland and the leaves looked beautiful. I am so dulled to color nowdays that the yellows literally jumped out of my computer. Flying in the sense that it is a race to see if I can find a place to live after getting home and before going to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. Standing still when I think of the how short of a time I have here and realize how much is still to be done. Standing still when the days go so slow as I am waiting for my relief. Standing still when I go to the Galley and eat EXACTLY the same thing as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.

We had a visit this past week by the Regimental Commodore. The layman’s definition of that is the boss of my Battalion. The way it works is there is a Regiment on the East and West coasts that each control four Seabee Battalions. We are working for the East Coast Regiment right now. The Commodore is the Commander of the unit like my Commanding Officer is in charge of this unit. It turns out that the Commodore was my Executive Officer when I was an Ensign a long time ago. We had a good time joking about things back then and overall the visit went very well. He had a couple of minor things he wanted us to look at, but overall no major concerns. There is another visit coming up, but it is right after I leave.

My Commanding Officer (CO) is coming back out here to see the great work the Bees have done and ride home with us. I am excited to show off the work of the troops and have him hear what our customers have to say about us. For some reason though, I feel there is a black cloud following with him. I don’t know why, but I just have an uneasy feeling about his visit. Hopefully it is nothing.

Special Congratulations to Melanie from Key West who got married last night. I was supposed to be there and am really disappointed that I missed it. I am sure she looked absolutely beautiful. I wish her and Kurt the best of luck for the future. I will be there to see you soon.

GET YOUR CANDY

2005-10-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from the Seabees! The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler, and out countdown to returning home is ticking away. This has been a tough week overall for some reason. It started out on a very high note with a large number of my troops arriving home in California on Monday. It was nice to know they are safe and sound in the United States. The rest of the week was just one of those weeks where everything seemed kind of sour and things just fell out of place rather than in place. The low point was on Friday when I had to conduct a disciplinary proceeding. We had a couple troops get in trouble for doing something stupid. They made a bad decision, were caught, and are waiting to pay the consequences. My portion was a proceeding normally conducted by the Executive Officer, but since he is not here I have to do it. The main reason for it is to look at the evidence, talk to the members, talk to their chain of command, and make a decision on if it should go to “Captain’s Mast.” Now how to explain that… Captain’s Mast (Mast for short) is a Military proceeding where Commanding Officer’s hear the evidence and determine punishment for a troop who is in trouble. Our Commanding Officer will be here soon and will conduct that portion in person. It just taints an otherwise very positive time.

We also have a couple of Distinguished Visitors passing through which always causes a shift of focus to ensure the best foot is put forward. We should be focuses solely on Turning over responsibilities to the new unit and instead are worried if everything is ready for him. The advantage is that our spaces will be clean and ready for Turnover a couple days later. There is another visit the day after we leave which the new unit will have to host. Once again shifting focus away from important discussions.

I heard Florida was hit hard by Hurricane Wilma last week. I am always watching out for Key West and it looked like they had some damage. Maybe it will lower the Real Estate prices enough where I can finally afford something down there. A friend of mine is getting married in Key Largo next weekend (I am bitter I am missing it) and I am sure she is a wreck with what is going on. I am keeping my fingers crossed things will clean up enough where the guests can make the event.

I hope everyone dresses up as something fun for Halloween and has lots of kiddies coming by to get candy.

Warrior Transition

2005-10-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

It is starting to get a little chilly at night. Nothing too much, but enough where you think about wearing a sweatshirt. This was a very good week with a large group of my unit leaving for home. Senior Chief and I were in Kuwait for a couple days assisting with “Warrior Transition” which is a couple day period of decompression. It is an opportunity to give the troops information on Homeport (Port Hueneme) such as the daily routine, uniform guidance, holiday periods, etc., but mostly an opportunity to give Medical/Chaplain support for those that may need it and provide resources for dealing with reunion with loved ones, relationship issues, stress, responsible drinking, and general “going from a combat environment to home” stuff. It went fairly well and had some good feedback from people on things we can improve upon with our next group. It is tricky because you have Active and Reservist, Married and Single, and Details that had very different situations. It was a juggling act to give the correct information in the correct amount of time.

It was a bittersweet experience. On one hand, I am so glad to have troops out of harms way and home with their families, but on the other hand it is hard to see troops take off and know that others are still working and in danger. I will just be glad to get everyone home.

Things will continue to get busier and busier as we prepare for turnover with our relieving unit. We still don’t know exactly when it will be, but it is getting close to being around the corner. Still have not decided what to dress up as for Halloween. I am thinking either an “Army Guy” or a “runner” since my options are my uniform or my PT gear. I hope everyone is doing well.

Thanks for Relay for Life

2005-10-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

A Special Thanks to all the support the "Seabees Deployed for a Cure" Relay for Life team. Over $5400 in donations were received by the 40 Seabees that participated. Thanks to all of you that donated, out team was the number one team in On-line donations. Together our donations will go to stamping out cancer and hopefully rid the world of the terrible disease. Thanks from the bottom of my heart.

Travel Pains

2005-10-17T01:27:00.000-07:00

The weeks just keep flying by!!! It is great to continually look back and realize that time has past, but I keep getting caught up in our mission without updating all the support from home. Senior and I had a very frustrating travel experience a little over a week ago. We should have seen it coming when the very first day of our trip (as we were attempting to depart Iraq) that it a total of five flights to finally leave. We went back and forth between our compound and the terminal all day long with delay after delay. The last flight was cancelled about 1:30 am and our next attempt was at 3:30 so we crashed on the floor of a tent to try and to get at least a little sleep. The flight the next morning did have room for us, but it was one of the worst flights yet. I don’t think I have talked about the “sherpa” flights yet, but forgive me if I have. They are the Army’s version of FEDEX and willing to fly anywhere at anytime. Unfortunately they fly between 50 and 150 feet off the deck (ground) for safety purposes which means you are constantly bouncing up and down for power lines and other structures. Once it is safe they immediately shoot to 11,000 feet (unpressurized) until they are close to their destination and then it is zipping back down to continue the bouncing. Well this poor Army guy just could not take it and got sick the entire flight. I mean the entire flight. He filled an entire garbage bag by the time we made it to Kuwait. Not a pretty flight.

Well there was a flight to our destination that night so instead of sleeping we hopped on another plane (in the middle of the night) and tried to catch some sleep on the metal floor of the plane. This plane made it halfway to Afghanistan and had to divert to Qatar for mechanical problems. As luck would have it, we spent almost 20 hours waiting in a tent with uncomfortable chairs before finally going again. Now this is night three with the only sleep being concrete or metal floors so we are kind of cranky by the time we get to Afghanistan. The visit went very well and when we found out our flight out of there was delayed until late the next day we “beat the system” by hopping a plane to Germany (because there are TONS of flights out of Germany). Night four on the metal floor with an arrival at an airport that did not open for two weeks. The Air Force called in Customs who finally just said to go away so they did not have to come in. Well needless to say we don’t want to be at this base so we convince the AF to bus us all to Ramstein Air Base. As soon as we saw the line out of the front door we knew it was trouble. We signed up for a flight and found out people had waited for over a week in some cases to go certain places. We worked the flights and after only two days we were manifested on a plane to Baghdad. It was leaving at night (see a theme here) but we did not care since we had a very enjoyable sleep at the visitor quarters the night before. Our flight finally took off, but after a couple of hours it flew right back to Germany due to - yes you guessed it – mechanical problems. Turns out there was a leak in the cabin window. Back to the quarters for a couple hours of sleep with a new check in time of 6:00 am. This then lasted five days. Show up between 4 and 6, find out it is delayed until 9 or 10. Go get some breakfast, come back, find out it is delayed until the afternoon, wait more and then find out it will be another day. OVER and OVER. The only decent day was when they agreed it would not fly on Sunday so we were able to rent a car and go see the American Cemetery in Luxembourg (where Patton is buried). It was nice to see the countryside and a little bit of WW2 history. Finally we found another flight that was going to Kuwait and we begged, bribed, pleaded to get on it. The Air Terminal crew were so tired of us that I think they would have sent us anywhere. The flight was actually a commercial plane (yeah sleep in a chair), but still landed at 3 am. We got to our camp about 4:30 and finally went to bed about 5:30. Good thing there was construction going on directly outside our trailer so we were up at 7:00. Worked all day and jumped on a plane (with 97 of our closest Army friends) for Iraq. These C130 flights are better than the Sherpas, but you sit with knees between the persons across from you. It is literally like sardines. I had the misfortune of sitting on the “crack” which was where two mess seats came together. My butt hurt so bad and was completely asleep by the time we made it home. I have never been so glad to be back in Iraq.

Well that gets me to last Monday. I will post the rest of last week tomorrow. It involves elections, cancer, and trouble so stay tuned.

Clouds, Rain, and under 100 Degrees

2005-10-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

NOTE - Due to computer problems, this was not posted when written. Last weeks news, but more this weekend. There will be some heavy gripping due to air transportation, but you have to wait for it.

This week had the normal highs and lows with some good information at the end of the week. I borrowed a camera this morning so I really just want to show pictures of some “Life in Iraq” pictures. I can’t show a whole lot of work pictures for OPSEC (Operational Security) purposes, but day to day stuff is fine. Senior Chief and I are heading out again this weekend for another 4-5 day trip. And best of all, we now have approved windows for getting home. I am going to defer from putting the specific information on the blog, but I will be back in California before Thanksgiving. It is still over a month extension, but at least we now have a finish line to run towards. The troops are doing better and still making the customers happy.

The temperatures are continuing to drop and we stayed in the 90s all week. At night it is getting in the 60s which feels cold. By the time we leave it will probably be in the 40s at night (if not a little lower). Quite the change in weather. One day last week, I was walking around and all of a sudden I noticed CLOUDS. Big, puffy, white clouds. The first ones I have seen since I landed here and it was so nice. Of course later that night we had rain for the first time and it was just a tease of what is to come. The sand/soil that is here is talc-like, but when it gets wet it turns to slop. I can already see that things are going to get messy.

Pictures above are my tiny wooden office and Senior Chiefs fireplace that he built. Below is some Christmas trees we started making as a joke (we were going to be stuck here until Christmas) and then turned in to a Relay for Life fundraiser.

Special thanks to all the support and treats I have received. Opening up a package and seeing a taste of home makes the week all worthwhile. Think of everyone often and can’t wait to see you.

QUICK WEEK

2005-09-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

It seemed like this past week just flew by. Probably a combination of traveling and working our rotation schedule. I spent two days traveling to two separate locations and both trips went just as planned (for once). We were able to leave in the morning, travel to the location that we needed to visit. Spend a couple of hours with my Officer in Charge at that location as well as meet with the customers if possible. Grab a quick bite of lunch and fly back. We are usually flying Space Available so it is always a guess if we will get on a flight, but we are able to see how many people are already on the flight so we can decide the best gameplan. Two trips in a row is unheard up. Today’s was probably the most interesting flight I have taken yet. I think I have mentioned, but I really enjoy Helo rides because you get to see a big picture of the country, the kids are always waving at you, and it is MUCH safer than convoys. We were flying over Baghdad and we stopped right near the Embassy to drop some passengers off. As we were landing and then when we took off, you had a perfect view of the crossed swords that you saw on TV a bunch. There are two sets and it looked like there were on either side of a bridge which was leading to a large coliseum. You could see Mosques and Palaces in the background as well as the “sprall” of the city. We even flew lower than the top of some buildings. All the buildings are block (typical masonry) and if they are “classy” then stucco is applied to make it smooth. The thing that I notice the most out here is that everything is a dull color. All the buildings, the landscape, the cars, everything. There are occasionally patches of foliage, but even it is a dull green. My eyes are looking forward to some wildflowers or green trees, red mountains or blue oceans. Anything that is not dulllllll.

Everything else is going fine. We are starting to put our contribution plan together for the relay and I am working up a letter to post explaining all the details. We are really hoping to get in some of the newspapers over here. I will post links if we make it. I received my new Seabee Flag this past week (to replace the one that was stolen). I am going to fly it over the camp, but it probably won’t stay up all the time.

Thanks to everyone that has sent me packages. They are all great. It is always neat to open a box and not know what you are going to find. It is the little tastes of home that are the best. They just make you think of everyone and know that there is support from back there.

I am doing a mile swim tomorrow as part of a morale event. I will let you know how it goes. I think it is low key, but I am kind of looking forward to getting in a pool. Also the weather is continuing to get milder. We are supposed to NOT break 100 by Tuesday.

I have not seen much on Rita, but hoping that everyone is doing okay.

Relay For Life - Iraqi Style

2005-09-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

I am behind this week, but here is the big event that I was so excited about. The Seabees I am deployed with decided to get a team together for American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. For those that don’t know what this is, it is a 24 hour walk to raise awareness and contributions for the fight against cancer. I have participated in this event twice in the past and it is really a neat event. It brings communities together in the pursuit for a cure. Senior Chief Dyer was talking about the team he participated with last year and that he was going to miss the event this year due to our deployment. We started thinking – why do we have to miss it? We could participate out here in real time with his team back in California. I would be very surprised if everyone had not been touched by cancer in some fashion, whether it was a friend, a family member, or an associate. The neatest thing about the event this year is that it is the first year they have done organized Relays outside of the United States. There will be 8 countries represented and we will be the first group to host/participate in the country of Iraq.

Our team name is “Seabees Deployed for a Cure” and our goal is to have 24 participants - we already have over twenty in less than two days. Our contribution goal is $2500, but I am confident that we can raise much more. What I would like to ask of each of you is to support us. It does not have to be with money, but even with spreading the word or posting a flyer about our Team. Having troops willing to give up what little free time they have to fight cancer is pretty special and I want the world to know US Navy Seabees are doing great things in Iraq. We have always focused on both military and humanitarian missions and this is just one more example of ways Seabees can support others. The event is scheduled from 9:00 pm on October 8th to 9:00 pm on October 9th.

If you are interested in contributing financially or even just getting more information, the website is http://www.acsevents.org/relay/ca/oxnard. If you click on “Make a Donation” and search for my name, it will show how I am doing as well as let you go to my Team Page. We should have the team page up by next week with a group picture. We also are going to have lots of pictures of the events which will be posted. The Base is being very supportive and has already reserved the treadmills we will use. I will have more information posted that will include a Donation letter that you are more than welcome to pass out to friend, neighbors, family members or even notify the local Relay for Life and let them know we are participating from Iraq. The organization is being very supportive as well and plans to mail our T-shirts to us once everyone has signed up. Thanks in advance for supporting us however you can.

TRANSITION TURMOIL

2005-09-20T04:20:00.001-07:00

The theme of the week is rumors and turmoil. As I have mentioned before, the unit that is replacing us is located in Gulfport, MS and had a bunch of personnel that were hit hard. Well, the unit Commanding Officer asked his boss for a week delay so they could give the troops time to relocate families, coordinate repairs/insurance, or generally just get things ready to go. This request has turned into higher headquarters requesting multiple courses of action to analyze and make the correct decision. I won’t give you all the drama (or editorial that goes with it), but we are now looking at one of three options: (1) No Delay, (2) Two Week Delay, or (3) Four Week Delay. This information has gotten back to Homeport (Port Hueneme, CA) and the rumors started flying. We have heard them all – staying until after Christmas, being relieved by someone else, getting relieved and then sending us to Gulfport. Bottom line, we do not know the plan. We expected it last week, but now are keeping our fingers crossed for a decision soon. I won’t be able to discuss dates, but will let everyone know the rough timeframe as soon as I know.

It has been an extremely tough week for the Iraqi people. The insurgents have increased their attacks as the Elections are getting closer and we do not expect it to slow up until after the middle of October. There have been many Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s), Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED’s), and substantial numbers of Suicide Bombers (SB’s) over the week. We are as safe as we can be and limit any travel outside the bases to absolutely essential so there should be nothing to cause increased worry for my troops, but definitely for the Soldiers/Marines that are patrolling the streets every day or night.

Stayed up to watch the Tennessee-Florida game. It was on at 0400 Sunday morning and definitely worth watching. It would have been nice to have won the game (we had the chances, but essentially handed them the game), but I am still glad that I could watch it. Mom sent me an inflatable Smokey Dog that comes out on Game Days. He sits on my Quarterdeck, which is the main area that people come to check-in or out, pass on Maintenance Requests and coordinate communications. Needless to say, there have been some funny looks, but it is worth it.

This has kind of been a downer posting, but I have some good stuff coming. Check back later in the week for an update on a couple things that have happened or are being planned. I am going to need everyone’s support with one of them and I think everyone will be able to relate to it. BUT you will have to wait and see.

Hope all is well and think of everyone all the time.

2005-09-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

September 11th

2005-09-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

This week has flown by. I am sure it is a combination of traveling for most of it and not posting my last update until Monday. Our trip was very productive until we arrived in Qatar, but after that it went downhill. We spent three days trying to get on a military flight to our finally location before we decided to call it quits and head back to our base location. It would have been good to see that location, because the Seabees have done more in half a deployment that most can do in a full one. They have even designed complete facilities while constructing others. A major impact!!!

When we returned to our camp and there were terrible communications problems. Our phones were down, our unclassified computers were down, and our classified computers were sketchy at best. It was a tough couple of days with lots of running to the Morale Tent to attempt to email or make phone calls. Not the best way to try and conduct business, but we got by.

Weather has been similar, but we saw our first break in the temperatures the last couple of days. It is still above 100 degrees each day (90+ days in a row), but you can feel the start of cooler evenings/mornings. I am guessing that by the last week in September we may not break 100. I will keep everyone posted.

Only bad news is that someone stole my camera while flying around the Middle East. It was on the last leg of the trip and someone went through my bag to take it. Sorry Jarrell, but looks like I need to open up another account for you to pay it back. Bad thing is that I can’t take more pictures, but will have to get them from others. I will try to post some when I get them.

This week I would like to tell a little bit about the mysterious “Senior Chief Dyer” that I keep talking about. He is my Operations Chief and we work hand in hand to the point that we are joined at the hip. His rating is “Builder” which means that he is a technical expert in wood framing, concrete, masonry, etc. Basically all the construction skills that you would expect except electrical and utilities. He has been in the Navy for over twenty years, has worked around the world, and was assigned to Camp David a couple years back. He is very focused on taking care of every single Seabee that works for him and has a very positive personality. He is extremely financially savvy and plans to be a Financial Advisor when he retires – not your typical second career for a Seabee. He will be transferring next spring and it will be a huge change.

Special thoughts and prayers to all the families of the September 11 victims. Please take a moment to remember why all of us are serving around the country.

Another Week of Sun, Sand, and Sweat

2005-09-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Another week down and another week closer to getting home. I am on a nine country, nine day trip right now so this one is going to be quick. Senior Chief Dyer (do you see a theme here – yes we are always together and maybe next week I will tell you more about him) and I flew out on Thursday morning and it has been non-stop since then. We have hit one country a day so currently it is our fifth location.

Today’s stop is mainly to wait for a flight, but we do have a couple of Seabees here working on the Central Command (CENTCOM) staff. CENTCOM is the Unified Commander for this area who is in charge of all the Operational Forces over here. By tonight we will be in country six. The neatest thing I have seen this trip is some work we have been doing for some local hospitals. We are building Landing Zones so they can land helicopters to drop off or pick up critical patients. The locals have been very appreciative and are really looking forward to using them (which should be in another week or so).

You will not believe this. Saturday night I go to my room in Bahrain and guess what is showing on TV. The UT/UAB football game. I could not believe it. I was able to watch about two-thirds of the second half LIVE. Hard to believe since it was often difficult to catch UT games when I was in Washington, DC. Kind of glad that they had a tough game so they will work harder the next couple of weeks in preparation for Florida.

As I am sure everyone has seen (and probably sick of) news of Hurricane Katrina, I wanted to pass on a quick story. Gulfport, MS is one of two main Seabee bases. Port Hueneme, CA (where my unit is stationed) and Gulfport. I interviewed for a job in Gulfport so thankfully I ended up where I did. A buddy of mine has the same job (Operations Officer) as I do for a Gulfport unit and is currently in the final stages of planning to relieve us in October. He and a couple others from the unit were in my location doing a Site Survey when Katrina hit. They showed an aerial view of where my friend’s house is (was) and there was nothing. I have not heard anything from him since he headed back, but most likely he now owns only the things that he had in his backpack. It looked like his house, his car, everything was going to be gone. Please keep him and all his troops in your prayers as they are trying to get back on their feet after that catastrophe.

Happy Labor Day and thanks for all the prayers and support. Keep them coming so I can ensure that all my troops get home to their friends and family. Should be a quick week again since I will be traveling for half of it.

Iraq - Week 3

2005-08-27T23:17:00.000-07:00

Last week really flew by relative to the couple of weeks before. I still have a long way to go to really feel comfortable in my new job, but I am slowly getting up to speed. Just like last week, there were ups and downs spread throughout.

Started out the week very similar to last week with Senior Chief Dyer and I heading out again to check on some troops. As you can probably tell, we are spread all around the country and it is really tough to stay up with all the troops. They are all very motivated, but it is nice to see what they are doing with our own eyes and not just in pictures. We spent the first half of the week flying around to different places, but it was a very productive trip. We met with some other units like ours that are in the area to discuss their tasking and how they are working things. We always find it informative to see if there are better ideas out there. We also met up with our higher headquarters to discuss what is on the horizon in the near and long term future. Nothing too exciting, but did get to see some bases where I have had friends stationed in the past so that was nice.

One of the downsides of the week was that someone stole my Seabee Flag that was flying on our flagpole. It just seems silly that they would take this and not only did they take the flag, but they cut the line so we have to re-string everything as well. The camp we are at is very upset and they are on the warpath to find the person. So far everyone on my camp has been extremely professional and this is the first thing that I have heard of like this. It is more general principle that upsets everyone. Now for me personally, this flag has been with me since I joined and has traveled the world with me and was the flag that flew over our camp last time I was here. I am giving it another couple days and then ordering another so I can start a new tradition!!

My boss has headed back to Guam for a while. He bounces in and out of here, but now that he is gone, I can focus on my job and my schedule. He is new to the command as well, but he has about 6 extra weeks on me so he is always asking questions that I don’t know the answer to. Hard to keep up. It still will be with him gone, but at least I can work at my own pace to get things done and to learn more about the job. He will be back to meet us in Kuwait and ride with the troops when we head home.

Nothing else too exciting. Maybe next week I will start telling you about the people that I work for. We should have a busy week with a bunch of good stuff being done by the troops and a long trip later in the week. A special Happy Birthday to Stanley McAlister. I am getting excited about College Football ever since I got a college football guide in a package last week. I am going to try and catch some games even if they are in the middle of the night. Well over 80 days plus with temperatures over 100, but we can feel a little difference in the mornings. I would not go so far to say it is cool, but you don’t start sweating until after 7:00 now. One more thing – lesson learned, a digital clock goes slower over here since it was designed for 60 htz and is operating at 50 htz. It loses about 10 minutes an hour which really threw me for a loop when my clock was an hour off each morning. I thought either I was going crazy or it was missing an hour. Kind of funny.

Iraq Continued

2005-08-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the honeymoon is over. I am now fully immersed in work and up to my eyeballs in trying to figure everything out. It has been a week of ups and downs with some really good points and some fairly blah points, but let’s start from the first of the week.

Monday started out nicely with news that we were able to get to a couple of the other locations where we have Seabees. We (Senior Chief Dyer and myself) headed to the air terminal in hopes of good weather. We were only Space-A, but made it on the flight. We were flying in an Army Helicopter that was making the rounds of a bunch of locations, but ours was the first stop. It was a quick flight and uneventful, but still enjoyable. It is always nice to see things from the air and get a chance to see some of the countryside. It was really nice to see some of the young kids waving to us as we flew over them

There was some great work being done out there. The troops are motivated, showing some great initiative, and really making a name for Seabees. We have both Active and Reserve guys, but you would not know the difference by looking at them. They are fully integrated and teaching each other their strengths. It is very impressive to see them work side by side towards the same mission. We stayed there one night and then it off to another location the next morning. It was another helo ride and some more nice desert views. At my next location, I was able to see some really neat things. We had lunch in one of Sadaam’s old palaces and even saw the palace he was building as a celebration to beating us in Desert Storm. Needless to say it was still “Under Construction”. The highlight of the week was going to dinner with some Turkish contractors. It was such a neat experience to meet some of the people that are working in Iraq and hear what they had to say. The food was wonderful and the conversation even better.

Things were not nearly as good back at “home”. We had someone do something stupid that could have cost people their lives. People just don’t think some times. It was probably funning at the time, but really could have endangered lives. Then to make it worse, I get a nice stomach infection that made the rest of the week pretty miserable. I lost my appetite (even for the nice bland food that we have) and felt achy all over. It finally passed after two days and things are on the upswing.

Well I am checking out some other sites this week so it should be another good week. Also my boss is heading out of town so I should have some more time to get things in line. Still feeling overwhelmed, but doing the best that I can.

Iraq-First Week

2005-08-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

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.

MADE IT

2005-08-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

I made to my "home" in Iraq. Much more about the trip later, but wanted to at least let everyone know that I am here.

American Vacation - Day 3/4

2005-07-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Spent a long day of driving trying to get across Kansas. We drove from St. Louis to just north of Denver and it was overall a very boring day. Not much to see but corn and more corn. The weather was super hot and we had some nasty rain, but nothing worth noting except that we made it and even saw the majority of the Tour de France Time Trial replay at Rock Bottom Brewery.

Today was going to be spent outside since we were locked up all the day before. We drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park which is located north-west of Denver near Estes Park, CO. The drive to the park was easy and it was lined with cyclists going all different directions. We ended up parking and taking the Shuttle Bus to the Bear Lake parking area where we headed out on a short hike. We saw some amazing glacier lakes and even did some tree climbing by accident. We were skirting along the creek and the trail ended so we made our own way towards the main trail. Well, after I had lunged from one boulder to the other we realized that I was stuck with no way down. After much deliberation, the tree route seemed the safest chance of survival. With only minor scratches I was safe and sound. After the hike we drive the Timber Ridge Drive, which reached an elevation in excess of 12,000 feet. This was higher than we reached when hiking Mt. Ranier and you could tell. The air was very thin and we would be huffing and puffing when we hiked around. The scenery could not have been better and it is definitely an area worth going. After a brief stop to grab a cup of coffee, we drove on back to the freeway and headed west to Glenwood Springs to spend the night.

American Vacation - Day 2

2005-07-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Picked up Jarrell at the Nashville Airport and we headed out in pursuit of coffee prior to hitting the road. After a very greasy breakfast of Ms. Winners Chicken Biscuits and a look at the map we headed West. First stop today was in Union City, TN to visit with Aunt Sue (Dad’s mom’s sister). She was looking great and as sharp as ever. She even was keeping up with Tour De France and Lance Armstrong. We did a quick stop by the cemetery to see Ginny and Phebie (grandparents) and then it was off towards S. Louis. Had a nice meal at Smelwell’s BBQ that consisted of “real” homemade food including the toasted white bread and chunks of pork. We made it to St. Louis pretty quick and had a great time there. It started with a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery (the new Bud with Caffeine was too sweet for me, but the Select and World Lager were both very good) and then on to the Arch. There is a big museum underground where you get on these egg shaped pods to go to the top. I never realized the arch is made out of stainless steel or that it is as wide as it is tall. The view from the top was really nice and you could even see the baseball stadium. Then we went and grabbed a couple tickets to the Cardinals/Cubs game. It was a really good game – even for a non-baseball guy. The Cubs almost pulled it out with the bases loaded in the 10th inning, but they left them stranded. Bottom of the 11th the Cardinals started out with a Triple and a Suicide Squeeze won the game for them. Even with the loss we had a Jumbo Dog/Beer so it was worth it. After sweating for most of the day all we wanted now was a hotel room with AC. We drove west to get out of town and found ourselves an okay hotel. Sure it was midnight and there were still multiple people in line, but after wading through the family reunions and some really weird people dressed in renaissance/trekky/animal costumes (this group looked like something you would see on HBO late at night…) we had a bed to sleep in. Overall a pretty good day.

American Vacation Begins

2005-07-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

I headed out of Knoxville in the afternoon with just a short drive to Nashville. Went straight to Cody/Melanie’s house where I finally got to meet Maggie – the beautiful addition to the Allison household. She has hair like mine currently, but sure if cute. We all went out to dinner and had a great time catching up. Cody’s law practice is doing great and Melanie is now on the Vanderbilt Faculty. After a much too short visit, I headed over to Tim/Carissa’s new home. They just moved a couple of months ago and the new home is gorgeous. There were a lot of things that I want to remember for my home one day, especially the wonderful kitchen and stone/brick features throughout. They have two lovely boys with Luke two years old and Meyer around 10 months old. (I hope I got the names right). Tim is now working with Hospitals/Surgeons in developing Surgery Centers in markets around the country. Carissa’s store is doing great as well. Got some sleep and then Tim and I slipped in a quick run before the day really got started. Now time to start heading West.

European Vacation - Tour De France

2005-07-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

We headed out of Austria on Tuesday with sore legs, but visions of Lance Armstrong on the Tour. We made a short stop in Venice where I got to see Joel in long pants for the first time ever. The drive through the Alps was amazing with tunnel after tunnel. I am amazed that someone was able to build the road right through the mountains. It must have been quite the project. We stayed in a small town in Southern France and then spent three days on the Tour. We were able to see Lance and his team a bunch of times at both the start and finish of stages. IT is absolutely amazing how these guys do it. The excitement in the French towns is electric and you can feel it as the racers get closer. I want to come back and follow the tour again for a much longer time sometime down the road.

Austria Ironman

2005-07-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

Joel Blakeman and I met up in Frankfurt and drove to Klagenfurt, Austria in the huge VW Tansporter. Mapquest was off a bit and it took at least 10 hours, but it did not matter – we were officially on vacation. Klagenfurt was a great little town that really came out for the Ironman. There were 2200 participants and upwards of 150,000 spectators. The race was really well run and it was a great experience. There were even cheerleaders at the bike turnaround and finish line. Joel and I both did great with strong races.

2005-05-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Florida Sunset

Ironman

2005-05-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

Creepy New Tattoo

I finally did an Ironman and got the Tattoo that I always wanted.

Hello

2005-05-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt with a blog. Jarrell is teaching me the basics and I plan to use it to stay in touch once I head to California.