Fun Patches

Here is a photo of the patches I am going to put on my paragliding harness. I may also try to pick up a couple more and put on my hang gliding harness. Linda, my wife, posted the photo for me. I still don't have a camera here, and no way to upload photos here yet.

Improvements

I'm settled into the new digs, and things are looking up. My new room mate is from Bosnia, and is tolerable of the cooler temps I prefer for sleeping. He said he would prefer we turn the A/C unit off, as it is a window unit and somewhat noisy, which is very much OK with me. I was at the billeting office this evening, and the woman who had not been overly friendly asked how things were now, and I told her it was excellent, and my room mate was standing there in the office. She did the "YESSS!!!" thing with the arm motions and all, when I told her I had a great room mate. Things are definitely better over here now than two years ago.

On another note, I noticed when I was logging in, the last post showed something like 3:45 am as the time when I posted it. If I can find where to adjust the time, I will get it changed to my local time, instead of the time at home. Currently it is ten hours later here than it is at home.

Smooth Air, Long Flights, and Soft Landings.

Patented Weight Loss Program

I started my patented weight loss program yesterday, and am having second thoughts about it this afternoon. If I wear my waistcoat around all the time, I'll lose weight! The waistcoat is covered by one or more patents, so I call it my patented weight loss program. I may start wearing it every other day, until I get a little more used to it, then go back to wearing it every day. It is one of the newer technology "lighter weight" systems, and only weighs about thirty or forty pounds. There are some of the guys here who claim theirs weighs upwards of sixty pounds. In case anyone isn't familiar with what a waistcoat is, it is a vest. I'll give you three guesses, as to what kind of waistcoat they give me to wear over here.

I also would like to add my supervisor told me if I needed to sleep somewhere other than my cheesebox because a roommate might think they have to have it waaaaay too warm, I should be able to find a cot out here. That way, I could sleep inside the bunker, instead of on top of it, and be able to stay cool, and keep everyone happy all at the same time. He also said if I had any problems with billeting, to let him know, and he could probably take care of any problems with them.

Busted!!!

Jon, the music is more boring now. The dance floor is smoother, and the band did not spend as much on pyrotechnics as they did at the previous ballroom where I went dancing. Thanks for commenting. I was beginning to wonder if I was typing this for myself, and no one was reading it.

On to the reason for this new post.
There I was sleeping soundly on top of my own concrete bunker, curled up in the sleeping bag the company had issued to me, with my head laying on the pillow they had issued to me, on top of my Turkish rug I had purchased yesterday, and some guy starts waving a flashlight at me and saying "SIR, SIR, SIR!!!" Turns out someone had said something to the wrong people about someone sleeping on top of a bunker, and there I was - BUSTED!!!

They did give me the keys to a differrent room that only has one person in it, and he had turned the heater off because it was too hot. And, it wasn't anywhere nearly as warm as the room I had slept in before I moved my sleeping arrangements to the top of the bunker. I also have an extra comforter I can give the guy in there in case it is too cool for him, as the new room had bedding for the new occupant in it, and I don't need any additional stuff. I think I will keep the good sleeping bag and pillow, just in case I might need to find alternate sleeping arrangements again!!! If I get on top of one of the cheeseboxes, and have the cooperation of whoever is in there, no one will see me!

CheeseBoxes

I went to a formal ball and we had to stay an extra day due to low visibility conditions from dust. When I got back, I dropped my stuff off at the cheesebox. I use the term cheesebox because that is what they called similar living quarters when I was at Anaconda two years ago. The cheeseboxes at Anaconda were a forty foot long container with a door and a window unit air conditioner at one end. The Anaconda cheeseboxes had 5 cots in them. The cheeseboxes here at Speicher are a twenty foot long container, and have two bunk beds in them. I had heard that at one time Anaconda had five bunk beds in their cheeseboxes. I can't imagine how bad that would have been.
When I got back from the ball, I dropped my overnite stuff off there and went to the PX to get a foot locker to store my waistcoat, party hat, ballroom dancing gown and gloves, and sleeping bag for the truck so I would not have to pack the stuff out here to work every time I went dancing. When I dropped the stuff off, there were three new people in my unit, and they had the heat set to about eighty five degrees. I turned the heat down, but did not turn the unit to air conditioning. After returning from my trip to the PX, and then dropping the foot locker off and putting my stuff in it at work, I noticed someone had removed the temperature control knob, and it was back to eighty five degrees in there. I went to billeting, and filled out a work order to get stuff fixed, with a notation that the knob had disappeared in the two hour time span between my first visit, and my final return. I also checked out another sleeping bag and a pillow. My plan was to sleep on top of the concrete bunker in front of the cheesebox. I had bought a Turkish rug while I was at the location of the ball, and tried to sleep on the concrete bunker without it. After a couple of hours tossing and turning, I went back inside the cheesebox and retrieved the rug, and placed it under my sleeping bag. It was much better after doing this. The temperature was about fifty or fifty-five degrees, and the sleeping bag was plenty warm. It was definitely better than sleeping inside the hot cheesebox.
Unless things change about the temperature in the cheesebox, I plan to continue sleeping on top of the bunker. I haven't decided what to do about waterproofing when it starts raining in a couple of weeks, but I am sure I will be able to figure something out before the rain starts.
Supposedly the cheeseboxes are a temporary deal, and people are moved into the dormitory, based on seniority of time in country. However, there was a new arrival today who left Houston two weeks after me. He was placed in the dormitory today, his first day here.

Camp Speicher

I made it to Camp Speicher yesterday, and am sleeping in temporary housing for the moment. We did some orientation and driver training today, and will probably start doing some driving moving stuff around on the base tomorrow. We have orientation to the "C" sites on Friday, then should be able to go out on a convoy some time after that. The first trip out will be a "right seat, left seat" deal, where we ride along with another driver who has been at this base a while, to wherever we are going, and we drive back to here. Then we will be allowed to drive on convoys without any one else in the truck with us. I'm looking forward to getting to work. I currently don't know if I will be staying here, or if I will be transferred to another base. If I get transferred, it will most likely be to another of the "C" sites. They have "A, B, C, D, etc" sites over here, and the number one of each group is the primary base of the group. I don't have a clue as to why the sites are grouped this way, as it does not seem to be geographically sorted.

Hope everyone is well.

Smooth Air, Long Flights, and Soft Landings,

GliderMike

Traveling to Baghdad

Had a break during the festivities involved to travel to Baghdad, so I thought I would do a quick post. Yesterday, we spent the day "outprocessing" to get ready to transfer to Camp Speicher. Part of the process involved, checking in our Level III waistcoats, along with NBC gear, as we can get new stuff when we get to Speicher, and avoid having to carry an extra 50 or 60 pounds of stuff while traveling. I hadn't remember how far it was to where I needed to check in the Level III stuff, so I also wore my Level IV waistcoat on the walk. I would need to let someone else verify by inspection what the GP (government property) number on my Level IV vest, so I thought I would take it all with me. I was soaked and concerned about heat stroke by the time I got there to drop off the NBC gear and Level III waistcoat. One of my friends had done the same thing, and I guess he isn't in as good physical condition as I am, so he was in trouble! He walked in, and started slinging stuff off, and was cussing (quietly, but loud enough I and the guy who was checking my stuff could hear him). When the vests hit the floor, they were clanging (steel and ceramic bulletproof plates in the vests, remember), and making a racket. I started laughing about the circus, and when Mike noticed me laughing, he got embarrassed and said "It slipped", which caused me to start laughing more. I was nearly rolling in the floor when he said that, and all three guys in the warehouse were laughing by now. Mike finally calmed down, and he started laughing. I told him later it was mean of me to laugh at him, and he said he thought it was all pretty funny now that it was over with.

We made it to Baghdad on the 5th, and overnited there. I bought some stuff at the Bazaar outside the PX there. I bought decals that say "Danger, Stay Back" written in English and Arabic, and a couple of patches saying the same thing to sew on my Hang Gliding and Paragliding harnesses, as well as some postcards. I also bought a fabric map of Iraq which is supposed to be a "survival" map in case you get separated from your convoy. AND, I bought a couple of patches for OB1, and Montana Jeff to put on the boots of their harnesses which say "American Convoy Ahead, Stay Back" If they are flying good at the comps, it will be a moot point, but if someone is catching them, maybe it will break the concentration of OB1 and Jeff's competitors, knowing they should stay back! It is a good thought anyway, and the guys should be able to get a laugh or two out of it, if nothing else.

A Beautiful Day in Paradise

I finally arrived in Mesopotamia between the banks of the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers on October 20. I spent the night at the Baghdad Transition Center, then on to Camp Anaconda on Sunday, October 21 (my birthday). I celebrated my birthday by having a chili cheeseburger, onion rings, and a strawberry sundae for lunch, then having a banana split for my evening meal. I leave for Camp Speicher in a couple of days, where I will be posted (until someone decides they need more truck drivers at some other camp) for at least 120 days.

The company seems to have improved since the last time I was here, and everything seems to be a lot more positive now than before. Now, after you have been at a location for 120 days, you can apply for a transfer to another base, and they are allowing the transfers to happen. I think the improvement in attitudes and treatment is due to the current Project Manager, who is extremely emphatic about company policy of dignity and respect. He spoke to us (truck drivers) the second day we were here at Anaconda, and seems to be a straight shooter, who doesn't talk out of the side of his mouth, if you know what I mean.

Today I checked out a new level IV waistcoat, along with a ballroom gown, gloves and headdress to wear when I go ballroom dancing. The gown, gloves and headdress are made of Nomex fabric, and should be quite stylish, except for the fact everyone else will be wearing the same thing! The day I arrived at Anaconda, I was issued a tiara to wear to the dances, but it seems to be fairly heavy. Many of the soldiers refer to their tiara as Kevlar. Hope this finds everyone well. I am doing well, as I got paid for the first last days of October on November 2, instead of November 16th. During orientation they had told us we wouldn't get paid until later, as we had arrived in country after October 15th. I had the good sense to not complain about being paid early. Some of my friends from Kenya are starting to arrive here now also, which gives me more opportunity to practice the few words of Swahili I learned in Houston. There are also some Ugandan soldiers here who are also helping me learn my new language. Having a good time, wish you were all here. The house thermals look promising for flatland flying.

Smooth Air, Long Flights, and Soft Landings,
GliderMike