Well I made it to Iraq

I touched down safely in Iraq on the 25th of August as most of you have probably figured out by now. We were greeted by our TORCH party personnel at the airport, to include my guy I sent STRATAIR, SGT Murphy or as I call him, M5; it was good to see him! I have been affectionately nicknaming all my soldiers; M5 got his because I have two SGT Murphys in my section, one is a SGT E5, the other is a SFC E7, so as you can guess the other SFC Murphy is M7 or I just call them by their number. In blogs to come, you will learn more about my crew.

We arrived late, so that evening we stayed in transient housing, or short term lodging. We slept 8 to a building with the bunks being bunk beds. Everyone found their gear, a bed, and then ran off to the shower. This was the first night in 2 weeks we all got to sleep on a mattress vs. a cot, it was a nice change. The next morning we all needed to be ready by 0900 to go receive our housing in-brief so that we can get our room assignment on the West side. Grupe managed to secure a seat on the ADVON flight so we remained partners in crime and are roommates for the deployment. For the deployment we will be living in CHUs; Containerized Housing Units, check out the pictures.

The next few days we spent getting settled into our rooms and meeting our counterparts. I met the soldiers of the 412th ASB, the unit we are replacing. They are a good crew and did a lot of stuff improving the BN AO (Battalion Area of Operations) with wiring projects and the addition of switching cabinets.

On 28AUG, we were informed that our RIP TOA (Relief In Place & Transfer Of Authority) was bumped up a week sooner. This expedited our training timeline significantly and the rush was on to start setting up all the accounts in our name. We have Toby Hanna, the Army Depot where we bring computer systems to get fixed, COMSEC account, the DRMO, where we dispose of hazardous materials and most importantly our IMO (Information Management Officer) training, this gives us the right to administer and manage the BN network. CPT H and his soldiers gave us the tour of Balad and my AO; all the places I have customers to support.

Of course Grupe and I found time to run and signed up to run a half marathon on 31AUG, the Rock ‘n Roll Virginia Beach half Marathon. This was my first and we ran it in 1:38.44, finished in the top 20. Had we started at the front of the pack instead of lining up in the back, I think we would have placed in the top 10, securing medals…oh well there will be plenty more races, overall this was a Great Run!

The following days I spent getting acclimated to my new job, learning all I can from CPT H and taking in the new sites, sounds and smells of Iraq.

All around me there are things flying, like Black Hawks, Apaches, Chinooks, F16s, C130s and a whole slew of other types of aircraft; it is loud. I think it would be the equivalent of living right on the runway of the MSP Airport. Here is the sound of the F16s taking off, they do this constantly, ALL day long. At night they look like rockets with their afterburners, pretty cool, I'll try to get a video...

(I distorted the Video for OPSEC reasons)

The smell, dirt and diesel all day long; if you ever did any landscaping and order up a nice load of pulverized black dirt, after they dump it, there is that fine dirt in the air, not only can you see it, but you can smell and even taste it, throw in a little diesel and that is what it smells like here.

It is 4SEP and still pretty hot here, 120s or so…and our bathrooms on the most part are Port-o-Potties…let me tell you, there is nothing more soothing than sitting on a nice hot toilet to take care of business, only sometimes it gets real hot and you have to ease yourself down on the seat, sort of like when you are stepping into a real hot Jacuzzi, you have to take it nice and slow, but when you get there, it feels good!!! LOL

Today, 5SEP I ran the 5k freedom run, and took 5th place overall with a time of 22:18. I sure felt good on this run and I am thinking no way it was only a 5k, so the next morning I had Grupe run the course with, he didn’t run the race-choose to sleep in, and it was a little long, about a 1/3 of a mile long, it was actually 3.4 miles. I still have not got a medal here in Iraq, but I am working on it.

Well we had our first dust storm of the deployment, check out the pictures, I missed most of it as I was in my office working, but one of my soldiers snapped a few picks from on top of our HAS (Hardened Aviation Shelter).

11SEP, this morning I ran the Patriot 5k with Grupe as we were a team carrying our BN Colors, if you ask him he will let you know it wasn’t one of his better runs as he just finished up some “paperwork” if you know what I mean when the race started. He didn’t catch up to me until the first mile and he looked in rough shape so I carried the colors to mile 1.5, handed them off to him where he carried I think maybe a mile or less, then I took them for the last mile or so. The top 3 teams received awards and we came in 5th, just missed again! Today also happens to be the infamous day, 5 years ago today is the reason we are here and coincidently today we were “Patched” which means we received our right shoulder, or combat patch. I have the history of the significance of this event under my "Some History" link. It is a big thing to me, not sure how others feel about it, but I feel more like I am part of the team, that I pulled my weight, that I now have that bond with my brothers and sisters in Arms…it is hard to explain, but I feel more accepted.

For the most part I am trying to get into a routine. I go for a run in the morning; I have been a good boy flossing my teeth every morning too, shower and off to breakfast. Usually start my day at 0530 and am into the office just before 0900. I go through the taskers from the night before and then check my email for new Help Desk Tickets. I am still putting out a lot of fires like, my printer doesn’t work, my radio lost its COMSEC, I need a new computer, can I get another computer drop in my office, I want AFN in my office, I can’t log onto my computer, I am locked out of my computer, can I get another phone line…you get the picture. I am trying to automate our Helpdesk procedures to help alleviate this. To do this I am trying to establish a share drive, plus we use Microsoft SharePoint here too. I have 2 networks I manage, a secure or secret network, and then the regular network like you all have at work. Each one has its only policies and protocols that must be enforced, so that means I have twice as much of a chance for something to go wrong. I will talk more about my job as things move on.

Since I have been running, I have lost 19 pounds, I am down from 167 to 148, and I have pretty much lost my belly, which is good. I am hoping to hit the gym starting 1OCT and my goal is to get back up to 160, I will keep you all posted. My poor feet have been taking a beating however, they are still trying to acclimate. I was setting a lot when I got here and my feet basically shed all their skin, just like a snake would. I am getting more use to the climate now and not sweating so much in my boots and my feet are slowing healing up, in another week or so, they will be better than new! It might be to the fact that it is starting to cool off here, it has to come to the point where 100 degrees fills like 60 back home. For a while I did not think there was such a thing as cold water here, hot or warm, but now I can feel traces of cold water when I first turn on the shower. I am not a real “Hot” shower taker, I like it warm and for a while I would just have to turn the cold water on, now I have to crack the hot just a little bit.

14SEP – the dust in the air today is horrible, it looks like an early spring morning back in Minnesota when the air is thick with dew, instead; here it is dirt. It sucks…(Can you tell which pictures they are??) Here is the Video I promised....

As always, enjoy the pics.