Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Basrah Saga
Basrah 12242008
‘Tis Christmas Eve morning. Last night I came back from chow and fell asleep early. With no TV or radio, this isn’t difficult. I did, however, have my son’s music on my laptop and I borrowed the speakers left here.
Yesterday was interesting. Not yet 24 hours here, I went with the US Army military commander to a training center to be the Customs Expert. I geared up and we went in a nice, new MRAP. The Iraqis were very polite in their headquarters. Lots of different uniforms, some I recognized, some I didn’t. The meeting went on and on and I didn’t have a translator but I gathered that one of their problems is literacy- many new recruits can’t read or write and theses recruits are “must haves” in their ranks. Beyond that, they wanted training in fraud documents, something the termed “Customs” instead of “Immigration” or “Passport Control.”
When I got back, it was almost 1400, so the military guys walked me to DFAC 4, somewhere near their office with 5th Rifles. After chow, I drove back to our hooches compound, Camp Harper, only getting lost once or twice. My biggest mistake was in thinking I should take a left from the NAAFI building instead of a right. So when I found the NAAFI store, I went the wrong direction. But that was a five-minute error, no worse.
Got back, called Johnny and told him where I was, asking when we’d go to chow. He said around five-thirty. I lay down. At six, he woke me from a deep slumber, saying Nadi was waiting. I put on my boots and went to chow. I wasn’t really hungry but didn’t want to go from one lunch to the next without anything else. I ate some dry chicken and tasty fried tortilla and some mini carrots and veggies, opting to go without ice cream because of the carbs. We came back and I lay down (see above) and that was pretty much all I did last night except sleep. Let me see – a good two hours in the afternoon plus about nine or ten hours after chow. I guess sleep deprivation isn’t one of my issues.
In a bit I’ll take a shower and get cleaned up. I’ve got to find a laundry pretty soon, or else I’ll be washing my clothes in a bucket and letting them hang dry. Johnny says we can drop our clothes off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. But I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.
This is a different working environment for me. In Husaibah, there were the few Marines that I knew plus about 200 that I didn’t know so well, but we were all in the same desert boat, so nothing was strange or harsh. Here, there are many officers. And the Iraqis have a different level of resources- they have more rank and the concomitant infrastructure that goes with a higher level of authority. A bit like moving from a small border port to a headquarters environment. Wait, that’s precisely what I’ve done.
More later …
‘Tis Christmas Eve morning. Last night I came back from chow and fell asleep early. With no TV or radio, this isn’t difficult. I did, however, have my son’s music on my laptop and I borrowed the speakers left here.
Yesterday was interesting. Not yet 24 hours here, I went with the US Army military commander to a training center to be the Customs Expert. I geared up and we went in a nice, new MRAP. The Iraqis were very polite in their headquarters. Lots of different uniforms, some I recognized, some I didn’t. The meeting went on and on and I didn’t have a translator but I gathered that one of their problems is literacy- many new recruits can’t read or write and theses recruits are “must haves” in their ranks. Beyond that, they wanted training in fraud documents, something the termed “Customs” instead of “Immigration” or “Passport Control.”
When I got back, it was almost 1400, so the military guys walked me to DFAC 4, somewhere near their office with 5th Rifles. After chow, I drove back to our hooches compound, Camp Harper, only getting lost once or twice. My biggest mistake was in thinking I should take a left from the NAAFI building instead of a right. So when I found the NAAFI store, I went the wrong direction. But that was a five-minute error, no worse.
Got back, called Johnny and told him where I was, asking when we’d go to chow. He said around five-thirty. I lay down. At six, he woke me from a deep slumber, saying Nadi was waiting. I put on my boots and went to chow. I wasn’t really hungry but didn’t want to go from one lunch to the next without anything else. I ate some dry chicken and tasty fried tortilla and some mini carrots and veggies, opting to go without ice cream because of the carbs. We came back and I lay down (see above) and that was pretty much all I did last night except sleep. Let me see – a good two hours in the afternoon plus about nine or ten hours after chow. I guess sleep deprivation isn’t one of my issues.
In a bit I’ll take a shower and get cleaned up. I’ve got to find a laundry pretty soon, or else I’ll be washing my clothes in a bucket and letting them hang dry. Johnny says we can drop our clothes off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. But I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.
This is a different working environment for me. In Husaibah, there were the few Marines that I knew plus about 200 that I didn’t know so well, but we were all in the same desert boat, so nothing was strange or harsh. Here, there are many officers. And the Iraqis have a different level of resources- they have more rank and the concomitant infrastructure that goes with a higher level of authority. A bit like moving from a small border port to a headquarters environment. Wait, that’s precisely what I’ve done.
More later …
# posted by rich @ 7:49 AM 
