Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote something; I know it’s been quite some time. I have been staying really, really busy – which is a good thing because it makes the time go by faster and makes you think about home less. In the last month-month and a half, here’s what has been going on with me.
In the end of Oct into about the middle of November, I was watching two friends’ R&R (rest and relaxation – essentially their vacation time during their tours). One of my friends is the liaison officer for our office in this area of the country so I was responsible for sending his reports to people and answering questions and things like that for our region. My other friend is a civilian contractor and he serves primarily a logistics role down here. When his company had people coming in, I had to set them up on flights and get them lodging while they were here and make sure they had transportation – things like that. The best part about watching his R&R was that, because he is a civilian, he lives in a separate area than the rest of us. Where he lives is like being back home: he has a big bed, a TV, his own bathroom, internet and carpeted floors (it’s amazing the little things you miss when you don’t have them!!). I was living like a king for about three weeks and then he came back=( He’s a really good guy and we hang out a lot and sometimes we’ll watch the Sunday afternoon football games (at 9pm).
The biggest story I have about watching my civilian friend’s R&R is when I was expecting a convoy. I spent one Saturday night looking for this convoy from about 8:30pm until after midnight. I had to go out to the main entry gate (to the outside) to find them and they were on the other side of the Iraqi checkpoint (coming into base, there’s the Iraqi checkpoint and then the coalition checkpoint). Because these guys were outside the Iraqi checkpoint, I had to walk out to talk to them. At first, I didn’t want to go and the guard says to me, “C’mon, Mate, there aren’t lions and tigers out there.” On our way out to talk to these guys, the guard radios, “Make sure you have good night vision on us.” Wait – WHAT!!!??? I thought there was nothing to be afraid of!! That wound up not being that bad and, after a lot of running around the base and a ton of phone calls, it was decided the guys would have to sleep outside the gate and wait to come on base until the morning. At 6am that Sunday, I went back to the gate to meet the convoy but they weren’t in line to be checked. Off we go again to talk to these guys but this time, there were a ton of people out. And the guy who went with me that morning starts telling me how the guards at the gate saved him from getting kidnapped a few weeks back and stopped him from being shot another time – not the best stuff to tell me as we’re walking out by ourselves!!! We walked out to the checkpoint and there were people everywhere. I kind of stayed back a bit from the actual Iraqi checkpoint while the guard went out and directed vehicles so my trucks could come in. As I’m sitting there, I swear, at least two or three different groups of at least 6 guys each were just staring at me and laughing. I was beyond scared but we wound up getting everything settled just fine and no problems. I escorted the convoy in and when it was time to go, they said they needed to fill up. I told them I would take them to the gate and where they filled up was their decision. It turns out there is a gas station on base but it’s run by locally employed civilians. A person from the area we were dropping our cargo off offered to go with me as sort of an escort and we took the trucks to get fuel. As we’re at the gas station, the guy I’m with starts telling me how he was kidnapped for 3 days in July and how he doesn’t trust a lot of the people who work on base. He also told me to leave the car running and if we saw anything suspicious to just get in our cars and drive off. Nothing happened and we took the trucks to the gate and they went on their way. I had made it almost a full four months without anything happening to me or even knowing anyone who anything had happened to and in less than 12 hours, I talked to two people who either had been or almost had been kidnapped. Crazy – and kind of scary – stuff!!!
Other than that, nothing terribly exciting has happened (thankfully). We have our fair share of excitement from time-to-time but things are relatively calm.
Thanksgiving was a little tough to be here but the “powers that be” tried to make it enjoyable. We had some food flown in and were able to have turkey, pumpkin pie and some other Thanksgiving staples. What was really cool is that a lot of the senior ranking officers served the meal so we had a 2-star general serve our turkey. You don’t get that everyday!!!=) It will be interesting to see what they do for Christmas.
I actually think – okay, I know – Angel has had it much more eventful than I have the last little while. I think Olivia has been sick at least once a month for the almost 5 I’ve been gone, topped off by pneumonia in November!! One thing is for sure, she is a strong and amazing woman=)
One last thing. I got an e-mail from my friend in Fallujah and she said she got a box from a reader today and wanted me to send a huge thank you!!! She was not expecting anything and that showed up and she said it had tons of good stuff in it. That really made her day and she said it’s been pretty crazy in her office recently so she was very thankful for that!!! Along those lines, we (some of the military members here) got about 25 boxes from an organization called Cards and Cocoa for Troops based out of Santa Cruz, California. It was really amazing; we got loads of snacks and cards and other goodies. Mail day is the best day of the week by far. The only “bad” thing about Thanksgiving was that the mail guys missed the convoy so we didn’t get mail that week=( That was kind of a drag but it made the next mail day all the better because we had so much stuff.
Sorry it has been so long since I have last written. Hope everyone had a safe Thanksgiving and you’re all planning fun times with your family for Christmas. I’ll hopefully post again before then but if I don’t, have a great Christmas. Eat some good food and tell some stories on our behalf. Take care.
