Ode to EOD

Explosive. Ordinance. Disposal.

These are the guys who go out to disarm or otherwise render roadside bombs safe. While everyone else tries to avoid IEDs, EOD goes to them. I mention them now because they have saved countless coalition and civilian lives but are pretty much unknown outside of the military community.

We lost one recently when the IED he was securing exploded.

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On a lighter note, I am settling in to my job. Yesterday I sat in the main seat and did most of the work under the supervision of the guy I am replacing. Today he will be more hands-off and tomorrow I will most likely be riding solo so he can pack.

He's very ready to leave. He's earned it.

The job itself is a little different than last time, but similar enough that I'll get in a groove pretty fast. I'm working for a different element but they have similar needs to the one I supported last time.

As for food, the chow halls are in newer buildings and some have TVs playing AFN and even framed action pictures on the walls, but the food is the same. Quite possibly exactly the same. One never knows. I did have a few emails from the Chaplain about arranging my food. I was just able to access the account he sent it too yesterday, which delayed things a few day, but I know he is working it. Much less of a saga than last time. Or so it would seem at this point.

I also learned that blue means hot and red means cold in some of our shower stalls. I wished I had realized that during my pre-work shower yesterday, but so it goes. It did wake me up. The real downside was that my room mate, the guy I am replacing, keeps the A/C on really high at night. He's a cold weather guy. I packed a thin blanket. It's cold. But I let it slide because he's been here a while and will be gone soon. Then I'll have the place to my self and will set the A/C as I see fit.

I have arrived

After yet more delays in miscommunications, we took off. Flight was uneventful. I slept a little, I read a little.

When we entered Iraqi airspace we had to put our boots back on and arrange our stuff, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful. On the ground we were shuttled to where we needed to be, at which point I called the guy I'm replacing to let him know we were here.

We grabbed some quick chow, got the quick tour, and got set up in our rooms. I'll have my own trailer, which is nice. It has a fridge and even a cable hook up (but no TV).

It is amazing how we keep improving the infrastructure on our large posts here. There are signs that use fast food joints as reference points for directions. The fitness center has classes. Some infomercial people have actually come out to teach what the preach.

That is OIF 2009 for you.

Out on the town...

I spent most of the afternoon wandering around a very nice European town with some of the guys. I guess some people decided to hole up in their hotel rooms and flick the 10 AFN channels and CNN International, but there will be plenty of time for that later.

Some of the guys had been through here before and so we followed their memory to various little bars and the like. Nothing too crazy, but very relaxing. With their scruffy beards, ball caps, and rough civilian cloths, most of the guys could pass for backpacking students. They were teasing each other for taking some of the same pictures of old churches and scenic views that they took the last time. They tried to take a group picture of Guinness foam in their mustaches, but it didn't really work as a group picture. Most people would never guess that these are experienced combat veterans, some of whom have been awarded our top awards for valor. Somehow when you meet a "veteran" on the street they will too often claim to have been some kinda of Super SEAL Sniper Hero. The real ones don't need to bring it up.

And, well, by most people being unaware, I mean most people who don't live near one of the major transit bases for guys headed into the war zones. Our waiter at a small cafe instantly pegged us for Special Operations types because of the beards and the interest in coffee. Our waiter even understood the distinction between Special Forces and Special Operations, which few people even in the military seem to know. He also told us that the Starbucks on this post is terrible, which was a great tip.

At that cafe we were joking about how no one knows what we do. Not because of the secrecy but because the Air Force Ground elements jobs have very specialized niches that can be hard to explain. He has pretty much given up and just says he is an Air Traffic Controller when people ask. When his parents try to tell people they say he is an Air Traffic Controller but he drops bombs.

I told him I pretty much do the same thing and just say I'm a weather guy. The only problem being that some of my friends and some of my family do not believe me. People have actually told my wife that I'm not really a weather man but some kind of spy because of the whole jumping and advanced training thing and not getting why a weather guy would need those skills.

Hopefully most of the guys don't get in to too much trouble in town. They work. They play hard, but now isn't really the time to play hard. People get in more trouble on their way to and from the theater than they do while actually there. They are big kids. They should figure it out.

Anyway, in a few hours we find out if our bird is in working order so we can fly into Iraq. I wouldn't mind a little more time here. I'm sitting on a deck outside, it's a beautiful night, the room is nice, and the weird coffee machine in the lobby that magically spews out multiple types of liquid from the same orifice has a pretty good Cafe con Leche.

Much ado about nothing...

I slept. I slept well. We took off and soon thereafter my seat was fully reclined, my jacket was covering me, and my patrol cap covered my eyes and I was out.

Of course, this was after a one hour flight from Bragg to another US base (which was no closer to our current layover point than Bragg, but I digress) where our giant cargo plane promptly broke. About 36 hours of delays and one delightful night at a very shady Super 8 Motel, we were off again.

Now that we have landed at our layover point, the plane is again broken. We are doubtful that it will be fixed in time for our scheduled departure. I don't mind. I have a suite here. Free wi-fi. A clean bathroom. There are no empty semi-defunct car dealerships on either side of our hotel here. There are no drug deals going on in the parking lot. In short, it is much better than the Super 8 Motel we were just at.

Skype works here. Sweet.

The post here is beautiful and I'm going to get out and enjoy the cool but sunny weather. I'll see plenty of the sun in the coming months, but it will hardly be cool. We are all fairly certain that we will get in to Iraq by the end of the month because the aircrew wants that tax-free combat zone pay for both April and May.

Off to explore...

See you on the other side...

It looks like this will be my last post from this country for a while. I hope it is. I think it really will be. It's near the end of the month and the aircrew flying over will want to get in country before the end of the month so that they can get April and May tax free. Pilots are into scams like that.

I'm really glad to report that the unit I am augmenting has already contacted my wife and has added her to what they call the "social roster." Not that she needs it or will even be around to take advantage of it, but is really nice to know that the support is there. This team is really determined to take care of our families and keep the lines of communication open. One of their goals is to make it possible for all of the families to make plans to be there when we get back--to the best of their ability. Obviously, we can't always control airflow issues and transportation to Bragg is on the family, but hopefully they'll at least be armed with the information to make the plans if they want to.

I left a case of Sam Adams at the office here as a thanks to all the guys for helping us out while we waited. I know we must have been in the way as the set up their training schedules in order to get ready to replace us in a few months. They made sure we had a vehicle to get around, helped us get the parachute training, and set us up for those almost-jumps.

It is also nice to be leaving with everything in order at home. My wife's plans for the next year have been finalized with an incredible research opportunity close to home. Our home will be taken care of while we are away be a succession of renters who will also take care of our cats. What was a major source of stress is pretty much gone. I wish I could have been more help and realize I was really more the cause of many of the problems, but she made it all work.

My wife got bombarded with phone calls after I made my last calls to immediate family. We keep trying to call each other but then have to go as we each have call waiting. I guess ordinarily I'd be annoyed, but we appreciate the support.

Now I'm finishing some last minute laundry and doing my final pack-up. I have some food for tonight, breakfast at the hotel, and food packed for the flight. I did manage to reach a Chaplain downrange who has begun the work of setting up my food. There will probably be a delay again but it should be less of a saga than last time.

Not Jump: The Sequel

This time we had the necessary paperwork certifying that we were qualified to jump the parachute being used. They didn't ask for it. We had missed the mandatory meeting the day before due my trying to be in two places at once and failing -- I didn't process that the afternoon jump meeting was the day before the jump not the day of the jump until too late and so carried on with helping the local unit with some transportation issues. Anyway, since we missed the meeting, we were no longer on the list of jumpers.

However, they had extra parachutes and so put us back on the list. Problem solved.

Everything was going fine. Jumping with SOF units is a laid back affair. No need to get all rigged up until the last minute. Everyone laughs and jokes. We make fun of people's landings. One guy who forgot to disconnect one of his parachute straps after landing in order to deflate the canopy ended up playing tug of war with it as it caught the wind again. He lost. We laughed some more.

The whole process was incredibly efficient. Aircraft took off, jumpers exited, they landed, aircraft landed, lather, rinse, repeat. Then some kinks. A couple free fall drops required higher drop altitudes. The climb to altitude ate up more gas. With about a quarter of us waiting to jump, the aircraft hit it's minimum fuel to get back home and had to leave. Just as we rigged up.

And in the end we were going to jump an older parachute anyway because they ran out of the new one. Oh well. Such is the nature of being a paratrooper. They don't show that in the recruiting commercials.

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Also, I think I'm starting to understand the weird dynamic those trashy shows like "The Bachelor." They take a bunch of women (I use the term loosely, but bear with me), they take them away from home, and put them all together with nothing to do but think about some dude. In that weird echo chamber they somehow think themselves in love with their male oxygen-stealing counterpart.

Just as I was starting to lose motivation about this trip because the job can be less than exciting at times, my trip has been delayed multiple times. I have nothing to do but think about going to Iraq. I guess increased motivation is a symptom of cabin fever.

I did get out to see my cousin today, who treated me to a Birthday Cake Re-Mix at Cold Stone Creamery. It is always great to see her, which is a side benefit of my multiple trips to this area. However, I left the encounter with one question that I still can't get a good answer to.... how do they make ice cream that really tastes so much like cake batter?

Kid in a candy store...

Military Clothing sales stores. Gear stores. Surplus stores. Training facilities. Military networks and phone lines.

These are all things that I don't have access to regularly. Even on and around our Guard base, we only have the communications facilities.

While it was annoying to be turned away from a jump, we were able to schedule the necessary training fairly quickly. Now we've got the necessary training and paperwork and hopefully we can get in on a jump tomorrow. We did get officially manifested for it, but the last minute nature of the planning led to some minor SNAFUs. Either way, I'm now good to go on a new piece of a equipment.

I have also been able to pick up some uniform items for some of my guys that are specific to our very small career field. They have been backordered indefinitely from every internet source and are not even carried at any on post uniform store. Fortunately, one of the largest surplus stores in town had a whole bunch in stock. Nice.

Incidentally, that surplus store is the surplus store that any shady surplus store in movies is based on. I am sure that like the in so bad it's good classic "Commando", this store has some weird secret rooms full of weapons and weird crazy stuff. As it is, there are piles of used uniforms, used equipment, and various things that Joe (generic soldier) sold, legally/or not so legally, upon leaving the service or upon needing to pay the the 4549873459873495% interest on the car he bought off base with his deployment money. I was able to score a few spare items and get an extra name badge sewn up dirt cheap there.

I was also able to get issued some extra communications gear. Granted, my unit doesn't own the radios it is mean for, but we do borrow them during exercises and when needed. Babysteps. Similarly, while working on some funding solutions for improved cold weather and protective equipment for my team, I've been able to identify some cheaper solutions on some packages than what is currently being bought. Even better, the equipment I found is in the same camouflage pattern as the field uniforms we will be issued. While my guys won't be able to wear it around town like some folks are doing with the high end stuff in solid colors that they were issued, it will be more effective.
Besides, I did get issued a very nice Marmot jacket for some mountain work I did. It wasn't designed for operational use, but works just fine on the street.

I also picked up some extra food to get through what should be the rest of my time here and cover me on the ride over. My equipment is all loaded in the cargo containers. So now I'm living out of my back pack. One uniform. PT gear. And a set or two of civilian clothing. And a toothbrush, etc. Of course. Computer and paperwork in my briefcase. Good to go. Now, um, just to go...

Thankfully, there are laundry facilities here.

Idle Hands...

So with my many many hours of free time, I have not raided the many gear stores in the greater Fort Bragg area. I have visited.
I almost bought a pair of boots. But, common sense prevailed. Also, the company that makes the boots I was eyeballing apparently forgot to make them. Really. The guy at the store told me that the manufacturer's rep called him at home on a Sunday night--this store was to be the exclusive retailer--in order to tell him that somehow the boot had never been put in to production at the factory. Oops.

In the mean time, my wife made fun of me for having more pairs of footwear than she does. I had to explain that a mountaineering boot is not the same as a hiking boot. Running shoes are not meant to be everyday shoes. And just because I got issued a whole bunch of desert boots, it doesn't mean that any of them work for my specific needs.
So I'm trying to sell four pairs of desert boots to clear room. I'm holding off on hiking boots because I won't need them during this trip and am trying to discover funds for my unit to issue us all hiking boots.

I may still end up buying a pair of desert boots here. Garmont, a very reputable maker of hiking boots, appears to have made the holy grail of desert boots. Lightweight. Very breathable. Excellent ankle support. And a wide toe box. Cheap too. A buddy of mine who I'll hopefully but seeing one of the next few nights wore them through the last phase of the Special Forces Qualification Course, a tour in Afghanistan, and is planning on wearing that same pair through Ranger School. Just don't tell my wife...

I also finished two books I've been working on for a while. It's taken me since 2003, but I finally finished T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The last 100-150 pages were actually pretty exciting as all the pieces came together for the capture of Damascus from the Ottomans during WWI. I also learned that as a whole the Arab tribes in the early Twentieth Century were unruly, opportunistic, constantly bickering, obsessed with the appearance of honor, and contained many closeted homosexuals. They could be temporarily united against a Muslim stranger by a Western power with a mix of shared interest and bribery. What comes next has potential for progress but drunk Europeans with pens and a map can really make a mess of it.
There are some lessons in there, even if it seems the Arab Revolt was more of a side show than a major strategic factor in WWI. Fortunately, or unfortunately, those random lines that resulted from imperial hubris are now randomly sacred and we have no interest in redrawing them or physically ruling over any of it.

I also finished Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. It is really more nuanced than it is usually given credit for. Not very math intensive so I guess modern Economists claiming to be scientists would scoff at it. I thought his scathing critique of Mercantilism was pretty gutsy given the political climate the existed at the time of publication. Sadly, people still don't get it and think it's a good idea.
His last sections on taxation and public debt were also amazingly and frighteningly relevant. I'm not going to spoil it for you but he was actually a fan of progressive tax systems (to a point). However, he favored taxing consumption and users as opposed to income. He also noted that public debt is too often a tool for parliaments to avoid difficult decisions.
I'm also a sucker for dry Scottish wit. The man was funny. He made fun of the politicians, lawyers, the Irish, the British, the French, etc. and all of the jokes still made sense.

A Not Jump

Well, we showed up on time. But they were jumping a special type of parachute that I hadn't been trained on and the other guy with me had left his certifying paperwork at home. So now we are trying to schedule the necessary certification/re-certification for next week and squeeze in a jump before we go. Annoying, but if I can get the training on this parachute, all the better.

Although the travel changes are inconvenient, they do afford me the opportunity to hang out on an Active duty post. It may seem like a small thing but as a Guard guy in a small career field there is a treasure trove of information to be picked up just by listening to the chatter at the unit here. Over the course of a BS session as people packed up for the weekend I found out about two classes that the Active duty would be setting up that had unfilled, but funded, slots. Jackpot.

So newly armed with my unlimited minutes as a loyal T-mobile customer, I called back to my Guard unit to let them know. I then emailed the specific troop who I want in those courses with the names of the courses and the names of the points of contact. If he wants to move forward on the path to being special (or more special-er for the everyone is special crowd), then he will show some initiative and resourcefulness.

Who wouldn't be motivated by putting IV's in your new friends and running around in full kit shooting stuff?

If you are in my family or one of my high school friends, that last question was rhetorical.

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Mazel tov to my cousin on her Bat Mitzvah. I wish I could be there.

Hurry up and wait...

There is a lot to be said for getting all of us special types together to deploy as one big family. Unfortunately, while we refer to each other as a brothers, we behave more like an extended family.

The lead unit tells all of its members what's going on at its in-house meetings. They probably tell everyone with their specialty too, because they all know each other. Those of us in other specialties are more like cousins. Similar genes, so to speak, but not as close. We're not at all the in-house meetings, and sometimes they forget to write.

Fortunately, I now have unlimited minutes on my cell phone and the numbers for all the people with the information I need. They now have my number and email. We are going to be good friends.

So, after initially being told that we were in a huge rush, I called to verify the time line. The only thing rushed after that call was to track down the one guy that hadn't come down here yet and tell him to cancel his travel plans before he got on a plane. We found him, re-did his plans, and now he gets a few more days at home with his wife and his obnoxious neighbor with a rusty car in the yard (really, the stories about this neighbor beat any Foxworthy joke). Unfortunately, given the holiday schedule, I was unable to rearrange my plans and spend more time with my wife. So it goes.

In the mean time, I may be able to get one, maybe two jumps in. If two, then I'd have the bare minimum needed for jumpmaster school when I get back. If I'm really good I'll wake up early and run before the jump...

On the road again...

Almost exactly two years since I arrived in Iraq the first time, I'll be arriving again.

Once word got around that I was heading back, I received--well, my mother received--a deluge or questions as to whether I would be blogging again. I am. Day to day blogging is not my thing. There is something strangely narcissistic about the whole blog/twitter/(insert new manner of virtual exhibitionism) that doesn't really appeal to me. But here I am, and it remains the most efficient way to stay in touch with everyone back home.

Ground rules will remain pretty much the same. I'm going to try to maintain as much anonymity as I can in my posts. I will also try to avoid naming anyone specifically. The primary reason is to maintain a certain level of security to protect the missions that I am supporting. The other reason is that it apparently makes for a great game for my readers. As shocking as it may be that I have readers, with an "s", I'd hate to bore them.

To catch everyone up, I got the word that I would be deploying a few months ago. My wife would probably want me to clarify that I technically volunteered. The team I am with had more requirements than they had people. They called my unit. All of the qualified guys working for me were already either deployed or preparing to deploy as well. I am their leader and this is the job. I'm going to too now.

Deploying as part of a team is very different than deploying as an individual, which is what I did last time. I went to school with one of the team leaders and had met many of the other team members in past travels, which made integrating with them fairly easy. Over the past few months I have been to various training iterations with them to prepare for our upcoming trip. We had specialized briefings and classroom work. We had some outstanding tactical training. I got to play in the snow in the mountains out West. I was prepared to do my job last time. This time I am better prepared.

Another change this time is that I am the ranking guy in my specialty with both formal and informal command responsibilities for the part of my team that will be where I am.

Right now, I am dealing with the usual hurry up and wait. My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. But we're not. We don't know when exactly our jet plane is leaving.

Hopefully, I can post again before I leave. Otherwise, see when I have my next layover somewhere.