People ask me on a regular basis in both the army and everyday life, what am I doing with my life, and I usually reply with "I am being awesome." And that ladies and gentlemen is exactly what I am doing with my life right now. I am being awesome here in sunny Kuwait.
This morning we woke up way too early and went to the range to fire our weapon, just to fire it. We had to make sure they still work. Mine still works. Then I slept a lot, ate some, went to the gym, and now I am on the computer.
Oh, I took a GPS monitor thingy from a friend and figured out how far I walk from our barracks to different places around post. I would say in a given day we probably walk 2 to 3 miles out here. Which isn't a lot, but in this heat...it is a heck of a lot. The heat here is intense, no wait intense does not convey the true nature of the heat during mid-day here...how about stifling? You don't sweat out here, because the second there is perspiration on your skin it evaporates. So when you walk into a cool building (all the A/C's work very well here) your body is overwhelmed and you start sweating profusely. I re-apply my deodorant multiple times a day.
It is also very windy here...very very windy. This may be the most desolate place on earth, so the wind just blows constantly. At home we like it when there is a nice breeze outside, but here there is no such thing as a breeze. Wind = even more heat. It's like someone turned on the blow dryer and you just want them to stop. Not to mention wind = lots of sand in your face. I tell myself that the sand has protein in it, so it's good for me.
I can't upload pictures right now because all the Internet connections on this base are too slow, so hopefully when I get situated I will be able to post all the pics I have taken thus far. If you have seen Jarhead then you know what this place looks like. It really isn't too far from the truth.
Okay, I am going to go to bed now. Nothing on the schedule tomorrow, so that means back to the gym, reading more books, and of course continuing my awesomeness. I am almost done with Frankenstein, and then will start The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe (or is it Galaxy). Just in case you wanted to know what I am reading.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Still Here
We have been at Camp Buehring for four days now, and I am over this place. I tried uploading photos to the website so you guys could have visual aid for this place, but the internet connection is so slow that it takes forever to upload the images...so I am going to try later or maybe wait until I get to Balad. Right now I am sitting in Starbucks using the internet, so I feel very much at home right now. We still don't know when we are going to leave this place, but the sooner the better. We have had a few training events, but mainly we have had a lot of down time in which everyone feels the need to sleep. I, believe it or not, am kinda of sick of sleeping all the time so I have been wandering around and exploring Camp Buehring (which is slightly depressing).
The few training events we have had are the rollover training, IED defeat training, and counter-insurgency training. All things we have had before, but important things that they want to re-id-irate to us before we leave here. The rollover training was actually a lot of fun. They put you in a stripped down vehicle and roll you on your side and have you get out and then roll you all the way over 180 degrees and then have you get out. Apparently since the army has started this training deaths and injuries due to rollovers have decreased by 80%. Which after you go through the training you can understand why.
I found out what my job will be while I am in Iraq. The entire time I was at Ft. Hood I was unclear as to what I was going to be doing, but I finally switched my positions because of a good friend here, and so I have a job. A ligitimate job, and I would love to tell you guys about it but probably shouldn't. I will say that I will be working...a lot. Which is fine by me, because the more I work hopefully the faster time will go.
The shower and toilet situation is getting old very quickly. My friend has already left here for Balad and she tells me that the situation is a lot better there. Clean showers, toilets, and sinks with running water and soap. This is all very exciting news for us. Right now we have port-a-potties, and un-clean shower trailers. Awesome. I really miss washing my hands. The only time we get to do that is before each meal because the DFAC has sinks with soap. Otherwise all we get to use is anti-bacterial soap...blah.
Well I am going to go now. I have rambled on for long enough, and probably lost half of my audience. I am just really excited about my new job and wanted to share with the group. I hope everyone is doing well, and if people happen to ask about me you can let them know that I am doing just fine. Just patiently waiting to start my job for the next year.
The few training events we have had are the rollover training, IED defeat training, and counter-insurgency training. All things we have had before, but important things that they want to re-id-irate to us before we leave here. The rollover training was actually a lot of fun. They put you in a stripped down vehicle and roll you on your side and have you get out and then roll you all the way over 180 degrees and then have you get out. Apparently since the army has started this training deaths and injuries due to rollovers have decreased by 80%. Which after you go through the training you can understand why.
I found out what my job will be while I am in Iraq. The entire time I was at Ft. Hood I was unclear as to what I was going to be doing, but I finally switched my positions because of a good friend here, and so I have a job. A ligitimate job, and I would love to tell you guys about it but probably shouldn't. I will say that I will be working...a lot. Which is fine by me, because the more I work hopefully the faster time will go.
The shower and toilet situation is getting old very quickly. My friend has already left here for Balad and she tells me that the situation is a lot better there. Clean showers, toilets, and sinks with running water and soap. This is all very exciting news for us. Right now we have port-a-potties, and un-clean shower trailers. Awesome. I really miss washing my hands. The only time we get to do that is before each meal because the DFAC has sinks with soap. Otherwise all we get to use is anti-bacterial soap...blah.
Well I am going to go now. I have rambled on for long enough, and probably lost half of my audience. I am just really excited about my new job and wanted to share with the group. I hope everyone is doing well, and if people happen to ask about me you can let them know that I am doing just fine. Just patiently waiting to start my job for the next year.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
I'm almost there
I am no longer in the States, but I am not to Iraq yet. I am in Kuwait...waiting to go to Iraq. We are here for about a week or more and we have a little bit of training to do (like shot our weapons to make sure they still work) and then we are going to sit around and wait for a really long time. We have about three days worth of training and over a week to be here, so you can do the math and realize we have a lot of down time.
The plane ride was not bad. It was a commercial plane, and we flew out of Ft. Hood Texas to Bangor Maine and then from there to Germany (which was six hours) had a two hour lay over and then flew to Kuwait which was another six hour plane ride. We landed in Kuwait at about 10 am, so it was over 24 hours of traveling. We had to take a two hours bus ride from the airport in Kuwait to Camp Buehring, and that was probably the worst part. We were driving in air conditioned buses, but it was so hot out that it didn't feel like it was even working. There is no exageration about how incredibly hot it is here, I walked from the shower trailer to my tent and my hair was dry by the time I got there (about a 3 min walk).
The living conditions here are not bad. If I was here for a year I might say otherwise but I can handle it for a week. All of the females are staying in one gigantic tent. There are approximately 60 of us sleeping on cots, and the tent has A/C. It gets really cold at night too, which is great. The bathrooms are Port-A-Johns and that sucks...but that is the way the army works. I think we will have more permanent bathrooms in Iraq. We have shower trailers, which is what it sounds like. They are trailers that have about 12 shower stalls in it with sinks. The problem is there are only 2 female shower trailers for about 100 females...and they only put a certain amount of water in the trailers every morning and it has to last all day. There are these huge water dome things outside the trailers that they fill up with water, and we have to make it last. So we have to take what we call combat showers (which is probably how people shower in California...) You turn the water on and rinse down then turn the water off and put in your shampoo, turn the water back on and rinse it out, turn water off and apply conditioner, turn water on and rinse, turn water off and use soap, turn water on and rinse off, turn water off and get out. That sort of thing. It isn't that bad, and there is no cold water here. The water bakes in the heat all day so you have to take warm showers.
There is bottled water everywhere, so don't worry about me being dehydrated. The chow hall is nice. Lots of food and more variety than Ft. Hood. Those of you that I talked to about Ft. Hood's food knows how much I complained about it. The food here is much better in comparison. The veggies and fruit are fresh, so I can't ask for more than that.
There is Starbucks here, seriously. It has the same Starbucks feel and design as the ones at home. I will of course take pictures so you believe me. They also have wireless internet there, and I will hopefully be able to use that tomorrow (it was down last night when I tried to do this). There are lots of fast food places and recreation things to do so we can keep ourseleves occupied. I will take lots of pictures, so you can have a visual of this place.
Oh! We are eight hours ahead here...so it is 8:42 currently and midnight back home (in Missouri and Texas). So long story longer, I made it to Kuwait safely. =)
The plane ride was not bad. It was a commercial plane, and we flew out of Ft. Hood Texas to Bangor Maine and then from there to Germany (which was six hours) had a two hour lay over and then flew to Kuwait which was another six hour plane ride. We landed in Kuwait at about 10 am, so it was over 24 hours of traveling. We had to take a two hours bus ride from the airport in Kuwait to Camp Buehring, and that was probably the worst part. We were driving in air conditioned buses, but it was so hot out that it didn't feel like it was even working. There is no exageration about how incredibly hot it is here, I walked from the shower trailer to my tent and my hair was dry by the time I got there (about a 3 min walk).
The living conditions here are not bad. If I was here for a year I might say otherwise but I can handle it for a week. All of the females are staying in one gigantic tent. There are approximately 60 of us sleeping on cots, and the tent has A/C. It gets really cold at night too, which is great. The bathrooms are Port-A-Johns and that sucks...but that is the way the army works. I think we will have more permanent bathrooms in Iraq. We have shower trailers, which is what it sounds like. They are trailers that have about 12 shower stalls in it with sinks. The problem is there are only 2 female shower trailers for about 100 females...and they only put a certain amount of water in the trailers every morning and it has to last all day. There are these huge water dome things outside the trailers that they fill up with water, and we have to make it last. So we have to take what we call combat showers (which is probably how people shower in California...) You turn the water on and rinse down then turn the water off and put in your shampoo, turn the water back on and rinse it out, turn water off and apply conditioner, turn water on and rinse, turn water off and use soap, turn water on and rinse off, turn water off and get out. That sort of thing. It isn't that bad, and there is no cold water here. The water bakes in the heat all day so you have to take warm showers.
There is bottled water everywhere, so don't worry about me being dehydrated. The chow hall is nice. Lots of food and more variety than Ft. Hood. Those of you that I talked to about Ft. Hood's food knows how much I complained about it. The food here is much better in comparison. The veggies and fruit are fresh, so I can't ask for more than that.
There is Starbucks here, seriously. It has the same Starbucks feel and design as the ones at home. I will of course take pictures so you believe me. They also have wireless internet there, and I will hopefully be able to use that tomorrow (it was down last night when I tried to do this). There are lots of fast food places and recreation things to do so we can keep ourseleves occupied. I will take lots of pictures, so you can have a visual of this place.
Oh! We are eight hours ahead here...so it is 8:42 currently and midnight back home (in Missouri and Texas). So long story longer, I made it to Kuwait safely. =)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Boots!
So I have gotten a couple request to see what the new boots look like, because I mentioned how cool they were before so here they are the new boots:
And here is a picture of the old lame not so cool boots that I was issued:
We are leaving soon, like two days soon and I think I am ready. I am really bored here right now, and so I want to get over there and start my job, because the sooner we do that the sooner we get to come home.
Today I went to the PX (post exchange) and bought a huge duffel bag because my stuff would not fit in the two bags they gave me to fit everything in. Dangit. It was close though. Very close, but I figured it was cheaper to buy a big bag than to send all this stuff to Iraq. I have my mailing address for Iraq, but I don't really want to post it online for anyone to get their hands on so if you want it just leave your email on the comments or email me directly and I will send it to you.
And here is a picture of the old lame not so cool boots that I was issued:
We are leaving soon, like two days soon and I think I am ready. I am really bored here right now, and so I want to get over there and start my job, because the sooner we do that the sooner we get to come home.
Today I went to the PX (post exchange) and bought a huge duffel bag because my stuff would not fit in the two bags they gave me to fit everything in. Dangit. It was close though. Very close, but I figured it was cheaper to buy a big bag than to send all this stuff to Iraq. I have my mailing address for Iraq, but I don't really want to post it online for anyone to get their hands on so if you want it just leave your email on the comments or email me directly and I will send it to you.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Count Down
Well we just got back from a four day pass on Wednesday evening and now we are sitting around waiting till we get the go ahead to leave here and go to Kuwait. I don't know when we will get that okay, but I think we will be here for at least another week. We don't have anything to do though, we are done with all of our training and classes, so now we wait.
This morning we had to get our last medical exam. For the females that means we had to get a pregnancy test, and no one came up as positive which honestly I am kinda of surprised about. I figured with over 50 females at least one would come back positive, but I am glad that no one was positive. They draw our blood for the test, which for me means a painful experience. One person has been able to hit the vein on their first try when trying to draw blood on me. It usually takes two or three tries and lots of digging around in my arm trying to hit the vein. Luckily for me I don't get faint easily so I usually watch because it is pretty entertaining. The person drawing blood is sweating more than I am.
I also went to clothing and sales today (the store that sells all the uniforms and cool giddgets and gadgets that you can add to your uniform to look all high speed and stuff) and bought new boots. Very exciting in the soldier world. They are really cool and high speed...maybe I will take a picture and post it on the blog.
Tonight there is a "party" at the chapel because one of the chaplins (ministers) is getting promoted from a major to a Lieutenant Colonel, and he is going to cater dinner for us all and it should be fun. I am excited about it because it's Italian food and it is not DFAC (dinning hall) food. I will post more when I feel like I have more to say.
This morning we had to get our last medical exam. For the females that means we had to get a pregnancy test, and no one came up as positive which honestly I am kinda of surprised about. I figured with over 50 females at least one would come back positive, but I am glad that no one was positive. They draw our blood for the test, which for me means a painful experience. One person has been able to hit the vein on their first try when trying to draw blood on me. It usually takes two or three tries and lots of digging around in my arm trying to hit the vein. Luckily for me I don't get faint easily so I usually watch because it is pretty entertaining. The person drawing blood is sweating more than I am.
I also went to clothing and sales today (the store that sells all the uniforms and cool giddgets and gadgets that you can add to your uniform to look all high speed and stuff) and bought new boots. Very exciting in the soldier world. They are really cool and high speed...maybe I will take a picture and post it on the blog.
Tonight there is a "party" at the chapel because one of the chaplins (ministers) is getting promoted from a major to a Lieutenant Colonel, and he is going to cater dinner for us all and it should be fun. I am excited about it because it's Italian food and it is not DFAC (dinning hall) food. I will post more when I feel like I have more to say.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
UPL (Unit Prevention Leadership)
I think it has been a few days since I updated my blog, so I thought I would tell everyone about my adventure for this week. I am taking yet another Army class, and this one is called UPL. The acronym does not explain what the position is, which is very unusual for the Army. I am learning how to administer a urine analysis test for the Army. It is a 40 hour class and we have to have people that are certified in order to deploy. Somehow I got unwilling volunteered to take the class. It is all sergeants in the class (and one master sergeant) and there are 9 of us in total.
They take this stuff very seriously, because we are being held accountable for the careers of soldiers. If someone as we call it pops hot (has a positive test), before they go and accuse the soldier of being a drug addict they come searching for us and tear us apart like we are the ones that messed up. It makes sense too, because if the test was done correctly and there are no errors then the soldier has the very real possibility of getting a dishonorable discharge from the military. Of course, if some one does pop hot then they will try and accuse me (the UPL) of not administering the test properly and therefore they should not be kicked out. Lawyers usually get involved and more than likely the soldier will not get kicked out, but the Army wants to make sure that I am doing my job properly so that I won't get in trouble. If I do administer the test wrong and don't sign and initial in the right place I can get in lots of trouble. No pressure.
This whole class is extremely boring though. Sure I have learned some cool facts about how fast drugs leave the system (but most of this stuff I already knew from being a college student), but for most of the day today I just tried to stay awake. Which brings me to my biggest gripe against the Army, the way classes are taught. The Army is absolutely terrible at teaching and for me it is infuriating. I just spent four years in college being taught by intelligent people and learning lots of interesting things...and every time I sit through an Army class I feel like I am losing IQ points.
This is how Army classes work. Someone in some office decides we need a class on a certain subject (let's say leadership), so this person puts together a black and white Powerpoint that talks about how to be a good leader. Every slide has a nice Army header with the title of the class and the first five slides all follow the same outline format of what is going to be in the slide show. The instructor then proceeds to flip through the slide show and about 98% of the time they will go through the class and have each person read off the slide to the class. The instructor cannot change the slide show because it is Army mandated and more than likely the instructor has never had any experience teaching before. I rarely pay attention in Army classes, I am usually fighting off sleep or trying to keep my blood pressure in check because I get legitimately upset during these classes.
The UPL class I am going through is by far the worst though, because we don't get a power point...nope our instructor gave us the actual Army Regulation book (which is actually very nice because it is a great reference) and is practically reading the book to us line for line. And proceeding to tell us to highlight everything that he says because it might be on the test. He has probably told us to highlight 2/3 of the book, which is nearly 100 pages) and the test is 50 questions. I don't highlight anything...I just practice breathing exercises.
Now that I got that off my chest I am going to go to the gym and workout and then go running which will help me calm down. I am getting upset just thinking about the ridiculousness of the class I just sat through today.
They take this stuff very seriously, because we are being held accountable for the careers of soldiers. If someone as we call it pops hot (has a positive test), before they go and accuse the soldier of being a drug addict they come searching for us and tear us apart like we are the ones that messed up. It makes sense too, because if the test was done correctly and there are no errors then the soldier has the very real possibility of getting a dishonorable discharge from the military. Of course, if some one does pop hot then they will try and accuse me (the UPL) of not administering the test properly and therefore they should not be kicked out. Lawyers usually get involved and more than likely the soldier will not get kicked out, but the Army wants to make sure that I am doing my job properly so that I won't get in trouble. If I do administer the test wrong and don't sign and initial in the right place I can get in lots of trouble. No pressure.
This whole class is extremely boring though. Sure I have learned some cool facts about how fast drugs leave the system (but most of this stuff I already knew from being a college student), but for most of the day today I just tried to stay awake. Which brings me to my biggest gripe against the Army, the way classes are taught. The Army is absolutely terrible at teaching and for me it is infuriating. I just spent four years in college being taught by intelligent people and learning lots of interesting things...and every time I sit through an Army class I feel like I am losing IQ points.
This is how Army classes work. Someone in some office decides we need a class on a certain subject (let's say leadership), so this person puts together a black and white Powerpoint that talks about how to be a good leader. Every slide has a nice Army header with the title of the class and the first five slides all follow the same outline format of what is going to be in the slide show. The instructor then proceeds to flip through the slide show and about 98% of the time they will go through the class and have each person read off the slide to the class. The instructor cannot change the slide show because it is Army mandated and more than likely the instructor has never had any experience teaching before. I rarely pay attention in Army classes, I am usually fighting off sleep or trying to keep my blood pressure in check because I get legitimately upset during these classes.
The UPL class I am going through is by far the worst though, because we don't get a power point...nope our instructor gave us the actual Army Regulation book (which is actually very nice because it is a great reference) and is practically reading the book to us line for line. And proceeding to tell us to highlight everything that he says because it might be on the test. He has probably told us to highlight 2/3 of the book, which is nearly 100 pages) and the test is 50 questions. I don't highlight anything...I just practice breathing exercises.
Now that I got that off my chest I am going to go to the gym and workout and then go running which will help me calm down. I am getting upset just thinking about the ridiculousness of the class I just sat through today.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Sleep
Well another week has passed, and instead of feeling like I did lots of productive things to better myself...I feel like I did nothing all week. On Friday (yesterday) I went to an 8 hour class on field sanitation. They taught us how to be clean when we are in the field or at war, but I didn't learn anything new. Everything they said I had heard before, and it is pretty basic stuff. Wash your hands after you go to the bathroom and before you eat, don't put the bathroom area next to the food and sleep areas, use bug spray so you don't get eaten by bugs, and stay hydrated. Common sense, but sometimes common sense is not very common. They wouldn't have a class on it if it had not been a problem before...or still for that matter. I have heard some really gross stories about people not wanting to shower and stuff like that.
The other four days of the week I did nothing. I sat in a room and stared at a wall and fought off sleep. Every now and then they would ask me to type something up on excel that would take me about 10 min to do, and then I would go back to staring at the wall. For awhile I was reading during these intense times of boredom, but then our 1st Sgt (very high ranking person) came in to the office and got mad at me for reading personal stuff during office hours. She quizzed me on a bunch of the Army regulation manuals, and I only knew the answers to about half the questions. So she proceeded to lecture me for 5 min about how I need to read the Army Regulations on training and physical fitness and the proper wear of the Army uniform. Me being the person I am said nothing, and just listened to her. However, the whole time I was thinking 'where are these Army Regulations that she speaks of?' The answer: on the computers (everything is online, and if you would like to be up to date on the Army Regulation for the proper wear of the uniform look up AR 670-1 on google) too bad we only have two computers in our office for 10 people, and I am not about to print this stuff off. That would be a waste.
So now I fight boredom all day because I am not going to get in trouble by 1st Sgt again for trying to broaden my horizons by reading personal books. Now you know what I do during the weekdays. Nothing. Sometimes I sneak away and do my laundry, but I get nervous that they will notice I am gone so I go back to staring at the wall.
The highlight of the week was the rainstorm that came barreling into Fort Hood yesterday. I got to watch it roll in and let lose a furry of rain and wind on us. It finally passed and then I got to go running in the rain, which is one of my favorite things to do. Then I stayed up til 1:30 am talking to some people here about life, and now I am very tired today. So I am going back to the barrack to take a nap.
The other four days of the week I did nothing. I sat in a room and stared at a wall and fought off sleep. Every now and then they would ask me to type something up on excel that would take me about 10 min to do, and then I would go back to staring at the wall. For awhile I was reading during these intense times of boredom, but then our 1st Sgt (very high ranking person) came in to the office and got mad at me for reading personal stuff during office hours. She quizzed me on a bunch of the Army regulation manuals, and I only knew the answers to about half the questions. So she proceeded to lecture me for 5 min about how I need to read the Army Regulations on training and physical fitness and the proper wear of the Army uniform. Me being the person I am said nothing, and just listened to her. However, the whole time I was thinking 'where are these Army Regulations that she speaks of?' The answer: on the computers (everything is online, and if you would like to be up to date on the Army Regulation for the proper wear of the uniform look up AR 670-1 on google) too bad we only have two computers in our office for 10 people, and I am not about to print this stuff off. That would be a waste.
So now I fight boredom all day because I am not going to get in trouble by 1st Sgt again for trying to broaden my horizons by reading personal books. Now you know what I do during the weekdays. Nothing. Sometimes I sneak away and do my laundry, but I get nervous that they will notice I am gone so I go back to staring at the wall.
The highlight of the week was the rainstorm that came barreling into Fort Hood yesterday. I got to watch it roll in and let lose a furry of rain and wind on us. It finally passed and then I got to go running in the rain, which is one of my favorite things to do. Then I stayed up til 1:30 am talking to some people here about life, and now I am very tired today. So I am going back to the barrack to take a nap.
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