Elections tomorrow

pay attention to the news the next few days. if the elections go well and the people are generally satisfied, it could make my job a lot easier. if polling locations blow up or iraqis don't agree with the results, it could get interesting.

Posture

i was on guard duty the other day and suddenly thought about movies showing girls walking around with books on their heads to teach them proper posture. i realize now this technique was a mistake. instead, they should have simply worn an OTV for a couple hours each day. sure, with a book on your head you will know right away if your posture is off, but try slumping with an OTV on. you may not immediately know you're wrong, but in a couple hours the pain in your lower back will remind you for quite some time to come. and really, pain is a more demanding teacher than treasure island falling by your feet.

15 Minutes Prior

the army has a saying that if you're not early, you're late. when given a specific time to be someplace, you are actually supposed to arrive 15 minutes prior to that time. but sometimes this takes on a life of its own and becomes ridiculous. eventually we get told to be wherever we're supposed to go 15 minutes prior to 15 minutes prior to the time given.

one good example is morning formation back at ft hood. formation was at 6:30. 15 minutes prior we would have to be out on the field formed up. but 15 minutes prior to that, or 6:00, we'd have to be in the company area for a platoon role call before the company role call. but to make sure everyone was on time for the platoon role call, we'd have to arrive 15 minutes prior to that, or 5:45. that was until the time someone came in at 5:50, and we had to show up another 15 minutes prior, or 5:30. this is for a 6:30 formation. so we'd stand around, most of us sleepy eyed, for 45 minutes waiting to go outside to stand in formation for 15 minutes to show that we showed up on time. the army makes perfect sense.

Crusher

Bravo Company, 1-12 Cav has adopted an iraqi dog. he has his own bed and plenty of bored soldiers to bring him more food than he can eat.

Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow

i may be in iraq for my birthday, but it's still better than last year. i was in georgia.

The Day After Tomorrow...

... i will be a quarter century old. not sure i like it.

Clothes

some of the iraqis we see do still wear the traditional arab garbs, but most are actually wearing western style clothing. the style left America in the late 80's/early 90's, but it's still western.

Euro heaters?

the AC/heater unit in my hut on the COP goes by celsius instead of fahrenheit. weird.

Army Speak, V2.0

i put up a translation of army-speak on the left sidebar.

What I miss most about America...

is probably the wonderful convinence of having the bathroom in the same building i'm living in. i hate having to go out in the cold to use it.

Saddam, the mother of all jokes

a few days ago i was talking (sort of) with an IP when another guy in my platoon gave him a black and mild. a black and mild is kind of a cross between a cigerette and a cigar. anyway, it looks close enough to a cigar to the IP that he thought of saddam, who smoked them quite often. with the "cigar" in one hand he raised his other in a familiar pose (to iraqis) and laughed in an overly deep voice before pretending to fire a rifle into the air to mock his former "president." it was pretty funny, but probably something you have to be there for.

KP

yesterday i had KP duty. essentially, that means i did the cooks job for them because they were too lazy to do it themselves. so while the cook was sitting down and relaxing, i was restocking drinks. while i was wiping down the tables, he was every so slowly wandering around the dfac. annoying little POG.

KP also meant i had the great fun of taking all the trash out to the burn pit, covering it in diesel fuel, and lighting it on fire. we only have a slightly better sanitation department than the iraqis.

Where are the young men?

most of the IPs we're working with seem to be in their 30's. where's all the young guys who are supposed to be fighting wars?

President Obama

at least there's one good thing about being in iraq this year.

Meet the new boss, much worse than the old boss.

i'm not entirely sure of the exact rules, but i'm pretty sure the military is required to respect the office of the President and be curtious to the person who holds that position, which we generally do. but i do not believe we are required to keep silent about policy disagreements with our commander in chief, at least not in private. and we were in a private setting when we were watching news about the inaguration and the vast majority made their disagreements known. it's often hard to win the support of the military when you talk about cutting "unnecessary programs" that are designed to save our lives and accuse us of air raiding innocent civilians.

20 Jan, 2009

a sad day for America.

Trash

iraq clearly has not heard of a sanitation department. there is literally litter everywhere. well, not really, but i like the literally-litter combination. anyways, there's a lot of trash lining the sides of the roads.

Animals, pt 2

i mentioned the camels and sheep, but there's so much more to the animal life here.

everywhere we go there seems to be a random donkey walking along all by itself. we'll be out somewhere without a town for miles, and suddenly see a donkey by the side of the road just going about its business.

in the towns, however, there are random chickens walking around. they just roam the streets freely. if i owned them, i'd be concerned that thursday's dinner would wander off or get taken by the smiths down the street. but i assume they have these things figured out.

i knew to expect the donkeys and the chickens remind me of old western movies. but the weirdest animal related experience is the dogs. packs, actual packs, of dirty dogs walk about the towns looking for scraps. it just seems strange that no one has called the SPCA and put these dogs up for adoption. somebody needs to get on that.

My neck

one of the most annoying things i've found with my gear is my nods (night time occular device, aka nvgs - night vision goggles). try attaching a rod to your forehead, sticking up, and then place a small weight, just a few pounds, on the end of that rod. it throws my whole head balance off and kills my neck. if anybody was looking for something to include in a care package, painkillers are a good idea.

Armed Forces Network

in iraq we don't have comcast or time warner cable or anything like that. we have the armed forces network. it has channels like sports, news and movies that simply pirate the signal from real channels like espn, nbc, cnn, fox news, and whatever else might be of interest to us. and since most things we want to watch are on while we're asleep, the shows/games are rebroadcast a couple of times.

we have 2 tvs set up in our dfac and that's the only place to watch tv right now. but when we go back to the fob i can get AFN sent to my chu and watch it there. but at that point its kind of random. if i tune into the news channel it could be fox news, cnn, msnbc, or any of the nightly news shows.

also, there are commercials, but not to sell products like back home. instead, we have commercials reminding us to hydrate or on the importance of weapon safety.

just a little difference with this place i found interesting.

Mister, mister, football?

i'm pretty sure i like iraqi kids. and they seem fascinated with us. practically everywhere we go, a crowd of iraqi children gathers to watch and sometimes talk to us. there was one i remember, must have been mid to late teens, who decided to take the opportunity to practice his english on us. he would point to various objects and ask, "mister, mister, what's this?" at first i thought he was asking us so he could learn the english word for whatever he was pointing at, but later it seemed more like he was testing us to see if we knew. if we were busy doing something else or i was scanning my sector when he asked, he'd start to give me hints. he might have just been making sure he was right, but i'm thinking he saw himself as the teacher.

one thing a lot of them have in common is that they seem to view us as a moblie charity. the most popular request is for a football(soccer ball - which we know have a box of to give out) but they'd also ask for our gloves or glasses. they're very forward about it. they'll point to or mime what they want and say, "mister, mister, you give me?" very forward, but also very polite. every sentence starts out with "mister."

anyway, i'm pretty sure i like the iraqi people, especially the kids.

Bedouin

i've seen actual, real live bedouins. it was pretty cool. i saw some in kuwait, actually herding camels. still have no idea what they ate, cause i saw nothing but a few dead bushes for miles and miles. one of the camels started walking over to us and looked ready to spit (like a llama) at a sargeant from another platoon before being shooed away.

i also saw a sheep herder in iraq, with an actual sheep dog. none of them threatened to spit at us, but it was still pretty cool.

i have some very badly taken pictures of the camels from a friend and will post them when i can.

English as a second language

for any young people still taking grammer in school who may be reading this, i just want to say that you need to listen to your teachers, not me. i learned english, but write in American. it is not proper english in any way, shape or form, and should not be copied. there is no such word as "dunno." i admit to being the best at almost everything in this world, but grammer is not one of them. listen to your mother.

Sandy times at Iraqi High

i've been asked to address the sand issue. in kuwait, i hated it. it was everywhere and there was absolutely nothing blocking the wind from kicking up massive and annoying sand storms. the moon dust, very fine and very small sand, was particuarly bad.

where i'm at in iraq is much better. there's actual vegetation to go with some dirt. not as much wind. and the army helps out by paving the FOB and COP with gravel. i haven't had to deal with sand much since i left kuwait.

I'm an excellent driver

real quick, the rainman reference was for no better reason than that i couldn't come up with a better title.


anyways, one thing i still find interesting is how we (U.S. army) rule the road. with the new SOFA agreement they don't have to anymore, but almost every car still pulls off to the side of the road whenever we pass by. some are brave enough to test the new rules and pass us, but i've only seen them pass us on the other side of the median, going north on the southbound lane.

at the same time, i'm not such a big fan of parked cars by the side of the road.

Food, part 2

my last post on food suggested that i might gain the iraqi 15. now i'm not so sure. out at the cop we're so busy, i'm pretty much down to 1 meal a day, plus snacks.

The Army, it changes you

there used to be a time, we'll call it the first 23 years of my life, when i was content to be lazy. i could laze around in my bed or chair for days, weeks even, just hanging out watching tv and playing games. now, i come back to my CHU for a couple days of relaxing and watching movies, and i find myself wishing i could go out on patrol on a known route, just so i'd be doing something. sad, very sad.

also, i haven't exactly been known as a clean freak. anyone who's ever seen my room knows this. but since i joined the army, i find myself actually wanting to keep my room clean. doesn't mean i actually do it, but the thought is there. eh, not even the army can work miracles.

location, location, location

btw, we've moved to our COP already. sometime in the past. it's actually really nice. we've got our own dfac, gym, and MWR center complete with phones and internet. it's got everything the FOB has except a PX and pizza hut, but it's got it all close to my room. good stuff.

The weather outside is weather

so, i know i've said before that it's cold here, but there is now an add on to that. it was already cold enough, now imagine standing up in a convertable driving down the highway. that should give you a good idea of what it's like in the gunner's turret when we go out on mission. one night i wore 5 layers, literally, and was still cold. not fun.

Who is your daddy, and what does he do?

my job is kinda up in the air right now. i was a bradly driver, but we're mostly using the new MRAPs now and i haven't been certified in those. so for now, i'm a gunner on the MRAP. might change, might be permanent. don't know.

for now i have a 240 (think big machine gun) in the turret, but i could also get a 50 cal up there (think bigger machine gun).

Mosque

there is a mosque on my FOB for all the iraqis who work (and live) here. thought that was interesting.

I'm late, i'm late, for a very important (redacted)

there are somethings i'll do i can tell you about and somethings i can't talk about because of opsec. one thing i'll never mention is the date i did or will do something. gives too much away. everything will have happened "at some point" and for somethings i'll wait a couple of days or even weeks to mention them.

Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

there are a lot of iraqis working on the fob. they run almost everything that isn't strictly military related, from the buses to the dfac to the MWR center to the baber shops to the resturants and all the little stores set up around post. and every single one i have met has been exceedingly polite.

Strange, very strange

i was more nervous going from texas to kuwait than from kuwait to iraq. it seems a lot like just another field exercise right now.

Unclean Animals

it's kinda weird having muslims serve me bacon, ham and pork. i dunno, maybe it's just me.

Army-speak

i've decided to put up a list of acronyms i frequently use so i don't have to keep translating into civilian every time. i'm eventually going to put this on the left sidebar so it stays fresh, but i don't have the time right now. i'll also update it as needed.

ACH - army combat helmet
COP - combat observation post
DFac - dinning facility
FOB - foward operation base
GOI - government of iraq
IA - iraqi army
IP - iraqi police
MRAP - mine resistant ambush protection (my new vehicle)
OPSEC - operational security
OTV - outer tactical vest (body armor)

My CHU

my chu (not entirely sure what it stands for, but it's my room) is not too bad. its basically a 6' x 20' metal box, but it comes furnished with 2 beds, 2 wall lockers, 2 chairs, 2 lamps, a desk and an heater/ac unit. i'm gonna add a few creature comforts of my own, but its not a bad start.

p.s. combat housing unit is my guess, but it's really just a guess.

My flight in

i forget the type of plane i flew to iraq on now, but it was a military aircraft. no more cushy civilian transports. we were packed in like sardines. 4 rows with 2 back to back facing the other two. i don't know if that's a very good description, but suffice it to say the plane was not made for comfort. we even had to wear ear plugs to drown out the noise. still, it was a short and decent flight.

Major Potts

i made an iraq to iraq call today and called my bro. happy about that. apparently we were actually at the same camp in kuwait for a couple of hours, but missed each other. he had the rank to wander around aimlessly while i was tethered to a chair. shame.

Greed

okay, i gave out my address. if anyone should feel the need to put it to use, i will be missing my fat-boy foods. fudge, cookies, brownies, fudge. all are good ideas. snacks in general will be greatly appreciated.

Ugandans

the ugandan military is here as well. they're nice enough to guard our dfacs and mwr centers. way to fight the good fight, uganda!

My FOB

the fob (foward operating base) i'm at is huge. i'm not going to say which one i'm at because of opsec, but it's big enough to have it's own bus system. it's got a giant dfac with about 8 different food lines, laundry service where we just drop of our laundry bag and pick it up the next day, and a good sized MWR (morale, wellfare, recreation). the MWR has pool tables, ping pong tables, tv's, game systems, a library, internet computers, phones, dart boards and even a movie theater. it's pretty nice.

i'm trying to think about what is interesting about this place. i've only been in the mid east for about 3 weeks, but some things are already starting to seem normal. if you have any questions, feel free to write them in a comment and i'll answer any i can.

I'm in Iraq

and all this time i thought they were talking about fraggle rock.

My Address

Spc. Potts, Andrew
B Co 1-12 Cav
APO AE 09351

Is Humanity Doomed?

for the world's finest military, the U.S. Army is incredibly unorganized. i can't explain all the reasons because of opsec, but take my word for it. this led me to wonder how we have ever won a war. then i thought, we may be disorganized, but our enemies have just always been worse. but some of those countries (britain, nazi germany, soviet union) were fairly developed and put much of their energies into their military, and yet they still lost.

if a developed country can put such a large percentage of their nation on a war footing for so many years and still get beat by the disorganized mess known as the U.S. Army, then we have a problem. either America has constantly and consistantly gotten lucky against superior forces and managed to come out on top, or humanity simply hasn't yet come across the right combination of disorganization that will cause every living soul to spontaneously and simultaneously catch on fire, drowning the world in flame and pain. i don't believe in luck, so i suggest you carry a fire extinguisher with you from now on.

or maybe doing absolutely nothing in kuwait has just given me too much time to think.

Food

it's very true that they feed us well here. tonight i had steak and lobster. i usually lose weight in the field, but now i'm thinking i might gain the iraqi 15.