Inertia Is A Terrible Thing

A body at rest tends to remain at rest. It takes a monumental act of will to get it moving. Much better easier to have an external cause impel motion. A sedentary lifestyle saps both physical and mental energy and leaves you drained without ever expending any energy. I have thought about writing another post for three days now, but it always seemed like too much effort, and I could never think of anything to write. I can't wait to get to Baghdad.
Kuwaiti weather has improved somewhat over the last week. There hasn't been nearly as much dirt in the air, and the sky has actually been blue. The tradeoff has been high temperatures near 120 degrees. Remarkably, I seem to getting used to it. Baghdad will almost seem cool by comparison, as temperatures there average about ten degrees cooler.
I have apparently gotten used to the food as well. It started off great, in comparison to the food at Fort Dix, but, now it starting to get a little disappointing. The menu seems to be on a very short rotation, because meals all seem to be the same. I suppose that was inevitable. When a facility has to serve 4000 meals three times a day, there isn't a lot of room for variety.
Another aspect of inertia that has just manifested itself again is the complaints that started this post. Complaining is easy, and the traditional past time of soldiers and sailors from the beginning of time, but I have contributed too much to that tradition to the detriment of this blog.
So for a positive note to end this post, I will mention one good thing that I have noticed. We were told several times not to play with the wild life. Spiders and scorpions, some of which are among the most poisonous in the world, were in mind with these warnings. The only wild life that I have seen though is a tiny little bird that somehow ekes out a living in this desolate place. It isn't a very good living, because I have never seen a fat one, and other than the ones that hang out outside the dining facilities and fast food courts, I dont know what they could possibly be eating. They are living proof that God watches over even the least of his creatures, because without his care those little birds wouldn't live long at all.
My next post will be from Baghdad, probably, unless I can overcome inertia and write again before then.

Sunday In The Middle East

I finally made it to church today. There were about four dozen Elders and High Priests and five Sisters in attendance. Most were from a unit permanently assigned here. They filled all of the callings in the serviceman's group. A few were civilians and transients like me. Sacrament meeting and Sunday school were both squeezed into one hour so that other religious services could have their time in the chapel. I expected to see a few more people, given the number of soldiers at this camp, but some were probably in training like I was last week.
The chapel has one really good draw for folks who need a reason to attend. It has the best air conditioning of any building or tent that I have been in. After walking through 110+ heat to get there it felt chilly, and that is something you don't feel often here.

Starting To Move

Most of my group still have a week or more here in Kuwait, but a few are already starting to move out to their ultimate duty station.One of ours, left today for Afghanistan. He has really been a fun guy to have around. He is a die-hard NASCAR fan and can quote the lyrics of almost nay song of the last thirty years and the dialog of almost any movie of the last twenty. I probably wont see him again, because he was mobilized on different orders than my own and will be returning home in only a few months. For me, a week isn't much time at all, so I will be starting my repacking process to day. I found most of my packing mistakes now, so everything that I have an immediate need for is out of my bags now, and I can reassemble for bags in a better order. Also, since I will be wearing my armor for the trip into Baghdad, there is a lot of open space now.

By the way, I know what my address will be now. It wont be good for a couple of weeks until I arrive and am put on the mail list for my command. Until then they wont accept mail for me, but starting in July mail can be sent to me at:

LCDR James McElwee
MNC-I C9
APO AE 09342

Military mail is moved as space is available on whatever aircraft is heading in the right direction so expect up to two weeks for anything to arrive.

Kuwait Sucks, cont.

There was a wind storm yesterday that turned into a dust storm. It was miserable all around, especially for the three hours that we were out on a range to shoot. The wind was blowing so hard that I felt darned lucky to put every round on the paper and five of twenty in the silhouette. The sand really stung when it hit.
The wind must have picked up and blown away all of the easily moved dust, because today there was hardly any in the sky, even with a hard wind blowing. It turns out that all the dust that is usually in the air provides a lot of shade. Without the dust, it was ten degrees hotter today than yesterday. With the air conditioning going full blast, the temperature in our tent got up above 80 and it felt cool.
Fortunately, we have very little in the way of required activies left to do while we wait for our plane to Baghdad. No one goes outside except for necessities like meals and head calls. After running ourselves ragged with training for the last two months, we are more than making up for it now. For the last two days, I have had the best midafternoon naps ever. Still, it would be better to be in Baghdad doing something useful.

Kuwait Sucks

I have to say it. Kuwait sucks. The only thing that makes this part of the world worth paying any attention to is the oil. Phoenix is hotter, but the sky in Phoenix is usually blue. Here the sky brown, all of the time. Mornings are marginally better, because the wind dies down a bit as the air cools at night, so you aren't breathing dirt from about midnite to 6:00 am, but marginal isn't much better. I cant wait to get to Baghdad.

A Few Complaints, A Little Praise, and Travelog

My last post was written before my travel. Now I can say something about it.We left Fort Dix at 9:00 pm on Thursday and stopped in Leipzig for an hour to refuel. We didn't see anything, because we had to stay at an isolated gate during that time, in order to not have to go through customs and for the security of our weapons. That was the first really wierd thing about our trip. Everyone was carrying their M16 or M4 and quite a few were carrying their service pistol. There was no ammunition, but we were still a very well armed flight. No one was allowed to carry a knife though. It was the only TSA rule that would not be waved. Even the usual liquid and gel limits were ignored, and the metal detector was turned off.I slept for a most of both legs of the flight. That was the right thing, because after we landed in Kuwait City at 7:00 pm on Friday (we gained a day going east), we didn't get to a place to sleep again until the sun came up at around 5:00 am on Saturday. We travelled with anither group in order to geet the MD11 full, and instead of splitting up our groups and bags at the airport and going our separate ways from the airport, we all went to their camp first, unloaded and sorted bags, reloaded ours and then went to our camp. Then we waited for the other two flights to arrive so there would only have to be one welcome aboard brief. It was a very long day. Sunrise comes early here. It is getting light at 4:00 am. That early it is quite pleasant. By about 9:00 am it is starting to get hot, and as the tempurature rises the wind blows harder. By midday, the sky is brown and by late afternoon, you can almost look directly at the sun without squinting. The heat is noticable, but bad as long as you are in the wind. Your sweat evaporates so quickly that you dont even feel like you are sweating, until you go inside, and then you are instantly soaked. Fortunately every building and tent has airconditioning. Our berthing tent is kept in the low 70s even when it is over 100 outside.Our tent has about 60 occupants in a space designed to hold 100. I thought it would be difficult to sleep at night, but it is so big that any snoring fades away before I hear it. Or maybe i am just to tired to care. It could also be that the creaking of the tent frame in the wind is loader than anyone's snoring. We are sleeping on cots and i dont have a pad of any kind right now, so it isn't very comfortable, but we wont be here long. In Baghdad, we will have real beds.The food is really good. One thing the Army really is doing right for us over here is food. The dining facility is as clean as anything in the States, and it must take a lot of work to keep the dust out. Dinner last night included steak and lobster for entrees and hardpack ice cream for dessert. The fruit must be flown in daily, but it is too fresh to have sat anywhere for long.The only serious complaint any of us had was the wireless internet. The signal was strong, but there wasn't enough bandwidth when the whole camp was using it. This morning it isn't bad, but most of the camp was still asleep when started. It is getting worse now. Yesterday, I had to try a dozen times or more to load some websites. It was only an hour ago that I figured out how to log into my blog. Google helpfully translated all of the Blogger links into Arabic. Combined with the generally unreliability of the local provider, finding the LOGIN link took a long time. It will probably take a dozen attempts to get this blog to post.This is getting long. I will have more to say later.

353 Has Landed

I am in Kuwait now, but probably not yet in touch. This post was written before I left and set to post when I expected to arrive. We flew out of McGuire AFB at about 9:00 pm on Thursday. We had a short refueling stop in Leipzig, Germany, then proceeded on the Kuwait. We landed (will land) at about 6:00 pm on Friday after about 18 hours of travel.
As soon as I can find a phone, I will call Mom to let her know that I have arrived, but it will be a couple of days until I can get another post up. My mobilization clock has started now, though. In 285 days, I will be coming home.

The Song of the Righteous...

This isn't one of the standard hymns, but it is one of my favorites. Today, it is closely associated with the sea services of the United States and Great Britain and is usually called The Navy Hymn. It always closes worship services at the Naval Academy and is often sung at the funerals of old sailors.

A history of the hymn can be found here and here along with additional verses that have been composed for the various branches of the Navy.

A very good rendition of the first verse can be found here or just play it below.

Back From Leave

My leave went fast, but I got a lot done. Charles and I rebuilt a section of fence that was about to fall over into my neighbor's yard and cleaned up the front yard again. Weeds had grown back in the last couple of months. I got to see Mom and Dad again and I went to Church at my home ward once more. It wasn't long enough to get anymore done, and there is a lot that still needs to be done, but it was long enough.
When we got back to Fort Dix, we started the final bit of packing. I am living out of my carryon bag now. I can go for quite a while that way. I just need to do a small load of laundry every other day. The flight window is open now, and I do know when and how I will be travelling, but I am not supposed to tell anyone the specifics until I am in Kuwait.
I hope Mom is okay. I am sure that she thought she was past sending her children off into the world where she can't watch over them after Jared got back from his mission. At least this time it isn't against the rules to call once in a while.
My next post will probably be from Kuwait.

D-Day

This is a day late, but I didn't find it until today. This is a must read for everyone. Few people know how close the Normandy landings came to failure and the price that was paid to win that day. Thisi is the story of two companies at Omaha beach.

Able and Baker companies of the first wave at Omaha Beach

Please read it.

More Sunday Fun

This wont be a weekly feature, but it might be semi-regular.

This is an early sketch by Marty Feldman before he was the funny man we know in Young Frankenstein with John Kleese before Monty Python. The best take on the good old days theme ever.