Thanks For Your Prayers

I am being watched over over here. I am sure it is because of your prayers. Yesterday, coming back from lunch, we had a little accident. We have a quad utility vehicle, called a gator, for running around the camp. Eddentially, it is an oversized golf cart, but it can go faster and over terrain. Naturally, naything that fun to drive is going to be abused occasionally, and the driver was going a bit fast for the last turn.
I am a bit stiff and sore this morning, but I think the limit of my injuries is a few strained muscles, and some scrapes and bruises. The driver may have a broken wrist, and one of the other passengers could have ended up with a serious head injury. It is looking like he dodged that one, but only just. They will both be out of the camp hospital today.
Hopefully, there will be a little more respect for the speed limits now, even if they are painfully slow. And I wont ride in the back of the gator anymore.

A Few Disappointments

The patrol outside the wire that I was supposed to go on was cancelled at the last minute, so I will have to wait for a little while longer for that opportunity. It was actually a good thing for me, a convoy was supposed to bring by luggage in, but it was cancelled too. Hopefully, tonight I will finally get some clean clothes.
The other thing is the Olympics. I haven't been able to follow it much, because there isn't a TV in my office. The only time I can see anything is at breakfast ad lunch. Since this is a British base, all of the coverage is on British athletes, except for the American swimmer who is going for eight gold medals.

Basrah cont.

The upleasantness of my adventure here in Basrah continues. I now know where my lost bags are located. They are close, but still inaccessible. Every convoy and every flight that could have carried them has been canceled so far.
I was able to move into better quarters a few days ago. I had been in a large tent for several days. I dont know if the new place is better or worse. It can at least be locked so I dont have to worry about anything being stolen. I share what is essentially a short container with one other American officer. It is under a shelter that is intended to cause indirect fire rounds to explode early. Inside, my bed is in a mini-bunker made of cinder blocks with a low roof made of a steel plate covered with sandbags. All this protection once had a purpose, because not long ago this camp used to record the number of attacks it received each day. Now, a couple of months after after the Iraqi Army, supported by the Marines, cleared Basrah of most of the bad actors, very little happens. I have heard one warning siren since I have been here, but the rockets were so badly aimed, apparantly, that they couldn't even be heard in camp.
More later.

Apologies And A Quick Update

I have been posting by email since I got to Baghdad. It worked fine until I tried posting pictures. I am sure that I followed BLogger's instructions, but it didn't work. Anyway, I will try to get the pictures corrected now that I an directly manage the blog again.
I am in Basrah now, in the Southernmost province of Al Basra. I will be living and working on the British contingent's Base that occupies the Basrah International Airport. The job I am taking over is, finally, a real Civil Affairs job. I will be the project officer for education, which mostly involves managing the refurbishment and repair of schools in the city of Basrah and the surrounding area. The Director General of Education and the general population is rather proud of the academic reputation that Al Basra has in Iraq. It consistantly leads the nation in the number of students that place in the very top of the matriculation exams, so they are very keen on getting schools up and running. They are even paying for most of the projects from Iraqi funds. Coalition funding is winding down and could disappear entirely before long.
This move gave me yet another travel story, too. The Air Force managed to send my ruck sack and duffle bag, which had all of my clothes and bedding and towels and quite a lot of gear that I hand receipted and have to turn in or pay for to Ali As Salem in Kuwait. I have been wearing the same socks, underwear and uniform since Thursday when I arrived. I dont know when my bags will get to Basrah, but it is getting unpleasant, especially my socks. I am not happy with the Air Force right now.
I work with seven Royal Army and Royal Navy officers in my office, and I am learning quite a bit already about the differences and similarities in our services. US Navy officers are generalists. We are moved around so we see and do everything on the theory that a well rounded officer is better able to command and fight, because he understands everything even if he isn't an expert at everything. Royal Navy officers stay with their branch for their whole carreers, becoming expert in their field, but not getting a broad knowledge of the RN as a whole. That means that operational officers, what they call the Seaman Branch, spend their entire careers at sea, where we, on average, spend only half of our careers at sea. RN Engineering officers, by contrast, may only go to sea for one tour and never again.
I have to say too, that it is much hotter here than in Baghdad. Up north, I could walk outside at mid-day for almost five minutes before I really started to sweat. Here, I start to sweat in less than one minute. It doesn't help at all that I have to wear my armor anytime that I am outside. Basrah has calmed down significantly since the Iraqi Army was sent to get rid of all of the trouble makers that moved in when the Brits pulled back to their bases, but there are still occasional indirect fire events a couple of times each month. Even though no one has been killed by hostile fire for months, no one is allowed out of doors without basic protection, which makes the weather feel that much hotter.
Enough for now. It's about time to knock off for the day. Tomorrow, i dont have to work until early afternoon. I dont know if I will get to Church. There doesn't seem to be an organized serviceman's group down here, although I know of one other member now. I am back online, so I hope that I will be posting more regularly again.

A View Of The Palace

  Here are a few shots of the palace that I promised. The most prominent feature is the giant chandelier in the rotunda. BTW, if you saw any pictures from the largest re-enlistment ceremony ever that took place on Independence Day, this is where it happened. You can actually fit more than 1200 people in there, if you aren't too worried about personal space.

 

The chandelier from the third floor balcony.

 

The chandelier and rotunda from the third floor.

 

The rotunda from the ground floor.

 

Looking up at the chandelier.

 

The blue stuff that looks out of place is. The Al Faw Palace is the headquarters of the Multi-National Force. Most of the space has been partitioned of into offices. Only the rotunda is still open. All of the stone your see is marble, but it isn’t really high grade stuff. You can get better for your counter tops, but if you are going to use this much, you would probably go for the cheaper stuff too.

 

Saddam liked to put gold plated odes to himself on the walls like this. I think this says something commemorating the recapture of the city of Al Faw from the Iranians, which was also why this palace was built, although he really didn’t ever need much of a reason to build one.

 

This last picture is the front door.

 

Another Sand-day in Baghdad

  I think I have already said something about the sand storms that blow in on occasion. I have pictures today. This is the difference between a normal clear day and a dust storm. BTW, its actually worse today. The dust storm picture was from the first one when I first arrived. Today, for a short while, the palace was just barely visible. Oh, and if you are wondering, this is the Al Faw Palace and the building that I work in is right behind me. I will get some pictures of the inside of the palace to post soon.

 

 

Moving Again ... Maybe

After a month, more or less, here in Baghdad, I might be getting a new
assignment. There is some reorganization going on with the various
staffs that run the war. A lot of people are moving to new offices. For
about 1200 of them it means moving to new living quarters in different
camps. For me, at least for a few months, it might mean moving to Basrah
in Southern Iraq. It is still up in the air of course. Organizing a
flight down there is a bit difficult, because there aren't many seats to
spare. There is also a little argument about command prerogatives that
needs to be settled. The guy I will replace down there doesn't really
belong to the commander down there, but he doesn't want to have to train
someone new to do the job. There are politics involved in every
organization of more than one person. I think that it will happen sooner
rather than later
It will also be interesting. Basrah is run by the Brits, and they do
things a bit differently. I will also be a little closer to the work,
than up here. All I get here are reports. Down there, I would be working
directly with one of the reconstruction teams, still in an office, but I
would get first hand reports instead of third hand reports. I would be
back up here again before the end of the year too, so it wouldn't be
long.
I don't think that it will be much longer before most coalition forces
withdraw from Iraq, two years, at most, and that is the end of the
drawdown, not the beginning. In a lot of places, the Iraqis are not even
bothering to talk to us anymore. They are just doing the work
themselves, both kinetic and civil. There are actually a lot of US
troops complaining about how boring Iraq is now. A lot of them are
hoping to go to Afghanistan soon to be where the action is. It may be
that when our staff reorganization is done a few of us may end up over
there as well. At least four already have orders to that effect. A few
might even go home early.
Hopefully, I will know on Sunday, if I am really transferring. Any
later, and I won't be able to get a seat on the transport for another
week.