Luck of the Irish

In honor of St Patrick's Day next week I am now sitting in an airport in Ireland. I'm on my way home!!!! I am so excited to have this deployment over and get back to the things in life that I have missed. While this deployment has been a growing and learning experience, I'm more than ready for this to be done and over with. USA, here I come!

Luck of the Irish

Last Few Days in Iraq

As the RIP process draws to a close, I am counting the days until I'm out of this country. Sure, we've had some good times... but it's definitely time to go. The temperatures are starting to get on the warm/hot side and I really would prefer to not wait around for it to get above 100 again. No thank you.

The process of teaching my job to the incoming unit has been more of a test of my ability to let go than my ability to teach my mission. I know the mission like the back of my hand and have never been worried about teaching someone else how to do it. I was surprised, however, at how territorial I was. I've signed everything over to the new PL, so none of the equipment belongs to me, yet I freaked out when I saw one of "my" trucks in the maintenance bay. I started wondering what was wrong with it and why I hadn't been told... then I realized it's not my truck anymore. And the new unit does things differently and changed many of the things I had set up... it's hard to let go. I have been, however. It's been fun introducing the new PL to the sheikhs; he is definitely going to have to get more comfortable with that. He's constantly worried about offending them. He's doing quite well, but he also needs to learn how to each the food... he almost threw up on a tomato... luckily the sheikh was looking the other way and I was the only one who saw it. It was hillarious.

Tent life is all it's cracked up to be. The cot is hard, the heater decides when it wants to work, everything is covered with sand, and you are constantly aware of your tent-mates. We're having a blast, though. We've had a girl's movie night, chatted, and are just overall excited we're leaving soon. The other female LT and I fixed the heater using a roll of duct tape, which I'm sure was humorous to watch; we shall see if it holds.

Something else that has made these last few days fantastic has been my brother Jason's graduation from Air Force Basic Training. I am so ridiculously proud of him. He is now and Airman First Class and is training in Mississippi. He's the class leader and loving every minute of it. Thanks to all of you who have been his support network; it means the world to him, and to me. You guys are the best. And J, I know you can't read this now, but know I love you, am proud of you, and I owe you a celebratory drink!

Counting the days until I'm home. Love you all!!!

The Tent Life

Yes, they moved me to a tent. We have the ambiance of full army life complete with cots and mice. But we have a bathroom trailer outside and there are showers, so it's not too bad. In fact, I'm kinda psyched because this is one step closer to coming home!!! I'm so freaking excited. The drama here is getting way too intense (ironic that the thing I'm worried about while deployed to Iraq is the school-yard-type drama....) and I can't wait to be home and be a girl again. We were talking about it the other day and it has been decided that girlification is necessary. I miss colored clothing and having my hair down. And not wearing shoes in the shower. And having a choice of foods for dinner. And a comfortable mattress. And seeing other people that aren't in the army. And see kids that are sweet and don't expect you to give them things simply because your an American or (like many of the teenage and preteen boys) think you're a heathen because you're a woman not in a burka. Yes, I can't wait to be home. And this tent says I'm back in the states in less than 3 weeks, so I love it.

Major Muhammad Ali Mufasa

That's the name on the "memorandum" from the "security forces of the Iraqi Army" who cordoned off my room this evening. Or, more accurately named: my platoon. They got me good in their most recent prank. They got caution tape, written in arabic and english, and taped off my room and my door. They then included a message from a one "MAJ Muhammad Ali Mufasa" that reported misconduct in the room and placing it off limits. The contact numbers of the memo were labeled "Iraqi Special Forces" but the contact numbers were 911 and the phone number to the company headquarters. I laughed so hard. I think my favorite part is the Mufasa... the lion king has absolutely nothing to do with Iraq... And the caution tape was overkill. They must have used an entire roll on the entrance of my room. I wish I had taken a picture, but the tape was blocking my door and my camera was in my room. Alas. I shall keep the memorandum and a section of the caution tape to show you all when I am home and to add to my collection of memories from this deployment. It was definitely a creative and well thought out prank. Well done platoon. Kudos indeed.

Gettin' Ziggy With It

That's right. After living here for 9 months next to the Ziggurat of Ur, I finally went to see it! We took a field trip to the site an one of the locals gave us an awesome tour of the Ziggurat, the old city of Ur, and Abraham's house. Yes, THE Abraham from Genesis. If you look back, he was born in the town of Ur, also known as the piles of ruins outside the base I'm living on. So, it was a historical adventure! Here are some of the pictures:

My platoon on the Ziggurat steps.

The 3 LTs in my Company doing our own rendition of Charlie's Angels. Matt... you're awesome.

My artsy shot on top of the Ziggurat. I can see my CHU from here!

My platoon sergeant and I on top of the Ziggurat

The gang on top of the Ziggurat. The ruins behind us are the ancient palace of Ur and the Royal Tombs.

My battle buddy: Di'Anna

On the steps of the Ziggurat with Nicole; she and I have been together since commissioning and I snuck her in to my company trip ;-)

Me on top of Abraham's house. I'm where the roof would have been. The foundation is the original, but the building itself was rebuilt in 1999 because the pope wanted to come pray at Abraham's house. Unfortunately, Saddam was not the kindest host and the pope stayed away for his own safety... The house is nifty though!

I had a blast. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable on the whole area and the history, so he was a wealth of knowledge for all the things we could think of to ask. I go to go down into the royal tombs and feel like an archaeologist and have fun with photography and learn some nifty history... definitely an awesome day.

An Ode to Beer...

Beer is more trouble than it’s worth. Out here, we’re not allowed to drink. The idea being you never know when you need to be alert and alcohol doesn’t exactly help with concentration. Plus, you carry a weapon and ammunition at all times… I, personally, don’t want you drinking. There are certain occasions, however, when the commanding general makes an exception. The first was for the Army’s Birthday. It was shortly after I arrived here. The second is going to be the Super Bowl. Yes, not for the 4^th of July of New Years, but for the Super Bowl. While I don’t necessarily agree with their dates of choice, my guys are excited for beer, so you think I would be too, but, alas, this is not the case.

The beer is handled more securely than ammunition. We have to make sure that the guys out at the surrounding bases have beer or else it’s not fair. So before a mission, I have to sign for the cases of beer, secure them for the trip, sign them over to the commander at the surrounding base, and then secure them somewhere that only he has the key to. All this, so a Soldier doesn’t take a can of beer. And it’s not like there’s an unending stream of beer. Every Soldier is allowed 2 beers, but only if they’re over 21. So your battle buddy who has been serving alongside you, but just happens to be 20, doesn’t get any… makes for interesting group dynamics. Anywho, they have to COUNT THE CANS and return the exact amount of empty cans, so they know you didn’t save any for yourself. You know, for a day in the future when you’ll sneak away and have a beer… to make all of this even more ridiculous, they can only have beer during the Super Bowl… which is aired at 1 in the morning over here. They made it better by including the replay at 8 the next evening, but it’s just silly. Meanwhile, my platoon sergeant and I don’t get to enjoy the beer, but are instead tasked with playing beer cop to make sure someone doesn’t (heaven forbid) get 3 beers instead of 2…

I had an experience with this beer. We had a mission where we were taking the beer to a surrounding base. So the NCO in charge of beer (I’m serious, there’s one guy who has all the beer accounted for and locked up and that’s his primary task until this is over) came over, counted it with me, signed it over to me, and we loaded it up to go. Due to the ridiculous thunderstorms over here, the mission ended up being canceled, so I had to turn the beer back in. I’m simply not allowed to secure it myself. So we go find the guy. Unfortunately, this is early in the morning, so we had to go wake him up. As we pulled up, we saw his truck was running so we pulled up alongside it and I jumped out. Not the NCO I was looking for though, so I asked her if she had his keys. I think I scared her because she timidly replied that she didn’t have his keys, just his truck. So I go wake him up. She had his keys. All of them. He wasn’t positive where she was going so he got dressed and we went on a scavenger hunt to find the keys (meanwhile, back at the ranch, my NCOs are guarding the beer so it doesn’t disappear). We go to one place, drive around it and deduce that she is not there. Alright, time to try another place. On our way there, we pass a truck that he swears is his. Shouldn’t be too hard to identify; he has a white truck but the driver’s door has been replaced with a black door. So we do a U-turn and run this truck down by flashing our high beams. They pull over (probably thinking it’s the MPs) and alas, it’s not his truck… we apologize, they respond angrily, and we continue onward. Finally we do find her and he gets his keys back. We go back to the motor pool to store the beer. The whole process, from start to finish, took over an hour. Ridiculous.

Just one more reason I’m excited to be home in a month and a half.