Book Corner - Finished Reading

The Pearl of Kuwait: A Novel of the Gulf War by Tom Paine
Paperback
310 pages
Military fiction/drama/humor

My thoughtful wife bought this book for me to have something to read on my way to Iraq. It's about Marines and Kuwait (close to Basrah!), should be a perfect for me.

I enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters but then it suffered from the final chapter drag on. I have to say that it started getting very difficult to finish reading the book, but I soldiered on and did.

Judging by the Amazon reviews everyone else seemed to enjoy it. My take, not a good read.

Never Easy

When it comes to information technology work, it seems that it's never easy. The smallest thing can become a nightmare. Now add being in Basrah, Iraq to the mix and you have oodles of fun!

Just recently there was some equipment that needed a software upgrade that I had done before, shouldn't be a problem. In fact things started off easy enough. Now my easy enough software upgrade has turned into a priority flight to Baghdad and even a helicopter to pick me up at the airport (with another helo escort) to bring me to the embassy. Honestly hate to think how much this little adventure is going to cost, but back to the subject.

I've been working very long hours, but I never seem to catch up. It's always one step forward and three steps back.

Along with the all of the other mayhem I have to scrounge for just about everything, be it office supplies or cleaning supplies. I visited the cleaning supplies container, boxes of toilet paper and Windex, that's it. My boss has purchased many things around the office out of his own wallet.

One day at a time I guess.

The Sound

I've only got one good war story, and it always ends with this line "nobody ever presses the play button and says this is the sound of a rocket flying over your head".

The fact is, by the time your ears hear it and your brain analyzes it, you will find yourself on the ground before you realize that you want to get flat on the ground (sounds like this is coming from experience?)

Think bottle rocket sound, but really magnified. It doesn't go pop, it goes BOOM! And oh yeah, that BOOM can ruin your day if you're to close.

Well funny thing happened today. I was attending a safety brief and guess what. The presenter said "if you hear this sound (click play) WOOOSH, run!" There are bunkers all over for this reason and the buildings are fortified.

So now I need a new way to end my only good war story!

Baghdad 2.0

I've been here in Baghdad since Thursday night. Pretty much ever since then I've been trying to decide what to blog about in this inaugural Baghdad Doc Report. Well first, this is not where I am going to be working. I am just here until June 1^st taking care of administrative things. Being that weekends here are Friday and Saturday and on top of that Sunday is a holiday, I haven't been able to get anything accomplished.

First observations? It's huge. It's also dare I say almost extravagant. Every time I go for a walk I see something I didn't see before. Just recently, a putting and driving cages for the golfers. Then you have the beach volleyball lots, tennis courts, swimming pools, pool tables, gyms and I'm probably forgetting many other things.

We have a dining facility that provides Las Vegas buffet style eating. Sundays is the most popular day as steak and lobsters are served. Although I see that the steaks were served at lunch time and lobsters were served at dinner with a prime rib carving station. Mind you this is a fraction of what you can eat. Want a burger? They'll grill one for you. Want a sandwich? There is a sandwich station, yes with a panini grill. Healthy food? They have broiled fish and steamed veggies. Wings, ribs, fries? Yep.

The coffee's even good.

Funny thing is that I am pretty sure the dining facility was an after thought. See the embassy was built to be a “normal” embassy. Huh? Whatchu talking 'bout Doc? Well at any other embassy you're not provided free meals. Sure there's always the embassy cafeteria, but nothing to this extreme. The designers never envisioned the military still being here when the embassy was completed. Thus the second gym also CHU-ville. I'm not exactly sure what CHU stands for (possibly containerized housing units), they are trailers, like I used to live in when I was here last. Also the apartments, meant for one person have now been divided down the middle to accommodate two people (with shared kitchen, common area and bathroom).

I did notice that the ever present beat of helicopter rotors, be it from Blackhawks or Blackwater Little Birds are gone. I saw some Little Birds today, probably old Blackwater assets, probably old Blackwater pilots but now under new management.

Till next time.