220 Miles on the Trail

Something close to 10 Marathons! 

Did I mention the dust, dirt and rocks?

Birthday Post Cards thru 8 July

Thanks again to all who have sent and have postcards in the mail!

Djibouti, Djibouit...

Not only is it Africa hot, it smells like your Djibouti!

Well it is 10:30PM and it is 89degrees outside a little cool, I might have to throw on the down comforter!  I finally moved out of the tent yesterday (10 June) and it was a joyous occasion.  Tent life although not too sucky, is sucky.  It was not a quite place.  I would much rather sleep in my comfy bed on Ocean View and hear the occasional gunshots and fire trucks as opposed to the footstep of passersby at all hours.  The roar of landing and departing aircraft, (we were only about 100 meters from the ramp) the constant drone of the “CRACKEN” snoring long into the night and the pitter patter of Mr. Jingles, the tent mouse who kept us company in the evenings.  Aside from being warm in the middle of the day and chilly in the evening, the tent was not too bad.  I guess it is all in your outlook on things and the company that you keep!  At least we are not being mortared.

Heat: I have been here now three weeks and it is only getting warmer.  The other location was warm and humid, this is just plain old Africa Hot and humid!  To add to the enjoyment of Djibouti, the base we are on is located only about two miles from the “garbage dump”.  I use that term loosely as how the whole country is a garbage dump.  Want to make an impact on the planet Green Peace, come here and clean up the joint!  Oh that is right, the US Navy was going to “Volun-told” its sailors as part of a humanitarian outreach program to go clean up the roadway outside the wire in front of the base; this place in question is where plastic bags come to die.  Anyhow, the Navy went to work to nice-up the roadway and the local government told them, the sailors to stop.  The Djiboutian populace needed a place to “acquire” building materials. 

Hence, I have digressed, the dump two miles away burns in the evenings and the smoke it produces usually wafts thought the base around 8pm.  Sometimes it really smells like a camel’s rectum, which could be because they burn camels at this dump, or so the story goes.  If it cools in the evenings to the upper 80’s life is good.  This happens from time to time around 4am!  However, as soon as the sun eclipses the horizon, it is Africa Hot, 106 degrees plus and getting warmer.  Come on August!

Food: The food on base is decent.  I would not call it “mommas” cooking by any stretch, however for institutional cooking, it is good.  We can eat all we want, drink all the sodas, milk, Gatorade, juice we can fit in our guts.  There is even an ice-cream bar with hard packed ice-cream.  I have become a fan of coffee ice-cream with caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and some cherries!  There are even some fresh cherries from time to time either from Travers City or the Frankfurt area of Germany?! 

Meal times for the main dining room are generous.  However if you can’t make it there on time, there is the sandwich shop which is open 22hours every day.  From 2-4am it is closed.  I have been disappointed a couple of times.  You can make all the hoagies, hotdogs, soups and cereals you want.  There is even an island that has chips, crackers, energy bars, Pringles, Oreo’s and the like.  Least I forget, ice-cream sandwiches, and assorted frozen treats.  They also serve lots of M&Ms and candy bars.  So it is important to stay fit and watch what you eat!  To wash down a tastey dinner of surf and turf, you can wonder down to 11 Degrees, the all hands club and drink your ration of beer for the day at $3.5 a can!

Recreation: So you are down at “11 Degrees” throwing down a cold barley pop. You can watch some sports center, play foosball, table shuffle board or just surf on the wireless network.  There is also gym on base where you can pump off the calories from the double scoop of coffee ice-cream with caramel and chocolate sauce.  You can do a lap (5miles) around the perimeter and sweat off the beer.  There are big coolers placed all over the base that contain bottled water so you will not keel over and die on the run like I felt like doing one night.  Maybe it was too much inhalation of the burning camel ass smoke!  There is a pool, however, it is in a state of renovation.  Maybe it will be ready this fall. 

 

You can also leave base and get out and see things.  I have done this a couple of times so far and have been less and less impressed with this county.  We went snorkeling at a place we call “French Beach”.  Today we took a drive out to Arta and saw some Baboons.  The landscape here is difficult to explain, however imagine a gravel driveway that has a few weeds and all of it has been “once overed” with a flame thrower!  Serious, rocks everywhere and they are black!  You could not drive a jeep across the “desert” you would need a bulldozer.  There is some scrub but that looks as though it has not seen rain since 1926.  

Ooh look, the temperature on my thermometer has dropped to 110, must be in the shade now!  

Mail:  Mail is pretty quick from the states.  I think the big “What if” concerning delivery speed is when the mail gets to the stateside FPO.  Does it arrive right before the flight here or right after?  A week to 10-days is not unusual.  I got some brownies, thanks mom, the other day, 12 days from West Palm. They were still fresh and moist.  I told Crackerz that I would like for my birthday, a postcard from every state in the union.  So at a minimum, I would like to have 57 postcards hanging in my box by the end of July!

Job: My ground job keeps me busy and I have to pull myself away from it in the evenings. There is always something to be done!  As the assistant operations officer, I am always collecting data, building PowerPoint slides or playing with schedules.  As a self inflicted pain, I am using my SharePoint and MS skills to streamline the collection and distribution of data.  It drives me crazy when we enter in the same numbers on 6 different trackers and none of the products talk to each other! "Data Fusion Specialist"  That is what I am calling myself.   The nice thing is that my group is new and all the processes and procedures are “new” and we are looking at ways in which we can work smarter and not harder.  My biggest challenge is to sell the whole SharePoint aspect and try to migrate way from shared drives.  A big sell.  However, Office 2007 and SharePoint blend well together and there are some really neat features which helps sales aspect.  As for the primary reason I am here, well let’s just say that doing that job in particular keeps me busy as well. 

Next Adventure

So we have finished up our training here at this site and are heading to our final destination to do some real work.   The last month has been interesting and we all have learned a lot about our new job and each other.  Stay tuned for more updates as Nutz explores the Asscrack!

Days 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Day 17 Monday Did our convoy event today.  As how I lived this in a former life time, I was unanimously selected to be the convoy commander.  Our group did well, no vehicle got smoked so I guess that means we paid attention in class.  However that might not be the case in reality.  A serious training event as how the modus operandi of our enemy is to use IEDs.








In the evening we had in interesting visit from the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Roughhead.  We were allowed to ask questions.  Mine, late in the game, concerend the new health care legislation and how it would affect the military.  He said Tricare will remain untouched with the exception of coverage for adult kids going from 23 to 26.  We shall see how long Tricare and VA health care benefits remain untouched.  Oh that is right, VA medical benefits for our veterans is a good service?!  He is a black-shoe.. I was not impressed!

 Also got a travel brief.  Glad I am not going to Udari Range! 

Day 18 Tuesday today we had a class on the code of conduct.  Although it centered around the Geneva convention, I would have really like to have known how our enemies view the Geneva convention.  I am sure they are huge supporters.  We also turned in weapons and other non essential gear. 

Day 19 Wednesday.  We really did not do a whole lot today other then prep to move.  Some folks were headed to the airport for a charter flight to the desert, others were waiting for a bus or in our case commercial flights, which we still did not have tickets.  Ugh!

Day 20 Thursday Our travel day after much much craziness to get the flights and stuff.  I do not like the center row of an airplane unless I can snuggle up with the people to me left and right!

5x4x50lbs=a lot at 1am circadian time

Moving all of our "stuff" from the luggage belt to the curb!

Check out what is in front of my Hotel

Teaparty express will be in Searchlight, NV with Sara Palin on Saturday... Might be time for a road trip!

See the snow on the mountains.... Wish I had the time and forethought to bring the skiis! :(

Days 13, 14, 15, 16

Happiness is being behind a belt fed weapon!

Day 13 Thursday Machine Gun Day / Reflexive Fire / Stress Fire

Today was fun, we shot the M240 7.62mm, the M249 5.56mm, and the old faithful "Ma Deuce" at the heart thumping .50 cal or 14.7MM awesome. Unfortunately, with these weapons, there is never enough ammo to go around and we only got 25rnd per person to expend! Boy do they go fast!!!! Sad, but fun none the less.

M2 "Ma Deuce"

  M240

  

M249

Reflexive Fire was fun with lots of turning and shooting from the standing ready position. Stress fire was exactly that, we ran an "obstacle" course while shooting live rounds and the drill instructors were yelling at us.

Day 14 Friday Simulated night fire / Scenario Fire / Building Clearing/ IED Brief

A busy day however a bit relaxed. The night and simulated fire were all conducted in a darkened, "laser tag" building with rifles hooked up to a computer to monitor your "shooting" Kind of neat and an interesting business opportunity. building clearing was just your average class in the MOUT facility to learn how to clear a room or building if you had to. More or less a talk thought with a couple of hands on lessons. I never did kick down the door.

The IED brief was good, however the timing was poor, after lunch on a warm sunny afternoon after a long and busy week! Most of the class had a hard time staying awake which was unfortunate as the information delivered in the 2 hour class was good! This class should have been broken up with some of the more dramatic pieces being delivered the first day of the program to "shock" people into the reason why we are doing all of this training.

Day 15 Saturday Map Reading
Now this class should have been broken up in to smaller "chunks" and delivered from the start of the program. We should have had 4 hours of IED training vice 4 hours of map reading on a SATURDAY! ugh..

What was left of the day was used well and we rented some cars and explored our neighborhood in detail!

Day 16 Sunday Off Day
Not a whole lot was accomplished today other then mental recovery. Slept in late 730am. Went to the officers club for brunch, fantastic. A quick trip to the exchanges, dropped the rental cars off at the airport. Some phone calls, cab rides. Dinner was out on the town via the MWR van to Sumo's Japanese Steak house. My fried rice is still better!

Gear Issue

My first batch of "Gear" aka software that I will be getting!  Washed and ready to be packed up for the trip!

Hats, boots, trousers, shirts, socks, rain coat, rain pants, boonie hat, sweat pants, hoodie, fleece, flash gear, misc pt gear stuff!