Greetings folks from Kuwait where the weather is well hot and shitty.
We left late Friday night from the local airport at Columbia, SC. The local veterans organizations (VFW, DAV and the Military Order of the Purple Heart Society) all came out to give us flags, boxes of girl scout cookies and other fun items. It was actually a pleasant send off.
ADM Mullen who is the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (The highest ranking military officer in the country) landed at the airport approximately 75 feet from our location. Unfortunately he had some pretty important business to take care of (The Masters golf tournament was being played 40 miles from that location) and could not afford to stop and say hi. This is despite the fact that one of the reasons he got his position was because he sent us to Iraq on IAs please see the first posting for more information.
From South Carolina we flew to a stop over point in Germany where I played America's favorite game show how drunk can a person get in one hour. And the answer is .... VERY.
We arrived in Kuwait on Saturday night (Boots on ground day 1) unloaded the bags and drove up the infamous Highway of Death to my current location here in Camp Virginia. The Highway of Death got its name during the first Gulf War when Allied aircraft bombed the hell out of the Iraqi Army as it tried to escape and reposition its self along a new front in Southern Iraq. To be honest it kind of sucks. I was looking forward to a little bit more. I didn't even see one burnt Iraqi corpse. I guess after 17 years they finally cleaned up the place.
Kuwait is pretty much how I remember it. US bases surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. I forgot about the glare. The sunlight reflects off the sand and blinds you. In every direction you look there is the glare of the sun. It is weird there are no shadows. Unfortuntely my sunglasses deserted me and heading back to America with the Airplane. The best way to describe how the heat feels is for you to run hot water in the shower in the bathroom close the door walk away and come back five minutes later. If you don't have the time you can just have a good friend punch you in the face and that accurately depicts the heat experience.
Our schedule this week is pretty light. Mostly just acclimating our self to the heat. We are suppose to go to the Udari range end of next week. We can not deploy to Iraq until we complete the range. I was named the tent commander so I actually have a little bit of admin paperwork I have to do (Yes, I am a very important person who owns many leather bond books and my house often smells of mahogany). For the most part I plan on doing the only logical thing. Sleeping till I'm hungry and eating till I'm tired.
Well folks that's all I have for today.
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11 comments:
Not sure if I should tell you that it's snowing here in beautiful upstate new york. Have packed hershey bars into your package but your reminder of the heat may lead to another unfortunate chocolate bar incident. will repack the hershey into ziplock bags. stay in kuwait as long as possible.
annie
That game that you played in Germany? I'm working on a "play at home version." You know what the fun thing is? You never lose.
except when alcohol poisoning sets in....then you lose big time
staying in kuwait is good advice. i got a copy of bill murray in 'stripes' to send you so you can really see how the pro's do it. hang in there. john and mary jo
what a change-from abused househusband to denmother with paperwork. bet you can't wait to get back home and be abused again.i've got 5 pairs of plastic minnie mouse sunglasses in various shades of pink to send to you. should help protect your eyes and give your commanding officer something to think about.try to avoid sandstorms. you just stopped shedding sand from the last trip 4 months ago. bopdun
I resent the "abused househusband" statement, and so does Ben (if he knows what's good for him)-Noel
What did Noel tell ben when he had two black eyes?
Nothing..she already told him twice!!
What did Noel tell Ben when he had two black eyes?
The dishes, if he knows what's good for him.
what does noel do when the dishwasher breaks?
Slaps ben
For DG: Yuk it up, single guy, yuk it up.
And I hate to dash your entrepreneurial hopes, but I believe there's already a home version of that game, invented by someone you know. It's called "No Cigar", and the object is to see how close you can get to the apartment door before losing consciousness.
I'm being nice to the soldier. You people are all getting some of those humongous sand spiders in the mail, I just know it.
Why does Noel like it when Ben wears white?
Well, it'd be weird if the dishwasher didn't match the stove and the refrigerator.
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