Oasis

Today I had the opportunity to go swimming. The pool is not at all convenient to visit but it was well worth it. The pool was less than three feet on the shallow end and fourteen feet on the deep end. The interior was lined with aqua tiles three inches by four inches. I mention this because I have never seen a pool like this. The pool was constructed during the Saddam Hussein era. Remarkably, there was a female locker room original to the building.

Ultimate Duty Station: Iraq

Since my last post on the blog, I have been traveling to my destination and training in my new position. The training has occurred during the night shift, which is very disorienting. At the beginning of my shift, I greet folks with a "Good Morning" in the middle of the night. I will soon be transitioning to the day shift. I have discovered that a key advantage to the night shift is the darkness and cooler temperatures. Speaking to a day shift colleague at lunch, I asked him if he has gotten used to the midday 113 degree temperatures. "Does anyone get used to a cigarette burning your skin every day?" he responded.

Standing by to stand by, continued

Richard is going to land in a few minutes and we will be touring the Carolina coast. We will be staying with the Captain at the Bed and Biscuit in Beaufort.

Standing by to stand by

My Virginia visit with my mother last week included a visit to the Madison plantation (Montpelier), the Jefferson plantation (Monticello) and the Confederate States "White House" in Richmond, the home of Jefferson Davis. The best house tour was the White House of the Confederacy, pictured here. The tour guide was a historian who fielded all questions, from decor to history, with proficiency. The house was never owned by the Confederacy itself, but leased from the Commonwealth of Virginia. This house represents the reason for attacks on Richmond by the Union during the Civil War.

And so the lap of luxury continues. While I have been attending training, our group has had weekends free. My mother was kind enough to lend me her mountain bike so that I can explore this fine base in my free time. I need the exercise and the weather has been beautiful. I golfed 9 holes yesterday with a colleague and his folks. His dad was in the Air Force, so you know he was a superb golfer.

The lap of luxury

I have shifted my location to Fort Bragg for specific training. Prior to the training the group has been let loose on some leave. I have taken this opportunity to visit my mother in the Richmond area. I titled this posting the lap of luxury because of the stark contrast of my living quarters in South Carolina versus my current berthing in North Carolina.

A complicated game of telephone

Today at Fort Jackson we participated in our final practical training evolution, a convoy involving 8 humvees. The training was very interesting from a communications and coordination standpoint. I wish that we had the opportunity to cover further convoy operations for a couple of days. Some of us will be in convoys in country, so we might have benefitted from further convoy training. Many of my shipmates here will be continuing their range and convoy training in Kuwait, living in coed tents without showers in the desert for a handful of days. I will not be joining them. I will be traveling to North Carolina for some further training specific to my job. I appreciate all the coordination by Alpha Company at Camp McGrady in order to make this convoy training happen.

Land Navigation 101

Saturday morning was spent plotting out coordinates on a map and determining the azimuths (bearings) from one point to another. We figured in the 5 degree declination using the lensatic compass. One person on the team paced out our course and bearing every 100 meters, while the rest of us were spead out sweeping the area for the waypoints that we were assigned. I have certainly plotted coordinates in the past but I never had the field experience finding specified coordinates in the Carolina woods. Great experience.