this is where i stand
these are posted in the order that i wrote them, so things will seem kind of mixed up. i don't always have the time to post every day. here's an overview of the last few days. i apologize if my writing is stilted or incoherent, but my mind is on about a thousand other things.
just left hahn, germany. it was about 50 degrees there. i didn't see much of germany except the gift shop and the runway. notable overheard comments from the flightcrew:
"please remain certain that your lap belt is sincerely fastened."
" shh.... sleeeep.... you're getting sleeeeepy..... you want to go to sleep...... you don't want any peanuts..... no pretzels..... hell no you don't want no coffee..... sleeeeeeeeppppp...... shhhhhhhhh......"
we arrived at al udied air base in qatar this morning at 4. i didn't really get any sleep on the flight here, but i don't feel tired anymore. the plane landed and we were greeted by a few officers handing out bottles of water. traveling in the military is not that bad; you get treated almost like a dignitary everywhere you go, plus you have almost no responsibilities except for being at the right place at the right time with your bags. there are no airport terminals or security checks- just walk up to the plane and get in.
once we got in-processed at al udied, we were left to figure out how to get lodging and food. i waved down a major in a pickup and he drove us to the other side of the base where the tents where. the base itself is huge- i never actually saw it all, and i could just barely make out gigantic construction projects to the east and the west. the air here is different. besides the unholy heat (110 degrees last time i checked), the air is pinkish-brown with dust so fine that it's hardly there. everything that's been out in the air for more than a day has a fine scum of dust like dried sweat.
after we arranged a tent and found the chow hall, all there was to do was wait. and wait. and wait... this is the military. you are an asset, and they are happy to leave you in the desert somewhere waiting for something to do like a boxcar on a railroad siding. in the center of the base housing area there is a huge white twin-peaked tent with chairs and benches underneath. the entire first day we sat there, sweating. just sitting there without moving still worked up a sweat. plus, i was in my uniform, which didn't help. but that's life. the second day in qatar i managed to get some sleep and food and reading done. it already felt like i'd been there a week. that night at around midnight we boarded a c-17 bound for balad air base in iraq.
all of our bags were put on pallets. i got on the plane with a rucksack containing my helmet and flak vest and sat in a jump seat near the wing. our baggage pallets were loaded in the rear of the aircraft, and we took off briskly into the sweltering dust. the c-17 doesn't have any windows; the only concession to sight-seeing is a 3 inch porthole high up the wall of the fuselage to check for engine fires. for those not used to military air transport, the c-17 may be quite a shock. sudden, prolonged dives, swerves, and bumps are the norm. think of sitting on a bed with two jumping 6-year-olds. we were told when we crossed into iraqi airspace, and we donned our helmets and vests. when we were about 30 minutes out, the pilot started evasive maneuvering. this included the same dives and swerves as before, but more pronounced. like, your feet floating off the floor pronounced. as there were no windows, the actual landing- unannounced and unexpected- came as quite a surprise, and we were all pretty relieved when we came to a halt at the edge of the runway.
a short walk from the runway brought us to the in-processing station, a ramshackle pre-fab with plywood floors. this is a pretty good description of balad itself. everything is dirty, broken, mismatched. there are diesel generators outside almost every building powering truck-sized air conditioners. everything that was here when balad was an iraqi air base is still here, but mangled and bombed and decrepit. you can't actually see very many buildings here, because they are surrounded by trapezoidal concrete barriers. the whole place looks like a filthy gravel parking lot. everything is brown. there is a reason that military equipment here is all the same mustard color; when you wipe the dust off with your finger, the paint is the exact same color as the dirt.
in-processing took about an hour and a half. as we waited for the buses to take us to the other side of the base, we heard a loud THUMP that we could also feel in our chests. across the airfield near the hangars i saw a cloud of black smoke. i whipped out my camera and took a picture before the sirens began howling that single note and we ran back into the prefab. some people had been standing outside without their helmets or vests on- that changed rapidly.
the next few hours passed uneventfully. we were issued new body armor, which turned out to be twice as heavy as the stuff we wore on the way in. it has two ceramic plates that provide enhanced protection. it's used, of course, and i think i might have gotten the dirtiest, sweatiest vest on the base. we found our dorms in tent city. some of us were put in green tents, but i got a dorm room. the room is comfortable enough with the 5 of us. showers are just down the hall, which is very nice. no more getting in uniform just to go to the bathroom at 3am. the sheets i was issued are hand me downs from someone who was here in the past- pink and white lacy sheets and a blue pillow with faded blood stains. we got mattresses, but they stick out a foot past our cot so it's hard to sit on the edge of your bed without sliding off.
at around noon we gathered in tent city for a briefing by one of our officers. after some warnings about the heat, we heard another explosion. this one was considerably closer than the blast we saw in the morning, and we rapidly took cover. once we were comfortably hunched in tents, the air raid siren went off and we waited. and waited.... note to self: don't follow a lieutenant colonel to the nearest tent; no one else will, and the two of you will not have anything to talk about for 40 minutes.
i did make it to the dfac (dining facility) eventually and the food turned out to be all right. the half-mile walk probably makes anything taste better. after lunch i took off my uniform and put on the official air force pt gear. i wouldn't care if it was bright pink; anything is better than a uniform in this heat. i spent some time walking around tent city and setting up my room. i met up with the other people from my shop- we had all been split up on different aircraft and tent assignments. i took a shower, and no shower will ever live up to that one. the dorm room is set to 80 degrees, but it really feels colder than that. i needed my blanket to sleep. then at 6pm another mortar fell, another siren, more waiting. but me- i was sleeping, and i only woke up to hear the 'all clear' announcement. a quick aside- the iraqis who are firing on the base don't have any way to aim at anything, nor of knowing what they hit. a typical mortar operation consists of a launcher and a spotter; the launcher shoots the mortars in the general area of the target, and the spotter calculates corrections based on where the first shots actually landed. it usually takes several shots to hit a decent-sized target. the people here don't have spotters, or even proper launching tubes. they fire one shot and run, because we have rapid response teams outside the fence who take care of this type of thing. basically, what they are doing is like throwing water balloons over a really tall fence into a yard you've never seen, and not being able to tell if your aim was correct or not. this is a large base; i'd guess that over 99% of the real estate is just dirt. the odds of the mortars hitting anything or anyone is demonstrably low, and fatalities are very rare.
it looks like i start work in earnest tomorrow morning. my email address that i can access is benjamin.riordan@mndulu.ang.af.mil - feel free to email me any questions or just say hi. and this ends my first day in iraq.
just left hahn, germany. it was about 50 degrees there. i didn't see much of germany except the gift shop and the runway. notable overheard comments from the flightcrew:
"please remain certain that your lap belt is sincerely fastened."
"
we arrived at al udied air base in qatar this morning at 4. i didn't really get any sleep on the flight here, but i don't feel tired anymore. the plane landed and we were greeted by a few officers handing out bottles of water. traveling in the military is not that bad; you get treated almost like a dignitary everywhere you go, plus you have almost no responsibilities except for being at the right place at the right time with your bags. there are no airport terminals or security checks- just walk up to the plane and get in.
once we got in-processed at al udied, we were left to figure out how to get lodging and food. i waved down a major in a pickup and he drove us to the other side of the base where the tents where. the base itself is huge- i never actually saw it all, and i could just barely make out gigantic construction projects to the east and the west. the air here is different. besides the unholy heat (110 degrees last time i checked), the air is pinkish-brown with dust so fine that it's hardly there. everything that's been out in the air for more than a day has a fine scum of dust like dried sweat.
after we arranged a tent and found the chow hall, all there was to do was wait. and wait. and wait... this is the military. you are an asset, and they are happy to leave you in the desert somewhere waiting for something to do like a boxcar on a railroad siding. in the center of the base housing area there is a huge white twin-peaked tent with chairs and benches underneath. the entire first day we sat there, sweating. just sitting there without moving still worked up a sweat. plus, i was in my uniform, which didn't help. but that's life. the second day in qatar i managed to get some sleep and food and reading done. it already felt like i'd been there a week. that night at around midnight we boarded a c-17 bound for balad air base in iraq.
all of our bags were put on pallets. i got on the plane with a rucksack containing my helmet and flak vest and sat in a jump seat near the wing. our baggage pallets were loaded in the rear of the aircraft, and we took off briskly into the sweltering dust. the c-17 doesn't have any windows; the only concession to sight-seeing is a 3 inch porthole high up the wall of the fuselage to check for engine fires. for those not used to military air transport, the c-17 may be quite a shock. sudden, prolonged dives, swerves, and bumps are the norm. think of sitting on a bed with two jumping 6-year-olds. we were told when we crossed into iraqi airspace, and we donned our helmets and vests. when we were about 30 minutes out, the pilot started evasive maneuvering. this included the same dives and swerves as before, but more pronounced. like, your feet floating off the floor pronounced. as there were no windows, the actual landing- unannounced and unexpected- came as quite a surprise, and we were all pretty relieved when we came to a halt at the edge of the runway.
a short walk from the runway brought us to the in-processing station, a ramshackle pre-fab with plywood floors. this is a pretty good description of balad itself. everything is dirty, broken, mismatched. there are diesel generators outside almost every building powering truck-sized air conditioners. everything that was here when balad was an iraqi air base is still here, but mangled and bombed and decrepit. you can't actually see very many buildings here, because they are surrounded by trapezoidal concrete barriers. the whole place looks like a filthy gravel parking lot. everything is brown. there is a reason that military equipment here is all the same mustard color; when you wipe the dust off with your finger, the paint is the exact same color as the dirt.
in-processing took about an hour and a half. as we waited for the buses to take us to the other side of the base, we heard a loud THUMP that we could also feel in our chests. across the airfield near the hangars i saw a cloud of black smoke. i whipped out my camera and took a picture before the sirens began howling that single note and we ran back into the prefab. some people had been standing outside without their helmets or vests on- that changed rapidly.
the next few hours passed uneventfully. we were issued new body armor, which turned out to be twice as heavy as the stuff we wore on the way in. it has two ceramic plates that provide enhanced protection. it's used, of course, and i think i might have gotten the dirtiest, sweatiest vest on the base. we found our dorms in tent city. some of us were put in green tents, but i got a dorm room. the room is comfortable enough with the 5 of us. showers are just down the hall, which is very nice. no more getting in uniform just to go to the bathroom at 3am. the sheets i was issued are hand me downs from someone who was here in the past- pink and white lacy sheets and a blue pillow with faded blood stains. we got mattresses, but they stick out a foot past our cot so it's hard to sit on the edge of your bed without sliding off.
at around noon we gathered in tent city for a briefing by one of our officers. after some warnings about the heat, we heard another explosion. this one was considerably closer than the blast we saw in the morning, and we rapidly took cover. once we were comfortably hunched in tents, the air raid siren went off and we waited. and waited.... note to self: don't follow a lieutenant colonel to the nearest tent; no one else will, and the two of you will not have anything to talk about for 40 minutes.
i did make it to the dfac (dining facility) eventually and the food turned out to be all right. the half-mile walk probably makes anything taste better. after lunch i took off my uniform and put on the official air force pt gear. i wouldn't care if it was bright pink; anything is better than a uniform in this heat. i spent some time walking around tent city and setting up my room. i met up with the other people from my shop- we had all been split up on different aircraft and tent assignments. i took a shower, and no shower will ever live up to that one. the dorm room is set to 80 degrees, but it really feels colder than that. i needed my blanket to sleep. then at 6pm another mortar fell, another siren, more waiting. but me- i was sleeping, and i only woke up to hear the 'all clear' announcement. a quick aside- the iraqis who are firing on the base don't have any way to aim at anything, nor of knowing what they hit. a typical mortar operation consists of a launcher and a spotter; the launcher shoots the mortars in the general area of the target, and the spotter calculates corrections based on where the first shots actually landed. it usually takes several shots to hit a decent-sized target. the people here don't have spotters, or even proper launching tubes. they fire one shot and run, because we have rapid response teams outside the fence who take care of this type of thing. basically, what they are doing is like throwing water balloons over a really tall fence into a yard you've never seen, and not being able to tell if your aim was correct or not. this is a large base; i'd guess that over 99% of the real estate is just dirt. the odds of the mortars hitting anything or anyone is demonstrably low, and fatalities are very rare.
it looks like i start work in earnest tomorrow morning. my email address that i can access is benjamin.riordan@mndulu.ang.af.mil - feel free to email me any questions or just say hi. and this ends my first day in iraq.
posted by Ben at 8:17 PM
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