*enter todays date here*

My white socks now come back brown from running in the water and mud in the morning.

One of the niceties they provide us is free laundry. We put it all into a laundry bag, they weigh it and then we get it back in about 48 hours. You can inventory it with them if you want to go thru that hassle, but it’s just easier to weigh it and get back pretty much what you’ve given them. I’ve lost a pair of Army running shorts and the inevitable sock, but other than that they’re really good. The laundry service is contracted thru KBR by TCN’s (third country nationals). Usually they’re Filipino’s or from Pakistan, it’s a huge business for them. All of the larger bases do this.

A normal day is getting up about 4:30 and going for a run. I run with another guy down the way if he’s available, but I’ve run by myself and enjoy the solitude of the morning. Its dark out and we wear reflective vests. I’ve been out when the alarm goes off and it’s no fun sitting in a bunker all sweaty waiting for the all clear to sound. I do take along my ID card, just in case. I usually skip breakfast and I’m at my desk around 0730. It’s a nine hour time difference to Mpls (CST) so when I hit my desk its 10:30pm at home. (There you go, Susanne, sorry for being so late...)

We have two major presentations during the day, called Battle Update Assessments. The BUA is presented to Brig Gen H. It’s the war as it happened in the last 12 hours. We have convoys up and down our supply routes, movement of assets and many other items of interest that are briefed to her in this huge cavernous room. It's ringed with display screens and staffed 24 hours by JOC (Joint Operations Center) personnel. I try and attend the afternoon briefing; both are simulcast to most of our units in the field. Our world revolves around those two briefings and comments made by her or her staff can send us scrambling for information. People here habitually spin out of control trying to stay ahead of the CG, she’s bright and nobody wants to be singled out during the BUA for a question that she asks. We want to anticipate what she’s looking for and try to be prepared before she asks for it. The BUA is about 45 minutes long wrapped up in 150+ power point slides. The BUA lists combat actions and weapons caches found and changes to boundaries or plans for reduction in forces or operations going on or ending. It has lots of information of interest to us.

Our group, the ISF cell, has a permanent slice of her week where we brief her on the state of the Iraqi’s and keep her up to speed on their concepts and training. I get a chance to go out and visit a lot of these sites, but some of them are so remote that its tough to get to them, so if we can, we’ll use her star to get a ride.

Side story - I had a real problem with this at Ft. McCoy. We mobilized with another unit and they had a 1-star mobilizing with them and these two damn majors were going around “dropping the star” to get things done. “You know that BG Watshisname would really like it done this way, blah, blah” I guess I only hate it when I can’t use it…

So on this latest trip, we talked her into visiting one of our remote sites and fly/convoyed out to meet them. The site houses a small number of U.S. forces training Iraqi's. We work closely with them to help them out.

So here’s a picture (sorry for quality) of our CG with her Command Sergeant Major. She is the senior Logistician on the battlefield talking to one of the Iraqi Colonels responsible for the site. We directly support the Iraqi tranporters, that transport Iraqi supplies up and down the supply routes. We’re working with them as they start up.

Incidently, the CSM pictured is the leader of the gun truck group I took a ride with last time, I think my brother called him Rambo. I didn’t get to convoy with him this time, they met us down there. He’s responsible for her safety on the road, whenever she convoys. It was a good trip, she saw the things we wanted her to see and she'll help convince those that need to be persuaded.

That's about it, another day here.

Love to all, best wishes and stay safe with those snowy roads back home.

/Tim

p.s. Interesting to see Canada swing a bit right, wassup with that? I'll bet they're doing it just to see Al Gore have a stroke.