Ziggurat and the House of Abraham

This is the Ziggurat, just outside of the ISF location we visited in the south, in the City of Ur. The House of Abraham is also here.

It's been a busy week, two trips out and back...safe on all accounts. On the trip up north, the pilot swerved and shot out a set of flares, but sometimes they do that because they’re bored...so, who knows. We took Blackhawks north and C-12’s down south, fun rides.

The Tuesday trip was north almost to the Turkish border (about 40 miles short) where we visited an Iraqi base with the CG (Gen H.). There is definitely a bonus when the mission you’re assigned to has this much visibility. Instead of proposing visits or avenues or how-to’s, we sometimes play catch-up with her. We try to schedule visits but we’ll get the late call to accompany her or someone else on little or no notice and so far, we’re keeping up.

If we have enough notice, we try to include other organizations outside our area that can either cut thru the BS or can help answer questions to support us. Our largest partner here is MNSTC-I, the Multi National Security Transition Corps – Iraq. They’re a coalition group (bureaucracy is rampant here) in the Green Zone and they’re the group I visit most when I get into Baghdad. They’re charged with ISF force generation and they buy all the vehicles, equipment, cots, clothes, ammunition, parts, etc for the ISF. We help get the ISF organized to receive it and work closely with all of them across the country.

I’ve had a lot of fun in particular working with one British Officer (LTC Rob T.) from that group. We all trade good natured barbs back and forth and he keeps a running list of things that he hates about Americans. Rob commented on how cold it gets in the UK, down to 10-15 degrees. We commented that it gets -40 to -60 degrees where we're from and OFF he went, it's always colder or hotter or wetter or dryer, better, faster, higher, blah, blah in America. I think he has empire envy.

We really enjoy working with the coalition partners, though. The Brits and Australians especially send the cream of the crop to work over here, lots of experiences shared, top talent. Talking to Rob, he's been awarded the Order of St. George which is given only by the Queen. It’s the lowest award in their highest Honour system and a great achievement in the U.K. I told him if he came to a bigger country, he’d probably have stiffer competition for the awards. Now we’re all looking for the definition of tosser...

Wednesday was a blur spent writing up the trip report from Tuesday and catching up on emails. Then we got a late notice to go with the CG down south to see another ISF cell around Tallil. We had another great visit but had the Chaplain along and I couldn’t figure out why she was there until they announced a stop at the city of Ur, hence the photo's.

Abraham is the patriarch of Judaism, Islam & Christianity all rolled up into one. He’s the founder, the springhead. His two sons (half brothers, Isaac and Ishmail) are the fathers of Judaism and Islam respectively, and the story goes that they fought back then and of course the descendents continue to fight today. You’d think they’d eventually get along.

This is the House of Abraham where all this love was generated. The foundations can be traced back 4000 years and is the birthing chair of western religion. The walls were rebuilt by Saddam in anticipation of a visit by John Paul in 1999. Unfortunately, we were bombing the hell out of Iraq at the time and couldn’t guarantee his safety, so he went to visit Cuba instead. That’s General H in the picture with me, the only time I asked her to pose with me. She’s extremely spiritual.

I think my tourism is about over, the only place of significance left to visit is Babylon, can’t quite remember what happened there...

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of weeks, woo hoo!

Best Wishes from Iraq.

Comics on Duty

I didn't think I'd make it, but here it is Friday and the weekend again! Woo hoo!

I went to Comics on Duty last night and my sides are still hurting. My girls know how I can laugh when I get going and the tears start and you can’t catch your breath and the comic is on a roll and they know just how to turn their rubber face that last inch and milk it a little more. I love those shows. A good movie, a good comedy, a good stand-up comic who can work the crowd? Priceless.

There were 5 comics that came to the camp and did three shows. We were the last show. God love those guys who come and entertain troops, it’s a privilege to see them. There are all kinds of reasons these shows get canceled but when they make it there’s not enough words to describe how appreciative we are. We’re an easy audience for even the rookies. It’s only the third show we’ve had. We had Purrfect Angels here a couple of months ago, want to guess what that was all about? (missed it, had to work...I heard it was good)

Wednesday & Thursday were tough days here. There were some demands made that weren’t met and some products that didn’t get completed in time. There were some unhappy people but sometimes you can’t please everyone all the time. Suffice it to say that we’d rather have the CG yell at us than be disappointed in us and I guess that’s so telling with many jobs. We’ve been here for over 4 months now and the bar keeps getting raised so we can offload to the ISF and leave. I guess she has a lot of faith in us. She's under a lot of pressure, too, so getting away to see the comics was a welcome relief and gets you in the mindset to go back to work again the next day.

We received an email from friends of SSG Xavier Torres who mobilized with us but was back in the states with his wife and his newborn daughter. There were complications and the wife was being disconnected from life support on Wednesday, it was such a tragedy. In perspective, with my healthy family and friends, I should feel like a King, and do. Family Readiness Group should be on this, I know we’re taking up a collection for a bond or scholarship for his daughter.

Remember to take some time and touch someone, each day, and tell them they’re special. It really is a short life.

Best wishes from Iraq.

Pop tops

This is me with my hobby that is no more.

Out of sheer boredom and too much time on my hands as well as too many trips to the DFac (Dining Facility) I started to collect the pop tops from soda’s. They don't have the latest bottling machines over here and the soda’s are canned or bottled in Turkey or Jordan, so they still use those old pull tabs. Remember those? Do you remember the chains and curtains that we hippies used to make in the 60’s and 70’s for college dorm rooms? Ahh, well, boredom set in and I started collecting them.

Word got out and people started saving them for me and I had a nice little curtain going that was starting to look pretty good. Very, very cheesy but still fun. I went to the BUA yesterday and the G5 briefed (G5 is Civil-Military Affairs, they meet with the mayor’s of the surrounding communities, they're our liaison’s to them) about a program he’s working back in the states, some organization that will match a dollar amount for every pop top contributed! ACK, I was crushed. Some damn company supporting some greedy little kid with cancer so they can live, the nerve... Now I have to find a new hobby...

Notice the new Mail address to the right if you’d like to send anything. I had to change it because of some bureaucracy over here. I took down Paul’s mail address; it looks like he’ll be rotating back to the U.S. in the not too distant future, Woo hoo to him!

I haven’t been traveling too much, I was going up north to Al Kasik for a visit but the travel wasn’t supported, so that was a bust.

I did get some good news about my leave and it looks like I’ll be visiting Minnesota for a short trip in early April. I don’t have the exact dates yet or how long I’ll be there but I should find out shortly. I’m hoping to see as many people as I can.

Best wishes from Iraq!