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16 Mar 2009
Sunset framed by Iraqi and US Flags, with the Basra Int'l Airport Tower

Click to Enlarge
 
ACI , Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  13:53 | permalink | trackbacks [43]



15 Mar 2009
Mosul and Jonah
The ancient name for the city of Mosul is Ninevah. Eric and Ethan know the story of Jonah and Ninevah thanks both to their Sunday school teachers and also from the Veggie Tales’ Jonah movie*. In the movie, Jonah drags his feet because he doesn’t want visit the town where people are constantly slapping each other with fishes!


Today, Mosul is once again on the map of Iraqi hotspots. See this NPR story on Mosul. (summary: 2004 saw fierce fighting, and now it’s one of the last “strongholds,” where stronghold is a relative term).

Not to spoil the end of the Veggie Tales movie for you, but Jonah uses the power of information to convince the citizens that there’s a better way. Jonah is hesitant at first, believing that God really ought to smite the Ninevites. But Jonah comes around and uses teaching and diplomacy to persuade the citizens that there’s a better way. They go back and forth a little bit, because it’s easy to fall back to your old ways of feuding.

At our stage of the Iraqi conflict, our weapons aren’t really bullets and tanks, it is Information. Telling, showing and teaching the people of Iraq about the infrastructure: clean water, schools, sewage, reliable power. Commerce. And giving them the freedom of movement to experience this themselves. We can be close by, just in case a few poor sports want to fall back to their feuding, but mostly we want to teach, coach, and reassure the citizens that life can be better!
* Learn about the Veggie Tale's Jonah movie
 
Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  10:06 | permalink | trackbacks [2323]



14 Mar 2009
Business Trip

I had the opportunity to recon some of our posts within Basra recently. It was a great opportunity to see what it’s really like outside of our COB, how the Iraqis are doing, and how the real soldiers are living!



In the photo below, you can make out the edge of the Euphrates river, Shat Al Arab, in the background.


In this shot, the cockpit glass is a little foggy, but you can see serveral homes and brick businesses in the dry dirt just yards away from the river.


Further away from downtown Basra, there were lots of mud huts. Shepards, canoes in the canals, dry fields, and a sparse lifestyle that could have been the same centuries ago.
 
ACI , Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  12:51 | permalink | trackbacks [5759]



8 Mar 2009
Ahh, CHU!
Through a stroke of good timing, good luck, and my recent promotion, I’m now in a Containerized Housing Unit (CHU, pronounced “chew”). Actually, with the living space as tight as it is in Basra, even colonels share quarters. CPT Murray is bunking with me, but he’s on leave this month, and may be starting a new job next month, so we’ll see how it shakes out. This is living space Version 9.0 for me, and I’ve been warned that I’ll move again within Basra.
In the mean time, I’m getting used to sleeping with more than 18” of overhead clearance compared to the Stonehenges I’ve been in since arrival. My first Stonehenge was even more sparse.
Lest you think there’s not much going on here except me constantly packing up and moving my stuff, it has been extremely busy lately. We’re building new facilities all over the base, and getting a huge volume of convoys.
With the handover of the base from UK forces to US control, we’re adding additional dining space (and deep fryers), more fuel capacity (for our great big SUVs and tactical vehichles), a larger PX (for spending all our money), new finance and postal buildings, new air passenger terminal facilities, more parking, and just about anything else you could think of! The maintenance team has doubled, and is about to get a lot bigger as US forces roll in.

 
Army Deployment , General
posted by  henry at  12:36 | permalink | trackbacks [9]



5 Mar 2009
Building Basra, American-style
The COB (Coalition Operating Base) is in full tilt expansion as the American forces are making ready to assume control from the British. UK forces have done a great job in Basra, and now we must keep up their momentum, and ensure that the Iraqis can peacefully exist, even thrive, without us. There's a lot that has to happen, though. We'll be living in Containerized Housing Units (CHUs) instead of tents, which offers nice privacy, and much better insulation against the heat and cold. Popular British jokes, that we laugh at too, include poking fun at us for building a bigger fuel farm to power our oversized vehicles, adding deep-fat fryers to the dining facilities, and putting in hamburger and pizza joints because we just can't eat enough in 3 meals a day. Plus midnight snack. Sooo true!

Here you see lots of CHUs being placed, over a setting, hazy sun.
 
Army Deployment , General
posted by  henry at  13:24 | permalink | trackbacks [13]





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