A Cry From The People

So I've been getting complaints about not updating this blog. Here is why. I get so deep into my schedule that time flies and before you know it, a week has gone by. After that week another passes, and before you know it, everyone is complaining because I haven't updated my blog. Another reason is that I had no idea that so many of you were reading it. You see, everything I do is so routine for me that I have no idea what interests you. Frankly, I think my work life here is boring, but it's obvious now that all of you are interested in it, so I'm going to do my best to help you out.

Well, I have a solution for all of us. This blog has a comment section. All of you are free to ask me questions about anything that I do, or anything that is going on here. That's the deal. You ask the questions, and I answer them as best I can. So, I don't want to hear any more complaining about the blog. You're going to drive it from here on out. If you are reading the blog, let people know so they can ask questions if they want. I know a lot of times the media isn't covering things the way they are really happening, so here's your chance. I'll do my very best to answer each and every question you post. If I can't answer off the top of my head, I'll find out. Is that a deal?

I experienced my first dust storm here last week. It was actually kind of interesting. Don't get me wrong, it was a real pain, but at the same time it was intriguing to watch. It's kind of like fog, but because the particulate matter is dirt instead of moisture, the ambient noise outside is dampened rather than being increased. There is an eerie quiet while you're outside that's hard to describe. The light that filters through is orange because of the color of the soil. On top of that, the dust is so fine, that it gets everywhere on you. It sticks to the slightest bit of moisture, so your mouth and eyes always feel gummy. That's it for the interesting part. The pain about it is that you now have a very fine sand in all of your equipment that isn't covered. It wreaks havoc on aircraft and electronics. Guess what we have a lot of? Yep. Aircraft and electronics. Once the dust clears we have to wipe down EVERYTHING. Imagine showering your entire home with tons of talcum powder. The best way to describe it is this. Say you turned the fan on your central air. Then remove the filter. Take a 20 lb. bag of flour and sprinkle it into the intakes while the fan is running. Now, let that settle out inside your house. What you have is the same effect as the dust, except the dust is much more abrasive, and there's a lot more than 20 lbs. of it. Another thing I learned about dust storms is that when a storm blows up the dust, it can rain mud. That's right. The thunder storm blows up the dust ahead of the rain. It's so fine, that when the rain begins to fall, the drops collect it on the way down. On top of that, the moisture that does make it to the ground as water instead of mud attracts more dust when it hits. So, what you have is raining mud. You know how after a rain in the States everything is fresh and clean? Here, not so much. When it rains things get dirtier. Much, much dirtier. Believe it or not, after a rain, you have to wash down everything. The mud is so bad that we had to take bottles of water and pour them over the windshield while the wipers were on so that we could clean it off enough to see. You know, I realize that this part of the world was one of the original civilizations known to man, but I find it amazing that anyone stayed here long enough to settle. Inhospitable is too mild of a word for this place.

So, there you go. It's up to all of you now. From this point forward we have a symbiotic relationship. If you want more of the blog, ask questions. It's as simple as that.

The Beginning of the Beige Phase

Let me apologize to all for the delay in my blog. I arrived here on the night of May 11 at about 2000. My OIC and the Chief I am replacing brought me by work to introduce myself to the group. Afterward we had dinner at the Galley and dropped off my bags. I decided that since I was working night shift anyway that I might as well get to it. So, I started working that night, and I haven’t slowed down since.

The base here is like nothing I have ever experienced. With my career being mostly on ships and deployed squadrons, there has never been a time that I have been stationed on an active operating base. I must say that the difference is extraordinary. Because of the fact that all of my combat time has been at sea on Aircraft Carriers, I have never seen the ground aspect of armed conflict. It would be a gross understatement to say that the differences are many. Everything here is blast protected. Every building all the way down to the latrines and showers is protected behind cement T-wall. It seems, at times, that we are constantly driving around in a huge cement mouse maze. The only way to tell where you are is to read the painted signs and emblems on the outside of the particular T-wall you are passing by. The bottom line here is protection, but in reaching the state of protection that you need the result ends up creating the maze mentioned above. Actually, it’s truer than you think. We have to learn our way around base inside the maze. We have to know which turns to make to arrive at award stations. If you don’t learn those reward stations, you don’t get food, BX privileges, money or medical care. Ah, irony. It’s a funny thing.

Another primitive point about the camp is the roads. The primary purpose for this camp is to provide convoys to run supplies. Along with that comes the heavy trucks and armored vehicles to support the convoy and to provide it protection as it travels north and south. Combine the weight of said trucks over a period of time, and you can see that the surface of a road wouldn’t last long. Take that abuse and add the local soil, and you get a really bad outcome. The soil here is very thick hard pack clay. It makes great building material. The soil has three states. Baked hard clay, greasy mud that is slicker than ice, and dust. When the trucks roll into base after a rain, the mud that is on their tires comes off in clumps that soon get packed into the road. The sun then dries the clods so that it creates a driving surface similar to a large gravel road. Once dried on the road the dried clods get pummeled by the same trucks that put them there and they begin to crush into a very fine dust, and it doesn’t take much of a breeze to make it billow into clouds. It is this way everywhere in this region and the dust storms here are infamous. I remember experiencing one in the middle of the Persian Gulf while I was on board the Kitty Hawk. Even 300 miles away and at sea, our visibility was less than 100 feet. Now I know why. Every time a storm comes up, the first thing to go is the visibility because the lead winds of the front stir bring the dust up into the air in mass. So, everything here is constantly dust covered which makes for a completely monotone environment. I stated before that the area in Qatar was colorless. I think that may have been incorrect. Everything has color; beige. From the sky above you to the ground you walk on. Beige. Everywhere. Even the scrub plants around here have obtained the color as if some strange science experiment has caused all of the chlorophyll to turn beige. I think that may be the term I use to describe this deployment. It’s my beige phase.