Hillah, Iraq.
Again, the matter of time. We ran three missions more or less in succession, and the week flew by. Now we haven’t done any in three days, and those three days seem as more than a week.
A new Special Forces group is coming soon, and the new headquarters element is here now. We have had to slow our operational tempo (optempo) drastically as the headquarters guys get their feet on the ground and figure out what is going on. They are quite impressed with us as we have done so much. For reference, the typical Special Forces detachment does an average of 26 missions in their six month deployment. We have done 34 in three months. While they are impressed, the headquarters guys want us to take a break while they catch up on our activities.
Rumors abound in a camp like this, but the latest one may have some truth. The Marines are being told that we may rotate back early, to be back in the United States some time in August. Suddenly, our mental pacing has gone from coming home very late in the year to coming home in a little over a month.When you have a long time to go, and you are really, really busy, time flies. However, suddenly we may be short, and we don’t have much to do, so time is just….crawling….by. Already Marines are taking the new date as a done deal, which is a mistake. I am trying not to buy into it, as it will be tough mentally to accept the ‘extra’ three months if we don’t go home early. However, I find myself checking the airline web page to determine what kind of line I can hold, and how soon I can upgrade to captain. I used to have no problem at all hanging out in my hooch doing stuff, but now I think of home more and more.
I have used the time off for good purposes. I have reread the entire Harry Potter series (curse you, Slytherins) in anticipation of the upcoming release of the sixth book. I have made majestic strides in my quest to finish Halo 2 (thanks, Kevin). I have received a wealth of good stuff for the local kids, and the Marines and I have been making Hearts and Minds Sacks to toss out to kids during appropriate missions. These Sacks contain pens, pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste, crayons, key chains, notebooks, candy, sunglasses, hats, stickers, chalk, and, of course, Hot Wheels.
The Special Forces guys were really impressed with the Anglico radio station in Diwaniyah, and have ordered their own high output FM transmitter. I can finally realize my lifelong dream of making everybody else listen to my music, and I don’t have to listen to complaints because we are not setting up a request line.
I have also started working in earnest on Levi’s Buff and Tan Plan, as I would like to be both buff and tan upon my return. My hair has bleached out nicely in the sun, but I think returning as a lightly toasted piece of beefcake will take me to 11. As part of Levi’s Buff and Tan Plan, Mac and I have taken to running twice a day. However, two nights ago the Mongols got into a gunfight (possibly with something real, although I suspect they just didn’t want to carry their ammo back) as we ran under their tower, which took a bit of the edge off our enthusiasm for running.
The Polish have struck back at us for not wearing uniforms to chow. As usual, we have to show ID to the guards at the chow hall, which really irks the Special Forces guys who will show anything but a military ID card to them. Fortunately, privates from Armenia are not familiar with PADI diving licenses or anything from Malibu Grand Prix. However, now all the services type people are requiring ID. When I went to pick up my laundry, I found the Team Sergeant and the Captain in a heated debate over the ID card requirement. The Special Forces guys (rightfully) feel that showing an ID with name and social security number is a huge breach of operational security. If the written list (they copy down the info) were to fall in the wrong hands, it wouldn’t take much work at all to figure out where someone lives in the States, and perhaps put their family in peril. I drew on my criminal experience of years of white upper middle class suburban teen angst, and asked the team sergeant,”Don’t we have a digital camera and a color printer?””Yep.””Why don’t we make our own fake ID cards?””That’s a good idea, sir.”
So now we are busy making fake IDs. The Marines and Green Berets are pretty evenly split into three camps: those that are going to use literary names, those that are going to use vulgar names, and those that are opting for porn star names. There are merits to all three, and each party is more than willing to discuss their views with opposing minds. I am leaning towards Johnathan Aubrey, but that may be coming it a bit too high. Horatio Hornblower is right out, and somebody else already got dibs on Buck Naked. I have still not decided yet.
We had a team meeting, and the Captain and the Team Sergeant proclaimed themselves “American Badasses”, and then immediately recognized all of us as “American Badasses”. The initiation to become an official “American Badass” included drinking a nonalcoholic Corona through a funnel, which considering some of the initiations to secret societies, is a fine one. The non-drinkers had to funnel two Red Bulls, which sounded perfectly horrible. When I asked later, they claimed they couldn’t sleep until well after midnight.Google has released a bunch of new maps. If you are interested in an overhead view of Ancient Babylon to go with the pictures of my trip there, go to http://maps.google.co.uk/ and search for “al Hillah, Iraq”. Click up once, and left once, and you will see the big hill that Saddam built his palace on. To the east is Ancient Babylon. It almost like you ar here, only not swelteringly hot! You can find out the swelter factor at http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/IZXX0003.html, ifyou want to adjust your climate control for maximum realism.And, finally, the pool. We have used the time off to make great progress on Step 6a of Levi’s Buff and Tan Plan. We finished setting up all the Hescos, and worked a deal with the KBR guy who drives the Bobcat. We have almost all the Hescos filled up, and the final loads of sand will be delivered tomorrow.
All we have to do is finish filling Hescos, put down a layer of sand for the bottom, then close the ring of Hescos, fill them, and spread out the liner. We did another deal with the KBR water guy, who said that he would provide us with the initial fill of water, and gave us permission to keep the pool clean and filled with water out of the potable watertanks (conveniently located on the other side of the Hesco wall), so long as we didn’t empty the tanks. The potable water is highly filtered city water, so we figure that we will just do weekly or so water changes to keep the water clean and fresh. We also have obtained all the chemicals we need to keep the water properly chlorinated and the like. Looks like we are good to go for the grand opening on the 4th of July.