24 August 2007

Déjà vu

This place has that eerie feeling that I’ve been here before. Well, that’s because I have. I’m back at Sykes after an early morning convoy. Our birds were cancelled last night and there was fear that we would be stuck in Rabea’a for another 3 days. Thanks to Brent and his band of merry men, the LTC and I are now on the first legs of our journey back to Baghdad. The connecting flight out of here is suppose to leave this evening. We’ll see if we make that one.




Pictures from the early morning convoy



Before my departure from Heider last night, I met a gentleman by the name of Jim Spiri. I didn't know what he did on the base up there as it was obvious that he didn't wear the uniform of a soldier or the attire of a contractor. He was a photographer as far as I could tell and he followed the teams around taking pictures. At first I thought he was one of those combat photo journalists, but it turns out he's just a guy who likes to travel around and write about his visits with the soldiers and Iraqis in this area. He gave me a about half a gig of pictures he took in that area on the condition that I would give him credit for any of the photos I use on my blog. While I didn't add any of his pics these past few days, I did put his link on my site. It's always good to see different perspectives of the war and he and his camera have done a good job of documenting that.

Sykes is probably one of the best kept secrets in the world of FOBs over here. It has a decent mess hall, a small PX, and a huge MWR (morale, welfare and recreation) building. This converted warehouse houses the largest movie theater, gym and rec room I’ve seen over here. There aren’t enough soldiers here to use all of the facilities so it’s never really crowded. After being on the road for the better part of a week, I wanted to go work out but was lacking the proper gym attire to do so. So, I stood in line for the internet access to send back my situation reports and to try and read some email. Unfortunately, the connection was slow and to avoid viruses, they don’t allow thumb drives into the lab. This prevented me from replying all of the emails I wanted to or updating the blog. It was disappointing, but I was glad to be connected to the rest of the world for a little bit.

The phone system requires a type of phone card that I did not have so I had to wait in line for a DSN phone in the terminal. This particular phone was not the greatest, but after several attempts to use my calling card, I got through to wish my girlfriend a happy birthday. Being far away for days like this really brings down morale. Missing important dates is just one of the many reasons these deployments are taxing on relationships. It was a short conversation due to the folks at the terminal waiting to use the phone to make arrangement for their connecting chopper flights, but it was good to hear a familiar voice after being on the road for so long. I told her to call and tell my folks I’m still alive and I’m sure she’ll do just that after she’s finished partying for her birthday. I miss her, and I wish I was there to spend her birthday with her.



The terminal has become our second home here. At least the A/C works.



We are in waiting mode, again, I’m tasked with typing up trip reports and task matrix for all of the things we need to do when we get back to our home base. It might still take 4 more days to get there, but I’ve got enough work to hold me over for a few days. Thank goodness I brought my computer.

Sunset last night at the port. Bye Bye Hippster!





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