Thought you might like to see my vehicle.
I am the proud owner of a Chevy Suburban. I use this truck to get around Forward Operating Base (FOB) Diamondback. My office (MAO) is located on FOB Diamondback. This FOB basically contains the Mosul airfield. There is another FOB just west of the airfield, FOB Marez. The ground combat unit, 2-7 CAV, is located on FOB Marez. Some of the other offices I deal with on a routine basis are also on Marez. I drive the Suburban over to Marez at least every other day.
Anytime we leave this specific AO (Diamondback and Marez), we travel in up-armoured vehicles. I have 2 personal security detachments (PSDs) that provide the up-armored vehicles, drivers, and security personnel for all of the trips out of the AO.
I had my first meeting as the MAO OIC this morning. For 3 hours, 0900-1200, I had the pleasure of participating in the GRN weekly Provincial Reconstruction Brief Project Review Board (PRB). During this briefing, we discuss in detail the status of ongoing construction projects throughout northern Iraq. Today’s PRB was an off week. Most of the talking during an off week is done by my higher headquarters - GRN. Next week will be an on week where the talking is done by the area offices, such as MAO. So I’ll get to talk more next week.
As of 6 July 2007, USACE has completed 3463 construction projects throughout Iraq with a construction cost of $4.87 Billion, yes Billion! At that time there were another $2.4 Billion worth of projects ongoing. USACE is very active throughout the entire country. Take a look at the USACE GRD website to get more information on some of these projects. One of the focus areas for construction is schools. Right now, I have 12 different school construction projects being managed by engineers in my different offices.
Back to the real topic of discussion - meetings. I have another weekly conference call on Sunday mornings. This one focuses on all construction projects involving provincial primary health clinics (PHCs). COL Pfenning, Commander of GRN (my boss), is keenly interested in anything to do with the construction of PHCs. So we update him each week on Sundays. On Mondays, I attend the Civil-Military Operations (CMO) crosswalk. This meeting brings together the different US agencies in the Mosul area of operations (AO) that are involved in reconstruction. On Wednesdays, I have a tele-conference with the Dahuk Resident Office (DRO) and Erbil Resident Office (ERO). Those are two USACE offices that work for me but are located in their respective provinces. During that tele-conference, they provide me the project status that I need for my Saturday meeting. On Thursday, I do a project review with the project engineers located here at MAO. Then on Friday evenings, I meet with my senior Area Engineer to go over the final slides for Saturday’s tele-conference. You may have noticed that on Tuesdays, I don’t have a meeting!
Yesterday I went to the Post Exchange (PX) and bought a digital camera. I got the Canon Cybershot DSC-W200. This thing has 12.1 megapixels! Here’s the first picture from my new toy:
I am the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Mosul Area Office (MAO) for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). This picture shows the USACE flag flying proudly over MAO. The Blackhawk helicopter in the photo just happened to be flying by. MAO is part of the Gulf Region Division North District (GRN). We (MAO) are responsible for reconstruction efforts in 3 provinces: Ninewa; Dahuk; and Arbil. In the map below, look at the 3 most northern provinces. Ninewa borders Syria; Dahuk borders Turkey; and Arbil borders both Turkey and Iran.
The Army came up with the grand plan to begin capitalizing the F in family as proof of evidence that they take care of families. Got to love the Army. Why spend time doing things that matter when you can waste peoples time having them capitalize the letter F. The absurdity of the decision seems to be beyond the understanding of the Generals. For some mad reason, I actually thought I would be able to pick a local doctor to take the kids to. The dream of all of us seeing the same doctor for years so that we don’t have to have willy nilly health care is something I just can’t seem to let die no matter how many times the Army thwarts me. I assumed that because I was more than 30 minutes from Belvoir, I would be able to see a local doctor who accepts Tricare. I asked everyone I met at church, at school and in the neighborhood if there was a doctor they recommended. I had a whole list and spent a day calling all their offices to be told they don’t accept Tricare insurance. I finally found one who would accept the insurance and was accepting new patients so I made appointments for the kid’s school physicals. I then called Tricare and they told me I just had to go into the office and sign a piece of paper and I’d be squared away. So, I went in but was told that I wasn’t authorized to go off post because I was 10 minutes from Quantico. I had no idea I could be assigned to a Marine Corps base. Surprise, surprise! Bowing to the inevitable, I signed all the kids up for pediatrics and called to make an appointment for school physicals. They were fully booked until September. The nurse told me I had to go to the Stafford Urgent Care to get the physicals done. We got to the Urgent Care first thing in the morning and thankfully we were done 2 hours later. When we got home, I received the notification of the paediatrician that each child was assigned to. The thought that it might be a good idea to assign an entire family to one paediatrician is beyond the Army. Each of my children has been assigned to a different paediatrician at the Quantico Pediatric clinic. Got to love the Army. They sure deserve their F for family.
I’m sitting in an internet cafe on Ali Al Salem (AAS), the major US staging area in Kuwait. I arrived on AAS at about 0200 this morning. The next 30 minutes were spent in typical Army fashion: 10 minutes of break time, 10 minutes of standing in line, and 10 minutes of briefings. I then went to meet the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) liaison officer (LNO) to arrange processing into the Gulf Region Division (GRD). I’ll try to use as many acronyms as possible! Then from 0230 to about 0350, I sat in the USACE cubicle while he had to process some individuals that needed to go to the embassy. Finally, he helped me pick up my 4 duffle bags and showed me to a bunk in the USACE tent. After handing me some linen, the LNO instructed me to check in around lunch time today to find out when I’ll be moving up to Mosul. When I got up this morning at about 1115, my flight was listed on the board for 2200 tonight. So today I just get to enjoy the amenities of AAS!
This place is pretty amazing. In the tent city, there are about 20 rows of tents; each row contains approximately 15 tents; and each tent sleeps at least 20 individuals. That’s temporary accomodations for about 6000 personnel! I must say that this temporary sleeping arrangement is more comfortable than any time I’ve ever gone to the field before. Each tent has it’s own air conditioner. It works suprisingly well even in this environment. When we landed at the Kuwait International Airport at 2200, the temperature was still 104! Anyway, after I woke up, I walked down to the end of my row of tents and went to the shower trailer. The are numerous male and female shower trailers throughout tent city. Then I ate some lunch in the dining facility (DFAC). After luch, I went to the post exchange (PX) to buy some chap stick. Then I went to the barber shop to get my real deployment haircut. It’s short! The young middle-eastern man that gave me the cut did a really nice job. He caught me off guard at the end when he put this massage tool on his hand and gave me a scalp massage! Maybe he thought it would help more hair to grow. After the haircut, I went to the Green Beans coffee shop and got a cappuccino, the first good cup of coffee I’ve had since leaving Virginia! Now here I sit, drinking cappuccino and blogging.
