Last week, while Rick was in Kuwait waiting for his flight out of country, he called me in Mosul. He told me that SGM Franz, the NCOIC of the USACE reception station, was expecting my arrival in Kuwait and would take care of me. In fact, he said I would be a VIP. Having been through tent city here at Ali Al Salem Airbase three previous times, I didn’t know what could possibly constitute VIP status. I figured it might mean that my tent would be closer to the latrine than the non-VIP. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that USACE has a separate office building in Kuwait where they allow senior individuals to sleep instead of the tent city accommodations. The building even has male and female latrines, but I still have to walk to the shower. SGM F acquired the building for his use when USACE closed the Resident Office on the airbase.
On my flight down from Mosul, we stopped in Baghdad, dropped of some passengers and picked up a few. COL Pease, COL West, and LTC Roemhildt, all from USACE GRD in Baghdad, joined the flight. I didn’t see them on the bus from the airfield to the reception area. I found out later that SGM F picked them up in a van, and they didn’t have to ride the bus. COL W is going on his R&R, while COL P and LTC R and redeploying home. I figured COL P and LTC R would be waiting with me for the Freedom Flight back to Ft Benning later this week. I was wrong. They flew out last night on a commercial flight and don’t have to outprocess through Ft Benning. They get to outprocess through USACE in Winchester, VA. I think I’d prefer that VIP status!
Dale arrived safely in Kuwait this morning. He expects to stay in Kuwait for several days. During his time in Kuwait, he will sleep on a cot in tent city, watch the Olympics in the MWR tent, and spend all his change and pogs on coffee and junk food. He will then fly to Fort Benning, Georgia to turn in his gear. We expect him to arrive home in Virginia early next week. During his time in Virginia, he will sleep in his own bed, watch the Olympics in his own living room, and drink coffee from one of his many cups. We will be thrilled to have him home.
The deployment countdown shows that I’m at 100% done with my time in Mosul. Sometime tomorrow I’ll be on a C130 headed to Kuwait. COL Burcham is in Mosul for a command visit, so this evening, we had a mandatory dinner in the VIP room at the DFAC. She agreed to present Sarah’s end of tour award. If you haven’t heard the big news, Sarah is going home to Texas in September. She’s been here in Mosul for the past two years. Before that, she was in Kuwait starting at the end of 2003!
Sarah's Award
After that, COL Burcham presented my end of tour award. It’s always humbling to stand up in front of a group of people while someone else says nice things about you. For my gift from the office, they had a printout of me in my Kurdish uniform framed. This evening everyone signed the picture. Sarah has promised to mail it home for me; it wouldn’t have fit into the footlocker anyway.
After the official business concluded, COL Burcham was treated to another Iraqi custom. Each person wanted to have his picture taken with her. Here she is with Nazar, one of one hundred separate pictures she had to pose for!
The opening ceremony of the Olympics…WOW! That was the most impressive show I have ever seen. Thousands of people in coordinating movements putting on the show of shows. Amazing. Fireworks on top, next to and throughout the city. Stunning. The countdown of lights. Cool. 2008 coordinated drummers. Powerful. It made me consider the force of a million man army. What appeared at first to be a giant mechanical moving sculpture turned out to be operated by coordinated human power. Absolutely fascinating. The kids thought it looked like the giant peg board at Uncle Howie’s children’s museum (St Louis Children’s museum to the rest of the world, but Uncle Howie’s museum to our kids). You can stick your face into the pegs and the impression stays until someone makes a new one. The pistons reminded me of the sculpture exhibit at the National Gallery in Canberra that had a giant display of moving mechanical flowers. When the pistons turned out to be human and not mechanical, I was as surprised as the kids. The coordinated oars of the boat. Mesmerizing. Running around the top of the stadium hanging from a wire and lighting the cauldron with a sizzling giant wick. Awesome. When it was all over and the oohs and ahs of the kids and I stopped, all I could think was…What if? What would happen if China used all that money, all that creativity, all that hard work, and all that coordination for the betterment of the world. What would happen if their people could freely worship God and speak freely their beliefs? What could be accomplished if they set their mind to curing the diseases of the world, protecting the environment, and loving their neighbor. One of every 5 people is Chinese. Wow. “Don’t look at the man behind the curtain.” The great and powerful Oz can put on quite a show. Yet our brothers and sisters in Christ are imprisoned and martyred there every day because they dare to stand up to all that power and might and say, “Jesus Christ is my Savior.”
For the past 363 days (not that I’m counting), I have been fortunate to work with the personal security detachment from Aegis under the leadership of Ronnie, the Aegis Detachment Commander in Mosul. The Aegis team members in Mosul are true professionals in every way. One thing has always stuck in my mind. Before every mission outside the wire, the Aegis team leader for the move gives a pre-mission brief to the clients just before loading the vehicles. As part of the standard briefing, the team leader says “In the unlikely event of an incident…” That phrase, spoken in the proper Queen’s English, is burned into my mind, thanks to Andy H.
At the barbeque, the night before Rick left, one of the Aegis teams presented us each with a hand carved eagle. In our thanks, both Rick and I expressed the same sentiment. We and our families are extremely grateful for the care and concern demonstrated by the Mosul Aegis teams on each and every mission. Every time I left the wire, I trusted Aegis with my life without hesitation.
I’m also thankful that they presented the eagle carving before I mailed my footlockers!
Aegis Gifts
