For the past couple of months, a contractor has been building a new camp for MAO. The old MAO facility is located on FOB Diamondback. This location happens to be in the flood plain for the Tigris River. You may have heard the Mosul Dam mentioned in the news. If that dam were to collapse, FOB Diamondback could be underwater, along with many other parts of Mosul. Just across the street from FOB Diamondback is FOB Marez. As you drive out of the gate from FOB Diamondback, cross the street, and drive on to FOB Marez, you start going up hill. The new MAO location on FOB Marez is above the high water line in the event of a flood.

Construction is complete on the new camp, so for the past two days, we’ve been in the process of moving. One day was devoted to office trailers, while the other day was for living trailers. These living trailers are also called CHUs (pronounced “chews”), which stands for containerized housing units. So of course, I procrastinated as much as feasibly possible. On day 1, I woke up at about 0630, got ready, drank some coffee, boxed up my office stuff, and loaded it into my truck. The contractor was responsible for moving the office furniture. So once we cleared out, they began loading things into a connex, which was loaded onto the back of a flatbed for transport to FOB Diamondback.

Robert, the USACE logistics specialist in MAO, was overseeing the contractor for this move. Just picture a crew of about 10 guys grabbing things from numerous trailers and packing it all into a connex. At one point, the contractors brought a couch out and set it on the sidewalk. It gave Robert and me a nice comfortable seat to watch the contractor’s crane operator load the connexes onto the flatbed. I had never seen the couch before and mentioned that to Robert. It’s amazing the things you find when you move.

We spent the rest of the day getting all of the furniture moved into the appropriate offices and arranged. While this was happening, Jeremy was working on reestablishing our communications links. Our internet and phone service is provided through a satellite system. So Jeremy, along with Vickie and Nate (USACE IT folks from other locations) had fun aligning our satellite receiver. I think they were having fun, but they weren’t laughing or smiling.

Anyway, Day 2 was dedicated to moving the living CHUs. So once again, I waited until the morning of the move to throw my stuff in some duffel bags and put it in my truck. Extra sleep and coffee are much more important than preparing for moving! It’s the end of Day 2 now and this is what my new office looks like.

Of course when Mugs prepares for a move, she always purges. As you can see, the purge didn’t happen. You can’t see it from the picture, but just to the right is a blue couch that somehow ended up in my office at the end of the move!

Mugs automatically understood my distress at being forced to display an antenna ball that looks like a sailor. Sensing my discomfort, she quickly jumped to my aid and sent me a new antenna ball. So in a small, intimate ceremony, Sailor Antenna Ball was replaced by USA Flag Antenna Ball. The photo below captures the moment in the ceremony when the outgoing and incoming antenna balls changed positions.

Notice the smile on Sailor Antenna Ball’s face as he anticipates being reunited with Mrs. Sailor Antenna Ball.

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.