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You may have noticed Mosul in the news more frequently lately. Most recent news stories I’ve seen describe the streets littered with burned out cars and debris from bombed out buildings as if these are signs of Mosul descending into chaos. The interesting thing is that as the initial reports of increasing terrorist activity in Mosul were being aired, most of the pictures accompanying the stories were from other locations. As the media has begun to focus on Mosul, everyone is shocked at the images. I was just as shocked by what I saw when I first arrived almost six months ago.

Chris’ unit, 1-8 Infantry, came to Mosul as an attachment to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment as part of the US move to assist the Iraqi forces in fighting al-Qaida in Mosul. As reported in most major news sources, the strategy is the same as was used successfully in Baghdad last year. This success comes at no small price. On Monday, 28 Jan 08, an armored vehicle from 1-8 Infantry was hit by an IED while on patrol in Mosul. Immediately after the explosion, the convoy started receiving small arms fire from insurgents in a nearby mosque. Five US soldiers in the vehicle hit by the IED were killed in this attack.

On Wednesday, 30 Jan 08, the US Department of Defense released the names of the 5 soldiers. They are:

Sgt. James E. Craig, 26, of Hollywood, California
Staff Sgt. Gary W. Jeffries, 37, of Roscoe, Texas
Spc. Evan A. Marshall, 21, of Athens, Georgia
Pfc. Brandon A. Meyer, 20, of Orange, California
Pvt. Joshua A. R. Young, 21, of Riddle, Oregon

Please pray for the families, friends, loved ones, and mates of these soldiers. Remember to pray for Chris as he continues to lead his unit.

Rest in Peace.

For some reason, Mugs seems to think everyone is bored with my FOB Life postings! I have been out and about, but I knew you would all much rather read about my new CHU. I guess I’ll change it up today and post about today’s site visit to the Gogjalee neighborhood of Mosul. The Iraqis get a huge kick out of hearing me try to pronounce the names of Iraqi towns, so I won’t bother with a phonetic description of Gogjalee.

After passing over the Tigris River heading east, we drove through one of the gates of Ninevah. Remember Jonah 1:2? “Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (The Message) The picture below is actually us heading back through the gates on our return to the FOB, but I wanted to include it first!

At the pump station, there is a family living in the operator’s building. When we arrived the women and one of the sons came out to talk to us. The father and the other sons were away, but we saw them returning as we were leaving.

I was finally prepared for the boy. I bought a pouch for my body armor to hold a stash of goodies. So I was able to give this boy a dum dum sucker and a tiger finger puppet.

After the site visits were complete, I kept my camera ready to take a picture of a particular mosque I had seen on the way out. This is the Nebi Yunus mosque, or in English, the Prophet Jonah mosque. Reportedly, in one of the rooms is a shrine to Jonah complete with whale bones.

The trip itself was very uneventful, thanks to the soldiers of the 3rd ACR. Chris Johnson’s unit, 1-8 Infantry Battalion, is part of 3rd ACR. In my trips outside the wire lately, I’ve noticed a much increased presence of US troops throughout the city. Over the last couple of days, we experienced a huge blast that leveled a three-story building followed the next day by a suicide attack that killed the Mosul Chief of Police. The Governor of Ninewa put a curfew in place, so there were no civilian cars on the road at all today. He must have seen the news reports on the TV in his office!

While I love changing jobs and locations every couple of years, I can’t stand the physical process of moving. Mugs can tell you how I try to avoid having to be there on the days the movers are putting boxes on the truck or taking boxes off the truck. To me, it’s a very painful experience. I was able to avoid it this year by deploying to Iraq. So Mugs, once again, got to unpack all of our worldly goods. Abby sent me a Christmas ornament that depicts how I feel about moving.

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!

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Meloches outnumbered the Manrys in our house nine to five.  There was also one Wiita thrown in for good luck.  Dale would claim that if any of my family members are present, I transform from a Manry back into a Meloch for the duration.  I do admit to being thrilled about eating traditional stuffing instead of cornbread stuffing, to liking pecan pie better than apple pie, and to enjoying board games instead of fireball.  The weekend was fun and filled with laughter, but I couldn’t stop myself from creating a few difficult situations.  For a month, I had known I needed two port-a-cribs.  My Mom, who wanted the house ready well prior to arrival day was not too thrilled with her daughter’s usual procrastination.  Two days prior to arrival, I borrowed a port-a-crib from a friend and two hours prior to arrival, I went into the basement to get my port-a crib.  It was at this point that I realized there was no port-a-crib in sight.  After I move, I can not be held responsible for the things I have gotten rid of.  I am in throw out, donate mode, and although I have no memory of donating my port-a-crib, I must have.  I looked everywhere: in the basement, in the garage, in the closets.  So, there I stood in the basement with the dawning realization that I had to go upstairs and face my Mother who was standing at the ready with a crib sheet.  After the news of the missing port-a-crib was delivered, I made the command decision to build the wooden crib instead.  We still had all the pieces for that.  So, Gabe, the crosstip screwdriver, Grandma, and I set to work.  I, of course, had never built the crib before.  The construction process followed my usual pattern: putting brackets the wrong way, getting things jammed, attaching and detaching various crib parts, and banging something in place.  When it was finally complete, there were high fives all around.  That crises was not observed by all, so I decided I needed to do something to make everyone uncomfortable.  Dale likes the house cold when he sleeps, so I always turn the heat down at night.  He told me that the temperature had dropped to 42 degrees fahrenheit in the desert the other night, and he slept so well, he didn’t want to get out of bed.  Meanwhile, back in Virginia, everyone went to bed and I turned down the heat.  It happened to be the first night of frost.  Rob, who lives in California, came down in a winter cap.  His wife, Michelle came downstairs wrapped in 2 blankets, and Howie’s baby, Ean looked like he had been visited by Jack Frost.  “It’s my house now!” (reference the children’s book “Bear Dance”)  I had froze them all.  Except for my Dad, of course, who slept like a log.  He likes to sleep where it is so cold that the inside of the windows and walls are covered with ice.  I can’t say I remember those days with fondness.  On the coldest days of the year, you might get the wool quilt thrown on you which would keep you warm, but was so heavy, you could barely roll to your side.  We would jump out of the basement shower and dry off next to the wood stove to keep from freezing to death.  Anyway, the next night I left the heat up.  They all slept well, but my Dad started complaining.  He threatened to sleep naked.  We are all thankful that we didn’t have to see that.  When I picked up the kids from school after everyone’s departure, I announced that it was just us Manrys again.  Gabe said he was sad and missed them all already, Abby informed me that we had less than a month until the next company arrived, and Josiah said emphatically, “Yes!  I’ve got my room to myself again!”  Dale has a similar reaction when my family departs.  That night I slept in my bed for the first time in almost 2 months.  I enjoyed it so much that I decided to sleep in.  I woke up at 0755, 10 minutes after we were supposed to leave for school.  I looked at the alarm clock in confusion.  I had set it the night before to 0600.  I then realized that the clock read 7:55 pm.  The power had gone out a few days before and my parents must have forgotten to set the am/pm.  We arrived at school late and went into the office to get tardy slips for the kids.  The secretary asked if there was a reason that we were late and I replied “family issues.”  Gabe piped up behind me, “Can’t we tell her the real reason?”  Never bring a 7 year old with you when you oversleep. 

Recently I received a request for an interview from VAJoe.com. According to the VAJoe blog,

The VAJoe.com Blog is the gathering place for the U.S. military community to blog and comment on blogs about the war in Iraq, military news and benefits updates. We will feature interviews with popular military bloggers and guest blogs from well-known and respected bloggers.

You can read the interview by clicking here -> VAJoe Interview.