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Mugs reminded me last night that I’ve neglected to share with everyone the details of my travel from Kuwait to Iraq. In a previous post, I mentioned spending some time in Ali Al Salem in Kuwait. Before I arrived in Kuwait, I didn’t know how much time I would spend there before moving on to Iraq. Turns out, I spent less than 24 hours in Kuwait. I arrived at AAS at 0400, slept until lunch, explored the tent city for half a day, then flew out to Iraq at 0100 the next morning.

The military takes every appropriate action to protect its assets (personnel and equipment) from losses due to hostile actions. The majority of flights in and around Iraq take place in the middle of the night to avoid terrorist activity. Additionally, the flights are flown in such a manner so that the aircraft is not greatly exposed to enemy fires. As mentioned in the title, I flew on a C-130. This is the workhorse for the Air Force’s tactical airlift mission. The seating accommodations are cargo nets running along the sides and the middle of the plane. The windows are blacked-out, and of course, there are no in-flight meals or entertainment! Needless to say, it’s not a very comfortable ride. Most legs (non-Airborne qualified personnel) out there question why people want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. The answer is that it’s so uncomfortable in the airplane that after a couple of hours, you’ll do anything to get out.

Our flight from AAS this morning included a quick stop in Balad before continuing on to Mosul. It was easy to tell when we began our approach to Balad because it felt like the pilot pushed the nose of the aircraft down as sharply as he could without crashing. Then just for fun, he threw in numerous hard bank turns in either direction. After a couple minutes of this, I started to feel a little queasy and broke out in a cold sweat. Sitting a couple people away from me was an airman who was going on to Q-West, the stop after Mosul. At this time, he pulled an air-sickness bag from his pocket and proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach into the bag. Fortunately for me, I felt the wheels touch down about a minute later. The total flight time to Balad was a little over one hour. After touching down, the crew opened the tailgate for those stopping in Balad to unload. The pilot kept the engines running so that we could take off as soon as possible.

The take-off from Balad was just as fun as the landing. Luckily, I was a little more prepared for it this time. However, I was unable to locate an air-sickness bag for myself, so I practiced a lot of deep breathing exercises! The 20 minute flight to Mosul was over too quickly when we began our descent. My stomach did not have enough time to recover from all of the earlier trauma. Once again, the airman utilized his personal air-sickness bag, while I began my deep breathing exercises. As before, I broke out in a cold sweat. It seemed that the descent into Mosul took much longer and was much more dramatic than the landing in Balad, but I hung on and barely made it again.

I stumbled off the tailgate with the 3 other individuals stopping in Mosul. Once inside the military terminal, I discovered that there was no one waiting for me. When I called the office number, it was very evident that I had woken Master Sergeant (MSG) Kaseman up from a deep sleep. MSG Kaseman is the NCOIC of the MAO. When I told him I was sitting at the airfield waiting to be picked up, he commented that they weren’t expecting me for a couple more days. Gotta love Army planning!

So there you have it. I can’t even look at those rides at the fair that spin around without getting sick!

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.

Today was the day when I finally had enough nerve to open my boxes that have been in storage for 2 years. When you have no recollection of what is in the boxes, do you really need it? Even though prior to every move I get rid of so many things, there are always some things that seem to follow me. I found my personalized German stein with a naked lady on the bottom that was a welcome gift from the unit I was in as a 2LT. It will soon be mailed to Australia to become the property of Karl Hillbrick, the only person in the world who would want such a garish thing. I have always been too embarrassed to donate it and unwilling for some unknown reason to toss it in the rubbish. Josiah was thrilled to uncover the farside comic books and promptly went up to his room to read them. Abby was excited to find an old phone that she plugged in her room. Somehow she managed to get the one other bedroom with a phone jack. Amazing, isn’t it? Gabe found Dale’s fur hat and promptly put it on his head. Zeke wandered around picking up every breakable thing just for the fun of it. I got down to the final box and soon discovered the one thing that I move from place to place but never use. In 1991, I purchased Christmas stoneware dishes from Waechtersbach, Germany. I didn’t just purchase a small amount. I bought 12 large plates, twelve small plates, twelve mugs, a teapot, creamer, sugar, dessert plates, large bowls, small bowls, star bowls, etc. I told myself that it would be terrific to pull them out every year after my birthday and use them throughout the month of December. No matter where we lived, we would always have the Christmas plates to make it familiar. It is painful to admit that was 16 years ago. For the majority of those 16 years, those dishes have sat in a box in the basement, garage, or closet. There may have been a few years when I pulled out some of them, but never most of them, and certainly not all of them. The fact that I would not give up these dishes was used against me often by my husband when I was busy throwing his things out. So, I hereby declare that for penance I will use my Christmas dishes for the next 16 months to make up for the 16 Decembers that have gone by with only occasional sightings of Christmas dishes. So, if you come visit, you’ll eat off a Christmas tree plate and drink out of a snowman mug whether it be March, July, or October. So, it’s “Holly Jolly!” all year long at the Manry home where we have Christmas every day.

Doing renovation work always seems like a great idea to make your house more appealing. Living in the midst of the mess created by the renovation dims its appeal. Our house has been a work in progress since the day we closed: 6 July. It is now 9 August and it is still a work in progress. It is impossible to look at what has been accomplished when the mess of what there is still to do is everywhere. Hopefully, when God looks at me, He looks more closely at what’s been accomplished than at the mess of what there is still to do. I was a bit of a mess today. I had the kids ready to go to Walmart to buy school supplies at 0930. The workman had informed me that he would be here at 1000. He arrived at 1345. I knew that the timing was now all wrong, but I insisted on driving on with the mission. So to Walmart I went with a 3 year old in need of a nap and a confusing list of school supplies. Why must there always be something on the list that says: “Spiral bound sketch pad 9 x 12″, and on the shelf your choices are 1. a spiral bound sketch pad 8 1/2 x 11 or 2. a regular sketch pad 9 x 12. When neither choice is the correct choice, what do you do? Me? I stand there glaring at the shelves in the hope that if I get mad enough a “Spiral bound sketch pad 9x 12″ will suddenly appear. Soon Josiah was pushing an overloaded cart with a noisy wheel behind me down aisle after aisle. I finally told him to wait at the center display while I searched the 4 hardware aisles for something else. I told Gabe to just stand there with him. By the time I got back Gabe was crying hysterically. He had gotten his elbow jammed in the cart and had pinched and bruised his skin. I’m trying to be the concerned mother and all I can think is “can’t you just stand there?”, full well knowing that no, he can’t just stand there. Zeke is now crying as well and I decide that our shopping day is done whether or not we have everything on the list. I got home, put Zeke to bed and realized my personal renovation never seems to be done either.

Yesterday, Gabe decided it would be a good idea to put Zeke on the swing, twist him around until he couldn’t twist the chains anymore, and then let him loose. Around and around Zeke flew, holding on for dear life. He then got off the swing and proceeded to walk around like a little drunk. I ran outside to tell Gabe to stop, and he informed me, “But he likes it Mom!” Meanwhile, Zeke was busy bumping into things in an effort to get his bearings. When he could finally walk straight, he wanted to do it again. I personally don’t like my world spinning around, but my kids figure…if your world is spinning, you might as well enjoy it.