Last Saturday, Josiah was invited to attend a birthday party for a girl in his class. He would not normally consider such an invitation, but it involved a movie ticket to National Treasure II and free pizza. He and his buddies (mates) agreed they would all go together thereby making it an acceptable occasion. The difficult part, of course, was the gift buying. Abby informed Josiah that the girl liked webkins, and that Josiah could purchase one at Hallmark. Abby loves Hallmark with all its bric-a brac and girly things. Josiah was a bit apprehensive when we set out. We arrived at 0855 and the store opened at 0900. We sat in the car and began to watch our fellow Hallmark shoppers. They were all men. It was the Saturday before Christmas and these men were forced to go out and find a gift for their wives. My brother-in-law Rich was shopping on Saturday, but had to finish up a few purchases on Christmas Eve. He didn’t want to break with the tradition of buying the gift and wrapping it on Christmas Eve. This year, Dale was unable to adhere to this Christmas Eve shopping tradition as a result of his distance away and the speed of the Army postal system. I received my gift weeks in advance. I will no longer be able to grumble about him always shopping on Christmas Eve. Anyway, back to Hallmark…One guy was peering intently in the window with the hopes that he could spot something before hand, so that when the clerk opened the door, he could dash in, purchase it, and make a quick get away. Another guy, who was clearly military, was walking back and forth not directly in front of the Hallmark as if to fool anyone who happened by that he wasn’t actually waiting to go in. He threw something away in the rubbish bin down the sidewalk, he wandered around on the street in front, and constantly looked over his shoulder in case a friend happened by to accuse him of Hallmark shopping. The smart guy stayed in his car and made a quick dash for the door when the clerk finally unlocked it. Josiah and I went in to join our fellow shoppers. I began to find various things and hold them up for Josiah to see. I then noticed a glaze come over his eyes and I thought of Dale. When in a store like Hallmark, Dale will wander around in a daze. He can not relate to anything in the store and the choosing becomes a torture to him. I said to Josiah, “You won’t feel comfortable giving any of these gifts will you?” He replied, “No.” To his great relief, I let him escape. So, down the sidewalk we went to the bookstore where he purchased a day to day calendar and a journal. He brought the gifts home, wrapped them, and even made a funny card. When I dropped him off in front of the movie theater, he realized to his dismay that only the birthday girl had arrived. I left him on the curb and drove away laughing as the dazed look came back over his face.
This is my first post in a new category – Must Have Deployment Gear. No matter what Mugs may say, I don’t collect a lot of personal field gear. I will admit to possessing an astounding array of boots and gloves, but if your hands or feet are uncomfortable, you’ll be miserable the whole time you’re in the field! Anyway, I do believe that the right tool can make all the difference.
Someone recently sent me a collection of comics from Bob on the FOB. One of the best is titled Geardo. According to Bob on the FOB, a Geardo is “someone who spends at least 50% of each paycheck (before taxes) on the latest & greatest gear, just to have the latest and greatest gear, regardless of whether or not that gear will actually help the wearer perform his/her duties.” See Geardo and other comics at http://www.bobonthefob.com/pastbob.html.
The first item in my Must Have Deployment Gear list is the spork. For my birthday this year, Mugs and the kids bought me various small pieces of deployment gear. My spork is one of those items.
This awesome spork is from a company called Light My Fire. If you would like to purchase your very own Light My Fire spork, you can find it online at Campmor.
When I finished my run tonight, I stretched for 10 minutes. Make sure you tell Lay Fong that I’m still stretching; I don’t want to get in trouble again. Anyway, after showering, I used my spork to eat a bowl of Smart Start cereal for dinner. I know in my last post I heaped praises on the DFAC, and now I’m writing about eating cereal for dinner in my hooch. Technically, it was DFAC food, since I brought the cereal and milk from the DFAC. But that’s not the point of this post. This was all made possible by the spork. I carry the spork in one of the cargo pockets on my ACUs and am ready to eat at a moments notice!
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!
