I have arrived in Taji. It only took 74 hours to make it from Andrews here…took the rotator from Baltimore, with a 2 hour layover in Ramstein Germany, 5 hours in the Aviano Pax Terminal (where we were held like cattle awaiting the slaughter, which may not be best analogy) then into Al Udeid AB in Qatar, where we waited for about 30 hours. In ‘the Deed’ we ended up arriving around midnight, then sat through 2 hours of briefings none of us were awake enough to pay any attention to…which may have been a bad thing, considering we were issued the new 4-part Army body armor. It’s got a pull-tab you can yank to get your armor off in a hurry…which means of course that it falls apart when you’re not paying attention, often dropping 18 pounds of plate on your flip-flopped foot.
During our 30-hour layover, we enjoyed our 3 beers a day, explored the base, and discovered the joy of Skype for the iPhone, which meant I could call home on my cell, provided I have internet access. I called T, talked to my mom, enjoyed a few more beers, and basically failed miserably at getting my sleep cycle into a mid-east rhythm. Two mornings later, we hopped a C-130 for the flight into Baghdad. When we arrived at BIAP (Baghdad International AirPort), we were lucky enough to have the Mi-17s from Taji come down and pick us up for the ride to our new home. Instead of having to wait 2 days for a Chinook ride, we had a 7 hour layover. We spent it exploring Sather, the Air Force base at BIAP. Took a nap, watched a few bad moves, ate lunch, then that night loaded up for the ride to the new home. After a 1+15 wait (the helos run on Iraqi time) we were picked up and took the 30 minute flight up to Taji. When we arrived, they threw our stuff in the trucks and took us straight to our rooms. It was great being greeted by old friends like Kacey Grannis and Brian Tuinman (Bob Post picked us up) and after we dumped our bags and got the nickel tour of ‘The Village’ the USAF compound. All 54 of us among 6,000 GIs and another 5,000 contractors and TCN’s (Third Country Nationals-the Ugandans, Phillipinos, Nigerians and others who do security, serve the food, and the basic upkeep for the base). As far as a deployed location goes, I have ZERO complaints. Everyone has their own rooms (as of next week when the next rotation heads out) we’ve got a great couple of morale trailers, a good ‘smoke pit’ where we all hang out around the big-screen TV, and ‘the village’ is in a great location itself, where nothing is more than a 5-minute walk away. The chow isn’t bad, the gym is OK, and the BX is always understocked. Ops normal, I guess.
My first two boxes were waiting for me, so I’ve got my flying gear and my linens, but not my clothes. So I’m living off of my 72 hour bag and a quick trip to the Bx to stock up on socks and drawers. Everything should show up soon, so I don’t have to keep washing my flightsuit every other day. The highlight of my boxes were my surprises from T, a countdown calendar and a scrapbook full of pictures and letters from home. While I’ve flipped through all the pics, I’m saving the letters to spread them out. So if I haven’t thanked you for your letter yet, I just means I haven’t read it.
I’m going to wind this down…tonight I get to meet the Iraqis for the first time, and have my first Chai night, drinking tea with the locals. I’ll bring my camera and get some pics of my new friends. I’ll also take some shots of the camp itself, and I’ll hopefully get my room set up in the next few days. Untill then, shufek bacher (see you tomorrow).
