"Sea Gull Six" and "They Took My Sofa!!"

30 Jul

It looks like a silhouette of "Indiana Jones"

            Now that I am out at Al Asad, I am starting to think that I will be here a while.  There are a lot of moving parts in the works and there is a lot of “stuff” that is moving out here, as well as people.  The leadership or “faux leadership” as I like to call it, doesn’t exercise an “out in front” or “from behind” type leadership.  The way that some have described it is “Seagull” leadership.  The reasoning is that seagulls come into an area, make a lot of noise squawking and ruffling their feathers; they crap all over the place and then they fly away.  Not to mention they maintain a “mine, mine, mine, mine” type attitude.  That is the best way to describe the leadership at HQ on the ground right now.  They micro manage so much and they have to have a finger on every button.  The other day, I had the luxury of working 18 hrs...half at my job and the other half (at night) in the Joint Operations Center (JOC).  I spent most of the night sitting next to “Sea Gull 6” (that’s what we call him) and SGM Huah-Airborne...and I will tell you, it was pretty comical.  These guys are characters, and they didn’t even talk to me until they left, which was close to 10:30pm.  I stayed until midnight, and all was calm...especially after the leadership went home.

Time to bring out the "boonie cap"

            One of the perks about working in the Staff compound is that we have our own gym.  The gym is not as big and fancy as most gyms, but it does the trick for someone like me that is doing P90X and other various activities.  Tonight however, I went to the pool.  The pool is indoor, Olympic-sized, room temperature water, overall a very nice environment.  For most days they have dedicated times to swim laps, and some nights they do Aqua Zumba and other activities like Water Polo...too bad that most of these activities fall during peak work hours for most of us.  Tonight they had a couple of lanes roped off and then the rest of the pool was open.  There were people playing volleyball, some Ugandans (not racist...these guys did not speak English) were learning how to swim, and of course the Army was doing PT.  It was very relaxing and I shall make that a weekly ritual...the perfect way to end a long week..

Day 60

5 Aug

My Alley

            It’s hard to believe that I have been in country now for 2 months...time is moving along.  My boss has now left for his R&R in the states earlier this week and Chief left just the other day, so that leaves 2 Air Force guys and one Army Maj running the J4 Trans shop.  I told LTC Pederson that when he gets back from his R&R, everything will be “blueified.”  He laughed, probably because he knew we would be so busy working Trans issues.  With mass movements comes movement of property, and sometimes person X’s property is more important than person Y’s property.  For instance, say person X has been waiting for a generator and other equipment that is needed to improve “quality of life.”  Well, person X can’t get their generator and other equipment because person Y felt it was imperative that they get their office/CHU furniture and equipment moved within the next couple of days.  Oh, by the way, person Y happened to talk directly to a certain 2 star general, so naturally, everyone is going to “knee-jerk” and meet person Y’s demands.  I get so sick of dealing with people who think they have a higher priority than other people/organizations.  I don’t care if it’s the “flippin” USF-I Commanding General, if I deem that someone else’s request is more important, I personally will do everything in my power to work around it...”Sorry, Gen Austin, you will just have to wait to get your vehicles...we have folks that have been without power for a couple of days.”  What’s sad is that the Generals are not the culprits...it’s the self-licking ice cream cone executive officers and aides that cause the problems...they ensure that “the General will get his way...”

Kind of like this one, except 200% more dust!

It’s the small things I find on deployments that brighten up your day.  For instance, on the way to Chow, we would pass this old black sofa that was partially burned, just sitting right next to the dumpster.  It was literally just gathering dust, and we were wondering when they would take it away.  So, every time I walked by it, I would leave a boot print somewhere on the couch.  I am really upset that I did not get a picture of it, because they took it away the other day.  I probably left close to 20 size 14 boot prints on that couch, and as people walked by it they would look at it, probably wondering who was stepping all over the couch.  Once again, it’s the small things that make life better in these conditions, and every once in a while someone seems to take even that away.  Oh well, there’s always XBOX night!!

Don't worry...it's not me, it's Call of Duty!!