Tent City

Blog I am in Kuwait after the longest journey of my life. In it all it took about 26 hours to get from a military base in Columbia, SC to a military base in Kuwait. We ended up leaving on Friday night from Columbia, SC. Cheering the deploying military members on were a group of about 100 plus veterans who wanted to wish the Sailors and Soldiers well prior to their departing the USA. The Vets hosted a party of sorts giving out pizza and donuts as well as other gifts. Prior to boarding our plane, the Sailors marched through a gauntlet of these well-wishing Veterans all of whom wished us good luck and offered us handshakes and hugs. After a week of hearing about how Richland County South Carolina held the highest number of reported cases of swine flu, I thought about giving the VETS the old Donald Trump, "I don't shake hands" but thought better of it.

Our Air Carrier to the Middle East was the Charter Air Line called Ryan Air http://www.flyryan.com/. This a private company that provides charter airline services primarily for the US Military and Sport's Team. The plane was a 757. The service on the plane was impeccable and the staff served us great meals and water on demand. Movies played during the entire flight. The only thing that was missing was cold beer.

After about three hours in the air, the Captain of the plane came on the overhead speaker and told the passengers that he needed to stop in Gander, Canada. Gander Canada is located in the North Eastern quadrant of the North Country in the province of Newfoundland and hosts a large airport that regularly welcomes militaries from around the world. Gander was the largest RCAF base during World War II. When the plane landed at Gander the Captain told us that we needed to refuel and that we would be back in the air in thirty minutes. Thirty minutes turned into 4 hours. The Captain told us that there was some bad weather over the Atlantic. I am not so sure about that one. After our 4 hour delay we headed to Leipzig, Germany. One of my JAG mates and I enjoyed a last brew at the former East German Airport before making the final push to Kuwait.

We arrived in Kuwait at approximately 1:40 am local time. Unfortunately we sat at the Kuwait airport until 5:30 am. Mildly annoying. It turns out that somebody mixed all the Army bags with the Navy bags onto one large bus, and the Army and Navy folks were going to different camps in Kuwait. So in the middle of the night a bunch of Sailors were lifting 50 lb bags and sorting them by branch of service. Why this separation did not occur initially is baffling, blog.

At 7:00 am we arrived in Kuwait at Camp Virigina. It is called a camp because there are no permanent structures on the installation. The camp reminds me of Luke Skywalker's home planet of Alderaan. It is hot, dry, flat and utterly inhospitable. There is also a pervasive odor of rotten cabbage which lingers over the base. This smell can be contributed to diesel fuel perpetually burning to produce the electricty that runs this place mixed with dust and sand. My first thought I considered when I saw Kuwait was why would any human contemplate inhabiting a land with such harsh conditions. I hope that were I a nomadic creature I would have the guts to keep on walking..

BUT leave it to the good ole USA to bring all of life's modern conveniences to the middle of the desert. As I write these sentences, I sit here in a perfectly air conditioned Starbucks with access to the Internet. As I stare out the window into the desert sky I can see the Camp VA's Shopping Mall which consists of a AT @T calling center, a Fed-Ex shop, a sub shop, Mac D's, and a Pizza Inn. A transit bus system is in place to move the troops around base. In addition to all these comforts bottle water is free for all the troops. The military is truly doing all it can to keep the morale high for our troops. However, it does make me wonder about the sheer cost to the US taxpayer to keep this place up and running. The electric bill to keep all these tents and buildings cool must be absurd, and also the cost to keep this camp manned and functional.

I hope to spend about a week in Kuwait before making the push into Iraq. Basically all of the Sailors live in a tent while here. The military is basically trying to get us use to the Middle East prior to sending us to our real jobs in Iraq. My living area is called Tent City. Literally, there are thousands of tents located in a 1 mile vicinity. We sleep on cots situated inside of a large canvass tent. There are six of us housed in one large tent. AC cranks in these tents, so don't worry about the heat. Thankfully, I had a good night's sleep last night and I am feeling pretty good today minus a wrecked stomach.

The inside of My Tent located in Tent City on Camp Va, Kuwait.

Today we learned in some training about Counter Insurgency. It appears that the USA under the leadership of General Pertraeus has really focused intensely on changing its military mission from dealing with regular warfare to dealing with what is known as irregular warfare. Apparently a former Australian military officer by the name of David Kilcullen was instrumental in helping to devise our current strageties. His bio as well as his take on the Iraq war is fasicnating if you get the chance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kilcullen

The dining facilities here are execellent by the way. You can basically eat anything imaginable, and many of the soldiers take advantage of the Baskin Robins ice cream bar which is open every lunch an dinner. I am enjoying some of the local tomato salads as well as their kidney salads. I have fell pray to its temptation only once thus far.

Tomorrow we head to the Udari Range http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/udairi.htm. It is a training range located in the middle of Kuwait. We are going to do some convoy training as well as some more gun training. This should be interesting as there is no electricty or running water out there. Again we are sleeping in a tent. Hopefully, this training will mark my final manipulations of my M-9 gun.

Thanks to all of you who have posted on the blog. I miss all of you. Have a lot of fun for my sake.