First Few Days in Baghdad

There are three separate posts for today so you should probably start with the one called "How I Got to Kuwait" and work your way back up to this one.

The first few days have been pretty cool so far. Both in content and temperature. I haven't really been in extreme danger so far and I'm sort of having fun. I finally feel like I can settle in and get this thing started. It's just like camping in the desert with a weapon.

When we first got here they gave us a few briefs on rules and conduct and things like that. It just so happened that they dropped us all of at the unit I was going to. When we were jumping off of the trucks I heard someone calling my name. When I got to that person it was the commander of my unit. He said they'd been waiting for me for a while and they were glad I finally made it. That was pretty reassuring to know there had actually been a plan from the start. In the back of my mind I was afraid I'd show up and they'd be surprised I was there. After that we were assigned to our rooms.

I was surprised to find that we were living in trailers. This is about the best senario you can ask for. We live in these trailers sort of like a small mobile home. They're divided into three rooms that each have an outside door along the side of the trailer. Each room sleeps two people. There are two beds and two lockers and an air conditioner in each room. The room is about the size of an average bedroom in a house back home. They have electricity but it's 220 and they use British plugs. I am very comfortable in my room. They have a bizarre next to the PX where local merchants sell anything from jewelry to computer parts. I bought a little voltage converter for $15.00. The bizarre is kind of neat because it's just like what you'd think a third world market would be like. It's dirty with so many different smells. It's busy and many different languages are flying around all over the place. One booth could be selling knives and kids clothing all in a 10 foot square. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the arrangement of merchandise. I think they just sell whatever they can get their hands on.

The chow hall is awesome. It's run by a civilian contractor and it's great. They have every kind of food you could imagine. It's organized with your usual main line where you get your meal, but then there are all these little bars around to get whatever you want. There's potato bars, ice cream bars, sandwich bars, pizza bars, salad bars. The food is very good and the place is very clean. I'm really surprised at the quality of food. A million times better than at Fort Hood.

We had a class yesterday on cultural awareness. They had local Iraqis come in and give the class. It was really interesting to learn about their culture and customs. I really feel like the Iraqi people support what's going on here. Well, at least the ones our government is paying to come in and give us the classes. I was a little embarrassed at the amount of knowledge they had about my country, language, and culture. I don't know anything about theirs. Americans really live in this little bubble of our own.

I did a little work on my weapon at the range today and it shot a lot better. We got to watch some of the snipers qualify with their 50 cal sniper rifles. When one of those goes off you're glad you're on the sending end and not the receiving end. The sound alone can probably kill small woodland creatures. My M-16 puts a hole the size the end of a pencil in the target. Those rifles put a hole the size of my fist in the target. If I don't get another weapon I feel pretty comfortable with this one. No matter where you go you have to carry your weapon with live ammunition. Even to the showers.

Well, now that I'm caught up I'll try to organize my thoughts a little better from now on. I've got an address here now you can get from my wife or my parents. If you hurry it's not to late for Christmas. Not that I'm fishing for packages or letters or anything. In fact e-mail would be fine. I might need to clear up some information I wasn't clear on. In an earlier post I said my address was no longer good because I was leaving Fort Hood. I meant my mailing address. My e-mail address will be the same forever. I've had some questions on that and thought I should clear it up. By the way, the person who told me he wasn't e-mailing me because of that little misunderstanding still hasn't e-mailed me. You know who you are. Speaking of that person, for all you left handers out there the Iraqi people think it's impolite to eat with your left hand, when we asked why they said that only the devil eats with his left hand.