First Day/Night

I found my room in the dark but this is what it looks like outside in the daylight.

The gift basket and sheets/towels were left for me by the person leaving the bunk. She's a lovely lady and the person responsible for the garden and the cute guard gnome.

Here is my walk to work every day.

Balad or Bust

For those of you sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering where I am and all that. Yes, I made it here. We landed around 7:30p. About 4 hours for welcome, inprocessing, briefing, busing to housing, finding our bags (about 10 min of searching and worrying and then finally relief), getting our gear to our rooms (my outgoing person made my bed and left a beautiful note & toiletry basket for me), then walking to the hospital for a tour and start my training. Finally gave up at 2:30a and found my way back to the bathroom trailers and my room.
The past 89 hours (from leaving St Louis to getting back to my room) included <9 hours of sleep. Fortunately, I got 7 1/2 last night.

More later (after work) and I'll edit to get pictures up this weekend.

Early Start Today

Met for our briefing at 9:30p and got the word - we have a 2p call time for our flight to Balad. The bad news? We have to pickup our gear at *4 am*!!!!

And with all the changes and running around, it's after 12mid when I get to bed. So another short sleep. How many more days can I function with so little sleep? Man, I'm so gonna crash soon. One of the PA (Physician Assistants slept 17 hours after we got here).

So today we got our chem gear & vest side plates - that bag is HEAVY. We also got our helmet, vest & First Aid kit - which we wear on the plane. Put it all together and I think I'm lugging around 100 lbs.

Oh, I just found out there are no bathrooms on a C-17. So no drinking for me after noon. Fun times. Hope to get some pictures from inside the plane.

Thanks to everyone reading this. I love seeing the comments!

Some Pictures Around AUAB (Al Udeid, Qatar)

Transient Tents
Cadillacs (Showers/Toilets)

Dining Hall
First Meal

Coalition Plaza
(socializing, wifi, stage)
Coffee Shop
(best wifi spot in the morning)

Yes, there is Fast Food
Lots of Free Water




Wifi in the Morning
Champagne in the Evening

The Day Was 32 Hours Long

Landed around 1p local time. Sunny. No pictures allowed in this area.
Deplaned and stood on the deck.
Filed over to Immigration (yes, we just immigrated to Qatar). Be very respectful of the officials. Get our orders stamped (don't lose this version of your orders).
Back to our backpacks. Wait. Go in a tent for a briefing. Reminded about the things you are NOT allowed (alcohol, weapons, sex toys, porn or anything showing naked middrift - worry about Brokeback Mountain DVD in my carryon, and about Hawaiian vacation pictures on my laptop).

Go unload our checked luggage. Find your own stuff. I watched it being loaded in St Louis so I wasn't worried. Both bags were easy to find.
Make your "72 hour bag" (mine was already set because it was my checked dufflebag).
Turn in your weapon at the armory.
Put your checked suitcase in the proper outgoing bin based on your flight group (stash your questionable DVD movie in the suitcase, move your vacation pictures to a buried folder on your computer).
Go through customs. They xray your carryon/duffle and you walk through a metal detector. Didn't look at anything in my backpack (not even my DVD collection). All that worry for nothing.
Take a bus to Lodging.
Wait around for your tent/bunk assignment. Get bed linen and your alcohol ration card (3 drinks/day allowed in Qatar - there will be none in Iraq).
Find your rack (I've got a bottom bunk), unpack (some people change into PT gear, some people crash, some people go to the showers). Lock valuables in the footlocker.
Find some food (dining hall open 24 hrs but it's across the compound away from the transient tents). Water bottles are free - pallets all over the compound.

Try to get on the internet - the wifi is very crowded in the evening. Most people are hanging out in the Commons area, the football games will be broadcast on the big screen later (9p local is the first game, 12 mid will be the second game).
Find reading materials in the library instead.
Make a moral phone call home & check email on the censored internet access.
Get your outbound briefing at 9:30p - no flights out for us, maybe in two days (big maybe). Take shower (only lukewarm water at the far end of the "cadillac").
Crash at 10:30p.

It was a long day. Started at 6a St Louis time, Saturday. Ended at 10:30p Sunday Qatar time. That = 32 day.

Pictures to follow.

On My Way!

We finally left St Louis and began our long trip East.



How long?









First meal:















Flew over North America:





Watched "Eagle Eye", "The Mummy III" and "Get Smart", got another meal.



10 hours to the refueling stop in Germany (2 hours on the ground):








Watched "Ghost Town" and "Hellboy 2". Fed breakfast.


Another 5/12 hours of flying:











Here are some pictures. The rest are on my flickr.

Waiting for the Plane

It's a cloudy, chilly morning in St Louis. The hotel room was like a dorm. Folks talking in the hallway (pretty thin walls), doors slamming (very loud at 5:30a), and I heard they ran out of hot water this morning when everyone tried to take a shower (I was smart, took a nice hot bath last night).

Maybe we will be leaving today afterall?

Edit: Yay! The plane has arrived, the bags and food and fuel are being loaded, and the seats up front are by rank. There are 6 Lt Cols and so I have a small chance at First Class, but at least I should get Business Class (sweet!). It means I get on the plane before the "crowd" and hopefully get a window (easier for napping, sucks for potty breaks).