Happy Thanksgiving!

As I said to several of my compatriots today while feasting on traditional Thanksgiving cuisine, "The man who does not agree that the combination of turkey, cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce is a delight to the palate has not experienced the fullness of earthly food."  I ate entirely too much, but as my uncle Phil says, "If some is good and more is better, then too much is... just right."  I concur, uncle Phil, I concur. 

Today reminds me that I have much to be thankful for even while I'm over here in Iraq.  I'm thankful to have family that I would rather be spending time with than not.  So many folks don't have all the fond memories of Thanksgiving that I do.  So here's to you, Mom, Dad, Will and MC - I wish I could be there eating turkey, watching football and recounting our blessings together.  Then, of course, there's the extended family gatherings that result in a dinner table full of cousins that are not so child-like any longer.  It used to be that we were all little kids sitting around the same table, but now it's hard for all of us to be there at once.  Nothing ever stays the same. 

But as for my situation now, I have to include a picture of some of the decor they put up at our DFAC (Dining FACility, for the non-Army types).  It was quite extravagant.  Don't worry, all your tax dollars are going to very good use, let me assure you.  We ate very well today.  It's also a tradition to have commanding officers and other high ranking members serve the food on holidays, and today was no exception.  So I got some roast beef carved by a Lieutenant Colonel and a scoop of bread dressing from a Major. 

So after we chowed down, we went to stop by the 'driving range' here on base.  See the photo.  It was funny to be out hitting golf balls on a base in Iraq.  But my swing looked good so no harm done.  (that was sarcasm in case you've never seen me play golf.)  I can see it being a good way to burn off steam or relax.  It's off away from everything else so you have to drive there - which is no small feat when it's hard to come by an NTV (non-tactical vehicle - translated, a Ford F-150 or Chevy Trailblazer, etc.).  But maybe one afternoon when nothing's going on, I could go down and hit a few balls, but then again, maybe not.

Anyway, today is a lay-low day, so I think I'm going to go take a nap and enjoy it now.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and thanks for reading!

Veteran's Day

We held a short ceremony yesterday that symbolized the induction of new members into the group of veterans.  It was approximately our 30 days in country mark and therefore the time when members of a deployed unit are authorized to wear their unit patch on their right shoulder - a "combat patch." (See the picture of me with most of my guys - wearing our "combat patches")

Although this is the second time that I've been personally involved in this middle east conflict, I feel a certain difference between myself and other veterans.  I don't fall into the category of those who've been under direct enemy fire or had an occasion to fear for their lives or the lives of their fellow Soldiers.  My job has been one that's left me relatively out of harm's way.  Now, of course my mother is thankful for that, but it still leaves me feeling undeserving.  Yes, I volunteered to serve in the Army.  Yes, I knew that our country was at war.  Yes, I will have spent 28 months in the middle east by the time this trip is over. Yes, I was separated from friends and family.  Yes, I've made sacrifices to be in the Army.  But unless something changes, I will have never been in a life threatening situation.  It's because of that reality that I have a hard time feeling like a veteran and even thinking about putting myself into that group seems to demean its significance.  I feel I have no other choice than to maintain a healthy respect and admiration for those who've had dramatic and horrible experiences in our current conflict and in past wars like Vietnam and World War II.

I honestly can't complain about my circumstances here.  We have it pretty good.  Things are so built up here, it's almost embarrassing to call this a "combat zone."  But if our living conditions are good, our state of affairs on our business side is sad.  Because of an Army decision to reorganize unit deployment schedules, we ended up coming into our area without any equipment from a departing unit.  This may not sound like a problem, but because of the nature of the extended conflict here, most units don't get their full complement of equipment until they get here and take over what another unit left behind.  Basically, it's cheaper to just leave stuff over here rather than ship unit A's stuff back to the states and ship unit B's stuff over here to take it's place.  Instead, they just leave it here and sign it over to the next unit that comes in.  Well, like I said, due to a complex reshuffling, we didn't have any waiting for us when we got here.  So for the last few weeks, we've been slowly piecing together  our required complement of vehicles, radios, weapons and other equipment to get us up to a fully functional state.   Nothing is ever easy, I'm afraid.

I had a few guys over to my CHU (containerized housing unit) the other night for a little Bible Study.  A couple of the guys were pretty young in their faith, so I mostly focused on the basics, sharing a few thoughts about reading the Bible, praying, fellowship-ing and reaching out to others.  It seems that these guys are interested in getting back into right standing with God and learning more about him.  It's funny what people start to realize when they're separated from their families, their country and all the things that clamor for their attention in America.  Some remember that there might be something more to life than entertainment, while others simply look for ways to be distracted for a year.  So, if you're praying, pray for God to use this time in these guys' lives to grab hold of their hearts and bring them back to him.

I had to stop watching 24 with my buddies here.  It was getting ridiculous.  We were watching 2 or 3 episodes every night to where all I was doing was going to work, coming back and watching 24 and then going to bed.  That's part of the reason why I slacked on my blogging and on a couple other things, too.  So now, I have more time to myself, which is nice, and I don't feel like I'm one of the guys just looking for distraction when I'm not at work.  I have to say, though, it was difficult to pull away.  It's a pretty addictive show once you get into it.  It's drama at its best.  The only downfall is when it gets to be unbelievable, which unfortunately, can be quite often depending on which season you're watching.

It's about time

It's been two weeks.  I know I'm behind on updates, but honestly, there really hasn't been much to write about.  We had no place to set up our office for awhile there, so it was hard to get any coordination, planning or other work accomplished.  But now, finally, we've acquired some space so we're starting to get cracking.  I'm now in full speed ahead mode, getting all the computers and printers up, running and networked.  It's good times. 

For the last couple of weeks, I was mostly working out at the gym, watching season 1 of 24 and doing a few tasks here and there.  Things were pretty slow.  24 is a gut wrenching show if you've never watched it, but Jack Bauer is basically the one man who saves America every episode.  We thought we could pace ourselves to one episode a night, but it quickly gets out of hand and we watch two or three just about every night. 

It's starting to cool off here finally.  We lost our A/C yesterday due to a power problem.  It was warm in the room last night, but not completely unbearable.  It finally kicked on around 2 AM or something. 

I've already gotten a couple of care packages from folks, so I just want to say thanks!  It's nice to receive mail here for sure.  It mostly just reminds me that people haven't forgotten about us.  It's easy to forget that America is still at war when our everyday lives are not really affected by it.  If we don't watch or read the news, it might never even cross our minds.  But thanks to you who care - you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't!

Making the World Safe for Democracy (Prior to 30 June 2009)

If you're unfamiliar with the current status of forces agreement in Iraq (or I should say, Security Agreement, as I came to find out), you really should read up on it for a minute to gain perspective on what's going on.  (The reference to 30 June is based on the date when all US troops are required to withdraw from major cities in Iraq.)  Here are a couple of links that are a good starting point.  All I did was a simple google search to find them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93Iraq_Status_of_Forces_Agreement
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6052/is_2009_May/ai_n35527852/pg_5/?tag=content;col1

I have to particularly emphasize one quote that I found while reading from page 4 of the second article above:

Now, instead of U.S. Forces operating unilaterally, subject only to multinational force regulations and rules, (53) their operations must be "conducted with full respect for the Iraqi Constitution and the laws of Iraq." (54) Additionally, such operations are limited to those "conducted with the agreement of the Government of Iraq" (55) and, in fact, must "be fully coordinated with Iraqi authorities." (56) This coordination "shall be overseen by a Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee [hereinafter JMOCC] to be established pursuant to" the SA. (57) Lastly, military operations "shall not infringe upon the sovereignty of Iraq and its national interests, as defined by the Government of Iraq." (58) The practical reality of these limitations is that U.S. commanders must work "by, with, and through" (59) the Iraqis and develop processes for obtaining the appropriate Iraqi operating authorities. Preferably this cooperation and coordination is occurring at the lowest levels through U.S. commanders' relationships with the GOI and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) leadership. However, the exact level of mission coordination required by Article 4 may prove to be a significant friction point between the United States and Iraq.

This is quite the reality.  This basically means that we as US forces have to establish a strong sense of cooperation with the ISF if we want to participate in maintaining the security and stability within Iraq.  I won't go into much detail here, but the bottom line is that this adds an extra layer of difficulty and complexity to what we're trying to do. 

On a personal level, at least we've made it here now.  We finally hitched a plane ride up here and got places to live.  I'm living with one other guy in my unit in what is basically a trailer divided into three sections.  They call them CHUs or Containerized Housing Units.  And yes, we do make everything an acronym in the Army - it makes communications easier.  In this case, by easier I mean more convoluted and jargon-ized.  I'll post a picture of my space when I can.  It's actually quite nice.  The biggest plus is just having some personal space instead of living in a big open space that houses me and my 73 closest friends. 

Another interesting feature of day to day life here is the bus system.  Because we're a little spread out and there are not enough vehicles to go around, there is a network of buses that travel around the camp.  In fact, there are multiple lines.  To get to our work area, I have to either catch the purple route and transfer to the orange route at the "bus depot" or i can catch the "DFAC express" during meal times that goes all the way there.  Ha!  I feel like I'm commuting in Chicago again on the Ell trains.  I can hear the voice in my head now "This is Clark and Lake.  Transfer to Blue, Orange, Purple and Brown line trains at Clark and Lake." No train voice here, though - only a driver from somewhere on the Sub-continent of India who seems bored out of his mind and probably wonders how he ended up on a US base in Iraq driving buses.  Or maybe that's just what I wonder when I'm riding the bus...

Oh, and I almost forgot.  My address here is:
Frazier, Tim
C/38th TF 201
COB Adder
APO AE 09331

If you put it exactly like that, I'll get it.

Well, I guess that's about it.  

Stuck

Still haven't made it up north yet. We tried to fly out yesterday, but our plane was having mechanical difficulties apparently. Here's the frustrating timeline of the last day or so: Wake up at 0230; pack up, clean up and get on a bus to the airfield at 0400; arrive at the airfield, unload all our bags around 0530; find out that our plane is broken sometime after 0900; hang around to see if we can get another flight until 1700, but it turns out there were no flights to be had until the next day; try to find a place to stay at that camp, but no success; load up on busses and go to yet another camp in this lovely country around 2100; find a tent and crash out around 2230. The good news is that we got to sleep a fair amount today and we have just been hanging around the USO, making phone calls, writing emails and watching movies. The goal is get another flight soon, but there's no guarantee for anything to do with planes around here.

Good news about the Soldier I mentioned in the last article - he and his wife decided to have their baby. I'm really grateful for that. Thank you to anyone who was praying for that. Since her due date is in the summer, her school has agreed to let her continue in her program of study without delay and then have the baby.

Other than that, I'm ready to get where we're going. We should be busy for at least the first couple of months, trying to get things set up and established. I'm looking forward to having something to do that relates to my specific job. Hopefully it will be a little cooler up there, too, but I'm not sure. It still gets above 100 degrees by about 9 or 10, even though we're halfway into October now. This country is not the most habitable location in the world, although there are worse places. I am reading a book about an Everest expedition that went wrong and the frigidity there is something I'd like to avoid. The book is called "Into Thin Air," and I recommend it so far. The writer is very good and he's already used a few words I don't know. He has a good style that keeps it interesting, not to mention a good topic to write about.

The Range

What other job is there that mixes up the monotony of work by going out and shooting 210 rounds from an assault rifle?  Not many I can think of.  While I didn't join the Army to be a ground pounding infantry grunt, I definitely enjoy the Army aspect of what I do and being right there with the guys who do that every day.  The downside of the range yesterday was that it's still as hot as thouroughly cooked fried chicken outside.  (Well, not really - you'd probably still get salmonela if you only cooked your chicken to 106 degrees, but strap our Army required body armor on, which adds ten degrees to get 116 - now you're really close to a cooked chicken.) It was a hot one.  (See photo of guys shooting.  Yes, I know we're close to the targets.  We're practicing our CQM or Close Quarters Marksmanship - turning right or left to acquire a target at closer than 25m and shooting quickly.)

The range rounded out the last of our required training here before we head north to our home sweet home for a year.  (See photo of me and my platoon sergeant, Phil, out at the range.)  We had a few classes to educate us on the latest things going on where we're going and how to use some of the equipment we'll be getting when we get there.  For the most part, I think it's designed to help get us in the right mindset and prepared to go.  Now we're really just waiting for our time to go.  It should be within the week so the next time you hear from me, I'll be in Iraq.

Sometimes, political and legal issues like abortion seem much simpler in principle than in reality.  One of my Soldiers found out that his wife is now newly pregnant.  Now, she's in college on scholarship, preparing to get back into the Army as an officer so this kind of comes at an inopportune time for that plan.  The thing that bothered me was that he wanted her to get an abortion.  Now, logically, she sees that it's not good timing, but emotionally and spiritually, she wants to have the baby.  He said that he would support her in whatever decision she makes, but his preference would be for her to abort.  I can't tell him what to do, but I did counsel him on the impact that abortion would have on his wife and his relationship with her.  It seems that all he sees is the difficulty this introduces at this stage in his life, where he is deployed and she is in school with no support network in the vicinity.  Of course, I'm not saying it's easy, but this is one of those real situations where the right answer is very hard.  If you think of it, please pray for him.  I am praying that God will put it on their hearts to go through with having the baby and that God will wake him up to the responsibility he has as a husband and a father to be... that God will show him that he needs a savior and a guide and a source of strength larger than himself.  It would be a terrible mistake to cut off a life based on its inconvenience to personal plans.  Having children is part of being married.  Birth control is not guaranteed.  This incident doesn't make me question my stance as Pro-life, but rather forces me to acknowledge its complexity vice the simplistic view I had before.  When you put skin on it, it's not as easy, but then again, no one ever said that what was right would also be easy. 

I had my birthday a few days ago. I'm 27 now.  I feel old.  Some of you are laughing and others of you are agreeing with me.  The difference is whether you are older or than 27 yourself.  Life is what you make of it.  So I'll sit at Starbucks on a base in the desert and beat the heat with an iced latte.  Don't feel too bad for me, but you can just a little bit.  I miss the US.  I miss my family and my friends.  But I remind myself that that's why I'm here - I'm doing my part to preserve what we have in the US and spread that to others.  The freedoms that we enjoy and the security that we have won.  I hope that along with that I can spread the freedom that lasts for eternity, that sets free the souls of men and women who were born into a prison that they cannot see, hear, smell, taste or touch.  There is only One who holds that key.

Day 5

So "kew-ate" is boring for the most part.  (See the picture of me bored in one of our tents) We've had a few classes to attend here and there on current tactics that the insurgents are using, foreign weapons familiarization and how to gather current information available to us in networked databases.  We've done a little more planning, but there's still more to go.  There's still alot we won't know until we get where we're going. 

As far as spiritually, I'm doing pretty well and fairly optimistic.  Been having some time to get in the Word here and there.  I've been reading Psalms lately - seeing again how David continually seeks God for protection from his enemies.  It's funny, but sometimes I feel like my biggest concerns and desires for refuge are from people I work with and conditions into which my own choices have brought me.  I don't feel like I have any "enemies" right now, just people that can feel like enemies sometimes.  Of course I do have enemies.  They're even more tangible as a Soldier, I suppose. There are people out there who want to kill me, but it's not like they have a personal vendetta against me - it's more what I represent, I suppose.  I just don't have a group of people that come to mind when I think of "enemies."  But I do understand David looking to the Lord for refuge.  As this week has drug on slowly, I can't help but think that this year could be a long one.  So I definitely want to find my refuge in the Lord and rely on his strength to carry on during what is likely to be a drudgery.  I just want to make the most of opportunities I have to share Christ with people.  Some folks are more available than others, I just have trouble seizing opportunities sometimes.  So, if you pray for me, pray that I would be bold in seizing those opportunities.

Other than that, I think I'm getting a little sick.  Woke up with a sore throat today and am feeling a little out of sorts.  I'll be alright though.  Probably just part of acclimatization. 

My birthday's coming up.  This will be my second birthday in "kew-ate" - I was here two years ago.  I may have some ice cream at the DFAC (Dining FACility) to celebrate.  Yay.