Back in the Desert

All packed. Two duffel bags about 50 pounds each, one large MOLLE rucksack, and or course my Paradise Rock. This is the morning I left Ft. Benning, GA.

The sea of duffels. This maybe half of the bags that were going to be loaded on the flight. Somehow the baggage detail was made up entirely of Dept of the Army and contracted civilians. Being a Soldier instead of a civilian paid off for once.

Who says the Government always wastes money. The wall locker I used while at Ft. Benning is almost as old as I was.

Recharging in Ireland while they switched out our flight crew and refueled the plane. I had stayed up about a day and a half at this point so any flatish surface would've worked for a nap.

What the hell. I go to a war zone and the cleaning staff is on strike. What kind of world are we living in where a Soldier has to clean up after himself? This is in the temporary lodging facility. Fortunately I only had to spend one night here. Living in open bays is not the preferred method. I did get some great sleep though.

This is home for the next year. Not too shabby. Not pictured is a desk, entertainment center/dresser, and walk-in closet. Also, I have a suite mate that I share a bathroom and small kitchenish area.

Getting all pretty. Anytime I'm not at work I get to wear civies (civilian clothes). Didn't expect that. I guess that's part of the deal when you move to a base that's nowhere close to the action during a war that's almost a decade old.

Another benefit of being in Kuwait; a free woodshop. Not only is the equipment free to use, but the wood (nice hardwood too), up to limit, is free as well. All I had to do is take a safety class. Now I need is figure out what to make.

A touch of civilization. At this point I'm starting to actually put my stuff away. It's always a little difficult to figure out where all your stuff belongs in a new place. It's ok my shirt is wrinkled because I was issued an iron and ironing board with the room.

This was a very bad start to the morning. Notice the time. I was supposed to be at work at 0600. Whoops. Luckily it was the last day of overlapping coverage with the guy I was replacing so I didn't get into any trouble.

Nice ride. Lots of wealthy folks in Kuwait.

What your are looking at is a gas station that would put most American ones to shame. Not only can you get gas here, there's also a restaurant, AND a mosque. That's right people, all your needs can be taken care of in one location. I guess it makes sense to have places to pray all over if your religion mandates 5 prayers a day even if you're driving across the country.

Kuwait International Airport. Just like ours, rude cabbies and idiots driving around in circles included.

Learn to read Arabic.

That's Mike. He's the guy I came to replace. Notice the huge smile. That's because we're on the way to drop him off at the airport so he can get back to his wife and son. Actually he was always smiling like that. His mother in law even gave him the Korean name of Iron Smile (can't remember the Korean version). He was awesome to have as a sponsor. Really set me up for success.

If I told you that was I-35 on the way to Dallas you would probably believe me. Actually this is a pic on one of the main highways on the way to the airport. Nice shark painted boat and Dodge pickup. Who knew Kuwaitis have a lot in common with rednecks.

Lots of American cars on the roadways. And if you think traffic is crazy where you live, you've never experienced driving in the Middle East. Whole different ballgame.

This is an amusement park on the outskirts of Kuwait City. Doesn't look so amusing to me.

My duffel bag made it. I mailed some stuff from Ft. Benning because I didn't want to have to lug around another bag. It's always a little nerve wracking waiting for the first piece of mail to arrive especially when there's some expensive gear in there. But it made it. I know my address works. Only took about a week with normal mail too.

My trusty flag. A fitting picture for Memorial Day. I've carried this all over since I've been in the Army, Germany, Ireland, Iraq, Kuwait, and back in the States. Those names are a couple Soldiers that have been flight crew members of helicopters I've gotten rides from.

I know it's a pillow. Not very exciting but sometimes it's the little things that mean the most. Up to this point I've been using a rolled up sleeping bag as a pillow. It worked the first night because I was so tired but after that it was miserable. This little setup only cost me $35. A lot for a pillow and pillowcase but hopefully it will be well worth it. If you look close you can make out the slobber stain that proves it did its job admirably.

Just some Soldiers enjoying their time off after work.

Here in the desert the Army (DoD maybe) is doing their best to make it a money free land. By money free of course I mean physical money. I still have to pay for all my meals (a long and complicated story) and capitalism is alive and well. From an officially sponsored mini shopping mall to the little stands in said mini mall run by local guys trying to sell anything from crazy looking lingerie to Persian rugs to knockoff jerseys, they all want your money. Back on subject, if you do happen to pay with money you won't get any change back. Instead you'll get these little pogs. Each one is a gift certificate for the denomination of coin you should've gotten back. The rationale behind this is something along the lines of coins being really heavy to transport and cumbersome to store. That makes sense I guess but there is one slight problem, or at least there was a slight problem last time I deployed. I gave the cashier cash money, they handed me back gift certificates. You can only spend those gift certificate at AAFES locations. Not that big of a deal if you want to spend your money at a military store but you weren't able to actually get any cash back even if you said you were leaving the Middle East. To top it off some of the AAFES places back in the States looked at us like we were crazy when we tried to pay for stuff with these. Apparently not all AAFES locations knew that they were in fact issuing gift certificates in 5, 10, and 25 cent denominations. The next problem we had is that they disintegrated in our pockets if we left them in there too long. Either the faces would scratch off due to dust and dirt or all the sweat from your uniforms destroyed them. So basically after you got them, you threw them in a drawer or a bag or something and never remembered to bring them back to the PX. The happy ending to the story is the last time we got back home, a few Soldiers in my unit had amassed a huge collection of these things and took them to the Class VI store (the liquor store on post) and bought two kegs with them. They had one hell of a welcome back to America party in the barracks thanks to the unpopularity of these tiny, in all senses of the word, gift certificates.

You've got mail. I love that line. Not because of the cheesy chick flick, no offense ladies, but because getting mail while overseas is one of the best experiences for a deployed Soldier. Whether you get told in passing from another Soldier coming from the mail room or by email or phone you are instantly transported back to a simpler time. Imagine yourself as a small child staring at the presents under the Christmas tree or on the table at your birthday. It's basically like that. You can't wait to rip it open and discover what's inside. You know that somebody was thinking about you and cared enough to take time out of their busy life to do send you a little love in a box. It also helps that's there usually great stuff in the box you can't find in your immediate area. Home made brownies or even your favorite deodorant. The same rings true for even the simplest of letters. The digital realm of emails, video chats and Skype are nice but they can't compare to the physical letter. Especially if that letter smells like your loved ones. Oh and I wouldn't be a very good commentator if I didn't say something about the knife. It's a unwritten rule that all Soldiers must have a giant knife. Not for the intended purpose of stabbing something with it. But for the simple tasks of cleaning your nails, opening mail or opening a MRE. If a simple pocket knife will do then a huge knife is infinitely better. Really though one of the best uses I saw for these was to provide my medics with good training after somebody stupidly sliced their finger almost completely off. Saw it happen on multiple occasions.

My first camel spotting on the way to the airport.

The control tower for Kuwait International Airport. That's the outskirts of Kuwait city on the horizon.

Don't know why, but this caught my eye.

Water bottled in Kuwait. Who knew they had anything but oil under all that sand.

Mr. Altaf Hussein. He's one of the nice gentlemen that works as a janitor/handyman in the building I live in.

My household goods showed up today. Took me a good couple of hours to figure out where to put everything.

Stupid dead battery.

Swabbing my cheek for a DNA sample. I'm registering for a bone marrow donor program.

This was my awesome plan to make a knife block. Got my wood and everything ready to go. Then I tried to make heads or tails of the instructions. It didn't go so well. I cut my losses and am now going to make a cutting board instead.

My trusty speakers. I've had them since I moved into the dorms at the University of Idaho. As of yesterday the volume control no longer works. I guess I can't complain, I've had these speakers for 10 years and they've been great up to this point. I will retire them at the end of this deployment.

This is where I get to spend a few minutes of my life a couple of times a week. Fortunately for me this is literally right next door to my room. Talk about convenient.

My first wild camel spotting. I have no idea what they are picking at out there. As far as I can tell there's only sand and trash. Come to think of it I don't know how these things survive at all. There is nothing out in the middle of the desert. NOTHING.

This is an MWR sponsored event. I didn't pay close enough attention to the little guy with the mike to figure out who these guys were but it was pretty good entertainment for the price.

If I'm not mistaken, this guy did a backflip on this attempt. Notice the nice big MRAP in the background. The riders were have a blast performing tricks off of that beast.

I was pretty impressed with my little point and shoot by the quality of pics I was able to take. I was too lazy to run back to my room to get my real camera.

All of the vehicles that are available for us to use over here are equipped with a speed sensor. If you go above 120 km/h (official Kuwaiti speed limit) there is this little warning on the speedo and an audible warning. Fortunately this truck only beeped once to let you know you are speeding. The SUV assigned to the Surgeon Section won't stop beeping until you slow down. Very annoying because 120 km/h is barely enough to keep up with traffic at times.

On the way back from a driving mission I accidentally made a wrong turn, that I was told would lead me to a suburb of Kuwait City. After I made the wrong turn it took me a while to find the way back home so I had to stop at the international symbol of the U.S. Little did I know, since I hadn't had my newcomer's orientation yet, this is highly frowned upon. Oh well.

I know where I'm going for my birthday...

Good to know you can get tacky American vehicles in Kuwait.

He looks so lonely.

This is what started my search for the closest McD's. Who doesn't love ice cream on a hot day.