Christmas

It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit out here. I sat out with a cup of coffee in 70 degree weather the other day with the sun shining. There are decorations here and I play Christmas music in my clinic once or twice a week, but it still slips your mind that it is the Holiday season. Some people here are bah-hum-bugging the holidays, while others embrace it. I embrace it. I feel that you need to keep a perspective of home with what we do here or there will be little to be happy with or look forward to. That is why I’m closing down my shop on Christmas Day. The next holiday is New Years, then Dee’s birthday, then each holiday after that, including Flag Day. We set up one milestone after another. It keeps things in perspective and allows us to look forward to more than just the next meal.

So…. Take time to tell those around you Merry Christmas. Cherish the time with your family and friends and please say a prayer for the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen that are serving back home and overseas. I, as well as those around me, appreciate all of your support, thoughts and prayers.

Merry Christmas Family and Friends. I hope I’m home to spend the next one with you all.
The photos enclosed are of my clinic decorations, the DFAC and filling sandbags before chow. We fill sandbags to send out to the outposts that we set up to protect or soldiers.

13 months and counting.

30 Days in Iraq

16 Dec 2007

Well, now we are in the 10 day window before Christmas and it’s a great time for personal reflection, both religiously and about the time that I am here. Today, the 16th of December, marks 30 days in the country of Iraq. I have to admit, that the time here so far has gone by pretty quickly. The days fly by because every moment is marked out for me by a patient schedule. If I’m not seeing patients, I’m at the gym or running the perimeter loop around the FOB, eating or sleeping.

Since my arrival I have continued to grow in my understanding of the religion I believe in. Though my mentor is of another denomination, he has a significant insight into the writing of the Bible and has helped me understand what I am practicing when I go to Church.

I have also started running again. For a while I was mentally hurting to get back “on the road”. I started running with my friend Theresa, and we have slowly incorporated our Dentist friend, Michelle, into our thrice weekly runs. I personally go to the gym between and before those runs and today, started running a more relaxed, but longer run on Sunday mornings with another new friend, Jose and some of his friends. I haven’t run in a group like this since High School Cross Country, but I really enjoy the camaraderie in the run.

The perimeter is just what you think it is, a loop just inside the outermost reaches of the FOB. The only thing between me and the wild frontier is a 15 foot tall, 18 inch thick concrete barrier, and the air around me. From start to finish (based on GPS), the loop is 4.2 miles. That is the extent of our establishment here in Iraq. Think about that the next time you are out and feel confined to your city or area. If you live in or have visited Louisville, KY, you can put it in this perspective… Iroquois Park’s bridle path is about 4.5 miles with all its twists and turns. That makes the land that is Iroquois Park, the land that I will live, and exercise on for the next 14 months. And a lot of this FOB you can’t trek across for one reason or another. I don’t think I’ll complain too much about having to run Iroquois Park anymore, because I can at least leave the park when I’m done.

In any case, tying religion to running…. Many people will equate running to a small religious experience. I join that group. When I go out running, I can monitor myself mentally and physically (i.e. I need more rest b/c this usually easy run is hurting, etc), or clear my head, think about the wonders of the world around me as well as thank the Lord for blessing me with the ability to enjoy the life and land that he has put forth in front of me. Today, other than running past the firing range, sewage pond, and guard towers, I almost (ALM OST) forgot that I was running in a war zone. Even though the sunrise tried to trick me, because the way it warmed up the sky was still beautiful.

As I ramble on and on about running here, I veer from any point that I was trying to make. That would be, 1 month down, 14 to go.

Your support from home has been awesome. I hope that letters and responses to my emails and postings keep coming in. They help pass the time here just as well as running and they definitely help keep my mind occupied from the loneliness that is this island in the desert.

Please, if you have questions or anything, I highly recommend you let me know. Give me topics to write about. I’ll even post pictures with my answer when appropriate.
Until then… be well and Happy Holidays.

Here are some photos of my clinic and sleep area. We are a little more spread out than in Kuwait. Still very little privacy, unless you scrounge for lumber or hand a poncho... which I may do when I get the time. The door sign was a project of mine. It was a plain cross on the white reflective metal. I marked out the lines and painted the blue. The colors are what our unit insignia looks like. Enjoy some photos from here. I'll try to take one of the DFAC all decorated for the holidays.


Here is the clinic, then me with my sign, our tent, and my sleeping area.

Thanksgiving in Iraq

26Nov

Thanksgiving in Iraq. Not my last.

I know it is Monday, following Thanksgiving, but I haven’t been to motivated to write. It seems that I’ve fallen into the lull of deployment. Daily, I wake up around 0630, dress, eat from 0700-0730, spend some time with myself in a quiet environment to reflect on things past and to come, then I start seeing patients around 0800 until lunch 1200-1300, then patients until I finish. I usually finish with patient care around 1700, walk over to the TMC and enter my notes because whoever the Army hired to build the new TMC, wrapped the Ethernet cord with the electrical wiring, shorting our lines and thus disabling the ability to connect to the medical documentation computers. So I have to use the closed network at the TMC, essentially writing my notes twice (on my personal PC, transferring to thumb drive, then copying to the system). Then I go to dinner with some friends 1800 to 1900. Then, if I don’t have my study session with Howard, then I take a shower and lie in bed until I fall asleep around 10-1030. Wake up… Repeat.

So, when Thanksgiving came, it didn’t feel like that holiday that you look forward to. When you see friends and family and eat a lot over the course of the day. I woke up as usual. Saw patients as usual, and rushed through the same Turkey Day portions at lunch in about 10 min, because the lines took FOREVER, and I had a patient waiting (who it turns out, didn’t show up). But, you have to give it to the Army to try to make it as nice as they can. They had paper turkey’s hanging from the ceiling. They even hired a live band to play music. From what I heard from the gymnasium sized DFAC, was a brass band, like a small military ensemble. They were alright. I was trying to listen to the small conversations we were having prior to rushing out of the meal to get back to the clinic. They had 4 serving lines, all serving about the same food. The traditional: turkey, ham, prime rib, stuffing (which I must have picked the wrong line), mashed potatoes, green beans (unfortunately, not “Christmas Beans”), the salad bar, and of course, the dessert bar. The dessert bar had pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple cobbler (which I had) and other assorted goodies. It was nice. The good thing was, that they served the same meal for Dinner, so I had a much smaller helping of Prime Rib and green beans and a slice of pumpkin pie. I was still so full from lunch, that I didn’t want much else to eat.

That was the Holiday here. Nothing particularly exciting. I did enjoy calling home and talking to Dee (twice, because the phone system went down after about 5 min of the first conversation …bugging me so bad that when I woke up at 3AM, I called to finish the conversation), my Grandma, and my parents. I definitely missed Ma’ Czworka’s pies and morning cinnamon rolls. And I missed the “Jeanie Rolls” from Gram’s. There is not a holiday family function up North, without Jeanie Rolls. Unfortunately, next Thanksgiving and the next 2 Christmas’ will be the same. Although, I will remember to block the first 1-2 patients in the afternoon in order to enjoy my meal. (lesson learned).

Well, I think that summed up the holiday. I ate about as much as all you at the states, but had to rush back to work, rather than rush to the get dibs on the couch. But you know what, other than that patient no showing up, I didn’t mind it that much. I know that I’m over here for a good cause. My job is important (though there are some here that still don’t recognize it… they’ll learn soon enough), and I have good friends that are Great people. In the absence of the one’s I love, and that are close to me, I wouldn’t want to spend the holidays with anyone else.

IRAQ

21 November 2007

IRAQ.

As most have noticed, there has been a big span of time that I haven’t entered a journal entry. Part of the reason is, that Kuwait was the most uneventful, boring time that I have probably ever experienced. It was filled with waking up, eating, sitting around, eating, sitting around, eating, taking a shower, sleeping, the repeating x 10+ days. Then around the 16th, things changed.

Since we are here, and settled, I can tell you when we moved (past tense is the key here). We loaded up our gear into a truck around 10 AM, moved to the Airfield in Kuwait, sat around until dark, then boarded a C-17 cargo plane, with what they call “comfort seating”, for a 1730 flight to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport), then a mid evening Chinook ride to our FOB. When all was said and done, I didn’t get to sleep until 1 AM on Friday. Part of that late night rack out, was that the Chinook crew dropped us off on the wrong part of the landing zone, where nobody could get to us because they were running re-fueling ops for other aircraft…. Sooo, we had to sit in the middle of the LZ until all the helicopters were re-fueled. I seriously thought one of the Apache’s was going to land on me it was so close. Now we are here and settled, a week later, as I write this. I have started to get a full patient schedule already. Most of the patients complain of, “my back hurts from moving my ruck sack in the transition from Kuwait to Iraq”. I have little sympathy for these folks because my back hurts too, and I’m the only physical therapist for several thousand kilometers. But, I treat them and end up discharging them b/c they feel better 24-48 hrs later (which is how long it would have taken them to adjust to the move anyway). They keep me productive and very busy, which makes the day go by quicker.

Our living conditions.

Our living conditions are questionable. Our company commander, so I’m told, volunteered us to live in tents. To be honest with you, I don’t mind the tents. There are AC units, though the heat doesn’t work, and the colder nights are quickly moving in upon us. If you get into the right tent, you are only there with 7 other people and you have a pretty manageable amount of personal space. I did not get one of those tents. I was supposed to, along with the other Company Grade Officers from our company. We (myself, and two other Captains) were placed in a “30 man tent” with 14 NCOs, while the company grade tent, which already housed half of our unit officers, was given up by the Mayor Cell (who couldn’t tell their ass from their elbow in planning) to officers from another unit. This didn’t make sense at all and has pissed everyone off, b/c now we were all scattered. The following night we were told to make room for 10 more people from another company in our tent, making it 27. Now, when they say 30 man tents, they mean you have room for a cot, 1 ft space between, then another cot. There is no account taken for the ruck sack, assault pack and duffle bag that you are living out of. Luckily for us, they never came, and we were able to spread back out. Enough to find a bed here and there in the empty tents (yeah, all this time there are empty 8 man tents). The females weren’t so lucky. They are packed to the gills with 30 females in their tent, with a mix from PV2 to Captain. If you know anything about the difference between Officer and Enlisted, it is a clash in priorities and behaviors. A PV2 is usually your typical 18 y/o enlisted soldier just out of Boot and job specific training school (AIT), and typically wants to stay up late and watch movies and what not, while the officers usually want to get to sleep before working our 12+hr shift. On top of all of this, they don’t know when this situation is going to end and we will get to move into another transient housing situation. Eventually, so they say, we will move into 2 person Container Housing Units (CHU). The CHUs are climate controlled, tight with 2 people, but a hardened shelter with a boardwalk like walkway out front and in rows like single level apartments. Think of a trailer from an 18 wheeler with a door and an AC/heater unit; that is a CHU. This may or may not happen in June? July? The other units that weren’t volunteered to live in tents, are moving into them this week some time. More are on their way, eventually replacing the tents. Either way you look at it, I have a bed, mattress, and 10 square feet of personal floor space where I can set up plastic drawers to put my socks and underwear in, instead of digging through a duffle bag every day, and that makes me quite content.

Other Interesting things about Iraq

At random times through the day and night, you hear giant 155 mm Canons blasting away at the country side around us. They aren’t shooting at particular targets, but particular areas. They call it “Terrain Denial”. Places where there were mortars or rockets fired from in the past, are charted and every-so-often, they bombard that area to keep the Insurgents from using that position to attack us again. The great part about that is (and I say this sarcastically), a few of the gun batteries are only a few hundred meters away from our living area; making it sound like there is a giant cannon firing from the end of your bed. For instance, today, in my clinic, which is a tent only about 100 meters from my sleep tent (convenient), one of the close batteries fired a few rounds and the walls of my tent billowed and rested to the change in air pressure from the sound of the guns. Good stuff huh? It’s a good thing I stop drinking fluids at 1800.
If you aren’t indoctrinated to Army stuff, you may want to check out some images from Google, so see what I’m talking about. Some items that I’ve mentioned: C-17 Air Force Cargo Jet, Chinook helicopter, 155 mm Cannon, GP medium Tent (30 man tent), Apache Helicopter.
The internet here is slower than dial up. Yes, there is such a thing apparently. So as I find opportunities to upload photos that I’m taking, I will let you know. I’ve been taking them from Kuwait through the first few days here. I’ll continue to take more and share them as I get the chance.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving everyone. The Holidays are upon us. Make sure you let the ones you Love, know you care. That is the true meaning of this season. (that and buying more sweaters) {I wish I could wear sweaters…. But they are not part of the uniform}
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