Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Occasionally I'm caught off guard by the sights and smells here. Only today it wasn't the putrid smell of oil refinement or the smog spewing from countless army vehicles rolling by, but instead the salty seaweed scent of the ocean a mile away. Often I get caught up in my own meandering and bolt out of the pitch black tent for a moment only to realize where I really am. Being in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals helps coax the illusion. The night air brings some relief from the increasingly hot days and the warm wind on my legs and toes feels foreign to my feet used to thick socks and desert boots. The smell of fried food from the chow hall wafts by and I'm transported home for a moment. I could be on a beach in Maine, or in Florida sitting two stories up munching on fried calamari at a beach restaurant, or even in my backyard in New York staring at the sky on a warm summer night. It all happens in an instant and I'm back. I don't know whether to be thankful for the minds ability to trigger memories or to be angry for its tendency to flaunt them at the strangest moments.

So here I am on the desert coast, and things are becoming a bit slower. It's not a bad slow just more of a transition to a daily grind I suppose. I've been neglecting my blog lately racking my brain over what to write about. I figure the daily dredge is worth an overview.

Since my days start at about 10:30pm (3:30pm Eastern Time) I'll begin at night when I first start preparing for my shift. Around 9:30pm I hit the shower and it's worth mentioning that they're way better than what I would have ever expected. They're like small modular trailers with individual stalls for showering with a row of sinks in the middle dividing the toilets and showers. The graffiti in the bathroom stalls is usually quite colorful. I had even thought of collecting photos of some of them just to prove there is at least 20 different ways for one to spell obceneties. I probably shouldn't though, some of it is beyond vile.

From there, I slap on the layers of gear we wear then get the daily briefing and I'm off to patrol the post. A normal night is rather slow though occasionally spiked by moments of excitement. Mostly accidents and battle drills, or suspicious vehicles we keep our eyes on.

Lately there has been a couple of drive by shootings at the camp I was originally at, but details are always slim and the validity of it all starts to become questionable. Information like that usually funnels down from the Kuwaiti authorities and as I'm finding out they can be somewhat unreliable. I've also been hearing from our day time QRF (Quick Response Force, basically roaming guard in humvees) counterparts that some of the Kuwait gate guards are corrupt. Apparently some of them try to charge foreign national workers money to simply pass through their gate, and they're known for taking items from people. This becomes apparent when our guys go to search vehicles and when one of our guys simply looks at an item they say "go ahead take it". When one of the other QRF teams confronted the Kuwaiti guard he allegedly said "I am king here". Hard to argue with that logic.

We've had some strange run ins with the Kuwaiti roaming guard as well. Last week we were traveling along a one way perimeter road and one of them came flying at us looking to play a game of chicken. He was honking his horn and flashing his hi-beams ans swerving all over the place. They also like to frequently tail gate us, and turn on their police lights, for what reason I'm unsure. I'm sure there is a possibility it's a simply a few "bad apples" but I've also heard from a Sergeant that a Kuwaiti Colonel said they've been having problems with people leaking information. It's hard not have a bit of distrust when hearing things like that but I'm still attempting to keep an open mind about the situation.

After the usual ranting and raving about things like this we normally grab dinner at the chow hall, rotating out with the other QRF unit. The food here is either decent, or I'm just getting used to it because sometimes I look forward to the next meal. Every couple of weeks they even manage to snag some lobster of which the quality is way off from something you'd get back home but it is good nonetheless. Most of the time it's chicken, chicken and more chicken but given the situation (imagine eating at the same buffet everyday for a year) they do a good job of mixing up the frequency of meals.

By the time we finish with our first rounds, and dinner it's usually 12:30am. Our rounds continue most of the night, or we just find a few good spots and wait for the infrequent calls to come in. Mostly it's just radio checks every hour and conversations in the humvee. It's getting to the point where we know pretty much everything about each other, and stories start to repeat. I'll be curious to see what topics we stumble over in the months ahead.

At 6:30 we turn our vehicles over to the next shift and grab breakfast. Everyone has their own odd schedule due to the night shift. I choose to go to bed right after I eat, and usually sleep from 7:00am to 2:00pm. Others sleep later in the day. It can be a challenge to get good sleep with the majority of everyone awake doing their own daily grind. Luckily our tent has slimmed down from 12 to eight people in the last few weeks, and I now have my own 6x6 foot space. Having that much privacy is enough to put my mind at ease. Before I was sharing about five feet with one other guy who I rarely got along with and it was impossible to move around.

The rest of my day is spent reading, watching movies, browsing the web and taking care of minor chores like laundry. The day goes by fast enough and I usually don't despise having to go back on shift when the time comes.



In other random off topic news, we've had a ton of Ukraine and Dutch soldiers passing through. One of the female Dutch soldiers who was getting friendly with a QRF guy asked him if he wanted to go jet skiiing near Kuwait City. When he replied that that would be impossible she shrugged and told him that the US Army was ridiculous. Ridiculous indeed, restricting us from jet skiing with beautiful Dutch women!

The Ukraine soldiers are an interesting lot. They're allowed to walk around in whatever type of mismatched uniform they choose, and I can't say I'm not jealous as our uniform restrictions are sometimes rather annoying. A few days ago I was going to meet a Vermonter I work with to play some ping pong and when we entered the recreation tent a couple of the Ukraine guys were playing a mean game of ping pong. A couple of our guys tried to challenge them but they were just too good, and at the end of one game one of them chuckled "ha ha ha, Russia beats America" cloaked in a deep Ukraine accent. Apparently the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union is greatly exaggerated.


I have a bunch of new photos from when I went to the M249 range (The M249 is the weapons you see mounted on the humvee from previous picture posts).

We sort of... almost drove onto a tank firing range because a sign had tipped over.


One of the many camels we usually see on trips to the range.


The camel herder himself.


They alos wrangle sheep, though I've only seen them on two different occasions.


On a night escort from our base to another nearby.


My shoebox I live in, home sweet home.