The Fishing Was Good Tonight
Our network still refuses to upload pictures after two weeks, you'd think we were in a war zone or something. On Thursday I was asked to tag along on a trip with the Italian Army to the dedication of the new 609th Iraqi Army Battalion Garrison. Dignitaries and the Iraqi press were there. I took some great shots, had lunch and rubbed shoulders with the VIPs, and as expected, fell asleep on the way back in the Italian armored van. We stopped off at the 10,000 cubic meter per hour water treatment plant on the way back and walked all over it with our VIP visitors. Chris and I are preparing some Powerpoint slides for the next round of dignitaries.
I spent a lot of time working with an Iraqi police chief yesterday on the design for a new police station. Captain Alaa is at least 6 foot 5 inches tall and speaks excellent English. Despite that, I missed him in the visitor contact center and had to go looking for him. The 194th gave us some CAD drawings that we will work with to make the new model station for the south. Don is adding 8 meters to the back with offices and barracks. I was explaining how we set these up in the States, and he was explaining his needs like the prayer room is placed near the showers because the men like to clean up before they meditate. I'm working on making all these stations look a little less utilitarian by adding fancier parapet treatments and guard towers. Why should these places be eyesores? Tomorrow I'm mediating a dispute between our contractors and the police chief over at the Italian camp. These discussions are becoming more predictable and I use all my powers of persuasion to keep the work going without spending any more on the job. Usually we get where we need to go. I've only had to modify one police station contract since we arrived. The Iraqis usually want much more than we can deliver, and have nothing to bring to the negotiating table but their demands.
Ken is still standing up the new Muthanna Resident Office with Pat. I thought that Pat had returned last night when somebody slammed the door in his room next to mine and turned up the TV loud until they could find the volume control. This was at 4AM. Turns out it was one of our Gherkas that was given Pat's room when he moved to Smitty and he's only there temporarily (aren't we all?).
We are moving all the office furniture around and everyone will be moved into our TAO trailer this week to get everyone connected better. I'm dealing with all the supervisory things I was so happy to leave behind in New England. I'm now officially into day 99 in theater, 26 more to go.
Don went fishing at sunset at the irrigation pond and brought back great pictures of some mackerel sized fish that were being caught left and right. He said the conditions were just right for fishing tonight with just enough wind to keep the bugs down. The nats leave nasty welts when they're done with you and you seldom feel their bite.
I spent a lot of time working with an Iraqi police chief yesterday on the design for a new police station. Captain Alaa is at least 6 foot 5 inches tall and speaks excellent English. Despite that, I missed him in the visitor contact center and had to go looking for him. The 194th gave us some CAD drawings that we will work with to make the new model station for the south. Don is adding 8 meters to the back with offices and barracks. I was explaining how we set these up in the States, and he was explaining his needs like the prayer room is placed near the showers because the men like to clean up before they meditate. I'm working on making all these stations look a little less utilitarian by adding fancier parapet treatments and guard towers. Why should these places be eyesores? Tomorrow I'm mediating a dispute between our contractors and the police chief over at the Italian camp. These discussions are becoming more predictable and I use all my powers of persuasion to keep the work going without spending any more on the job. Usually we get where we need to go. I've only had to modify one police station contract since we arrived. The Iraqis usually want much more than we can deliver, and have nothing to bring to the negotiating table but their demands.
Ken is still standing up the new Muthanna Resident Office with Pat. I thought that Pat had returned last night when somebody slammed the door in his room next to mine and turned up the TV loud until they could find the volume control. This was at 4AM. Turns out it was one of our Gherkas that was given Pat's room when he moved to Smitty and he's only there temporarily (aren't we all?).
We are moving all the office furniture around and everyone will be moved into our TAO trailer this week to get everyone connected better. I'm dealing with all the supervisory things I was so happy to leave behind in New England. I'm now officially into day 99 in theater, 26 more to go.
Don went fishing at sunset at the irrigation pond and brought back great pictures of some mackerel sized fish that were being caught left and right. He said the conditions were just right for fishing tonight with just enough wind to keep the bugs down. The nats leave nasty welts when they're done with you and you seldom feel their bite.
posted by Bob at 10:49 AM
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