Wednesday, June 20, 2007

19 June 2007: Camp Liberty





Camp Liberty is part of the large Victory, Liberty, Striker, Slayer, and BIAP compound just south of Baghdad. It's home to one of the MNDs (Multi-National Divisions). The whole area is dotted with palaces of the former regime. There are man-made canals and lakes - all teaming with carp. Multi-National Corps can be found in Camp Victory in the Al Faw Palace (a place I visited frequently for meetings back in my old MNF-I days). Today my main purpose was to meet with the Division Transportation Officer (DTO) for MND-Baghdad. I had a Major and a Captain from my unit with me. We had a very good planning meeting at 1000 at the division headquarters. The meeting took us into lunch time. Once the meeting was complete we were through for the day. We have a similar meeting tomorrow at Camp Victory with MND-Central.

This place is much more spread out than LSAA. Fortunately, we were close enough to the PX to walk. After the meeting we stopped by the PX and the Iraqi Bazaar. That was good for about an hour or so. It's amazing how much stuff you can purchase at the Liberty PX. They've got everything from major appliances to bicycles. The bazaar is much nicer than the one in LSAA. None of us purchased anything though. Having gotten our thrills in we went our separate ways for the rest of the day. I ate lunch, stopped by the internet cafe, and took a nap. I found the gym later and got the workout on. After supper I ate an ice cream cone under a gazebo in the billets area. There were three Iraqi interpreters there having a smoke. I chatted with them for about a half an hour. They were all American citizens who had lived in Iraq back in the Saddam era. They provided me some tips on how to watch for merchant cheating at the bazaars. Apparently, the old Saddam system of business was very corrupt and it has carried over. It was nice to meet them and I bid them a good night before heading over to the MWR. That was a mistake. The only thing going on was a bunch of people watching WWF "Smackdown". That's too much excitement for me.

I got back to my hooch (a primitive container unit that has spartan furnishings) and worked on a crossword puzzle. That was good to put me to sleep. I was out by 2300.

No comments: