Around 0400 today an event happened that signaled light at the middle of the tunnel. A Major arrived from Kuwait to “right seat ride” with me for the rest of the month. Why is that so important? It’s important because it means I’m showing him the ropes so he can cover for me when I go on R&R. Every soldier gets a guaranteed fifteen days of leave when they are deployed here for a year. My guaranteed leave is coming up at the end of this month. So, as you can see, it’s the light in the middle of the tunnel. I’ll be able to extract myself from Iraq for a few days, go home to friends and family, and reset my “days without a beer” counter to zero. However, there’s still work to do until then – a lot of work.
I let him sleep in this morning. He came up with a Coast Guard Lieutenant (equivalent of Army Captain) who is here to visit with my Coasties. I did a few work related things until it was time to meet up. We got together around 1100. Next came a whirlwind tour of Camps Liberty, Striker, Victory, and Slayer. I introduced him to several key players he’ll be supporting in upcoming missions that take place while I’m away. I won’t bore you with the details.
The last area we visited was Slayer. I love the name. I like to think they named the camp after the band. One of my favorite South Park episodes is the one when the town turns to Cartman to break up the hippie convention. His strategy is simple – insert a Slayer CD into the hippies’ sound system and it will quickly cause them to disperse. Anyway, back to the story… Camp Slayer is a collection of several small to medium sized palaces. These were all part of a Baath Party playground of sorts. The “play” involved sex parties, murder, torture, and general mayhem. One of the palaces is called the “Perfume Palace” because it resembles one of your grandma’s old antique perfume bottles. The Perfume Palace was supposedly the home for all the whores that serviced Saddam’s top-level cronies. The dominant palace – or what was supposed to be when it was completed – is the “Victory over America” palace. Just like it’s namesake, the palace will never be completed. It was under construction when the invasion took place and now sits abandoned – surrounded by construction cranes. Adjacent to this monstrosity is the oddest structure of them all. It’s like a mini-Bedrock right out of Flintstones. The place is a network of manmade tunnels resembling a fake rock mountain at a theme park. It was supposed to be the playground for the little Baathists.
We toured until around 1600. I noticed my passengers were getting real quiet. It turns out the late night traveling had caught up with them. I took them back to their hooch. I spent the rest of the day and evening just hanging out. Our mission here is practically completed. That means we are working shorter hours for the first time in weeks.
It was a very pleasant evening. If it hadn’t been for a couple of mortar attacks it could have been any September evening back home. Well that is if it’s dusty back home, there’s a lot of military vehicles driving around your place, and you frequently hear gunfire and mortars in the background. So, yeah, it was just like a September evening back home.
I let him sleep in this morning. He came up with a Coast Guard Lieutenant (equivalent of Army Captain) who is here to visit with my Coasties. I did a few work related things until it was time to meet up. We got together around 1100. Next came a whirlwind tour of Camps Liberty, Striker, Victory, and Slayer. I introduced him to several key players he’ll be supporting in upcoming missions that take place while I’m away. I won’t bore you with the details.
The last area we visited was Slayer. I love the name. I like to think they named the camp after the band. One of my favorite South Park episodes is the one when the town turns to Cartman to break up the hippie convention. His strategy is simple – insert a Slayer CD into the hippies’ sound system and it will quickly cause them to disperse. Anyway, back to the story… Camp Slayer is a collection of several small to medium sized palaces. These were all part of a Baath Party playground of sorts. The “play” involved sex parties, murder, torture, and general mayhem. One of the palaces is called the “Perfume Palace” because it resembles one of your grandma’s old antique perfume bottles. The Perfume Palace was supposedly the home for all the whores that serviced Saddam’s top-level cronies. The dominant palace – or what was supposed to be when it was completed – is the “Victory over America” palace. Just like it’s namesake, the palace will never be completed. It was under construction when the invasion took place and now sits abandoned – surrounded by construction cranes. Adjacent to this monstrosity is the oddest structure of them all. It’s like a mini-Bedrock right out of Flintstones. The place is a network of manmade tunnels resembling a fake rock mountain at a theme park. It was supposed to be the playground for the little Baathists.
We toured until around 1600. I noticed my passengers were getting real quiet. It turns out the late night traveling had caught up with them. I took them back to their hooch. I spent the rest of the day and evening just hanging out. Our mission here is practically completed. That means we are working shorter hours for the first time in weeks.
It was a very pleasant evening. If it hadn’t been for a couple of mortar attacks it could have been any September evening back home. Well that is if it’s dusty back home, there’s a lot of military vehicles driving around your place, and you frequently hear gunfire and mortars in the background. So, yeah, it was just like a September evening back home.
1 comment:
Glad to see you're back on-line. For a few days I thought Squeakers had shut you down. Duststorms and 18-hour work days are a good enough explanation as to why we hadn't heard from you. By the way, in remembrance of Sept.11,2001, thanks to you and all the others over there for what you have accomplished.
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