KNB stands for Kuwait Naval Base. This is where my parent unit spent the majority of their deployment. It's not a big place. There are more U.S. Army vessels (yes, I said Army) than Kuwaiti Naval ships. The Army operates Logistical Support Vessels (LSV's) for intratheater sealift. My unit has been staying in a barracks that resembles a college dormitory. My team and I are strangers to this land.
Our first, and only, order of business was to drive to Camp Arifjan (Arif-jail to people who know the place) for post-redeployment briefings. I worked out of Arifjan back in 2003. It's the home of Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC - pronounced "sea-flick"). Most people in Iraq regard CFLCC with disdain. They always seem completely out of touch with the reality up north. A healthy flow of memorandums, policy letters, and regulations spew daily from Arifjan and head north. Rarely do any of them make sense. Camp Arifjan is like Disney World. There are more Sergeants Major per capita at Arifjan than anywhere in the army. All of them are ready to ambush unsuspecting Joes with uniform corrections, safety violations, or any other craziness that is unheard of on a FOB up north. I hate Camp Arifjan. Going there today was a necessary (meaning mandatory) event. The good news was that the briefings didn't last long. We were finished by noon. We were just about out the gate on our way back when we received a healthy dose of CFLCC.
The gates at Arifjan are run by "rent-a-cops". These are hard core contractors with guns. It's harder to get in and out of Arifjan than any FOB in Iraq. As we came to the gate we stopped for the guard. We had been told we only required one weapon with magazine per vehicle. As it was, five of us had pistols with two full magazines each. That was good enough to get us from KNB to Arifjan earlier. The guard asked to see all weapons and mags. I didn't bring my weapon. It was locked up back at KNB. Reno 911 informed us we could not proceed. I pleaded the case. He wanted none of it. Instead, he called the Military Provost and sent us back to the post HQ. I was furious. When we got to the HQ I had a chat with the Provost Marshall - a Navy Commander. He was also furious - not at me. He called up the gate and chewed some ass. I did get great personal satisfaction in that. We glared at the rental cop as we drove out the gate. He didn't even stop us this time. This is the kind of shit that happens in Camp Arifjan. It's never the same thing but always something ridiculous.
My last act as Team Chief soon followed. Once I got back to KNB I briefed the incoming commander and operations officer. I gave them a solid background on what their soldiers in Iraq would be doing over the next year. They were very thankful for the briefing. When it was over I wanted to find the sunset on the horizon so I could start riding. I'm done. We've got an awards ceremony and then it's a big plane back to Camp Shelby.
1 comment:
Two suggestions:
Keep blogging when stateside.
Turn the Iraq blogs into a book even if you have to publish it annonimously.
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