More Damn Dust

Today there was another dust storm. It was predicted but we didn’t expect what blew in. If you remember 5 years ago when U.S. forces were first moving into Iraq during the invasion. There was a huge dust storm that shut down the advance for about 3 days. The news footage was pretty incredible. You could barely see the correspondents give their reports. Well, that’s the kind of dust storm that blew in today.

It was hot and breezy one minute then a few minutes later visibility was cut down to ¼ mile. It shut us down. Now we wait. It’s supposed to stay this way tomorrow too then eventually clear up so we can get back to 100% operations. Right now we limit some of our over-the-road traveling for safety reasons.

Temperatures are getting up there too. Its springtime and temps are already hitting 100 degrees everyday. We have a thermometer that goes to 120. I’m afraid that won’t be robust enough since I’m sure it will start to ‘peg-out’ next month. I should have brought a thermometer that goes to 140. That might be more appropriate.

More later.
SABER 2, out.

Back In Iraq

I’m back. Back in Iraq. I’ve been busy the past couple of weeks moving in, moving around and learning from the unit we are replacing. My blog maintenance has been lacking….kind of like my own little writer’s strike I guess but I don’t have reruns.

Anyway, after a short Sherpa flight I made it to Iraq. (A Sherpa is a very small, ugly, cargo plane….sometime known as the ‘Vomit Comet’). I’m currently located in south central, Iraq at a former Iraqi Air Force Base known as Tallil. (Google Tallil, Dhi Qar Iraq and you’ll get pretty close). The largest city it is near is An Nasiriya (it makes the news occasionally) Tallil is huge. Since the beginning of the war it has evolved into a big base that supports a lot of different coalition efforts in Iraq.

Tallil isn’t very far from Basra which has been making a lot of news the past few weeks. Believe me, we are watching the news from Basra but currently it hasn’t affected our part of the operation. We hope it stays that way.

Let me tell you about my new neighbors from the coalition who live here. Here you will find Australians, English, Romanians, Fillipinos (primarily working here), civilians and probably a few others. From the U.S. we have representatives from all branches; Navy, Air Force, Army (hooah!) and Marines. There are a lot of people here.

I mentioned the unit we are replacing. They are known as the 11th TRANS. They are an Army transportation unit whose wartime mission is to conduct ship-to-shore logistics operations. In fact, when they salute they say their motto, “Over the shore”. Well, they got the sand part of their wartime mission right, but the Army left out the water part. They’ve been doing convoy security operations up and down the Iraqi highways for the past 15 months. It’s strange how things work out.

Now they get to go home and I’m glad to help them on their way. Be proud of these Americans.
They’ve been doing a tough job over here for a long time. They’ve had to adapt to harsh conditions, unfamiliar missions and an extended time away from their families. They are really special soldiers. I’ve known them for about 2 weeks now and I haven’t heard one of them complain yet. They are a great bunch of soldiers and you can be proud of your Army. I am honored to stand in the same battlespace as them.

I’ll tell you about my counterparts and our transition in my next writing.

“Over the Shore!”
SABER 2, out.

More on Sand Storms

Weather in the desert isn’t too difficult to forecast…except for the dust storms. In Kuwait most days have been sunny and hot since we’ve been here. Our daytime highs have been around 100 degrees. This week we’ve not only had to deal with the heat but also dust storms.

Dust storms or sand storms…whatever you wish to call them…are a pain. The winds have been kicking up around 15 to 20mph and they’ve been blowing from out in the open desert. The winds pick up the sand out in the big desert and drop them on us at Camp Beuhring.

Once the winds begin the sand stays in the air all day. Sand gets in your eyes, your nose, your ears, your pockets, your computers…everything. Visibility is cut down to about 100-200 yards. The wind doesn’t die down until evening then the next day the winds pick up again and we start all over.

When dust storm conditions occur it shuts down the roads and helicopter operations. Since we need the roads to get to and from the ranges it pretty well stops our training for the day. Today the winds shifted and started blowing from the Persian Gulf. That keeps the dust down but brings in the heat. Tomorrow its supposed to be 105. It’s a dry heat but 105 is hot no matter what the humidity is.

SABER 2, out.