July ‘09 to September ’09

R&R (July 2009)

The most cherished time during the tour of every soldier is the R&R – Rest and Recuperation period.  For those of us who are deployed for 9-12 months, we get a 15-day leave to return home, or anywhere in the world.  Some soldiers go to Europe for two weeks, but in my case, I just want to be home – home sweet home – with my family back in Sunnyvale. 

The journey back involves going through Kuwait, and it’s a very LONG process.  It doesn’t really makes sense in terms of distance because the flight from Kuwait going back to Europe, flew RIGHT over Baghdad (talking about backtracking), but worse yet, it’s not the distance… but the red tape.  Ali Al Saleem, a remote Kuwait Air Base is located 90 minutes from Kuwait City International Airport KCIA.  This is the gateway to both Iraq and Afghanistan – in other words, EVERY one going in and out of these locations must go through. Because there are so many people transiting through Ali Al Saleem, it has a lot of amenities that are open all day and night, including a 23-hour PX (Post Exchange, or store), the only one I know that had a line at 2am in the morning with multiple cashiers!  McDonald’s, KFC’s are somewhat expected, and even a donut shop called “Hole in one”

There are transient tents that every one sleeps in – and VIP tents for the O-6, and occasionally may let an O-5 in.   Still just a bed in a tent…nothing to brag about.  Good thing about all the tents is that they have AC units and vents so it’s actually not bad.  Each tent sleeps about 16-20 people, so bring ear plugs and eye masks!

There is a lot of hurry and wait – and white space.  There are briefs after briefs, and frankly, they can put all the information that on couple of pieces of paper.   But I think the Army doesn’t expect people to read anything, so every one has to gather into a big tent and get these briefs – death by Powerpoints.  Ali Al Saleem was where I got my first DPP in theater when I first arrived in theater at 3am in the morning.  So of course they have more briefs on how to get out, not one, but multiple… yes, lots of white space; so bring a good book with you.  I did.  A book called Assassin’s Gate written by a NY Times reporter on how the Iraq war was conceived and started by the neocons in the W. Bush administration… a very good read and a bit ironic – but I do need to finally learn the truths of why, and how we are here.

Due to the sandstorms, flights are frequently delayed and cancelled, and a couple days of duststorm, this base will be packed of folks trying to get out.  It is not uncommon that people are stuck on this base for 3-4 days trying to get a flight.  I was fortunate that I was able to fly out the next day.

The heat in Kuwait is far worse than Baghdad… by another ten degrees and so as we are being constantly moved from place to place, we are often drenched after we got out of the dry heat in the sun.  Dried up and then get soaked again.  Repeat that a few times in the set of ACU for a day or two, and you get the picture.

The biggest time sink the next day is the waiting for the Customs inspection.  We started muster at 9 in the morning with our backs, then gather to wait, then finally line up to go through Customs search.  The Customs mission is conducted by the Navy, and many reservists are sent here for 6-12 months mission.  The Customs search is the most THOROUGH search I have ever encountered – you will dump EVERYTHING out of your backs, and I was finding things that I haven’t seen for months!  They are looking for contraband like ammos, war trophies, and any other illegal stuff.  Our bodies and carry-on goes through two body scanners.  After the search, the checked-in bag is sent into a container that goes straight to the plane, but then we are “locked down” for another 3 hours before catching the bus out.  We are physically confined in an area secured by fences and barbed wire, with TV’s a few game tables, counters to order Pizza Hut, Green Bean (Starbucks copycat).  More wait.  Then we’re gathered in line to pick up our itinerary.  And then we’re briefed AGAIN on how to get on the bus and get to the airport.  It’s extremely Army like – turn off your brain, listen up, and go with the flow.  After getting on the bus, it turned out to be a two-hour slow convoy ride (with 8 other buses plus container trucks plus Kuwaiti police escorts) to the airport.  When we get to KCIA, there’s another mandatory rest stop that lasts about 60-90 minutes on a sandy area right outside the airport… with two amenities, area to smoke and bunch of potter potties – oh joy!  That’s Army way of an “airport lounge”!  Sure beats the Red Carpet Club.  The buses are running the engine the whole time all sitting there (we did the same thing when we first arrived).  I’d love to find out how much are wasted to pay for such a dreadful place – and the portable porta potty contracts for the past how many years?  Frankly, I’d much rather get straight to the airport, but see, we are not allowed inside the terminals – for fear of too much US presence that might be unsightly for the locals, or create a target?  Possibly both, but this is what every one of our soldiers has to go through, not in a war zone I may add… as there are no war attacks/hostile fires in Kuwait.  Then, we flew a chartered plane back to the US through Leipzig (90 min layover), that has two stores.  If you’re fortunate to transit during the day, there’s a massage therapist for a 15-minute massage at nominal costs.

Since Ali Al Saleem is an Airbase, it seems to make no sense why the charter plane couldn’t just fly in and out of there.

Over the Hump… (Aug - Sept 2009)

Returning from R&R is hard…. After spending two weeks that whizzed by with family and friends, and having to go through the reverse to get back to theater was no fun.  At least my schedule of the R&R was right in the middle of my year-long tour, such that by the time I arrive back in Baghdad, there’d only be five and a half months left – and yes, over the hump!

Getting back to the old routine to some was the most difficult part for having tasted freedom and life back at home.  For me, it’s not too bad as this time I know my way around and things are far too familiar.  As a matter of fact, since a lot of the people are all leaving, suddenly, I looked around and realized that I’m one of the old timers left.  With everyone’s tour lasting between 6-12 months, I’ve been here for over 7 months, I now become one of the old geezers.

After coming back, we got an email note alerting that there’s a stomach flu epidemic on base.  As no one can pinpoint the source of the illness to one DFAC or one meal, it does not appear to be limited to one area, but many people are getting sick.  So I thought I was pretty careful, washing my hands carefully, and couple of the folks in our DFC cells apparently got ill because of that.  What I was not expecting was that I was the next victim – especially since I was completely healthy for the entire time in Iraq (last time I was sick was in Fort Jackson when the temperature was around 13deg F). 

It came as a mild cold, and suddenly, I was not able to sleep and the next night, I had chills despite my turning off the AC and wearing long sleeves in the cover – it’s got to be over 90 deg in my room – but I was still cold.  Then it was six days of diarrhea…  After the fourth day, I finally went to the TMC – Troops Medical Clinic where I was given two bags of saline though IV – yes, it’s after FIVE stabs before they were getting that to work…..and some prescription strength Imodium. And I learned to live BRAT – Banana, Rice, Applesauce and Toast… not the most exciting diet, but easy on the stomach.  Two more days of that and I finally felt better.  So I endured this desert stomach flu through the cycle of the entire week.  I should be happy – after all, if this did not work, the medic mentioned some other special bugs in the sand – and apparently, there are amoeba cases that would take some nasty medication to get rid of, and I’m just glad that was not my case.  Whew!

Arabic?  

The University of Maryland distance learning offers elementary Arabic class here, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn one of the most popular languages in the world.  After looking into tuition assistance, it turns out that the Navy will pick up the tab; so I definitely would not pass it up – so long I pass the class.  The class lasted only 2 months, three times a week, and we learned the 28 alphabets, a few basic words and greetings. And so I knew I would need to continue when this first class finished.  I signed up for the later class, but unfortunately, only 6 people signed up and UCMC decided it’s not worth the effort to hold the class.  I was quite upset, since this would certainly cover any costs (the school charges each student about $700) and then the real cost is paying the instructor a flat $2500 fee.   I’ll try Rosetta Stone, but it’s definitely not the same of having a live interactive class.