Thanksgiving

A rare shot of the elusive Ronald of Arabia...

Thanksgiving was good. We actually had the big meal last Sunday, which was the last day our dining facility (DFAC) was open. For a bunch of contracted KBR subcontracted Pakistani dudes who have never seen a turkey, they blew it up pretty good. It was missing some key things, as we ran out of a bunch of stuff towards the end of the existence of the DFAC, as this was the last meal for our FOB. Somewhere they got a big ice sculpture, too.

For the actual day, we canceled our morning meetings and took a break. Since Sunday we've been on MREs and whatever food people had ratholed away from care packages (mail stopped in mid-October) and sundries people muled out of the chow hall when it was open. Today we did all get together for a UGR-E meal (Unit Ground Ration-E; I don't know what the E stands for-- expeditionary??). UGR-Es heat themselves and serve 10-12. They aren't bad, and the change of pace is nice. We've only got a few of these to tide us over before we leave to break up the MRE experience. Here's a picture of our First Sergeant serving us Thanksgiving "dinner." This is his 5th deployment since 2001.

We had a general come talk to us. Guess he thought the chow hall was going to be open and he was going to get to eat chow with us, but the joke was on him. He noted it stinks to spend a holiday away from family, but he asked us to think about what we did here. In eight years we overthrew a dictator and gave people an opporunity to decide for themselves. He also noted there are consequences to that decision, and that we certainly haven't done everything right, but at least the people have a voice and a chance to fix things themselves. Our commitment, made in June of 2008, was to leave by December 31st 2011, and we're on track to do just that. We've done it quietly, without fanfare, we've done it in contact, and we've done it as responsibly as we possibly can. He noted we've never done anything like this-- we're still in Germany, Japan, and Korea, and even Bosnia. When you put it in context, it's significant, although right now it feels like any other day, just less busy.

The words were interesting, and it makes you wonder what will happen. We'll see.

One thing I do want to see is Arkansas vs. LSU, and if everything goes well, we're going to watch it tomorrow night. WPS!!!!

Hope you and your families all had a good Thanksgiving. Take care-

Ron

Veterans Day

The Division we work for tasks units to provide an answer to the question "What Makes Me Strong?" They put the best answer on the Division home page. It's a take on the Army advertising campaign of "Army Strong." Some are inspiring, some are goofy, some are just plain dumb.

But Private First Class Gunn, one of the Soldiers who works in our Headquarters, hit one out of the park with this reflection on Veterans Day:

"Veterans make me strong. Knowing they have fought before me whether they volunteered or were drafted, seeing them stand and salute the flag just as I do makes me strong. It makes me feel honored that I have a right to follow in their footsteps. To have the ability to make sacrifices like them gives me strength. I am stronger when a veteran comes to me and tells me "thank you for your service" after shaking my hand, when all I want to do is shake their hand and thank them for their service. I vividly remember veterans marching down the field during my OSUT Graduation . The proud veterans walked, used canes, and some were in wheelchairs, but it didn't matter to me because watching them made me stronger. Watching them on that day, made me realize that you can do anything if you believe in yourself and believe in your country. It was visible on that day they were proud to have served their country, just as I am today. Now in support of Operation New Dawn, I fight for our country just as they did in previous wars. I know that they believe in me and it makes me strong. The Veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice fighting for our country, give me strength and pride to carry on."

Guys like this make me love going to work.

Veterans Day is not about the 'Occupy 99%' wackers, or Kim Kardashian's train wreck stunt marriage, or Veterans Day sales at department stores, or Real Housewives of New Jersey, or a chance to make a fool of yourself at a bar or a club because you got a day off. It's not about NBA strikes, Terrell Owens' inability to find a football team that will put up with him, or The Martyr Tupac, or any other made up heroes. It's about humble men and women who answered a call to serve so others could enjoy a good life.

Veterans Day is about the real "Less Than 1%" who make a difference so we don't have to, so take a moment today to say thanks, appreciate the cost of their sacrifice, and then go do some good.

Cheers to those who have served-- It's been an honor to be alongside you.

Somebody figured it out

The past two weeks have been interesting in that we saw the end state of negotiations between the US Government and Iraq over an extended US Troop presence. The sticking point, as you may recall, was immunity for US Forces left, which Maliki balked at.


I don't blame him. He actually comes out looking pretty good here. He stood up to The Infidel by drawing his line in the sand, which made the Shiites in the south happy (and also Iran). Then he rounded up a whole bunch of former Sunni Ba'athists (Saddam's old party) and he continues to hold them on grounds that they were plotting to overthrow the government. Now the Sunnis out in Anbar are threatening to overthrow the government, or at least secede. I don't have a lot of visibility over what's happening in the north, but the Kurds are angry, and the Turkish Army occasionally raids into Iraq to clean up a Turks vs. Kurdish mess from time to time.


I love this country.




The messed up part is all along our higher headquarters seemed to think the Iraqis would ask us to stay, and all would be right with the world. Now that the Iraqi Government served up some humble pie and eviction orders, our higher headquarters is scrambling a bit, as they planned the easy course of action (stay) as opposed to the hard course of action (pack it up).


So how do you get eight years of stuff (MAN, we spent a lot of money here) out of a country really fast, and how do you cajole a contracting support element consisting of an almost 1:1 Soldier to contractor ratio to get out? Essentially we have to figure out how to get 12,000 people off of the base in 30 days. The Soldiers are the easy part-- cut some redeployment orders, order up a plane, and send them on the way. Not many complain. But lots of our civilian contractor-folks are learning the hard way that the Uncle Sugar contracting gravy train is over, but they hang on to the end as long as possible, jumping from FOB to FOB, trying to stay until the last month and get the last check. Some of the people walking around our base haven't been home since 2003 (and some of them look it). I often wonder who they are hiding from, who they owe money to, or what their story is. So the challenge becomes how do we get them to leave?


Back in a previous post, I suggested closing the dining facilities, canceling Salsa Night, and shutting down the PX so Mr. KBR Swole dude who spends 3+ hours in the gym a day can't get his supplements. It's come to that-- 1 November brought about the close of the PX, the gym is now run by Soldiers, and soon the days of four hot meals will turn into all of the MREs you can eat. The chow part alone, we figure, should thin the herd. We already lost incoming mail (thanks to the USPS for cutting the APO off two weeks early), and I expect the internet to go in a couple of weeks (gotta figure out a new RonaldofArabia strategy...).

Some say Obama is responsible for this. The people who bring up the Obama credit theory don't seem to like the fact that the security agreement was negotiated in 2008 which noted all US forces had to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, by the Bush Administration.


I'm not complaining. While some of our higher leadership thinks we should stay, I believe we have to leave in order to let Iraq become whatever it will become. I see lots of parallels to the US revolution and its subsequent struggles with forming and operating a government, and it's time for Iraq to figure it out. I don't know what it will look like, but initially I predict a hot mess, but as long as the oil continues to flow and the economy gets going, it might be ok.

Stay tuned-- we're getting ready to re-enact an episode of The Clampetts...

RM