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Thursday, February 17, 2005
No Electron Tuesdays
Yesterday was a pretty good day. We were on the last day of a three-day QRF (Quick Reaction Force – basically just standing by in case any of the patrols were to get in trouble at all) rotation and it was the first day of ‘No Electron Tuesdays’.
We (almost) all have our laptops, in addition to DVD players, PlayStations and Xboxes and I noticed that we spend an inordinate amount of time staring at screens (yeah, this is not exactly The Battle of the Bulge or Vietnam). So I suggested No Electron Tuesdays, where we can’t use any electronics for the day and actually have to interact with each other. It was funny but the old guys in our squad (29 and up) immediately loved the idea while the other guys (24 and under) immediately hated it. It was an optional thing anyways so we went forward.
A bunch of us started playing a dice game called ‘10,000’, which was fun, and then we jumped into a card game called ‘Skip-Bo’, which I think Sally or our friend Laura bought for me. We had a great time playing that. We started with about seven of us (including guys from other squads) and played for a while, and started to use various chants, yells, and other stupid stuff. Example: whenever someone would play a Skip-Bo card, we’d all yell, ‘SKIP-BO!’ then start singing a song (just doing ‘nah-nah-nah’) then finish up with, ‘Oy, oy, oy!’, then Sgt Carter would finish it by yelling, "LOUD NOISES!" (Which is a line from the movie Anchorman.) It was great fun and just about everyone seemed to like the idea of No Electron Tuesdays, including a number of guys from the rest of the platoon that stopped by or joined in with us.
During all this, our Battalion commander, Major General Gayhart, came to our little fire base for a visit. We never saw him, but as QRF, got to convoy him back to the main Air Force Base on the other side of town.
First though, he had to visit the local police commander, and we spent a few hours visiting with the local cops. As always, the Iraqis first asked about our families, since they’re so family-focused here. This usually starts off with them asking, "Madame? Babies?" and then we tell them about our wives and kids and they do the same. One cop, who was 24, has four wives and ten kids! We talked, as best we could, about how good it is for us all to work together against ‘Ali Babba’, the universal name for insurgents or just plain ‘bad guys.’
As we sat at the station, it was warm and sunny after about ten days of overcast, rainy skies. A local kid sold us candy bars and banana-filled cupcake things while we watched the sprawling ruins of the citadel (where Daniel from the Bible is supposed to be buried) across the river. SPC Smith, who’s a nurse in real life, showed the police our first aid bag, discussed techniques, and gave them some of the new ‘one-handed’ tourniquets that we recently received. The cops played us music off their truck’s radios and everyone took pictures.
Then talk turned to weapons, they being enamored by Sgt. Dmitrov’s shotgun, and our guys interested in their Glock pistols. Apparently a 9mm Glock, which goes for $500 in the States, is only $100 here. However, they can only afford a few bullets per man so many of the police only had two rounds per guy. Sgt. Stewart, who is a full-time Military Policeman back in Idaho and who was already taking the time to teach them various cop tactics, started to hand out what 9mm ammo he could. They reciprocated with what they could, giving us now outdated ‘Vote Iraq’ buttons and lighters. They also awarded Sgt. Stewart a delicious falafel sandwich on fresh local bread. We passed it around the Humvee as we drove off, finally bringing the general back to the main base.
Dinner was good enough and I maintained the ‘No Electron Tuesday’ by reconfiguring my gear (adding large ammo pouches to my new thigh-rig panels, which allows me to carry ammo off my already overloaded, and heavy, body armor in a more accessible spot on my legs) and then reading a great book by lamp light… until the power surged and the bulb blew out (we lose power here about four to ten times a day, at least momentarily).
Finally, I finished off the good day with my first shower in almost a week (thankfully over that time we had a TON of baby wipes that we used to clean up with). A city water project meant we had no water for several days and we did our best, when we could, to flush our two toilets (for 38 guys) with cans of water we refilled off a water trailer. But the water is back on now, sporadically (actually it’s been off most of the day), and my shower was really warm, almost hot, and I hard a hard time getting out.
Then I walked back to our dark little, plywood hovel in the midst of our platoon bay area, joked with the guys a bit, then slept for almost a full eight hours. Not bad at all.
We (almost) all have our laptops, in addition to DVD players, PlayStations and Xboxes and I noticed that we spend an inordinate amount of time staring at screens (yeah, this is not exactly The Battle of the Bulge or Vietnam). So I suggested No Electron Tuesdays, where we can’t use any electronics for the day and actually have to interact with each other. It was funny but the old guys in our squad (29 and up) immediately loved the idea while the other guys (24 and under) immediately hated it. It was an optional thing anyways so we went forward.
A bunch of us started playing a dice game called ‘10,000’, which was fun, and then we jumped into a card game called ‘Skip-Bo’, which I think Sally or our friend Laura bought for me. We had a great time playing that. We started with about seven of us (including guys from other squads) and played for a while, and started to use various chants, yells, and other stupid stuff. Example: whenever someone would play a Skip-Bo card, we’d all yell, ‘SKIP-BO!’ then start singing a song (just doing ‘nah-nah-nah’) then finish up with, ‘Oy, oy, oy!’, then Sgt Carter would finish it by yelling, "LOUD NOISES!" (Which is a line from the movie Anchorman.) It was great fun and just about everyone seemed to like the idea of No Electron Tuesdays, including a number of guys from the rest of the platoon that stopped by or joined in with us.
During all this, our Battalion commander, Major General Gayhart, came to our little fire base for a visit. We never saw him, but as QRF, got to convoy him back to the main Air Force Base on the other side of town.
First though, he had to visit the local police commander, and we spent a few hours visiting with the local cops. As always, the Iraqis first asked about our families, since they’re so family-focused here. This usually starts off with them asking, "Madame? Babies?" and then we tell them about our wives and kids and they do the same. One cop, who was 24, has four wives and ten kids! We talked, as best we could, about how good it is for us all to work together against ‘Ali Babba’, the universal name for insurgents or just plain ‘bad guys.’
As we sat at the station, it was warm and sunny after about ten days of overcast, rainy skies. A local kid sold us candy bars and banana-filled cupcake things while we watched the sprawling ruins of the citadel (where Daniel from the Bible is supposed to be buried) across the river. SPC Smith, who’s a nurse in real life, showed the police our first aid bag, discussed techniques, and gave them some of the new ‘one-handed’ tourniquets that we recently received. The cops played us music off their truck’s radios and everyone took pictures.
Then talk turned to weapons, they being enamored by Sgt. Dmitrov’s shotgun, and our guys interested in their Glock pistols. Apparently a 9mm Glock, which goes for $500 in the States, is only $100 here. However, they can only afford a few bullets per man so many of the police only had two rounds per guy. Sgt. Stewart, who is a full-time Military Policeman back in Idaho and who was already taking the time to teach them various cop tactics, started to hand out what 9mm ammo he could. They reciprocated with what they could, giving us now outdated ‘Vote Iraq’ buttons and lighters. They also awarded Sgt. Stewart a delicious falafel sandwich on fresh local bread. We passed it around the Humvee as we drove off, finally bringing the general back to the main base.
Dinner was good enough and I maintained the ‘No Electron Tuesday’ by reconfiguring my gear (adding large ammo pouches to my new thigh-rig panels, which allows me to carry ammo off my already overloaded, and heavy, body armor in a more accessible spot on my legs) and then reading a great book by lamp light… until the power surged and the bulb blew out (we lose power here about four to ten times a day, at least momentarily).
Finally, I finished off the good day with my first shower in almost a week (thankfully over that time we had a TON of baby wipes that we used to clean up with). A city water project meant we had no water for several days and we did our best, when we could, to flush our two toilets (for 38 guys) with cans of water we refilled off a water trailer. But the water is back on now, sporadically (actually it’s been off most of the day), and my shower was really warm, almost hot, and I hard a hard time getting out.
Then I walked back to our dark little, plywood hovel in the midst of our platoon bay area, joked with the guys a bit, then slept for almost a full eight hours. Not bad at all.
Posted by: Unknown / 2:49 PM 
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What is this "eight hours of sleep" of which you speak? Aaaahhhh, those were the days. Love ya, babe. XO, SG
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