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Thursday, February 10, 2005
The Patriots' Nest
So we’re finally settling into our permanent quarters. We took a Chinook helicopter ride up here and that was a trip. The choppers flew low, but then had to pull up to clear obstacles (power lines and all) and it was a real roller coaster of a ride. We were definitely whoopin’ and laughing a lot and we crossed the Euphrates River, which was certainly impressive (and extremely wide).
Then we spent a few days at a large Air Force base down the road, living in tents inside old Iraqi Air Force reinforced concrete hangers. When we finally convoyed to our ‘fire base’ here, there wasn’t quite yet room enough for us. So I spent two nights sleeping out by our pool, under an overhang. Of course it rained, and then started to blow under the overhang. So I slept part of one night in the gym.
When we finally could take possession of our space, we first had to clear it out. The 25th Infantry Division guys that left only had three squads here and we have four. So we had to disassemble their plywood walls (which were just sort of slapped together) and rearrange the whole space. Now we have about 28 guys living in about 2000 square feet of space. My squad’s area is about the size of my living room, yet we have seven guys living in it, with all our stuff. Fun.
One of our first tasks was to name our fire base, sometimes called a ‘Forward Operating Base’ or ‘FOB’. Now, the military always opts for tough sounding cool names. For example, when using a streamer to mark something, it’s never just a ‘streamer’, it’s a ‘wolf’s tail.’ (Yeah. Can you say too much testosterone?) Well, we were kicking around non-military names for the FOB, like FOB Chipmunk, FOB Day Lilly, FOB Pansy, FOB Spud, FOB-ulous, FOB-ulicious. I finally suggested FOB E. O. … pronounced ‘Fobio’. Alas, they didn’t go for any of our suggestions. So we’re FOB Barbarian. Ah well.
With all our moving around and all, I hadn’t slept much. The two nights poolside allowed me only a few hours actual sleep per night. Then our first night inside I had the pleasure of sleeping a foot or so (and one thin plywood wall away) from one of the nicest guys in the platoon, who is also known as ‘The Chainsaw’, due to his amazing loud snoring. I got maybe three hours sleep that night. The fourth night… I still couldn’t sleep. You see, there was this thing called the Super Bowl…
After a late night (and cold, rainy, blowing) patrol, we returned here, grabbed what food we could, cleaned our weapons, and I went to sleep at around 11:45 PM. The alarm went off at 1:45 AM, and I got up and had the pleasure of watching the entire game (while munching on some Twizzlers from a care package). So sweet to have the Patriots actually create… dare I say… a pro football dynasty.
And speaking of military jargon, my platoon has been on guard duty for the past few days. The guard location on the roof of our headquarters building is known as ‘The Eagle’s Nest.’ Well since the Patriots just beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, I had to rename it ‘The Patriots’ Nest.’ I would actually (and often) call in, "SOG [Sergeant of the Guard], this is Patriots Nest, radio check, over." What can I say, I’m a hoot.
Then we spent a few days at a large Air Force base down the road, living in tents inside old Iraqi Air Force reinforced concrete hangers. When we finally convoyed to our ‘fire base’ here, there wasn’t quite yet room enough for us. So I spent two nights sleeping out by our pool, under an overhang. Of course it rained, and then started to blow under the overhang. So I slept part of one night in the gym.
When we finally could take possession of our space, we first had to clear it out. The 25th Infantry Division guys that left only had three squads here and we have four. So we had to disassemble their plywood walls (which were just sort of slapped together) and rearrange the whole space. Now we have about 28 guys living in about 2000 square feet of space. My squad’s area is about the size of my living room, yet we have seven guys living in it, with all our stuff. Fun.
One of our first tasks was to name our fire base, sometimes called a ‘Forward Operating Base’ or ‘FOB’. Now, the military always opts for tough sounding cool names. For example, when using a streamer to mark something, it’s never just a ‘streamer’, it’s a ‘wolf’s tail.’ (Yeah. Can you say too much testosterone?) Well, we were kicking around non-military names for the FOB, like FOB Chipmunk, FOB Day Lilly, FOB Pansy, FOB Spud, FOB-ulous, FOB-ulicious. I finally suggested FOB E. O. … pronounced ‘Fobio’. Alas, they didn’t go for any of our suggestions. So we’re FOB Barbarian. Ah well.
With all our moving around and all, I hadn’t slept much. The two nights poolside allowed me only a few hours actual sleep per night. Then our first night inside I had the pleasure of sleeping a foot or so (and one thin plywood wall away) from one of the nicest guys in the platoon, who is also known as ‘The Chainsaw’, due to his amazing loud snoring. I got maybe three hours sleep that night. The fourth night… I still couldn’t sleep. You see, there was this thing called the Super Bowl…
After a late night (and cold, rainy, blowing) patrol, we returned here, grabbed what food we could, cleaned our weapons, and I went to sleep at around 11:45 PM. The alarm went off at 1:45 AM, and I got up and had the pleasure of watching the entire game (while munching on some Twizzlers from a care package). So sweet to have the Patriots actually create… dare I say… a pro football dynasty.
And speaking of military jargon, my platoon has been on guard duty for the past few days. The guard location on the roof of our headquarters building is known as ‘The Eagle’s Nest.’ Well since the Patriots just beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, I had to rename it ‘The Patriots’ Nest.’ I would actually (and often) call in, "SOG [Sergeant of the Guard], this is Patriots Nest, radio check, over." What can I say, I’m a hoot.
Posted by: Unknown / 9:11 AM 
