Chris' Deployment Journal

A photo entering the bleak, desolate wasteland that is the KRAB.

For one thing, the KRAB sets many of our rules and often times these rules just don't jive with our actual living situation here. For example, they forbid any soldiers to have cell phones. This is fine for them as the KRAB has many phone centers for people to call home (all while using readily available U.S. phone cards), but we don't have any such phone center. We have two (when they both work) satellite phones that we can sign out for a whopping twenty minutes at a time and these phones often drop calls and have a significant signal delay. (But at least they're free though.)

The KRAB also originally told our patrol base leaders that we couldn't hook up to the city's power, even though our power cuts off several times per hour and theirs never does (see 'Power to The People' below). They also made a rule on their base that all weapons must be kept at the 'ready' position at all times. There were reports of Air Force officers berating Army soldiers for not carrying their weapons at 'the ready' in the chow hall. Now, how do you hold a tray full of food and your M-16 at the ready? Funniest thing is, the Air Force personnel on the KRAB don't have to carry weapons at all.