LSA Anaconda

At last - Dateline Balad Air Base, Iraq (otherwise known as Mortaritaville, Afiraqistan, LSA Anaconda, Joint Base Balad, etc., etc...)

I finally got here on Monday evening. We spent several days at the Sea Port of Debarkation on the Kuwaiti coast unloading and assembling our aircraft. The humidity there was astonishing. The daytime temps were around 117-122 and the heat index was around 135. At night, the temps moderated to around 100, but the humidity rose and again the index was over 125, but with no breeze. Those were by far the most brutal conditions I've ever experienced. The guys worked hard and managed to finish the job a day early with no casualties from either the heat or the work on the docks - Success! Sure took a lot of GatorAde and water....

The weather here in Balad seems quite nice by comparison. The humidity is almost nothing, so the high temps are much easier to take. It gets downright nice in the evenings here, except for the almost constant smog and odd dust storms. The dust is so fine that it hangs in the air for a day or two even after the smallest windy day. The visibility is bad enough that it's tough to fly. Even the small fixed wing Sherpa aircraft we use for light transport are grounded for at least part of most every day.

Life here is really not too bad. I have my own quarters. It's called a CHU (Containerized Housing Unit) - about 14 X 20, airconditioned, electricity, etc. The CHUs are organized in 'pods' of around 30 units surrounded by monolithic 12 foot tall concrete barrier walls. Each CHU is surrounded by another 6 foot wall of concrete barriers as well, so it's a real maze to find one's way around. Safe, though. They used to just pile sandbags around the things. It would take a remarkably unlucky mortar shot to hit your house. All the dining facility/PX type buildings are also surrounded by concrete barriers and have huge pole barn type roof structures built over them as well.

There's supposed to be cable TV, but mine's not working. That's OK because I haven't found a TV anyway and the only thing you can get is the 5 or so channels of AFN (Armed Forces Network).

It's about 200 meters to the dining facility and about 3/4 of a mile to work from there. The food is excellent - lots of fresh produce and fruit, lots of choices, all the ice cream you could ever want. We have a small PX on our side of the air base along with a really nice gym and rec facilities. They have a guitar jam on Tuesday nights, but I'm still waiting for mine to get shipped. There is a Burger King, Subway and Pizza Hut near the PX - a Haji mart for local stuff (lots of haggling and so forth) and even a Starbucks-like outfit called Green Beans where I grab a double iced Cafe Mocha on my way to work. I work in an air conditioned office for the most part. I spend a couple hours each day visiting the aircraft maintenance guys in all our battalions, making sure they have all the resources they need and rounding up contractor support and so forth.

F-16 fighters take off in pairs every 20 minutes or so around the clock and there's always a lot of helicopter traffic.

Anyway, sorry to be so long between blogs. Write if you can. I always like to hear from y'all. Here's my mailing address:

CW4 David R. Morse
HSC, 834th ASB
TF 34
APO AE 09391

Goodies are always welcome in Soldier land, but don't feel too sorry for us. We can buy nearly anything non-alcoholic we need.

We had a special ceremony yesterday commemorating 9/11. We put on our 'combat patches' and took pictures of our group in front of the flagpoles on top of our hangar building. It kind of looks like a concrete igloo. It's called a Hardened Aircraft Shelter (HAS). Ours is actually two side by side covered with a single roof - thus the nickname, Double Has.

It's traditional that troops put the unit patch normally worn on the left sleeve on the right sleeve if in a combat zone. You wear that patch on the right side for the rest of your career - kind iof a special moment for some of us.

I don't know if "Stars and Stripes" has a good website, but that newspaper is the best one I've seen in years. Makes the Waterloo Courier look like the rag it's become. We all look forward to it every morning.

Gosh - double iced cafe mocha and a good newspaper for breakfast. Doesn't sound too bad, eh?

The internet service is OK. I am currently sending this from a free internet cafe near my office. I haven't found a good service to hook up my own computer to. There's supposed to be a wireless system, but I can only see a faint connection once in awhile.

There are several places to make phone calls. The system is called SpaWar Europe and calls are about 3-4 cents/minute. The connection is really good and there's no time delay that I can tell. Calling times are kind of odd as we're 8 hours ahead of Iowa time.

Well, time to go back to work. One more in the endless series of Groundhog days. Working about a 10-12 hour day, seven days a week, but I don't know what the heck we'd do if we had a day off anyway... Let's see, it's around 1400 local time, so that makes it 0600 Iowa time - Good Morning!

Later, Dave

Weekend Update.........

Well,

I suppose I should apologize for not updating sooner, but we've been a little preoccupied in the Morse household. Lois did get her bike, then we had an incident (See her blog: Three times is a Charm and Carrie's blog: Mike and Carrie Starting Out for the gruesome details and pics. Both of these are accessible from my blog list on the left margin. You know, that one, over there <-.

I ended up staying at home for an extra 10 days or so - (Thanks honey, but please don't go to such an extreme again to get me a few days of leave) - but now I'm back at Ft Sill. My flight leaves tomorrow at 1800 Local (6:00 PM for all you civilians out there) for Kuwait City International. As luck would have it, I'll still make it to the war in time to ensure we win, so don't fret.

I have a specific mission when I get there and I'll still be in time, so everything is working out OK. I'll try and get some pics next time - as long as I can get the S2 folks' blessing. Operational Security and all that......

Poor Lois is still pretty sore, but she's going to heal up just fine and she's still excited about her new bike. We plan to enjoy some pre-retirement riding when I get home and see if it's really going to be as much fun as we hope.

Thanks so much to all of you who have offered aid and assistance. Gotta mention Lori Miller and her kind gift of ribs that first Friday night when Lois got out of the hospital. Then, she followed that up with a great crockpot pork loin dinner a couple of days later. Lois was going to call her the next afternoon and ask her what was for dinner! Thanks, Lori. You're the greatest, and it couldn't have come at a better time. OK Perry, thanks to you, too. I know you want some of the credit...

I'll most likely be out of touch for a bit - gonna be on the move for a few weeks, so I won't have unlimited access to the 'net until we get settled in Iraq. I'll try and post a quickie from the nearest "Internet Cafe" wherever I happen to be.

I understand my duty station is quite civilized, so I should eventually be up and running as normal.

Keep on writing - I love to hear what's happening in the real world..

Later, Dave

So Long, Oklahoma

Well, I might be a bit premature, but our time at Ft Sill is rapidly coming to an end. Most of us are on leave until Sunday. I left with some compadres about 1:30 AM on Tuesday and got home around noon. Not much sleep on the trip, but I'll still take the certainty and lack of hassle of a rental car over rolling the dice on an airline these days.

Iowa looks great - and the family looks even better. Even ol' Ranger is back on all four wheels and jumping around after his ACL surgery.

We had a good old fashioned Army sendoff on Monday, complete with all the traditional speechifyin' and the obligatory standing in the direct sun in an open field for at least an hour.... soldiers dropping like flies - not me, though - too tough....

I think there were around 1700 of us from the Task Force at Sill. There are roughly 1000 more folks already in theater that are part of our Combat Aviation Brigade. I'll be home until Sunday morning, and we should be leaving for Kuwait very shortly after we get back. I'd be surprised if we saw another weekend in Oklahoma. We sent several folks on the advance party last month and they are pretty impressed with the 120 degree temps in Kuwait right now. We'll spend a week or two there before we go up to Balad Air Base. They're actually calling it Joint Base Balad now instead of Anaconda. Something to do with the Air Force taking over - who knows?

Here are three old codgers still spry enough to make the trip:

CW5 John West - 59. I've known Johnny for most of my career. He used to fly Huey gunships back when we were in the Cav and he's now a CH-47 Chinook driver and the battalion aviation safety officer. He definitely didn't think having all of us in the hot sun was a good safety decision, but we had our camelbacks for water and there were medics about. The medics got plenty of IV practice...

CW4 Dave somebody or other - 56. I've known this bozo all my life - currently the 834th Aviation Battalion Support Ops Aviation Maintenance Officer

CW2 Gary Freel - 49?, 50?. Who knows for sure. Gary just graduated from the Warrant Officer Candidate Course at Ft Rucker - (see earlier blog) - and has been along on all three of our deployments now since 9/11. He was enlisted for his first 28 years in the Guard. Gary and John are traditional Guard guys - not full time - John's a retired police lieutenant from Marshalltown and Gary works for the city of Ames

Several Minneapolis businesses donated tons of great steak, beer and all the fixings for a really nice send off party at the Ft Sill Rec area. They brought a couple of bands and probably 50-60 volunteers who cooked, ran the bar, cleaned up - you name it, they took care of it. They also brought 3500 steaks, 4000lbs of spuds and a truckload of beer for us and any family and friends who could be there. I'll try and get a good list of the contributers so you folks vay up dere in da Nord country can patronize them. Stop by and give them a big thank you.

Now for the BIG NEWS! Lois took her first test ride on the HD Sportster 1200 Low yesterday. We should pick it up tomorrow or Friday. She's very excited and she looks great on it.

Well, more later - Thanks for all your support. Keep those emails coming.

Dave

Here's Your Sign...

I thought I'd throw in a few signs you don't see in your average Mall parking lot. These remind me that I'm on an Army Post, just in case I might forget.

This thing below is a 'Clearing Barrel'. The idea is that every time you enter a building, you go through the steps to make sure your weapon is cleared and safed. The barrels are filled with concrete and sand to absorb small arms impacts from within. You stick the barrel of your weapon in the hole as you clear it. As we are not carrying live ammunition here at Ft Sill, this barrel has tape over the opening to keep the critters (and cigarette butts and candy wrappers) out. Seems like Accidental Discharges (some might say, Negligent Discharges) were accounting for enough injuries to make this a good idea overseas. After all, most average Americans aren't used to carrying loaded machine guns around all the time.....

Just in case you need instructions on clearing your weapons:

Lois has her first day of motorcycle riding at the local Harley shop's beginners riding course today. I'm excited for her - and just a little worried, but not too much. If all goes well, she'll have her bike license by Monday and we can go shopping when I'm home on leave. At least ONE of us will have a bike.

I sure do miss the music at Overman Park in downtown Cedar Falls this year. From what I hear, it's as much fun as ever. Save me a spot or two on next years' calendar - most likely later in the season, but I'll be there!

Getting down to the last couple of weeks here. Everyone is getting antsy and ready to go. Most of us are looking forward to some leave the first week of August. I can hardly wait. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

If you can, drop in on the Medevac sendoff on Aug 5th. I believe it's at 6:00 PM at Hawkeye Community College. All my BlackHawk med guys from Waterloo are going to Iraq, too. They're coming here to Ft Sill just as we leave, so they'll be 'in country' just a couple of months after we are. I don't know if we'll cross paths down here or not, but I'm sure I'll see some of them over there.

Well, as always, write when you find the time.

Here's a piece of advice from a fairly wealthy man I know. When asked the secret of his success, he replied:

"Get what you can, Can what you get, and sit on the cans."

Later, Dave

One Day At A Time.....

Here's our Task Force 34 Logo. The blue is Aviation Blue, the odd shaped outline in the background represents Iraq, the snorting bull stands for the 34th Inf Division "Red Bull Division", and the stars represent all the states who have soldiers in the Brigade. OIF 08-10 stands for Operation Iraqi Freedom, 08 for 2008, and the 10 stands for this being the 10th OIF cycle since 2003, when the war in Iraq began.

TF 34 is actually the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, augmented with some other National Guard elements. We are the second all National Guard Combat Aviation Brigade to take over this mission. The first was the 36th, which returned last September, and included units from around 34 states, including the Iowa National Guard Assault Helicopter Company from Boone.

The top pic is the full color version of the division shoulder patch. The Red Bull insignia of the 34th Infantry Division was based on a design by Marvin Cone of Cedar Rapids, Ia., who drew it for a contest while training with the Division at Camp Cody in 1917. A steer skull imposed on the shape of a Mexican water jar (called an "olla") recalled the Division's desert home not far from the Mexican border. During WW II, German soldiers in Italy referred to the American soldiers who wore the familiar patch as "Red Devils" or "Red Bulls". The latter name stuck, and the Division soon adopted it officially.

OK, enough of the boring history lesson..... We are mired in that looooong, sloooow period of waiting for deployment overseas. The aircraft are going to be enroute soon, so my maintenance business is very slow. A few later arriving soldiers are still doing some required training, but the rest of us are pretty much in the wait mode. There's no point in us going overseas until just before the aircraft arrive, so we might as well stay here out of harm's way for the time being. Most of us are taking a few days' leave in the next few weeks - getting home for those last minute hugs and honey-do's - but we're mostly ready to just get on with it.

The overall mood is OK, but it kind of goes up and down. The troops are bored, and chafing at the 'groundhog day' atmosphere. Our platoon went out for dinner last night to the Outback Steakhouse. It's amazing what a little change of pace can do for your attitude. We shopped at WalMart after dinner. Usually, Lois has to drag me in there, but it was actually pretty OK. I bought a couple of old movies to put on my external hard drive. I'm up to about 600GB worth at this point, so I should be properly entertained in the desert.

Let's see, did I tell you about Humvee rollover training? That was interesting. We climbed into a mockup Humvee trainer which flipped over. We had to figure out how to get out of our restraints and get out of the vehicle upside down - not an easy trick while wearing all the protective stuff and carrying your gas mask and weapon. At first, we treated it like a carnival ride, but with 40 extra pounds of crap on, it was an awful lot like grass drills the first week of highschool football practice. Oh, by the way, the doors on an up-armored hummer weigh about 450 pounds, so you don't just kick them open and roll out......

Well, I'd better go for now. Remember, comments and emails are always welcome.

Later,

Rollover Dave

Hydromaniacs

Ya gotta follow this link to watch our "Hydromaniacs" on their YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWSE4Pitr9M

These two guys are just two of our Pneudraulics mechanics - the guys who deal with fixing the hydraulic and pneumatic systems on our aircraft. It might be hard to follow some of the 'lingo', but it makes sense to us....

The Spam they sing about is an expandable maintenance shelter - kind of a portable shop, with its own generator, AC unit, lights, special tools and so forth.

Shot on the veranda outside the second floor of the barracks we all live in. Enjoy....

Later, Dave

Big Windy on the move

"Big Windy" is just one of our fond nicknames for the CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The first four launched from the airfield this morning for the 3 hour flight to port. We'll be moving some every day until all have safely arrived there. If I can, I'll try and get a picture or two of the aircraft being loaded into the hold. The Chinook carries a crew of four - Pilot, CoPilot, Crew Chief and Flight Engineer - and can carry about 35 troops with all their stuff. A Humvee will fit inside the cargo bay and it can lift a huge amount externally. Quite a flying machine...

One of my favorite young soldiers, Derrick Larson, was promoted to SGT tonight. It's quite a step for a young man to become a Non Commissioned Officer. Real responsibility and leadership - all that good stuff. Derrick and his brother, Braden, have been members of the Iowa National Guard for several years, and are just another example of a family commitment to defending America.

Lois and the kids are doing pretty well at home, all things considered. Ranger the newest of the Wonder Dog line, is recovering nicely from ACL surgery earlier this year, and has resumed his perch on the back of the couch growling at squirrels and rabbits out the window. Laura is interning for a groomer in Hudson as part of her course at Hawkeye Community College, and Carrie and Mikey are living the high small town life in Readlyn, about 30 miles north of Cedar Falls.

I just finished Oliver North's book, "American Heroes in the fight against radical Islam". If you haven't seen the war from other than the mainstream media side, give it a look. There are many inspiring individual stories of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and National Guardsmen and women included, as well as his perspective on the progress made in Iraq over the last five years. It may give you pause - it cleared up some things for me.

God Bless America,

Dave