I am in Iraq
This is a post from an earlier blog I kept…
Outside the Wire
August 31, 2005
I am sorry I haven’t written in a while. I have been trying to keep myself busy around here and it seems as if I’m doing a good job. Anyhow, I promised that I would tell you about what I do here for work. Well the answer is a bit tricky: because of my training I can do a lot of things, and because of my rank I also can do anything anyone else wants me to do that has nothing to do with my training. So in a nutshell; I do everything.
My average day starts out like this: I awake at about 8:50, fully clothed because I sleep in my DCU’s (partly because it is so cold in my room, and also because of the fact that I am so lazy I hate to wake up early). I go outside with a bottle of water, toothbrush and hand towel. I brush my teeth, and wash the crust out of my eyes (You get a lot of that here, probably because of the dust and sand that accumulates in your eyes during the course of the day). About 8:55 I head off to work, it takes me about 5 minutes to get to work. Once there I sit down at my makeshift desk (a long table with 3 laptops on it. The one in the middle belongs to me; in fact, it’s actually my laptop that I brought with me). I download music, play games, and surf the internet… This place is like my little hideout. There are three offices that my section has, two trailers, and a vault. One trailer is for people who work with the computers and the network, the vault is where we hold all of our secret radio frequencies and the keys to encrypt them, in order to gain access to either one of these offices you must have at least a Secret security clearance. The last trailer is the one I stay in most of the time, and I really have no idea what it’s for. Around 9:45 I’ll get bored with the internet and run over to the other 2 offices to see what’s up. But before I go any further let me explain the duties of a 25U. In AIT I was trained to be able to work on the computers, radios, tactical satellites, run cable, pretty much everything that they do over there. So I bounce from one office to the other accomplishing task after task. In reality, I work about as much as I want to. People in the army are really lazy, and I could easily sit on my butt all day and do nothing, but I choose not to. The way I see it, the more I work the faster time goes, and the sooner I’ll be home. I usually go to the Automations trailer first because I have more of an interest in computers than radios. I’ll ask if they have anything for me to do, and they’ll usually have something that they’ve been neglecting to do and I will offer to do it (like recently we had a lot of laptops with corrupted HD’s I went and replaced them all). Or a high-ranking officer will come in frantic complaining his computer doesn’t work, and he has tried everything and somebody broke it, and I will follow him to his office and plug his computer back in. If there’s nothing to do in Automations then I will go over to the COMSEC Vault and see what needs to be done. Maybe they will need frequencies reset on the General’s radio, or the encryption keys need updating. Other than that I spend much of my time on stupid little ‘missions’. I am the lowest ranking person in my company making me everyone’s little personal bitch. Little errands like escorting Iraqis around as they clean the bathrooms, and moving heavy equipment usually doesn’t bother me because they only get me when they really need me. (You didn’t think I’d be cleaning the bathrooms!? We pay the local people here to do everything here that nobody really wants to do, I’ll go into detail later). Recently I have somehow become solely responsible for setting up the necessary equipment for briefings and shows. It’s sort of like at church where we bring the speakers and the mixer and plug everything up. I recently did a meeting for the Colonel and General. I also did one show for those Hawaiian national guardsmen. They did a live Hawaiian band with ukuleles and hula dancers; it was great (I’m going to Hawaii!!!).
About a week ago I got the chance to go on a real mission. Civil affairs said they needed someone to accompany them on a convoy to check the water lines that go to the local villager. One of the people that worked with me put my name on the list; he said he’d done so because I said I expected to come in close contact with the locals. I was eager to go. “It’s on Thursday, be there at 0630,” he said. I woke up the next day around 6:00, as I set my feet on the floor I noticed my legs were sore. I had stayed in the gym late the night before because I couldn’t go to sleep. I did my usual morning ritual and left at about 6:10. I showed up at 6:45. “You’re late,” a specialist said. I recognized her from a time before when I came here once before and helped her with her iPod. “Got lost,” I grunted. I always get lost in this barren dusty place. Everything looks the same here, I once found myself walking in circles looking for something I passed twice before finding it. “You’ve been here before, how hard could it be?” she said sarcastically. My friend showed up after that. “I was looking for you, I thought you overslept,” he said. “Naw, I went to the wrong building,” I said. “Well c’mon let’s go clean our weapons, last thing we need is another Jessica Lynch,” he said. I followed him inside the building. We went inside the conference room and sat down. He reached into a green book bag and pulled out 4 loaded magazines and a cleaning kit. “Here you need at least seven loaded magazines when you go outside the wire,” he was referring to outside of the gates. He stood up and smiled, eyes twinkling. It was the kind of smile that said: ‘I hope we get to use every last one of them, too’. I chuckled at my own thoughts as he walked away. He stopped just shy of the door, turned around and said “Are you nervous?” I have heard this question and ones like it too much. And nobody ever likes my response. “No,” I said, “I never get nervous.” When I was young I had to memorize Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, and repeat it in front of an audience for black history month. My teacher would allow me to leave during class and go in the hallway to memorize it. When the day came I knew it by heart… or at least I thought. When I stood on that stage in front of what seemed like millions of people, I forgot everything. I just stood there. My music teacher bailed me out. She stood behind the curtain, out of sight, and whispered King’s famous words to me. Since that day, I vowed to purge the feeling of nervousness away from myself. When I would perform in from of lots of people with my church band I would never panic, I would simply bask in the attention. “What! You’re not nervous or scared!? We could get ambushed or hit an IED, and you’re not worried?” he questioned. “Nope,” I replied. He smirked and remarked, “Neither am I, cuz when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go.” I flashed him a crooked smile realizing he was a lot more willing to die for his country than I was. “Never really thought about it like that,” I mumbled to myself. He walked out. I began to clean my weapon. Shotgun weapon… Pull back charging handle… Pull out bolt… Disass— “Hey man, I see you’re cleaning your weapon; you must be a high-speed soldier!” It was the 1SG, not to be confused with the 1SG of previous letters. “Yeah, 1SG, I am just getting ready,” I said smiling. “We’re about to have the convoy briefing in here, but you’re fine to continue cleaning your weapon,” he said. Soldiers began gathering into the room including two majors, four NCO’s, the specialist, and my friend and I…
Post ends here. But here’s a photo from that day.
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