Dining Facility Musings

Our dining facilities are worked by men from Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and a few other countries. I showed up right at the end of US breakfast because at 0830, they get to have their breakfast after serving us. A couple big hits for these fellows are:
- huge bowl of grits to dip french toast in to
- Cocoa Puffs and Apple Jacks (a true race of about 8 fellows to the cereal tables is fun to watch)
- curiousy enough, they put their cereal with milk into the microwave and nuke it for one minute. To each their own, I guess.
- some have been truly corrupted by the American diet as they chow through breakfast burritos and hash browns.

I can also tell the kids who have just returned from midnight convoys. Besides being dirty, most are outwardly still wired on adrenaline. By the time they have finished their meal, they are very calm and almost sedate in their post-mission body crash. My heart goes out to these kids because I know they are going out again tonite to face the danger that awaits. There are many young ladies mixed in to these units. I know how my folks must feel for me being here as I envision my girls potentially being in the same place in about 12 years. I have a lot of respect for these brave young ladies! These seemingly demure girls, throw on their body armor & helmet, adjust their pony tails and climb up into a gun turret behind a 50 caliber machine gun - standing ready to lay down a wall of death to whomever challenges the security of that convoy. Keep them in your prayers.

The team guarding our dining facilities, as I mentioned before, are African. I have found out they are from Uganda doing their part for the Iraqi effort. They still light up and greet me before I can get to the entrance. I have been teaching Swahili to my office colleagues who want to say hello in Swahili too.

My days have been very busy writing threat assessments and pouring through daily reports from many agencies. Our adversary is very well trained and have many advanced techniques and weapons at their disposal. It's obvious they watch us very closely and plan their attacks carefully to exploit weaknesses they see in our operations. There are no good answers for what we can do. The tide is turning in some places as the locals are enjoying more freedom of movement. They go out of their way to warn some units of bombs, caches, and the location of insurgents.

No matter when we leave, I truly believe U.S. forces will leave Iraq a much better place than when we rolled in...even if the press won't report it.