100 Days

Now that I have gone back and used spell checker and clarified my thoughts: 100 Days revised

Normally in the government sphere, there is some significance about the "First 100 Days". Being the captive audience, government employee that I am, I'll reflect on my first 100 days on this second trip to Iraq.

My first observation is that I have actually been gone from my home for 122 days. The first 22 days of training didn't count into this deployment...they were just combat and electronic warfare training. The clock finally started ticking when we set foot in Kuwait for our advanced training before arriving in Iraq.

I read through five different intelligence summaries called INTSUMS (creative, huh?) every day and three of them have, on average, 25 post-patrol reports. To date, I have read through 156 INTSUMS and 5,750 patrol reports about IED's. It's through these reports that I learn about the loss of soldiers in horrific detail and pictures. Those details, pictures, and some times the names of the lost are snapshots in time that will never leave and forever weigh heavy on my heart and mind.

My schedule runs about 13 hours each day. It could be much more, but at a certain point, you just have to say 'enough' and know that everything will still be there in the morning. The length of time spent at work is exacerbated by the fact that I work in a Navy-run organization. They have the "Boat Mentality". When you are adrift in the ocean with nowhere to go, you simply stay at work for 18 hours and then go back for a couple hours of sleep and do the same thing the next day. I do my best to be an example to my colleagues and break that paradigm of endless droning hours at work in order to go back to my trailer and have some 'non-work just me reading a book or calling home ' time. Working 7 days a week with no days off, you'll drive yourself into an unstable state of mind if you can't change focus. It's all about Balance, Grasshopper...

Both during and after work, I have availed myself to the gym and to church. Both locations are a salvation in and of themselves. Although I read from the Bible nightly, I can't always say the same for going to the gym. I'll have to make the change to my schedule in order to make more time to work out. Sunday's church services and fellowship have been good for a spiritual uplift from the death and destruction I read about and report everyday.

Technology is a wonderful thing...when it works...and resources must be used to the fullest extent. Networks are set up for people to share information and there is often a share drive set up on the server for the network. Golden rule #1 ALWAYS back up your files to an outside source such as CD or the share drive. One never knows when a hard drive for their computer will suddenly become corrupted and all the hours and effort of creating and saving for future reference is forever wiped away. So now, I copy every new document over to my folder on the share drive...

Being deployed exposes you to so many new people. I am very fortunate to work with the personalities of the men in my office. Granted there are days when the humor and farting is a bit too much to handle (results of my own fatigue) but across the board I am fortunate to work with top-notch professionals who make being at work as worthwhile as the mission we complete.

I am also very fortunate to be friends with the Ugandans who provide security on our base. Magala, JohnBosco, Festo, Joseph, Emmanuel, and Allen are just a few who have befriended me and work to help me become fluent in Swahili. They all have great personalities and are happy to meet me half-way in learning not just the language, but about their tribes and country. These men are all very educated and unfortunately do not have many jobs to choose from in Uganda. Thus, they take contract jobs outside the country for work and money. Magala and his friend have started a school in their village. His work here earns money to pay for the land and building of their school. My family and I have committed to supporting his school with supplies and books in the near future.

Lastly, is close encounters of the explosive kind. Throughout the day we hear explosions and gunfire on the other side of the perimeter wall...from which we are situated about 75ft away. Volume and shock wave are the two factors we use to judge the proximity of explosions. Inside our office, we have a dry erase board hanging in front of our window. Explosions that are close enough will actually bow the window and shake the white board. We'll look at each other with raised eyebrows and say,"Nice one!". Two nights ago, I had the utmost in "Holy Smokes!! I need to duck" experiences ever. Usually, I go prairie dogging after an explosion, but not this one...at least not for 5 minutes! At 1:40 in the morning, this explosion actually lit up the inside of my trailer -despite the brown towel I have hanging in the window to block out morning sunlight - and the shock wave went through my trailer like an earthquake. I actually expected to see some huge smoking hole in front of my trailer. I don't know what it was or where it took place, but it was by far the largest explosion I have been exposed to yet.

Basically, I am safe where I work and do not face the dangers and death that Army kids deal with day in and day out for their 15 months here. I often feel guilty for my desk job and leaving after only 6 months. As Pastor Mike prayed over me before my departure in January, "The Lord has a plan for my presence here..." I keep praying for the insight to realize the Lord's plan and His intentions for my personal and professional work. I am satisfied and content that I have valuable work and contribute to the counter-IED mission...albeit from a desk. I have supplied intelligence directly to units used for mission planning and have been pleased to read the results of their missions.

This was once the fertile crescent and the birthplace of humanity...with the believed location of the Garden of Eden. This country (and the entire region of the Middle East), in my opinion, is the belly of the Beast. We are trying to provide Western values and policies to a place so locked in an environment that stopped evolving over a thousand years ago. The disparity is so great that we can't expect to succeed in my lifetime. The biggest difference we face is in the value of life. Western cultures cherish it and the hard liner's & extremists see other's lives (not their own) as expendable...using women, children, and animals to blow up American soldiers. I have no answers (other than the use of fissile weapons to wipe the slate clean) but know the battle will continue for a very long time. If the mass populace wants a real reason to complain to their Congressman about the US involvement here, have them complain loudly about the Iranians. While they are at it, they should also ask our courageous Democratic led House and Senate "leaders" to take a break from bashing the President and come up with a plan to deal with filthy Persians. Just my opinion.

100 days down, 82 to go...