A mosque sitting in the sunset.

USAF Photo by Fisheye

All Quiet on the Western Front

It has been almost a month since my last entry. Some days have flown by while other seemed to take a month in themselves. We have since taken the reigns of the WIT mission here in the west. It has been relatively quiet here. I believe that may be in part due to the fact the Marines stake claim to the west and the insurgents know Marines don't mess around when it comes to good guys and bad guys. The way they conquered the west sent a clear and difinitive signal to the bad guys and as such, it has been pretty quiet.


We have since split the team, one going to a FOB to the north, another to a FOB to the east. My team lead and I are here although when evidence is shipped in, it is pretty much my show. He can then do what a team leader does and take care of the needs of his team. So in a way, I am alone in this deployment. I left my unit by myself and am now the only Air Force WIT asset in the Anbar province. Depending on how you play your hand, this could make for a long and grueling 6 months or with a little effort the time can pass...faster. I have found that a key to getting through every day is to have a routine. Since I have no Air Force leadership out here to say what it is I am supposed to do, I have become my own boss and set up a routine for myself. PT in the morning, chow at certain times and lights out around the same time every night. Looking back, it has made the time pass with a pretty fast pace.

I have also done my best to never have to be told anything. I take the initiative when I notice something needs to be done. The purpose of this is 2 fold. One, its just kinda who I am anyway and two, my hope is that if trends continue and activity stays to a minimal in the west then my good attitude would help when I ask the question in August to be redeployed back home early for the birth of my daughter. This is how I have chosen to play my hand and we will see if it bears fruit in the months ahead.

So life at Al Asad (or "The Lion" as it means in Arabic) has been pretty good thus far. I have done my job and been able to see a bit of the base. The one thing that really bugs me (no pun intended) are the insects and animals. You go for a run, and you run through a swarm of nats. You walk back from the shower trailer, through a swarm of nats. You go to sleep and wake up with mosquito and other little bug bites all over the place...and then they itch. Luckily I am now armed with a Benadryl stick my wife sent in a care package which has helped greatly. I have also decided to run in the mornings as I have seen no dog type animals at that time. At night they (I'm not sure if it is a type of dog, or coyote, or fox,....) come out and run infront of your truck. You can hear them yelping and growling in the wadi between our little camp area and the other part of base. I have seen them walkling through our parking lot at night on my trips to the latrines. I keep my distance as they have theirs so far.

Then there are the birds.

I like the birds which appear to be mostly Pigeons, Swallows and little Finch type birds. (Although there are these other ones with mohawks that i have yet to get a photo of.) I like listening to the birds singing as I am out and about. However, these have to possibly be the dumbest birds on the planet. I have seen them fly directly into trucks. I have seen them land in the middle of the road just as a MRAP's mine roller runs him over. I hate to see any animal hurt and I constantly yell at these dumb birds to stop doing what they are doing. It makes me sad. There is this one pigeon however that is always perched on top of one of the light posts when I am running in the morning. He always looks at me with his head cocked to one side as I run under him. Usually my comments are "Hello Mr Pigeon...please dont poo on me today."

And if you didnt have enough to watch out for, it seems all the people who were never taught to "look both ways" are stationed here. I have had more people almost walk right out in front of me without looking than I care to count. Do they not realize they are crossing an active street? And some of these uparmored vehicles are huge. I dont get it.

Well, that is really the latest and greatest from here since I can not get in to detail about any evidence or anything else I have processed due to obvious operations security. I have my routine and it gets me by. Well, that and the thoughts of a new baby at home and a Disney trip on the horizon. But those conversations are mostly kept just for my wife, my daughter and I.