Friday, September 10, 2004
I'm going to Disneyworld!!...I got a call from my BN Commander last night telling me that I have been officially chosen to go to Iraq. I've known about the possibility for about a month now, but I guess it's official now. What great fun!! I can't wait to go *not* .
Tentatively I'm going to be going to Numaniyah, just south of Baghdad in central Iraq. You can check out this map to see where that is. Just find Baghdad, then follow the Tigris river south. There you'll find Numaniyah.
I've been told that the activation will be for about 18 months, with one year total in Iraq and three months on either end here in the States. It could be more, it could be less. You never can tell with the Army. The total activation length really depends on how much time I spend mobilizing and demobilizing. My clock doesn't start until I hit the ground in Iraq though, so the less time I have to spend getting ready to go, the better!
There is a silver lining to going to Iraq however. The timing of my activation works out well for me and a number of other people. I'll be making some pretty good money over there (have you seen the number of special pays you get for going over there?!? My god, war pays well) so I'm hopeful I'll be able to pay off some bills while I'm gone. Kelley needed an apartment and I needed someone to watch my apartment while I'm gone, so she's going to move in while I'm gone and take care of my place for me (she practically lives there now anyway *lol*). Dad needs a new car and I need someone to watch my car, so he's gonna take my car while I'm in Iraq. All in all, it does seem to fit well with where I am in life right now. At least I've got that going for me.
My thoughts on going over there? I'm not really worried about going. The odds of being killed or injured over there seem pretty slim when you crunch the numbers. I mean, we’ve move hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of tons of equipment in and out of the middle east for almost two years now. We’ve invaded, fought, and won a war against a foreign country and occupied it for more than a year. In the course of all this, only 1000 people have died, including accidents! I've read wounded estimates in the range of 7000, but even still. Those numbers are low considering what's being accomplished. Pretty incredible if you ask me.
On the flip side, I've spent enough time in the field from my active duty days to know what it's like, and it's not always fun depending on how rustic your living conditions are. I'm just hoping the Army has had a chance to build up the facilities a bit before I get there so I'm not living out of a tent and pissing in a cat hole for the whole time I'm there =) My only real worry is driving in convoys. Seems like every time you turn on the TV another road side bomb is going off, blowing up a Humvee. I'm hopeful that I won't have to be doing much driving. If I have any say in it, I'm spending the entire time on post behind those locked gates. With any luck it will be the most boring year of my life!!
My gut feeling is that where I'm going in Numaniyah won't be too bad, as it's a command cell based in an old Iraqi air field. I'm supposed to be providing telecommunications support to a J-Cell (Joint Cell) which means it's the place where a bunch of officers from all branches of the military manage operations. This is a good thing because:
Tentatively I'm going to be going to Numaniyah, just south of Baghdad in central Iraq. You can check out this map to see where that is. Just find Baghdad, then follow the Tigris river south. There you'll find Numaniyah.
I've been told that the activation will be for about 18 months, with one year total in Iraq and three months on either end here in the States. It could be more, it could be less. You never can tell with the Army. The total activation length really depends on how much time I spend mobilizing and demobilizing. My clock doesn't start until I hit the ground in Iraq though, so the less time I have to spend getting ready to go, the better!
There is a silver lining to going to Iraq however. The timing of my activation works out well for me and a number of other people. I'll be making some pretty good money over there (have you seen the number of special pays you get for going over there?!? My god, war pays well) so I'm hopeful I'll be able to pay off some bills while I'm gone. Kelley needed an apartment and I needed someone to watch my apartment while I'm gone, so she's going to move in while I'm gone and take care of my place for me (she practically lives there now anyway *lol*). Dad needs a new car and I need someone to watch my car, so he's gonna take my car while I'm in Iraq. All in all, it does seem to fit well with where I am in life right now. At least I've got that going for me.
My thoughts on going over there? I'm not really worried about going. The odds of being killed or injured over there seem pretty slim when you crunch the numbers. I mean, we’ve move hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of tons of equipment in and out of the middle east for almost two years now. We’ve invaded, fought, and won a war against a foreign country and occupied it for more than a year. In the course of all this, only 1000 people have died, including accidents! I've read wounded estimates in the range of 7000, but even still. Those numbers are low considering what's being accomplished. Pretty incredible if you ask me.
On the flip side, I've spent enough time in the field from my active duty days to know what it's like, and it's not always fun depending on how rustic your living conditions are. I'm just hoping the Army has had a chance to build up the facilities a bit before I get there so I'm not living out of a tent and pissing in a cat hole for the whole time I'm there =) My only real worry is driving in convoys. Seems like every time you turn on the TV another road side bomb is going off, blowing up a Humvee. I'm hopeful that I won't have to be doing much driving. If I have any say in it, I'm spending the entire time on post behind those locked gates. With any luck it will be the most boring year of my life!!
My gut feeling is that where I'm going in Numaniyah won't be too bad, as it's a command cell based in an old Iraqi air field. I'm supposed to be providing telecommunications support to a J-Cell (Joint Cell) which means it's the place where a bunch of officers from all branches of the military manage operations. This is a good thing because:
- It's hard to operate computers and telecommunications equipment without electricity. If there's electricity and computers, it's probably indoors. If it's indoors, there's probably water (read: showers & toilets) and air conditioning. Computers don't functions too well in 140 degree weather, so I have a hard time imagining here not being AC. I'm also figuring that if there's electricity and computers, there's going to be Internet connections, so I should be able to keep in touch via email and maybe update the site once in a while.
- If the J-Cell is full of officers, they're probably going to make sure they're comfortable. I get to benefit from being near all the big wigs because my quarters will be better than someone out in the middle of nowhere.
So, that's the story on my upcoming deployment. I'll write more as I have more thoughts. Enough for now though.
[Posted by Mark @ 1:44 AM]
Comments:
Hey Mark, the minute you know your mailing address out there you email jdrowe@rochester.rr.com so we here in little old Rochester can send you plenty of snail mail!
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Hey Mark, the minute you know your mailing address out there you email jdrowe@rochester.rr.com so we here in little old Rochester can send you plenty of snail mail!
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