New Experiences

Well, I can now add traffic cop/harbor master to my resume. It appears that, like a child, the new Iraqi government doesn't know how to spend its money or meet obligations. A contractor, Global Security, used to provide civilian guards to guard the entry control points (ECP)'s to the camp. Well, the Iraqi government hasn't paid them in a couple of months (where the money the US gives Iraq goes, I don't know) so they walked out yesterday. Originally, 3rd ID tasked our brigade with providing an infantry company to pull some of the security (Quick reactionary force, tower guards, and one of the ECP's). What they got was people from my company, a signal company (communications), a couple of the support units and a light engineer company. I'm at one of the ECP's sitting up in the tower behind a .50 cal machine gun watching everything that goes on. There's a checkpoint about 100 yds or so down and in front. If something happens there, the tower next to me with the M240B, 7.62mm machine gun has priority to shoot the vehicle/driver. If he can't stop them, then I get to like them up with the .50 cal. I also control traffic. I watch for convoys coming in from the front and outgoing from the rear. I'm kind of like "eyes in the sky". I tell the two gates to let traffic in or out. It's kind of fun- sittin' there in my tower from midnight to 8am, puffin on a cigar, controlling traffic over the radio. The Nat'l guard infantry unit from Hawaii we're replacing is pretty cool to work with.
Well, that's what I'll be doing until we come off the detail. I may be doing this until we come home. Yeah, it's pretty cool, but I don't want to do it for 11 months. That's about all that's really going on now, with the exceptional mortar round that hits at camps near us every now and then. This is Baghdad and it is to be expected. Y'all take care. Ben, congrats on the weight loss. Cathy, e-mail me that pic of that fish. It's a beautiful fish.
Chris