CONTACT INFO

OK, for those of you kind enough to ask, here is my contact info...

For US Postal Service:

LCDR Dennis Faix
TF62 Medical Brigade
Camp Victory Base
APO AE 09342

e-mail:
dennis.faix@iraq.centcom.mil
dennis.faix@gmail.com

phone:
DSN: 318 822 3837

Catch-22

I was given some second-hand (possibly third-hand) advice upon my receipt of deployment orders to Iraq. The advice was to read the classic American novel Catch-22 and was meant to prepare the deployer for the Iraqi Theater of Operations (ITO, another new acronym-I seem to learn a new one every hour here).

How prescient!! I am about two-thirds through, but there are multiple catch-22 dilemmas in the book... The dilemmas are, I think, anti-quantum in that instead of embracing the strange quantum state of being two things at once, the characters are forced into NOT being two things at once... The dead man in Yossarian's tent is the pilot that arrived at the unit, dropped his belongings in Yossarian's tent and went on his first (fatal) mission before he ever officially checked into the unit... The unit cannot get rid of the things in Yossarian's tent by checking the guy out because he never checked in...

My first full day at my new unit is spent meeting folks, familiarizing myself with the lay of the land and "checking in"... Problem-my Navy issued orders simply say "report to Iraq"; they don't indicate that I should join the unit that everyone says I am supposed to join. And the unit I am supposed to join cannot "check me in" because I don't have orders to the unit. For a brief moment I think this could be great-maybe they will just send me home!!! But, my dreams are shattered by the next revelation: no one can leave theater without a letter of release, which can only be written by a commanding officer that "owns" the individual leaving... that is, I cannot leave theater without a letter of release written by the commanding officer of a unit that I have checked into... and I cannot check into a unit... aaack! I could be stuck here interminably!!?!??! Panicking!!!

Thankfully, a smart admin officer simply typed up a memo that said I am now officially assigned to the unit and I was able to "check in"... life goes on...

I need to go back and read that chapter of the book again!

Baghdad!!

Ahhh, the sweet smell of burning trash mixed with the fine-grained powder that lets you feel the air-like when the humidity is so high that your have to push your way through the ether, only there is no humidity, just dust. So, burning trash smell, lots of dust, and the heady aroma of jet fuel... I can be no place but Iraq--actually, I could probably be several other places, but as soon as I stepped off the plane I am instantly transported back to 2005 and the good old days in Iraq. Only it is 2008 and the reality (and enormity) of where I am and what I am doing gob-smack me upside the head!

Holy Moki!?!?

I am spending the night (and perhaps the next few days or weeks) in transient tent/billeting while await the assignment of my trailer. Good news: the Army seems to think that my being selected for promotion is as good as being promoted as far as getting housing goes (so O5 housing vice O4 housing), this is a good thing because it means I will get my own room. Bad News: the O5 wait list for housing seems to be significantly longer and slower-moving than the O4 list...

muddy feet

From the bottom of the shower trailer stairs to the flap of my tent is exactly 195 steps. It is exactly 195 steps from my tent to the shower trailer stairs. The issue is that all of these steps occur in sand, very dry sand. Shower shoes (slippers, flip flops, etc) are necessary in the shower (between the public showers and wearing boots all day one cannot have too much of a preventive posture towards one's feet! anti-fungal foot powder and frequent sock changes are de rigor) and hence required for the waling back and forth, unless you want to carry an extra pair of shoes around, which I don't.

So walking back from the shower is the time where I play a little game--how many steps can I go before sand mud coats the top of my slipper and the bottom of my feet. So far, the record is 23 steps. But, I may be making it too hard on myself because my current slippers are worn fairly thin, placing me a good 50-75% closer to the ground than a new pair of standard slippers. I happen to have a near new pair of slippers in my gear that I have ben saving for a special occasion--perhaps tomorrow I will make an investigation into the matter... stand by!

200 days

time to go....

Back from Udairi Range, all of our boxes checked and tasks completed... simply waiting on some buses to take us to the airport and fly to Iraq.

We had our standard 0900 muster where we were told to muster at 1300 so that we could put our baggage on a truck and board the buses for departure at 1330. Of course, the guy in charge of our little group decides that to make sure everyone is there at 1300 HE wants us all to show up at 1230 just to make sure. As this meeting is going on the wind (and sand) is picking up ominously, just like it did the day we were supposed to go to Udairi and didn't.

So, at 1230 I amble out to the muster site--no baggage because it is obvious that the wind and sand are even worse than a few days ago when the buses weren't allowed to leave the base. But, many others did bring their luggage (perhaps I need to work on following orders better). We wait until 1300 and they tell us that, indeed, the buses cannot move, but things could change rapidly and they will brief us every hour on the hour. You guessed it, our leader wants us to muster on the half-hour so that he can make sure we are all there for the on the hour brief--what a bunch of hooey! The mutiny was swift, definitive and bloodless...

Amazingly enough, we didn't need briefings every hour to find out if the weather had changed seeing as we live in a tent where the the sides are continuously billowing and bouncing and threatening collapse under the onslaught of the wind and dust...

Long story short, we set up a laptop and speakers in our cozy little 10-man tent and watched three movies (16 blocks, Live Free or Die Hard, and Charlie Wilson's War). Another day, another delay... but the BOG counter continues...