Another Hard Day at Work

Well as you can see in my picture that today was yet another strenuous day of work for me down at the fuel pit. That is me enjoying a beautiful Iraqi day on our fuel bag. It's like a giant water bed but without as much give. I got another package the other day but it's stuck at AQ because the bulkfueler that came here and refueled us forgot it. He shall remain nameless for now. With all this free time I have managed to start perfecting the art of killing flies with my bare hands. And oh yes it is an art. How many flies can you kill by a swat of your hand? That's what I thought it's harder then it sounds but with all my free time I have gotten good at it, maybe one day you will also know the trick. Umm... it rained here the other day. Funny thing for us to being amphibious warriors our gear sucks in the rain. We lost all communtications and we started loosing our power also. Everything turned to mud and our fuel pit started to flood, doesn't help that they put us in a hole. Oh well not like we do much down there anyways. Out of bordom today I noticed what a nerd I am. I downloaded a calculus book today to give myself something to do. I figure I might as well better myself the best that I can. Been going to the gym for an hour a day. I weigh about 190lbs which is down 7lbs since I left. My goal is to get down to 185lbs and do at least 10 pullups. I also started looking at colleges that I may go to once I get out of the marines. I know it's a ways a way but I figure it can't hurt to start a little early. I found one I like in New York. For any that didn't know I want to go to a Culinary Arts college. My dream is to one day own and manage my own restaurant. So I found this one college I like 2 hours north of NYC. A little expensive but it would be worth it to go. I just need to get some cooking experience at a nice restaurant. So I know what part time job I will be looking for once I get back, if I can't get some college classes going, or maybe both. I so want to be a great chef one day. I will be a great chef one day.

First day of Spring

Well today is the first day of spring, days will start getting longer and things will start to warm up. But today is not that way. It is freezing out today, so sunny yet so cold. I know you all are thinking Ben you are in the desert how cold can it be. Cold enough that we wear at least 3 layers of cloths and if we were to go out on a convoy there would be no visible bear skin to be seen. Nothing new gong on here just decided to put some new pics up. The first is a beautiful Iraqi sunrise and those tanks make too much noise at night. The next one is of the Syrain town right outside our little base. We are actually closer to them then the Iraqi town in the third pic. You can actually take a rock and stand near our wall and throw it right into Syria. The third is like I said the Iraqi town we patrol and support. The picture is of the "440". It got that nickname because there are 440 houses built all of which are identically. I'm not talking like town houses where they all look like, I mean brick for brick they are the same house. I'm going to try to upload severl other pics on another post if I can get it to work.

St. Patrick's Day

Sorry that I haven't been able to add anything recently but I haven't been feeling the best but I'm getting better so don't worry. Yesterday was St. Patrick's day so me and Cpl. Furlong decided we should celebrate with a some neer beer. We only had one each that I took from A.Q.(A base neer by that I went on a convoy to). So we decided to save them for yesterday to feel like we were back in the rear having a good time. They were less then .5% alchol so we didn't get drunk don't worry. Nothing new really going on out here. Started going to the gym three days ago so that maybe I will come back a little bit buffer. So that I can get some more pullups on the next PFT. We asked if we could start going out on patrol. The CO said it would be fine as long as one of us stayed to run the fuel farm. Which is fine cause it takes a 8 year old to do my job but still other marines(grunts) keep trying and mess our pump up all the time. We got side sapi plates today. Which now means that my entire torso is now bullet proof. As soon as I figure out how to put them onto my flack jacket. When I first started wearing that thing it felt so heavy with the two armor piercing sapi plates and the 180 rounds and other things attached to it. Now it feels weird lifting one that doesn't have sapis in it.
Like I said I went on a convoy the other day down to A.Q. It was weird sitting in the passanger seat instead of the back. You see every car and truck pull off the road like we were out to get them. Everyone not only pulled off but drove another 10 yards plus of the shoulder. Everyone stoped what there were doing and watched as we rolled through there town. Little kids make you feel safe cause you know you won't get attacked. All the kids would run up next to the road and wave and make gestures asking us for food, and we all knew they got plenty of food from the US. Well I tried to upload a couple more pictures but it isn't working so I will try to post them latter.

Al Asad

The first two pics are on our way to Kuwait. I took them when we had a two hour layover in Germany. The first one is of a chunk of my platoon sitting around and relaxing before our next flight on our little trip.


The next is one of my good buddies enjoying one of Germany's great brawts. Only $4 for a brawt and a coke, not bad prices for buying food from an airport. But we were anywhere but the airport. Once the plane landed we were put on a bus and moved into what looked like a military base. With barracks and bunkers all around. But it was nice I got a German banner for $15. The trip itself to kuwait wasn't bad, inflight movies and way too much airplane food. The best part was I got to ride up near the officers and higher ranks so it wasn't crowded at all. Only problem was moving around all the rifles and guns we had with us.


This is a picture of us while we were in our room in Al Asad. We found a Texas Hold'em table in one of the empty rooms that another group of bulk fuelers made. We played at least one game a night sometimes more. We had everyone coming in there to play with us it was a great time. I never won but we didn't play for that much money so it is all good. I'll post some new Pics of were I am now In a couple of days if I can.

The last couple of days has been hard to do anything because the winds started to pick up a lot of sand. Visibilty was down to 60 yards or so yesterday. It blocked out the sun. The only way I can try to explain it is like fog but insteed of white/gray it was just pail yellow. Everything was blured. It would get everywhere. Have to where sunglasses not because it was bright but so that nothing got in your eyes. You almost needed something to cover your face so you could breath. I'm sure it's one of many to come. Well I got to go get ready for a convoy.

Hello

I had a few people that wanted me to start my own websit thing. They wanted to see pictures and here how things are going for me out here in the beautiful country of Iraq. I haven't uploaded any pictures yet except this one a couple days before I left for my little summer trip. I'm not really allowed to tell you were in Iraq I am. I can tell you it's not the best base. No PX(store), No bathrooms(trust me you don't want to know about that), but we do get steak and eggs everymorning and once a week we have crab legs or lobster tail for dinner. So the food isn't too bad. Hopefully in a couple days I will have some pics up for people to loook at.