Well, I've been out here for about a week now. Unfortunately the weather is not particularly cooperating to get me up flying. It's been pretty dusty outside the last couple of days. That's actually pretty common this time of year out here. I've pretty much passed my time sleeping, working out, and watching movies.
Speaking of movies, I watched that Quentin Tarantino movie based on a poster he once saw about WWII. I'm sure that you know the name of the film. I've seen all the hype about it, and frankly I'm a little puzzled. Like most of Tarantino's other works, I walked away from this one thinking "Well, that was OK, I guess." while everyone else seems to praise it as a reinventing of American Cinema. Call me a purist, but I kind of figured that a WWII film would have some small smidgeon of a basis in, you know, WWII. Here are little known facts about the War that I learned from watching this movie:
1. The Nazi occupation of France apparently lasted something like 15 years.
2. If you happened to be a Jew living in France at the time, as long as you escaped the initial Nazi attempt to kill your family it was quite easy for you to re-enter normal society. Even to the point where you could somehow inherit property from your relatives without anyone questioning it.
3. Killing or disfiguring unarmed prisoners in horrific ways is completely acceptable, as long as you're an American.
4. All Germans were evil Nazis. No exceptions.
Don't get me wrong, the movie was not without it's enjoyable moments. Christoph Waltz did an outstanding job and is more than deserving of his Oscar nomination, but overall I'd have to give this film 2.5 stars. I'm not really sure where the "Best Picture" nomination came from.
The other movie I watched was "The Happening". I'm not even going to really justify this one with a review. I'll suffice it to say that I'm pretty sure that M. Night Shyamalan wrote this film on a toilet paper roll during a particularly bad bout of food poisoning. I've seen better dialogue and more compelling drama in toothpaste commercials. I think that it's safe to say that he peaked with his first film and has been going downhill at an increasing pace ever since. Too bad.
Anyway, that's about it for now, sorry there's not more to write on the goings on in Iraq. Hopefully I'll get flying more soon and have more to tell y'all about.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
We're Not in Kuwait Anymore, Toto.
All right. Here it is! My very first blog entry from Iraq. I'll give you a moment to get over the excitement...
OK, that should be plenty of time.
In order to get to Basra, my flight took me via Continental to Manila, then Gulf Air to Bahrain and on to Kuwait City. We then got the joy of riding an Air Force cargo plane into Iraq. Fun times, to be sure. The biggest highlight of my flight was that I got bumped up to First Class by Continental for my 4-hour trip to the Phillipines. No, they didn't do that out of the goodness of their hearts for a deploying serviceman (if they did that in Guam, the entire plane would be in First (or Japanese)). I got the bump because I flew around enough last year to earn Elite status in their frequent flyer program. I'm not going to complain though. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could get me bumped up on the 10-hour flight to Bahrain. I think the Gulf Air agents took pity on my pathetic begging, however, because I did end up sitting by myself in the center 4 seats of the jumbo. As soon as the Seat Belt sign went off, the armrests went vertical and I went horizontal. Of course it took all four of those little airplane pillows to support my head, but I made it work.
So I arrived here last Wednesday. The first thing that I realized is that Basra is a lot different from Kuwait. There are only about 40 miles from here to there as the crow flies, but the bases are worlds apart. Camp Beuhring was a much more established base. Most of the buildings were still temporary trailers, but they were trailers. Here is pretty much all tents. There are some hard structures, but they're relatively sparse. The floors in our tents are made from plastic tiles laid out over packed dirt. This definitely feels more like a combat zone than it did down south, and I guess it is. We are required to carry our 9mm pistols everywhere we go on base. I mean everywhere. If I'm not in my tent, I'm armed.
That's certainly not to say that this place doesn't have it's advantages. Sure, there's no Taco Bell or Burger King like on Beuhring, but there really isn't a need for it. Everywhere on the base has refrigerators full of Water, Gatorade and soda that's free for the taking. There are also candy, jerky, chips and other snack foods in case I get hungry in between meals. The meals are an event in themselves. Good food and large portions. It will take a lot of self-discipline to not weigh 400 pounds when I leave here. Thankfully there are also about 30 gyms to aid in that goal.
I got to fly for the first time out here yesterday. The flying is still just as enjoyable as I remember. We have to be a bit more vigilant when we fly here because there are still people nearby who would love to cause us to have a bad day, but that's what we train for.
Tricia says that a lot of people have been asking what we need out here and the truth is that I can't really think of anything. I know that doesn't help, but like I said, there are snacks everywhere. Movies are all over for the watching. There are even quite a few books. I also can't really accept things for the Iraqi kids because I will most likely not be leaving the base. Just your prayers and thoughts will be plenty for me.
Well, there you have it. My tour of Iraq has begun. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
OK, that should be plenty of time.
In order to get to Basra, my flight took me via Continental to Manila, then Gulf Air to Bahrain and on to Kuwait City. We then got the joy of riding an Air Force cargo plane into Iraq. Fun times, to be sure. The biggest highlight of my flight was that I got bumped up to First Class by Continental for my 4-hour trip to the Phillipines. No, they didn't do that out of the goodness of their hearts for a deploying serviceman (if they did that in Guam, the entire plane would be in First (or Japanese)). I got the bump because I flew around enough last year to earn Elite status in their frequent flyer program. I'm not going to complain though. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could get me bumped up on the 10-hour flight to Bahrain. I think the Gulf Air agents took pity on my pathetic begging, however, because I did end up sitting by myself in the center 4 seats of the jumbo. As soon as the Seat Belt sign went off, the armrests went vertical and I went horizontal. Of course it took all four of those little airplane pillows to support my head, but I made it work.
So I arrived here last Wednesday. The first thing that I realized is that Basra is a lot different from Kuwait. There are only about 40 miles from here to there as the crow flies, but the bases are worlds apart. Camp Beuhring was a much more established base. Most of the buildings were still temporary trailers, but they were trailers. Here is pretty much all tents. There are some hard structures, but they're relatively sparse. The floors in our tents are made from plastic tiles laid out over packed dirt. This definitely feels more like a combat zone than it did down south, and I guess it is. We are required to carry our 9mm pistols everywhere we go on base. I mean everywhere. If I'm not in my tent, I'm armed.
That's certainly not to say that this place doesn't have it's advantages. Sure, there's no Taco Bell or Burger King like on Beuhring, but there really isn't a need for it. Everywhere on the base has refrigerators full of Water, Gatorade and soda that's free for the taking. There are also candy, jerky, chips and other snack foods in case I get hungry in between meals. The meals are an event in themselves. Good food and large portions. It will take a lot of self-discipline to not weigh 400 pounds when I leave here. Thankfully there are also about 30 gyms to aid in that goal.
I got to fly for the first time out here yesterday. The flying is still just as enjoyable as I remember. We have to be a bit more vigilant when we fly here because there are still people nearby who would love to cause us to have a bad day, but that's what we train for.
Tricia says that a lot of people have been asking what we need out here and the truth is that I can't really think of anything. I know that doesn't help, but like I said, there are snacks everywhere. Movies are all over for the watching. There are even quite a few books. I also can't really accept things for the Iraqi kids because I will most likely not be leaving the base. Just your prayers and thoughts will be plenty for me.
Well, there you have it. My tour of Iraq has begun. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Return of the Blog
This is like one of those "Teaser Trailers" they show at the theaters where you get 30 seconds of dramatic music followed by a quick shot of the movie title.
Yes, faithful readers, the blog will be starting again next week. It's a bit of a misnomer now, but I will be once again making entries to My Kuwait Blog, even though they will actually be coming from Iraq. Stand by for awesomeness...
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