Cultural Differences, April Showers and an Ugly Birthday

This morning I decided to have a nice quiet breakfast by myself. So I waited in line and ordered my usual light fare: 2 scoops of scrambled eggs, 6 strips of bacon, 6 french toast sticks, 1 cinnamon roll, a bowl of Apple Jacks, 3 skimmed milks and a kiwi fruit (just to keep me regular). I sat down at what I thought was a pretty inconspicous location - back against the wall at the corner of a long table. Just as I was dipping my first toast stick in syrup, a Pakinstani man comes up to me and sits his tray down - directly across from mine. I sat there thinking, "Of all the empty seats on this long table, he sat right across from me". Now this wouldn't have been so bad, except that there was a particularly bad man scent eminating from his clothes and the fruity smell of my kiwi was quickly replaced with what I thought might be BO. Well, I also thought, "No, big deal, this must be a cultural difference. They must not know about Americans and their need for space." So I took a sip of my skimmed milk and 4 of his friends came over. Two sat directly beside me and the other two sat accross from me. I was suddenly immersed in a group of which I didn't know the culture or speak the language. I politely looked at them all and gave a nod of my head, as if to give them some sort of after-the-fact permission for which they could have given a shit . Anyway, they all started talking in a loud language that I didn't understand - it seemed as if they were shouting, oh, and after a minute of their eating and shouting, eggs were no longer just on my plate, but all over the table and the rest of my tray. I started to laugh inside until they all looked at me, and one even gave a pointing gesture at me and it seemed as if I was being talked about. If only I could have understaood what they were saying..."What, that American thinks he's special just because he uses toilet paper to wipe his butt!" Oh well, not the quiet breakfast I had hoped. But C'est la vie.

They say that April showers bring May flowers. Well let me tell you that it the desert, that's a bunch of crap. The only flowers out here are purple prickly cactus and they're very unsitely. What I wouldn't give to see some tropical Hawaiian foliage.

Today was the 55th anniversary of the Ugly Angels. (The "Ugly Angels" is the name of our helicopter squadron). We had a cake and the Commanding Officer gave a speech. It was a proud moment for everyone in the squadron.

I saw 3 cases of the strange rash in my clinic over the past three days. Still no idea of its cause.

I'm NOT in the picture of the Marines above, but a few of my closest friends in the squadron are. All the way on the left is Alexander, kneeling to the left of the flag is U.B., standing to the left of the shortest marine is my workout partner LCPL Toledo, and my Commanding Officer is all the way to the right. This was taken after their first flight in Iraq.

The other picture is of my last night in Hawaii. My friends took me out to my favorite Sushi joint, California Rockin' Sushi to say goodbye to both Josh (who left for California) and I. I look at that photo often and think of my friends....

Angels, Mud and Lube: The Final Chapter

2 days ago I was feeling a bit down. Not really depressed, just a little homesick and maybe feeling a little as though what I was doing wasn't making a difference - that maybe people had forgotten that I was here. I hadn't recieved any of the 'many' care packages that were supposedly headed my way and not a single letter or post card has greeted me since my arrival. It was just at the low point of my afternoon when a marine came running in saying, "Doc! You gotta come over here. You've got like 20 packages in the mail room and tons of letters all with your name on them. Man, you must have quite a few girlfriends back home!" That comment aside - I ran over to the mailroom with the speed of a child who was running from his bedroom to the Christmas tree on Christmas morning to see if there were presents underneath. What my eyes saw when I arrived were about 25 packages and 20 letters from an Organization called Soldiers for Angels. And as if it couldn't get any better, deep among the packages was one with handwriting I recognized - my mother's. (Who could ever not recognize her backhand?)

I had to make 5 trips back and forth to get all of the stuff to Medical, but I finally did it. I opened up the Soldiers For Angels packages first. Inside was coffee, candy, socks, underwear, t-shirts, granola, soap, shampoo, razors, you name it - oh, and of course, a case of lube! (pictured above) I unloaded it and laid it all out ,as if I were laying out my candy after going trick or treating. I then sent an e-mail to everyone in the squadron letting everyone know there were free items for them to pick up. Within 12 hours, the whole lot of it was cleared out. Of course, the lube was first to go. Which reminds me, I need to close the loop on the lube saga. The man who sent it mailed me one final e-mail on the subject, it reads as follows:

"I picked up the rest of my order and brought it home Sunday, where I
left it sitting on top of the dryer.

My 20 year-old son, with his girlfriend in tow, came up to me later that
evening. He just sort of smacked one of the six-packs of bottles down
on the counter and with a friendly smile that could only be described as
a smirk offered, "must have been a good anniversary".

So I had to explain the whole thing, with this pretty young blonde lady
standing there. No problem, these colllege kids are pretty wordly.
Then my wife walked into the kitchen in the middle of the story. She
got embarrased all over again, but we all had a good laugh it.

Thus, the lube saga just keeps growing."

Anyway, I saved my mom's package for last. She sent me Tastycake Butterscotch Krimpets and Coffee Cakes - YUM! She also sent me a magazine, granola and some rice krispy treats, but the best gift of all was a picture frame with a picture in it from when she and I went to the Hershey Chocolate Factory in PA before I left for Iraq. I put the frame on my desk right next to my computer so I can stare at it all day (guess theres still a little bit of mama's boy in me yet!)

Yesterday came the second shipment of packages. This one was all about Java! We got several kinds of coffee, dvds, someone made a few cd mixes, some brown t-shirts, and more of the items I previously mentioned. This time I'm letting the day crew (versus the night crew) have first dibs of the litter. Everyone has been pretty fair about it though. We've saved all the letters, mailing addresses and e-mails of the people who sent us items and each of us is going to try to contact one person at the very least and my squadron ia talking about sending out formal thank yous.

One of the most inspiring things is that with each relief package we get a stack of postcards with an American Flag on the front and some writing on the back of who its from, city and state and a personal message. The past 2 nights we've read each of these cards and sometimes nearly cried at the inspirational things people had to say. War veterans from WWII, the Vietnam War and the Korean War have written us. Women as old as 95 and Hawaiian children from a local grade school as young as 8 have written us. It's pretty amazing. Some say, "Don't believe the media hype, we all support you and what you're doing." Others say, "You guys are putting your bodies where other people put only put their mouths. God Bless You!" And still others say, "You guys make me proud to be an American!" Whatever they say, or however they put it, its always inspiring and gives me such a warm and positive feeling inside to know that these people care. When we're done reading them, we distribute the cards to the squadron so they can read them as well. Angels For Soldiers - wherever you are - God Bless You!

And to all my friends and family who have packages on the way - thank you for taking the time and writing/sending me something. You don't know how much it means to me!

Today I awoke to the sound of very loud clapping thunder. It was awesome. Of course, it's pouring outside, but I didn't let that stop my good mood. I hopped on my bike and trecked through the mud to the rec center to post this blog. Except that when I arrived and got off my bike, I noticed two things. First, there was a wet ass imprint on the back of my Flight Suit that the Ugandan guards got a good chuckle out of and second, I didn't realize that the bike was kicking up mud, sand, dirt and rain from my back tires and the entire back of my flight suit is filthy. Oh well, 'Scheiss passiert' as they say in Deutschland!

Some people are asking what I still need and (what the soldiers over here can always use) if you need ideas:
* liquid soap
* luffa sponges
* razors (Gillette Mach 3)
* Fitness magazines and books
* decorations and posters
* hand sanitizer
* protein bars, please.
* dried fruit (Sunmaid mixed fruit, prunes, apricots, etc)
* a new CD or a mixed CD that you make
* a DVD with some pictures on it
* anything that would make me smile, including a personal letter
* gym shorts, nike, adidas, size M or L (you judge)
* sleeveless athletic shirt to work out in
DON'T SEND:
Goldbonds Powder (we have about 15 cases)
Jergins Lotion (we now have huge boxes)
Toothbrushes (we just got 300 Oral Bs)
:)

Well, thats it for now. Have a great weekend and I'll post again soon.

Peace!
-RJ

Zoom Zoom Zoom, the Top 10 and the Mysterious Rash

The past few mornings I have been waking up with a mysterious rash on my arms, back, chest and legs. Now I have heard about "the mysterious rash" and how it has plagued so many soldiers before me, and that no Flight Surgeon has been able to figure out its cause. It is transient, comes when I wake up for about an hour, then goes away. It itches pretty bad too. Other doctors I have spoken to about it tell me that it happens to all the marines when they're out here after a couple of weeks. No one has been able to figure it out. I think I've narrowed it down to the detergent that the laundry center uses, the water supply, the food or the air. (Basically, anything) If I make any progress on its origon, I'll let you know.

Enclosed find a picture of my bike - the brand is 'Giant' and the model is the 'Acapulco' style, which is written on the frame. It has 2 speeds - chain on and chain broken, a light at the front of it, an invisible kickstand and lots of bright yellow reflective tape. But being as this was passed down from the previous Flight Surgeon and seeing how it gets me from point A to point B, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Plus my helmet is sexy.

I've been thinking about this place and I've come up with a top ten things I miss most about home (except for seeing my friends and family - that goes without saying), here goes:

RJ'S TOP TEN THINGS HE MISSES ABOUT HOME

10. Being able to drink the water from the faucet in Hawaii

9. Having the water come out of the faucet clear and not brown

8. Thick toilet paper (they only use the super thin stuff here so it doesn't clog the drains)

7. Being able to shower without wearing sandals

6. Being able to brush your teeth without using bottled water

5. Privacy

4. Being able to do laundry whenever you want

3. Having a car and your own transportation (and not waiting for the bus all the time)

2. Trees, landscaping and things that are green

1. Having the ocean accompany the sand

Have a great week everyone! Only 196 days to go!!!

The Grind

I've been getting used to the daily grind. I've been going to the gym a lot and I can already see myself getting bigger (I'm going to get that 8 pack of Abs yet!) My roomates turned out to be really cool. The one CAPT 'F' we'll call him, plays the guitar and is on his computer playing games a little. The other, CAPT 'C', is more laid back, family man who is a sound sleeper and sleeps with most of his free time. In fact, the other night CAPT 'F' accidentally kicked over a plastic shelving unit situated at the end of his bed and it made such a loud noise and crashed INTO CAPT 'C''s bed. He didn't even budge!

Today, Saturday, is the Flight Surgeon Cigar meeting. I'm also looing forward to several care packages that are apparently in transit. I know my mom is sending me one, as are relief organizations. Billy and some of my friends back home also are sending me one! Lots of things to look forward to.

That's it for now. If that last post 'On Lubricant' was too graphic for anyone I appologize - but I'm just trying to keep it as real as possible.

I enclosed two photos, one of my barracks and the other of a recent sunset. I can't wait to show you all a picture of my new bike!!!.... Stay Tuned!

On Personal Lubricant

Of the many interesting requests I recieve from my Marines as they walk through my medical bay doors, "Do you have any 'lube' Sir?(aka personal lubricant)", has been one of the most interesting and somewhat frequent requests of late. -Mind you none of these Marines are having intercourse, so I'll let you extrapolate exactly why they are asking for the lube. Well, as the Doctor of my squadron I thought about it for a while and the request seemed to make more and more sense - dry sandy air leaves really dry, sandy and cracked hands, often caliced. Put those hands you know where and you could have a 'raw' situation on your hands, if you know what I mean.

So one of the responses from one of the relief organizations I wrote to (whose name shall remain anonymous) asked me to give him a list of anything that we needed - he said and I quote "Be as graphic as you want" So I told him that I couldn't get personal lubricant out here and I've had marines asking for some. He replied, "I've had some interesting requests over the past few years...feminine products, douches, etc, but heres one I can finally relate to." He said "I'll look into it". So he got back to me several days later and informed me that lube was expensive by the bottle and so I told him the individual packets were cheaper (I know he has a budget to work with. So today this is what the retired family man who lives in a small village in Nebraska writes me:

"...And oh yes, our favorite item. Personal lube. I looked around on the web for places to order it. You can get quite an education that way. Did you know there are such things as "lube parties" ? I had no idea. Anyway, I browsed my local Osco drug store, and found small bottles on sale. So I went to the pharmacy and asked the guy there, older gentleman in his 60's ...."can I order this by the case"?

The consummate professional, he never batted an eye but said he'd have to get the manager to take the order for me. Of course, it's a young woman. She took my order for without a hint of irony. I guess if you work in a drug store, you see it all.

I went to pick it up today, and the cashier asked in a motherly sort of way "would you like a plastic bag to cover this up with in your shopping cart". Nah, I was cool with it.

My wife, on the other hand, was so embarrassed that she checked out separately. Especially when I explained why the Marines needed it. But I had to tell someone the story, LOL. "
Too funny. Let the record show the lengths we will go for our Marines...

Sandstorms, Angels, Drills & Cigars…It’s Just Another Day in Paradise!

Saturday we experienced our first sandstorm! I included two pictures; the one is of a wicked sandstorm that hit a few years back – the mother of all sandstorms. The one on Saturday was much weaker, but if you look closely at the picture I took, you can just barely make out the outline of the sand. It was awesome, seeing it move closer and closer… the wind picked up and the sky got dark as the sand and dust occluded the sun. We bolted the doors and braced for impact. When it was all said and done we only had a light dusting of sand though. But other storms can dump inches of sand on you. I wanted to build a sandman but there wasn't enough wet fresh sand to do it!

I've been e-mailing a lot of organizations who provide relief items to soldiers overseas in the form of care packages and letters. I want my squadron to be reminded in the middle of their grueling work schedule that their efforts are appreciated with every passing day. One such group is called Soldier's Angels, and like the others I've contacted– Operation Uplink, Books For Soldiers and Operation Military Pride, they all have one thing in common - to provide support to their troops overseas. It's been so encouraging reading their e-mails and all of their kind words. They have told me they'll be sending me free calling cards, gym clothes, books, cds, dvds, personal letters, e-mails, treats, and toiletries to pass out to my squadron. It's inspiring that there are people that belong to these organizations whose sole job it is to respond to our needs while we're over here, and also send us a little part of home. It fills me up with warmth and appreciation. Some of these marines (teenagers and young men) have no family or no one at home at all. These are the people for whom it's especially important to be reminded that there are thousands of people out there who pray for them every day and consider them part of their own family. These people are Angels.

I'm getting more used to our drills. Every once in a while, unannounced, usually in the middle of a dead silence, a base siren will go off. This siren signals one of two things, either a drill is occurring or the base is actually taking enemy fire (missiles). When this occurs, we race inside, put on our Kevlar (helmet) and Flack Jacket (body amour). We then make sure we have accountability for all of our troops and we wait to hear all clear, or wait for further instructions. For me this drill serves to remind me what everyone told me before I left, "Watch your back! And keep your head down!" This is a war zone and despite the pecan pie that gets served with dinner, we're not out of the woods yet.

Speaking of food, I find the chow hall more and more fascinating every time I go there. Enclosed is a picture of the chow hall right by our hangar on the Flight Line. This is not the big one on base, but this is the one I go to at least for 1 or 2 meals daily. Anyway, the chow hall doesn't get things quite right and it's very amusing to me. Every morning I drink SKIMMED milk (not skim) unless they run out then I have the FULL CREAM milk (not whole milk), and today for lunch I had a STUFFING Pepper (not a stuffed pepper). It's just a little off, but it keeps me smiling.

Last weekend I met the other Flight Surgeons on base. In fact, one of my friends from my own Flight School class is out here, Jason Henry. It's great to see him. I know several of the other Flight Surgeons as well from when I went to Yuma, AZ last November. This was my first meeting with them. They took me on the roof of their medical shop and they all smoked cigars as we watched the jets take off across the street. Sounds great, except that I was deaf and choking from the cloud of stagnant smoke within the hour. It was pretty sweet though. Not a view that many others have.

Work is good and I feel the importance of my mission, to ensure that I maintain the health of every pilot, aircrew and support staff in my squadron so they can all function to get the job done, while acting as a 'morale officer' to keep their spirits high. (Sorry I can't say more of what we do other than provide support). I like my job and my own spirits remain high. Some of you have asked for what my office looks like, and what the base looks like, so I enclosed some unclassified pictures for you. Until next time!

P.S. I saw my first snake here the other day and last night I saw two jackals (or maybe hyenas?) fighting outside my barracks. I may need to use my pistol yet…

From 30 to 3 and mastering my greetings...

Today is a great day! Today we move out of the tents and into the barracks! This means I can shower and use the bathroom in the same building and not walk outside a few hundred feet first. It also means there will be only 3 to a room instead of the 30 I'm living in one tent with now, therefore I might have some shred of privacy in my day. The double edged sword is that I know nothing about my two roomates - both of whom are pilots in my squadron. I think they're both married and my age and neither of them dip tobacco like 90% of everyone else out here so there won't be half empty dip cups filled with brown spit lying around everywhere (like in the work spaces). (Thank God for small favors, right?)

Otherwise, I'm getting down my 'Marine Greetings'. It's amazing, marines have about 20 different non-sensical ways to say hello to one another, each with a corresponding response that makes equally little sense but sounds really tough. For example, the standard greeting is 'ORAH' (pronounced ooo-rah). So one might say, 'ORAH Marine'. The response could be one of several - they might say 'ORAH Marine' right back, or just say 'ORAH ____' where the blank is your rank (i.e.- ORAH Corporal, ORAH Lieutenant (that's me), or ORAH Doc (what they also call me)) ...Now saying ORAH all day gets kind of mundane, so here's where the art of the language comes in. You could walk past another marine and growl like a dog - 'RRRRR' (pronounced errrr). Usually if you do this the response is simply 'RRRRR' right back. However if you greet someone with 'Semper Fi' (pronounced sem-pur-fye), the response is usually also 'RRRRR' but some marines will also reply 'Do or Die'. This rhymes (Semper Fi,... Do or Die!) and it kind of flows so I like this one, although it's not that popular. Some hard core long time marines will say 'Kill' which is another way to say hello. This is usually used as more of a goodbye, 'Kill Marine', for example as you walk away from a conversation, but much like 'Aloha' it can mean both, or so I've heard. Now there are also combinations of the above that incorporate a marine's nickname, 'Devil Dog' into the mix. (The origon of this nickname is lengthy and I'll tell you later). One might say 'Semper Fi Devil Dog' or 'ORAH Devil Dog', but for some unknown reason I rarely hear 'Kill Devildog', my personal opinion is that the combination of 'Kill' and 'Devil Dog' is too powerful, even for a marine to say, and so unless you're in the middle of a battle fighting a terrorist considering whether or not you should blow his head off and seeking the advice of a fellow Devil Dog to make that decision, 'Kill Devil Dog' is usually ommitted as a hello. It's also important to note that if you say 'Semper Fi Devildog' or 'Semper Fi Marine', the response cannot be 'Do or Die' - for obvious reasons... the third word after the Fi will negate the rhyming of the enitre phrase. Personally, I'm a fan of 'Hello' and 'Good Morning' and since I'm in the Navy and not a Marine anyway, my greeting would be something to the effect of "Good Morning Shipmate (or Sailor), It's a fine Navy Day!", but I'd probably get stripped down naked and thrown into a mudpit full of Camel Spiders if I said this, so I tend to say 'ORAH' and see what I get in return. As Forrest Gump put so eliquently, "Life's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get!" Very true Forrest, very true.

Enclosed is a map of Iraq (unclassified). Baghdad is the orange city in the center of the map and AL Asad (my airbase) is the little red triangle just above the R in IRAQ, about 100 miles away. A lot of the bombings and terrorist action happen southeast of here. Some of you have asked.

Jamba Juice, the Lightning Bolt and the Disappearing Sand

Well, It's Wednesday and things are going well. I've gotten in the habbit of waking up at 0500 and jogging to the gym and working out in the mornings before work. This morning I woke up to the sound of raindrops hitting the plastic roof of our tent and when I jogged to the gym I saw the largest lightning bolt I've ever seen. It spread accross the dark desert sky and momentarily lit up the entire base. It was amazing, especially since I haven't seen any lightning in Hawaii over the past year. The down side to it is that the thin vaneer of sand that usually coats everything has all but disappeared for the moment and it's been replaced with a thick pile of mud that sticks to your boots, gets in the carpet and dirties up everything in sight. (Personally, I kind of miss the sand, but the rain sure is nice.)

In an effort to break up the manotony and keep up with one of my interests, foreign languages, I've decided to learn Swahili since there are lots of guards here from Uganda and other parts of Africa. The first word I learned was the word for "Hey there! What's up?" which is Jambo (pronounced Jahm-bow). When it is said, you're supposed to shout it loud and friendly. So finally I got up the courage to say it to one of these guards. Well, back in Hawaii I used to always go to this place called Jamba Juice to get protein and juice drinks and I must have had it on my mind when I approached the guard because load and proud I looked at him and exclamed, "JAMBA" (Jahm-buh), with an A at the end instead of Jombo with an o. Anyway, he looked at me like I was on crack and he and his Ugandan chums, in addition to the other marines on the bus, gave a chuckle to themselves as we drove away from the checkpoint. I guess I have some practicing to do...

Today I start my 12 pm to 12 am shift (noon to midnight) 7 days a week. It's good to start to get into the swing of things. I set up my office yesterday - I bought a throw rug, I put out my Yankee Candle, a Hawaiian painting, a digital picture frame with pictures of all my friends and family and most importantly, my hundred dollar gold-plated filter coffee pot. At the fear of having everyone think I was a complete fruitcake, it turns out everyone is jealous of 'the Doc's office' and they're all going to the store to buy throw rugs and they're all going on line to order digital picture frames and yankee candles. Pretty funny I thought.

So that's it for now. Thanks for everyone that's posting. It's nice to read your comments. Until next time...Jambo!!!!

Easter Sunday in Iraq

Marhaba! (Hello in Iraq – personally I’m a much bigger fan of Aloha). It’s Easter Sunday (at least, here it is. Ignore the date and time that my blog post says, it’s wrong). Apparently we’re 14 hours ahead of Hawaii time and 8 hours ahead of the East Coast time, i.e. – it’s 1200 (noon) here on Sunday, 0400 (4 am) on the East Coast on Sunday morning and 2000 (10 pm) Saturday night in Hawaii – or so they tell me. I’m getting settled into the tents we’re staying in for the next few days. Each officer has their own bunk bed which we’ve draped camouflage sheets over to maintain what very little bit of privacy we have here. They’re very well air conditioned (so much so I sleep in a fleece under a blanket) and except for the dreaded thin veneer of sand and dust that is already a part of my once clean life but now covers my hands, my clothes, my sunglasses, my sheets, my lungs and that gives me what I like to call ‘sand buggers’, the accommodations are comfortable and peaceful. The showers and the head (aka the toilet) are a short walk away and buses to work and to the chow hall run every 10 minutes or so. The chow hall here is bigger than a Costco and although we’re eating exceptionally well, my body is suffering from heartburn as it gets used to the increased food consumption.

It amazes me all of the things that people send us over here! We have free phone cards, toiletries, movies, current episodes of all of our favorite TV shows (including LOST and HEROS, my two favorites). Infact, except for dark navy/black sheets that I need to drape over my bunk and some pictures, Hawaiian tapestries, etc to hang at my work space, I have almost everything I could ever need.

On this Easter Sunday I have fond memories of last year when I had a barbeque at my house in Hawaii and an Easter Egg Hunt that still gets talked about to this day. I remember the smell of cloves in my mom’s house as she pulled the ham out of the oven, I remember Easter Sunday visits to the Cleavers and most of all, I remember eating those marshmallow color sugar coated candy Peeps which I used to eat until I’d get sick. But today is a much different picture. I carry my 9mm pistol close to my side as rumors are gathering that the Iraqi Army may be allowed on base for training any day now and although we support them, there are those that don’t remain true to their cause. I walk through the ICU of the base hospital and find it filled with not just adult (if you consider 18-22 year olds adults) military casualties of IEDs (Independent Explosive Devices placed on the sides of the roads), but also with a 12 year old boy who lost his left leg and right foot to an Insurgent Sniper who didn’t feel that he should be partial to a victim’s age. We’re reminded daily that we’re in a combat zone and although we may be served ham and potatoes for dinner tonight, Easter in Iraq is no joke and just isn’t the same as the quiet little town of Bethlehem, PA. But if I close my eyes real tight, I can still see my friends tearing up my house for Easter eggs and I can still hear my mom saying “It’s ready!”

Gomer Pyle and the Mozart Kugeln

It's been an amazing three days since our Honolulu departure! We took a commercial airline 747 to Oakland, CA (saw a great aerial view of San Francisco) - a 5 hour trip, then after a 2 hour re-fueling lay over, we hightailed it to JFK - another 5 hour trip. Then we layed over for three hours and took off for Shannon, Ireland - a 6 hour trip. We deboarded the plan in Ireland and a friendly Irish Woman with red hair greeted us in the finest Irish accent you'd ever want to hear, "G'd evening, welcome to Ireland" she said. After being tempted by several Irishmen who were drinking Guiness in the airport bar (we weren't aloud to drink), we departed for Germany, a 4 hour trip. It was there that I saw a blast from the past.
When my best friend Jan and I backpacked through Europe after graduating high school, we went to Heidelberg, Germany and in a souvenier shop found these chocolate candy balls called "Mozart Kugeln". My German back then was a little rusty so when I meant to ask the cashier what a Mozart Ball was, I accidentally said, "Are these really Mozart's balls?". She laughed and explained that a 'Mozart Ball' was a chocolate candy ball filled with hazelnuts and nougot. They were very tasty and only found in certain Germany stores. Well lo and behold in this airport gift shop were more Mozart Balls! So of course I bought some and they tasted just as good!
From Germany we flew to Kuwait - a 4 1/2 hour flight, where we stayed overnight and where I currently am until we leave for Iraq later this evening. I have to admit, this place is pretty amazing! This small base has a Baskin Robins, a Fed Ex, an internet cafe, a McDonalds, a Subway and a store where you can buy anything from Beer (which is a hit for the Australians stationed here) to DVDs. The 'mess or chow hall' is a sight to see. Let me explain, for breakfast this morning as we sat and watched the news on 42" plasma screen TVs located throughout this giant air conditioned hangar, I had a made to order omlette, pancakes, fresh fruit, fresh squezzed orange juice, I had a selection of American cereals from Lucky Charms to Corn Pops to Smart Start. There was a coffe/expresso machine and get this - even a bakery for lunch and dinner with a Kuwait baker who will cut fresh slices of cheesecake and carrot cake! I swear the food here was as good as a hotel in Waikiki Beach (except the view was much less than to be desired). All in all it's not bad - and I don't even know what Al Asad is like yet. I had a hot water shower this morning and a pretty good night of sleep in the large tent that housed about 75 of us.
I must admit that I feel kind of like Gomer Pyle though, being one of the only Navy guys stationed with all of these Marines who have done all this before, but I'm slowly getting into the swing of things. We were issued our ammunition yesterday - 30 bullets, 15 per cartridge. Well, the marines were laughing at me because I tried to accidentally fit 16 bullets in a cartridge meant for 15 (in my defense the man issuing the bullets gave me an extra bullet to make 16), and my gun holster is sagging a little bit too low so my Commanding Officer things I look like GunSmoke or some old Western Cowboy. You can tell I'm a little fresh off the cuff, but it's keeping everyone ammused I suppose. That's it for now. I do miss my friends and family, especially my close friends in Hawaii, but all in all, life ain't so bad!

1 Day To Go...

With just 1 day left, I decided to book a room at my favorite hotel in Waikiki and just relax! I've said my goodbyes and I'm ready to go. Tommorrow night I'm having a going away dinner at my favorite Sushi joint (California Rockin Sushi) with all of my friends, a group of about 20 that I've made while here on island. Everyone keeps asking me, "Are you nervous? Anxious? Are you ready?" The answer: yes, I AM ready, as ready as I'll ever be. It was difficult staring at my last Waikiki sunset, and even more difficult enduring the tears I heard from my mom over the phone but I know that a more important time awaits me.

I wanted to take the time to tell you that the U.S. Postal service has issued an 800 number to give all friends and family of service members free shipping materials (boxes, tape, packaging materials, etc.) to send packages to active duty members overseas. That number is 1 (800) 610-8734, and select option #1, then #1 again, and ask for the"Military pack."

That's it for now. Thanks for everyone's phone calls and support.

Peace,

RJ