by Peter Hill
7/8/2008

 
                                                                                                                                                                 July 7, 2008 
                                                                     
We are settled in here in our new home for the next ten months. Things are pretty good for us. We are in a safe enough area where we don’t have to wear our helmets and improved body armor. We walk around wearing only our soft caps and 9mm pistols.  We are on a base which is a part of a huge area that surrounds the airport.  Without giving away too much info, we have Air force, Navy, Marines and Army soldiers working in the area. Our group seems to be the only ones who can wear civilian clothes at night to the D-FAC (dining facility)or on our day/afternoon off.  I won’t argue with that or ask why. 

The biggest PX is on Camp Liberty, and really isn’t that great. I almost miss Wal-Mart. I don’t want you to think I am complaining. The PX really has everything you need and more, although I was looking for a paper towel hanger and couldn’t find one. I ended up making one out of a wire clothes hanger and screwing it to the wall. We have plenty of plywood and 2x4s available to us.  I made an eight-foot desk and book shelf out of a ¾ in sheet of ply wood and 3 2x4s, all the creature comforts of home. Well, at least I have a good work station that’s not too crowded.

The motor pool I’ve been assigned to, to help improve, cannot get any parts to fix the trucks. The system they use for ordering parts is so complicated. A single request has to get 47 signatures, at any point along the way; the request could sit on a desk for a week or more. It is very frustrating. They don’t want to start using computers either. I guess people before me have tried to get them automated, but as soon as they leave they go back to the stubby pencil. Talk about taking a step back in time. I can understand not wanting to use the computers for one reason, the power is not dependable. They might have power for 3-4 hours a day maybe. The terrorists have targeted the power plants in the past and made it tough to get consistent power and water -- water because they need electricity to pump the public water.

These are just a few of our problems, more next week.
Say Hi to Holliston, SSG Hill