A Day in the Life

There is no "normal" day here. It's an ongoing evolution of challenges associated with a growing installation. Our daily experiences range from the sublime to the ridiculous. For example: One of the projects I've been working on is opening a new school site. The school is for new infantry officers. It was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers via a subcontractor. My job, along with Col Abbas has been to prepare the site for the school staff that would run the place.


Here's a view of the site.

Sidebar: This is very important school. This is where new Iraqi Army lieutenants, infantry officers, will be trained after they graduate from the military academies and before they go to their field units. My counterpart, LTC Allan Elliott, US Army, and his team have done a fabulous job of getting this school up and running. He'll begin teaching the third class in about a week. This next class will be the first one where the new officers come directly from the academies to here. It will also be our biggest class, with over 150 students. This school is important for a couple of reasons. It's the first in a series of professional development schools for officers. The really important thing, however, is that we're training and influencing an entire generation of officers. These lieutenants will go on to be the leaders of the Iraqi Army and the government. Hopefully the training they receive here will serve them well and create a generation of friends for the US in the coming years.
End sidebar.

The buildings sat empty for about 4 months. We finally started turning them on in December, finding many problems. We don't have a Home Depot down the street, nor do we have easy access to qualified plumbers and electricians. We managed to get the subcontractor to make many of the repairs and some of my local guys also helped. However, we reached a point a few days ago where everyone was busy and some things needed to get done. So, being a farm boy from Oklahoma, I took matters into my own hands. I, along with Marine LtCol Bill Redman (my eventual replacement), armed with two screw drivers and a couple of Leathermans, proceeded to test water pumps and plumbing.

My Iraqi brothers have some different ways of doing things. You've heard the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention. It's well in evidence here. The last 15 years have been difficult but they've found ways to overcome the challenges of not having access to a lot of things we take for granted (like electric plugs). Some of them are very scary. A favorite of mine is their rather cavalier attitude when working with electricity. Plugs are optional. Bare wires in sockets are perfectly acceptable.

So, when in Rome!!!!

Look closely and you'll see that I've got my a small screw driver from my Leatherman inserted in this outlet to hold down the spring loaded inside cover as I ever so gingerly insert the bare electric wires. The look on my face is not the look of guy get 22o volts. It's just a goofy grin.



Bill was smart enough to keep his face out of the picture. And he wore gloves.

But we "got'er done" as my Okie friends might say!!

At one point we both stopped and looked at each and I said,
"you know, there's something comical about two Marine LtCols wondering around doing repair work and inspecting toilets". We found it pretty funny, although you may not find it a humorous as we did. Kind of had to be there I suppose.

About Bill: he's an active duty Marine infantry officer that got assigned to this individual augmentee billet. He arrived on time, but I had extended so we're overlapping. He's been a great asset and has become a good friend. He's 6'5" and has a deep voice. When I first talked to him on the phone I was a little concerned that I might have a very uptight, hardass Marine on my hands. Turns out he's got a great, dry, sense of humor. He cracks me up on a regular basis.

There's no end to the things that make us scratch our heads. I used to get pretty agitated about some of things I saw. I came to realize over time that even though their "way" was probably not correct and likely unsafe, it worked for them. I've learned to know when and how to provide guidance and mentoring and when to let them do things their way. I think it's been an educational experience for both of us.

David