Base Camp

Arrived in Kuwait after a very long day. Got up on Thanksgiving morning, and shortly after midnight formed up to begin the move to Kuwait. We weighed and loaded our gear, then bussed to the plane. After shoehorning us into the plane, we took off about 0500 Friday morning. No real sleep since the previous night. We flew to Bangor, Maine for refueling, arriving about 0930 local time, then flew to Frankfort Germany. By then it was about, I dunno, midnight local time, or about 1630 Louisiana (my body clock) time. From there we flew 5 hours to Kuwait, arriving about 0830 local. We hung around, caught a buss, and drive a couple of hours to our base Camp, arriving about noon local, or about 0200 LA time. Can't name the camp due to security concerns, but it is not to far from Kuwait City. Didn’t get to sleep until about 2200 local that night (Saturday) (Noon in LA). So we went without real rest from Thursday AM until Sat at noon, I guess about 50 hours. Got up at 0330 the next day (Sunday local) to watch the Boise State Broncos play the Reno Wolfpack.

Kuwait was windy with much sand in the air. Couldn’t see more than a couple of football field’s distance. Pretty cold as well.

Our camp is large, and has some amenities, but is still pretty primitive. We have a post office, Subway, Burger King, coffee shop, PX, laundry facility, internet café, phone center, and various MWR facilities (gym, pool tables, TV for movies, stage where the Washington Redskins cheerleaders recently entertained, etc.) The soldiers stay in tents, about 60-80 per. No plumbing, only porta-potties. The showers are prone to running out of either hot water, or just water. The nearest porta-potty to my bed is about a football field away. The shower is about 2 football fields away. Sucks to have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. The camp is very noisy with the sound of generators. Oddly, even though Americans built (in the sense of bought) the facilities in the camp, it is built with Kuwaiti electrical standards. Everything is 220 volt, and with Kuwaiti style outlets. We have to buy plug and voltage converters to run our stuff.

Today we got up at 0400 to form up at 0500 to go to the rifle range. Some soldiers got to ride in busses, others in the back of trucks. The latter had a very cold ride. We just launched a few rounds downrange, and satisfied ourselves that our weapons still work, and the they are pretty well sighted in. Heard rumors that a herd of camels frequent the range, but didn’t see any. One of the range officers said be sure not to shoot a camel because a white one is worth $30,000.

This is a very desolate place. I used to think I had been in the middle of nowhere, but I was wrong, because I am there now. Nothing but flat, featureless desert as far as the eye can see. No hills, no grass, no vegetation, nothing but sand and rocks. A moonscape. The rocks are all rounded, like you might found along a riverbank. Here, of course, it’s not water but wind and sand that smoothes the rocks.