27 December 2007
Just came across a letter from my grandson who has since returned from Iraq.
Life in Iraq as seen by my Grandson, a US Marine Logistics Specialist, stationed at a relatively safe Air Base near Baghdad.
Food:
We have 3 or 4 chow halls on this base, but I only go to 2 of them on a regular basis. There is a really good one, probably the best one on the base, that I go to most often. The people working the lines are contracted by the government, and are of Middle Eastern descent, but I doubt that they are Iraqi. You can always get 1 of two choices, Fast Food, or Main Line which is usually “healthier” food choices. You name it, they probably serve it for dinner out here. The food really isn’t so bad, at least at the chow hall that I go to. There’s always a semi-fresh salad bar, and usually they have an assortment of desserts. They also recently installed an ice cream bar, and a cold-cut sandwich bar. So we’re good on food.
Leisure:
There really is no leisure time so to speak, except for like that time that I went to Qatar when I first got here. Our commanding officer says that we work 24/7, in reality it means that most of us put in about 12-16 hour days on average, with breaks in between as you see fit. If there isn’t a lot of work, then there’s nothing stopping you from getting a meal, or taking a coffee break, etc. Then when your “Shift” is done, the night shift comes in to rotate out with you, only after you give them a good turnover of events in the last half of a day.
Toilets:
Port-o-johns. The women have “comfort” trailers with toilets in them.
Showers:
Men have comfort trailers too, but our toilets do not function. There are shower stalls in them, with hot water usually. But every once in a while the water will be shut off for whatever reason and you can go a day, week or two without a shower.
Water:
Shower water, shaving water from the faucet, non-potable. The drinking water is bottled, and there is more of it than I can count! We always have water, it’s never an issue. There are caches of it everywhere you look, and it actually turns out that when we have to clean up our areas outside of the building, you usually end up picking up a crap load of empty water bottles.
Living Quarters:
We all live in an area called tent city/ tin can city. For those of the Marines that are usually just arriving, or getting ready to depart soon, they get stuck in the large tents. Its hot as hell in those things during the day, and just the opposite at nighttime. However, once you get settled in, you move up in the world into the wonderful “tin cans”. They are like trailers, with just enough space to live in. They have air conditioning, and electricity. My room has 4 bunk beds, but we don’t have a full room. Ours is a double-wide. Since most of us work shift hours, it’s never really cramped in there at all. And it’s totally insulated from the heat, so it’s always quite cool in there. But lately the weather has been turning around, it’s been really chilly at nighttime recently and I just brought my sweatshirt up to work last night. I’ve heard that by the middle of winter it’s going to be freezing out here, with maybe 60′s highs during the daytime. Right now it’s NOWHERE near the 110-120′s that it was when I first arrived. Anyhow, that’s a brief description of the life. There are a lot of accommodations out here, and we could definitely exist in this place for a long time if need be.
Gonna eat dinner now, talk to you later.
-Al
While Al returned home physically OK, he is still having bad dreams at night, well over a year after his return home. While he wasn’t a “combat” Marine, his base was shelled frequently and he witessed the badly wounded coming thru his base on the way to hospitals in Germany, a sight that he says he hopes never to see again. He has finished his 4 years as a Marine and is a student at the University of Washington.
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