Letter From Iraq #10

Another week has finished here and it has been really quiet.  The other day one of the other guys here said that he thought maybe Al Qaeda just left.  As nice as this would be I’m sure that it isn’t the reality of it.  The nice thing about it being quiet is that it gives every one a little time to relax.  The problem with the quiet time is that it can cause some people to become complacent and that is when accidents can happen.  When an injury or death happens because of an accident it is the worst kind of loss because it could be prevented.  The military works really hard to prevent accidents from happening.  They put into effect many safety precautions in the hopes that by increasing safety they will prevent people from getting injured.  In areas that have a lot of people the speed limit on the roads can go as low as 10 miles per hour.  They have posters and signs that remind people that proper safety can save their lives.  The military has even gone so far as to create commercials that remind everyone to stay safe.

Now some of you may be thinking, “They have T.V. in Iraq?”  In a simple word, the answer is yes.  But television here isn’t like what you see in the states.  The military actually maintains its own television and radio networks, called the American Forces Network or AFN, that are provided to military members in places where it may be the only source of entertainment that is in English.  We still have the same shows that you would see on T.V. in the states, but there are still some differences.

One of the big differences is that many of the shows are at least a season or two behind what is shown in the states.  So if you have just started your deployment and you like watching CSI (one of my favorites) you will have to just be satisfied with watching reruns because more than likely you have already seen the episodes that are showing on AFN.  On the other hand “reality” television shows are usually pretty up to date.

Another big difference with AFN is that we don’t have normal commercials.  In the states you will see dozens of different commercials trying to convince you to buy a specific product or service.  If you’re a night person you’ll see infomercials that will try to sell you products that are “Not Sold in Stores”.  Well AFN doesn’t have any of these.  In many of the countries that AFN is shown there is an agreement between the military and the host country that no sales advertisements will be shown or heard.  Instead we have what I call infomercials, but they don’t talk about the newest product lines.  Instead they provide actual information.  There are commercials that will inform you of the bonus that you can receive if you decide to reenlist in the Army.  They will tell you about different National Parks that are located throughout the U.S. or even about the accomplishments of former presidents.  Some of them are really lame but at the same time there are others that are quite creative.  No matter how informative they are they can’t possibly replace “normal” commercials.  You will never realize how great the commercials in the states are until you have to watch a commercial about losing your ID card that is being reenacted by a hamster and a cat (they even take the time to let you know that no animals where harmed during recording).  AFN even reuses the commercials on their network.  Some of them have been showing for over three years ago.  I remember some of them from back when I was stationed in Germany.

AFN is composed of several stations that show mostly family appropriate shows.  They even have a sports station for all of you sports lovers out there.  Now it’s no ESPN but they try to show a lot of the big games.  Now you’re probably wondering why anyone would want to watch football game if the shows are behind by a couple of seasons.  Well, in truth, AFN works very hard to show the games in real time.  They do the same with the news, because who would want to watch the news about the California fires a year from now as if it were happening then.

Even though AFN shows older shows and has really bad infomercials, you have to give them credit for their efforts.  They work closely with the networks in the states to get these shows for the military members.  Many of the networks allow AFN to show their shows at little or no cost to the military.  This is partly due to the fact that there is no advertising and that AFN wouldn’t be able to afford many of the shows at the price that networks pay in the states.

As I sign off for another week I would like to thank everyone for all of their messages and well wishes.  We are approaching the half way mark of this deployment and it’s nice to know that we have all of these people supporting us.  I also want to thank everyone that has been reading these letters.  I hear from my parents all the time about everyone that tells them that they really enjoy the letters.  I also want to thank the New Salem Journal for printing them.  Without them this wouldn’t have happened.

If you have a question that you would like to ask or just want to say Hi feel free to email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com.  If you would like to write and send the letter through the post office my mailing address is:

SSgt Ferderer, John B.

F Co. 5-158 AVN (AF Weather)

FOB Diamondback

APO, AE 09334

Until we meet again, Have A Great Air Force Day!