Letter From Iraq #26 - Finally Home

Two weeks is almost over and that means that it is almost time to go back to work.  After a deployment the Air Force gives it’s members a couple of weeks of time off when we return so that we have the ability to get things back in order and to spend some time with our friends and family before we have to go back to work.

The flight home was the longest flight of my life.  A few days before I made the majority of my voyage, I flew from FOB Diamondback to Al Udied Air Base, Qatar.  I was there for a couple of days with not a whole lot to do other than just hang out and relax.  The night we were scheduled to fly out of Al Udied, we were informed that our flight was going to be delayed 23 hours due to bad weather over Italy, and so the plane wouldn’t be able to make it in.  So we ended up spending another night in Qatar before we were finally able to get on the plane at a ridiculously early time.  From Qatar we flew to Aviano Air Base, Italy where we had a short lay-over of about 2 hours and then it was back on the plane.  Then we were off to Germany, where we would have another short lay-over and pick-up the remainder of the passengers for the trip.

From the time that we took off in Qatar until I landed back in Seattle I would start and stop my stopwatch because I wanted to see how long we were spending in the air.  By the time I did finally walk off my last flight I had flown for over 22 hours, but now it’s all over.

Since I have been back I have been spending a lot of time relaxing and getting things back to a sense of normalcy.  As I type I am sitting here reading watching the Price is Right.  I guess you can’t get much more normal than that.

Last weekend I also got a great surprise.  My girlfriend, Megan, informed me that her brother was coming to Seattle to visit a friend during his spring break and so we were going to pick him up at the airport because his friend was going to be busy on that Friday.  So we went to the airport on Friday afternoon to pick up her brother and while we stood there my mom magically showed up there.  She decided to come out for the weekend to visit just to make sure that I was actually back.  So we stayed up in Seattle Friday night and then Megan and I took her around on Saturday to see Pike Place Market where they throw fish and it’s also the home of the original Starbucks Coffee shop.  We also made a trip over to the Space Needle.

After we spent the day seeing the sites we headed home.  When we got home we set up my new Wii.  My parents got me one for Christmas and now I think I play that more than I watch TV.  I like the fact that with the Wii you have to get off the couch to play for a lot of the games.  After a long evening of playing bowling and tennis and golf we spent most of Sunday just taking it easy.  After church that evening I organized a card night so that my mom could meet some of the people that we like to get together with on the weekends and play a good game of Hand and Foot and eat some good food.  We spent Monday and Tuesday relaxing and seeing a few things here and there in the area until I had to take mom back to the airport Tuesday afternoon.  It was a great visit and now my mom can say that she has seen where I live and work.

As I sign off I want to thank everyone again for all of the support that you all gave us during the last six months.  It was nice to hear from all of you that enjoyed my letters.  Hearing how much you all enjoyed them made it a lot easier to write each week.  Sometimes it’s hard to write an article each week when your days are exactly the same from day to day.  It’s also very important to receive the support that we got during a deployment.  A lot of times all you see on the news is all of the people that are opposed to the war and the military and that makes doing our job a lot more difficult because we feel that no one appreciates what we are doing.  I would like to encourage everyone to continue to support the members of the military.  In New Salem alone we have many people who are serving in the military and I’m sure that they would all love to hear about how New Salem supports them.

This will be my last regular letter to the New Salem Journal.  I will try to send in a letter every once in awhile.  I still like to hear your comments.  Please feel free to email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com.  I love to hear from you all.

Letter From Iraq #25

My last full week on FOB Diamondback has come to a close and it was an interesting week around here.  First we had the most rain at any given time that fell in about eight hours.  We had 0.85 inches and it filled the ditches with water and made a really muddy mess.  Most of the mud is dried up now but you can still tell that a lot of rain fell in a short amount of time.  This week I also sent home a couple of boxes with things that I have here that I didn’t really want to have to carry with me all the way home.  When we flew here I had to carry three bags and a weapon case and so I figured that it was easier to mail some of it back so that I don’t have to take all of it back again.

But the best new that has happened this whole week, and really the best news during this entire deployment, is that our replacements arrived this last weekend and now it is only a matter of time until I get on a plane and find myself back home getting reacquainted with my everyday life.  Now the big task is getting the new people trained up so that they are able to provide the same support to our customers as we have been providing in the past.  Last night was the my first night of training the new guy that will be taking over my night shift and once he is completely trained it will be just one step closer to going home.

The only problem with all of the good news is that I now have little left to do other than wait.  I am not waiting to see when I can get a flight out of here to fly to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.  Once I get there I may be able to get on a plane within a couple of days or I may end up spending a week there just waiting for the next flight out of there.  The one upside to having to wait is that it gives me a chance to get caught up on some reading or playing games on my Nintendo DS. 

And to top the whole week off, today is car insurance dropping birthday.  It was a quiet birthday and that was perfectly fine to me.  In all actually it I don’t think that anyone here really knew that it was my birthday.  I am very happy with my present of my replacement arriving.

This week I am going to keep my letter short so that I can spend a little more time getting ready to fly out of here.  I want to thank everyone again for all of the emails, letters, and packages.  It has meant a lot to me and the other members on my team to see all of the support that we have received from all of you not only in New Salem but all of the other towns and states that have readers of the New Salem Journal.  Many times we know that there are people out there that support us but at the same time it feels great when people send a letter saying that they are proud of our service.  Many times the news will only show the people who oppose the war and the soldiers that fight it or the politicians that will do anything but say that they are proud of the hard work that the men and women of the military.  So, in short, all of the support that you have shown us over the last six months has meant the world to us.  Thank you.

This may be my last letter to the New Salem Journal for a couple of weeks just due to the fact that I don’t know if I will be able to send them.  I will definitely send in a couple of letters once I get back home to let you all know how things are going once I am back.  Just know that the next time you hear from me I will probably be sitting in the comfort of my apartment.

If you would like to send an email to say hi I can be reached at john.iraq@hotmail.com.  It may take me a little while to reply back but I will try very hard to get back to each of you.  Thanks again for all of your kind words of encouragement.

Letter From Iraq #24

This week is finally done and that means that there is only one complete week left before we start the long journey home.  This coming week is also the week that our replacements start their trip here.  I’m not sure when they will arrive but I hope that they are here by the end of the week.

During my weekly Mayor’s Cell meeting I was reminded that this coming week is Valentine’s Day.  Asides from the chaplain’s reminder to take a moment this week to do something special for our loved ones, you can also tell that Valentine’s Day is coming by the fact that even the paper towels in the bathrooms have little hearts on them.  When you’re deployed it takes a little planning and creative thinking for holidays like Valentine’s Day.  Sometimes it even requires a little deception, just to make it a little more special.  I informed my girlfriend, Megan, that her Valentine’s Day present was put in the mail on Saturday when I mailed a box of stuff home.  The problem is that I sent the box so that it will take 3 to 5 weeks to get home and so I will be home before the box will be.  What I failed to mention is that there are a dozen roses that will be delivered to her at work on the 13^th, so that she will be able to enjoy them the entire day.  I hope that she is pleasantly surprised.

During the Mayor’s Cell meeting the chaplain also asked for a moment of silence for a soldier that was lost recently.  During the last six months that I have been here there have been times that we have been able to go weeks on end without a single casualty and then there are times when we multiple losses within a single week.  Upon our arrival here I was informed that one of the pilots here that I knew from Fort Lewis had recently died in a helicopter accident.  What made his death even sadder was the fact that he left behind a son.

Awful tragedies like this one happen often, especially in a world that is at war with its self.  Every person deals with the pain caused by the loss of someone special in different ways.  Some people get angry while others get depressed and still others take the loss of a loved one as an inspiration to help others.  One such person is a woman named Bonnie Carroll.  In 1992 Bonnie lost her husband, a Brigadier General in the Army, while conducting a training mission in Alaska.  She was not alone in her loss as seven others were killed in the plane crash.  This group of eight surviving families found that the best comfort that they received was from each other.  With this knowledge in hand Bonnie decided to start an organization that was geared towards helping families who have lost a loved one that was serving in the military.  This organization, which is just as important today as it was back when it was started, is called the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which when shortened is called TAPS, appropriately showing the purpose and importance of its mission.

Each year the TAPS program holds its national convention in Washington DC during Memorial Day weekend.  There are many talks and events that are scheduled throughout the four days that help the families of military members that are left behind.  At the same time there are activities that are planned into the weekend that are designed to help people relax, like the parade at the Marine Corp Barracks and some light sightseeing.  On the last day of the convention, Memorial Day, everyone is bussed to Arlington National Cemetery where the President of the United States lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown and then gives a speech to all in attendance.

Many of the families that are left behind also have children that are left to grieve the loss of a parent, grandparent, or sibling.  During the weekend, while the parents attend the seminars that are geared towards them, the Good Grief Camp is taking place in another part of the hotel.  This camp is designed to help the children in the family with the grief that they feel, no matter the age.  Each child is matched up with a mentor who will spend the weekend with them and be there if they need someone to talk to.  The mentors aren’t just volunteers who have decided to give their time to a good cause, but instead are mostly all members of the military who give up their long weekend, that they could spend with their family and friends, to help the children of their lost comrades.  Many of the soldiers, marines, sailors, and airman that volunteer at the kid’s camp each year have been coming back for several years.  Many times the volunteers aren’t too sure why they are there at the beginning of the weekend.  They aren’t too sure that they can be a help to a kid that they don’t know while dealing with a situation that no one likes to talk about.  By the end of the weekend I have seen marines cry when they explain how their lives have been changed.  It’s not only Marines who cry, but I point them out because they often have the facade of being too tough to cry.  When someone cries they aren’t laughed at or ridiculed, no one thinks less of them, because we support each other just like they support the kids.  Last year there was a General, who had lost two sons in the military, one while serving in Iraq and the other to suicide, that came and talked to us.  While talking about his sons he broke down and started to cry.  No one in that room respected him any less for his tears but instead respected him more for being able to show his grief.  Many times there are mentors who are dealing with the same pain that the kids are dealing with and so they are getting just as much out of the weekend as the kids.  One of the greatest ways that many of the military mentors are affect is in discovering that if something were to happen to them, that there would be group of people who have been where they are and know what they are feeling and are willing to help them with their grief.

The spring after my brother, D.J., was killed is when I learned of the TAPS program.  I was at a training exercise in Eastern Washington when I received a call from my mom.  She explained to me that they had a kids camp and that they would like me to be one of their mentors.  The Air Force even allowed me to attend the conference without having to take leave.  I was matched up with a child who’s family had been attending TAPS for several years after the loss of their father in a fatal aircraft crash.  That weekend I think I resolved more of my issues than I helped to resolve.  Last year was the second year that I was a volunteer with the kid’s camp and I plan on returning again this year.

Each year the ND National Guard is financed with money to help ND families attend TAPS.  With the number of military members lost each year, from the current war in Iraq and Afghanistan to car accidents and suicides, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the National Guard to help every family to attend TAPS completely free of charge.  Last year ten committees in both the House and the Senate heard the need of these families and donated $3,800 to help the families attend TAPS.  This wasn’t money that was set aside from the tax payers, but money that they donated out of their own pocket.

As I sign off for this week I want to thank everyone again for all of their thoughts and prayers during the last six months.  I would like to ask each and every one of you to continue to pray for all military people, both deployed and at home, that they may stay safe.  Sadly a war isn’t the only way to lose a soldier and so they need your prayers.  I would also like to thanks Lorraine and Gordon Bopp for taking the time to email me and sharing the dates of the New Salem Anniversary Celebration.  I look forward to coming back and seeing everyone.

If you have a question that you would like to ask me or just want say hi, you can contact me via email at john.iraq@hotmail.com.  I would suggest to avoid sending letters at this point just due to the length of time that it will take for them to arrive and the fact that we are “getting short” as Mel Bopp in Iowa put it.

Until we meet again, Have a great Air Force Day!

Letter From Iraq #23

One of our final weeks has passed and according to the count down timer we have 15 days left before we start departing for home.  Of course, as thing in the military go, that date has changed several times but either way we are going home soon and so that is really all that matters.  Looking at the count down clock it looks like the seconds are peeling away a little faster this week and that is always a good thing.

In the last couple of weeks my parents have told me that people have been asking what I need here to make my life easier and at this point in the deployment it is kind of a hard question to answer.  We are so close to going home that there is very little that I really need.  I really do appreciate all of the support that I have received from everyone and now I have a mission for all of you.  I know that many of you want to continue to support me and the other military people and I would like to share with you how that may be possible.

There are many organizations out there that have been set up to support the troops.  One of the biggest organizations set up for this task is called the USO.  I’m sure that most of you have heard some information about the USO at one time or another.  Most of you are familiar with the very funny Bob Hope, who during his time was one of the biggest celebrity supporters of the USO.  He would travel around war torn areas doing shows for the troops with his band of fellow supporters.  Well this form of support was organized through the USO and it continues today.  The USO has been supporting America’s service members since just before World War II and they continue to support us to this day.  This week it is actually the USO’s 67^th birthday on February 4^th.

On the day that we flew out of the Baltimore Airport to come over to Iraq there were volunteers at the airport handing out snacks and small care package packs with some essentials and a few other small things to help pass the time.  They also have a USO center at the airport where military members can go into and have access to the internet or some snacks.  They also had a T.V. to help pass the long hours that some people spend in the airport.  In the back they even had a washer and dryer so that some people that have been traveling for days on end might be able to do a little bit of light laundry so that we can enjoy being clean.  The volunteers that run the center are very courteous and friendly.

So I’m sure you’re wondering how you can support the troops through the USO.  Well it is quite simple really…It costs money to offer free internet to the troops.  It cost money to keep a facility up and running.  Funds are required to have things to hand out to the troops while they are at the airport before their deployments.  And it can get quite expensive to ship a troupe of entertainers to a tiny little base in the middle of Iraq.  The USO is always in need of donations and I am calling on the good people of New Salem to make those donations.  It doesn’t have to be anything big, but every little bit helps.  It could be a donation of two dollars or fifty dollars.

As I looked through the USO site, http://www.USO.org, I also noticed that they have a section for people to organize a fund raiser.  With the upcoming anniversary celebration that is coming up, I think it would be a great idea to have a fund raiser for the USO and make the donation in the name of the entire town.  It would make a great community service project of the local Boy Scouts, 4-H club, Girl Scouts, or any other club of that nature.  In fact it has the potential for each of these clubs to get together and work as a group to take up this task.  Just think, you have the potential to help out troops around the world.  Adopt the saying of the USO, “Until Every One Comes Home”, and support the troops until they are all back with their families.

Real quick before I sign off for this week I would also like to direct you to another web site that is geared toward helping the troops is a site called America Supports You (http://www.americasupportsyou.mil).  This is another great source of information on different ways to support the men and women of the military.

As I sign off this week I would like to send out and special thank you to Bill and Norma Breimeier for the box of National Geographics and ND/Farm magazines.  There aren’t too many people here that really understand the farming magazines but I appreciate them because they remind me of home.  Thanks also to everyone who has emailed or written in the last couple of weeks.  There have been too many emails and letters for me to respond to each one individually.  It is great to know that I have the support of the whole town behind me and everyone else in the military.

If you have a question of would like to just drop me a line you can send me an email at john.iraq@hotmail.com.  Being this close I would suggest holding off on sending letters/care packages through the post office because they may possibly be returned if they arrive after I leave.

Until we meet again, Have a great Air Force Day!

Letter From Iraq #22

Another week has passed and the next has started and here I sit finding that I have forgotten to write this letter and I need to get it done today so I can get it sent out.  Depending on how you look at it though I guess forgetting to write this letter could be a good thing.  It may mean that the last week has gone by a lot quicker than I expected it to and so there wasn’t enough time to fit everything in.  On the other hand though, it could be bad because it could mean that my brain is slipping and just doesn’t want to remind me to do things.

Weather-wise this has been an interesting week.  Since we arrived here everyone has told us how bad the “rainy season” is around here.  They would tell us that it would rain for days and weeks straight and the mud would get really bad.  Well we managed to make it all the way through the end of the year and the rain that we did see was minimal.  We made it most of the way through January and the rain still hadn’t picked up and people were starting to get worried.  Well the rainy season has finally arrived.  This coming week alone we are looking at 5 days of rain.  The only problem is that the amount of rain that we are expecting these last couple days of January will not bring us anywhere near the amount of rain that we are supposed to have.  With that news, the drought continues.

Other than the obvious change in weather there has been very little excitement around here.  We are getting so close to use leaving that it has become time for me to start looking for replacements for some of the different volunteer things that I do.  Most of the volunteer jobs that I have are all at church here and so it is important to find people to fill the spots.  The one thing that I have discovered as I find replacements is that it is really nice to not have as many jobs.  It allows me to relax a little more on Sundays rather than trying to do too many things all at one time.

Actually, as I think about the approaching week when I leave it reminds me of all of the preparations that we have to go through in order to deploy.  There is a lot more to it than just getting a whole bunch of gear together and then hopping on a plane.  Before we are allowed to deploy we must make a visit to our doctor to make sure that we are in the proper physical condition that will hopefully prevent us from getting sick or injured while we are deployed and possibly need to be shipped to a big hospital like the one at Lanshtul, Germany.  We are also required to seek the professional opinion of our dentist in order to prevent problems like cavities and other problems.  After all of that we are required to see the Personnel Office to make sure that all of our paperwork is in order.  This is to ensure that we don’t run into problems with our enlistment, which can cause unneeded stress.

Next we head off to the legal office.  While we are at the legal office they can advise you on everything from writing up a living will to power of attorneys.  The military, in the hopes of preventing such atrocities as sexual assault, require that we also attend a class with the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator.  The military is also increasingly concerned about suicides within the military and so they also require that we attend classes that revolve around knowing what some of the signs of suicide are and also what to do if we thing that one of our brothers or sisters in arms is contemplating suicide.  Many times in the military it is thought be worse to lose some one due to a preventable suicide or even worse to lose someone in the fight from an assault from someone on our own team, but sadly it does happen and in order to prevent this type of loss the military trains us in ways to counteract this.

Of course as this deployment comes to an end I am also thinking of all of the things that I want to do when I get home.  I can’t wait to get home and start getting caught up with all of my friends.  No matter how easy it is to email back and forth these days, it is no comparison to seeing people and being able to hold a conversation with them face to face.  I can’t wait to get back into my apartment and to start cooking again.  Right now a big bowl of Knoephla Soup sounds really good.  In my extra time that I have around here I have been able to find a lot of good sounding food that I am excited to try, but I will have to invite a lot of people out to help eat it all.  On the subject of food I am also looking forward to getting back to all of my favorite restaurants and even discovering new ones.  But above all I am looking forward to getting back home to my girlfriend (and our new cat Moo) so that we can try to get our lives back to normal.

I recently received an email from someone who was wondering if I was planning on being in New Salem for the Anniversary Celebration this coming summer.  I am excited to say that the plans at the time being consist of me being in the area during that weekend, but I won’t be traveling by myself.  My girlfriend, Megan, will be traveling with me and this will be not only her first real trip to North Dakota, but also her first experience with a 38 foot high, 50 foot long fiberglass cow.  The only problem that we are having during the planning of this trip is that neither of us is really sure when the Anniversary is.  If someone could share that with me I would greatly appreciate it and I will pass it along so that we can finish planning our trip.

Well my clock is telling me that it is time to sign off and start getting ready for bed.  Tomorrow is another day and I’m sure the weather will keep it interesting.  I hope that you all have a great week.

I am looking for your suggestions and questions.  Is there something that you want to know about being deployed?  If you do please feel free to email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com, or you can write to me via the post office at the address below.

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!

Letter From Iraq #21

By the numbers that show up on the official countdown timer we officially have one month left as of today.  That’s good news because I am ready to get out of here.  The bad news is that this last month is going to take forever.  Matter of fact this last week alone seems like it took forever to go by.  I think that in a race between the tortoise, from the Tortoise and the Hare story, and time, the tortoise would win every single time.  On the other hand all I have to do is keep telling myself, “It’s all good, I’m going home soon.”

I realized this week that it is definitely time for me to get out of here.  It seems like everything gets on my nerves these days.  For the most part it’s simple stuff that I didn’t even notice when I first got here.  I think the reason that it didn’t register when we first arrived was because everything was new and I was to busy paying to attention to everything else around me to concentrate on the little things.  I have read many times to not “sweat the small stuff” and I am trying to do that but some times it’s just difficult.  It’s especially hard to do when your routine hasn’t changed in about five month.  It’s gotten to the point that I can walk to the dining facility in the middle of the night with no moon present and I know where everything is even though I can’t see it.  When I say it’s the small stuff that bothers me it’s stuff like when I go to take a shower and some one doesn’t shut off the water all the way and it drips or when they leave a building the don’t shut the door.  It really isn’t a big deal but at the same time it’s usually a combination of little things that can grow into something big.

Over all there is very little to report from this side of the world for this week.  The most exciting thing that has happened is that the low temperatures here the last several days have been dropping down into the low 20’s.  Actually, on Wednesday we go all the way down to 19°F.  For a North Dakotan that is all that cold, but here in the desert of Iraq it is frigid.

I did get a couple of letters and emails this week.  The first letter that I got was from Kenny and Cindy Maher.  Cindy wanted to know when this deployment is over and how many years I have left in the service.  Well Cindy, since this is a 180 day deployment and we left the US on 20 August 2007, the official date that this deployment will end on is 20 February 2008.  The problem is that my deployment isn’t officially over until I arrive back in the States and that all depends on flights out of here.  How much time I have left in the Air Force is also a two part answer.  I currently have about three and half years left on my current enlistment.  This last August was my six year point and at that time I re-enlisted for another 4 years.  By the year 2011, when my current enlistment is over, I will be halfway to being able to retire from the military and it would seem kind of crazy to get out at that point.  That being said that I never over look the fact that life changes and at that point I may decide that I want to pursue a different aspect of life.  That will all be decided when the time comes but I do like the idea of being able to retire after 20 years of being in the military.  It was good to hear that Miranda had a nice wedding.  Please pass my congratulations to her.  Also, thank you for the letter and don’t worry about typing it, if I had to hand write this letter it would never get done.

This week I also received an email from Mel in Iowa and he was wondering if we still used the term “getting short” when referring to getting ready to return home and sadly, I must report, that your email is the first time I ever heard of the term.  It’s always interesting to hear from other veterans from previous wars.  Many times we can sit and talk for hours just about the difference from when they were in the service.  Mel also shared with me that when he was in Korea that letters were the primary way of contact with your family.  It amazes me that phone calls could cost upwards of twenty dollars a minute.  It’s those stories that make me appreciate the advances we have made in technology and how easy it has made my life.  I also found it interesting that Mel shared with me that he was a draftee and, like many draftees, he didn’t really want to go to war.  I too wasn’t excited to go to war, but it is my job and, as I’m sure Mel himself did, we do what is asked of us and we try to make the best of the situation.  All I have to do is remember all of the places that I’ve been able to visit and it makes it all worth while.  Since I have been in the military I have visited over 12 different countries and easily as many states.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Well again my clock is telling me that my shift is almost over and that it’s time to sign off for another week.  I want to thank everyone who has emailed or written in the past weeks.  There are many more than I can mention, but rest assured that I have received your well wishes and I do appreciate them.  If you have sent me a question, I will get them soon.  Please know that I love to hear about how things are going back home, even if your home is in a different place than my home.

I am looking for your suggestions and questions.  Is there something that you want to know about being deployed?  If you do please feel free to email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com, or you can write to me via the post office at the address below.

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!

Letter From Iraq #20

I just looked at the clock and it is telling me that we have one month and a week left of this deployment.  The nice thing about this final time is that it is now less time than we have already spent here and so it seems much less monstrous.  The down side to this time is that it is starting to go slower and slower.

There is very little exciting news to share with you all.  The height of my excitement is that most of the mud has finally dried up from last week’s rain and so it isn’t quite so hard to get around without making a huge mess everywhere you go.  When I did my extended forecast earlier this morning I did notice that we might see some rain this coming Sunday, which would be nice since we need a little over six inches just to hit the average for this month.  If the rain follows suit with the way it has been going since we have been here I am going to guess that we aren’t going to make it.

When it does rain around here it actually has the effect to put people out of work for a short time.  When we first arrived here I noticed that the roads were wet here most of the time but the rest of the area was dry.  One day I noticed that there was a truck driving down the road and it was spraying water on the roads.  They do this so that the dust that is kicked up from the vehicles that drive on the roads is kept to a minimum.  That being said, I would think that this place would have the cleanest roads you have ever seen, but that is not the case.  There is still dirt everywhere and whenever you have to walk across the street you end up taking mud with you everywhere.

The also like to take a blade over dirt roads here so that they can try and make the smooth.  Having lived on a farm for 12 years I can understand the need to smooth out the roads.  Of course the procedure that they use to do it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me.  They make several passes with the grater so that they can rip up the compact dirt and gravel that’s on the road.  The problem is that they don’t really go all that deep and so they don’t really get most of the bumps out of the road.  Then just to make things even “better” they take a steam roller and go over it a couple of times and mash everything back into the ground.  The only effect that this has is that it makes the road just as rough as it was when they started.  They actually do this most days and it wouldn’t be so bad but I can feel the steam roller going back and forth from my room and they like to do it while I’m trying to sleep.  But at this point I just keep telling myself, “We’re almost done…We’re almost done.”

The other somewhat exciting news from the past week is that it snowed.  I say that it is somewhat exciting because of the fact that it didn’t snow here but it did over a large area to our south.  It was reported that it was the first time that Baghdad has had snow in over 50 years and so it was a pretty big event.  The thing about the snow that disappoints me is that it didn’t just snow once in the last week, but twice, and both times it managed to scoot just to our south and completely miss us.  A weather station to the west of us reported a mixture of rain and snow mixed, which would have been just fine, but we got nothing more than some clouds, which means more work with no reward.

Other than that there hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement to fill the days.  I actually spent the last couple of days reading a forum online that talks about adults who enjoy playing games on the Nintendo DS.  I bought a DS before I left for this deployment and I love it.  They have games that any one can play, not just kids.  One of the first games that I got when I bought it was a Mario Brothers game, which filled many hours of down time, until I finished.  I now have several different games that I play on a regular basis and a whole list of other games that I would like to try thanks to this forum.  It’s will be nice to have my DS so that I have something to do to fill the many hours that I will soon be spending on a plane to get home again.

As I look at the clock again I notice that my shift is almost over and that it is time for me to start getting ready to go home for the day.  But before I go I would like to thank my girlfriend Megan’s grandma and Aunt Sandy for the box that they sent.  The oatmeal cookie are very good and I think I can honestly say that they are probably even better than my mom’s (I couldn’t tell you the last time she made oatmeal cookies).  I look forward to someday finding out what the secret ingredient is.

As the weeks that are left of this deployment dwindle down I find myself searching for ideas to write about.  I am looking for your suggestions and questions.  Is there something that you want to know about being deployed?  If you do please feel free to email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com, or you can write to me via the post office at the address below.

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!

Letter From Iraq #19

Another week has passed but as weeks go this has been one of the longer ones since we have been here.  I think that one of the reasons that the time seems to be going slow is because we are starting to get to the end of this deployment and I really can’t wait to get home.  Of course, when you want time to go quickly, it seems like there is nothing moving slower than the second hand of the clock.  The funny thing about time is that it always moves at the same pace even though you perception of it is constantly changing.

For as long as this week has been taking, it hasn’t been a completely boring week.  A couple of days ago we received the first rain of 2008.  Since we are in the rainy season around here, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but considering the fact that we ended last year on a very dry note, hopefully this year will start out on the right foot.  Having talked to some of the higher ups around the FOB here they are very concerned about a drought because if the Iraqi people aren’t able to grow their crops it could make the situation here a lot worse.  During those conversations it reminds me a lot of the farmers in North Dakota.  Granted, a drought back in the States probably wouldn’t spark nation wide violence, but it still poses a huge problem for our economy.

So, your probably wondering how much of the wonderful wet stuff we got and I’m proud to report that we got about a quarter of an inch in a matter of about 5 hours.  Sure, a quarter of an inch doesn’t seem like all that much rain, but considering the fact that during December 2007 our total rain fall was only 0.11 inches for the entire month, it is a good sign that we have more than doubled December’s rainfall in a single rain event.  Sadly though, the forecast for right now doesn’t hold another drop of rain for the rest of the week.  And even if we do get more rain we will have to get another six inches to reach the average for this month and then we will still need to make up for the last several months of dry weather.

The other exciting thing around here is that we have been seeing frost the last two mornings.  Now to most people that would just indicate that the temperature has been below freezing and that would be true.  This morning alone we got down to 25°F, but we have been below freezing before and it has never really caused us to see frost.  The rain that we received gave us enough moisture in the air so that when the temperature gets cold at night there is actually something to freeze to the little bit of grass and tree leaves that we see around here.  Seeing as this may be the closest thing that we may see to snow while we are here, I have started referring to it as Iraqi Snow.

As I mentioned, the temperature this morning got down into the mid 20’s, which by North Dakota standards is still pretty decent, but for here that is quite chilly.  I guess I can’t complain though because it has frozen the ground.  The sad part is that the frozen ground won’t last long, but I will take the joy in that fact as long as I can get it.  For most people, the ground being frozen isn’t all that exciting, but with the amount of rain that we got here this week it has made a very muddy mess and walking anywhere is a chore.  You end up with mud all over your boots and it’s extremely hard to get it of when you go inside.  The upside to the ground being frozen is that you can walk on top of some of the thinner mud without getting it on your shoes.  It turns out that is also one of the advantages of working at night.

Recently I’ve had a couple of people ask me where I learned to write so well.  Some one wondered if I learned to write back in school from the teachers there in New Salem or if it was from my time that I have spent in the military.  The truth of the matter is that it is somewhat of a combination of both and yet partly neither of the two.  I do give credit where credit is due, though.  I would say that I did learn a lot about writing from my teachers in school.  They were willing to teach it to us and for some reason a lot of it stuck with me through the years.  The military has also taught me a little about writing and the importance of being able to do it well.  The one problem with writing for the military is that it doesn’t really allow us the ability to write creatively too often since most of the writing that we do for the military has a specific format that they require us to stick to.  But like I said, not all of my ability to write came either from the military or from school.  The fact of the matter is that I write the way that I do because I insist on sounding competent when I write.

It has gotten to the point that when I read other people’s writing I base part of my opinion on that person off of what they wrote.  When I am looking at buying something online and I read the customer reviews for that product, I put a lot less stock in the complaints of a person who spells everything wrong because I figure that if he or she can’t spell things correctly then it is possible that they may not have even been smart enough to figure out how to work the product correctly.  In our modern society, with its chat rooms and text messaging, it has gotten to the point where kids never really learn to spell correctly because instead of spelling things out most of the time they shorten everything so that they don’t have to hit as many keys or so that they can fit more information into the message.  At a first glance this may not seem like a huge problem but when they get older and it is time to apply for jobs or do reports for the job that you do have, it’s important to be able to write.  And now days, with computers, there is very seldom a reason that a word should be spelled wrong.  The computer will even catch grammatical errors sometimes.  I’m not saying that my writing is anywhere near perfect; it has a long way to go before it will ever get there, but I will always put effort into making it as close to perfect as I can.

Well I suppose I had better sign off for this week so that I can get some studying done before bed time.  I hope that 2008 is off to a great start for everyone and that it brings you much happiness.

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!

Letter From Iraq #18

The new year is nearly upon us and the good news that comes with that is that according to the countdown timer that we have here at work we will have approximately fifty days left before we start heading home.  To most people fifty days still sounds like a lot, but when you take it into context of the whole deployment it isn’t so bad.  Most of the Army people here are on fifteen month deployments and most of them can’t imagine only having fifty days left until they get to return to their families.

I want to take a quick second to thank everyone who took the time these past few weeks to send emails, cards, and packages for Christmas.  As I mentioned last week, I have been spending a lot of time at the post office lately to help them get all of the incoming mail sorted in time for mail call each day.  One of the days that I was there, right before Christmas, I was actually able to find two packages that were sent to me while I was there sorting.

The funny thing about both of the packages is that they both had a letter in them that said they didn’t think that they would arrive by Christmas.  The post office is a wonderful mystery and I have a feeling that a lot of people don’t really know how it works.  Through the magic that is the post office though, they were able to get them here in time.  I want to thank the Moszers from Bismarck for the package that they sent.  I really enjoy the beef jerky and all of the other goodies.  I have also started reading the book that you sent and so far it is pretty good, though I haven’t gotten too far because I am in the middle of a different book right now and I would like to finish that one first.  I also want to thank you for the clementines that you sent.  I love them and they didn’t last to long since I ate them both right away after opening the box and finding them.

I also want to thank the Dyer family from Tumwater, Washington.  Sandy works at the Law Library at the capital with my girlfriend Megan and has been reading these letters when Megan brings them in.  I appreciate the box of snacks and the letter, even though I think we have only really met in passing, it’s still nice to know that people every where, even people that I don’t know all that well, are keeping us in their thoughts and prayers.  I’m also intrigued by this lasagna that you speak of, I’m not sure it would have made it through the mail, but if it had I definitely would have scarfed it down.

In all of the letters and emails that I have received, everybody tells me that they hope that I have a good Christmas, even though I am so far away from home.  Well, in all reality it turned out to be a pretty good holiday.  Christmas day wasn’t all that exciting since I slept most of the day but Christmas Eve proved to be quite a bit of fun.  While I was at the PX that morning I was being helped by one of the civilians that also attends the Catholic Mass and so we knew each other.  She informed me that the civilians, local nationals, and third country nationals were having a Christmas party that night.  She told me that there would be music, food and games.  In the military we have a large number of people that are from the Philippines and so I have attend some Philippino parties in the past and they are a lot of fun and the food is great.  Once I was told that there would be food I was sold on the idea of getting out of bed early for a party.  So that evening I got up a little early and headed over to the party.  I kind of figured that I would be one of only a handful of military people there but in all actuality there were quite a few people there.  And as always the food was great and the games, even though they were a little different, were still enjoyed by everyone there.

The convenient part of the party was that it was just down the street from the chapel and so after being at the party for a while I was able to just walk a short distance to go to the church for Christmas Eve Mass.  A lot of the people from the party also made it to church.  After mass was over I was invited back over to the party.  As much as I would have loved to have gone back over there, I had to work that night and so I wasn’t able to keep partying, but it was fun none the less.

On Christmas the big deal that was going on here was the meals that are served at the DFAC (Dining FACility).  From my understanding, it was a lot like what they do for Thanksgiving and so that means the place was all decked out in decorations.  One of the other traditions around the military during holidays is to have the higher ups serve the food.  So when you go to the DFAC and you go through the shed to have your ID checked it might be a First Sergeant that is checking them instead of a Private or a Specialist.  When you go through the line to get your food it is a Captain or a Lieutenant Colonel that is serving instead of the normal DFAC workers.  It builds the sense of family that you often see in the military.  Even those these soldiers, marines, sea men, and airman are so far away from their families in the states it doesn’t mean that they don’t get to spend the holidays with family.  It isn’t a biological family but we care for each other just as much as if they were our brothers and sisters.

The only other thing that has happened here in the last week is that Megan and I decided recently to get a cat.  We decided on a black and white one since it would match all of the cow stuff that I have in my apartment.  I was even fortunate enough to get to pick the name and since I got my pet naming abilities from my dad I decided that we would name her Moo Cow or just Moo for short.  When Megan picked up Moo from the shelter she told them what we were naming her and they thought it sounded like a 3 year old picked the name.  I think it’s a very catchy name and soon everyone will want to use it.

Well, as a look at the clock it is telling me that it is time for me to sign off for another week so that I can get the last of my work done for the morning and then I can go to breakfast.  I wish everyone a very happy New Year and I think this next one will be best one yet.

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!

Letter From Iraq #17

This week is almost over already and what an interesting week this has turned out to be.  What more could anyone ask for other than a little bit of thought elevating work, some time spent helping others, and the prospect of snow in the desert.

Work has been promoting the creative side of my brain when I get calls to ask when the weather is going to get better.  For the last two days we have had extremely reduced visibility due to dust that is floating around in the air, which has brought our visibility down to 1/8 of a mile at times.  This morning when I was going into my room I noticed that there was a fine layer of dust on everything.  The scary part is that even though you can’t really see the dust around you, you are still breathing it in and it’s getting into your lungs.  I’m starting to get a feel for what it was like to live in the dustbowl during the depression.

I also mentioned that we had the prospect of snow this week.  On Monday, while I was looking at our weather models, I noticed that it showed that we would receive snow on Thursday.  Now the models aren’t 100% accurate and sometimes they get a little over excited about precipitation, but the way things were setting up, it looked like a pretty good chance that we would see it.  Well, instead of the snow that I was hoping for, we got this lovely dust instead.  Now it looks like we will be pretty dry throughout Christmas.

This week I also spent a little time doing some volunteer work at the post office here.  I’m friends with the Postal Officer and he informed me that they were getting anywhere from sixteen to twenty pallets of mail in each day and that they needed help to break down the pallets and sort the packages in order to get it all done by mail call time.  So I decided that I would go over there and help them out.  It has helped to make the time go a little faster and I get a little exercise while doing something productive at the same time.

While I’m on the subject of volunteer work I would like to take some time to talk about volunteering.  The holiday season is a time of year when some of us feel moved to do a little volunteer work to help those who are less fortunate than us.  Mahatma Gandhi once said, “We must be the change that we seek in the world.”  This is just as true today as it was when he said it.

With all of the traveling that I get to do around the world I get to have many interesting conversations with people.  One of the conversations that always interest me the most is when people talk about the direction that our country and our planet is headed in.  I hear everything from concerns about the youth that will become our leaders to distress about the way people treat each other.  I only have one question for them, what are you doing to make it any better?

Around the holidays we often see the Salvation Army bell ringers out with their pots asking for donations.  It’s true that they do need the money that you donate, but imagine what they would do with your time.  Yes, that money can be turned into food that will feed the people who need it, but what if everyone just donated money and no one took the time to distribute the funds to those in need?  The money would just sit there and the poor would still be poor and hungry.

I would like to encourage every one of you to set aside some time this next year to do a little volunteer work.  It doesn’t have to be anything too hard.  All you have to do is find something that you feel passionate about and then find out how you can help.  If you’re deeply concerned about the kids in your community, you could volunteer at a rec center or with an organization devoted to children like the Big Brothers Big Sisters.  If you get really upset when you read in the paper about a person that was abusing their pets then maybe volunteering your time at the local pet shelter is the right thing for you.  The really cool thing about volunteering is that there is something for everyone and you can do it as a family, which will instill in your children the importance of volunteering.

When it comes to volunteering, I find that I get a little greedy.  I don’t always do it because I want to help out others that are in need, but more because it makes me feel great.  A couple of hours of volunteer work has the ability to give you a feeling of pure ecstasy that will last for weeks.  It can even make your life better by giving you a new appreciation for the things that you have.  You also get to meet people with very interesting stories and different perspectives on life.  Just think of all of the things you can learn from the people that you are affecting.

As I sign off for another week I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, since this will be the last letter for the year.  I hope that everyone all the joy that the new year has to offer.  As I depart I will leave you with a quote that was etched onto the tomb of an Archbishop in Westminster Abby around 1100 A.D.:

“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.

But it, too, seemed immovable.

As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.

And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.

From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world.”

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!

Letter From Iraq #16

As another week before Christmas dissolves it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as the song goes.  The weather station is fully decked out with tinsel, ornaments, and lights, which I just put up today.  We even have a little snow and some icicles.  Well actually they are made of plastic but I figure that I will just have to take what I can get.  All in all it looks pretty festive around here and for being far away from home I have to say, it isn’t too bad.

Actually, I am really proud of myself this year.  Most years, around this time, I always buy Christmas cards, telling myself that I am going to send them out too everyone.  The reality of the matter is that I always find a thousand other things to do and before I know it Christmas is passed and it’s July.  I guess what I could do is just fill them out and send them out in July to make sure that they get there in time.  The Christmas cards that I sent out were actually donated and I got a box of them from the chapel.  They have a lovely seen with pine trees covered in snow surrounded by old wood fences.  It looks just like outside here, with the exception of the fact that we don’t have any pine trees and instead of wooden fences we have beautiful cement barriers with concertina wire on the top.  Oh and then there is the fact that there isn’t a single flake of snow so that kind of kills the picture.  To me the picture kind of looks like it was taken in the mountains of Montana.

This Christmas season I have learned a few things that I feel like sharing with you all because, even though it may be a little late for this year, you may find it very helpful in years to come.  Of course these are things that you wouldn’t usually think about unless you are stuck in the middle of the desert with little more to do than think.

The first thing that I’ve learned is that there is another reason to love Hallmark greeting cards.  The Christmas cards that were donated were produced by Hallmark and so now I have had a little time to test these cards out.  They have the best tasting envelope glue out of any card or other envelope I have ever licked.  They are slightly sweet and they don’t make my tongue feel like I was licking a dry sponge.  Hallmark’s slogan is “When you care enough to spend the very best.”  I think they should change it to “When you have to send a lot of cards and don’t want to run out of saliva.”  It may not be as short or quite as catchy but it gives you a true sense of the product you are buying.

The second thing that I learned is that anything can be turned into a Christmas item.  Recently we got a package here at the weather station from our Squadron back home in Fort Lewis and most of it was normal care package stuff.  There were plenty of little toys and candy in there.  The one item that killed me was the dual purpose candy-toy.  One of them was a reindeer.  In any normal capacity a reindeer is one of the many signs of Christmas.  With this reindeer though I think you have to have a bit of a twisted sense of humor to appreciate it.  The reindeer came with some jelly beans and you load them into the reindeer through it’s head.  Once you have the candy loaded you push down on the reindeer and it poops out the jelly beans.  It is by far one of the most sick and twisted holiday items I have ever seen and at the same time I loved it.  You can’t help but laugh.  The other one that they sent us was a penguin, which by the way lives no where near Santa Clause and the North Pole since they are indigenous to the South Pole. But anyway you load candy into the penguin’s head and then wind it up and as it waddles around it lays little colored candies.  I think it’s supposed to represent penguin poop but I thought it looked more like penguin eggs.

The third thing that I have learned so far this Christmas season is that I hate glitter.  A while back we received a couple of boxes here from a couple of different organizations that wanted to express their gratitude by sending us Christmas stockings stuffed with different things.  It was a nice package to receive, with only one exception.  A lot of the stockings had glitter glued to them as a decoration and doesn’t exactly stay where it is glued.  The bottom of the box had glitter everywhere and all of the stuff that was inside of the box had glitter on it too.  The only reason that this is a problem is that glitter sticks to everything.  We now have glitter everywhere.  When I went through the boxes I ended up with glitter stuck to my hands and face and little pieces of glitter in my hair.  It was also stuck to my uniform.  I looked like I was trying to become a human ornament. 

Now that I have shared with you all that Christmas has to teach I will sign off for another week.  Seeing as this will be my last letter before Christmas, I would like to take a quick second to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  I hope that it is filled with all of the joy and happiness that the holiday has to offer.  I ask though that you please keep in your thoughts and prayers all of those why may not be having as joyous of a holiday season as you have been fortunate enough to have.  I’m not necessarily talking about military people, but include in your thoughts and prayers all of the poor, the less fortunate, the lonely, and those in despair.  These people need your thoughts and prayers too.

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!

Letter From Iraq #15

Another week is over her in Iraq (and everywhere in the world I guess too) and all in all I would have to say that is have been a pretty good week.  The weather has been starting to get a little more active since the “rainy” season has started and so work has started getting busier and therefore the time goes a lot faster.  I’m sure that the excitement of the upcoming holidays has the time moving quickly for everyone.  Hopefully you all are taking a little bit of time out of your busy holiday schedules to spend time with friends and family.

Speaking of spending time with friends and family I figured that I would talk about some of the ways that people over here in Iraq are able to keep in contact with their friends and family.  Actually the idea for this letter came from my girlfriend Megan.  We have been really fortunate on this deployment in the fact that we are able to talk to each other almost every day, with the exception of when work gets in the way and things are just a little too busy.  Megan was wondering how most people are able to contact their loved ones if they don’t have a computer that they work at or if they don’t have a phone in their office that they call home on.  She was also wondering how people here get emergency information from back home if its necessary.

As I said earlier, Megan and I are fortunate in the fact that we are able to talk most every day with some of the tools that the military has given me.  Most days be are able to chat online through a web site called the Air Force Portal.  This site is only available to members of the Air Force and other employees of the AF.  With my full status on the site I am able to give people a guest account so that they can also use the chat server on the site.  The other branches of the military also have similar sites.  Now I’m not sure about the Marines of the Navy but I do know that the Army Knowledge Online site also has a chat server.

Now days everywhere you turn you can find a place to send emails.  This is a valuable tool for everyone in the military to keep in touch with their friends and family back home.  There are also sites like Myspace.com and Facebook.com that allow you to network with all of your friends from one site and at the same time keep up to date on their lives as well so that you don’t feel so far away.  There are several places that allow you do communicate in this way.  From work I am able to get to my email and so I can always write from there.  Networking sites like Myspace and Facebook are a little more difficult though.  The military is very leery about sites like this because of how easy it is to pass along information and the fact that it’s easily viewable by anyone.  It is a valid concern because even releasing a little information about a Post or about an operation can be dangerous.  So to try and thwart excessive information from getting out they have blocked sites like that on military computers.  In order to access these types of sites you have access them from other internet sources.

I find that the easiest way to access the internet is to pay to have it in my CHU (Compartmentalized Housing Unit, also known as, my little metal box I call home).  The only problem with the internet that is available to have in your room is the fact that it is quite expensive and it isn’t very fast, but at the same time it’s better than not having anything.  For those people who choose not to pay for the internet in their room they also have the Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) sites available to them.  The MWR also has many other things available such as books and videos.  They have computers there that can be used to send emails and chat.

When it comes to calling back to the States, I have it made in that department too, because I am able to make phone calls at work by calling through Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington and from there I can call my girlfriend or any other local number.  Most military installations will give you the ability to call local numbers from an outside line in an effort to cost less in calling cards.  The nice thing is that the call back to the military installations is also free.  But there are people who don’t work in an office and therefore don’t have a phone that is available to them to call back home and so the military has set up call centers on the bases and so we are able to call home using those phones as well.

Now when it comes to getting emergency information to the troops from their families back home the military has a system in place that isn’t just used during times of war.  The American Red Cross is the organization that gathers the information from the family and with that information locates the service member to notify them of a death or illness in the family.  As long as the family has the service member’s social security number the Red Cross is able to locate most anyone in the military.  But they don’t just deliver bad news.  Sometimes when a family wants to pass a note to a service member because they haven’t heard from them in a while they can contact the Red Cross and they will do that also.

So as you can see we have many different ways to communicate with our friends and families back home and we even have ways to get messages from our families back home.  As I sign off this week I want to say thank you to everyone who has written or sent packages in the last couple of weeks.  I would love to name everyone but it would take a whole article to just to list everyone because there have been a lot of boxes coming in lately.  I would like to send a special thanks to the members of Word of Life Baptist Church and Saint Pius V Catholic Church both in New Salem for their packages.  I also want to thanks my grandparents, Baldwin and Irene Ternes, for the packages that they sent.  We got the Christmas lights and though I haven’t put them up yet but I will be putting them up soon and the food is going over very well.  The cookies are already gone (and I ate most of them myself).

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!

Letter From Iraq #14

Another week has passed and things are really zooming by.  There was nothing exceptionally exciting about this week to report.  The weather hasn’t been all that exciting and therefore work hasn’t been all that busy.  On the other hand there have been a lot of packages that have been coming in and a lot of them have puzzle magazines in them so I have a lot to keep me busy.  Otherwise I have been keeping myself busy by trying to stay warm with the low temperatures getting down into the low 30’s the last couple of days.

Last week I started talking about my trip out to Saint Elijah’s Monastery that is located on Forward Operating Base Marez, which is actually located right next to FOB Diamondback.  FOBs Marez and Diamondback are like Bismarck and Mandan, except instead of a river separating us we have a road that runs in between.  In my last letter I explained some of the interesting points on the outside of the monastery and now I would like to point out some of the interesting things on the inside.

When we first entered the monastery we were standing in what is called the gateway.  If the monks living in the monastery were being cloistered, or secluded from the outside world, the gateway would be the place where the visitors would wait for a specific monk to be retrieved in order to conduct business.  During times that the monks weren’t being secluded the gateway was the place that the monks would greet their guests with traditional hospitality such as washing their feet, bringing them food and drink, and making small talk before they came in to conduct their business.  The gateway also contains what is called the corner stone.  It is one of the largest stones used in the construction of building.  This corner stone has a cross that was etched into it during the building process.

Once you step through the gateway you enter into the courtyard.  For the most part the entire inside of the monastery looks like a courtyard due to the lack of a ceiling.  While in the courtyard we were told about the different rooms and what their suspected uses were.  I say suspected because there is little documentation on the building and so sometimes we have to make an educated guess on the uses of the rooms.  In the main courtyard is where it is thought that the well was located for the monastery.  We think that it is a due to the fact that when the military first took control of the monastery this one spot was the only area within the monastery that had any sort of vegetation growing around it.  Close to the well is an underground room that is called the cistern and it’s main function was to hold the water that was drawn from the well.  The reason that this underground room is believed to be the cistern is because of it’s proximity to the well and the ease of transferring water from the well to the cistern.  The cistern would also have been used to catch rain water during the rainy seasons.  The cistern these days is in ill repair.  During the time that the Iraqi army was using the monastery for their command post they would throw garbage and sewage into it as a storage area.  This seems like a poorly thought out plan due to the health implications that would have arose from these actions.  When the American Army took over the area it was decided that some thing would have to be done about the odor that came from that room and so fuel was poured into the cistern and it was started on fire to burn it out.  This caused all of the walls in the cistern and the room above to blacken.  The real problem that arises is that you would think that we would have decided to not do the same thing as the Iraqis did but when you look into the hole you can see garbage that is clearly from the American Army during their stay.

On the opposite side of the monastery from the cistern is the largest room of the whole monastery.  This room is the chapel and it has also sustained some damage.  Before you enter the chapel, if you look above the doorway, you will see an area of faded white on the stone.  This wasn’t put there by the builders of the monastery or the monks them selves, it wasn’t even put there by the Iraqi army.  While the 101st Airborne Division was located there the commander either ordered or allowed the units patch to be painted on the wall above the door.  Most of the paint has since been removed with signs still visible that it was there since no more paint could be removed without permanent damage to the wall.

Inside of the chapel you see that the room is actually divided up into three separate rooms.  The room in the middle is the biggest of the three with the two rooms capping the center being about the same size.  In the center room there are huge rocks lying on the floor where some of the supports on the ceiling are cracking and falling.  The wall is also caving in slightly due to the toe missile that hit the outside wall.  In one of the end rooms is where the masses were conducted during the monasteries use.  The altar that was built into the monastery is still mostly intact.  When the monastery was in use the monks would have placed a relic within the altar, usually a bone, and this would make the area sacred.  This relic is believed to be removed from the altar.  Above the altar is an interesting square hole that is cut into the wall and faces outside of the monastery.  It was explained that up until just a few years ago there was a small lip that was built around the hole and every year on Easter day the sun would shine through the hole and down onto the altar.  The altar room was also built so that the presider of the mass could be heard in the other rooms of the chapel even though they were talking towards the wall, as was the custom in those days.

As I start to run out of room again for this week I will sign off.  This brings me to the end of my story about the monastery but, as always with a structure this old, there is much more to tell and even more that we don’t know about it.  If any you would like to know more about the monastery please feel free to email me or write and I will try my best to answer any questions.

As I sign off for this week I want to thank every one who has been reading these letters and especially those who have taken the time to write to tell me that they have been enjoying them.  Without your words of gratitude this would be a lot harder to write.  I’m glad that you all have been enjoying them.

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!