Letter From Iraq #07

What a week this has turned out to be.  Many times, as I sit to write these letters, I worry that I won’t have anything interesting to talk about, but then a week like this past one presents it’s self and I end up not knowing where to start.  So I guess I will start with the beginning.

One of the nice things about working the night shift, according to my supervisor, is that I get to watch all of the sports games on TV.  The reason for this is that the games are aired here at roughly the same time as they are on in the states so that everyone here can watch them in real time instead of watching a game that they already know who wins.  For most sports fans this causes the problem of having to decide whether to stay up late into the night and early morning to watch the game or to go to sleep.  Since I work the midnight shift, I end up being at work, where the TV is, and able to watch all of the games I could ever care to watch.  The truth of the matter is though; I don’t really like to watch sports.  Most nights I don’t even turn on the television.  The one good thing that comes out of all of this is that my supervisor, who loves sports, wants to stay up for some of the games and since the TV is at work, he might as well do some work while he’s here.  So last Sunday while he watched the baseball game, I got to have a little time off from work.  It was a nice little break, but as with all little breaks, it was way too short.

Speaking of supervisors, I want to take a quick minute to thank my mom’s supervisor Tanya and her husband Terry for the care package that they sent.  The beef jerky from M&M Meat, which from my understanding is where Terry works, was delicious.  Everyone wanted some and no one got any, other than me of course, because I wouldn’t share any of my ND made jerky.

So Sunday, actually it was Monday morning, but I wake up on Sunday and then work until Monday morning (yeah, I get a little confused as to what day of the week it is a lot), was nice with my little break in there.  Little did I know that I was really going to appreciate that break later in the week.  For he most part, the weather this last week has been pretty much the same that we usually see, with the exception of the last couple of days.  For the first time since we have been here on FOB Diamondback we have had thunderstorms in the area.  They lasted throughout the morning and into the day.  For the most part the thunderstorms weren’t even all that interesting weather wise but the few lightning strikes that we could see really freaked out a lot of other people on the base even though they weren’t close enough to do any harm.  The really interesting weather started after I left for the day.  I ended up coming back to the weather station and while I was there a huge plume of dust blew over us and brought our visibility down to nearly zero.  As North Dakotans we understand what it’s like to have zero visibility, with all of the blizzards that we’ve been through, but this is different. 

The first difference is that when we have zero visibility here you don’t have to bundle up in your insulated coveralls, stocking cap, and gloves.  I can pretty much guarantee that I will never have to explain how quickly your skin can freeze with the current wind chill factor.  You will never here that there was a death during the dust storm due to the sub freezing temperatures.

The other big difference is that when you do go outside the air has a funny taste to it.  It tastes like dirt.  For some of you farmers out there, you know what I’m talking about.  It’s quite similar to plowing on a windy day and then having to drive into the wind and getting a face full of dirt.  The dirt here is a little different though.  Most people assume that since I am in the desert that I am surrounded by sand.  The truth of the matter is that I am actually surrounded by extremely fine dirt.  When I tried to explain it to my dad a couple of weeks ago he came up with the best description that I can think of.  He asked if it was like an old path out in a pasture that the cows have used for years.  The dirt is so fine that it doesn’t even really look like dirt as we normally think of it.  That is exactly what it’s like.  The problem with the dirt here is that it’s everywhere.  On my shift it is my duty to sweep the floor to try and keep the place a little clean.  I can sweep the floor and then go over it again and I will pick up just as much dirt as the first time.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one week, the post office here on post burned down yesterday.  So far there hasn’t been too much information passed around about it other than the fact that it happened.  While I was and about yesterday I saw the building and it is in pretty bad shape.  The good news is that the post office only keeps one day’s worth of mail at any given point-in-time.  Therefore not too much mail was destroyed.  Now most people want to know if any one was injured during the fire and what we will do now about getting and receiving mail.  To answer the first and more important question, I really don’t know if anyone was hurt in the fire.  It occurred at night so I’m thinking that the post office would probably be empty.  Now as far as sending and receiving mail is concerned, I am guessing that they will just move it to a different building, but again I don’t really know.

Like I said before, this has proved to be a pretty interesting week.  As I depart for another week I would like to take a quick second to say Hi to my grandparents, Baldwin and Irene Ternes.  I hope that all is well with you both.  I look forward to seeing you both when I come home.  Just know that I love and miss you.

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