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!