Life on Mars

I feel like I've finally landed. The last week has been a bit of a struggle to get my feet under me here at my new home, but after a few days of getting lost and figuring out the way things work around here I'm beginning to get into a routine. I have a feeling I won't be posting as much for several reasons. First, I can't talk about what I do at work all day other than in the most general terms describing the mission, and that's only going to be good for about one post. Second, there really isn't anything to do here but work, PT, eat, and sleep. All of which can be interesting in their own way but not exactly worth writing home about. I will be traveling to our FOBs from time to time - that should be interesting.

I'm set on finding other ways to keep myself entertained but there really aren't many hours in the day that I'm not occupied. The camel spider mission continues - no signs yet but my chances out here in the wilderness are much better than they were in Baghdad. This base is much more spread out (it's literally a mile to the DFAC. Missing the bus sucks.) and undeveloped, so I think if I keep my eyes peeled I have a decent chance at coming across one. Problem is they're apparently most active at night, which is when I like to sleep. Conundrum. There are also these little fox things running around that I keep hearing about but haven't seen yet. Keeping a mammal pet is a little more involved than what I'm looking for, although there were Jackals in Baghdad and if I'd been able to catch one of those you know I'd be riding it to work in like a week. That's not happening up here, but I did find an ammo can on the way home from the gym the other day and I hope to start a garden in it. So far the plan is to dig up cool looking weeds and domesticate them. We'll see how that goes.

From what I can tell Speicher is a good place to live and work. It's named after Navy CAPT Scott Speicher, the first official casualty of the Gulf War, shot down on the initial night of the operation. CAPT Speicher is still MIA and his status has been the subject of significant investigation in the years since he went down. On the map we're just north of Tikrit and about 170 km north of Baghdad, but realistically we're out in the middle of nowhere. There is a significant no man's land between Speicher and the next civilized area, which means anybody wanting to lob rockets or mortars at us has to come out of the cities into the wide open desert to do so. We have a bunch of Apaches here that don't take kindly to insurgents without the sense to stay in their holes, so we haven't taken any IDF in years. My mother is very pleased by this.

The base itself is just about the polar opposite of VBC - extremely spread out, no contractor zoo, nothing really going on other than day-to-day business. It's actually pretty tranquil. It's got a strange familiarity about it to me. When I was a kid my family lived in a house that was backed by a huge (to me) open field that was bare dirt most of the year. My friends and I had adventures about as epic as you can have in a dirt field with nothing more than tumbleweeds and firewood for props. There is an open stretch between my CHU and the next built up area that is eerily similar to that field. I don't think I could get away with building a tumbleweed fort on it, but it's been kind of cool to feel that familiarity in a place so foreign. Another familiar sight from the old field is the dust devil, and we get some impressive ones here. The one below was on it's way to dust devil heaven, but later in the day one sprang up near my office that was at least 50 feet wide at the base. It promptly turned into a sand storm that deposited another solid layer of silt in my lungs. Sweet.


This base is another facility we captured and repurposed. It was formerly the Iraqi Air Force Academy, but I don't think it saw much use since the first war. Most of the buildings are in pretty good shape - I'm not sure we did any fighting here and nothing looks bombed out, but for the decrepit old soccer stadium which may or may not have been where Uday Hussein broke the legs of the olympic soccer team to motivate them after losing a match. I told you he was the mean one. I have taken some pictures of it but none that do it justice yet. When I get something good I'll share. There's apparently a mural of Saddam somewhere that is relatively unmolested, which is a pretty rare find.

On to work. My job here is awesome. As I briefly mentioned before I work for the Office of Criminal Investigations and I'm embedded with the 25th Infantry Division. TF 134 has sent out attorneys to each of the four division-level commands in the country to help conduct regional criminal investigation of detainees for the purpose of prosecuting them in Iraqi courts. Prior to the expiration of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546 (if I ever talk about this again I'll call it UNSCR) on 31 DEC 2008, coalition forces (CF) had authority to capture and detain any individuals posing a legitimate security threat to the stability of Iraq, and we did so copiously.

On 01 JAN 2009 we lost that authority - now all operations in this country must be run by, with, and through the Government of Iraq (GOI). That means the Iraqi constitution and criminal code are the law of the land. This is a good thing - a whole lot of good people have fought and died to see this process through. Problem is, we're still holding on to a lot of very nasty dudes who were rolled up under UNSCR authority. We've been tasked with prosecuting or releasing all of them in a very short time frame and nobody on our side or in the GOI wants to see some of these folks on the street again. It's in the best interest of the people of Iraq that these guys are brought to justice and I support that principle. That's about all the news that's fit to print on the subject. Our operations are in the news frequently if you look in the right places, so rather than tempt fate discussing verboten subjects here, please feel free to follow what we're doing through open source networks.

Finally, I have an address again - Anyone who'd like it and doesn't already have it feel free to shoot me an e-mail. Please send camel spider traps.

Again with the cheesy paintings. We get Top Gun and Iron Eagle - they get a mural copied form a 6th grader's Trapper Keeper.

I couldn't help but think of this as I passed through this old gate we busted down.

The DFAC. This is where I get my Cocoa Puff on.

My office is much harder than your office.

If you know me well, you'll know what effect this has as I pass by every day on my way in to work.

Like I said, it ain't all ugly...