Deployment begins…

This begins by deployment to Iraq. I have decided to continue updating the website as more of a traditional blog, instead of a travelogue.

Hello again everyone. Well, I have arrived at my new home for the summer/fall. Even though I have deployed before, it’s certainly a bit of an adjustment to re-acclimate to the deployed environment.
Now, let me fill you in on some of the details that have taken me from Germany to Iraq.
The US military is second to none in its ability to transport personnel and equipment from one place to another. However, it was still a very long process to gather all the requisite gear, process the right documents, attend briefings to make sure Anna and I had all the information we needed, and finally to assemble that gear and start the journey to our final destination. All told the transportation alone took three and a half days, and Germany is only two time zones away. I point this out to imagine how far we, as a military, have come. A comparable trip only a half century ago would have taken much longer.
Let me explain some of the logistics involved. We were transported by bus to an air terminal. We waited there for about 8 hours, before going back home for the night (the plane had been delayed). It was nice to be able to go home again and spend another night with Anna. It actually made leaving a little more palatable for both of us. The next day, we repeated the process, except this time, the plane actually arrived. However there was more maintenance problems, so we were delayed again, but eventually left.
One of the little know facts about US Air Force transports is that we utilize something called the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. That is made up of civilian passenger and cargo aircraft to supplement military transports when the demand exceeds the military’s intrinsic capability. As of the end of last year, there were 39 carriers and 1,379 aircraft enrolled as part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. That translates to over $2.5 billion in contracts to civilian aviation. For example, the plane I flew over on was an ATA jet, filled with Airmen in their desert camouflage uniforms. Quite a site to see.
Anyway, after about a 4 hour flight, we arrived in Qatar (where I spent a significant amount of time on my last deployment). There, we found out our follow on flight to Iraq was a day later, so we got to enjoy the transient lodging accommodations. We (the five guys going with me) were in a large tent filled with about 50 bunk beds. Fortunately, we were the only ones there. Since we got in at about 3 o’clock in the morning, I decided to enjoy sleeping in a little bit. After wandering around during the day (and saying hi to a couple friends deployed there … hi, Brian and Katie) we gathered all our gear up and went back into the passenger terminal to wait. I think we ended up waiting for about 7 hours (more plane troubles), but eventually loaded up into a C-130. For those who have never had the pleasure of traveling by C-130, the mighty and venerable Hercules, I will explain a little of what it’s like: imagine cramming in to sit on cargo netting. Your neighbor on either side sitting so close that your shoulders are touching. To top it off, the people sitting across from you, are so near that you have to overlap your knees. So, there we sat with all of our gear on (Kevlar helmets and ballistic body armor) for our 4 hour flight. Unfortunately it seemed to be a trend, and we had to make an unplanned stop in Kuwait. Not to worry though, it was minor and we were back in the air in no time (well, actually, it was about 2 hours). Eventually, we arrived in Kirkuk, our final destination the next morning. The Airmen we were replacing met us at the airport and looked VERY happy to see us.
I spent the next several days learning as much as I could. Soon though, the Airmen we replaced headed out the door to return home. They had spent four months here and were ready to go. That brings up another interesting point. At this base, we have many joint operations with the Army and Iraqi Air Force (along with their American transitional team). So, it’s interesting to notice that the Air Force deploys its Airmen for somewhere bewteen 4 and 6 months. While the Army keeps their soldiers here for a year, but the ones here right now just found out they have been extended to 15 months. Even so, the morale of the base is remarkably high.
What do I do here? Well, without getting into too many specifics, I help manage the base’s infrastructure with maintenance, repair and minor construction. However, it’s the team of guys here with cross functional expertise to make that a reality. We in the Air Force, with the exception of our explosive ordinance disposal teams, stay exclusively on base to manage the base and our Air Force mission. It’s the Army soldiers who go out to patrol / protect the city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk is a fascinating history and although I can only see it over the wall or through a fence, let me share a few of its highlights.
Kirkuk is in the Northern section of Iraq (about 240 kilometers north of Baghdad).

The approximately 750,000 residents of Kirkuk are very ethnically mixed among Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen and Armenians (plus both Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims live here). The big debate is the upcoming referendum in November or December 2007. It proposed, under the new Iraqi constitution, to have Kirkuk decide if it wants to join the Kurdistan Regional Government. That means that the 120,000 people forced out by Saddam after the 1991 Gulf War, who were replaced by tens of thousands of Arabs in an attempt to “Arabize” the city/region, could return home. That will effectively swing the balance of power toward the Kurdish ethnicity.
Another interesting, non-political fact about Kirkuk is that it is believed to hold the Tomb of David, a biblical prophet. But, there are at least two other sites that also claim to hold the tomb of Daniel. Probably the most famous story of Daniel is when he was cast into the lion’s den, but walked out, untouched.
So, hopefully, that gives you a little flavor of the area I am staying in and doing my part to help stabilize.
So, until the next post.
–Jim