Month: September 2007

While the US has been on this base for a relatively short period of time, the base has been around since the 1930’s.


One of the areas we are responsible for is minor construction. So, we’ve been busy building things all over the base. This is one of our larger projects. We built several offices and a conference room for the Army. Nail guns are very handy for framing walls.
Although Clay (holding the nail gun) is an entomologist, he helped out with a lot of the construction. It just shows how multi-skilled the guys are.

Chris was my project lead for a couple large projects (including this one). He did a great job. Actually, all my Airmen have been an outstanding team. Any success we’ve had is directly because of their skills and hard work.


Although Rob is our first sergeant and responsible for the morale, welfare, and conduct of all enlisted members of the squadron, he is also a power pro expert and helped out the guys in the shop quite a bit.

He even taught a medic, Yvonne, how to run some of the equipment.


You can see the sort of dust storm the helicopters kick up.



My Structures Airmen are not only skilled with wood, they can also create metal works of art.




Plumbers have, without question, one of the dirtiest, under-appreciated, but most important jobs. The picture below is of a pump that failed on the sewage line. They worked through the night to fix it and ensured that sewage kept flowing where it was supposed to. People flush the craziest things down the toilet… I’ll just leave it at that.

The utilities shop also fixes all manner of water leak, break or other utilities problem.

This is a picture of the infamous camel spider. It has gained much ill repute from a number of urban legends, including an email hoax that shows a photo of two huge spiders, each the size of a man’s calf, and is accompanied by an alarming note. The sender said his or her friend (or friend of a friend) knew a soldier stationed in Iraq who had said that these spiders could inject a sleeping soldier with anesthetic, then chew out a chunk of flesh. However, a 2004 National Geographic article http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0629_040629_camelspider.html enlightens us about the truth of these fascinating creatures. However, here are a few more of the myths propagated by the hoax:
“Camel spiders are said to run as fast as 25 miles an hour (40 kilometers an hour), jump six feet (two meters) in the air, and lay their eggs inside a camel’s belly (hence the name camel spider).”
In fact, camel spiders (also known as wind scorpions) aren’t even spiders (although they are in the 8-legged arachnid family). They’re actually solpugids, or solifugids and don’t have any venom glands. The largest species are 6-8 inches long (the one below is about 4 inches). Also, they are fast, but often are only running to seek shade from the blistering desert sun. When I got close for the picture, this one wanted to run into my shadow.

This fledgling barn owl was adorable and we relocated him to another part of the base where he could learn to fly away from people (he kept running into things as he flew around).


Well, that about sums up things that have been happening over the last 4 months. Of course, I’m always happy to explain further. Please feel free to leave a comment/question and I will email a response.
–Jim

This post will be about some of the activities we’ve done to relax.
While going out to dinner, or playing a round of golf is outside the realm of possibility, there are plenty of things to do.
Quite honestly, the two most popular activities here are watching movies and playing video games. While I am not a fan of the later, I have watched a couple movies in my limited free time. Here are some images from events that have kept the base entertained.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Amateur Night at the Apollo in New York. Well, we had a similar talent show here. A lot of courageous people got in front of a large audience and showed off their skills. The Apollo’s trademark is “Where stars are born and legends are made,” and although there were no big-time producers in the audience, there were plenty of stars in the making.


This trumpeter is an amazing musician.

I know this guy looks a little funny here, but he was actually a very talented break dancer.

My guys also finished building this stage. As you can see, we didn’t wait until it was completed before using it as a venue for concerts.

The fire department invited us out for a barrel competition. As you can see, it’s a two-person team that uses the fire hose to push a barrel to one side or the other.

It’s a deceptively simple concept: use a hose to push a barrel past the other team. However, the water really obscures your vision, and the water pressure makes the hose come alive.
When it was my turn to go, I managed to keep the barrel in the middle for about… 30 seconds. Oh well, it was fun nonetheless.

September 18th, 2007 will be the 60th anniversary of the US Air Force. To celebrate this occaision, our base decided to have a number of events. That has included a flag raising, a series of lectures on historic events in our service’s short history and a series of athletic competitions.
The pictures below are from the base photographer, who documented the competition.
The first event was a game of elementary-school-style kickball. The teams were broken up roughly by rank. So my teammates were company grade officers (lieutenants and captains). Surprisingly, we remembered how to play pretty well and actually won the event.
This is me sending the ball on a little ride.

The next event was the formidable dizzy bat.

You can see here that I had the job of counting revolutions as people spun around the bat. Also, I tried to help people from falling too hard on the rock hard ground.

Then, it was my turn. I really didn’t want to go (not a big fan of spinning around in circles), but my team pleaded that we didn’t have enough people to compete. So, I acquiesced.

As expected, it was a little tough to run in a straight line. In fact, I was barely able to stay on my feet! But, somehow managed to get through to the finish line.

Unfortunately, one of my teammates, Tyler wasn’t able to keep his footing. At least he was still smiling. 🙂 Unfortunately, we weren’t quite fast enough to win this event.

Our Army brethren also joined in on the fun.

The next event was a mental challenge. We competed in a lively game of trivial pursuit, where we tied for the win with a question about which country had a sword and shield program that taught young children how to fire AK-47s (answer: the Soviet Union).
However, following the mental strain, we decided to revert back to athletic competition with a sprint triathlon. I tried to be the organizer, race director and competitor. Let’s just say the event gave me new found appreciation for my friends on Guam who do that all the time. I had helped, but never ran one myself. I was glad to do it, but it certainly was a challenge. Oh, and this was at night, so I had already worked outside all day setting up the tents you saw in the last post. By the end, I was completely wiped out. But, it was still fun.



Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller have done much to bring dodgeball back to the mainstream. However, the company grade officers proved we had much to learn about the sport, since we finished dead last in this event.



The last athletic competition was a 10K race. This one was different from all the others and started before sunrise. It was a perfect morning for a run.

Jake and I ran most of the race together. I’ve found it’s much more fun to talk and run with someone else, than in silence by yourself (since we can’t wear headphones outside).


After each event, my team joined me here for a BBQ and social gathering. It’s nice to be able to hang out with peers and just relax.


So, those are a few of the things I’ve done to relax and enjoy my time more here.
–Jim

Well, I have now been in Iraq for 4 months. I’ve seen beauty and ugliness here. However, the experience has been very rewarding and overall a very positive one. In a few short weeks, I will be home in Germany.
Below are some images from my time here.

If you think this plane looks small, it is. This is a UAV the Army flies here.




As you can imagine, our explosive experts capture a lot of weapons. These can be used against us, so to eliminate that threat, we confiscate and dispose of them. Below are some pictures of that disposal process.


You can see the C-4 (in the green plastic) that is used to detonate the explosion. Also, below are unserviceable US hand grenades. In this case, some parts have corroded and it’s safer to blow them up, then ship them home. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll remember that we did something similar with old bombs on Guam.

Here’s the pit, ready to blow.

Fire in the hole!


It seems that scorpions are attracted to me (or me to them). I have seen a whole bunch of them here… in my office, bedroom, on the road, and now, right next to an active explosive ordinance disposal site.

Disclaimer: I did not take the rest of the pictures on this post (they came from either the base photographer or the public affairs chief).
We have done a lot of concrete work here. The Airmen in the shop responsible for placing all that concrete are affectionately knows as Dirt Boys. Officially, however, they are heavy equipment operators. For larger projects like this one, they enlist the help of other volunteers to finish quickly. In the heat of the desert, concrete dries very fast.
Trivia: a common misconception is that concrete and cement are synonymous. That is only partially true, concrete is cement, but cement is not concrete. Cement is actually a component of concrete that when mixed with sand, water and gravel forms that familiar hard building material.

As you can see, the Dirt Boys took any help, including my unskilled labor.



There are very unique animals here. This majestic cat is known as a Jungle Cat or Felis chaus. Jungle cat is an interesting name, since it is found in Egypt, West Asia, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, but nowhere near a rain forest (I can attest that there is nothing remotely like a jungle in this area). It is only slightly larger than a domestic cat, but has a relatively short tail. So, it’s name notwithstanding, the entomologists (not to be confused with etymologists) catch these cats from time to time and relocate them to another place on the base. They are certainly not dangerous to humans, but ideally we try to limit their contact with us.

This next group of pictures is from a big event we had to raise large, living tents on base. As you can see, they are rather complicated to assemble. So, we used one or two craftsmen with a group of volunteers to erect the tents.

Rolling the rain fly to get it ready for installation.

Putting the wall sections on.

One, two, three… up!

Then, inside to check all the safety pins are inserted.


It was a long, hot day and a little Flavor Ice tasted good.

So, that concludes this first part. Hopefully, you have a little better idea what day to day life is like on the base.
–Jim