New Zealand vacation!

So, I made it to New Zealand!!

This has been one of the best vacations I've had. Best part about it is that Uncle Sam paid for the transportation. Of course, I had to get deployed to qualify for that bit... Anyway, I had a terrific time. It was just what the ol' doctor ordered for a break from Iraq. Hiking, kayaking, rappelling, white-water rafting, black-water rafting (NOT rafting in sewer water. Rafting in underground rivers), sky-diving, bungee-jumping, a Maori Hangi (which is pretty dang impressive). Drank a good bit of beer and did a lot of vegging. Was over too quickly naturally. I didn't quite get the chance to go to the south island, where there are even more sports/ outdoorsy stuff so now I have someplace else to go when I go back.

Some pics: http://www.flickr.com/gp/50969326@N00/Emfw45

A haka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lrE2JcO44

RIP/TOA

I am doing some "catch up" with my blogs. The most significant event that has happened is that the 101st has take over from the 82nd in this area. This has affected me in two ways: I've had to attend a crap-load of meetings (even though I am NOT redeploying with the 82nd) and I am the Battalions' "Continuity Book" as I am the only officer-type who is staying behind. Fortunately / unfortunately I have scheduled my leave so that I am off for New Zealand when the 82nd finally goes away.

It will be very interesting to see how the command styles differ and how quickly the company commanders can learn their areas of operation. Certainly it is impossible to transfer all the knowledge and relationships learned and built over a 15 month time span in a matter of weeks. The unit that preceded the 82nd (the "Rakassans") made a name for itself by not patrolling and being very heavy-handed with the locals, thus ensuring that the 82nd would receive a warm reception. I think it took more than a couple of months for the 82nd to develop the relationships that allowed them to make some real progress here. Hopefully the next element of the 101st won't be anything like the Rakassans. So far, it seems that they will be exemplary.

More to follow... stay tuned.

An outpouring of support

Here in Bayji, we've been preparing for the beginning of the school year by hording supplies with the intent of doing a big contribution to the local communities. We (the CA team and the FSO's) were hitting all the websites we could find. Some of the best ones are: Beyond Orders, Operation Iraqi Children, and Victory Boxes. I was expecting a couple more boxes, but I have been overwhelmed with the flood of boxes full of stuff for the Iraqi people. Notebooks, pens, pencils, clothes, toys, etc. We are going to have one heck of a school opening push.

One of the best mission I've gone on

Last week we went on one of the best missions so far. We went to a fairly isolated and infrequently visited town. Because of its' distance, it is independent and CF friendly, which is a rare combination. Anyway, it was a great little town and they've actually had the initiative to take care of their own w/o looking to CF first. They've started construction on their public clinic, they've started paving the street, they've started to fight the AIF on their own (and doing a darn good job, apparently)...all w/o our "help."

It was fairly rewarding to see a town that took care its' own. The police protect the town, the town supports the police. It sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? But the normal state of affairs seem to be a little different. Sometimes the population resents the police as the IP's are corrupt, from a different tribe, non-participatory, effective or a combination of all of the above. I know, I know, "effective" doesn't really belong in this group. You would think that an effective police force would actually garner support, but noooo, not if they are from a different area or tribe. Sometimes the IP's are doing well, but the population is at best on the fence. At any rate, there seemed to be a pretty good relationship here. Perhaps one of the reasons is b/c the town is a little isolated so they have to rely on each other.

Anyway, we spent a good bit of time there looking at the schools, the clinics, the water plant and the ferry. I got some good pics of the historic Tigris and a bunch of enthusiastic kids.

This brings up an interesting issue: When does help become hindrance? as much effort and money that we've poured into places like, say, Bayji, nothing seems to change or improve much. I wonder if it because there isn't much financial incentive to do so. After all, why work hard to improve your city if all you have to do is wait a bit for CF to lose patience and do it themselves? I will respond to that: there are plenty of people who want to see Iraq prosper and its' people live w/ justice and in dignity, but the governmental system that is currently set up seems to take forever to do anything, and, when something IS done, it becomes corrupted somehow. I think that the idea was to set up a series of checks and balances to combat corruption, but all that has done is add levels of unresponsive bureaucracy...and still corruption sneaks in. So, how much oversight should CF have? how much intervention should we do? Or do we act as "advisors" to the budgetary process in the hopes that we're listened to? Doing nothing is out of the question. Doing everything is impossible. So where is the practical middle ground?

Some things you need to look out for:

In Iraq, there are many things that you need to watch out for. IED's, snipers, mines, etc are the top priorities, of course. But with Civil Affairs, there is another that you will soon experience if you are not discrete: the street mob. The street mob is when a crowd of screaming kids see you handing stuff out and come running. Then, other kids see them running...and they come running. I don't know what the tipping point is (five? ten?) but soon you are surrounded by a bunch of kids all pretty much saying the same thing: "mister mister, give me____ give me____". It really doesn't matter what you are handing out. Last week we were handing out PSYOPS fliers, for goodness sake. (Look at the top photo past the first line of kids. You can see the crowd in the background). Kids were grabbing these fliers like they were candy. Heaven help you if they see you with a camera. (See second picture: one of the kids is holding up the PSYOPS pamphlet like it was a prize).

The good day before the bad one

I mentioned the VBIED. These and other attacks obviously serve to make everyones life much more difficult.

However, there are some experiences that make my time here a little more rewarding. In this case it is something as simple as handing out some donated school supplies/ toys from Victory Boxes. Ironically we did this the day before the VBIED.

You can find more pictures of victory box pictures here in my flikr collection.

a bad day

Tuesday was a pretty good day. We went to a school and talked w/ the principle, a representative from the department of education, and a local sheik. We discussed the state of the school, then increased the scope of our conversation to the state of education in Iraq. We came up with a GFI ("Great Freak'in Idea): we'll try to arrange a teachers' exchange program with some of the arab states that have a more modern education system. Qatar was mentioned, as was Bahrain and the UAE. We left thinking that we can make a difference- maybe not a great one, but an improvement for the future of the children.

Here is when everything went bad: Wednesday there was a suicide VBIED at the Educational Department, and the representative was one of the casualties. What kind of message are you trying to send when you bomb the education department? What are you trying to prove? What kind of future do you offer?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Addition by subtraction

My sister asked me this question : "What do you crave?", and (aside from the usual sophomoric guy answers) I have this to say: "Great Subordinates." Now, it has been said that "There are no bad units, only bad officers" and I agree with that - to a certain extent. However, if you have really crappy subordinates, then no matter how good you are, your unit will still suck as you will have to constantly be going over the same material, or putting out fires that the subordinate lit, or doing the subordinates job for them, etc etc etc. Since I've gotten here I have had no end of trouble.

I'm the team lead of a Civil Affairs "CAT-A" team, which consists of four individuals, usually a CPT (moi), a SFC, and a couple of SGT's or SPC's. I had two SPC's, one of which had a couple of problems. In general, his professionalism and attitude were so poor as to dangerous. What I mean is this: usually the biggest killers over here are laziness and complacency. This usually sets in about 10 months in to the tour here. The Soldiers might start to take shortcuts, or stop doing the basics that have kept them alive. This guy was lazy, careless, and apathetic from the get-go. Even worse, he had this attitude that "I've been here so I know what I'm doing" which basically meant that he could not be taught. At any rate not 10 days in to our tour here, he gets banned from the maintenance bay and so irritates an NCO that the NCO wanted to press charges. So "addition by subtraction" #1: we sent him off to our headquarters' headquarters, where I hear he has continued his pathetic ways.

My second addition by subtraction actually concerns my team chief, who is supposed to be my right hand man. Before I say anything else, let me say this: This SFC is a decent, honorable man whom I would be happy to call a friend. Having said that, I basically carried this guy through the brief time that he was here. Allow me to elaborate: One of the areas Civil Affairs is involved with is overseeing contracts for local projects, such as the repair of schools, health clinics, roads, etc, anything the local commander deems necessary to improve the local economy and /or living conditions. This requires the CA guys to be somewhat computer literate. We have to do assessments, write contracts, SOW's, etc. Scan the copies, send them to higher, etc. This guy could barely scan- and when he did, he picked a formate that was unreadable and unusable. In addition, my former SFC had incredibly poor judgment and timing. One time he almost went for his knife when we got swarmed by kids! Another time he leaves the CMOC to go do sandbags (in the hottest part of the day) then "rests his back" in his bed. In the meantime, the battalion leadership is trying to find him as was needed for a task- which he knew about. The worst part of all this: he gets sent home early because he didn't sign his voluntary extension papers...and wonders why he didn't get awarded a Bronze Star! I suppose you just can't fix stupid. I wonder if this is endemic to all cross-leveled units...

Fortunately, I have got a terrific new SFC and he has done more in the past week than my prior SFC did during his time here. And I am not kidding. The details surrounding his trip here are pretty amusing and, oddly enough, revolve around yet another incompetent. Well, their loss is my gain.

The saga continues...

Best purchase for a deployment

There is practically an infinite amount of stuff that you can buy when you are deployed. Ballistic glasses, arm/knee pads, pouches for your body armor, neat little tools, etc etc. But the best purchase I made BY FAR was lasik surgery.

During my first deployment I had to juggle ballistic glasses with indoor glasses. Occasionally I put in contacts, but those aren't exactly compatible with a desert environment. Now I can see clearly w/o having to worry about going blind if my glasses get knocked off. Best of all, this is a permanent improvement!

I got my LASIK done at the Cedars-Sinai eye center by Dr Rabinowitz. I paid a bit more, but I wasn't looking for bargains. (Why would anyone look to save money on an eye operation???) . So, while it wasn't inexpensive, they did give a military discount. At any rate, being able to see clearly is a fantastic boon at any time.