9-10th of September 2005
I woke up to check our flight status at 0200 and 0500 as instructed. Each time yielded nothing but a message that said to keep checking periodically. So I went back to sleep and set my alarm for 0700 to catch chow. When my alarm went off, I elected sleep over food. I woke up around 10 and spent the morning reading and playing computer games. After lunch, myself, Lilly and Brian went to the internet cafe. We emailed our friends and family. then we wet back to the tent and continued to pass the time doing the same old thing. Another Air Force guy in our tent had called that same tech sergeant that drove us around on the first day and had her take us to the BX. I tagged along just for something to do. I didn't need anything at the BX. After waiting around in the scorching heat, I decided it wasn't worth the wait. So, I decided to check our flight status and go back to the tent. There were no flights for us yet so I went back to inform the rest but they were driving off. On the say back to the tent, I bought a 5 dollar pair of Oakley's and a 10 dollar Louis Vuitton handbag for my wife as a birthday gift. She will be surprised! While the others were gone, I read, played games and watched Commando. The more I watch that movie, the more I realize how corny and horribly made it is. I still like it though. The others had been gone for about 3 hours. I thought to myself "I bet she showed them around the Air Force ase and they found something to do.: Indeed they did. They watched movies at the rec center and played ping pong. They discovered a pool, which we planned on using the next day. At te 1730 roll call formation, we discovered that a flight was leaving for Kirkuk. Roll call for that flight would be at 1945 in uniform. Figures! Right as we find out we had all that stuff to do and that we could hang around in civilian clothes! We went to chow after roll call and came back to the tent to pack up. We went to the roll call and were told to get our bags, load them in the truck and then get on a bus wearing our flak vest and helmet. We were driven to the airfield and were told we weren't supposed to be there until 2300. So, we waited around there for 2 hours. We got a briefing, waited around for about another 45 minutes to an hour for our bus to take us to the aircraft. I was thinking we were gonna fly out on a C-130 but we flew on a C-17. That was a much more comfortable and quieter ride. We loaded onto the plane and then were told that we were being held there for about an hour before taking off. I got a little shuteye. We finally took off around 2 in the morning. It was about an hour and a half to Tikrit where we dropped off some soldiers. I slept most of it. Then we took off for Kirkuk. I don't know how long a flight it was since I was sleeping most of it too. We finally landed at Kirkuk. We were in Iraq! It was about 6 in the morning and not nearly as warm as Kuwait at that time. We turned in our weapons to supply and got body armor while we waited for someone to pick us up. A couple guys from our shop picked us up and brought us to the power plant where we would live and work for the next 4 months. A couple guys showed us around the shop and we moved our bags to our rooms. I got on of the bigger rooms. I have it all to myself. Lilly wanted it but I decided to pull rank for it. We live in a hardened aircraft shelter. That means we'll be safe from rocket attacks. We even have our own little pool. We ate chow, in processed CE and came back. I went to sleep. I woke up around 3. I found out while I was asleep, that the other guys decided to work the night shift since they wanted 3 of us on nights and 1 on days. Fine with me. Perhaps when more people get here, I'll switch over to nights, which is the shift that I prefer. I am not a morning person. I had my first shower since leaving Germany. It felt great! I love working in the power plant! We have our own shower/latrine/laundry facility. No 3 minute combat showers! After my shower, I came back to my room and read a little bit. I started to feel hungry so I jumped into my uniform and went to the chow hall. They have nice facility as I discovered at breakfast this morning. Good food as well. After how, I got on a computer and emailed the shop and family to let them know we arrived. The other 3 are on shift now. I start in the morning. It looks to be a boring 4 months since the civilians are taking over our jobs! How are we supposed to get any training or experience when the government is always giving civilians our jobs? It really annoys me. I would like to get some power plant operating experience as well as troubleshooting and maintenance experience on MEP-12s. We'll see what happens in the net 4 months.