Abu Ghraib: Day 19
98Rock (a radio station in Baltimore, for all of you out-of-towners) has a feature that allows you to listen to a live stream of their broadcast over the Internet. I've enjoyed listening to it on my time off when I can get to the Internet Center. It's nice to be able to listen to local news, weather, even traffic reports... not that any of that matters out here. It's just another thing that keeps me feeling close to home. To make a boring story short, I wrote them an email on Sunday telling them how much I enjoy being able to listen to them all the way out here. My friend Gina e-mailed me on Monday and told me that she was driving to work, listening to 98Rock, and they read my e-mail on the air. My luck being what it is, I missed it. Regardless, I'm happy that they felt appreciated enough to do something like that. The moral of this story? Listen to 98Rock.. they play good music. :)
Now that we have that rant out of the way...
I was assigned to the Rescue today. The crew consisted of the driver, a Lieutenant, and me. The driver told me that I could use his turnout gear if I needed to during the course of the day. Turns out, I needed to. After roll call and equipment/apparatus check, we had a drill. We went to one of the hard structures and practiced advancement of hoselines through different areas. In order to be able to get to a fire inside one of these buildings, we are required to set up multiple hoselays, all longer than usual. At home, I'd be able to grab one of the attack lines of 200 feet of hose and get to almost anywhere I'd need to get to. Here, 200 feet will only take us to the door on some buildings... so it's nice to get the extra practice. For those of you who are completely lost, just smile and nod. After the drill, we had lunch, and then had a class on sprinkler systems. The rest of the day was pretty quiet until 8:30pm. We received a call that an air conditioner in one of the soldier's rooms had caught fire. It turned out to be not much of anything. But, it was my first fire call since arriving at Abu Ghraib, and my first fire call in 50 days. Not only that, but since I was able to gear up (thanks to my driver), I could actually function as part of the crew. It was a dull call, but it felt great to be responding again.
There's a full moon out tonight, and a beautiful night it is. I'm being assigned to night dispatch tomorrow night, and possibly for a few days after, so that our current night dispatcher can have a little time off. That being the case, I will be staying up to watch the sun rise before I go to bed... that way I can sleep through the day and be able to stay awake tomorrow night.
I hope everyone has been enjoying the pictures. Not sure when I will post more... there isn't that much to see here.
Now that we have that rant out of the way...
I was assigned to the Rescue today. The crew consisted of the driver, a Lieutenant, and me. The driver told me that I could use his turnout gear if I needed to during the course of the day. Turns out, I needed to. After roll call and equipment/apparatus check, we had a drill. We went to one of the hard structures and practiced advancement of hoselines through different areas. In order to be able to get to a fire inside one of these buildings, we are required to set up multiple hoselays, all longer than usual. At home, I'd be able to grab one of the attack lines of 200 feet of hose and get to almost anywhere I'd need to get to. Here, 200 feet will only take us to the door on some buildings... so it's nice to get the extra practice. For those of you who are completely lost, just smile and nod. After the drill, we had lunch, and then had a class on sprinkler systems. The rest of the day was pretty quiet until 8:30pm. We received a call that an air conditioner in one of the soldier's rooms had caught fire. It turned out to be not much of anything. But, it was my first fire call since arriving at Abu Ghraib, and my first fire call in 50 days. Not only that, but since I was able to gear up (thanks to my driver), I could actually function as part of the crew. It was a dull call, but it felt great to be responding again.
There's a full moon out tonight, and a beautiful night it is. I'm being assigned to night dispatch tomorrow night, and possibly for a few days after, so that our current night dispatcher can have a little time off. That being the case, I will be staying up to watch the sun rise before I go to bed... that way I can sleep through the day and be able to stay awake tomorrow night.
I hope everyone has been enjoying the pictures. Not sure when I will post more... there isn't that much to see here.