Goodbye Motorpool

Hello All,

It has been a long time since my last post. The is mostly in part because I had been doing the absolutely the same thing every day....which was trying to stay busy in the motorpool, where we had almost too many bodies compared to work coming in.

I guess a couple small things have happened....
-i have been promoted to the rank of Sargaent
-we have been mortared/rocketed several times, in which on one event we lost 3 of our fellow soldiers
-i have been assigned to work at the ECP (entry control point) where all LNs (local nationals) enter onto COB Basra.

The change from wrenching on the overnight shift (mainly keeping myself motivated) to working at the ECP has been a pretty drastic, but good change. My new job, which i do not know what kind of title it carries yet, is more of customer service/security job. I oversee a team of about 4 soldiers and make sure the badge issueing and control process works well. Alot of basic fundamentals from the bank work well in here. It is pretty neat to interact with the local Iraqis entering this base for work on a daily basis. We have several 'terps (interperters) working with us.....often during slow times we discuss different aspects of each others cultures. I am trying to learn some arabic first hand and it is coming in little bits. I have picked up some greetings, shut the door, open eye, right hand, and left hand. Those are all kind a wierd phrases u might think, but work well in the biometric screening of the indivuals that are entering.

The days for this job are quite long....we are working approx 13 hour shifts and start when the sun is coming up and end when the sun is coming down. Although, I swear the shifts go faster than when i was at the motorpool working shorter hours. Most nights after work I try to do 2 things - go to the gym and check my email. I often still make it to the gym, but I have been known to wake up with the computer on my lap after I had passed out from an email session. My days usually start with the alarm clock going off at about 4:30 and so I about an hour of time to talk to my roomate that is still working nights at the motorpool.

The trailer/office that I work in is nothing fancy and i will try to get some pics posted of my new work area. i have several work orders in place to get some of the minor cosmetic repairs completed. i will try to get something up sooner than later. i am assuming that i will have more to talk about working in this area than the last area i was in.

later-sam