By Major John Rosnow
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 5:09 AM
Here is what the last week has been like.
10 March 2003 - It looked like it was going to rain this morning, but it only dropped a few drops. We jumped to the Assembly Area today. We got everything packed up in a very quick manner. I talked with Insun today at lunch. She comes from Korea, but has lived in the US since 1999. She completed her second master's degree in public administration in Boston. She then moved to Washington DC and his lived there a couple of years. She has been reporting on the military for a long time, but this is her first time seeing things up close. We rolled up the road and set up our ACP in record time. We walked across the street basically to the Mobile Kitchen Trailer (MKT) to get dinner. They had hamburgers. No line and no walk. It was great. I got all ready to go and take a shower, stayed up to meet the male shower hours, then got in line and waited, signed in, and found out that they had to close as they were moving. (Real story was the pump for the shower broke down, that is why they had to shut down. We did not find that out until Tuesday.) I just washed up with a washcloth and then went to sleep as I had the 0300 to 0500 shift.
11 March 2003 - I got up in time for the shift and watched Jackass from MTV. It is about people doing stupid things, e.g. riding a bicycle in a loop, taking wagons down the road in a race, then down through the woods, snowboarding on the streets in San Francisco. We did not have all the communications up yet so I did not check e-mail. The time went by quick. I then went back to bed for another hour and half. Got up and walked across the street for breakfast. We are having T-rations (heat and eat). It was OK. I have had them before. The short walk and quick line are a big plus. Busy day today figuring out the top issues for the 19th and then working them. I also helped people get on the computer and get connected to the internet to check things out. I got connection on one of our programs that we need, ILAP. I got mail today. Someone had to go back to Camp VA and they picked it up. It was my vitamins and a box from a friend. Both were mailed the middle of February. The one box had 3 address changes on it. I got all kinds of goodies in there. Just dug into some of the cookies now. Very good, and still fresh! Things have quieted down a bit here so I am going to read my e-mail and then try to synch it again tonight over the satellite phone. We have our embedded media person, Insun, with us for the duration. They have 2.5 million readers in Korea, and now her boss said they sold her story to Japan and now they will cover us with 4 million subscribers, plus more on internet access. She heard a story from her boss today that some British forces were doing weapons training near the border and some Iraqi's heard the shots and came out to surrender. The British sent them back as they said the war had not started yet. Kind of humorous in a way. We actually had some wildlife here yesterday. A few lizards. One big one, about a foot and a half including tail, and one chameleon sized one.
12 March 2003 - Hot one today. It is 88 inside the tent and 99 outside; Glad we have a breeze. We went to full battle rattle when outside the tent today. Problem with that is it makes it even hotter. Then you want to drink more water to stay cool, but then you need to use the latrine so you have to put all your stuff on again. Vicious circle it is. I want to go and wash clothes, but need to get an e-mail sent out as I cannot make contact via the phone.
13 March 2003 - Today it is cooler outside, but too windy to have the tent open. Too windy as in wear goggles to keep the sand out of your eyes. I was going to do laundry today, but it would be pointless. It is cooler out though. I was able to shave my head again today. It is much cleaner this way with all the sand. Insun said she seen a small scorpion today, headed towards our tent. Nobody seen it after that though.
14 March 2003 - We are back to soft caps today. Beautiful morning, it was cold out, but is warming up quickly. Nice breeze just came up. I hope to get my laundry done soon after the next phone call. Got my laundry done today. It is outside drying now. The PX truck showed up today. I am not going to wait in line. I heard it was mostly for snacks and stuff.
15 March 2003 - I got up and took a shower today. When I got it, the shower had water to it. After getting in it, I found it only trickled out. At least it was warm and I did get cleaned up. I did a little more laundry today; everything is clean and ready to go. I never thought I would need my E-tool (little shovel) with me but I put it to use today to fill a few sandbags. We all had to fill three of them to hold down the tent for the impending sand storms. Even LTC Brouillettee filled his. He put "LTC" on the bags which was kind of neat. We had training with our night vision devices tonight. We drove around with them on. They have improved a lot since the last time I have used them.
16 March 2003 - Rich Ward and Ryan Wilson from CALIBRE Systems Inc came out to teach us about ILAP. We use that to have total asset visibility to supplies. It got hot out today; 110 outside and we hit 103 in the tent at one point. I drank lots of water which helped a lot. We were supposed to get a sand storm late yesterday and it was pretty mild.
17 March 2003 - We did MOPP gear exchange this morning. Good review. Working issues today. It is 95 in the tent with AC, 112 outside. Time to drink some water. Had meatballs for dinner. They kind of tasted like Chef Boy Ardee. Not bad at all. It was over beans and rice, which was kind of sticky, but OK. E-mail has been slow today. I have been able to send out, but have not received much. I think we will know more after President Bush speaks tonight.
18 March 2003 - Beautiful morning today. Sunny and cool, 71 degrees out. Per President Bush last night, Saddam and his son' have until 0100Z 20 March 2003 to get out of Iraq. Looks like it will be a busy week.
