By Major John Rosnow
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 3:38 PM

I can not believe where the time has gone. It seems like I just sent out week 10, and it has been almost 2 weeks.

For all you members of ROA, the first edition of my journal, along with some photos, are in this month's Officer magazine. I am not sure if there is an online version of the article, but you can check at www.roa.org

12 May 2003 - I slept in this morning, until 0900. I needed the rest. We jumped down the street today. We are getting ready for the rest of the folks to come up from Camp VA, so we set up shop in the new area. I have a feeling the ACP will be going away before much longer. I seen a huge dust devil today. I wished I had time to grab my camera. Yesterday one came through and blew over the shower. COL L was inside, just got in there though and was hanging the bag when it blew over. Luckily he was not hurt. We had limited connectivity yesterday with the jump. Sometimes phones would work, other times SIPR would be up, but never both at once. I ended up moving my computer back to the ACP last night to get some work done. We are out of bottled water so I am filling up my bottles from the 5-gallon jugs of ROWPU water. The water is good, a little chlorinated to make sure things stay dead, but I put a couple of bottles in the refrigerator so I have one to chill and one to drink, then switch off. I finished up about 0130 and went to sleep. I was beat. It was real hot and I am sure the weather has something to do with feeling wiped out. It was still hot at 0200 when I went to sleep.

13 May 2003 - I slept in again this morning, 0830 before I got up. I shaved and then did some work at the ACP before moving down the block. I got there and got things set up, then we lost power so I did some offline work, then power came back on, then we lost it again shortly after so I decided to come back and have some lunch, try to send the e-mail out that I composed three days ago, then go back to work. Looks like I am getting the journal updated and that is all. The NIPR line is down so no e-mail sent now. I will try again later tonight if I get off work early enough. I was just getting ready to shut down and seen the NIPR came back up. It is downloading my messages now. I will get them sent and then check the new mail later. I can feel my arms sweat, as it is so warm in here. I need some more water. Well I never did get back to my messages. I was at work until after 2300. I came back and it was too hot to do anything so I cleaned up a bit, and went to sleep about midnight.

14 May 2003 - Well I woke up about 0330 and it felt like I was getting bit by bugs, but I could not see them. I got up and used the latrine (a.k.a. an empty water bottle), then went back to lay down. It was still very hot in the room, so I had some water, and then put some Melaleuca oil on as the bug bites started to itch and I could not get back to sleep. I woke up at 0645 as it was too hot to sleep anymore. I went to work at 0700 for the morning briefing, then came back at 0800 to turn in my NODS. After that I consolidated some of the boxes that I have in case I needed to move. I went to the refrigerator to get my cold bottle of water and someone had taken it. It was a bottle that I had refilled and put my name on the cap, and the bottle. I hope they enjoyed it. I then went back to work, stopping at the water buffalo to refill my empty bottle of water. I took two 1.5 liter bottles with me today; one with water and one with lemonade. I have drunk at least 3 bottles of water and 2 bottles of lemonade today. I am about to finish another bottle up tonight. I got two packages this morning, one from Julie that had a couple of coffee cups in it, and one from Dennis and work with magazines in it. I also got a letter from my mom. I saw a huge dust devil today at the other side of post. It looked like a brown tornado. It went a few hundred feet in the air. I wished I could have gotten a picture of it, but I am sure it would not have turned out too good with the light sand color of the twister against a bright background. Tonight after dinner, I found I got three more boxes. One from my dad that had granola bars in it. It was neat as it said Nature Valley Trail Mix and he took a piece of tape and put it over the Nature Valley so it read Baghdad Trail Mix. I got a kick out of that. Andrea and Dave sent a box that had some snacks, some home backed goodies, some TP and other hygiene products. A bunch of it I will share. I do not need to use a lot of toilet paper. I think it has something to do with the MREs. I only have to go every couple of days usually, then you get the famous "one wipe wonder" as Alex puts it. No clean up really needed. Maybe that is why they do not give you much TP in the MREs. My third box was from Paul who worked at Damark when I first started there about 8 years ago. He is now working for someone else that I know that used to work at Damark. Anyway, Paul's cub scout troop made up a bunch of bags with goodies in them and Paul put them in a box and mailed them. I will put the box out and will put a note on it to please write the scout troop to thank them if they take a bag. Most of the bags have paper and an envelope in them. I feel guilty as I only worked 12.5 hours today. Today was the first day that I got all caught up with all my issues. It helps that there are a lot more folks up here from the 19th to work issues. Plus, our phones were down today so we did not get a lot of new issues that way. I just worked things through e-mail and face to face. I went to dinner with Paul K. tonight. He is another Major in the 19th. He was a CGSOC instructor in Florida and got called up to backfill the 19th CMMC. He is a safety officer for the county that covers Clearwater and Clearwater Beach Florida. I came back from work and then filled up some empty water bottles to go and take a shower. I went to the first water buffalo and filled up 5 bottles, then they were taking it a way to get filled so I walked about a block to another one and it was already on the truck ready to go and get refilled. I was able to get one bottle out of that. I took my shower and could have got by with 3 bottles, but used 4 to make sure I got all the soap off. It was not as warm as a sun shower, in fact it was chilly, but it felt good to clean up. I sweat so much during the day my pants are wet. I found a 5 gallon jug in the shower point so now the few of us left at the ACP can have water to clean up with. I will leave the jug in my room. I killed about a half dozen cockroaches in the bathroom tonight. They were small ones though. Jay and Dan have moved out so I am in a room by myself. I know I will have to move down the street eventually, but will stay here for now. Most of the enlisted folks moved out yesterday. The CG said we did not have to move, but the CSM booted the folks out of here yesterday. I figure I may have a day or two before I move down the block. No rush though. The guys do have a place for me. One guy today, Dave V., was recruiting me for the night Supply Division OIC. I would be on nights about a month, then take over for days around July 1st. I heard tonight at dinner that Kuwait will be 140 degrees or so in not too long of time, so I think I will be better staying here. There is a bunch of AC units at the work building so I am hoping they will hook those up in there. So far, we just have a fan, but even that is nice. I asked my brother to send me a fan here as there is no breeze at night. Well I am going to answer my e-mail messages now, and then try to send them before I go to bed. I may try and read a bit, as I have quite a few newspapers to go through. If I read them now, I can pass them on and not have to move them.

15 May 2003 - It is 2340 and it is still hot out. I am taking a break to update this before I go back to work. The 19th wants me to be the Deputy Supply Division Chief. I will transition to the night shift for about a month, then go back to days and take over the division. I will manage Class I, II, III, IV, VI, and VII supplies. I am itching quite a bit on my legs so I need to put some more Melaleuca oil before going back to work. My arms look like I had the chicken pox. I felt like I was getting bit all last night so I did not sleep very well. Same with the night before. It is funny how the body reacts. When I am hot, I drink a lot of water to keep cool. When I go outside and the breeze hits, I get the chills even though it is over 100 degrees outside. That is what the sweat is designed to do. I have also noticed that I get hot after I eat something. The body just warming up after getting food. I am checking my bank account tonight too. I will download e-mail so I can check it later or tomorrow before I go to work. I was caught up last night, then could not download all the messages before I went to sleep. Looks like 57 new messages, but that is a few days worth, and some may be duplicates as I tried to download before. Doug C. e-mailed me and let me know my journal is in the Officer magazine this month, along with a few photos.

16 May 2003 - Well just a few short notes before I head in to work. It is 1451. I left work about 0330 this morning and came back and went to sleep. I used my mosquito net last night and did not seem to get bit by any bugs, either it worked or I was so tired I did not notice. There was a breeze last night which was great! I slept until 0900 this morning when I woke up to workers in the building cleaning. I drifted in and out of sleep until almost noon. I got up and went for a run, only about 2 miles. I did not want to over due it as I have not run since Germany (February). There is a breeze out today too, which makes it seem cooler. After my run I shaved, cleaned up the room a bit, then took a shower. I used a 5-gallon can tipped on its side. It worked pretty good. The water was not hot, but it felt refreshing and I got clean. I just got a check ready to send to my brother for his birthday (and Christmas he was out at sea so really could not use anything). I am going to drop that in the mail on the way to work. I am not sure how late I will work tonight, maybe all the way through the night. I will try and take a break sometime though to catch up on my e-mail. There were a lot of duplicate messages so I am down to about 30. I have a few letters to write too.

17 May 2003 - I got off work this morning and went to sleep. I woke up around 1600 and decided to try and put the new screen in my PDA. I did get it in, but in the process, had to remove the batteries. Well, when you remove the batteries, you lose all the data, so now I have replacement PDA with no data. I could have saved the few hours of work and just through the old one away. Oh well, the data is still at home so I can get it when I go back. I could mail the PDA back home, have Steve put data on it, and send it back, but that will be at least 6 weeks to two months mail time. I have learned to get by without it. After I did that, I went and got some dinner, ate, and went to work.

18 May 2003 - They got AC in the work area today, not our work area, but one that I go into a lot so I can get cooled off. Busy night and more and more people are showing up here from Kuwait. We should get enough people so we can work 8-hour shifts. That will be nice. I will be able to start to read, watch movies, and relax again. I have not watched a movie in about 3 weeks I think. The night shift is OK, but it is hard to sleep during the day. It is very hot, and then there are people milling about the area all day. I did learn that putting a wet cloth on my head helps to keep cool.

19 May 2003 - Busy night. I got done around 0900 and found out that we have an AAR at 1130 today. Looks like no sleep for a bit. I came back and washed some clothes, went for a run (30 minutes today), then took a shower and went to the meeting. It was over about 1315. I then came back and washed my PT clothes and went to sleep about 1430. I woke up around 1700 as it was hot and the flies were biting. I fell back asleep and woke up to my alarm clock at 1930. I got up and went in to work for the night. They got our work tent set up, but no power yet so we are still working inside. No AC in our room yet.

20 May 2003 - Time to catch up on the journal. Last entry was the 16th of May so I will start here and work my way back. I got off work around 0900 and had someone come to my room at 1030 to tell me I was back on day shift, effective now. I went back to sleep until 1400 and then got up and went in to work. We got AC in our office today at work. We are not moving to the tent yet, as we do not have phones hooked up yet. We do have AC in the tent already, although it was not really cold in there, it was better than outside. I got done about 2300 tonight and need to be back around 0400 to 0500. I am leaning more towards the 0500 as it is already after 0030. I wanted to get this a little up to date though before going to bed.

21 May 2003 - well I was just going to update the journal and COL M. walked in so I helped him move some stuff out of one of the rooms. It is almost 0100. Looks like no checking e-mail tonight, but I did get it all downloaded. It is now 2248 and it was a long day. I went to sleep about 0130 and woke up around 0400 and could not get back to sleep. It was very hot, I was getting bit by bugs, and I was over tired. I finally fell back asleep shortly after 5 but was awaken by my alarm clock at 6. I worked all day today, until almost 2000. I came right home and went to lay down. I did grab a fan out of the front of the building that nobody was using. It helped for a bit, but it is so hot outside it is just circulating the hot air. I woke up about 2200 and opened a package from my mom. It had some Monterey Pepper Jack potato chips in it and a bunch of other goodies. I also got a letter today from someone that I do not know. It came from Oak Grove, MN. She is 6 years old and she wrote a short note thanking all the soldiers and also drew a picture. She said she had 2 brain tumors but is getting better now. She included a picture on her note too. There was no note from her parents. It is terrible to think, but I am thinking maybe I should not have opened it as it could have something on it (biological). Terrible to think like that, but it is a reality that we need to deal with being over here, and really anywhere with the terrorist activity that has been going on. I remember a time not long ago where you did not have to worry about things like that. How the world has changed. Well I am going to read some e-mail before I try and go back to sleep. I should be back in to work around 0500, but I am thinking more like 0600. I had plenty of time to get things done this morning. They are going to be painting my room tomorrow, so I should move things out into the hallway to make it easier for them. I am still in the ACP building. Not many of us left here. I think there are only 5 of us from the ACP still in the building. We have a few Colonels that have come in to stay now. The CG's sleeping quarters has been moved and it is quiet around here, which is nice. We have had the local nationals painting for the last several days here. They sleep out in front of the building on the ground and have a guard to watch them. All the local nationals need a guard to watch them while they are here on base. Usually referred to as Hodgi guard, the politically correct term would be local national escort. Time to get this ready to send out as the weekly update, then check a few e-mails before going back to sleep.