Beyond Baghdad

Goodbye International Zone

So after training up my replacement for eight days, and introducing him to all the people (US military, State Dept, NATO, UNAMI, Iraqis) we interact with, I departed the international zone (and left my responsibilities behind) on Saturday, 19 June.

I'm excited to get home and back to the real world, but will miss the mission and the people I worked with.  We had a little going away party on Friday the 18th over at the Embassy.  We ate dinner and watched the first half of USA vs. Slovenia, had a private little going away ceremony during halftime, then watched as the US caught back up from a 0-2 deficit and ended with a tie.  Here's a pic of me and my replacement just before my departure.

Of course flying home from here is never simple.  It looks like I'll fly from Baghdad to Qatar on Thursday, then depart Qatar Sunday for a Monday morning (28 Jun) arrival in DC.  Then I'll be working on getting things in order for the move to California.  I'm looking forward to being settled in there around the end of July.

I think Iraq has changed for the better since I've been here.  I hope the trend continues.  They have the potential to be a great nation if they can leave their squabbles behind and work together.  I guess this will be my last post on this blog. I've become a part of the facebook nation.  Will be in touch with you there.

Mid-June Report

Let's see...it's still hotter than hell, the new parliament had their opening session today (lasting all of 18 minutes), I've been way busy, and MY LAST DAY AT WORK IS SATURDAY!

My replacement is here and I'm getting him all trained up.  Getting him introduced to the folks I work and interact with, and beginning to say some goodbyes.  We're having a going away get together on Friday night.

Here's a picture of me and the three-star general I've been supporting for the past six months.  I won't mention his name because I don't want anyone to order me to remove this picture from by blog.  I gave him the little sticker as something to remember me by. 

Overall it's been a very long, but rewarding year.  I'll be departing the International Zone on 19 June, departing Iraq on around 22 June, and returning to the states by (hopefully) 26 June.  I'm looking forward to the move to California and getting on with real life!

100!

One hundred.  Hyaku (in Japanese).  Sto (in Russian).  Usually it's a number associated with something good...scoring 100% on your test at school, making 100% of your free throws, you get the picture.  Well, in Baghdad, in May, it can only mean one thing.  High temperature!  That's right kids, starting last week we hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time, and we have every day since.  It was 108 on May 12th.  It will be over 100 every day now until October.  Thankfully I'll be leaving in June.

I was researching the weather in what will be my new hometown, Tehachapi, CA the other day.  It's located on the east side of the Sierras, at 4000 feet above sea level, comparable with Salt Lake.  Somehow though the climate is much milder.  In Jan the temps are 10-15 degrees warmer than SLC, and in summer, 10-15 degrees cooler.  I'm not sure how that is possible, but I like it.  It does get snow a couple times in the winter, but it usually melts the next day.  Hooray!  No shoveling.  I spend some time most every day researching places to live (house shopping) via the internet.  It's amazing all the information that's available.  

Work here is good.  Staying pretty busy.  Election mess is still dragging on.  It's like watching paint dry. The prediction is they may actually certify the election results by 7 June.  That would be a great happy birthday present to yours truly. 

No, I'm not 100.

T Minus 60 and Counting

So it's approximately 60 days until I depart the International Zone and start my trip back to the states.  Hooray!  I've really enjoyed the work here the past 10 months but am ready to get on with life. 

It's been a pretty eventful week so far.  US and Iraqi forces killed the top two Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders.  The election commission announced they're going to recount Baghdad ballots, which will add 2-3 weeks to the certification process.  And, the LA Times broke a story on PM Maliki's secret prisons.  With political negotiations ongoing for the formation of the next government, the next two months should be interesting.

If you want to read a little more on these momentous times, here are articles from Time and the Atlantic.

Beyond Baghdad News

I have two news items.  First, I finally found out where I'm going to be assigned once I get back to the states in late June: Edwards AFB, California.  I'm quite excited.  I really wanted to get stationed in California.  I've always wanted to live there and it's close to home and family.  I talked to someone at the unit I'll be assigned to.  They are standing up a new "detachment" to handle the developmental testing for the F-35 or Joint Strike Fighter.  Here's a little AF press blurb talking about my detachment:

10/5/2009 - Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. -- The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center stood up Detachment 1 at Edwards AFB, Calif., Oct. 2 to lead the operational test and evaluation of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.  AFOTEC Detachment 1 will conduct operational test and evaluation on the JSF with three services and two international partners," said Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Sargeant, AFOTEC Commander. "The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will deliver joint and coalition multi-role capabilities. AFOTEC will serve as the lead operational test agency for this the multi-service and multi-national initial operational test and evaluation, and we are already conducting operational assessments." According to General Sargeant, "The stand-up of this detachment is in line with our role to be in the right place at the right time to provide the right information to senior acquisition decision makers and the warfighter. AFOTEC is actively supporting the Chief of Staff of the Air Force goal of acquisition excellence by continuing to improve acquisition processes and skills."  Detachment 1 will bring an additional 581 personnel to Edwards for JSF initial operational test and evaluation.  The F-35 is projected to be operationally capable by 2013. "We are getting involved early in this program because we believe this approach to testing influences a program in a relevant, operational, and testable manner," said General Sargeant. "Early influence allows us to maintain an operational focus to ensure our combatant commanders have the right tools to win today's and tomorrow's battles."  AFOTEC is a direct reporting unit under Headquarters, United States Air Force. It is the Air Force independent test agency responsible for testing, under operationally realistic conditions, new systems being developed for Air Force and multi-service use.

Here's a less than flattering article on the JSF from Time magazine. 

Here are some pics:

 

Anyway, I think the job will be interesting and totally different from anything I've done before.  I plan on living in this awesome town near the mountains to the west of Edwards called Tehachapi.  I'll make sure I find a place with a couple extra bedrooms so you can all come to visit, and I'm pretty sure I'll get a couple dirt bikes so we can go riding in the mountains or desert when you get there. I hope to be all settled in there by late July.  Tehachapi is about two hours from the heart of LA, and a little over three hours from Vegas.

Oh, I almost forgot my second news item.  I originally thought I was going to have to wait longer, but
by my calculations, I'll get promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on November 1st of this year.  Hooray for me!   

 

My New Digs

So here are some pics of the new place.  It's a very convenient location between my office and the chow hall, so I can run quick errands (laundry etc.) pretty easily.  This is the exterior of the building (you're only seeing about half, the other half is blocked by water tanks and power generators) and the long hallway inside:

 

Here are some views of the interior.  I'd say my share of the room is approximately 14' by 8', plenty of room, and the ceilings are about 14' high, so it really seems spacious.  We have a couple wall lockers (not pictured) that divide the room in half, but as I mentioned previously, this roommate is almost never around.
 

Ahh, no more annoying roommate...and I didn't even have to use my gun to get rid of him!  Oh, and you can see the cute little stereo I bought brand new for $70.  My iPod plugs right in.

 
 
They're supposed to be announcing the prelimnary results of the election today.  It's been neck and neck between a couple of coalitions.  The current PM is leading one of them, but was surprised at the competition, he was expecting to have a huge lead.  The Sunnis are back.  The next few months will be interesting as negotiations take place to "form a government" out of those elected to Parliament.  It's way different than the US, but I think it is effective.

More to follow. 

Roommates!

When I got back from Australia, I was welcomed to my trailer by a new roommate.  Easily the most annoying person I've ever lived with in my life.  He talked too loud.  He came in late and didn't know how to be quiet.  He was a mouth-breather.  When he slept, he didn't just have "restless leg" syndrome, he had "restless body" syndrome.  I don't know how he slept at all as he tossed and turned and twitched and flopped around.  He talked in his sleep.  He had explosive gas problems in his sleep.  But the best part was he'd wake up around 3am every morning and eat packages of dry cereal in bed.  Did I say eat dry cereal?  I meant EAT (MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH) DRY (MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH) CEREAL!  He sounded like a starving horse eating corn nuts.

Lucky for me one of the people who worked with me just left for home, and I moved into his room.  It's not a trailer but in a building that was originally used as dormitory rooms by Iraqi soldiers, before the invasion that is.  It's a pretty nice place, nice high ceilings, bathroom at the end of the hall.  And the best part is my roommate spends a lot of time elsewhere, so I have the place to myself. 

The only down side is there's not an internet connection in my room.  I'm at the Rec center trying to use their wireless and having a hell of a time getting some pictures of the new place uploaded.  I'll try again another day.

Election Day

Sorry I've been a bit delinquent in posting.  Nothing at all in February is pathetic.  Things were a bit hectic, and then I went on leave to Australia and just returned yesterday.  Yes, I had a blast!  More on that trip in a separate post. 

Tomorrow is Election Day in Iraq.  Nationwide Parliamentary elections to be exact.  This will be the first entirely Iraqi run election since the invasion in 2003 and is also a pretty major milestone toward the US withdrawal.  We're expecting pretty high participation and likely a small amount of violence. 

After the election there will be a lot of maneuvering between the political parties and those elected to Parliament (325 seats) to decide on a Prime Minister and form a government.  It's expected to take several months, so perhaps by the time I leave here at the end of June we'll have an idea on who will be the next Prime Minister.  Since no one party will have a majority, several parties will need to reach consensus to select the PM, which is good for Iraq...there needs to be more compromise and consensus...and trends have been pretty positive in the months leading up to election that groups are more willing to compromise.  Iraq has a lot of potential if the groups can learn to get along, oil exports are expected to triple over the next five years.  So there should be plenty of wealth to go around as long as one particular group doesn't get too selfish or greedy.

Although we're not officially supposed to have an opinion on who the next PM will be, I think it will be best if the current PM does not return.  He's been showing some pretty serious tendencies of late to bend the rules in an effort to consolidate his power...and I think another four years would entrench him to the point he wouldn't leave.  Better to get a new face from a new party and shake things up a bit.

Starting in mid January I've been in the unique position to be able to meet with the two chiefs of the security team for Vice President Hashimi, who is a leading Sunni politician.  I share information with them about security threats around the country and they've been giving me a first hand look at politics within Iraq, and more specifically the Sunni/Shia divide within the country.  I meet with them once a week and we talk things over for an hour or two over sweet tea and lunch.  They've hosted me a few times and I took them to the Embassy for lunch once.  I've really enjoyed the interaction.

It will definitely take time for the sectarian divide to be bridged completely, but as I mentioned earlier, there have been some pretty positive signs.  But one or two incidents or the wrong leaders coming into power could definitely move things backward.  I think enough politicians have the violence of 2005-2008 fresh in their minds though and will continue to work across the sectarian divide to be more inclusive...but I freely admit I'm an optimist.

It's been fun to see the events unfold firsthand, but I'm amazed sometimes at the seemingly glacial pace things move.  The elections were intially supposed to be held on 16 January...tomorrow is 7 March...you get the idea.  And what seems to be a crisis today fades into obscurity after a week or two.  Overall though, there's been a great deal of progress since I arrived on 1 July.  It's the opposite of my first trip here (Jul 04 to Mar 05) when things were going pretty steadily downhill...so for me it's good to see the progress. 

Hopefully Election Day tomorrow will be another step in that direction.  

It's All Downhill from Here

I'm now over halfway done with my assignment here.  I have to say it's flown by.  I've been extra busy the past few weeks as I'm now supporting the 3-star General who is in charge of advising and training Iraqi Army and Police.  Having him as an additional customer makes my days much busier, but busy means time flies by more quickly, and it's not like there's a lot of stuff to do here in your down time anyway. I've enjoyed the work and the people here, it's been a pretty nice adventure so far.
I couldn't be happier with the job I have here and that I'm working down in the International Zone instead of up at the other complex.  Things really couldn't have worked out better.

Speaking of things working out, I'm hoping to find out by the end of January  or early February where I'll be moving to when I get back to the US.  I was extremely fortunate to have three assignments available in California.  I'm 99% sure I'll get one of them.  The order of my picks are: Monterey, Edwards AFB and LA.  I'm really hoping for the Monterey job.  Not only is it a beautiful location, but I'll be working at the Defense Language Institute providing academic support to the AF students there.  Since I started out studying Russian, I think it would be fun to go back and work with kids who are just starting out.  The other two jobs would be interesting as well, working either with advanced aircraft (Edwards) or missiles and satellites (LA).  I've always wanted to live in CA and enjoy the motorcycling roads and weather, and it will be nice to be just a 10-12 hour drive from kids and family in SLC.     

 

Current Events Update

I think it's been since Oct that I wrote about what's going on over here.  I guess if you really care at all you can always read or watch the news (I have to read it, I can't stand listening to the anchorpeople shouting any more...where is Uncle Walter?).  The elections are scheduled for March 7th, a couple months later than originally planned.  It took the Iraqis a while to agree on an election law, but in the end, the extra few weeks debating and making changes actually made for a better product.  We are deep into the political season here, and expect that tension will remain high between certain parties and groups, but mostly things are going quite well.

Overall violence levels are down even from six months ago when I first arrived.  Al Qaeda can still pull off a big attack now and then, but the Iraqis are pretty much running their own security operations and doing a good job of it.  There is a lot of public interest in the elections and I'm sure they'll be free, fair, and successful.  These elections are for the national parliament.  It will take a few months after the elections for the parliament to pick a Prime Minister and the government to actually start functioning.  Some people (Americans) are wringing their hands here over that, but I think we wring our hands over a lot of things.  We want to be typical Americans:  take action, fix things, but honestly it's all up to the Iraqis now.  We're giving guidance (not sure how much they want it) and support, but they are mostly running the show, and that's a good thing.