For one thing, the weather is much worse in Kuwait. Remember, Iraq is considered one of the cradles of civilization. Though much of Iraq is currently desert and not so comfortable or suitable for life, there is no comparison. I’m north of Baghdad and there are many trees here along the Diyala river basin, but not so much south of Iraq’s border in Kuwait.
During my eight days in Kuwait in late June, we suffered terrible sand storms. There were times that you could not see 10 feet in front of you. The wind was incessant, and it would blow the sand all over the place. It gets into everything, but you get used to it, I suppose. One of the sergeants with us didn’t have proper glasses or goggles on and the sand kept blowing around between his face and whatever glasses he was wearing and it just cut his eyes all up. Pretty nasty stuff.
The temperature was in the teens during the day, usually getting to about 112-115 but the wind made it seriously feel like a human convection oven. Best time of the day was around 0500-0530 before the sun was really up. By 0800 it was over 100 degees for the next 13 or so hours and even past 2200 (10pm) it was always in the 90’s.
The combination of the heat and wind with the sandstorms was laughable.
Our wonderful FOB in Kuwait:
Interesting enough the facilities on Kuwait varied drastically. Here are picture of our showers and bathrooms.
Problem was these were 100 meters from the tent pictured in the last update. Most of the time, I just used these facilities,
which were right outside our back door. Have you guys ever gone inside a port-a-potty during the summer? How about in a desert? I have bathroom issues as it is, these don’t help.
Here are a few of us walking to chow at the DFAC (I hate most of the military slang and ‘chow’ and ‘latrines’ are probably the big two).
We are not allowed to take pictures inside the dinning hall (DFAC) for some reason though most of the people do. I will definitely take some shots of the DFAC on FOB Warhorse as it’s quite good, but at this staging base in Kuwait (one of several) there are many fast-food and American style immunities as people come through Kuwait on the way to Iraq. Starbucks? By the way, the pictures look hazy because they were taken right after a sandstorm.
We were only supposed to be there a few days, but the bad weather cancelled several of our flights and we managed to leave 8 days later. I’ll end this segment with my transportation to Iraq: a C-130 . Forget about all those perks of business class or even economy class, flying in a C-130 with a broken air conditioner in the middle east is the only way to fly! Thank God, they couldn’t fit our entire group on one plane so the only other Officer in this group, two others and I, stayed back 5 hours to grab the next flight. I cannot imagine how crowded and uncomfortable they must have been. Here are pics of me and our very small group. We actually had plenty of room. Did I forget to mention you ride in these in full 40 pound battle rattle?
Next segment will be about my first two weeks at FOB Warhorse where I’ll be until mid-October. I just found out since I came down here mid-deployment to our Regiment, I’ll be one of the Trail Officers making sure everyone gets home okay.
