Ruchster in Iraq: March 2005

Moving

Well, I guess I am going to be moving to my new job permanently. It was up in the air for a while. The bad part is I will have to move to a new room and may not have any internet for a while. I can still use the public ones though. More to follow...

My Address, etc.

One more thing. You can still send mail to my old address, I will still get it. I will give you an updated one when I get it. Also, I have a Voice Over IP (talk over the internet) phone in my room and have tried to call some of you without luck. It really requires a broadband connection. I could hear you but you could not hear me. The number is 910-221-0156. If you got a call from that number and nobody was talking it was me. Sorry for the harassment. I can seem to talk to Kim sometimes which is good. A characteristic of Satellite Internet is that downloading is pretty fast, but uploading is slow. I can hear you on the download, but is usually is too slow on the upload for you to hear me. You can try calling the number and leave me a voicemail. I will continue to experiment with it.

You can also check out my links on this page. I will continue to add them as I find them. The weather one does not always work, I have to find something more reliable than the Weather Channel Online.

My New Job

Hello Everyone,

Welcome back. It has been a little while but I am still getting settled into my new job. I am the Chief of the Aviation Division at the COSCOM CDC. Basically I track down aircraft repair parts coming into theater and prepare aircraft readiness slides for the generals. It is not a bad job but it is a steep learning curve since I have never done anything like that. I am still waiting to see if I have to move to another hooch on the other side of post. Not sure I want to. It would be just like the one I have here but maybe no internet, we will see. I took a trip down to Kuwait last weekend for a conference, more on that below. Also the weather here had dried up, we traded mud for dust. I don't know which is worse.

I am still looking at doing a website other than this one, a real website like I had before. Just waiting until after the move to see if I still have internet in my room. A full website would probably take more time to maintain because I would be tempted to upload more pictures. As always, you can click on these pics for a larger image. If you want one to print, just write me and I will e-mail you a higher-res one. I am limited to the size of the photos I post on this blog. I have also updated my profile a little. Nothing much, just whatever came off of the top of my head. You all know me anyhow. You can post comments to any of the pictures or posts.

The profile does not allow you to indicate marital status and Kim thought that I should at least mention that I am happily married. I did include pictures of us in my first post. I will have more if she ever sends me any. :-) Anyway, it is getting late, I will write more later.

Somebody's cool deck

Here is a picture of a deck tat somebody built here. There are a lot of them around, but this one is the best I have seen. The little plastic crabs make it. A lot of the folks here are pretty good woodworkers and build furniture, decks, anything to make life more comfortable. No I am not going to build one, it would be condemned as a public hazard if I did not hurt myself doing it.

click for full sized image

Iraq from the air

A picture I took from the C-12 on the way back from Kuwait. This is very near the Tigris River and is pretty fertile. It was a nice day for flying, but I was sitting in the back for this one. Much better ride than the Sherpa of a C-130.

click for full sized image

Back to Iraq

Getting on the C-12 (a Beech King Air) to go back to Iraq. It was a nice flight.

click for full sized image

Bombed out Bunker

Here is a picture of a bunker we bombed during the war. We as in the US, not me. The French built it and guaranteed it was bombproof. I guess our bunker-busters violated the warranty. Rumor is that the owners are still waiting for a refund. I can't say where this picture was taken.

click for full sized image

Back in a Black Hawk

Finally got to fly in a helicopter down in Kuwait. I am hoping to be able to fly a little more over here.

click for full sized image

Sherpa

US Army Sherpa we flew to Kuwait on. It looks pretty primitive but it is a better ride than a C-130 because it had windows you could see out of. Most of these are old commuter airplanes b flown and operated by Army Reservists. These Sherpa guys fly low-level to avoid ground fire. Flying low with windows meant that I could actually see some of the country outside the wire for the first time. I enjoyed it.

click for full sized image

Mudhole I live in

Some of the mud from here in the housing area. It has been rainy or muddy most of the time I have been here. Even when it does not rain, the mud stays for weeks. It is some of the stickiest mud I have ever seen. You gain 3-4 inches walking through it from the mud sticking to your boots. Also it hardens like concrete. You have to chisel it off. I have one pair of shoes that I only wear inside. It helps keep the floor clean. It has only recently quit raining and warmed up enough to dry out. Now it has all turned to silty dust that blows everywhere. I wonder why the first cavemen that came to this area stayed. Of course I wondered that about Korea too. I guess that is why all the early middle-eastern people were nomads.

click for full sized image

Change of Command

Greetings Everyone,

Welcome to my new weblog. This is a way for me to stay in touch with news and pictures without the time and expense of creating another website. I probably will get another website online here in a couple of months but for now this is much quicker and easier. It also has the advantage of being cumulative, so you won't miss things when I update. It wont replace e-mail but it will supplement it. This is my first crack at it so bear with me.....

I officially changed command today. It was a short and sweet ceremony. I kept my speech short. Nobody cried. I figure I had a year to tell them what I had to tell them. Actually I had a formation the day prior to tell them goodbye. I am not going far, just on the other side of the post to work in the COSCOM Corps Distributuion Command (CDC). This is the main logistical hub for the 18th Airborne Corps. The CDC manages distribution of supplies for the entire theater here. It has an Aviation Branch that handles helicopter repair parts. There are 2 officers, a major and a captain, and about 12 enlisted and NCOs. It looks like I will be in charge of that cell. More to follow on that. Anyway, it is the only other place for an aviation officer to go in 1st COSCOM other than where I am now. I tried to stay in this battalion, but there is just no job for me there.

Preparing to pass the guidon
e-mail me to request print quality picture

Accepting the guidon to hand-off. The first sergeant hands me the guidon, I give it to the Battalion Commander. He gives it to the new commander who in turn gives it back to the first sergeant. It is symbolic of the transfer of authority and at the heart of the change of command ceremony.
e-mail me to request print quality picture

My Current Hooch

I will be moving to a new trailer on the other side of post when I start my new job. Here are a few pics of the one I am in now. It is not too bad. These trailers have 3 rooms in them. Whether or not you have a roomate and how many roomates you have depends on your rank. I do not have a roomate. The walls are so thin that I can hear the guy next to me snoring. Showers and bathrooms are in seperate trailers. I am not really looking forward to moving but I cannot stay here. The trailer I move into will be comparable to this one. This is a lot better living conditions than 1 year ago. They were still living 20 people to a tent and sleeping on cots. At least I have a real bed and Heat/AC and internet too. Some guys are getting together to buy a satellite TV system similar to the way our group got satellite internet. I will have to find a new internet connection when I move.

At least there is a real bed. I was getting tired of sleeping on a cot, Kim sent flannel sheets and a down comforter. Almost feels like home. I bought some rugs for the floor but stopped short of the prayer mat.

Ask me for print quality picture

Inside the rathole. I have to find some different furniture. At least I have internet for the laptop. The Christmas lights were left over and are actually nice. They provide soft lighting. The fridge and microwave are mine.

Ask me for print quality picture

My Hooch - it is the one with the chair out front. I am sure Martha Stewart would be jealous of the sandbag and gravel landscape motif.

Ask me for print quality picture

Our Trip While I Was Home

While I was home for R&R leave Kim and I had our little getaway. We went to Tybee Island (near Savannah). We stayed in a bed and breakfast for 5 days and just did nothing but tour the area and meet the other couples who were staying at the Inn with us. We stayed at the Savannah Beach Inn on Tybee Island near Savannah. Tybee is mostly a tourist spot. It was the off season and there was not much going on but that ws OK, still plenty to do. Tybee Island still has a Lighthouse that we went and looked at. It was the first one I actually got to climb up in. This little vacation was definitely too short. We wound up staying 2 extra days and still did not get to do all we wanted. We plan on going back someday, maybe when the weather is warmer.

Kim at Tybee Island

kim on the beach at Tybee Island. They had these little swings all along the beach. The weather was cold but we did not care.