To be honest, I have just been lazy lately. Haven't been inspired by anything lately. Maybe I have been here too long without a break. I am notorious for working too much if given that opportunity...or being too lazy if given that opportunity as well. I guess you could say that I like living in the extreme. I thought that I would upload a bunch of pictures here so that you could see what I have been up to.
The first picture is of me giving our Training Officer, LTC Abdul-Rachman an award for his hard work putting together the BDE and BN Commander's course. I spent a lot of money on these awards, but I think that they will pay off, as we had a lot of other officers that did not get awards ask what they needed to do to get one...more to follow on that one.
This next one is of the mail carriers that go between Taji and Baghdad every day. Yep, you got it, in an old world war II style motorcycle and sidecar. These guy look hilarious, wearing goggles and stuff. They look like they could have been delivering mail this way for 40 years...without any semblance of a phone system in the military, this is really the only way to communicate in their army. It isn't like they can email important documents to each other...there is no Internet at the units, at least not at all of them. Some are lucky enough to have some connectivity. The rest rely on cell phones and mail carriers!
These two guys are our two best Iraqi NCOs. Both of them speak very good English, and are our instructors when it comes time to run the simulation. They are both winning the hearts and minds of the officers at the school, and will, eventually, help make their NCO corps take a more prominent role in their Army. I have been trying to convince our leadership that we need to send one of these two high-speed NCOs to school in the US to better learn how to set up the communications systems required in order to run the simulation. Hopefully, someone, someday, will listen to me.
Finally, this last one is of yours truly, holding a bottle of my new best friend...squeeze horseradish! You can put this stuff on anything! I have been squeezing it on matzo crackers and gefilte fish like crazy. A little bit in your chicken soup is pretty good, too. It's good for clearing the sinuses, and makes just about any food's flavor come alive. Except maybe dates, I don't think that it would go good with dates. Dates are something that I have absolutely fallen in love with. supposedly, they have like 30000 types of dates here in Iraq, or maybe 60000, either way, I don't think that I have time to try them all...at least not without getting fat. These things are so sweet. I have some that have been pitted and have been stuffed with nuts. I hate Walnuts, but they even make walnuts taste good.
Well, I best be going. I have been playing a lot of Tiger Woods 2011 golf on the Wii, trying to get into golf shape for the trip home on R&R. Only a few weeks more until I get to head home for a few weeks. I can't wait.
Until Next time!
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