Well friends it seems like it has been quite a bit of time since my last blog and I thought I would open up with bit of an explanation. This is not meant to be an excuse, only a means to share this deployment experience with you in a manner that you might understand.
A number of things come to mind when I try and figure out why I haven't written more, I was rather enjoying chronicling the experience the first three months of the deployment but then I believe I reached the valley of the deployment at about 4 months in. For those that have never been separated from home for long periods of time this is the point where the newness of the experience, and the excitement of all the new challenges begins to fade and time seems to drag on. Now you are experiencing the same thing day in and day out, and thoughts of being back home or missing the girls seem to cause time only to go slower. As most also know you face the frustrations of being separated from your wife who is dealing with all the normal crisis at home by herself such as two kids and herself sick at the same time, broken washing machines, and normal family emergencies; as well as the frustrating bureaucracies that all big organizations have put in place to prevent anything useful from occurring. So each day for the past few months it seems like there is not much I am interested in "reliving" out on the blog .... and so it goes procrastination sets in and I have waited until now to write you all once again.
The good news:
Abby and I can see the light at the end of this deployment. With about two months remaining we are in the home stretch, and we are happy to say God has seen us through the valley, and despite some low moments we know we have grown stronger as a family because of this experience.
So what questions might you all be wondering? Here are a few questions answered that may shed some more light on what has been going on daily here for me.
1. So what do you do there everyday?
O.K. my job is essentially in construction management. We hire contractors of all sorts to come and renovate, build, repair, buildings and utility infrastructure for the International Zone (IZ) in Baghdad. The transition of handing the IZ back over to the Government of Iraq is in full swing, and as a result we are consolidating many of the commands that reside here into a few locations that will remain for at least the next two years. I have had the pleasure of working with all kinds of contractors from small local women owned and operated contractors that have 12-14 people and larger American/Iraqi owned business that have hundreds of employees. In both cases it is always interesting, as the skill level and methods of construction in Iraq are much different than we are used to back in the states. For example, wood is not readily available in Iraq, however sand, mortar and brick is, so just about everything you build is with brick and mortar. Many of the buildings we are renovating are part of Sadaams palaces and the rooms are over sized with many bathrooms. Our job is to convert these buildings into office spaces and therefore we spend a bit of time, and a lot of brick mortar, plaster and paint converting the spaces. The workers are mostly Iraqi people, though we have mixed in some other foreign nations from the Philippines and India mainly. The day to day work is mostly tracking contractor progress, approving engineering designs, or material specifications, or dealing with the complicated security requirements for getting the workforce into the international zone and onto the bases to do the work. Truth be told, I love the project management stuff, but hate the increased bureaucracy that comes from being in Iraq. It feels few things happen out here very easily or quickly, and with me patience has always been a resource I am short on.
2. What is happening in Iraq?
Boy I am not really sure how to answer this one, because I wonder what everyone's perspective is back home. Since the inauguration, it definitely feels like everyone has moved on from the whole Iraq thing, as if it is a over already. I realize Obama has proclaimed our exit dates and that is a good thing, however it feels like we have the same number of people where I am working and no indication of the draw down. Now I work mostly in the civil relations portion and not the security/military operations part of Iraq which explains most of it. But I honestly feel that we have been here so long, and become so comfortable at being here, that many organizations just are continuing on as if we will be here another 5 years. This is a little jaded opinion I realize, but I more commentary on how it is hard to get a large organization to turn from one direction to another quickly. I have faith that in time (withing the next 6-12 months) things will slowly start to turn about and we will see continued pull back and reductions here.
What I have observed of the turnover though has been good. As we turnover the role of security to the Iraqi's they have done a good job and despite some frustrations with how they do business different than us, the level of violence seems to be about the same (low).
3. What will you do when you get back?
Ahh, something to look forward too. That is a critical peace to a successful deployment, always having something you are looking forward to. Abby and I have experienced post deployment challenges before and something we both know is that it takes time to readjust to the family being back together again. I will likely take about two - three weeks off work when I return and just stay at home getting acquainted with the family, and off course catching up on the all the "Lost" episodes I have missed. Abby and I will likely slip away at least one weekend to get for a belated anniversary weekend and some relaxing hotel. But the big plan is for July when my mom and sister come out with the family for a week and a half of family time. I greatly look forward to that.
Other than that I look forward to starting my new job in November, back at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. (Yeah! another couple years in paradise).
Well friends and family, I hope you found this blog entertaining, I will make some attempts to keep the writing up and perhaps even posting some more pictures.
Take care everyone, and God bless.
Joe
Other than that I look forward to starting my new job in November, back at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. (Yeah! another couple years in paradise).
Well friends and family, I hope you found this blog entertaining, I will make some attempts to keep the writing up and perhaps even posting some more pictures.
Take care everyone, and God bless.
Joe
