Bored at Al Salem Air Base

Ok, I started this blog stating that I would post as many pictures as possible so today I intend to try to catch up on some of the most recent shots.

First however an update on my status here and when I fly out. I have a meeting in 1 hour to do what is called “Roll Call” for the flight tonight. I have to be there, but I know I am not going to be on that flight. As it looks, I might end up being here for quite a while. Maybe more than a week. It would not be an understatement to say that I wish I was back at the hotel.

It is also easy for me to say this. It is times like this that make me really not miss being in the Army. There is no way I could go back after having done contract work. But it makes me all the more appreciative of the selfless service that the guys on Active Duty over here perform. My hat is off to these guys that have to spend a year on this base.

Ok the first picture I will show you is from CRC at Benning. This is me in front of one of those WWII looking signs with cities and distances marked on them. I think some of the distances are wrong, but it looks cool anyway.



This is the chow hall. The reason there are no military present is because they had to go early and go to the firing range. Normally it is packed with 400 or so people. (Not all at once)



A giant row of crappers. Self explanatory.



This is my POW style bunk at Benning. Luckily nobody on the top bunk.



This is what it looks like when you try to line up 200 civilians into 4 columns and march 400 meters. See also: Herding cats.



This is me with some Kurdish translators heading into Iraq to work with the military. Good dudes.



Here we have landed in Kuwait City. It is about 0230 and we are tired. We have 6 hours or so to kill before our ride picks us up.



Genius engineering. This is Kuwait’s newest soccer stadium. It has seating for 60,000 people and parking for 5,000.



This is actually a sad picture. The house in the background has about 20 rooms. They pack 20-25 Pinoys into each room head to foot, side by side, on the floor and then bus them all around Kuwait to work like slaves all day. They make slightly more than they would make doing the same things in the Philippines.



Cool looking housing across from my buddy’s apartment.



This is from the Iranian kabob shop that I stopped at. I have to say that it is somewhat unnerving to be in an Iranian shop in Kuwait surrounded by Arabs, but really unnecessarily so. You can see that most of them could care less about me.



This a view at sunset of the Arabian Gulf taken from my balcony at the hotel.