Hello All,

A good friend of mine and I were talking last year about Christmas and about how it's been bastardized in the name of profits. We both agreed that more people need to remember that it's not about getting gifts for other people, it's about someone's birthday, and the gift that he gave all of us (yep, even those heathen terrorists).

Happy Birthday Jesus. Merry Christmas world.

Love,

Will

Hello All,

I've been looking back at my last couple posts and I notice that I haven't had a decent rant in a while. I'm sure you're all wondering if I turned over a new leaf of calm level-headedness, and in a word, no. There are many things around here that are pissing me off, so-much-anger/so-much-stupidity, but I don't normally have time to write them up. Well, today I do because today I'm pulling staff duty instead of actual mission duty. Where do I begin? Fine question... lets start with KBR.

You all probably don't know KBR, but you know their parent company Halliburton. They are all over the place. They run the food. They run the laundry. They run a super tanker of fuel up the road every day and you're paying the bill (before I ignite the fuse let me state that I am not currently a tax payer, but when I get back to CONUS I will be, and my congressman is going to get an earful).

Part of my job, nope I'm not gonna tell you, deals with the MSR. Every single day I see hundreds of KBR tankers going up and down it. Some are loaded with fuel, some are empty but you are paying for all of them. Each tanker holds 20,000 gallons of fuel (benzene, mogas, diesel, etc.) and I'm not kidding when I tell you that there are hundreds everyday. Now, note that KBR was over billing by about a $1.12 a gallon; according to the propaganda we get over here. According to some members of congress, "A billion here and a billion there and it adds up to real money." Well, excuse me, Mr. Congressman and Public Servant, but when you're a soldier making less than $25,000 a year (and most of my troops are) you might be a little pissed off about all that money being lost.

Then let's account for the fuel itself. I understand that between the ineptitude of Saddam and the accuracy of US weapons ALL of Iraq's refineries are wasted. I also understand that the Army has units busting their asses to repair the refineries while dip-shit terrorists are trying to blow them up at the same time. However, when you have a country that could be self-sufficient (petroleum-wise), wouldn't you throw every resource available into saving the taxpayers some cash?

Let's not forget to mention the fact that this is the ONLY industry (outside of thievery and bad hygiene) that is indigenous to Iraq. The people here need hope. You know where hope comes from, it comes from a crappy job, a run down car, a mortgage you can barely afford and kids that don't listen.
Yep, that's the foundation of hope. Don't believe it? Look around you.
Your job sucks, your car is run down, the mortgage is hurting you and your kids don't listen... but you have hope that the job will get better (if the damn boss will just shut the hell up), you can buy a better car when the job gets better, the mortgage will be easier and the kids might have a better life than you did (and that Their kids won’t listen, either. HA!). See, it all starts with a crappy job and I know because I’ve had crappy jobs that turned into better jobs. Hope lies at the bottom, and if you believe Patton, it's all you really have left when you hit rock bottom.

So, why don’t we quit pussyfooting around and get some of those Texas Oil Mongers that know how refineries need to work over here . They're the ones that know how this crap works, put ‘em on the payroll and get ‘em some weapons and get the show on the road. 20 billion dollars to rebuild Iraq… how about getting THEIR economy rolling so we can get rolling home. For the love of God these people aren’t children that need to have their hands held, they’re grown ups that need jobs and HOPE!

Let’s get the bad jobs rolling, hope floating and troops rolling… a beer wouldn’t hurt either, but that’s another rant altogether. Beer and women and freedom and, shit… I almost started again.

I love you all,

Will

PS – I know who our replacements are, and have been told of their arrival date. I’m not holding my breath but I think I saw a flicker at the end of the tunnel.

Hello All,

One down, one to go. If you don't know what I'm talking about (climb out from under that rock) Saddam has been captured. Alive. No, I'm serious, he's still breathing. That's right, I didn't catch him and that's probably why the tyrant-prick-waste-of-human-life is still breathing. Of course killing him would make him a martyr, but I REALLY don't like this place and I blame him for being here.

In other news the wacko's with car bombs, IED's and AK-47's are still running around and making trouble. I admire an opponent that doesn't quit. Hell, who didn't respect Cool Hand Luke when he was taking that monster beating and refused to stay down? This, however, is getting stupid.

Dear Terrorists,

Your leader (you know, the guy that wants you to go out in a blaze of glory and gunfire) begged for his life and didn't even fight back. Are you sure that you want to follow this pussy? He was hiding in hole with more money than you will EVER see, so much like a rat, but he wants you to do his dirty work. Sounds a bit like a coward to me. How about you put down your weapons and consider that maybe he is full of crap and we are actually trying to help you people out?

Sincerly,
American Common Sense

I love you all,

Will

Hello All,

Cleanilness is next to godliness I've been told but in Iraq cleanliness is next to impossible. I read in a National Geographic that the area I'm in used to be wetlands but Sadam cut off the water supply because he was a sociopathic madman that needed another hole in his head(see 5.56 mm). All you environmentalists out there can rest easy... the water is back.

No, the Army didn't blow the dam on the Euphrates because that would have be fast and easy. Mother nature has decided to reclaim her own and boy has she ever. This is the beginning of the rainy season, or so I'm told, and it looks like I'm going to have a LONG last 4 months in country. I figured it would be rain like when we got here. 20 or 30 minutes of sprinkles with a quick downpour and then it would end. HA! Think 5 or 6 hours of decent rain with 15 minute bursts of downpour every hour or so.

I also figured that this soil being so dry it would suck up any moisture and it would drain away... and it looks like the Engineers that built this place were thinking along the same lines. We were wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong! "How wrong?" you ask. Let me tell you a story...

Last night we had 3 trucks out working, and 3 trucks got stuck in the mud (nope, not me! I'm serious, it wasn't me this time). No problem, we have a big ass wrecker truck with a boom and a winch and guys trained to un-stuck trucks. Those guys were busy last night, and when it came time for them to come back into post they met a rut in the road that swallowed them. Well, their truck sank up the headlights (which is way worse than I have EVER done) and the wrecker needed a wrecker. But wait, there's more! Another wrecker from another unit went out to pickup our lost sheep, and that second wrecker promptly sank up to it's frame as well. If you're not laughing you've never eaten shit from a wrecker driver about getting stuck (yes, I have. More than once, surprised? Didn't think so).

The best part is still coming. Are you ready? Ok. Let's apply common sense here. If you have trucks getting stuck without means to recover them would you keep sending them out? Depends on the mission right? Well, if the trucks are getting stuck, and can only function as a bunker, they're not really on the mission anymore, right? So, would you keep sending them out there? Would you go to plan 'B' now or wait to see if you can start your own humvee parking lot in Iraq? Maybe it's getting better out there, but you can't tell that from inside the camp. We've got standing water everywhere and I'm just happy to have dry feet for a couple minutes.

I guess since the really heavy stuff won't be coming down for a while yet, I say keep playin'.

I love you all,

Will

PS - One of the men was talking about how we've seen every type of weather on this deployment except hurricanes and tornados. I had to add flash floods. Now we have that, Oh what a jerk I am.