Monkey Gone To Heaven

Firstly, I would like to thank all who have sent emails; I really appreciate hearing from you. Secondly, I would like to apologize for not updating my blog on a more frequent basis; I’ve been busy, with the war and all. A lot has been in the works since I last left you. I moved into Iraq to my new home at Speicher around September 25 and began what will probably be the most painful part of my tour over here, getting settled in. For those who aren’t in the know, I am a Battalion Signal Officer. My job consists essentially of supervising the communication support of an Engineer Battalion (550 soldiers). Communication support can be defined in two categories: automations (computers) and tactical systems (radios, satellite navigation etc). While this definition may still be too vague for some of you, I offer this scenario. Close you eyes, and imagine taking a bunch of radios and computers to your local zoo and issuing them to some chimpanzees (in this case, the chimpanzees are all armed, and angry, and they haven’t had any bananas for awhile). Your job is to make sure all these chimpanzees can talk with all of the other chimpanzees in all of the other zoos. But you also have to ensure that the evil baboons in the zoo can’t infiltrate the chimpanzee communication network, because this could be catastrophic to the chimpanzee mission. You have some help at the other zoos from other humans, but more often than not, you will find that the other zoos have nothing but chimpanzees! This makes communication very difficult. Startling to think, but that is in essence what I do. As far as living conditions are concerned, I am living in what I think is quite posh for Iraq. Compared to my previous assignment in Ramadi, I am quite well off. We are living in old concrete houses previously occupied by the Iraqi Army. I have generator powered electricity in my house and even running water (unheard of at many bases). I eat at a dining facility run by Kellog Brown and Root, a government contractor whose food is considered the gold standard for Iraq. We even have a fairly good sized PX stocked liberally with wartime essentials like TVs and DVDs, but you can’t seem to find frigging dental floss anywhere. Don’t get me wrong though, this place is still a desolate hell hole. The majority of the buildings here are dilapidated shacks covered in sawdust thin sand; the ever present aroma of steamy hot feces is a constant reminder of where you are, posh nonetheless! Keep it locked....more to come.