Sunday Night Dinner

Hello folks,
I just wanted to fill you in on a little Sunday night tradition we have here in *********. (Censored for your and my protection. ;-)) On Sunday nights we close up shop at about 1730. (That's 5:30 pm in civilianese.) Anyway we close up shop and drive to the to the other side of the base. Of course I spend much of my day driving so that's nothing special, but we go to the chow hall right behind the 3rd Infantry Division HQ. (very BIG Head Shed.) There we walk into the show hall and grab our plate and plastic forks and whatnot. Then we approach the food line. The first thing you see is the carving station. "Prime rib, medium well please." (Mike Guzzi gets about 2 pounds.) On down the line you see Alaskan King crab legs. Not these little dainty things, but these 20 inch long monster crab legs. "Can I have two, pretty please?!?!?!" They gesture for my tray... one crab leg, two crab leg, three crab leg, four crab leg...... I'm starting to get alarmed. I'm doubting whether or not I am sufficiently hungry, so I wave off the the fifth crab leg being piled onto my tray. Then it's onto the salad bar for a salad of fresh romaine, not so fresh cucumbers, and all the other fixings.
The walls of this place are covered with college flags from everywhere. Oh, there's Georgia Tech, right up there in front. There are large plasma screen TV's hanging from every wall. And the sound of live music drifts through a set of exit doors.
So after pondering such things as drink choice, whether or not I should get desert now or later, speaking of which, what am I going to eat for desert? There is the pastry display with all manner of cakes, cookies, and pies. There is a Baskin & Robbins Ice Cream counter. There's even a deli sandwich counter for those who know they need a midnight snack, or lunch the next day.
So I wonder outside, and what do I see? Patio seating, with a small stage and a band of army guys playing Jazz. There are palm trees and a shade structure under which many tables are placed.
I'm thinking, "What's going on here? Is this a war zone? Or did I just step into the TwilightZone?
So this is going to be our Sunday night thing. We, Mike and I, are going to knock off early and go to dinner to sit, relax, and eat like pigs, errr I meant soldiers.
So I beg of you, please keep me in your thoughts as I endure the hardships of a long and arduous deployment in a wartorn country.

Have a great Seabee day!
~Josh

Life continues in Baghdad

We are now on our own as far as doing our jobs. The guys that we relieved are on their way home. Godspeed and safe journey to them. (We are actually kind of glad that they are gone.)

The food here is pretty good. There are many different chow halls around the base, and it's all you can eat with pastry service stations, icecream stations (with real Baskin & Robbins icecream), and even carving stations here and there.

There's a radio station for the base which play the stupidest commercials. (Everything from Practice good OpSec, to buckle your seat belt when you drive.) But hey, it's music. And they have the heaviest armed morning show on the air. That's gotta be worth something.

The job is picking up speed. I must be personally responsible the deforestation of several mountainsides. I have my own copier on my desk to give you an idea of the amount of paper I go through. O'well, anything so I don't make a mistake and go to jail.

That's about it. O'yeah, here's my mailing address.

ENS Josh Perry
NMCB-5 Det 10
Task Force Pioneer
FOB Central Control
APO AE 09322

Don't ask me what all of those things mean, but a lot of different activities are over us. The only thing I would ask that you not send is alcohol. General Order #1, "Thou shalt not consume any alcohol in Iraq!" On a side note, as much as I would like to have some chocolate, I doubt it would survive the trip in this heat.

It also rained today. I thought that was worth mentioning for some reason.
Later people!

~Josh

I am here!

Well everyone, I am here. Finally. I have actually been here for the last couple of days, but I have been busy learning how to do my job and getting the lay of the land. As far as where I am, I am allowed to say that I am in Baghdad. It's not all that bad here. Things have really setled down and everything seems pretty quiet. It's still like the wild west in a frontier type setting. Everyone still carries a loaded weapon and there is still a lot of stuff still going on out there.

I am living in a old building that leaves a lot to be desired, but I have a few days to use the Seabees that we have here before we goto work on Monday.

My email is still jperry13@adelphia.net so feel free to drop me a line.

That's about it for right now.

-Josh

Leaving on a jet plane.

Well the time has come folks. I am leaving this very morning. Whew! It's been a long and laborious wait. Kristin can atest to the fact that everyone in the Battalion has been ramping up in anticipation of this moment. It's like one of those rev up toys, that you rev and rev and rev on the floor thinking one more time and you'll get a little more speed out of the thing. But no matter how many more times you rev, it just doesn't get any faster.
I can tell you all with no hesitation that we are ready for our mission and any more time sitting here in Port Hueneme will just begin to break the toy by over-revving.

So this is it for the next two weeks or so. I will be back online sometime in the middle of April. As my mother would say, "Angels around all of you.", and think you all so much for making this last week great. Especially you Kristin and Ronan. I love you both so much.

-Josh