Thanksgiving in Baghdad

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone... I'm writing this on my first of three Thanksgiving dinners. Yep, thats right... three. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for lunch today and will have it again tomorrow for lunch, each sandwiched around a Thanksgiving dinner. It makes for a few sleepy, belly-aching days to be sure.

The DFAC here was very well decorated, with streamers and banners hanging around, a huge center table set up with a cornucopia and large fruit and vegetable spread, several carving stations, the staff all wearing pilgrim hats, and the senior-ranking enlisted and officers performing their traditional role of doing the serving of food to military members.

The food included everything I would have asked for at a Thanksgiving dinner back home: white meat turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. I even had a slice of my favorite holiday dessert -- pumpkin pie. I really couldn't have asked for much more, and I get to do it again two more times.

This isn't my first Thanksgiving away from family and friends... I spent Thanksgiving of 2001 at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS while I was in technical training for the Air Force and we weren't permitted to travel home. There are quite a few differences between the two... I remember the food there being significantly better, I was off for the entire day while I'm likely working through the night here again, and I was at least in the same time zone as everyone I knew. The one similarity will be football. We have a bigscreen TV in our new dayroom adjacent to my office, so I will probably end up running my ethernet cable into the room and sitting on a chair to watch the game and work at the same time. Man, I love Thanksgiving...

Application goes live tomorrow

The application we've been working on since June goes live tomorrow. As with most software applications that are pushed to release faster than they should be, we've got a laundry list of issues that still need to be fixed. The last week has been spent trying to resolve issues that have come up, and unfortunately they've been popping up faster than they can be resolved. Ultimately we're going to put out a broken product tomorrow and going to spend several more weeks of long nights trying to get things fixed and regain our ability to see the customer without wanting to run away.

In other news its Sunday, which means a trip out to the airport to get a haircut and some football tonight. I'll probably be focused more on work than on the Giants - Cardinals, but hopefully I get some downtime to watch a quarter or two.

Another ping pong player joins the ranks

Steve got here on Sunday and we quickly learned that he's got some ping pong skills. He's fit in quite well with the other ping pong players, and it'll be nice to have an extra player. It's also nice to have another developer here... prior to Steve's arrival I was the only one here and had to rely on instant messaging to communicate with anyone about issues I've been having with the system. Already we've had several lengthy conversations about coding and I've felt a lot better about things.

The photo above is one of the minarets at the largest mosque in Irbil, which was donated by a wealthy local man for the citizens of Irbil to use.

Back and rested

I made it back here to Baghdad yesterday afternoon. After an extremely long day I had a chance to sleep in this morning and fully took advantage of the opportunity. I feel well-rested and ready to make this last push to get our application wrapped up and out the door this week.

The photo above is a medieval castle on the outskirts of Irbil that we had the opportunity to visit.

Almost back to Baghdad

My whirlwind tour of Iraq is almost complete and I am waiting on travel back to Baghdad and should be there by dinnertime tomorrow. I've been to 13 air bases, COBs, FOBs, or Camps, flown on Blackhawks, Chinooks, Pave Lows, and C-130s, and been in a convoy through the most dangerous city in the country. I've even had a chance to stay in a house, visit a restaurant, and walk around one of the quietest and safest cities in the country as well. I've met face-to-face with over 50 customers to give them personalized training and elicited over 25 suggestions for features to our application. At least 90% of the folks that I have met with would say that they're happy with our system, which is a pretty good success rate for such a wide range of user roles and technical capabilities.

All in all I'd like to think that my trip was a success both professionally and personally, and I'm glad that I made it through the trip safe and in good spirits. Now it's back home to Baghdad and my warm bed and office space and to welcome our new developer - and personal friend - Steve Levithan into the country this weekend and get him started on the same process I went through myself at the end of August.

The photo above is in front of the statue of a Kurdish philosopher and historian at the entrance of the Citadel in the center of Irbil.

Touring Irbil

Being in Irbil is like an out-of-body experience for anyone thats spent time in the rest of Iraq. The people here are friendly and the security situation allows us to not have to wear body armor or helmets when traveling through the city. In fact, my day yesterday was pretty much like any day I would have spent in any other city in the world. The guys here asked if I wanted to see downtown Irbil on our lunch break, and I naturally had my boots on and camera in hand before the question was even finished.

The first place we visited was the Citadel, which is a settlement in the center of the city. This settlement is one of the oldest continuously occupied in the world, with estimates of around 8,000 years. As I later found out, the buildings themselves are not actually that old - each group of people built on top of previous settlements, which is why the settlement is on top of a 100-foot hill. I found an interesting story online that his some great information about the citadel on MSN.

After the Citadel we went to a very large mosque downtown. I had hoped to have had the chance to walk around but the gate we were at was closed and Havel, the Kurdish employee taking us around, didnt know about the open gate on the back side. I at least got some photos from the outside though.

After the mosque we drove to the outskirts of the city to a medieval castle that was built by a princess of the British Empire. Its small by most standards, but beautiful nonetheless. The area around the castle is ringed by small hills leading up to mountins a 5-10 miles further away - a beautiful vista for sure.

The photo above is a view of the Citadel in the center of Irbil.

Made it to Irbil

I took a convoy from Mosul to Irbil last night and got in late. I stayed up even later to watch the Giants take a win over the Eagles and I'm seriously regretting it -- I'm pretty exhausted today. The house I'm in is very nice... its in a quiet part of Irbil, which is in Kurdish territory. The Kurds do a good job of policing and have kept all the infighting outside of their territory. Its safe enough, in fact, that we dont need body armor to walk around the city.

The photo above is part of the neighborhood that I'm in.

One more stop

I've got one last stop on my scenic tour of Iraq - I'm going to Irbil, which is in the Kurdish territory of the northern part of the country, for a few days. From what I hear the city is quiet and not opposed to U.S. presence there, so it sounds like my kind of town. Hopefully I'll get some good photos and have some good stories to tell, aside from being able to get my work done of course.

The photo above I took in Kirkuk while I was waiting for my room to get opened sometime in the middle of the night. The nighttime sky out here is pretty incredible, and I couldnt resist the chance to get out the fisheye lens and get a shot of the sky.

My first daytime flight!

I flew back to Mosul this morning on a Blackhawk and experienced my first daytime flight here in the country. It wasnt the huge city shots that I'd hoped to get in Baghdad, but I'm equally satisfied with the landscapes that I was able to see and photograph. The only negative was that our door was closed on the Blackhawk, so theres quite a bit of reflection and distortion from the glass, but I'll live.

Now in Kirkuk

I made it into Kirkuk last night on my first ride on a CH-47 Chinook, which completes my checklist of military transport helicopters here in theater - Blackhawk, Chinook, and Pave Low. I'm hoping to get on an V-22 Osprey and C-17 Globemaster sometime before I leave to complete the full circuit of aircraft. I'll hopefully be leaving again in a few hours on to my next location on my Iraq Tour.

The photo above is a CH-47 Chinook, similar to the one I took from FOB Speicher (Tikrit) to Kirkuk.

Now in FOB Speicher

After a fun night of traveling and getting on the wrong helicopter I'm currently at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Speicher, a large and mostly empty base between Baghdad and Mosul. I've got about 10 people to train here before I board another helicopter tonight for my next destination.

After my two-hour Blackhawk flight through the desert last night, I came to a realization that I thought would not be possible. I was... bored... on my flight. Yep. Bored. Sitting on a helicopter and not seeing any cities below you gets old pretty quick. If I wasnt sitting in an awkward position with the barrel of a .50 caliber machine gun sitting in my lap I might have actually taken a nap. I really need to get some daytime flights in one of these days.

The photo above was taken at FOB Marez in Mosul -- the city of Mosul is in the distance on the hill and the vehicle in the foreground is an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) Vehicle, which was designed and rushed to production to provide additional protection to troops traveling through cities from IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices).

In Mosul

I got here to Mosul yesterday afternoon to conduct more training. I'm not going to get into my itinerary until after I've completed it, but I've got several more cities and bases on my trip before I get back. One day in and already the difficulties of traveling in the country have forced me to replan my trip because of some issues with scheduling movement. At least its not raining up here... Ive heard it becomes quite the mud pit when it does.

The photo above is another that I took at sunset earlier in the week.

Iraq has beautiful moments too

Last night I had a chance to spend 20 minutes outside while waiting to find out my flight time for today. I happened to be outside during sunset and also happened to have my camera on me, and I started snapping away. I'll be honest -- I'm a sucker for a nice sunset. Iraq has some of the nicest-looking sunsets I've seen in my life. I'm sure that has to do with a combination of the flat, open terrain of Baghdad along with all the dust suspended in the air that helps scatter the light. Either way, most evenings I'm wishing I had my camera on me around dusk, and last night I was fortunate enough to.

Giants looking good

I stayed up way later than I should have last night. The Giants played the Cowboys and the game didn't start until midnight here in Baghdad. I could've just went to sleep and watched the highlights in the morning, but I've come to realize that watching the Giants play every week is the closest thing to life back home as I'll get. I think that a lot of the guys here feel the same way, because I definitely see a lot of tired-looking folks walking around camp today. The Giants, by the way, beat the Cowboys and went to a 7-1 record and are looking good to have another spot in the playoffs this year.

The photo above is a UH-1 Huey flying over at Al Asad Marine Base from last week.

Regrouping in Baghdad

After several hours on standby at the airfield in Balad, I finally managed to catch a Blackhawk out and back here to my home base in Baghdad. It was a long 8 days away for sure... it rained most of the time I was away and Balad is extremely muddy, which contrasts sharply to Al Asad in the west, which is devoid of vegetation and is mostly covered in rocks.

After a few days to regroup with Brenden here I will be heading back out on the road for another week or so to do some more training. A few things about the traveling I've been doing in Iraq: I dont mind the traveling as much as I or others thought I would - its nice to have a change of scenery every few days and to meet new people; Its incredibly rewarding for me to be able to sit face-to-face with the people that will be using my system when it goes live in a few weeks and get their feedback about what we did right and what we missed... I've missed having that opportunity at some of my recent jobs, and lastly, it is way harder to travel in Iraq than I thought possible, despite what people have said. All of the legs of my travel were delayed by at least an hour, and because mission times and flight plans are classified I usually sit in the passenger terminal at the airfield not knowing when I'd be leaving or even how long my trip is. I know now that for future travel I need to bring several books in my bag to help me pass the time.