Hair Cutting Adventures

So there is an Iraqi guy that comes on the FOB for a few days a week and cuts hair. He charges $5 each for these haircuts. Well the other day I was going through the boxes of soldiers past when I came across some old clippers. I went to the bathroom and did a great job on my sides, but since I don't have eyes in the back of my head I didn't do at all well on the back. So I had Tapp, one of my guys, try to fix it. It turned out all right. In turn I cut his hair for the first haircut I have ever done in my life. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Here is the wonderful job that I did on the back of my head.

Here is what Tapp did to fix it. Not great but better than it was. (no that is not a mole it is a chunk of hair)

Here is the wonderful job that I did on Tapp's hair. I guess it is not bad for my first time.

I cannot wait to be home were my beautiful wife will be there to give me haircuts again. I guess that Tapp will have to do in the mean time.

Shooting the Rifles

Playing sniper is always fun. We shoot here several times a week and this is always my favorite. I welded a bunch of steel plates together for targets and we put them out on a hill ranging from 600 meters to a 1,000 meters. We then shoot from a position in the middle of our FOB. The picture below will illustrate this.

If you look out over my rifle you see three large trucks and a tower to the right of them. Out further from the tower you will see the shadowing from the hill that we put the targets on. So we are, very controlled, shooting over the FOB out into the desert. It is a lot of fun.

This rifle here is a MK13 300 Winchester Magnum. It shoots a 7.62mm (308) 190 grain bullet. It has a Remington 700 bolt action with a Nightforce 5.5x22x56 mildot scope. With the collapsible stock. It is a sweet rifle to shoot. When the bullet hits the steel target it makes a wonderful thud sound.

This rifle is the SR25 EM Rifle. Shooting a 7.62mm 175 grain bullet. It is semi-automatic gas operated. It has a Leupold MK-IV M3 10x mil dot scope. It is also a fun one to shoot.

These are just some random pictures that I took from the tower. This is facing west from our location toward the city of Najaf, Iraq. In the left of the picture is a large power plant.

This picture is facing the east of our location. The plant that you see there is a cement plant. As you can see there is not much out here but flat and sand. It is a very small base that we are on. Sometimes it feels like a prison that we are in; the difference is that we do the security for our own prison. Now that sounds funny.

Bye.

Good Times

I get to meet a wide variety of people here. It is always fun to see how different people are and how different the cultures are. Needless to say that are not sure how to take me (as is the same with most of the people that know me anyway). Most of the Iraqis love us here and they want to be like us. The try to do what we do and wear what we wear. They always say, "I love America, America good." Of coarse so hate us and I hope to never meet those ones.

Here is one of my interpretors (terps) try to fix a radio. I don't think he knew what the heck he was doing but it was fun to watch him try. He is a great guy. It is so funning to tease him because he does not understand sarcasm at all so he gets confused easy.

Now this guy. He is the "American Lover." He dresses up in anything American, mostly uniforms. We call him Rambo because he usually wears a bandanna, either a green one or here has a American Flag one also. It is so fun to talk to him. He will also do anything you say. When the Iraqi Army guys come around we tell him to give them kidney shots and he does it every time. What can I say simple humor for simple people. The IA guys don't find it funny but oh well. They are good humored about it. We do it because it is funny that if we told Rambo to jump off a cliff he would probably do it.

Bye.

A Workout Like None Other

My team and I participated in a physical training event today with some "elite" people. It was very difficult but very fun. It is not like the normal Army PT Test it was something a little more. This is what it consisted of:
2 mile run
21 95# cleen and press
10 Body weight flat bench (200# for me)
2000 meter row (on a row machine)
21 reverse grip pullups
21 dips
Incline run 12% grade @ 8.0 mph (20 sec on and 10 sec rest for 4 minutes) this one was horrible
10 vertile handstand pushups
10 Body weight dead lifts (200# for me)
95# tire flip (end over end) for 35 meters

It was crazy. I finished at around the average time of 52 minutes 4 seconds. I have never sweet so much in my life. At one point my heart rate was at 172 bpm for over 5 minutes. This a none stop event and break times is counted in the total time. It was fun, I cannot wait to do it again.

Iraqi Food and Other Activities

Well the new year is here and life is the same. We have been busy with building projects among other things. We were invited to lunch with the Iraqi Army for New Years Day. It was OK. They just have a different taste for things. They stacked the food on us and I didn't have the gut to finish it all. The bread is the best part of the meal.


Here is the food that we received. It looks worse than it tastes. Nicole could never do this as picky as she is about food.

Tapp and I enjoying the food. Tapp was already sick when we sat down; so he was not enjoying anything except for the bread.

This is Chris and I, Chris is my interpretor. We work together a lot. Chris is not his real name. I started calling him Chris because I could say his real name when I first got here. So I started calling him this and it stuck. He hates the name but oh well.

The team that I work with found out that I knew how to weld so they got me a welder and have been having me weld a bunch of things that needed repair. It has been fun. We have also been doing a lot of carpentry work and electrical work around the FOB. It is a nice break from the others things that I have going on.

Well I hope that all reading this had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. All is going well here. Take care, Warren