Checking in
There will be no further mention of the Packers loss to the Bears in this post....
It’s been a little while since my last post, but it’s not due to laziness. I’ve been very busy. Yesterday I was in charge of the Quick Reaction Force or QRF. It’s like the Squadron’s emergency reserve for when they need a lot of combat power within 15 minutes. So for 24 hours myself and about half my platoon played spades in the back of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Suffice to say, I won. We stay closer to the city on an Iraqi Army post so we can get to where we are needed quicker. There are two kids who live in a shack on the post that the Soldiers have nicknamed “Red” and “Blue.” They are about 12 or 13 and run a mini 7-11 out of the shack they live in. I’ll put some pictures of one of them (I can’t tell you who is who) grilling me a Lamb Kebob. Between their store and the dog fights that break out every 15 minutes between various strays, the time spent there was entertaining. We were activated twice but only had to go out once, nothing serious.
So what do you want to hear (or see) more about? I can post pictures of almost anything anyone is interested in seeing, to include me with my giant Iraqi mustache. I can write about how I spend my free time (when I get some) or I can try and relate some stories of the day. I suppose I can also include what I ate that day as well, just as my little gimmick.
Speaking of food…I eat at most one meal in the chow hall now, because I always buy something to eat at the local vendors near the check point (pics?). Today I bought half a kilo (1.1 lbs) of spicy pickles. The Iraqis told me what they called it, I think something like topturo. Anyways I shared those with the guys. Yesterday I had a Kebob made by Blue (or Red) and the day before I bought a quarter kilo each of seaseme cookies and coconut cookies. I shared those as well, but I easily could have eaten the whole pound myself. I usually also eat a falafel, which according to Wikipedia is “is a fried ball or patty made from spiced fava beans and/or chickpeas. It is a popular form of fast food in the Middle East, where it is also served as a mezze (snack or tapas).” They serve it here in a pita pread called “Samoon” and cover it with lettuce and tomatoes.
½ kilo of spiced Pickles = $1.50 (1,500 Iraqi Dinar)
½ kilo of assorted cookies = $2.00 I think (2,000 Iraqi Dinar)
1 Kebob made by price gouging monopolistic preteens = $1 (1,000 Iraqi Dinar)
1 Falafel = $.50 (500 Dinar)
So how’s that?
Lemme know more about what you’d like to know and I’ll do my past to write about it.
Adam
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
What "victory" might look like...
Good Vibes
OK, I guess I’ll go into a little bit of our current mission. My Platoon will mainly focus on running a Check Point (CP) into and out of a Sunni enclave within Baghdad. Yesterday I went out to inspect the entrance one. It was amazing. The people were very friendly and open with us. I’d estimate between 10-20 percent of them gave looks that told you they did not like American Soldiers there, but the rest would smile and greet us. There were kids EVERYWHERE! That is a great thing. Kids are the weapon of choice when appealing to people to help us. Everyone wants their kids to be safe and the Insurgents have shown they don’t care as much about them as the Americans do. One shopkeeper (whose daughter is in the picture I posted) begged me to keep his daughter safe. Commerce was bustling. Both Iraqis and American Soldiers were buying goods and food from the shops and pushcart vendors. Beyond our checkpoint the town was a frenzy of activity. It looked like a normal town. Dirtier than we’re used to, but by Arabic standards pretty clean…
I said my guys were “running” the CP. Not true. The CP was run by the Iraqi Army and the “Concerned Local Citizens (CLC),” who are basically a paid and armed neighborhood watch. They were working well together, despite the IA being mainly Shia and the CLC being totally Sunni. Very, very promising.
Many of my comrades insist it can quickly deteriorate back to how it was this summer, when this town was the most dangerous area in all of Iraq. I doubt it. It has now been the most peaceful town in Baghdad for three months, and once people know peace for their children, they will not support the Insurgency in their town again. Without popular support, the Insurgency is finished.
A little political, but that’s how optimistic I was after yesterday’s mission.
-Adam
OK, I guess I’ll go into a little bit of our current mission. My Platoon will mainly focus on running a Check Point (CP) into and out of a Sunni enclave within Baghdad. Yesterday I went out to inspect the entrance one. It was amazing. The people were very friendly and open with us. I’d estimate between 10-20 percent of them gave looks that told you they did not like American Soldiers there, but the rest would smile and greet us. There were kids EVERYWHERE! That is a great thing. Kids are the weapon of choice when appealing to people to help us. Everyone wants their kids to be safe and the Insurgents have shown they don’t care as much about them as the Americans do. One shopkeeper (whose daughter is in the picture I posted) begged me to keep his daughter safe. Commerce was bustling. Both Iraqis and American Soldiers were buying goods and food from the shops and pushcart vendors. Beyond our checkpoint the town was a frenzy of activity. It looked like a normal town. Dirtier than we’re used to, but by Arabic standards pretty clean…
I said my guys were “running” the CP. Not true. The CP was run by the Iraqi Army and the “Concerned Local Citizens (CLC),” who are basically a paid and armed neighborhood watch. They were working well together, despite the IA being mainly Shia and the CLC being totally Sunni. Very, very promising.
Many of my comrades insist it can quickly deteriorate back to how it was this summer, when this town was the most dangerous area in all of Iraq. I doubt it. It has now been the most peaceful town in Baghdad for three months, and once people know peace for their children, they will not support the Insurgency in their town again. Without popular support, the Insurgency is finished.
A little political, but that’s how optimistic I was after yesterday’s mission.
-Adam
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Home Front Developments (Not Good)
Colleges are the embodiment of the evils of Capitalism (which normally I like..)
So Kelli caught me on instant messenger last night with some new about me schooling. First some background for those of you not in the know. I was enlisted for the first seven years of my career. Once I got 90 credit hours I went to Officers Candidate School. In order to remain in the military you need to finish your degree before pinning on Captain (normally 36 months after commissioning.) In this current time of war, that is waiverable up to two years after promotion to Captain, AND the Army will give you 18 months of paid time off to finish your degree. The plan when I deployed was either return in July to start school in the fall of ’08, OR stay till December to start school in JAN ’09. The LATEST I can start school and finish in time would be JAN ’09. Well…before I left I applied to University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. I was accepted the day before I left. Kelli’s news was that they refused 32 semester hours of my transfer credit. This puts me in a bind. There are really two possibilities. The first is apply to a different school that will take all my credit (or remain with Maryland) and move (at government expense) to that location and finish my degree. Neither Kelli nor I want to move again so soon, and now that both my mom and brother Jeremy live near us in Colorado, that’s not an option. The other option is request a two year period to finish the degree or just bust my butt through summer school as well. In any case it has ramifications for my deployment. Before this, I had mixed feelings about when I’d want to come back. Adam Hoffman obviously wanted to come back in July to be with his family. 1LT Hoffmann didn’t want to “abandon” his guys over here and go home early. I arrived in Iraq halfway through last deployment, so I only did 7 months. If I only do 8 months now, that’s 15 months over a 27 month period, which is a lot, but the majority of the unit will have done 27 months over a 39 month period. I don’t know if anyone NOT in the military (to include my wife) can understand how that bothers me, but it does. With UCCS messing around with my transcripts, I really have no choice but to plead my case for going home in July. The nicest thing about being home in July is being able to be with Kelli for our 10th (wow) anniversary on the 18th. If I DON’T get to deploy home until the JAN ’09 semester, I will need work my butt off to finish in time.
I have been eating so much at lunch that I skip dinner. Our nightly meeting start at 2100 (9pm) and by the time they’re done and I fire off an email or two, it’s past midnight, so I sleep through breakfast. I then pig out at lunch…..so I skip dinner.
Today I had 6 hot wings, a ton of onion rings (both delicious), two V8s, a Gatorade, a bowl of this really good pasta/tuna salad, a bowl of vinegar soaked broccoli, and a massive scoop of cookies and cream ice cream topped with nuts and real cream.
I really need to go to the gym tomorrow, but instead I get to go check out what will soon be my sector. I will update as much as I feel comfortable talking about..."Loose lips sink ships."
Adam
So Kelli caught me on instant messenger last night with some new about me schooling. First some background for those of you not in the know. I was enlisted for the first seven years of my career. Once I got 90 credit hours I went to Officers Candidate School. In order to remain in the military you need to finish your degree before pinning on Captain (normally 36 months after commissioning.) In this current time of war, that is waiverable up to two years after promotion to Captain, AND the Army will give you 18 months of paid time off to finish your degree. The plan when I deployed was either return in July to start school in the fall of ’08, OR stay till December to start school in JAN ’09. The LATEST I can start school and finish in time would be JAN ’09. Well…before I left I applied to University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. I was accepted the day before I left. Kelli’s news was that they refused 32 semester hours of my transfer credit. This puts me in a bind. There are really two possibilities. The first is apply to a different school that will take all my credit (or remain with Maryland) and move (at government expense) to that location and finish my degree. Neither Kelli nor I want to move again so soon, and now that both my mom and brother Jeremy live near us in Colorado, that’s not an option. The other option is request a two year period to finish the degree or just bust my butt through summer school as well. In any case it has ramifications for my deployment. Before this, I had mixed feelings about when I’d want to come back. Adam Hoffman obviously wanted to come back in July to be with his family. 1LT Hoffmann didn’t want to “abandon” his guys over here and go home early. I arrived in Iraq halfway through last deployment, so I only did 7 months. If I only do 8 months now, that’s 15 months over a 27 month period, which is a lot, but the majority of the unit will have done 27 months over a 39 month period. I don’t know if anyone NOT in the military (to include my wife) can understand how that bothers me, but it does. With UCCS messing around with my transcripts, I really have no choice but to plead my case for going home in July. The nicest thing about being home in July is being able to be with Kelli for our 10th (wow) anniversary on the 18th. If I DON’T get to deploy home until the JAN ’09 semester, I will need work my butt off to finish in time.
I have been eating so much at lunch that I skip dinner. Our nightly meeting start at 2100 (9pm) and by the time they’re done and I fire off an email or two, it’s past midnight, so I sleep through breakfast. I then pig out at lunch…..so I skip dinner.
Today I had 6 hot wings, a ton of onion rings (both delicious), two V8s, a Gatorade, a bowl of this really good pasta/tuna salad, a bowl of vinegar soaked broccoli, and a massive scoop of cookies and cream ice cream topped with nuts and real cream.
I really need to go to the gym tomorrow, but instead I get to go check out what will soon be my sector. I will update as much as I feel comfortable talking about..."Loose lips sink ships."
Adam
Friday, December 21, 2007
Back in lovely Iraq
Welcome (Back)!!!
Well, I am on Day 3 in Baghdad and things are looking pretty good. Violence has dropped to unprecedented lows in the past 6 months, but even better than that…I have wireless internet in my room!!
HI! My name is 1LT Adam Hoffmann. I am a Platoon Leader in 4-10 CAV, Apache Troop. This is my second deployment to Iraq, and I regretted not keeping up my journal the first time, so I decided to try and publish an online one. This way I actually have to write LESS, since I don’t need to write letters anymore.
It’s tough for me to decide what to write since I have no clue who this is for... Is it for me? Or you? Who exactly are “you” anyway? Are you a 4th grade class? Or maybe my Family? The way I see it, I should keep this as non-political as possible and just focus on how my life is going.
I can’t fill you in on my daily routine, since I don’t really have one yet. We will be taking over Battlespace from another unit soon, but we haven’t been allowed to ride along with them yet. I’ll instead fill you in on my home, starting with the big and ending with the small. I am currently stationed on Camp Liberty, which is in Baghdad. Camp Liberty is actually one piece of what I call a “MegaBase.” Attached to Liberty is Camp Victory (Huge) and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) (HUGER). Victory has a PX the size of a small Walmart as well as *ahem* SIX (6) stocked fishing ponds for Soldiers to use. You can buy a rod, lures, and a bait from the PX, go to Bass Pond, catch a Bass, then grill it up on your very own charcoal grill (available at the PX), downing it with your favorite Non-Alcoholic beer. Me personally, I like Bitburger Drive, but Coors Non-Alcoholic is also popular. So there is lots to do on the bases. The food in the chow hall is amazing. I have the option every day of getting made to order stir fry, hot wings, made to order sandwiches, curry (chicken, beef, vegetable, or mixed), whatever the main line has that meal, assorted pastries, Ice Cream, full Salad Bar, etc… Most guys gain 15 lbs while deployed.
My room is about 10x15 foot section of a trailer. I currently share it with 1LT Jared Graham, the other Platoon Leader in Apache Troop, but in a week or so we will have our own. My trailer comes cable ready for AFN, which is the Armed Forces Network. AFN has 8 channels and tons of sports and news, so I may get a TV or run the cable right into my laptop once I have my own room and some more space.
I’ll try and attach a few photos, but truth be told the internet connection is a bit slow. I’m unsure how to even post this online, but if you’re reading this, I guess I figured it out…
More later,
Adam
Well, I am on Day 3 in Baghdad and things are looking pretty good. Violence has dropped to unprecedented lows in the past 6 months, but even better than that…I have wireless internet in my room!!
HI! My name is 1LT Adam Hoffmann. I am a Platoon Leader in 4-10 CAV, Apache Troop. This is my second deployment to Iraq, and I regretted not keeping up my journal the first time, so I decided to try and publish an online one. This way I actually have to write LESS, since I don’t need to write letters anymore.
It’s tough for me to decide what to write since I have no clue who this is for... Is it for me? Or you? Who exactly are “you” anyway? Are you a 4th grade class? Or maybe my Family? The way I see it, I should keep this as non-political as possible and just focus on how my life is going.
I can’t fill you in on my daily routine, since I don’t really have one yet. We will be taking over Battlespace from another unit soon, but we haven’t been allowed to ride along with them yet. I’ll instead fill you in on my home, starting with the big and ending with the small. I am currently stationed on Camp Liberty, which is in Baghdad. Camp Liberty is actually one piece of what I call a “MegaBase.” Attached to Liberty is Camp Victory (Huge) and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) (HUGER). Victory has a PX the size of a small Walmart as well as *ahem* SIX (6) stocked fishing ponds for Soldiers to use. You can buy a rod, lures, and a bait from the PX, go to Bass Pond, catch a Bass, then grill it up on your very own charcoal grill (available at the PX), downing it with your favorite Non-Alcoholic beer. Me personally, I like Bitburger Drive, but Coors Non-Alcoholic is also popular. So there is lots to do on the bases. The food in the chow hall is amazing. I have the option every day of getting made to order stir fry, hot wings, made to order sandwiches, curry (chicken, beef, vegetable, or mixed), whatever the main line has that meal, assorted pastries, Ice Cream, full Salad Bar, etc… Most guys gain 15 lbs while deployed.
My room is about 10x15 foot section of a trailer. I currently share it with 1LT Jared Graham, the other Platoon Leader in Apache Troop, but in a week or so we will have our own. My trailer comes cable ready for AFN, which is the Armed Forces Network. AFN has 8 channels and tons of sports and news, so I may get a TV or run the cable right into my laptop once I have my own room and some more space.
I’ll try and attach a few photos, but truth be told the internet connection is a bit slow. I’m unsure how to even post this online, but if you’re reading this, I guess I figured it out…
More later,
Adam
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