Austrailian's Rock!

Let me just say that if I ever get the chance to go to war with an Australian unit, you probably wouldn't even have to pay me! I got to work today and found out that we had been invited to a BBQ being held by the Australians on their camp. Cool I thought, but man I had no idea.
Before I get into the the Australians I need to explain a few things about being over here. I am extremely lucky to have the job I have. Working with all the different nations provides me a lot of unique opportunities most soldiers don't get. For example, this BBQ was held on another camp, so we had to travel. Even here in Kuwait that is a big deal. We are not so worried about IED's like up north, but you still don't just go driving off into Kuwait. In fact a fair number of soldiers on this camp will not leave it, except to go on R&R or if it is a sponsored trip to a cultural event.

We went through all the steps to get permission to go, got our weapons and ammo and off we went. The great thing about my job is I get to go off base a lot. We need to deal with our coalition partners that are spread all over Kuwait, so getting permission to go wasn't tuff. We get up to where the Aussie's are and pull into their camp, Billabong Flats they call it. Man it was cool! They have a little grassy area where they flew their flag, real nice patio type setup, a real decent place to be. Do you know how odd it is to see grass here? We go walking up and turn the corner and we see a real live BBQ happening. Music, food, people all chillin out. Check out the pic. It's a real BBQ, minus the alcohol.

They did have a bar, complete with pool table and all. Non Alcoholic beer, Beck's actually, it was 50 cents a bottle! We had burgers, streaks, all the fixin's. Man those Australians know how to fight a war! Me being me I mingled around. We had a pretty good time but didn't stay long. We had a mission to go check on over on the other side of the camp so we headed out after about 2 hours.

As if having a BBQ after being in a war zone for a few days was not weird enough, I ran into my former Battalion Commander's daughter! Yeah really crazy. I was eating with my two Sergeants and talking to some Korean Air Force guys when this soldier walks by. I saw her name tag and it was my BC's last name, not a common name. I knew it had to be her because she looks just like my BC's wife. Just before I left he told me to keep an eye out for her if I got up to this camp. So I got up and went up and asked her, sure enough it was her! She was like, " Oh yeah he told me one of his commander's was coming here!" We were both like "weird". Anyhow I snapped the pic to send to her mom and dad. She asked me not to tell them she was hanging around a bunch of Australian guy's. Hope they don't read this ;)