I appologize for keeping you all waiting so long for the next installment. I know my loyal fans are left yearning for my words, like the desert yearns for water! ha ha ha :)
Yeah, no doubt. Actually I have been pretty busy. My boss took a trip to Baghdad. Yep, that's business travel for us. Funny, but that is how it's approached. Of course there is no way to pack lightly when your body armor alone weights over 60 pounds! I suppose it's not an issue, since we wear it as opposed to pack it. While he was gone I was in charge, which is good. I'd much rather be in charge. Being in charge however is challenging. It is more so when you are just filling in. Filling in or not, I am expected to know everything the Branch Chief knows although, as the General pointed out, I don't!
As soon as my boss got back I got tagged with escorting a Distinguished Visitor (DV). Man, seriously I thought. This sucks, I got shit to do. This DV was an undersecretary, nobody you all would probably know, but I still don't want to blab the name. Even though the DV is an undersecretary and not somebody who is well known the position equates to 4 star General status! Dude, doesn't get much higher. Pretty cool DV though. Real low maintenance. Brought along another government civilian and a military aide, the aide outranked me too! All three were pretty cool.
So in the past few days I got to see a 5 star hotel in Kuwait City, the US Embassy, and the best part Camp Bucca. The hotel was amazing, it is an international chain, don't wanna toss the name out there. Trust me though, very cool. I did not get to go out to eat in town or go to the civilian side of the airport and go shopping or go to the mall. All things you might get to do if you are an escort. Basically as an escort you simply get the DV from place to place. Sometimes they want to go downtown, so you get to take them. My DV was pretty focused, so there wasn't any going downtown. I know that judicious use of the taxpayers dollars for travel will be appreciated by my Dad. Rest easy Pop, this guy was here to do his job and did not waste your money on lavish fripperies! There was however a trip to Camp Bucca. So now I can say I have been to Iraq. Never mind you can see the Kuwait/Iraq border from Bucca, I was standing in Iraq by God! Oh yeah, did I mention I got to go by Helicopter? No matter how many times I ride in them it's still fun :)
I am truly grateful I got the opportunity to escort this DV because I got the same briefing and tour he got at Bucca. I did not however get any pictures :( Mostly for security reasons. Bucca is a whole other blog entry and I'll post it in a few days. If you are really interested I suggest you Google it. Bucca is one of the camps we hold detainees at, and yes I saw them. In fact at times there was nothing but chain link fence and about 12 inches of air between a couple hundred of them and me.
I'll give as much detail as I can in my next blog, but I will leave you with this. I looked several of these men dead in the eye from a foot away. I saw many things in those eyes: anger, frustration, fear, rage, and yes, unfortunately even innocence. I realize that statistically speaking a few dozen men is not a representative sample. I am not some sort of mystic that can know a mans true heart by one glance. But I also know I recognize bitter hatred when I see it. If nothing else I know when I see burning, driving, unrelenting passion. This fight will never be over. They will never stop.
1 comment:
I have a son serving at Camp Bucca. It's amazing how closely what he's told me about the detainees matches what you've said.
There are stories he's told me that are very scary and many more that he said he won't tell me until he gets home. I think you're right, some of those people will never change.
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