Oerdin's Iraq thread. - Page 4

Oerdin · February 25, 2004, 05:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Theben

You mean awesome? Not to nitpick but if you're in charge of civilian propaganda you better be able to spell.

p.s. Sorry about your comrades-in-arms. Hope it's the worst you go through.

As I stated earilier I am writing on a public computer and do not have time to spell check everything. Especially since it doesn't have MS Word installed.

Agathon · February 25, 2004, 05:08

Have you bought a Saddam Hussein watch yet?

Oerdin · February 25, 2004, 05:09

Nope, nor have I seen one of sale either.

Agathon · February 25, 2004, 05:12

Shame - Tucker Carlson had one. They are kind of neat.

Oerdin · February 25, 2004, 05:40

I do see lots of Iraqis trying to sell the worthless old money with Saddam's face on it to G.I.s. So idiots even pay $5 for a worthless piece of paper.

Still, I think I'll pick up one on the sly as a momento.

East Street Trader · February 25, 2004, 06:44

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Oerdin. Your posts convey so much more than anything to be found in media stories or the like.

I don't suppose improving the drains and sewers would dispel all the hate but I hope some time is found for such things. Small improvements to infrastructure would be a poor return for people dying and losing their hearing and so on but it would be some little positive thing.

The UK managed to shed its empire with a measure of grace in the end, and subsequently to enjoy surprisingly warm relations with peoples whose countries had formerly been occupied. I think that is mostly to do with according people respect but it might also have something to do with the liking which the British have for improving the odd road or sewer if they come across existing ones that don't work so well.

Sikander · February 25, 2004, 07:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
The only other news is that we've adopted a stray dog which looks to be no more then a few months old. We've named him Roscoe and he's a little brown and white mutt who seems very eager to please and he's willing to eat just about everything in sight. One of the guys in the unit feed Roscoe a bunch of people food yesterday so the dog spent most of today with the runs.

I'm going to look into buying some bog food from Petco.com and see if that doesn't agree with his system a bit more. Hopefully, once he's feeling better I will be able to train him to follow simple commands in English such as "sit", "lay down", "come here", etc...

My dog was instrumental in helping me rid my grandfather's ranch of a pack of coyotes one summer. He would come and wake me when they got near and lead me right to them. I'm really enjoying the Blog, so please keep writing. My thoughts are with you daily.

Chemical Ollie · February 25, 2004, 07:36

When using MS Paint for picture editing, make sure to save them as .jpg, not .bmp. Apolyton does not show bmp directly on the screen, they have to be downloaded.

Proteus_MST · February 25, 2004, 09:18

Great Blog, Oerdin

Theben · February 25, 2004, 11:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
When using MS Paint for picture editing, make sure to save them as .jpg, not .bmp. Apolyton does not show bmp directly on the screen, they have to be downloaded.

Yeah, could you change that to a jpeg? I apparently can't download your file, thanks to Poly's latest ad scheme...

Mercator · February 25, 2004, 12:10

Here ya go...

Theben · February 25, 2004, 12:43

thx

p.s. ouch!!

Oerdin · February 27, 2004, 05:33

It appears there is justice in this world after all though sometimes you need to be patient to see it work. Over the last three days there has been a big hub-bub over the 1st Infantry Division was going to make my Psyop company move to a different palace or not. Naturally, none of us wanted to move especially since our current palace is centrally located in the middle of the base with easy access to both MWR and the dinning facility, however, our neighborhood has become fashionable with the upper brass and a pecking order has developed to determine who gets to stay in the most desirable palaces.

The area around Saddam's old palace is the furthest point from the outer walls you can get on base and that means it is the most protected from mortor and sniper attacks. The 1st ID's upper brass seems to be very aware of the areas relative safety and so they are reserving it all for themselves and are forcing the current residents to pack up and find new homes. Just yesterday we got the final conformation that we'd be moving into a much smaller guest house located on the banks of the Tigris river (the side of the base with no protective wall which is a mixed blessing because the river separates us from the locals & car bombs, unlike on the base's other three sides, but there is no defensive wall).

So the upper brass forces lower ranking people into worse defensive positions and reserves the best locations for themselves. Where is the justice you ask? The just comes from the fact that our old palace seems to have suffered a catastrophic sewer leak. The wall of the septic tank ruptured yesterday and a virtual 3 inch deep river of **** flowed up into the house. To top it off the water main seems to be leaking too and the only way to fix it is to cut up the foundation of the house to get to the pipes.

These jerk off officers want the house that badly then they are welcome to it! Now, that's what I call justice.

Dis · February 27, 2004, 05:35

upper brass is always full of sh!t. I suspect that is the cause.

East Street Trader · February 27, 2004, 06:12

Sounds like you guys moved out just in time.

From what you see of the locals, does it seem that they are settling down a bit - getting buildings repaired and going to work and so on? Or are things pretty chaotic?

Theben · February 27, 2004, 06:16

Serves 'em right.

Oerdin · February 27, 2004, 07:48

Quote:

Originally posted by East Street Trader
Sounds like you guys moved out just in time.

From what you see of the locals, does it seem that they are settling down a bit - getting buildings repaired and going to work and so on? Or are things pretty chaotic?

Actually, we don't move out until this weekend so it was our stuff that got covered in muck. Luckily, I keep my stuff on a spare shelf so it wasn't effects.

Some of the others weren't so lucky.

Most of the people seem pretty calm but they would prefer to be running their own country. We've been seeing an aweful lot of military aged males from Saudi Arabia & Syria who have been arrested in recent raids so I suspect many of the terror attacks you read about in the newspapers are the acts of foreign terror organizations. Yesterday we went to a village outside of Tikrit to pretest a few handbills before we distribute them and the people were very friendly. The children ran up saying "Hello" and "Give me candy" while the adults invited us in for tea.

There are several towns where a family could be killed for daring to invite in the "crusaders" but they seem to be the minority.

pchang · February 27, 2004, 10:23

So, your Arabic must be pretty good, eh?

Feen al hamaam? and all that

Oerdin · February 27, 2004, 12:22

Sadly my Arabic currently consistes of Hello, good bye, thanks, yes, no, come here, go away, and "stop or I'll shoot".

pchang · February 27, 2004, 12:35

If you don't know the language (or culture) then how can you possibly make effective propaganda handbills and such?

BTW - Feen al hamaam is the Egyptian dialect for "Where is the bathroom?" - seeing as how you were having sewage problems and all (thought it would be funny inside arabic humor...)

pchang · February 27, 2004, 12:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
Sadly my Arabic currently consistes of Hello, good bye, thanks, yes, no, come here, go away, and "stop or I'll shoot".

Never did learn "stop or I'll shoot". Must be what happens when you pick up arabic during peace time.

Chemical Ollie · February 27, 2004, 18:08

You should listen to Ollie's advice! I will allways be older and smarter than you

. Didn't I tell you to walk over to the ruins of the Palace main building to take a dump? Now you are paying the consequenses of neglecting me, by wading in smelly water up to your ancles. The whole platoon should set up a dry toilet in Saddam's former work room. Water toilets are only good if the sewer system works.

End of joking, does the movement to the edge of the base mean they are putting you on perimeter defence sentry duty?

Sirotnikov · February 28, 2004, 21:46

pchang - I think that ought to be - Fee Ein Al Hamaam (In where (is) the bathroom).

Oerdin - I'm very interested in the issue of ordinary Iraqis and how they treat you. You are stationed in Tikrit, right? Theoretically it should be a Saddam stronghold, no?

Also, what percentage of the terrorists were foreign? Do you know of any groups they belong to?

PLATO · February 28, 2004, 22:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Oerdin - I'm very interested in the issue of ordinary Iraqis and how they treat you. You are stationed in Tikrit, right? Theoretically it should be a Saddam stronghold, no?

Also, what percentage of the terrorists were foreign? Do you know of any groups they belong to?

Israeli intelligence gathering at work

Oerdin · February 29, 2004, 03:46

Quote:

Originally posted by pchang
If you don't know the language (or culture) then how can you possibly make effective propaganda handbills and such?

We've all had numerous classes on Arabic culture plus I've read nearly a dozen books on Middle eastern history, Arabic and Kurdish history, Islamic history, IRaqi history, Arav culture, etc...

We have both US citizens and locals who work as translators for us and they go every where we go so communication isn't a problem. Also every product we put out goes through an extensive pre-testing process to insure its message is clear, that its culturally sensative, and that it won't offend the target audience.

Oerdin · February 29, 2004, 03:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
End of joking, does the movement to the edge of the base mean they are putting you on perimeter defence sentry duty?

We're currently trying to work that out. Hopefully, we will be exempted and won't have to pull guard duty but you never know. Psyop is a small but highly valuable asset so that means most commandering Generals will want you spending all of your available time doing your job and not menial tasks like watching gates.

He has lots of infantry men who can do that job.

Oerdin · February 29, 2004, 04:05

Well we've made all of the showers and toilets off limits and we've pumped out the septic tank but water keeps coming up through the floors (abet at a much slower flow rate). It's most definitely sewer water so the place stinks like hell.

I spent most of yesterday moving things over to our new palace located on the banks of the Tigris river. The house has three bedrooms (much smaller rooms then the four bedrooms we currently have), four bathroom (same size), a living room (half the size of our current one), a kitchen (mysteriously twice the size of our current kitchen), and a very odd four story tall tower. The tower has a fire place at the top and enough room to turn it into a spare bedroom. I suspect the officers are going to move into the tower and that we'll set up a emergency machine gun nest there as well.

The yard is much larger then our current house's plus it's terraced to keep back the periodic floods of the Tigris. We're setting up a concertina wire (razor wire) fence to keep our dogs (we've picked up another one) in the yard plus the eight foot high terraces should keep the coyotes out so we might be able to turn the chickens loose in the yard. I imagine free range chickens will be happier and taste better when the time comes.

Since there is only three rooms in the new house we're setting up two large tents in the yard to house the extra people plus I want to set up a third tent on the roof as my own personal living space. The stairs up to the tower have a door which provides roof access and the flat roof tops make an near ideal spot to set up a tent. I think I can run several power cords out to the tent and we have a spare heater/air conditioning unit so it should be fairly pleasant.

Now, all I have to do is get the C.O. to agree to it

Donegeal · February 29, 2004, 04:12

I am due to ETS on March 4th. Unfortuantely, I just heard a rumor from a Major that my unit may get put on a stop-loss.

The possibility of a second blog is still open.

Oerdin · February 29, 2004, 04:18

Stop lose has now been pushed down to a unit level instead of keeping it on a branch level. Also all Army Reserve units which are on mobolization warning orders are automatically placed upon stop loss to prevent soldiers weasaling out of a deployment.

What's your MOS? Army Times just published a list of MOSes which are likely to be stop losed.

Donegeal · February 29, 2004, 04:34

63S/92A

I'm in a Guard unit connected to the 32nd Red Arrow Division. My actual unit is the 132nd FSB. I am going to turn in all my TA50 on Monday.

The Major I talked to said that the stop-loss was going to be announced at drill this weekend. That would be March 5th, the day after my ETS. However, the way the Major was talking, the stop-loss is already in place, its just not being announced until drill weekend.