Taking Over

Out with the old and in with the new. The outgoing team seems really eager to leave. Quite hard to find them most of the time.

The past two days have been filled with what we call "battlefield circulation," basically familiarizing ourselves with the area that we are taking over and that our IA counterparts are responsible for. On that note, I spent the day driving the new MRAP, only 1088 miles on that puppy. I am a fan of it and prefer it to the up armored, 1151 Humvee.

We did meet our IA counterparts, and initially it's a little alarming. They are very accommodating despite the little that they have. The biggest challenge that they face is their logistical system, which works very poorly. So we are basically not to give them anything, even though we wish to give them tokens of good will and such. The goal for us is to turn over every thing to the IA... Not to do things for them or to supply them, but to advice them how to do things and force them to rectify their own supply system. If things go as planned, we will be the people out going...

There are ruins on our route past COP Meade that LTC Kundel, the outgoing Team Chief says are from the Greeks. I intend to do some research and post some pictures later.

We are thinking of names for our trucks. The outgoing teams name, or callsign is "Warpig." So they named their trucks "hog 1" thru 3. We are trying to come up with names for our trucks, based on our call sign theme, "jedi." "Deathstar" is the best we can come up with now, but doesn't seem to fit. "Wookie" comes close, but "mount up the wookies" sounds obscene. "Millenium Falcon," nah. "Ty fighter"... nah. Any suggestions?

Posting new pictures on the picasa thingy, I believe if you click on the album they will open up.

Hold down the home front for us.

New Stuff

Okay,

I want to let everyone know that Captain Wentworth will soon be promoted to Major, Congratulations Sir! There is a man to emulate. If I ever get out of my seat, part of the thanks will be to the example he sets and the motivation he provides. Honestly though, I owe the majority of thanks for all that I do to my wonderful wife.

There is going to be a blog war soon. Captain Connaroe has declared war on me for the photo I posted of him. Keep in mind, what I post is in jest only, nothing personal. More to follow.

Also, I added a photo album, to the right. Click on them to view the captions. They are of our fleet and living conditions.

Hold down the home front for us...

FOB Falcon

Welcome to FOB Falcon!

I must say, we were greeted with much enthusiasm here. I'm sure we will be as receptive as the outgoing MiTT was when we leave. They were very eager to get us loaded up, but I thought they were going to try to jump on the Chinook out.

The Chinook ride over here was uneventful, if you consider testing flares a boring thing. I don't know how anyone could fall asleep on a Chinook. After loading all of our bags (11 people, about 66 heavy bags) under the exhaust and prop blast of the Chinook we were all quite wore out. Unloading was nearly as exhausting, but more rewarding once the Chinook was gone.

Our departing team really took care of us. Outgoing commo created a little fuss for me because he loaded my room with amenities that made the rest of the team envious. The next day was full of comments about stealing my room. I'm sure none of the fellow team members would attempt to take advantage of their rank over me. I guess us commo's stick together.

The dfac here is one of the best yet. We are really taken care of in that department. The living quarters aren't too bad, yet we share billets with the Ugandi's who pull security here, and with the Indian's and few Pakistanis who operate the exchange and dfac. I have yet to see someone washing their feet in a sink yet, but hear it is common.

The transition is going smoothly, and the area has been quite tame lately. So tame in fact that the SGM of the resident unit in charge here, I'll exclude his name, has nothing better to do than worry about what people are wearing and whether they are wearing eye protection from building to building.

That's about it for now. Hold down the home front.

Mailing Address

This is the updated address, which we should be at for a few months... hopefully.

SSG MURRELL, GREGORY
MiTT 5-4-6
Unit 0645
APO AE 09361

UPDATE:

MiTT 55-17
UNIT 0645
APO AE 09361

The top one still will works, however the IA BDE we are supporting is 55/17th. Thanks

Personally, I love peanut butter and oatmeal raisin cookies. Okay, I'm easy. I like all cookies. Keep in mind, homemade stuff usually doesn't make it in it's intended form, even though the heart is in the right place. But I'm not gonna complain if they are homemade. As far as the rest of the guys, we are a pretty diverse crowd, so things won't go to waste.
Good paperbacks are welcome, and magazines. I like historical fiction, mens health, NG, Popular Science and Mechanics.

Thanks for your support. I hope you all enjoy the site. If anyone has any recommendations, please feel free.

Iraqi Dinner, photos, and news

I finally have another chance to add some more photos. Right after posting last night we had a dinner made in the traditional Iraqi style. It was quite good. One of my favorite dishes is curry, which the Iraqis make quite well. There was also a sort of kabob of beef and lamb, rice and a salad mix. Iraqis also drink lots of tea, or chai, and joke that they like chai with thier sugar. Also, if you ever get invited to dinner at an Iraqis home, don't plan on using silverware.

Enjoy the pictures.

Top, from the left is Ra-ed, our language and cultural instructor, Major Mohammad, Captain Wentworth, and myself. The second is Major Brott with two IA Captains. Then there is the picture of myself and Captain Connaroe, goofing off as usual, I'll refrain from any kind of meat jokes. In line from the left in the next photo is Major Brott, SFC Montes, 1lt Alaniz, Cpt Dresh, and SFC Connaughton. Then the last photo is SFC Parker the NCOIC, and Major Brott passing time in one of our not so briefs...

Good news on our front. I don't know if I have mentioned the Sons of Iraq (SOI) yet. They are basically young men and teenagers who would otherwise be up to no good. These guys put on road guard vests, pick up their AK-47's, and patrol their neighborhoods. They have become an invaluable asset to the security situation. Who knows better when something is out of place than the residents themselves?

We, the US, have been paying the SOI for quite some time, and we have since decided to stop paying them in the future out of our pocket. The concern for not paying them anymore weighed heavily on our minds. We are actually talking about thousands of young, military age men who would not be getting money, and have to find other means of making money. The good news is that the GOI (government of Iraq) has decided to flip the bill, or otherwise find employment for them, whether it be with the Iraqi Police, National Police, military, or a form of technical training.

I Added another link from Captain Wentworth's blog, he was copying off me, jk... his has a photo album that you can click on to view photos. I'll copy off him and add an album to mine soon, but uploading photos from here can often be quite time consuming... remember 10 kbps dial up? Not that bad, but close.

Leaving Phoenix Academy

Welcome Back,

The past week has been a blur of briefings and presentations. It has actually been quite redundant and actually a little bit lame. Yes, there were some important things that we learned, or relearned like some of the radio systems and Blue Force Tracker (BFT). Some will disagree. Over all I think there needs to be some link up with the training at Fort Riley to keep from wasting so much time.

From here Team Jedi will head to FOB Falcon. Likely another joyous Chinook ride. At least this time it will just be our team instead of 19 other people crammed in the back. There remains the possibility that we will get a pair of Blackhawks instead... Guess which I would prefer. We will do our RIP/TOA with the outgoing MiTT for about ten days (ok, another acronym... lets see if I get this one right: Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority). The transition between the two teams will consist of property book stuff, lots and lots of inventory. I think the thing we are looking forward to is a place to stay for more than a few days or weeks, and our Max Pro's... our MRAP's. See the link on MRAP's.

I did mention a place to stay for more than a few days or weeks, that is until we move with our new IA brigade where we will as of now get to live in conex boxes. That will be the low in our quality of life declining, unless we find ourselves living out of our MRAP's. So far we will get to have our own rooms, with two exceptions of those who don't mind a battle buddy living with them since we only get 9 rooms, but have 11 people. Any quality of life questions? Anyone want to see pictures?

Last night we got to go on a PX, or post exchange run. This is an opportunity to resupply our day to day items and get electronics and such. They were wrong, it is not a good PX. But they did have pt shorts.

Well, I realized I haven't posted any pictures of a few people on the team, so look for them in a few days. Also, we all on the team love care packages and mail, so I think I might post our address, what do you think?

Thanks for checking in!

Sergeant Major of the Iraqi Army

Today we had the opportunity to meet and talk with the Sergeant Major of the Iraq Army. Those of you who are familiar with the military know that it is interesting to meet the top enlisted person of any branch. From what I could gather, this guy is squared away. If we can get all of their military up and running, and proficient like this guy then we won't be here long.

Hello from Phoenix Academy, Iraq, Team Jedi salutes you...

Hello all and thanks for checking in.

Not much going on here at Camp Phoenix, unless you consider "death by PowerPoint" a happening thing. Much of what goes on here is classified, if I told you I would have to kill you. Just kidding. Many of us have a hard time staying awake, but notably its not any of us NCO's...

Anyway, I wanted to share something interesting I learned today. Anything I post, by the way, is disputable, and I welcome any corrections to what I post. Many Arabic people consider having lots of children a sign of wealth, much as we Americans might consider our daughters precious. Having said that, many Arabs names reflect their lineage. For example, my name would be Gregory Bernard Samuel Murrell, reflecting my first name, father and grandfather. Sadaam wanted to be different so he cut off the last name, keeping it short.

I lost my notebook today, so my notes may not be accurate. I know where it is, (not so lost huh) and will edit my post with my notes later...

Iraqis like nicknames apparently. My nickname would be "Abu Spencer," indicating I am the "father of Spencer." I found out later that I can use my oldest child for my nickname, even though it is preffered for a son, if there is a large enough age gap. So I decided that 3 1/2 years is a large enough gap and changed my nickname to "Abu Shelby." After reading this paragraph, I realized that I might need to elaborate more. Shelby is my daughter, who is older than my son. Typical of some Arab countries, sons are desired over daughters.

I invite those of you who are willing to do some homework for me, since I know the premise of the subject... The subject is United Nations Security Council Resolution, December 31, 2008. UNSCR, as it is called here, indicates the end of our right here to detain people. After that there is a need for a warrant and evidence when we detain people here in Iraq. Part of that involves the people that we already have detained... from the estimates I've heard, around 16 to 19 thousand people. This spills over to the amnesty issue of letting people free if they were involved in a non-deadly incident.

There will be more on that subject.

Ok, I'm gonna close this with a fun statistic. For you ford fans, we saw a photo today showing the number of deadlined non tactical pickups in a storage lot (deadlined means that it is basically broke down). The picture showed many pickups, there were 58 Ford Super Duties, and 3, yes 3, Chevrolet's deadlined.

Update, 18/08/08

Top, SSG Murrell & Cpt Kelley, C130, taking a little trip.

Bot, sleeping, Cpt Wentworth, 1lt Alaniz, and Maj Brott, they don't notice the flight crew nodding off. But don't worry, he was on his game when it counted.

Hello all, thank you for checking in. I am somewhat surprised at the feedback I have gotten and amazed to see how many people are actually viewing my blog. There are many from Europe, UK, and all over the US. It makes me proud.

The team is now in country. A C-130 ride (probably one that my father worked on in Vietnam), and a short hop in a terrifying Chinook brought us to the Phoenix Academy. Okay, the Chinook wasn't terrifying... it was actually quite fun, except for all the gear we had packed in with us like a sardine can. The Phoenix Academy is basically a reiteration of what we have already learned... To me it seems we are being exposed to Iraqi's in an acclimating sense. The Phoenix Academy is smack dab in the middle of an Iraqi compound. Iraqi guards, they work in the dining facility, and are everywhere on the compound. All in all we should be here for about a week, then moving on to our real mission.

Well, thank you to all who view the site. Pass it around and post comments and questions...

Greg

Jedi Barrier

Another pose. It may seem that we pose for photos quite frequently, and you may ask yourself if we actually do anything. Remember, we are still in Kuwait, and are very proud of what we are about to do. This may be the hardest thing any of us have ever done, so we all appreciate your support. Don't forget to visit the links to teammate's pages.

I started my blog from my brother's urging, "dude, you should start a blog!" Of course I started it, and I am actually enjoying it. Soon I will post news and some information, but keep in mind that I am very cautious about what I post.

This photo depicts our team after we completed our barrier. Here in Kuwait, many units will decorate a barrier with their logos and info. It is an acceptable form of graphiti, as you can see in the background that some units before us decorated every inch around the dinining facility here at Camp Buehring.

The Seabee Barrier

For those of you who are familiar with me, you know the respect I

have for the Seabees. While many went to college, I dropped out and spent my college years deploying with the Seabees around the world. It is with NMCB5 that I grew up, and with that unit that I feel a fraternal loyalty. I don't regret the path I took, even though it has taken a while to catch up with my peers. I'm happy that my path led me to my wife and children. For them anything.

Yes, we need interpreters

Hours and hours of language training. Well, it does help sometimes. We recieved many hours of cultural training from people who have actually lived in Iraq.

From the left, Major Merv Brott, SFC Dan Colon, Manny the interpreter, SSG Murrell, Cpt Mack Kelley, and peeking over Mack's shoulder is 1lt Alaniz. BTW, MREs are the breakfast of champions.

Sunrise

Ah yes, the dreaded sun. The temp in the morning hovers tolerably around 90, as soon as bob (big orange ball) makes his way to the sky, you can bet things are going to get hot. Look behind me and you can see some camels. If you really want to see some camels, ask me to post some photos, or go to the zoo.

Training, training, training...

As you can see, we spend lot of time in the desert. This photo depicts four of us around one of our training vehicles. We won't be driving these... We'll be getting MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protective, something like that, keep getting different definitions...).

In this photo are Cpt Wentworth, SSG Murrell, Cpt Connaroe, and SFC Colon in the turret.

Kuwait is incredibly hot, Phoenix has nothing on it. Good thing we won't be here much longer.

Other members of the team are running their own blogs. Until I find a decent place to put them, I'll provide the link to the bosses blog here: http://ssnewstelegram.com/blogs/?q=node/177

Welcome!!!

This is the beginning of a new adventure in my life.

It's quite simple really, 11 US Army soldiers tasked with training and mentoring what was previously a battalion and now a brigade of Iraqi Soldiers. For those of you who know how many people typically fill a brigade, you may realize how daunting this mission may seem. However, our IA (Iraqi Army) Jundees, or soldiers, are fresh. That means we will have the opportunity to mold them into a more capable fighting force.

Throughout the next 12 months I will frequently post non classified photos and news. Feel free to comment, discuss, and even ask me questions.

Keep in mind that my ability to access the internet could sometimes be limited, so your patience is appreciated.