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19 Apr 2009
Body weight as a military performance metric
I set a goal with my family of losing 10 pounds on this deployment. At Ft. Lewis, during our train-up, I was able to go to the gym about 6 days a week and regulate my diet closely. The big factor being Lisa’s good cooking was absent! So I dropped from 226 down to 217 or so. In our training, they told us there was considerable discretionary time, and were cautioned to use it wisely.

Once in Iraq, the sparse conditions of Basra, and being constantly on the move for convoys and meetings, plus wearing the body armor everywhere, I managed to drop down to 204, with only once or twice a week at the gym. That’s all there was time for! The discretionary time, at least for me, was non-existent. Since December, it has been 90-hour weeks.

Now, with American food and its fattening temptations at the dining facility, after a brief celebratory splurge, I’m eating pretty close to “right” with salads for lunch, healthy, low-carb breakfasts, and balanced dinners. But there’s the occasional sodas, Gatorades, and ice cream or cake, much more abundant now. So my weight has gone back up a bit, to 207. Still well within the regulations, but a disturbing trend. In fact, many soldiers in more built-up areas than Basra report a 20 pound weight-gain during the deployment. The menu is richer, with more prepared foods, corn syrup in lots of the sauces, and some very good fried chicken and mozerilla sticks!

The key, I believe, is not to use meal-times as an escape or crutch. Drink water, not soda, and, for me, avoid the sugar substitutes. For some reason, stopping the “diet” drinks and no-sugar drink mixes made a positive difference.
I’ve met my initial goal, but getting below 200 is my “stretch goal” – and I think I can do it.

My job is changing, too. I'm getting out of the convoy business and more into the division-level logistics. Serving more as the commander's eyes & ears at Division HQ, and as of yesterday, I've finally got another officer helping me on this (But that's another blog).
Without jinxing it, I'm cautiously optimistic that there's a little more discretionary time ahead for me.
And I intend to use it wisely; at the gym, staying in touch with family, and working on a business certification for ACI. Oh yeah: Occasionally relaxing.
 
ACI , Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  07:36 | permalink | trackbacks [51398]



14 Apr 2009
Small World
Last February, I sat down to dinner, started talking to the soldier next to me, and found out he was from Christiansburg, the same town as me! Population is around 11,000, so that’s no small feat! I found out that he belonged to a unit that just arrived from Virginia National Guard Military Police.
By meeting SFC Phoenix, that’s how I learned that a unit from my home state was right here in our little COB. Later, this Military Police (MP) company were the ones nice enough to share Major General Newman to promote me to Lieutenant Colonel.
I’ve seen SFC Tazwell Phoenix many more times around the base, and thought I’d give another Christiansburg resident here in Basra the chance to say hello!
He says hi to his family, his two sons (Kyle & Cameron), and a huge hello to his girlfriend Amy Fleet who works at the VT College of Science.
Way to go SFC Phoenix, and all the rest of the 266th MP Company!
 
Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  13:00 | permalink | trackbacks [148]



12 Apr 2009
287 Sustainment Brigade in the news
In February, a film crew visited Basra and recorded some of things our forward logistics element (FLE) does here. This aired in a news segment early April called the Pentagon Files, produced by SPC Bemis.

Now, just two short months later, everything has changed! Certainly the Heavy Hitters are still just as capable, and every bit as busy, but Basra has grown into a much larger base, with a Brigade Support Battalion (BSB), a movement control team, a cargo company and more.
 
ACI , Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  12:48 | permalink | trackbacks [182]



6 Apr 2009
Soccer vs. Football
The British forces here are huge fans of soccer, as is the rest of the world except good old USA. Of course, our big sport is football. It’s interesting that “football” means soccer everywhere else in the world but the United States. I recently asked myself what analogies soccer vs. football would have to US vs. UK military operations.

For starters, soccer is a continuous moving game, with both sides constantly engaged in both offense and defense. Player substitutions are barely noticed, happening throughout the game.

US Football, on the other hand, involves careful, deliberate planning. There is tremendous violence of action, and then both sides go back to a huddle and plan the next action. After four tries to score or advance the ball, offense switches with defense, and brings out a different set of players.

Applied to the military operations in Basra, the UK has rotated soldiers through Iraq in 4 to 6 month individual deployments, much more often (continuous flow) than the US moving entire brigades at a time.

Now I am going to break away from the US versus UK comparison to continue the soccer versus football analogy. What about keeping score? A good soccer match score is something like 2 to 3. A good football game is 23 to 48. Purely by the numbers, football accomplishes much more in its violent, carefully planned operations.

Soccer only has one way to score: get the ball in the goal. Football has touchdowns, field goals, extra points, 2 point conversions and safeties. In war, the old-school way to win was to destroy troops or targets. But the new full spectrum of combined operations ranges from full scale land, sea and space warfare to stability and peacekeeping operations, where the way to win is through the hearts and minds of the people. The weapons include information, money, infrastructure improvements and stable governance. In stability operations, there really aren’t any losers as the military exits and the country enjoys unprecedented peace and economic prosperity. In football, even the loosing playoff team walks away with several million dollars!
 
Army Deployment , General
posted by  henry at  11:42 | permalink | comments [43] | trackbacks [991]



2 Apr 2009
COB Basra overview

I’ve been contacted by a few soldiers and contractors headed to Basra, so I wanted to take the opportunity of yesterday’s historic transition from UK to US forces, to refresh an overview of our happy home.

PX (store): We have a PX the size of a Dollar General store, or less. A bigger PX is being built late this summer.

Internet for individuals is sketchy at best right now. Sniper Hill might set something up. I personally have worked a deal with the local Internet Café to beam about 100K/sec to a shared office, where 5 of us are using it at $75 each right now.

CHUs (10x10 room)- still being brought in daily. Right now, the crowding on the COB has necessitated 3 people to a CHU for O4 and below. O5, like me, 2 to a CHU, if you get one at all. Tents is what most soldiers are in right now. For contractors, it will depend on where and who you work for as a contractor. They've got some CHU accommodations, typically with a roommate.

DFAC (Dining Facility): converted from UK to US today. There are some growing pains going on with this, but it’s getting better each meal.

MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation): we used to have a tent with movies, games, phones to call home, and free computer use. It went bye-bye mid-March for the sake of bedspace. AT&T has just set up a trailer near DFAC IV, and in the next few months, an entire DFAC is going to be converted to an MWR and Gym. We get USO/MWR sponsored celebrity visits about twice a month. A comedian group and rock band are both on this month’s schedule.

Mail: Mail arrives 3 times a week. In May, we’re preparing for daily shipments. The Stars and Stripes newspaper comes with it, generally about a week old.

Flights: both helo and fixed wing serve Basra pretty regularly. Space-A is the norm. Going anywhere usually averages taking 3 days, even though it's a 1-2 hour flight.

Force protection: I won't say specifics, but suffice it to say we're doing a lot better than one year ago during the surge and battle of Basra. Still, Basra is the 2nd largest city in Iraq, with a population between 1.4 and 2.2 million, by various reports.

 
ACI , Army Deployment , Family , General
posted by  henry at  11:16 | permalink | trackbacks [283]





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