Picture Time!!!

Back again everybody!! OK, time for pictures. I've decided to try and give somewhat of an introduction to the area, and what we have here little by little.

Not really. These are random pictures and thoughts to go with them. They are, however, all related to what I do here.


OK, this first image is the Turkish flag. We are close to Turkey, so many Turks work here. And they put their flag on almost everything they own. There's one slight problem, which is, Mosul is really in Kurdistan (OK, it's on the border of it). Kurds and Turks don't like each other. If the Turks flew their flag as much in Mosul as they do here on the FOB, they'd be shot at. A lot. It's a lot like having two rival gangs living on the FOB.



This is me at the combat patch ceremony. Chief Smock is "patching" me. Velcro patches make this sort of thing possible. It was kind of cool, so I won't make fun of it. And the Chief is one of the best Officers I've met. Him "patching" me was really an honor.










This is inside the badging compound. The white door on the right, there in the shade beyond the red roof thing, that's my office door. Those concrete barriers beyond that are new. The Engineers put those in. Go Engineers! Folks are happy about the barriers, both for the blast protection they afford, and because they help add some privacy to the area. My people all live & work in this compound, so those were sorely needed.





This is the other side of the t-walls. Here is where I really need Kelly's help. I'm thinking of just a BIG "See Rock City" sign to paint on here. I really don't want to go with a military (or Turkish) motif, so what do you think?











This is Starbuck's coffee. I like Starbuck's coffee (I like Kempf's too Joe, but I cut my teeth on this stuff). One of the Starbuck's in Evansville sent us fifty pounds of this stuff. Fifty. Pounds. That, in and of itself, is incredibly cool. If this picture were larger, you'd notice three key words on the bags: Whole Bean Coffee. Not only did they send us coffee, I'm told they sent us a grinder too. OK, life is good. The grinder was (key word here) 110 voltage. EVERYTHING in this country is 220. So far so good? One of our soldiers plugged it into a wall socket and proceeded to burn it out (*cough* Berlin *cough* transformer *cough*). I've also been told it was this soldier's third appliance he's burned out. Third. One I can understand. Two, maybe he just didn't get it, but THREE? Anyhow, I found a place online and ordered one for 220. Life must go on.

I had originally wanted to use this as a lead in to discuss Starbuck's coffee as the Evil Empire and such, but I just don't feel like it. I mean, let's face it, Starbuck's did for coffee, in general, what Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company did for the craft brewing industry in the USA. Do I think that everything they sell is great? By no means. I prefer Intelligentsia espresso to anything available outside of Italy (Black Cat blend is the best, period), and Starbuck's espresso is plain old bland (personal opinion). Plus, I was mail ordering the stuff before anybody had ever heard of it, so I think I have some street cred on this one. Besides, Intelligentsia has better stickers.

So those are the pictures. I'm real nervous about taking pics inside the wire, as some of the stuff is legitimately not allowed to be photographed, let alone posted here. But, I will attempt to continue to capture appropriate images of Marez for you all.

Enjoy!