Mike got some AR15 Magazines from MGW in the mail yesterday. They look pretty good. They look like the top part of the 90 round magazine he has from them. I'm going to get a couple for myself to try them out. Do we need five round magazine to hunt hogs? Maybe this weekend we can go shoot my new rifle again.
LoA was awarded the de Fleury Medal, which is the highest award the Corps can give a civillian. Few people are awarded this medal. Congressman Chet Edwards wrote a personal note praising LoA's service and reminising on their growing up together. He also sent LoA a flag flown over the Capitol. Mr. Edwards was very nice to write that, and is a good guy, even if we disagree with his politics.
Of course, he went right back to work the next day as a contractor, but he is now officially retired. He'll stay on till his replacement is hired and trained. Then it'll be time to work on the house. After that? Maybe take a few classes, travel a bit, and make some knives and other things in the workshop.
It's got a Mega lower receiver, RRA collapsable stock, Colt flattop upper, 16 inch barrel (maybe Colt, maybe not), DPMS lower parts, Tango Down battle grip (which is very comfy), Yankee Hill Machine free float handguard, DPMS metal vertical grip, DPMS detachable rear sight, XS Sights white line front sight, LeVang compensator, and a Surefire G2 flahlight. After Christmas we took off the Tacpoint and put on a Trijicon Reflex II sight, the one with the 4.5 MOA dot. Very nice. Might want to swap out the collapsable stock for a fixed A2 stock, and move the vertical grip forward a little, other than that, it's good.
The plan is to use it to compete at the Three Gun match out at Tac Pro in May. Of course, that means we need to go practice!
And he's bald! Completely. twoLoA does not like it, but Glenda and I think it looks good on him. Bald is in, you know.
Anyway, he and twoLoA took off for Abilene after a scant 30 minutes or so at home. Tomorrow they are off to Cloudcroft where they will stay till Tuesday when LoA has to be in El Paso for processing out. I still think it's silly for him to have to do that, he should've been able to just leave the gear in iraq. Besides, we are talking about pants and t-shirts! It's not like he's returning guns or grenades!
"I thought you might like this picture. I think it is the first one I have
sent back to the states.
This will be the last email from me until I get home. I have to wait for our PAO to get
back and give me the CD of the picturers she took at the awards get
together. I hope they just went to supper. I want to leave in another 30
minutes so Tom can take me and get back to the Villas by 2130 or so.
I saw on the news that they had more killings in Iraq today. I also heard
that 4 bombs were placed on NOC property by one of the gates we always used
in Kirkuk. Two went off and two had to be disarmed. Maybe it is good that
I am coming home.
LoA flew into Kuwait this morning, about 3:30 AM our time. He'll hang out in Camp Doha for the rest of the week, then fly back to the states Saturday.
He said he has about 2000 pictures. I don't think we can post them all up here, but we'll pick some of the better ones. Most of then I think can be put on a DVD and shown on the TV.
"My replacement came in. He seems nice. I'll start going over what he needs to know today. There is a lot to remember in a short period of time.
Hope your supper was good. We ate at the base since we were there to pick up Clif. They had lobster tails. I took the bratwurst. It is getting close now. 9 + 1 to go."
The heat must've gotten to him. Who turns down lobster? :)
The latest word is that LoA will be flying out from Kuwait on the 30th and arriving here also on the 30th. (Time zones are fun!) His replacement should be arriving about a week before so LoA should have enough time to show him the ropes.
As a taxpayer I must say it's dumb to bring LoA home so soon, just as he is getting the hang of things, getting to know the local people he's been working with, learning how things work over there. But as a family member I must say that I'm glad he'll be returning at the end of the month. Real glad.
Looks like, if all goes according to plan, that LoA will be arriving home at about 3pm on the 29th of August. Then he and Mrs. LoA are heading out to El Paso to do paperwork, turn in his issued equipment (although why wouldn't he just leave it in Iraq for the next guy to use?), and then into the desert for a few days of R&R.
Also in the good news category, LoA's daughter is engaged. The date has not been finalized yet, but will most likely be next Spring.
The red polka-dotted cap should be familliar to everyone. If not, well, that's LoA underneath it. Next to him is an unidentified North oil Company employee and LoA's boss, Mr. Cox.
Cpt. Conner working the grill.
One of the SWFteam, P Sisler, teaches some Iraqis how to bake an apple pie.
The BBQ was held at the Northern Oil Company Country club, a facility originally built by the Brits. Security was provided by soldiers of the 101st, who also partook of the festivities. According to LoA, "those boys can really put away the chow!" Unfortunatley the wood and BBQ sauces did not arrive in time, but they can always throw another BBQ.
hmmm...looks like no one updated this while I was gone. Apparently lots has happened. While LoA was in Bagdhad his hotel was attacked by 3 RPGs. No Americans were killed. I don't know if the attackers were. LoA is fine, but will now be living in an undisclosed location whilst finishing his tour in Iraq.
I haven't heard how the BBQ went, I'll assume it went well. Will let y'all know when I find out.
July 4th is coming up soon. Hopefully the wood arrives in time for the BBQ. We hear that LoA has procured 345 pounds of meat. There are only 200 people going to the BBQ. That's almost a pound and a half for everyone, that's a Texas BBQ alright!
Not an LoA update, but I just got an email from tWoLoA *(NoA? NoT**? NoTbrniGB***?) :
"Dear lew, mike & glenda,
i'm writing from oxford on Wed 6/18 at 2100.
Have had a marvelous time, the weather has been wonderful, mostly warm
and sunny. I talked to Dad yesterday via Lynda's phone and he had been sick again. Lewis, hope you are truly well now and feeling much, much better.
Tomorrow we take a walking tour of Oxford. The new Harry Potter
book comes out Saturday and the line will be long, but I hope to purchase
one from London, won't that be cool. Took a tour of a wonderful
Elizabethian estate today, incredible. Scotland was just so
beautiful, much more than I had even hoped.
Lew, I went into a hardware store today, you would love it and after I talked to you yesterday, I took a roof tour of the Cathedral in Lincoln, 3rd largest in England. You all would be very proud of me. The Wesley service was very nice, but long.
The trip has been truly wonderful.
Mike & Glenda, have great gifts for both of you[woo-hooo!]. Truly hope you are all fine. Glenda, break a leg this weekend. I hate to miss your play. I love and miss you all very much.
Lew, can't wait [till] you are home again. All of you stay safe, and be good to each other. Give Mandy a scratch and a hug from me, Trevor too. I'll see you Saturday.[edited to add: ummm...I thought you were getting back Sunday? the itinerary says Sunday...]
All my love and prayers, Mom.
Please give Aunt Sissy and Whitney a call. Can't seem to get to a phone at a decent state side time of day.
Lewis, I love you and so wish you were sharing this with me.
Yours,
Nannie Kay"
* the Wife of Lewis of Arabia
** Nancy of Arabia or Nancy of Texas
*** Nancy of Texas-but-right-now-in-Great-Britian
"Thanks, I ordered two BBQ pits to be made to my design from the North Oil Company three days ago. I could have used their equipment and built them, but I don't really get paid to do that. I'll go by tomorrow and see how they are coming. They will not be smokers, but just 32" diameter pipe spilt in half, using one half for the pit. No lid. Each one will be 5' long. There is no telling what they are constructing. I gave them the design but they had never seen a BBQ pit. Also there is no expanded metal at the NOC. I may have to have them cut some plate with holes for the grill.
Our zip code is back to 09347. Tell Mom when she gets home. The 09359 doesn't go into effect until Dec. They said the mail would get to us but it will take a little longer. Should be enough time for the chips to arrive in time. Hope you and GD and the woofers are doing well. Be sure and clean the house before Mom comes home. I finally have a power cord for my laptop and tomorrow maybe even my own internet drop in my room. That will be nice.
Love,
Dad "
A few days ago he asked for some Mesquite chips to be sent over to him for their Fourth of July BBQ. I sent over a box with two sacks of wood chips and some BBQ sauces, liquid smoke, some spices, and other stuff like that which may not be available over in Kirkuk but is neccessary for a good BBQ.
"I finally got into the web site for lewis of arabia. It is good. Up to now I couldn't stay on the computer very long. Always someone waiting to get on. Today I'm on the boss's computer since my internet cable hasn't been run to my room and Doug is in Kuwait for two or three days. He had to go down for a partnering meeting with the contractor. It is nice to sit at his desk and take all the time I want to read and respond to email. Wish Mom was around. I miss getting her emails.[edited to add: Nancy's in Scotland right now, not dead]
We had a very unusuall fire on the pipelines day before yesterday. There are 4 crude oil pipelines-two that go to Turkey for export and two that go to a refinery close by-exposed in a small creek. It appears that three of them caught on fire. One-happens all the time-two maybe-but not three out of the four. Someone did something to the pipeline. The North Oil Company says it is delibert. We won't know for sure until the fire is put out. We hear it was put out today, but from the size of it two days ago, I doubt it. We should know more tomorrow. We were in the area today but couldn't go over the ridge to see if the fire was still burning.
The military has been conducting sweeps in the Kirkuk area and have arrested several people. We hope that this will stop some of the looting and damage to the pipeline. They are setting fire to the open pits of oil that are all over the place. Two people set a fire yesterday morning and our guards (the Corps hired them) saw them but couldn't catch them before they set the fire. Out of range of their Ak-47's. They asked us for sniper rifles today. We supplied them with 500 AK's but I don't think they will be getting sniper rifles-we can only give them what the military has confiscated from the bad guys. We are giving the NOC police 100 AK's later this week.
They say it is taking 3-4 hours for the customs people to clear everyone that is on the plane. They are recommending taking a clean set of clothes to change into after standing in the hot sun for that long. It is hot now and when I come home in Aug it will really be hot.
The vehicle that I am assigned-2003 brand new GMC Yukon-has a CD player. If you get a chance, copy some of the songs from my best of lewis that are in my truck and send them over. There are no English language radio stations. We did get the BBC late at night coming up on the convoy, but have not gotten them again.
Iraq is not a place that Van needs to come for work. It is one thing to be working for the US Government or Brown & Root but a small company will not have the resources to make it in this war torn environment. Also they don't do very much if at all acid injection-they have so much oil they just drill a new well. They also cannot process more than half of the barrel of oil. In the US our refineries process all the barrel of oil. The old technology that the Iraqi's use can only produce products from half the oil. They are reinjecting this residual back into the wells. Over a 7 year period they injected 1.5 billion barrels of residual back into the wells. Saadam didn't care if he screwed up the oil fields, he just wanted oil produced.
I can tell the difference in the number of people that are driving and coming out on the streets since I have arrived. It is getting harder to bust through stop lights. It is nice to drive whatever speed you feel comfortable with. There are no traffic police. Kirkuk does have a police department, but it is small and not enforcing traffic laws(I'm not even sure Iraq had any traffic laws before the war). I am driving defensively ( and aggressively or you will never survive) and have had no really close calls. The drivers still get out of the way of military vehicles and big, new American vehicles. None of the Iraq's have new vehicles and the very few newer vehicles are not American. People are still waving at us when we pass.
How is GD doing on the mowing? Is she wearing her gloves now?
I had better close for now. It is nearly 2130 our time. I'm going to shut down an hour early today.
Lewis of Arabia called today, spoke to Nancy. He is doing fne. He's working seven days a week, about 14 hours a day. He gets up, has breakfast at the hotel, goes out and looks at two or three sites, then back to the hotel for dinner and to write up reports on what was seen that day, then colapses into bed. Repeat till August or October. He's doing damage assesment of some sort (he didn't specify).
Phone and internet service is sporadic at best, and apologised for not calling more folks or sending out more emails. Often the interent connection is broken before the email is sent or while he is still typing it up.
He said that the folks in Kirkuk are very firendly, they are all glad to see Americans. And the more helicopters that fly overhead and the more tanks on the street the better they like it. At least as long as they are American tanks and helicopters. Seems that the Turks and Kurds are not liking each other right now, so there is some tension there.
He mentioned that he's lost some weight and that it's a good thing that he likes chicken as it's chicken for lunch and dinner every day. Well, it could be worse, could be lamb for three meals a day. :) He did mention that they had no Gatorade, and nothing like it was availalbe locally, so I think we're going to get some of the powdered stuff and mail it off to him.
Apparently there is a derth of trucks available, so LoA's convoy didn't make it out today. They'll try again tommorrow. Still no word on the footlocker.
Looks like LoA's footlocker was shipped successfully to Camp Doha (Kuwait, as opposed to the city of Doha in Qatar) , but now no one can seem to find it. D'Oh! His extra pair of boots, almost all the t-shirts he packed, as well loads of smaller personal items and books are now AWOL. Hopefully it gets found quickly.
Sorry y'all, the comments are reeeeeeal slow. When you click on the comment button, just walk away from the computer for a while or something. It can take 10 minutes or so to post. I'm looking into ways to speed the process up.
Just heard from LoA. He's in charge of the convoy North on Friday, but there are no trucks to be found. Hopefully the contractor can find some, otherwise they'll go whenever they get enough trucks together. He also said his address has changed, so if you previously got it from Nancy, you need to get it from her anew.
Ran into Lamar the other day. He said the yard doesn't look as good as when you mowed it :) Just kidding, he said the yard looked great. Glenda on the other hand ran into a few trees and bushes and such and looks horrible. She also forgot to wear gloves and got a nasty blood blister. Oh well, maybe now she'll wear gloves and pay a bit more attention when someone shows her how to work the mower (she was also hitting her leg with the handle when she turned the mower [not pushing down to lift the front wheels and she was stepping right into it when she made the turn]). Anyway, Lamar said "Howdy" and wished you well. I mentioned that an excellent Welcome Home Lewis of Arabia gift would be another cookie bouquet :) Mrs. Carter and Mr. Wilcox also wished you well.
