a mobilized year

Soon after we arrived at Beuhring, our battalion (consisting of 620 soldiers of which there are 4 companies, one of which is mine) broke up into two parts. Just over half went north with me to Camp Navistar and the rest stayed at Camp Beuhring (here’s some pictures of the route to Beuhring: http://rbombard.blog.uvm.edu/archives/2005/07/rogers_visitor.html taken by someone else and the infamous Burger King that’s located there).
When I’m not on mission, Camp Navistar will likely be the place that I’m stationed out of for at least most of my tour here. Camp Navistar is not too bad of a place (in fact, it’s one of the better places around). The location is right on the border between Kuwait and Iraq. When I say “right on the border,” I mean right on the border. I’m sitting in Kuwait currently and looking right now at a mosque that is about 100-200 meters away that is on the Iraq side of the border.

Living Quarters
The living quarters are OK. Currently, I share a tent with 11 other officers. Here’s a picture (mine is the bottom bunk):

We have air conditioners, but it’s not quite as good as you might think. Generally speaking, you can expect the air conditioners to reduce the outside temperatures by about 20 degrees. So, if you have 120 degrees outside, you can expect that inside the tent it will be 100 degrees. Some tents have more efficient air conditioners, but most that I’ve run across will give you about a 20 degree or so cooling. Once a few things happen here, I’ll probably only have to share a tent with around 6 other officers, which obviously means a little more room to spread out.

Chow
The food here is plentiful and the quality is above average (for army food)—although, almost all meats are overcooked (just past well done). I suppose that’s better than being undercooked. We have fresh fruit for every meal and a decent amount of variety (I’ll check back in on this in about six months to see if I still feel the same). If it weren’t for the heat, I can see guys gaining a lot of weight here. Outside of the chow hall, we have two food vendors at Navistar. One is a Subway and the other is a Pizza Inn. I haven’t tried either yet, although I’m sure I will be a regular before long. So, overall, not too bad in the food department.

MWR
Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) facilities here at Navistar are fairly good, especially considering the relatively small size of Navistar (it has just over 1000 soldiers plus representatives from the Navy and the UK). We’ve got an outside basketball court (plywood floors over the sand), some treadmills and exercise bicycles, weights, and weight machines, ping pong table, and a limited number of computer terminals for guys to use the internet.

Facilities
Virtually everything here is either in a tent or a trailer-type facility. The trailer-type buildings actually have excellent air conditioning (assuming the generators are properly working, the temperatures in the trailers are almost always comfortable—much better than the tents (presumably because of the “insulation” in the trailers)). My office is in a trailer that I share with my first sergeant, an operations NCO, supply sergeant and a clerk. We’re still moving in, but here’s a picture (we’re about to do our own little renovation to the trailer):

There’s a number of things I plan to write about (when I get the time), but if anyone wants me to elaborate on a topic or event, drop me an email or post a comment.