[Chat] It's now August 10 at the Palace and Very Hot - 5 months to go (I hope) - revised

[william.schlegel at us.army.mil]

3 August 2003  - 10 August 2003

Friends,

I am sorry that I have taken so long to write again, but my work has increased significantly in the past 6 weeks.  Just yesterday I started working from 9am to 9pm, but had to switch by starting my shift at 2am Sunday morning (it is now 11pm on Sunday).  I should get home to my cot, but I wanted to at least start this letter. 

BLUF: My new address for mail is:  CW4 Schlegel, William
                                   V CORPS Main, A Co/325th MI BN
                                   APO, AE 09302-1382

By taking out the 205 MI Bde, mail will come directly to where I am staying, instead of going through the Brigade mailroom, which is at another post.  BTW, BLUF is another Army acronym, standing for "Bottom Line Up Front".  Make sure you check out the other good info at the end of this letter, too!!

Our 4th of July was quite special and I made a point of staying up for most of the special events.   First, we had a holiday meal that included BBQ ribs, steak, hamburgers, plus an assortment of breakfast items (including REAL scrambled eggs), fresh strawberries, mangos, and cold sodas.  The steaks had been marinated and were cooked over wood that resembled mesquite.  

After brunch, I went to the main palace to meet and have my picture taken with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I just missed his little speech, which I understand included his famous line “I’ll be back”.  However, I did decide to wait an hour, in the 90+ heat, for the photo Op.  This turned out to be very well organized.  In groups of 16 we were escorted into the large banquet hall (which contains a huge table at least 50 – 60 feet long), told to split into two rows of 8, and then directed to the spot where the picture was taken.  We were allowed to provide one camera to the professional photographer (ours luckily was a digital), at which point Arnold took the two best looking women in the group to bracket him, gave them each a big hug and gave a signal for the shutter to click.  Then those of us close enough could shake Arnold’s huge hand and then we had to leave.  No private photos and no autographs.  I did get to shake his hand, at least.

Later that afternoon, I attended an outdoor talent show, which lasted about 2 hours.  Various soldiers danced, sang, or played an instrument before a crowd of several hundred of us.  I neglected to bring a chair, but I was lucky enough to find a damaged one by a nearby truck and made it do for the duration.  I took a few pictures of the dancers that hopefully captured one fellow’s somersault in mid-air.  I do not know how these people had time to practice!  I hope to sing a couple of arias for the one on Labor Day.  At the end of the show, one of the Palace speedboats did a loop around the lake behind our arena and shot off several red and green flares – our fireworks for the evening.

The biggest change in my weeks has been the addition of choir practice.  As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I am now attending Catholic Mass.   In late June, the chaplain’s assistant decided he would like to organize a choir and announced a rehearsal schedule.  The first night it was only he and I trying to read music in the fading sunlight (the generator had quit, so we had no lights).  The second night, he brought along two of his friends from the V Corps Army Band, a young flautist from Ellicott City, MD (near Baltimore) and her section leader, who also played guitar.  With that ensemble we were able to put together a very nice program of music for the service, to include two hymns from the Missal and a communion piece, in which I had a short solo.  By the third rehearsal (every other night Monday – Friday), we picked up one more singer (another warrant officer from my unit) and we polished our pieces for Sunday July 7th.  
  
We have since put together a musical program for each Sunday since then and tonight (it is now 4 August) added a female singer.  I am now providing harmony to support the melody.  I recently asked our Cantor at my home church, St. Mark’s Lutheran, to send me copies of his choral Mass, hoping to add a bit of Lutheran 4-part harmony to our worship experience here.  We have decided to call our group MOPP4, which is our acronym for Musicians of Prayer and Praise, but is a parody of the Army term for full protection from chemical and biological attack.  As MOPP4 we provide MREs – Musical Religious Experiences, not Meals Ready to Eat.

One casualty of my switch to day shift will be my weekly class with the priest.  Luckily I was able to attend through all the sessions covering the history of the Mass and the session on the origins of the liturgical season and colors.  The most significant thing I learned was that the Mass contains all the elements of the sacrifice offered to God by the Hebrews, as described in the first 5 books of the Old Testament.  I learned that the sacrifice of old was not considered complete until the people who made the sacrifice also joined in the feast that followed.  This is why communion is often referred to as a feast and why it is necessary to partake regularly.  The Mass, be it Catholic, Lutheran, or Episcopal is considered the highest and best prayer to God.  But it is the link to the Old Testament practice that says to me, that we are all one in the Lord, regardless of out way of reaching Him.  It is also important to understand that Christ, as the Lamb of God, is our sacrif



ice for now and forever.  The Hebrew priests took the lamb brought by the people, lifted them up, killed them over the altar, and sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the altar and on the people.  After the lamb was burned on the altar, the flesh was shared by the people as a feast – that completed their offering and sacrifice.  By allowing Christ to die on the cross, Christians no longer need to make an actual sacrifice to gain God’s blessing.  All we need do is remember and honor God’s sacrifice by partaking in the Eucharistic Feast as often as possible.

We're still in the same hooch, but now eat at the Brown and Root DFAC (dining facility) - serving four meals a day.  Breakfast (0530-0830) is the same each day - bacon, like at Camp VA, good potatoes, great scrambled eggs and French toast, SOS if you want, some fresh fruit and the usual juices and UAV milk.  Dinner (1700-2000) has had some variety - but mostly chicken and beef, with fish occasionally.  We are promised more variety when more supplies come in.  Midnight chow (2300-0100) has been French fries and some other meat patty or chicken nuggets.  Lunch (1100-1400) is much like Midnight chow, but has fresh salad - which is always welcome. The times for meals are better than the old mess hall, but I miss the quality.    We did have ice cream over the weekend, even Bananas Foster-type sauce, one night.  The ice cream tastes great, even if it is not hard as a rock.

Work has been about the same, we still have not moved.  Daytime temps are over 120 and the seats in the porta-potty feel hot enough to cook an egg.  AC in the hooch has been up and down.  We almost had a fire earlier this week when the plug melted.  We are now on commercial power instead of a generator, but that sometimes means no power.  Now that I am on the day shift, the AC is not as important to me, but it is to the two remaining warrant officers on night shift.

Today is Sunday, 8/10, and I have finished one week on day shift.  Right now I am not sure which shift I prefer.  The work is exhausting on either one.  I can never get caught up on my sleep because I don't get to bed much before 12 midnight - sometimes by 11:30pm.  I wake up at 6:30 when one of my roommates turns on the lights and then I try to get a little more rest until 7-7:30am.  Today I took a real shower, but the shower smelled so bad that I do not think I will use it again for a while.  Normally I use the bidet, pouring in a few gallons of water for a "bucket bath".  Works well enough.  I have maybe 30 minutes total to relax in the morning.  I must leave NLT 0840 and that gets me to work just in time for the opening briefing.  At night our final briefing does not end until almost 10pm and after that is the only time I can really use the computer. 

Several birds here might intrigue some of you.  I noticed two this week that may be unique to here - the pigeons certainly aren't.  One was about the size of a sparrow, but had the behavior of a hummingbird.  It had high wing speed and could hover in the air.  While hovering it watched the water below, then dove into the water - I guess to catch a fish.  It had a long pointy beak and was white and black, with white lines under its throat.  The second bird looked sort of like a flicker, but it was hard to tell from where I was sitting.  Here is a list of native birds; maybe your resource books will guide you to an answer: Sooty falcon, the rustic bunting, the common babbler, the ring ouzel, red-breasted merganser, Dead Sea sparrow & dusky thrush, Black-throated accentor & black francolin, Brahminy mynah, black stork, & grey-crowned crane. Pygmy cormorant (here is a possible candidate for the hovering bird) meet Levantine sparrow hawk —  (These came from a poem on a website, t
hat I found with a Google search on the "Birds of Iraq" http://www.the365project.org/daily/03/01_17_jones.html

Temp was 125 degrees in shade yesterday and 145 in the sun, per our engineers - but they also said with low humidity the effective temp was only 97.7 - go figure.  Felt like a blast furnace to me!!  Some soldiers in the field units have died from the heat - went to bed after being treated with IVs, but never woke up.  Very sad!  I thank the Lord that I work in AC

A friend of mine has designed a website where you can find pictures and other items of interest regarding my tour over here.  The address is:
http://home.earthlink.net/~wbsphotos/    I also recommend my HQ website at http://www.vcorps.army.mil/www/default.htm.    For those who want the British perspective on the war you might browse here:  http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1015729,00.html
One more site: http://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/Press_Releases/2003/Aug2003/12Aug2003-02.htm

Well, that is all for now.   I still hope I'm home by early January.  Also please forward this to other people who might enjoy reading it.

>From the Palace,

Brad

CW4 Schlegel, William                                       william.schlegel at us.army.mil
V CORPS Main, A Co/325th MI BN
APO, AE 09302-1382  

PS: My only needs at this point are macadamia nuts or cashews and beef jerky - Oberto or Pacific gold.   Also Snyder's Sourdough hard pretzels!  No more drink mix or tuna.

What follows is some cute humor: 

You know your living in 2003 when....... 
 
1.  You accidentally enter your password on the microwave. 
 
2.  You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years. 
 
3.  You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3. 
 
4.  You email your mate who works at the desk next to you. 
 
5.  Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have email addresses. 
 
6.  When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner. 
 
7.  When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial '9' to get an outside line.
 
8.  You've sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for 3 different companies. 
 
10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news. 
 
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job. 
 
12. Contractors outnumber permanent staff and are more likely to get long-service awards. 
 



And the real clinchers are....... 
 









13. You read this entire list, and kept nodding and smiling. 
 
14. As your read this list, you think about forwarding it to your ‘friends'. 
 
15. You got this email from a friend that never talks to you any more, except to send you jokes from the net. 
 
16. You are too busy to notice there was no No. 9. 
 
17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a No. 9. 



A cute web site:  http://www.bigfatbaby.com/newfun2/flash/saddam.swf