Meeting the President

Last week, prior to my departure out to the beloved CP 3-C, I was approached while enjoying dinner at the dining hall by SSG Atkinson. It was Thursday, I believe. He interrupted one of the ever so intellectual conversations us Specialists have at dinner, and asked me to come see him as soon as I was finished eating. My brain scanned through all of the mischievous deeds I had done in the recent past and couldn't determine what I could possibly be getting in trouble for this time. Laughing it off, I finished my food quickly, and met him at a table across the hall, where he was eating. My team leader asked me to sit down, and told me upfront not to worry, it was a 'good' thing. Whew, guess I still haven't been caught. He then proceeded to hand me a printed sheet of paper, most of which included obscure details of everything about me, with a few pieces of information left blank. I inquired as to the origin of the information, and he simply said that I had the opportunity to meet with "a dignitary" and that first I must complete the form to have my background information processed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
I had been hearing a lot of talk on the television CNN World News channel that President George Bush was visiting the region, so of course my first thought was that I might get to meet our Nation's 43rd President. Anxious as I was, I had no idea about when, where, how, or what I would be doing, or for that matter, if it was even the President that I would be meeting.
Shortly upon completing and returning the form to my team leader, I was in my room, when a few people knocked and said how cool it was that I was meeting the President. Funny how word travels around here. My assumption correct, I definitely was interested in the details of my meeting. In the mean time, I put a fresh, never before worn uniform in the dry cleaners on post, pulled out and laced up some new boots, and gathered some new patches, so as to look "squared away" as the Army likes to put it.

I ended up traveling out to the Observation Post, and was told that I'd be coming back in on the weekend for my meeting with the "dignitary". They gave me a day to get my uniform together, then told me to meet up at the Squadron Tactical Operations Center (TOC) in the morning. Of course I was not advised to bring my beret, as we've been wearing our MFO boonie hats, but luckily I brought mine anyway. I give myself credit for forward thinking and not looking like an idiot on this one. Anyway, we loaded up into vans, and headed out.

The following is the account I wrote just after returning from my trip: "I just got back a few minutes ago from my trip to meet President Bush.
What an experience! 14 of us (two Colonels, our Command Sergeant Major
myself and 10 other enlisted men, plus a driver) drove 5km down the
road from our base, to the Hyatt Hotel. We went in the lobby, through
loads of security, and sat among the hundreds of secret service
members, all laden with ear pieces and hand mics, just like the
movies... although they were wearing everything you could imagine,
suits of all colors, down to regular clothes. Some were more obvious
than others, and everyone seemed to know eachother, regardless of how
awkward they looked next to each other. Most had ID badges, others
lapel pins. We waited around for an hour or so, then went down the
back side of the hotel terrace to a secluded building. We had to be
very quiet, and on the walk down, the man in charge (some sort of
organizer/ planner) told everyone to hurry up and get a move on.
There were Embassy workers, hotel staff, a few Marines in suits, among
other people. We went out back, where Bush and Mubarak were having
their interview. After it was over, Bush walked over towards us,
wiping his face of sweat, and made a joke about having to take his
makeup off to talk to us. It was surreal, seeing him face to face. He
appeared tall (I guess his 6' looks short on TV, but on the contrary
in person). We were in a group, the Colonel called us to attention,
saluted the Commander in Chief, and presented him one of our
terracotta colored MFO berets. He spoke with us, not too long, nor
too brief, but asked us how we were, and talked about our mission, how
we liked the country, where we were from, made sure to shake all of
our hands and spoke directly to all of us. Was a GREAT experience.
Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed, however, the white house
photographer took a bunch of shots and said we would receive official
photos in the mail in like six weeks. The picture is basically of the
13 of us, plus the President standing on the lawn next to where his
interview took place. I'm in the front row, President Bush is in the
middle, and i'm the second person to his right. CSM Zeangle and LTC
Langol obviously got to stand next to him... I'm not complaining. He
shook our hands again, patted me on the back, embraced my shoulder,
and said "Tell your family I said thank you," and of course I replied
"Will do, Sir." So there you go, President Bush wanted me to thank
all of you for supporting me and my endeavors across the world. Upon
leaving, we went our the side entrance, and walked along the ocean
pathway, with members of the Embassy. I talked to one gentleman the
whole way, pretty interesting. On the walk back to the lobby, we
passed Condelleeza Rice and two diplomatic aids having coffee on their
balcony. She waved. We also were passed by Secret Service Police...
now these guys weren't hiding who they were. They had enough weaponry
to take out the Egyptian Army. They said hello to us and kept moving
along. We also saw many snipers and Secret Operations officers
walking around... lets just say there was more gov't employees in the
hotel than actual guests. We went out to the trucks we came in on,
and had to wait for the president to leave for departure on AF1. The
convoy was nearly 50 cars long, in the middle being the two
presidential Cadillacs, and was mostly consisting of Chevy Suburbans,
many of which had the back window open and assault rifles protruding.
I have to get back to work out at the checkpoint, so I'll leave it at
that... definitely a worthwhile experience. Hopefully I'll get
emailed copies of the pictures before i get them in the mail in 6
weeks. Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know! Have a good week!
Talk to you all as soon as possible."

I feel no need to rewrite that, as it sums up my trip fairly well. I must, however, reiterate the coolness of the Secret Service Police. I wish I had a picture of them guys. Anyway, it was a great experience and I had tons of fun.

Update: my hometown newspaper ended up printing an article and color picture about my meeting with the President, way cool!

Gone Again.

I am headed back out to the Observation Posts again, so count on me not being around for a few weeks. I'll attempt to keep writing thoughts down as I go, so I can update this upon my return.

On a side note, I believe I have mastered the art of packing. While many members of my squad have trouble fitting their "necessary" equipment into 3-4 full sized bags, I've managed to fit everything I need into our ironically named 'three-day assault packs'. No, I don't intend on wearing the same uniform every day, I actually packed 7 sets of everything, along with books, my computer, and mission essential gear. I think they wrongly issued me a 'three-week assault pack' but I'm not complaining. Less for me to carry. I'm the assistant gunner for the machine gun, so I have to tote the spare barrel and tripod mount, so the less, the better.

Picture today: the long, barren road to the field.

No longer a Private.

I've reached yet another milestone in my Army career: I have, for the third time since joining the Army, been promoted, this time to the rank of Specialist. I was eligible for promotion based on my fulfillment of the promotion criteria, having achieved the required amount of time in military service and time in the grade of Private First Class. Turns out I was actually eligible as of December 23, 2007, but it took them a while to file the paperwork.
The Specialist rank is the fourth enlisted ranking, just ahead of Private First Class, and just behind Sergeant. Today I was 'pinned' with my new rank. The 1SG and Commander held a formation, ripped off my PFC Velcro rank and put on my new rank. After some applause, the formation was called to attention, and dismissed to carry on our duties.
As per tradition (one of those weird Army-only kinds of traditions), the eight guys in my squad lined up and were each afforded one punch at the new square rank patch. I don't make up these kinds of things, and I've never punched a newly promoted soldier, but I still play along with the traditions. Some of the guys were easy with their punches, but my new fellow Specialist buddies weren't so kind in welcoming me to the new rank. I guess it's their way of "breaking in" the new guy... quite literally. It wasn't all too bad, just got the wind knocked out of me a bit. I retired from the formation, bruised, but in great spirits. It's always nice to advance in your career, and it's even nicer to get a pay raise! Luckily, I'll get back-pay for the months before my promotion that I was eligible for SPC.

Today's picture is of me in the Quick Reactionary Force cage, wearing my new rank on my uniform and patrol cap.

Short Posts

I'm terrible at keeping up with this, so I'm resorting to shorter posts in hopes of getting some kind of updates in. Don't count on me to maintain this much, I really am quite busy, and it seems whenever I have free time, the internet is being uncooperative. Hmm, maybe the internet's the reason I'm always busy. I'll also admit that I'm hesitant to post anything that I'm not 100% pleased with, which is why you're not getting many updates. Perfectionism is the demise of efficiency. As always, I'll try to write more lengthy pieces about the important stuff.

As for today, just another day in the Sinai.

Picture today: my apology for being a slacker on the posts.

Morale, Welfare, and Recreation...

This week is our 'MWR' week here on south camp. As the title of the post indicates, it is a time of recuperation; a bit of down time from the busyness of the deployment. I have decided to spend my free time this week doing as little as possible. I am scheduled to take a long weekend trip in the next few weeks to drive to Cairo and sight-see, so I don't feel bad about wasting this opportunity to survey the locality. My plans for the week? Sleep in as late as I can, lay in bed until my stomach forces me to eat, watch movies, listen to music, and read... if i feel like it. I'm going to pretend I'm back in high school during summer vacation... better yet, with my notoriety for being absent from school all together, it's like I'm back in high school. I'll add on to the post later this week, letting you know how it goes.


4/10/08
Alright, it's been three days, and I must say, quoting Office Space "I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be." Laziness is the best and worst thing in the world. I've come to learn that if you can conquer boredom, you can take on anything. Perhaps tomorrow I'll go to the beach, the guys are talking about getting together for a game of beach volleyball. Talk about mixing it up.

Picture today: Totally unrelated to the post, but contrary to world belief, Americans aren't the only egotistical human beings who think that they own planet earth and can pollute the environment with excessive luxury vehicles. Unfortunately CO2 pollution is the least of our worries these days; we'll be lucky to see the light of day when the polar ice caps melt, in the wake of global terrorism and massive world conflicts happening now. Until we can solve the issues we face now, drive safely everybody.

My First Taste of Freedom.

Last week, while still out at the Observation Post, we were informed by the Non-Commissioned Officers in charge of the weekly logistical deliveries that upon return to South Camp, we were authorized to leave the base on our personal time. Man, was that great news. Finally a chance to experience something profoundly new. Today, I decided to take advantage of my new freedom and enjoyed my first true immersion in Egyptian culture. While the area we're located in is dominated by tourism and exists solely based on an exclusively foreign consumer basis, it's still teeming with local, very poor, Egyptian citizens and the nomadic Bedouin villagers. Of course, it's obvious who the tourists are, and most everything is overpriced and lacks quality. The USD is widely accepted over the nation's Egyptian Pounds, which, at time of writing, are worth roughly 5.5 to 1 USD; the merchants like to round off that figure to make it 5:1. Seeing as there are many European tourists, the Euro is also very widely used here.
Anyway, we left camp and caught a cab (in this country they're all white Hyundai's with blue fenders) to Na'ama Bay. It's like a mile drive, but I guess we're lazy. It cost 2 USD for the ride. We headed to the main tourist center, affectionately named the Na'ama Center, and checked out the hundreds of shops. It is amazing how Americanized these places become. Coca-Cola and Pepsi signs are the most prominent of all American products advertised. There's also a KFC, a Pizza Hut, a TGI Friday's, a Hard Rock Cafe, a McDonald's and a Starbucks. Awesome, but I have no doubt that the quality of the food is terrible compared to back home. Of course we joked about the probability of the beef patties at McDonald's actually being camel meat, and I don't think I'll take any chances. Aside from the chain establishments, the rest were shops owned by locals, selling cheesy souvenirs, and mass produced junk.
We walked around for a while, and eventually found ourselves talking to a few shop owners who knew some english. They offered us tea, and I gladly accepted. The man asked how much sugar I would like and seemed confused when I told him none. I guess they like their tea sweet. While preparing the tea, we talked about sports, and they asked us about George W. Bush, after finding out we were Americans. They insisted upon loving American, but thought the war in Iraq was all bad. They didn't know we were soldiers, but thought we were simply tourists. They had a copy of the International Edition of USA Today, so I read through it while enjoying the tea. Nothing going on back home. The tea was hot, and the glass they serve it in had to be held by the top and bottom so as not to burn yourself. Also, they don't have tea bags, they simply pour the grounds in the bottom of the glass and add hot water. Interesting, and a bit odd to me, but definitely some good tea. We hanged out for a while, they were good people. It's nice to see how people from other countries live. It's a totally different society from anything I know.
Afterwards, we shopped around, bought some cokes for $2 a piece (yes, $2 for a 12 ounce can) and got some food. All in all, a good day, just hanging out and discovering our new surroundings. Later on, we met up with a few other guys, and just walked around some more. We made our way down to the beach front. Reminded me of something you'd see in Mexico, aside from there being a lot of old European people around. I wore a Ralph Lauren Polo, and found out it was a good choice, as most every single British couple I saw was wearing the same brand. I'd rather fit in, then to stand out as an American. We walked down the strip of hotels, the Marriot, the Hilton, the Days Inn, among others to the end of the strip, then made our way back to the street to head back. On the street we passed the Ghazala Gardens Hotel, the site of the 2005 suicide bombings here. The reception area is newly repaired, but the pock-marks on the adjacent buildings are still very noticeable. There's still many areas scarred by the attacks, serving as a constant reminder of the necessity to always be prepared.
Shortly after, we caught a cab back to base. Nothing too exciting, but a new adventure in and of itself.

Picture today is of a alley of shops in Na'ama Bay under the moonlight.

Back at last!

Hello to all,
It's been nearly a month since my last post, but rest assured, I haven't given up on the blog just yet. We recently returned back to camp after a long month of work. I managed to write a few posts (by hand, as we didn't really have access to the internet) which I will shortly be working on adding to my blog. I will post them in chronological order so as to have better documentation of the events which surround my adventures here, so make sure to look back in the forthcoming days to read about a few of my observations while away from Camp.

In a transient and very unsophisticated, and perhaps very jumbled update, I've been busy readjusting to life on south camp, where I am thoroughly enjoying the fact that I need not cook my own meals, and now can return to a normal human's sleep schedule. I have further elaborated on these points in my previous (but still unpublished) post, so gimme a few days to work it all out.

Also, upon return from our control point we were informed of Command's decision to allow us to venture off Camp during our free time, indeed a very pleasant surprise. I spent a majority of my free Saturday roaming around the local tourist hub of Naama Bay, which is another story (and another post) all in itself. Aside from all of the newfound fun, we've also gotten back to business. We have been busy, back on the training trail, doing more combat water survival training and weapons re-qualification. I managed to survive swimming in the Red Sea fully clothed, combat boots and all as part of our training on Sunday, and was equally successful in my re-qualification today with my M4 Carbine. I shot 35/40 targets ranging from 50 to 300 meters on both my familiarization and record fires. I felt very comfortable with my weapon and my sharpshooter score, which in turn is indeed very reassuring. As for the current moment, I'm scheduled to take the Army Physical Fitness Test at 0430 tomorrow, meaning I need to get my rest now.

Expect MUCH more frequent updates in the near future. Oh, and I've recently been informed that I will be taking a Duty Tour in the coming weeks to visit the little towns of Giza and Cairo... so expect pictures and posts about my trip there! Today's picture is of my roommate (PFC Rudolph... like the reindeer) and I in Naama Bay on Saturday, next to a domesticated camel (it's sitting down and measures in at about 9-10 feet when standing) and a local Egyptian, with SPC Detample, SPC Pashley, and PFC Johnson behind us. Note the KFC in the background... yes, this place is very Americanized, as I had previously acknowledged the first night we arrived in country over 2 months ago. Adding on to the list of things I was warned of prior to arriving here that I've discovered on my own is the fact that camels smell... very bad. And, no sorry, it didn't spit.