Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)

Mercedes Benz Car Bomb on the way to the DFAC

This car was seized, disabled and used as a display model of what you can see in this region. Terrorists and insurgents are becoming clever at hiding their explosives. In Kuwait, we have to keep an eye out for IEDs, crazy drivers, goats, camels and pedestrians. As you can see, driving can be very tiresome and after a long drive, it feels like a really, really long day at work. We get hazardous duty pay for a reason, because the potential for danger is always there. I've even experienced a mad driver drive in front of me and slam on their brakes to piss me off. Of course, I had to dodge him.

I noticed after my last morale call to Soco, that I've been complaining a lot and I haven't been talking about what's really important about life. Family life. Well, Soco is doing fine and the baby is kicking. I'm getting really excited and I can't wait to get back. I'm having trouble thinking of baby names. I'm so picky, because it will be a name I'll be saying for the rest of my life. But I have to be careful, because I don't want to pick a name that will invite bullying like my sister's old name before she changed it to Phoebe. Got any cool names? Drop me a line!

Missing Home

Burger King in the middle of nowhere, near Iraq

Same thing over and over again. Camp Arifjan is boring. Go to work, eat, sleep, go to work. Nothing new. Only more work. Work... work work and more work. Hit the gym, sleep, shower in cold water, more work.

The Armed Forces Network (AFN) television shows are pretty dull and they play the same thing over and over. I think I have already watched, "Drumline" and "Edward Sizzerhands" like 4 or 5 times already. The music videos are pretty repeaticious also and I'm getting sick of watching Madonna dancing and a singing Frog.

The food place is called the "DFAC", which is pronounced, D-FAC. Their meals are starting to taste the same and I'm getting tired of omlets and sausage for breakfast. They have no soy milk so I can't eat cereal as I would like to change up my diet a little. During the day, I'm getting used to eating "Chicken and Gravy" and some days, I mix it up with "Ham and Gravy". Wednesday nights, they have dry, T-bone steak and Crablegs. I can't complain about that, but after having it 15 times in two months, it gets old. The salad dressing is disagreeable with my digestive system and the fruits don't change. Last night, I had a change and actually enjoyed an unusual meal selection, "Liver". It was really good. Isn't it sad that liver has become the most desirable thing on the menu?

Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Today, we had fun doing a gift exchange with a Secret Santa. I had a lot of fun with it. For my boss, I wrapped a great big, giant box. It was the biggest gift on the table and for the party, we all opened our gifts in front of the crowd. Well, I had the idea to get my boss a 20 pack of bottled H2O! So when my boss lifted the box, he was immediately wondering how the heck he was going to carry this huge gift home! Hehe! When he opened the box, his reaction was kinda shocking. Water! Hahahaha! On the bottom, there was another box. And inside that box was another wrapped present. And inside of it was a wrapped present and inside of that was a Leatherman tool! He was so happy and everybody clapped. Hehehe!

Another Hard Day

Forklift

It was another hard day at work. Mondays for us kicks off with head cleanup. (Restroom cleaning). I joked and made a rule that the last one who shows up has to scrub the toilets. I was kinda tired of people showing up late for cleanup. Somehow, my freak'in rule backfired on me since I was the last one to show up at 0625. So I had to pull the most disgusting duty of all and I had to scrub the toilets with a crappy scratchy thingy. The stench almost made me want to puke. And of course, I put on purple gloves and scrapped the brick hard crap that was stuck to the sides of the toilet. It was very hard, smelly old crap. Since the patients that use them are usually crippled some way, shape or form, they refuse to flush. It is so nasty.

I also had to go to a meeting with some big wigs. The XO had asked me some technical questions about defibrillators and our database program. I told them how important our mission was to have BIOFACS and they all approved and made it one of the top 10 list of things to purchase. I was proud of myself.

Guns and Coffee

Starbucks at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait

Nothing is better than the smell of coffee in the morning. At Camp Arifjan, we are very lucky to have a Starbucks on base. The outside of it looks like a field desert trailer, but on the inside, it is a whole different story. It is like, you've been teleported back to the states. I was one of the first ones to purchase a souveneur Starbucks coffee mug that day and when I finished my six dollar iced mocha, they were all sold out of Kuwaiti mugs. Lucky me! Anyways, is there anywhere else in the world where you can carry large semi-automatic weapons and sip coffee in a relaxing atmosphere at the same time?

Six dollar Mocha better taste good!

Happy Holidays from USMHK

BIOMED PHOTO US Military Hospital Kuwait 2005

As a Navy Tradition, Biomed repairmen from all over the U.S. Navy take their shop photo to share with the world. This year, I am in Kuwait and this is our shop. We represent the commands from Naval Hospital Lemoore, CA, Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan, and Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego.

Ever since we lost one guy, we have been working our tails off. 7, 12 hour days. No time off. That may seem excessive, but we have to do what we have to do. It is really hard to stay focused when we work so much, but we do what we can. I don't want to hear anyone else bitching about their work schedule. Because I work 84 hours a week, cellphone/pager on-call 24 hours a day. I also pull 24 hour duty once a month where I have to stay awake for 24 hours. Beat that.

Red Cross Message and Islamic Culture

Off roading in Kuwait
We had a member of the BMET team get a red cross message. If you known what that means, it means a free ticket home. Unfortunately, that is not the way anyone would like to go home because that also means that there was a death of a close relative. One less person for us, but we can handle it.

I went to a cultural relations class yesterday. I learned a lot about the middle eastern world and their culture. It is a lot different from our culture. Here, it is okay for guys to hold hands and kiss each other. Ick, to us that is super gay. It is also okay to marry more than one wife, but in the Islam religion, if you have sex with one, you much have sex with both (not at the same time) and also they must have exactly the same thing. If you buy one a Mercades the other must have the same car. Fair and equal treatment for both with can be very expensive which most people don't marry more than one person. It would be extremely difficult to please both wives at the same time I was told by one Islamic person. People from other countries cannot purchase land or a house here. They must rent, no matter how much money you got. That is the law. To do business here, you must partner with a natural born Kuwaiti. You can't just be born here to be a Kuwaiti, the family must have lived in Kuwait for generations. I am told that divorce is allowed, however the woman must wait 4 or 5 months to remarry just in case she was pregnant to eliminate any doubt who the baby's family name must go to. Islamic women in Kuwait have the freedom to wear whatever they want, some will wear clothing that covers their whole body but eyes and hands and some will wear western style clothing. To cover up more of the body is to be more conservative. It is very interesting and I am always learning more and more about this place. I just know what there is proof that women here, drive worse than men! Because most of their face is covered!

Unni from Philips Medical troubleshooting the CT Scanner

Winter wonderland in Kuwait

After the rain

I have been told that it rains here during this time. But so far, I've only seen it rain a few times since I've been here. Precipitation is supposed to be about an inch to two inches per year. Not much. In the morning, it is usually really cold and as the sun comes up, it gets warmer and warmer. Like today, the high was 80 degrees. As the sun sets, it cools down. Lately, when it cools down, the cold air brings a thick fog with it. Really spooky. It gives me the chills as if the ghosts of the dead Iraqi solders have come back to haunt us.

To kill off my boredom, I am trying to join every committee and club there is to offer. My boss signed me up for the choir. I was just joking when he asked me if I wanted to sing. I said, "If you sing, I'll sing." The next day, he signed me up.

Damn....

So I found myself today practicing with a group of people singing, "Jingle Bell Rock." We actually sounded good.

BMET Work in Kuwait

Jcid still learning to drive

It has been a busy week. We stay busy by doing preventative maintenance at all the outlying military clinics in Kuwait. It consists of doing a LOT of driving. Several places are difficult to get to because of hidden roads covered in sand. Maps and road signs are not a reliable source for directions so we have to go by memory, landmarks and making a lot of U-turns.

It is common to see shopping malls next to Mosques

Iraq

Road to Baghdad, Talilil, and Basra

Bombed Out Building

Fire!

On the Road Again, Locked and Loaded

Incomplete Sword Structures? - Kuwait City

Everytime we go out, we must be armed and ready to fight to the death. The chances of getting attacked are slim, however, it is being complacent which causes lives to be lost. Going off post makes the time go a lot faster. Being able to see the locals, buildings and barren desert is fascinating. It is no fun being trapped on base. I don't think it is psychologically healthy either. But going out every once in a while helps to relieve stress. Today, I got to see the effects of three days of rain from two weeks ago. Small patches of grass and bushes seem to be blooming which makes a breathtaking desert landscape. I forgot to take my camera on this trip, but I'll bring one next time. After visiting sites around this country, it is obvious to me, that the United States is a huge and powerful force. Helicopters patrolling the air resemble a bunch of black bees swarming over the skies... hundreds of thousands of tanks, humvees, armed men and women, coalition forces, and crablegs. I'm very impressed at the magnitude of our huge and powerful fighting force. No wonder why Saddam was crushed in a matter of weeks. It looks like we are here to stay until the job of strengthining Iraq gets finished.

Getting Treated like Cattle

I would just like to say, that life here sucks. You're just a number. And that everyone here is expendable. But once you figure that out, you'll be just fine.

Lately, we have been told to move once again. I had the privilege to move from a bottom rack to a top rack. My new bunk mate is an O-4. In layman's terms, he is an officer, perhaps a full fledged doctor or nurse. Really strange that they put us together. All the guys around me are very high ranking and somewhat boring to talk to. There's just some freedoms that I don't have the liberty of doing anymore, like bitching and complaining about work to let out all my anger and frustrations. I have to find someplace else to do it. When I change clothes, I do it in the middle of the hallway now (very visible, high traffic). No more privacy. Because, with a bottom rack, I could put up a privacy curtain and have five square feet of changing space. Nope, not anymore! Wow, a real morale killer. Another thing keeping me and everybody else sane. I bend over and say, "Thank you very much sir, may I have another." My motivation to perform well at my job and saving the government hundreds of thousands of dollars has diminished almost completely. I'm just hoping that something good will come out at the end of this tour.

Mission Essential

Kuwaiti Tents in the Desert

Lately, in my job, I've been using the words "Mission Essential" a lot. Everything I do, is critical to our mission in Kuwait. Medical maintenance is key to having exceptional medical care. Because the saying goes, "The medical staff is only as good as their equipment." Anyways, me and the BMET team are doing a lot here to keep this place and outlying clinics running. And it feels good to know that I've fixed something that costs a half a million dollars. That is what I've been trained to do. Hopefully, they don't keep me out here because of that.

Tonight, Jcid and I experienced some really crazy freeways in Kuwait. People freely cross the freeways and lanes don't seem to matter to them. We almost died because some idiot fool was driving full speed on the wrong side of the road!!! Luckily, Jcid didn't panic and steered us into the merger. I feel asleep in the back of the truck and when I woke up, Chief was messing around saying that "J stuck a gun in your mouth." I didn't find that too amusing. Because were were carrying 9mm pistols on our side. Once again, I got to see blown out villages and old Iraqi bone-yards from the first gulf war. Spooky reminisces of history in this area haunt even the most modern of times. My butt still hurts from all the bumpy roads and potholes. The truck we were driving, I swear, doesn't have any shocks in the back. It seems to have a straight solid axle in the rear making my ass feel every rock and bump in the road. The things I have to do for the mission!

Walking on the Moon

Stepping Foot on Kuwaiti Desert

When I first stepped foot in Kuwait, it was like walking on another planet. There was sand and little pebbles of rock everywhere. People's cars were dirty and sandy, it was just a shock and it took some time to get used to it. At first, it was miserable. Nothing was clean and sand got everywhere. I could stand it. Well, aren't you glad you're not here?

Road Signs in Arabic

Road Sign to Ali Sabah Al Salem

After seeing signs like these, what does sloppy handwriting look like in Arabic?

Mass Casualty

My morning started off by passing out gas-masks to staff at the hospital. Watching people struggle with the straps and messing up their hair was quite humorous. It made the time go by faster here in this barren wasteland. After a few hours of doing that pointless job, I got called back to repair an electrocardiogram machine. It is a machine which records and prints out heart rhythms while respiratory techs make the patient walk the treadmill. After that got fixed, we received word that a bus flipped over and that several helos were headed our way. Me and Jcid ran to the back and announced the alarm. "Mass Cal, Mass Cal, this is not a drill!!!" Everybody dropped what they were doing and opened up the conix box filled with stretchers and donkey carts. We got runners to run over to the barracks to recall all the hospital staff. A few corpsman put on helmets and ran after the gurney and lined them up ready to receive patients. There was word that there was to be 14 patients total. I helped carry the patients to the treatment center. Unfortunately for the patients, this was a fun evolution. It gave us a sense of pride and purpose here in Kuwait. Too bad it wasn't a drill.

Kuwait Mini Bazaar

Mini Bazaar in Kuwait

Inside of one of the "lucky" bases in Kuwait, they have a mini-bazaar next to the PX/BX exchange. They also have a street vendor who sales schwarmas which is a marinated meat with salad and tomatoes wrapped in pita bread. Very delicious. They cut their meat off a giant rotating meat k-bob kinda like how they do it in Mexico. Inside the bazaar, there is gold, rugs, souveniers, pirated movies, electronics, etc. No porn or alcohol. (sorry guys, that stuff is illegal in Kuwait) Here, you can bargain down and haggle on the prices just like they would do out in town. Really neat! And the cost is very reasonable!

Rain in the Desert

Well this morning, it rained. Because of this, we got calls like crazy in the maintenance department. "Our Power went out, AHHHH!" Well, we called the Seabees and they came and took a look at the problem. They turned on the backup generators and nothing... Nothing seemed to work. Well, I showed up and read the start up instructions. "Open lid and flip the circuit breaker (CB1)." I flipped the switch and the power came back on! Yep. That made my day. Me finally getting to do what I was paid to do, troubleshoot.

Well, anyways, when it rains in the desert, it is kinda nice. The sand gets packed down so walking on it, is like walking on a huge pan of brownies. The ground closely resembles brown sugar. I haven't seen much mud except on paved road ways. But the sand clumps together nicely.

Good bye EMF Dallas! Chat with the Bus Driver

My Bunk with obnoxious Bedsheets

Finally, those reservists are leaving. EMF Dallas has been running the show at this hospital before we got here and before them, it was EMF Portsmouth. Now, it is EMF Kuwait - Camp Pendleton Detachment. This new crew of people are a good team. A good number of us actually volunteered to be here and are motivated while a few were "volun-told" to be here. But most of all, we are a good bunch of people who know what we are doing. It has been said that we are the greatest and the best Navy Medicine has to offer. The doctors, nurses, corpsman and ancillary staff were hand selected from 21 different commands from around the globe and put into one hospital. This has never been done before. I'm glad to be a part of this historic evolution and informing the world of what we are all about.

Yesterday, for fun, I chatted with a bus driver who drives a shuttle bus which rotates around the base here at Camp Arifjan. The guy is from Bangladash. (spelling?) I have no idea where that is located, but anyways, he told me that he was from Pakistan. He told me how lazy Pakistani people were and that they like to work one day and get two days off. Hehe, what a work ethic! I had asked him if he liked his job and he told me that, of course, he didn't. He was doing it for the money. He traveled all the way to Kuwait for money! Wow. He is also had a girl friend and plans on moving back to his country. I had told him about my family history and that my parents were refugees from the Vietnam war and had settled in the states ever since. He acknowledged and told me that the situation in Vietnam and Iraq were the same, except that Iraq has oil and Vietnam has rice. So True. So True...

Fair and Equal Treatment for All

Camels in the Desert

This is one of those places that I can experience genuine fair and equal treatment for everyone. When we are out here, no matter what RANK, race or sex, everyone here gets the shaft. Including our entire chain of command (O-6 and down)... Just like everyone else, they sleep in tents and exercise the "buddy system" just like everyone else. Probably because we are Navy on an Army base. But everyplace I've been to, higher ups get treated like royalty which, sometimes, makes me sick. Well, my group finally moved out of the tents and are now squished into a birthing area which is somewhat similar to what we had in bootcamp. It is a downgrade from the tents, that's for sure. A lot less space and privacy. Instead of 14 to a tent, it is now 100+ to a room which means we have to be less flexible with lights and sound because we encounter more day sleepers. But an advantage is that I don't have to walk so far to take a shower or go to work. Work is only 5 minutes away now instead of the 25 minute bus ride. Yeah!

Being away from my wife, Socorro, is kinda depressing. But being with all these other people who are also seperated from their families make it even more depressing. Once, I saw someone break down and cry. It's killing me. I can't wait to get out of this hell hole. Good thing it's only a 6 month deployment. I don't know if I can do it for a year like the EMF Dallas guys. The extra money isn't worth it to me. The MWR here, I can honestly say is sufficient. There's not much more you can do to the community centers which easily get overcrowded. Getting access to the internet takes an hour or two. There just isn't anywhere else to go and nowhere to spend money for things you want. The military store (PX/BX) mostly sells necessities and Army stuff. Not much of a selection of anything else. I find it humorous to see everyone have the same ugly colors of bedsheets. Today, I bought the most obnoxious looking bedsheets and draped my bottom rack with it. Hehe.

Boredom is Setting In

After arriving in Kuwait, the life here is repetitious. Get up early, 3 s's (shower, shit and shave) put on uniform, get on bus, eat breakfast and go to work. Work. work. work. work. work. Eat lunch, work some more. Go home. Do laundry or hang out in rec-center and check e-mails. Same thing over and over and it gets boring really quick. The bad thing is, is that I say busy because these things are time consuming, yet free time only comes while I'm doing things like "waiting for the bus" or riding the bus to work which makes other things hard to accomplish such as reading a book. Backpacks aren't allowed in dining facilities and if you bring one, there's no place to put it. The Army is known to blow up backpacks sitting outside the dining facility. Also, you aren't allowed to overstuff your pockets with stuff as I do mine. I always carry my prescription goggles and digital camera. Not much room for anything else. I try to take my time writing letters, but it is difficult since the only time is at night. The lights go out at about 10 pm. Sounds like a bunch of complaining... I know. Everything can be solved with just being able to carry a backpack.

Riding on Kuwaiti Freeway

Camels in the back of a truck

There are some unusual things to see while driving on the freeway. This country has colorful buildings and mosques (spelling?). People here don't usually obey the posted speed limit which is about 120 km/h. Since gas is so cheap, people drive their SUVs with the pedal to the floor. Because of this, there are a lot of broken down vehicles and roll over vehicles on the side of the road awaiting to be junked.

Touring Expeditionary Medical Facility Kuwait

Today, I did a lot of moving metal containers around trying to find equipment. I'm getting the ball rolling on the database ULLS-G program. I really want to get a database started here. Right now, we are running a spreadsheet program (excel), but we don't have a set schedule for preventative maintenance. It kinda sucks and I'm going to fix it. There are also talks of shutting this "tent" hospital down and relocating. After walking around and doing my tour, I see that it is extremely crowded. In the front, they do triage and there is different departments in different tents. Without releasing classified information, I can say that there is admin, x-ray, pharmacy, lab, supply, or, anesthesia, respiratory, cardiovascular, wards (number of them is secret), and emergancy room. Walking around there is tight, some people describe it as being like a submarine or ship where we have to get out of someone's way to have somebody else walk past us. The ceilings are low between tents like it was built by a midget. Anyways, it looks like the corpsman get a lot of hands on experience in emergancy care. Today, I saw them practicing litter carrying.

Last night, I went running (caugh, caugh). And I went to the gym to kill the monotomy of work. I discovered a stash of things that people mail out to us. We call it "Wal-Mart" where people donate essentials such as toothbrushes, razors, Slim Jims, candy and other things. It is really cool. Well anyway my time on the net is running out.

Training to be a Killer

I am now a "marksman" at the M16 and the 9mm. I am now able to wear both service ribbons. I am a lousy shot with the M16, but a "killer" with the 9mm. Hehe!

I also got to escort some third country nationals onto the camp. Almost all the employees here are either, Indian, Philipino or Pakistan. Kuwaities are pretty wealthy and don't work any hard jobs. It makes me wonder who is serving in their military.

Tonight, I had crablegs, pizza, baskin robbins, and corn on the cob. The food here is the best! I can't complain, especially since it is free. There is also a laundry service that washes your clothes for free too. I plan on taking advantage of that as soon as I can. Today has been a pretty good day so far.

The living conditions aren't that great. There is 14 of us (E-5s and E-6s) sharing a tent. It is dusty and the air conditioner runs all day. When the lights go out, it is pitch dark and when i use my flash light, it lights up the entire tent... hehe. I have one of those bright LED flashlights, it works a little too well. The Army makes us use the "battle buddy" system and we have to wake someone up in the middle of the night so we can walk to the porta-johns. The showers are almost a quarter mile away. It sucks because when I walk back to my tent, I am dusty and sandy again.

Also, if anyone would like to send me or the people of EMF Kuwait a letter or mail, let me know so I can forward the mailing address. Other than that, I'm going to take a nap after this exhausting day.

Arriving Camp Arifjan

Helo Landing

Tents

It it dusty. Real dusty and dirty and sandy everywhere. Even this keyboard that I am typing on. I can't stand it. I just washed my clothes and it is still a bit sandy. Well anyways, right now, I'm missing my digital camera. It sucks not being able to record some images of my adventures here. Today, I got to remove some patients from a landing helicopter (training). And I also got to put out chemical fires with fire extinguishers. It was really cool. The food here is ridiculously unlimited. The messhall is loaded up with almost everything and there is also a Baskin Robbins where an (Indian man) scoops up your icecream. It is best food I've ever had in the military. Well, I gotta go and I'll keep it posted.

FHOTC Training

The FHOTC training was a long and boring evolution. It was a requirement before going into theatre. There they gave us classes on everything we needed to prepare ourselves for deployment into Kuwait. The food wasn't bad, it was regular galley food and on the last day of our training, we got crablegs and lobster. It was pretty cool. The CO and XO served us some food. I do not have much time to type everything... but I'll keep this page up to date.

2005 Tokyo Motor Show

Nissan's Pivo. Bubble Concept car which eliminates reverse driving.

Nissan's Sports Car March

The Tokyo Motorshow was a blast! An automotive enthusiasts dream. Most of the cars shown are mostly sold in Japan, but a small select few will touch US pavement. There were a lot of concept cars and concepts for concept cars. Automotive technology is always getting better and better. Sports/high performance hybrid cars are also very popular. All the companies for hybrid car parts and hydrogen fuel cell technologies were taking over.

Future Nissan Skyline

Nissan Skyline Concept

It's a Volkswagon

Ferrari

Mazda's Concept

Concept Car with strange door opening

Motorcycle Car

Motorcycles are so exciting! So exciting, they made a car that drove like a motorcycle!

Harley Davidson Motorcycles

Lexus LF-SH is quite popular

The crowds were terrible. I found myself bumping against almost everybody just to get some good pictures. But that is to be expected at the Tokyo Motorshow!

Karaoke Parlors and Japanese Pimps

Last night/early this morning was the very first time me and Soco have ever been to a Kareoke Parlor. A group of friends and us were pretty much the loudest ones there. We cranked up the volume to the max, drank beer and sang to our heart's content. It was really great! There was plenty of privacy in the little party room. The place served all kinds of drinks, ice cream and food. The service was top notch. And having the microphone in your hand makes you feel like a superstar no matter how crappy of a singer you might be.

I also learned what men in business suits, who look like CIA agents with their earbuds, are doing in the streets at midnight. They are like, what we call in the states, pimps. They will come up to any (single) guy and try to introduce him to a girl and tell you where she is, so you can hook up. She will usually be located at some hotel somewhere and the business man will give the guy a room number. After the engagement(sex), you are expected to pay the girl with a gift no less than 30000 yen (300 dollars) in which the man takes the girl to a nice store. That is why you see some school girls with expensive Gucci purses. Prostitution is illegal, however the men aren't paying the girls with cash. A loophole in the system. In the states, this would appear to be a sleezy thing to do, but here it is handled with professionalism. In Japan, sex is sex, the girls don't expect anything else.

Being stationed at the hospital and Soco being a laboratory technician, I know for a fact that the STD rate is high in heavily populated places such as this. And condoms don't protect from other STDs such as crabs, genital warts, and herpes. The consequences of STDs can be life changing and extremely painful.



Damn it, I can't seem to get that song, "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto" out of my head. At the end of the night, my throat was sore from all the yelling and screaming of the lyrics of Smash Mouth "I'm a believer" (from Shrek), Shaggy's "Wasn't Me.", and Anchor's Aweigh (in which, I didn't pick that song, but some joke-ster wanted me to sing that one, so I did, with my best pirate voice).

View of Mt. Fuji on the Tomei Expressway 

100km/h rocks! 

Getting Worked to Death

Wooden Statue in the Tokyo National Museum

Getting stationed in Japan has it's ups and downs. Aside from the great liberty here, unfortunately, there are some manning issues at this place. It has got me wondering, is it so hard to find people who want to come to Japan? The shop I work at has been working on a skeleton crew for almost a year now. We lost four techs and only two of them got replaced. One of our crew got deployed to Iraq, one is working in Diego Garcia and the rest of us are constantly pulled for command, ASF, decon, Biomed, color guard and ASW duties. Two have been pulled to do strictly administrative services (another manning issue). Our boss(the chief) is never there because he is working a side job, wasting time at meetings and pull all kinds of unusual duties. Everytime we suggest process improvements, he just acknowledges, but nothing ever happens. He is so useless. He is a "Yes, sir", "Yes, maam" kinda guy so it ends up screwing us in the end.



Let me give you a scenario, which crap like this always happens. Last Friday, we shutdown our shop to move 50 lockers to make room for a new Lieutenient! Although, there is an empty office with computer hookups and air-conditioning a few yards away. Using the lame excuse: "It is too far away." Our boss doesn't have the power of suggestion or come up with good ideas. He would must rather get spit on, just so that he doesn't look bad. I wish I can be in his shoes. I would fix everything. In this scenario, I would start by telling that officer, "No sir, this is a controlled and industrious area. We cannot allow people to trek back and forth through this workspace to your office because someone could get seriously injured and you would not want to be responsible for that." You see, the power of saying 'NO' and a good reason would do the job. That officer would be a damn fool to force it.



Well anyway, that just leaves me and the LPO (my other boss), here to fix and repair equipment at the hospital. Another thing, I'll be leaving for Kuwait in a few days. So that is going to leave only one person (the LPO) to repair, maintain and calibrate all of the medical equipment in this hospital, branch clinic in Sasebo, Iwakuni, Negishi, Atsugi, Camp Fuji, Chenhae Korea, and the pacific fleet. I'm scratching my head... And right now, I would say we're up 40% on all things running the way it should. I don't wish this situation on anyone. It is clearly a nightmare for any new guy checking-in in the future. I'm tired of working hard and late all the time and putting out fires. Once I get finished with something, 4 or 5 things come up. The workload is multiplying! I just have to say one thing, "So long, and thanks for all the cola."

Watching TV is so 21st Century!

Big House in Hiroshima

As television is becoming more and more obsolete, watching the most current shows, live news, comedy shows, when you want them, in demand, is all on the internet now-a-days. No more spending countless hours on commercials or wasting time waiting for your favorite show or music video to come on, it's all on the internet. Man, I love it! AOL has all the newest and old music videos, live CNN, National Geographic, streaming radio you could ever want. Now, I just have to figure out how to connect my television to my computer so I can connect my television to the internet. I've been looking for a new video card with s-video or AV output, but prices are a bit expensive for that kind of toy. Another project of mine is to get a good DVD +/- rewriteable disk drive. Also, I want to get a good camcorder with the new Hard Disk technology. I know that JVC already has one with their "Everio G". It has 40 gigabytes of memory which can record 7 hours of Ultry DVD Movie quality videos. Really exciting. Tapes are quickly being phased out and DVD is the norm. DVD is going to phase out in the upcoming years as Blu-ray and HD-DVD becomes popular. Why is it so great? An entire box set of DVDs can fit on one HD-DVD. The new X-box 360 will feature this technology.

I'm also pretty excitied that someone (Volkswagon) had crossed the finishline this year at the robot(unmanned) vehicle races in death valley in Southern California. The pentagon gave those developers a year to fix up their robots after last years race. (One year is an eternity in electronics technology) The obstacle course featured 3 different tunnels to knock out GPS, winding dirt roads with 20 ft drop off cliffs, bottle necks, barb wire fences, trees, giant rocks and ditches. Real amazing. It won't be long before artificial intelligence makes our way into our homes.

Tommy Davidson Comedian Show

I don't know how they get celebrities out here, but MWR is doing a good job bring them to Yokosuka. Tommy Davidson is known to star in the 90's hit comedy show, "In Living Color". He also starred in "Woo" and a few other movies. Real funny guy. The theatre was packed. I was glad to show up an hour early to get seats. The people who got there late, got to stand. It was a great comedy show. He had something to say about everybody. The dances of each race, buff people in gyms, who should become the next president, Cops... Tommy was right about the plane trip to Japan. When you fall asleep on the plane, you wake up, you're still in the plane. And you fall asleep again, when you wake up, you're STILL IN THE PLANE!

Toy Vending Machines

These little vending machines are so cool! From children's toys to naked anime girls, they have something for everybody. My favorite is the mini-Gundam (robot) action figures. I'm still anticipitating when Japan actually creates a real Gundam. Soco likes the Disney scenes. The stuff in vending machines are cheaper than purchasing the same thing from the store. You just have to put the darn things together yourself. (Small mental challenge, required)

Strange Fashion Sense

White Trash Charms, Roppongi Hills

The Japanese tend to pick something and dedicate their entire lives to perfecting one thing. It is really strange. In places like Harajuku and Ikebukuro, there are a lot of fashion clothing stores. When they focus on one theme, they take it to the extreme. Look at the picture above. They take it to a whole other level. Once, me and Soco ran into a East L.A. Mexican clothing store. They decorated their store with machine guns, Mexican women holding guns, plasma tvs which displayed bouncing cars, knives, Mexican flags and tattooed latino gang members. I though it was kinda funny, but Soco was offended and wanted to burn the store to the ground. Well, sometimes the Japanese think they got it all right. Hehe