Mosul Entry #1

Hello Everyone,

I have made it to Mosul and I am finally settled in. It was quite a journey to get here and I am glad it is over. My week at Ft. Benning went smoothly and without incident. We spent a lot of our time drawing equipment, most of which we didn’t need. I have a fell set of hard core cold weather gear that would suffice for arctic conditions. I guess the Army is concerned that I may catch a cold over here in the 100 degree weather.

The highlight of Ft. Benning was the fact that Jon Ochsner came down form Atlanta to take me out on the town. Of course, I forgot to take Jon's picture so all he gets is a mention.

Our trip to Kuwait took over 30 hrs but luckily I slept most of the way. Our first stop was Bangor where a group of about 70 people from the surrounding area came to the airport to greet us, give us food, lend us cell phones to call our families and wish us well. They had even rented out a room in the airport where they had photos of every military unit that had gone through Bangor on their way over seas. It was very touching to have these wonderful people supporting us. Check out their web site at http://www.freeportflagladies.com. Our group's photos are listed inder the second flight on 1 August 2008 through Bangor.



Next we flew through Frankfurt but I barely remember any of it. I was so tired that even though I got off the plane, I don’t think I actually ever woke up.

Next stop was Kuwait! Why anyone would ever want to live in Kuwait is beyond me. It would best be described as a sand blasting convection oven. We landed at 8 pm and it was still 115 degrees. After unloading our bags, we reloaded them onto a bus for an hour ride to another base. Here we were finally able to get horizontal and attempt some real sleep. Although all our tents had A/C, it really doesn’t do much when it is 120 degrees outside. We were at Camp Buehring for about 4 days and the only redeeming quality is that Camp B had a Starbucks which allowed us to temporarily forget that we were in hell.

Yep, Hasher marks in Kuwait.....We are everywhere!!!!!!!
The inside of one of our tents. Pretty swank except for the heat!
Inside Starbucks forgetting that we are in hell!
Starbucks surrounded by blast walls......Don't want the cappuccino machine to get damaged.....then we would get real pissed!

After being at Buehring, we could not wait to get to Mosul which at least could not be worse….right? Well, even though we get mortared in Mosul, I would still much rather be here than in Kuwait. The only other story I have about getting to Mosul is our flight on the C-130. We flew up with a bunch of soldiers from Alaska. These guys had fallen on hard times and were bitching the whole way. Their unit used to be stationed in Hawaii until they were relocated to Fairbanks, AK. Furthermore, the only good months in Alaska are July, Aug and Sept. Unfortunately, they were being deployed to Iraq at this time! We had a lot of fun especially when the C-130 approached the runway! We fell out of the sky like a stone and then banked hard and hit the runway at a break neck speed. It was like a ride at Islands of Adventure!

Packed in like sardines on the C-130
You are ready to move about the country!
All this war fighting makes me tired!

So here in Mosul at Camp Diamondback, life is pretty good. My CHU (container housing unit) is very plush and came with a tv and fridge courtesy of my good buddy Sam who I am replacing. One of the Docs planted a flower garden to soften the place up. We live penned in by blastwalls so it makes you feel like a mouse in a maze. The food is good and the latrines and showers are clean so I really have very little to complain about. Things have been very quiet for the past few months and we have zero patients in the hospital. Since being here I have only done two anesthetics and they were both non combat related. Although I am bored, this is the kind of boredom I look forward to. So far, I have been reading a lot, running, going to the gym and eating much more than I should.

Yes, I live on Scalpel lane.

Flower garden in front of my CHU. None are blooming right now but we are hopeful. In the back ground is our bunker. Thankfully we have not had to use it yet.

This is how I like to remember myself before I left home. Melissa took this photo on my last day in El Paso. She had just given me a beer and cigar at the suggestion of Aunti Sue! These ladies spoil me rotten!

Just a friendly reminder to set up your Skype if you have not already done so. It has been working great!

Love to all,
Pedro