1 January

I hope everyone had a relaxing first day of January...mine was rather hectic. I had all intentions of sleeping in today - to about 0830, until a received a call over the radio at 0728 that an inbound convoy was 10 minutes from our front gate; I am sure this will not be the only hour of sleep I lose this year. We were expecting a convoy to deliver 16 new vehicles to our location.

Within minutes of my wake-up call I was in the receiving area standing on top of a fire truck watching the convoy appear and disappear behind buildings and structures as they move through the compound to my location. From my vantage point I could see the vehicles in the convoy and the cargo they were transporting. It was early, compared to the late night of poker playing, and I have come to terms that my eyesight is not improving with my age. I mention this because I counted the approaching cargo 5 times but still came up short by 2 vehicles. Is there a trail vehicle that is still being inspected by the guards? Or, is my eyesight getting that bad - don't tell my flight surgeon.

Well come to find out the convoy started with the correct number of vehicles to be delivered but 2 got "taken-out" prior to showing up at our location. The whole incident happened many miles from my location and thankfully no one in the convoy was injured. I hear we will get replacements for those 2 vehicles but their delivery date is TBD. Since I was one of six Americans awake I gathered up some Iraqi Army soldiers and we off loaded all the vehicles.

The trailers were to be backed-up into a load/unload area. Essentially, the trucks backed down a ramp dug into the ground so that the flatbed was about level to the ground, allowing us to drive the cargo off the flatbed; a small ramp is used to close the gap between the flatbed and the ground. So here is the kicker - I do not speak Arabic, the Iraqi soldiers do not speak English and the Truck drivers are from India and speak neither Arabic or English. And just for laughs the private contractors that escorted the convoy to us are from England and the only words I could understand from their fast talking mouths were good-day, bloody and mate. To add to the confusion several of the vehicles had to be jump-started in order to get them off the flatbeds and one of them puttered-out of gas before we could back it up ten feet...if its not one thing its another. Try pushing a 4x4 truck off a truck and through the sand - not easy when you do not speak the language.

Through loud voices, hand gestures and multiple "back-up" attempts we accomplished the mission. Within two hours we had all the vehicles off-loaded and the convoy was departing from our position. By this time signs of life began to show around all parts of the base; by eleven thirty everyone was up and lunch was served. I grabbed some food and headed back to my room to open a few more presents. To my surprise I received a second shipment of letters and packages on New Years Eve, around 21:00, by helicopter - got to love those helo pilots. I'm going to bed early - good night.