16 Jan

Day 45 - Well I have been in country for 45 days now - only 135 days until I get on a plane headed home. What a busy day...in addition to "moving" all the vehicles yesterday I was able to sign away the last of the new buildings today. One by one I am crossing things off my list but as one item leaves the list a new one appears - kind of like working on a farm - there is always something needing attention.

I now have the responsibility of helping train the logistics section that is now a logistics department. With new officers and more personnel arriving, and the fact that our area is coming to life with more "customers" and equipment, the logistics department has grown to large for one person to run. So, the logistics department now has seven sections. That means seven new section heads need to be trained on how to run and organize their staff. All sections have an officer in charge and a senior staff NCO as his assistant. Let me take a moment and talk about the Iraqi senior enlisted corps.

Iraqi lesson #5. Because the Iraqi Army was disbanded in 2003, as you can imagine, there has been a big recruiting effort to fill the ranks. The rumor is that in order to quickly fill the gaps in the higher enlisted ranks - while at boot camp - they choose the older looking recruits to fill some of the senior enlisted ranks. Can you imagine a Marine Private and a Marine Staff Sergeant graduating boot camp at the same time...lets see how this plan works for them; not that I have a better plan - I guess they need to do something until the ranks grow. I do not know if that is true or not but it sure seems so with several of the staff NCO's that work in the logistic shop. Good thing I am not in the Iraqi Army - with my young looks I would never get promoted. Have a good night.