2 Feb

TGIF - at least I got to sleep in a little today; I was up at 7:30 because I had some e-mails to answer and some requests to send to my higher headquarters. Although Fridays are typically slow for the Iraqi Soldiers today was the exception; it was moving day. With the completion of two new buildings within our immediate area, the Iraq Soldiers began moving into their new buildings in order to allow us to re-occupy the older building. As we continue to grow - we are up to 23 personnel - we need to ensure our safety and security come first; and re-claiming their old logistics building was a key factor in achieving that goal. The Iraqi's spent all day moving and it looks like it will take the greater part of Saturday to finish the move. Unexpected to us, the US Coalition Team, the Iraqi Colonel decided to let some of the Iraqi Soldiers live in the new buildings. Instead of having all the rooms in the new buildings as offices and/or storage areas he has authorised some of the officers and enlisted soldiers to live in several of the rooms. Sounds good right - well there is a little known secret here in Iraq that I will share with you. I kid you not - there is a shortage of gas...well a shortage of refined gas and diesel to be specific, in Iraq. Yes - kind of ironic - one of the most "oil wealthy countries" on the planet has a shortage of fuel. Now, whether this shortage is due to an oversight, lack of refineries, or corruption is irrelevant; the bottom line is usable fuel is not flowing from the wells dug in every Iraqi's back yard and for the near future the Iraqi's are planning to ration their fuel. I bring this up because the generators for the new buildings require diesel fuel and in order to conserve fuel the generators will only be operating at certain times of the day. And right now it looks like between 3:00 and 9:00 AM and between 5:00 and 7:00 PM the generators will be off. This all sounds good until the temperature hits 145 degrees during the day and 120 degrees at night. The next few months should be interesting. I will keep you update on how this pans-out. In case you are wondering the US has enough fuel to keep our, the US Coalition Team, generators running 24/7. Have a good weekend.