‘Sup Killers..? Well, its been a while… I have come to realise, finally some may say…, that I can tend to get distracted somewhat…
For the last few weeks, my distraction has been this:
A 2004, BMW R1150RT. One owner from new, and its got a full service history. It’s also only covered about 2000kms per year… Picker her up from the OG owner from Auckland and rode her back to Hanana no worries.
So yeah, been concentrating on the Beemer over these last few weeks, modelling and blogging haven’t got a look in…!
SO, modelling updates are this week, exactly ZERO…!
But I was doing some more garage clearing the other day and came across some more stuff from my first trip to Iraq in 03, and as that is entirely relevant to this post, I thought I’d share them with you.
Remember the Humanitarian Daily Ration I mentioned a while back, you know the yellow MRE type jobs that I’d made in replica to put on the bases of my Hummers?
Well I found one…
I’d eaten some of it back in the day, but it’s mostly still there. Main difference between this and a ‘real’ MRE is the lack of the heating pack and no condiments or chocolates etc. I like the cardboard instructions on how to eat… Also the overuse of the Stars and Stripes just on case you forgot who was giving you the Freedom Food… Right after dropping the Freedom Rounds…
I also found a few other items…
Umm Qasr was a port of strategic significance and the first major place we stopped in. I remember getting there, conducting clearing patrols and then setting up in a warehouse. Once we were sure the perimeter was secure, I went for a wee nosy around. Ended up by some of those large, dock cranes that you see in pictures. You know the ones, like a hundred plus feet heigh with a giant jib and what not.
Anyhoo, I thought to myself, “I bet the view would be awesome from up there”… So I slung my rifle and started to climb the ladder. And boy was it a TALL ladder…! I finally got to the top and entered the drivers cab. It was fairly large with a decent seat which I settled into and surveyed the view.
Next thing I knew, my head snapped back in that, ‘You were asleep and you shouldn’t have been and now you’ve woken up’ type effect…! Not sure how long I was asleep but I was clearly fatigued, and not just from the ladder climb…
I came back to reality and thought I had better climb back down, so I did. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred, which I was happy about…
I was tasked with setting up a respirator testing facility for new personnel coming into theatre, and I was issued this kit consisting of a tent and some chemicals which would allow me to conduct the tests.
I started to get pers arriving and the procedure was pretty simple. First I would physically inspect their respirator and ensure they had in-date seals. If they were out of date, I replaced them. Then I checked the basic fit on their face, and the state of their canister. If that was all OK, I proceeded to the next stage.
We would both enter the tent, which was fairly well sealed. We would then put our respirators on. I would then release a chemical vapour into the tent, and basically, if the test per felt OK, then that meant their kit fitted properly. If they started to get runny eyes etc, then it didn’t and I would take them out and test and adjust until we had things sorted.
I only had a few pers that needed major adjustments, including one bloke who for some reason had been issued the smallest sized S10, but he had a head like a planet…! Fortunately I had some spares and sorted him out…
The only major issue I had was with a Spec Officer, a Doctor, like a medical doctor. He was Army, but had a beard for religious reasons. I told him straight that the S10 would not seal with a full beard, and that he’d need to shave it as he was heading north to Basra, and we were at this time still concerned with a CBRN threat.
I was a mere SGT and he was a LT COL, so he proceeded to inform me that he didn’t need to wear a respirator and that he would be fine… Classic Spec Officer… I couldn’t be bothered arguing with him. I just thought “what’s one dead Spec Officer…?” I did however file a report, just to cover myself in case he found himself in the middle of a chemical attack, somehow survived and then tried to blame me for a poorly fitting respirator.
Obviously that never happened and I never saw or heard from him again…
I remember when ‘Chemical Ali’ was found, man he was a crack up! He reminded me of a Geobbles or Goering type character. He’d be on the news at the start of the invasion and ground war saying things like, “There are no US forces in Iraq”, “There are no bombs falling on Baghdad”, you know the thing… It was classic head in the sand stuff, and obviously no one in Iraq was buying it, especially not those where the bombs were falling…
This one is the inside page of my FMED 965 - Operational Medical Record Card, and it’s interesting for two reasons. The first one is it shows me the date I flew out of Iraq, 13 May 2003. Just over two months after Matty’s death. The second one is it states I had received a ‘Relocation Brief’ on that date.
This ‘Relocation Brief’ was Army-speak for a psychological debrief that I had received on that day, 13 May. I remember that event well, it went something like this:
After over 6 months of being in theatre, having seen my mate killed, been bombed and shelled and witnessed things I can never forget, I, along with around two-dozen others, was sat in a tent, at the edge of a temporary runway, with a Herc with its engines running not 100 feet away.
In comes this Captain, who tells us he’s a Field Psychologist and that this was our opportunity to discuss anything we had seen or done that we might think may affect us in the future. To a man, we all looked at each other with the same look in our eyes, ‘No one say anything, all we want to do is get on that Herc’. So, no one said nothing… After repeating the question and the longest, most uncomfortable silence ever, he said, “OK, cool, have a safe trip home”, and left.
THAT was the sum of my psychological debriefing. And yeah, it was 100% ineffective… I know things are different now, back then, that was as good as it got. And that was better than I had had in AFG 18 months previously where I didn’t even get that…
No wonder I am a bit squiffy… Better than I was tho, thanks to the support of my family and friends, and for that, I think The Lord.
Right, that’s all for this week. I will try and get some actual modelling done next week…!
As always thanks for reading, and for your supportive comments, Stay Frosty 🥶
