We should be so lucky...

Last night I read about a group of Muslims who were escorted off a plane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (http://www.startribune.com/462/story/826056.html) after some of passengers became alarmed of their "seemingly angry" loud praying and their chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah!" while boarding the aircraft. They were taken off the plane, their luggage inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs, and the airline refused to sell them replacement tickets pending an investigation. No bombs or weapons were found. In response, Muslims are calling on their Islamic bretheren to boycott U.S. Airways.

Now maybe these Muslims were just really into their prayers. Being a little boisterous. Filled with "The Spirit," and all that. Maybe those passengers on that particular U.S. Airways flight, its flight attendants, and the pilots just completely mistook these Muslims genuinely expressing their devotion to Allah as a sign of potential violence. The evidence (or lack thereof) found certainly indicates that's the case. After all they didn't have any knives, bombs, guns or even one box-cutter among them.

But considering their behavior, I'd have kicked their asses off the plane in a New York minute.

"To practice your faith and pray is a crime in America?" asked Omar Shahin, one of the Muslim imans voted off the island.

Well, Omar, no. It's not a crime. If it were, you'd be in jail right now. However, considering America's recent history -- the last five years or so? -- how appropriate do you think it is for a group of Muslims to come onboard chanting "Allah" over and over while boarding a plane? No, we're not discriminating, we're just calling a spade a spade. When you consider that in the last twenty-five years nearly every single instance of in-flight hijacking has been the brainchild of and carried out by people of Middle Eastern decent, it ceases to be "racial profiling" and becomes "an accurate description of the possible suspects." Had you kept your religious beliefs to yourself, nobody would've bothered you. But considering they're still finding bones of 9/11 victims in NYC, your chanting and praying in Arabic made people a little uneasy. Call me crazy.

And the boycott? Please. If we could get all Muslims to stop using our airlines we could get rid of airport security altogether. And you know how many hearts that would break.

More Goodies!

Got another box today. This time it was just the Navy running suit I ordered, but last week was huge for mail. The pic you see here is The Boss and me opening up this fat care package I got from this group of volunteers back home called "Iowa's Bravest." (www.iowasbravest.org) A bunch of people from my hometown get together and send out gift packages to deployed soldiers, sailors, Marines & airmen all over the globe. Good peeps, yo.

They, along with Amy's MOPS group in Fort Worth, Amy, Mom & Suzanne all sent something last week, so I was stacked pretty fat with mail. It was great. Everybody here was jealous. I told 'em not to hate the player...

Just got back from Camp Ali Al Salem. What a shithole. If you want to know what it's like, think back to the last time you were in the desert (or on a beach...pick a sandy area) and saw a few thousand tents lined up all over the place. And then add about five dozen busses being driven by TCNs -- Third Country Nationals: non Kuwaiti, non American Indians (dot, not feather) and other foreigners from places like Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and any other -stan you can imagine -- a few thousand hum-vees, and a few thousand military people all packed into an area of approximately 20 square miles, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what Ali Al Salem is like. I'd drop the ol' "nice place to visit, but..." cliche here, but I'd be a damn liar.

Not much else on the radar for today. Just a hail & farewell for the Navy captain we have leaving in a few days. They planned a real rager, too. Dinner at the Zone 6 ("Tent City") DFAC (that's what the Army calls the galley, by the way), with cake & "near beer." I hope I can contain my excitement.

Half-Way Home

Well, since I'm almost half-way done with my little stint here in this great big litterbox they named Kuwait, I guess it's almost irrelevant for me to be posting this blog this late in the game. But nevertheless, I'll catch you up on all the happenings.

I reported to the United States Central Command Deployment and Distribution Operations Center -- but we just call it the CDDOC -- on September 11, 2006. Our official mission here goes a little something like this:

U.S. Central Command Deployment and Distribution Operations Center (CENTCOM DDOC) is a forward deployed 65-person joint division of the J4 Directorate of Central Command. Comprised primarily of NCOs and senior officers, the rolls include Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and civilians to include representation from the Active, Reserve and National Guard components from all branches.

Established on 17 January 2004 through a charter among General Abizaid, General Handy, and General Kern, the mission of the CENTCOM DDOC is to synchronize and optimize distribution, force movement, and sustainment throughout the CENTCOM theater. From the factory to the fighting position, CENTCOM DDOC exists to support the warfighters engaging the enemy in Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM.

What it boils down to is that we're an under-employed bunch of people from all branches of service desperately looking for something to validate the reason we left our family & friends back home.

I was originally slated to be just an admin NCO, but applied to become Aide-de-Camp for the CDDOC Director (a general selected for two-stars) and got it. I was initially excited because I was operating under the assumption that I'd be busy most of the time. How wrong I was. You see, the aide keeping busy is pretty much contingent upon the general traveling, of which mine does little. However, I've (thus far) been to Baghdad, Iraq and Qatar, so things haven't been entirely dead.

Other than a little travel and handling some minor joint admin issues, I'm pretty much just "the gopher" -- as an E-6, I'm the second lowest ranking person in the CDDOC; second only to an Air Force Staff Sergeant -- for the general and anyone else who needs anything. Let me tell you how much fun that is. Woo. Hoo.

Anyways, here's where I'll be posting pics, telling you how much I'm doing (or not doing, as the case usually is), and jotting down some random thoughts. Hopefully I'll keep up with it. Lord knows I've got the time.