Today was a very exciting day. I got a new mission! I am going to work with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team! The EOD team has a very important job. They specialize in dealing with things that explode! Some of them work with UXOs, or UneXploded Ordnance. These are things like bombs and artillery shells that are just lying around. There are a lot of those in Iraq! Iraq fought a war with Iran for eight years, and then fought two wars with the US, UK, and their allies. So there are lots of bombs and shells left over that are just lying around, and the EOD teams help get rid of those so the Iraqis can safely walk around and farm the land again. They'll gather up a big pile of these bombs and shells, and then set them all off at once. That makes a very big BOOM!

Another important, and very dangerous, job that the EOD teams do is defusing IEDs. IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices, are things that the bad guys use to try to blow us up when we walk or drive by. When a soldier sees one, he calls up an EOD team to come and clear it so that he can continue his mission. As you might guess from reading the news, the EOD teams are very busy with this kind of work! This is part of the reason that I was asked to help them.

Here are a couple of pictures of me training to be an EOD technician:

Don't worry, everybody - that's a fake IED I'm practicing on.

The EOD technicians explained to me that actually, walking up to a bomb or IED and cutting wires is something they almost never do. They have much more sophisticated and less dangerous techniques for disarming these things. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what all of those techniques are! The bad guys want to know everything about our EOD teams so that they can build IEDs that are harder to disarm. We don't want to give them too much information.

The EOD technicians said that until I can get more training, they will have me provide security for them. That's fine with me - I don't want to start messing with bombs until I've learned more, and I'm good at providing security!

Posted by Stone Cold at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You might be surprised to read that a polar bear is working in Iraq. The Middle East, however, is not the only region where polar bears are on duty. We're also working with Norway to help guard a special seed depository:

Arctic vault is designed to save world's seeds
By Bill Lambrecht

"It's the farthest north in the world you can fly," he said. "It's a pretty exotic-looking place; no trees or shrubs. There are, in fact, polar bears and a sign that reads, 'Take Polar Bear Danger Seriously.' I'm hoping that I don't meet one of them."

Of course providing security in the Arctic is nothing new for us and it would be a MUCH nicer place for me to be right now than Iraq, but I must go where duty calls!

Posted by Stone Cold at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few days ago, Josh took me to a very interesting place: The Ziggurat of Ur (or, as I call it, the ZiGURRRRRRat of GURRRRRRR). The Ziggurat is a building that is over 4,000 years old! It was originally built by people known as the Sumerians, and it was a temple to the moon-god that they worshipped. The base of the structure is actually just piled-up mud surrounded by brick walls. The holes in the brick walls let the water drain out so the mud doesn't get too soupy when it rains. There used to be some very fancy structures on top, but they have long since fallen down.

Still, the Ziggurat is very well-preserved considering how old it is. You can even walk up the stairway to the top! It's really amazing to think of how old this building is - almost as old as the pyramids of Egypt.

Hmm...I wonder why no-one has ever built anything this big to worship the Spirit of the Great White Bear.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of me on the steps of the ZigGURRRRRat. Behind me you can see some Iraqi Army officers who took the tour with me:

Posted by Stone Cold at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The US Army devotes a lot of attention and energy to making sure that soldiers are able to worship according to their conscience. It's not always practical to have a leader (priest, rabbi, minister) for every religion at every base, but the Army tries to accomodate everyone as best it can. Here at Camp Adder soldiers can attend more than one Catholic mass every week, Jewish services on most Friday evenings, muslim prayers on Fridays, and many "flavors" of Protestant services. Also, the Italians have their own Catholic Chapel and we've even arranged Orthodox Christian services for some of the Bosnian soldiers.

Unfortunately, the US Army didn't anticipate anyone with my religion coming here. I looked around, but I couldn't find any information on services to worship the Spirit of the Great White Bear. Josh told me that I should talk to the chaplain about this. I went over to his trailer. When I walked in, I met SGT Jessica ("JR") Johnson. She is one of the Brigade Chaplain's assistants. She explained that it is the job of the Brigade "Ministry Team" to help all soldiers with their spiritual needs. Although she herself is not a follower of the Great White Bear, she told me that she would help as best she could. She took me to meet the Brigade Chaplain, MAJ Wendt

Here Chaplain (MAJ) Wendt is talking to me about when and where to hold services to worship the Spirit of the Great White Bear:

Chaplain Wendt is a very animated guy! I didn't realize what a loud voice he had, and at first I thought he was getting mad at me, so I tried to hide behind SGT Johnson:

Once I realized that the Chaplain just had a loud voice and was not mad at me, we were able to talk things over for a while. The Chaplain was very helpful, just like SGT Johnson said he would be. He explained that while Army chaplains are all ordained clergy in a particular faith (like Catholic Priests, Lutheran Ministers, Jewish Rabbis, etc), they all understand that their duty is to ALL soldiers. They don't try to convert anyone, but rather make sure that all soldiers are able to observe their religion as much as possible. Their assistants, like SGT Johnson, are not ordained. Their job is to assist the chaplain with leading religious services, administrative matters, and a wide variety of other tasks. Also, part of their job is to protect the chaplain, because he is not allowed to carry a weapon. Personally, I don't think Chaplain Wendt needs much help - if he were ever in danger, he could just scare away the enemy by yelling at them:

In the end, Chaplain Wendt and SGT Johnson were able to find a room in the chapel annex that the other polar bears and I could use for services. He was not able to find a source for the Ceremonial Seal Blubber that we use in our rituals, but he promised to keep looking.

Posted by Stone Cold at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of soldiers from the S6 section came by Josh's office today. I asked them what the S6 section does. They told me that the S6 section on a staff used to be called a "signal" section, but now their job has become much more complicated! Instead of just working with radios, now they work with radios, sattellite telephones, Sattellite communication dishes, voice-over-IP telephones, computer systems, email servers, and tons of other things! For these two soldiers, though, their job involves lots and lots of Ethernet computer network stuff. They work with switches, routers, hubs, and lots and lots and lots of cable! When they came by Josh's office, they were re-routing a bunch of cable. Naturally I tried to help.

SPC Carrigan was pounding brackets into the wall so that she could hang the cable up off the floor. Naturally, anything that involves whacking or pounding comes naturally to me, so I immediately jumped in to help. Not shown: Me repairing the wall after I smashed through it.

SPC Wehr was using a probe to test to see if the cables were working. Here she is showing me how to do that.

Stone Cold tries to help the S6 - I tried to help SPC Wehr and Carrigan with some of the cable, but it ended up being a bit of a disaster. Oh, well. Maybe I was just meant to be an infantryman.

Posted by Stone Cold at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The soldiers who work in the PBO help make sure that everyone in the Brigade has all the equipment they need. They also keep track of who owns all of the equipment that the Brigade has, so we don't lose it all. POLARCOM (Polar Command) sent me over to Iraq without any equipment, and after asking around, I learned that the soldiers in the PBO are the ones I should talk to about getting what I need to fight...

I'm giving Sergeant 1st Class Michelle Clevenger my request for equipment (it's not done in the proper format for the US Army, but it's correct by POLARCOM standards):

Sergeant 1st Class Clevenger shows me how to use the PBUSE computer (Property Book Unit Supply - Enhanced) to order equipment:

The equipment arrives. Wow, was that ever fast! Before Sergeant 1st Class Clevenger gives me the equipment, they inventory it together to make sure that it's all there. I got a backpack, a radio, a new helmet, a rucksack, an M4 rifle with a grenade launcher, an M249 machine gun with a telescope sight, and a TOW missile launcher. Wow, I hope that's not too much for me to carry:

Before Sergeant 1st Class Clevenger lets me take the equipment away, she makes me sign a receipt for it. That way she can always check to see who she gave it to:

I'm saying "Thank you!":

On his way out of the Property Book Office, I met Warrant Officer Woo. Mr. Woo is the Brigade's transportation officer. When we need to move something, he makes sure it gets where it is going. I asked Mr. Woo if he could transport some icebergs from the Arctic to our base in Iraq. Mr. Woo explained that there really wasn't any good way to do that:

Posted by Stone Cold at 06:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)