Friday was a mission day.........to a Foward Operating Base (fob) with the worst 5 mile long Entry Control Point (ecp) in the world. I had previously described this road as craters-of-the-moon bad. It hasn't gotten any better in the month since I was last there.
I was assigned as Truck Commander (tc) for this mission on good ol Fugitive 250 guntruck. The start time was a little earlier than usual and it is staying lighter longer so I was able to get a few pictures at the start of this one. The fob was just under 50 kilometers away and a good part of that was on a mostly straight and relatively smooth road. We should have been able to get up to 40ish kph, but we creeped along at closer to 20. It took over two hours to go from what would be like a trip from the 'Noog to Dalton. Then KBR has to unload trucks/reload trucks and then it is a slow trip back too. Wow.......almost lost motivation somewhere around 4am, but then I saw the lights and perimeter fence of JBB in the distance and I knew it wouldn't be too much loger. You can make it. You can make it. You can......
Bravo 2 to Pace: I've got TCNs stopping in front of me. Over.
Bravo 2 is the second in command and is located toward the rear of the convoy. TCNs are Third Country Nationals. These are the truck drivers from India, Pakistan, etc. Pace is the convoy commander located near the front of the convoy. I am in guntruck 4 behind Pace and a pocket of 10 KBR trucks. ...just in case you care.
This is Pace: Roger. Flex up and give me a sit-rep. Over.
Let me just tell you that at NO TIME is it a good thing for any of the KBR or TCN trucks to stop on their own. If we aren't doing a security halt then there are only bad reasons for the trucks to stop. I'm holding my breath while looking at JBB a mile away and waiting to see how bad this will be.
Pace this is Bravo 2: One of the TCNs has a flat right front tire. I'm about to get on the ground with KBR and get this thing sorted out. Over.
Pace: Roger. Let me know what you need. Out.
Super. Awesome. Fantabulous. It's 4am. I'm in sight of the gate. I could be through with de-brief and in bed in 45 minutes. But, remember, this is IRAQ. So.....with our 50+ vehicle convoy sitting in the middle of Route Dover blocking traffic at both ends we waited for 22 minutes (which really wasn't as bad as I thought but does seem a bit longer when you could get ambushed at any time) while the tire got changed. It's always something here.
The high points of the whole 11 hours were enjoying some fake scrambled eggs, reading 50 pages in my current book, and partaking in a Cuban cigar at the fob while waiting to return to JBB.
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