Besmaya....Where the Boys Are.
I'm going to jump out of sequence for this post in order to provide you a little bit of information about my present duty station. It's called Besmaya (Bes-My-Ya). According to my Iraqi professor back at Fort McCoy, Besmaya is "an oasis". I've seen oasises and this ain't one. For one, there ain't any Sheiks or harems. But,
it's not bad either. The Iraqis in the Babalon Cafe (that's our mess hall) have a flat panel TV that constantly plays Arab music videos. Arab music videos always have beautiful women dancing and singing. So I guess it's the next best thing to a harem.
If you're ever on a road trip to Baghdaddy, hang a right and go East for about 35 KM. You can't miss us. But if you do miss us, you'll be turned around at the Iranian border for sure. The best means of travel is by black hawk. Fast, agile and well armed. Here's a couple of pictures from my ride in:
That's cattle down there. An Iraqi village. My Sergeant Major (first time I've ever seen him lose his cool!!! It was only about 150 degrees).
We have some of the best range facilities in the world, including a world class "shoot house" or MOUT (military operations on urban terrain) training facility. As far as I know there is only one other like it in the world. Soldiers conduct live fire exercises in the shoot house to perfect urban combat (house to house and room clearing) skills. Video cameras record every move and we conduct AARs (after action reviews) using the video from
the live fire. Here's a picture of me and the Jar Head (that'd be a United States Marine) Captain N on top of the shoot house. Also is a picture of the camp in the distance with the range control tower at left.
Here's a picture of my hooch (where I sleep) and my bathroom (where I ....you know).
We'll talk more about Besmaya and some of the folks I work with later.
Well, I can't get the picture of me and the Jar Head or the picture of my hooch to load. I'll include those in another posting. One in the morning and I've got a Black Hawk to catch at 0600. So, good night from the land of Abraham.
I'm going to jump out of sequence for this post in order to provide you a little bit of information about my present duty station. It's called Besmaya (Bes-My-Ya). According to my Iraqi professor back at Fort McCoy, Besmaya is "an oasis". I've seen oasises and this ain't one. For one, there ain't any Sheiks or harems. But,
it's not bad either. The Iraqis in the Babalon Cafe (that's our mess hall) have a flat panel TV that constantly plays Arab music videos. Arab music videos always have beautiful women dancing and singing. So I guess it's the next best thing to a harem.If you're ever on a road trip to Baghdaddy, hang a right and go East for about 35 KM. You can't miss us. But if you do miss us, you'll be turned around at the Iranian border for sure. The best means of travel is by black hawk. Fast, agile and well armed. Here's a couple of pictures from my ride in:
That's cattle down there. An Iraqi village. My Sergeant Major (first time I've ever seen him lose his cool!!! It was only about 150 degrees).We have some of the best range facilities in the world, including a world class "shoot house" or MOUT (military operations on urban terrain) training facility. As far as I know there is only one other like it in the world. Soldiers conduct live fire exercises in the shoot house to perfect urban combat (house to house and room clearing) skills. Video cameras record every move and we conduct AARs (after action reviews) using the video from
the live fire. Here's a picture of me and the Jar Head (that'd be a United States Marine) Captain N on top of the shoot house. Also is a picture of the camp in the distance with the range control tower at left.Here's a picture of my hooch (where I sleep) and my bathroom (where I ....you know).
We'll talk more about Besmaya and some of the folks I work with later.Well, I can't get the picture of me and the Jar Head or the picture of my hooch to load. I'll include those in another posting. One in the morning and I've got a Black Hawk to catch at 0600. So, good night from the land of Abraham.
posted by AWE, COL, USA | 12:51 PM
1 Comments:
Hi AWE... Just surfed in completely at random from Brighton in the United Kingdom. A very interesting read, and already some cool photos. I'm going to link to your blog as I think some of my visitors would be interested to read your story.
Stay safe!
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