The incessant hum...

... of generators is the one universal truth that I've found of the Iraq war. Everywhere I go in Kuwait or Iraq there is a generator running, often multiple generators. There are certainly hundreds of generators running on Camp Fallujah at any given moment, and there may even be thousands of them.

Their incessant hum blends into the background fairly quickly, except when you are shooting video, or recording audio, and then it is a nagging pain that just won't go away. If the meter on your audio isn't registering sound constantly it means something is broken, because there is no such thing a quiet here.

This morning they had to take the MWR internet center, were I was working on my email, down for an hour because they had to service the generator. Surprisingly, I've never noticed a fuel truck on Camp Fallujah. Perhaps the diesel fairy comes around every night, I'm not sure.

New photos from Fallujah - Day 7

I was able to spend another day outside the wire today with CPT Rankin and COL Stewart the new Marine commander of Camp Fallujah, and CPT Rankin's direct superior.

The primary purpose of our mission was to introduce COL Stewart, who has only been here in Fallujah a week, to the local Sheik and to the manager of the local water treatment plant.

The water treatment plant is currently broken, and engineers from Camp Fallujah have been working to help get it working.

http://ericbowen.smugmug.com/gallery/2474800

Articles

I'm sorry that I haven't written much in the past couple of days. I'm prioritizing on shooting photos and video, and there just aren't enough hours in the day.

I have lots of stories in progress, and I should have lots of time to write next week as I work my way home "space a".

New photos from Fallujah - Day 6

I spent today focused on the Bravo Company headquarters platoon, including the medics, supply, commo, the arms room, and the mechanics. I did some fun video interviews with all of these groups, and hopefully you will be able to see some of them on KSTP this evening (note: all KSTP programming is available on the web the following day).

I'm working on a special in-depth profile of SGT Ruben Resendiz and his family in cooperation with the Crookston Daily Times, and so that is the reason that there are quite a few pictures of him today. More details over the next several days...

Here is the link to today's photos:

http://photos.scrappydog.com/gallery/2471724

How do you define "nothing going on"?

On Monday I stopped in the First Sergeant's office to see if anything interesting was going on, and find out where I would get the most interesting stories for the day. He said that it was going to be a quiet day, and there was really "nothing going on", but why didn't I go hang out with 3rd platoon for the day.

I got to 3rd platoon's area to let them know that I would be in the area all day, and they said they were heading out in an hour, and I should get my stuff (body armor and water) if I wanted to go (that was the mission that I photographed sweeping a village for weapons).

Fairly interesting stuff for me, but so routine for Bravo Company that everyone I asked said that there was "nothing going on" today. That's because many Bravo Company soldiers have been doing this sort of thing 6 days a week for almost a year, and going out on a combat patrol is about as unusual for them as doing their laundry (actually most of them only do their laundry once a week).

I've learned that I have to ask people WHAT they are doing today, instead of whether they are doing anything I might find interesting...

Questions and concerns:

I've been getting a lot of email from you all over the past week, and I apologize for not having had a chance to respond to it all personally. Here are a couple of common questions:

Q: Why aren't you, or when are you going to, show other Minnesota troops besides Bravo Company.

A1: Transportation in Iraq is very slow/difficult/unperdictable (read some of my earlier posts about the trip from Kuwait to Fallujah), if I tried to visit other bases I would be spending my entire 2 weeks waiting for helicopters instead of taking pictures.

A2: I thought there was more value in focusing on just one group of soldiers, and really taking the time to get to know them in order to provide in-depth coverage that is hopefully representative of all the Minnesota Guard soldier serving in Iraq to some extent.

Q: Are you endangering soldier by tell where they are? Are you endangering a soldier's family by saying where they are from?

A1: I have very strict guidelines about what I can an cannot write about. I will never write about future operations, or operations still in progress, and I will not discuss military locations in Iraq that are not already widely known by insurgents.

A2: I believe it is very common practice to list a soldier's hometowns, it helps readers/viewers identify with the soldiers. That said, if any individual or soldiers family had a problem with their hometown being listed I would certainly remove it from my website and photos immeadiately.

The worst sound in Iraq...

... is a medivac helicopter. Camp Fallujah's hospital is only a few hundred meters from Bravo Company's area here on Camp Fallujah, and we've seen two medivac helicopters come in this morning (it's 8:00 am here).

To be very clear these are NOT carrying Bravo Company soldiers, or Minnesota National Guard soldiers to the best of my knowledge, and no Bravo Company soldier has been wounded in the week that I've been here, with exception of one broken ankle (a non-combat injury).

But almost everyone in Bravo Company has seen a medivac come in for one of their own at some point in the field, they know what it means. And when one flies over our area to land at the hospital you see people visibly disturbed.