arrival

Well we finally arrived in Djibouti around 1130 at night. that is 2330 for military folks. Man was it hot. it is a whole new kind of heat. it was a mix of Phoenix (or 29 palms) dry heat with south Carolina humidity. it was 1130 at night by the way. After the customs at the airport we loaded on buses and we were on our way to camp. once outside the airport entering the streets my first impressions were not that bad. it seemed ok. the first place i saw was called Pit Stop Barbecue. wow could i be that lucky? (no by the light of day it is abandoned and doesn't look like it has been operating for quite some time). there were several people sitting out in chairs on the sides of the streets. i guess that is the cool time of day to be outside. then we turned down the road that leads to the base. wow. is this place poor.
in the shadows of the night i could see shanty after shanty and leanto's made from whatever trash was convenient. the trash that littered the road seemed infinite.

I later learned that the corner where we turn to go to the base is called Khat corner. that is where several people set up their khat stands. khat is an amphetamine that comes in the form of leaves cut off of trees in Ethiopia and is chewed to get high. every day a plane comes in from Ethiopia with its fresh load of khat to be delivered to the streets and pedaled at these little stands. it is legal ( not for us military) in the country. i have even read the president does it. by the way a great descriptive article of Djibouti can be found in esquire magazine. it is called "High in Hell". the author has a great way of enlivening what he saw with his words and it is informative of the khat culture.
anyway we finally arrived to base. we underwent a few short briefs then had to lug 4 seabags worth of useless gear to our living quarters. we live in Contained Living Units (CLU).

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as an 04 (lieutenant commander), i rate what is called a wet clu meaning it has a toilet and a shower and is a single. unfortunately because this base is growing there is a waiting list for the coveted wt clu's. i was number 33 on the list. the doctor that came in march was still on the list. it doesn't look good. the bright side of this is that although we didn't get a wet clu i was bunked with the other bryan that also came from san diego. he is an anesthesiologist. we went through all of the stupid processing, and army training together and we get to room together. so that was a positive. we didn't get stuck with random people especially those that snore.

so the two of us unpacked our stuff and even though it was 0200 in the morning we were not tired. that is 4 in the afternoon in california. so we walked around for about an hour exploring the small base. there is a bar/ all purpose room (we are allowed 3 beers/ wine per day), gym, large turf field, bball court, volleyball court, coffee shop, exchange, two computer centers, a makeshift movie theatre, a game room with xboxes and playstations. after exploration we decided to try and sleep. somewhere between 4 and 5 am i think i fell asleep only to be awoken at 0800 by the blaring Djibouti national anthem and the star spangled banner that resounds from the loud speakers near our clu. Then the French Mirage fighter jets started their parades overhead. at least they waited until after 0800.

Way Behind

I am way behind on getting this started. I will try to catch up to the time i landed here in djibouti.

I left San Diego on May 8th after spending a week at the ultra inefficient mobilization processing center. wow was that a complete waste of a week of my life i will never get back. our flight to Columbia, SC left San Diego 3 hours after the planned departure. Columbia, SC is the home of Fort Jackson, an Army base that houses Camp McGrady or Camp McCrazy as we so lovingly styled it.

At Camp McCrazy the Army taught us the basics of rifle and pistol marksmanship, Humvee convoy strategies including IED detection, land navigation, and even combat first aid. now lets put aside the fact that i have been exposed to all of these things at one time or another (mostly with the Marines) during my more than 12 years in the Navy, and focus on the fact that my deployment to Djibouti will utilize exactly none of these skills. Now some might argue that know combat first aid could come in handy because after all first aid is first aid. As a physician i didn't really find it that helpful. Now granted there were about 200 other people there that were going to Iraq and Afghanistan that could actually use this training, but i am not quite sure why the Djibouti crew were there. the three things I did accomplish during the nearly three weeks in that tepidly humid southern training center were these: 1) i improved my shooting to sharpshooter in the 9mm pistol and the M16 rifle. 2) I shot a .50 caliber machine gun that shakes you from your throat to your boots, and a M240 and a SAW 249 machine guns. 3) i received a small pox vaccine that is still trying to heal.

The living conditions left much to be desired. We resided in open mixed rank squad bays likely left over from WWII with bunk beds. I was strapped with a 9mm and the M16 the entire time we were there. had to take it every where with us. The Galley food made MRE's (meals ready to eat) taste good. during training we had to wear body armor that weighs about 40 pounds. those days in full gear and full humidity were tough. right now my body armor is protecting the underside of my bed. needless to say the second leg of my journey did come to and end.

the djibouti folks pulled out of good old Camp McCrazy right on time in a bus that drove us 7 hours to Norfolk, VA so we could catch our flight. the plane left Norfolk only an hour and a half late and we flew all night and landed in Rota, Spain in the morning. From there we went to Sigonella, Italy and then on to Bahrain. In Bahrain, after we reboarded the plane and sat on it for about an hour and a half we were informed one of the engines wasn't working. so we were put up in a nice radison hotel in town and spent the night. it was 0400 in the morning by the time we got to our rooms. then to add to the excitement the next day after the plane was fixed and we reboarded again, the mechanic became a heat casualty. he was taken to a medical facility and treated. The mechanic has to fly with the plane. so after about 4 or 5 hours he finally returned and we were off to my ultimate destination, DJIBOUTI.