The other night I was woken abruptly at 02:30 but a jet making that sounded like it was doing a very low pass or touch and goes. When it passes the usual roar of the engines changed into a high pitched scream I haven’t heard before. In my semi-conscious state I expected to hear an explosion. I was sure the jet was crashing. I lay there afterward, wide awake and shaking. It’s a hell of a way to be woken up.
When the day finally broke I began the work day with a depressing argument. It looked like things were just going to go downhill from there. Now a few days later I read that that same day I was so rudely awoken somewhere between 30 and 120 villagers, womes, children, elderly were accidently bombed in a fight between US and insurgents in the West of the country. I have no idea when the battle took place of if the jet that left me so shaken took part. The coincidence still leaves me uneasy.
A few days ago we had lots of rain. We had been having thunder storms for several days. This day though it just rained steadily all day. At the beginning of the work day we heard that one of our fuel trucks was stuck on the road near the pump house. Around 10:30 we headed over to check the progress on getting it unstuck. By then it had been freed but the road was a mess. The ruts were almost 2 feet deep in the mud. It was bad enough that the KBR personnel who run the pump house weren’t allowing any more trucks to use the road fearing more would be trapped. This had stranded about eight trucks at the pump house. Not good for the drivers or our fuel operation. The drivers were hungry and don’t appreciate sitting around. Now, to add insult to injury there is a construction area just past the mud-soup road that offers an alternate access to the pump house. Unfortunately since the construction is ongoing no one was allowing the heavy trucks to use this access. We made sure food was enroute, halal MRE’s, and went off to see what we could do to help the situation.
My assistant and I went straight to Public Works and spoke to a senior NCO who agreed to dump gravel on the road. He was unable to do other work that day because of the rain and was happy to help. He promised to send several truckloads of heavy gravel and a front end loader to spread it around. After lunch we headed back to the pump house to check on progress. When we arrived the road was still a mess and the drivers were still sitting around. We went and spoke to the foreman at the construction site to explain the problem and ask who we would need to get permission from to allow the trucks to transit the site. He was going to call his boss but decided to take the initiative to allow the trucks to pass. As we stood by guiding the trucks through the site they all had big smiles and gave us a thumbs up. About the tim
e the last truck exited the gravel trucks began showing up to fix the road.
Two days later, we went to check on the road. The weather had been sunny and dry. When we got there we were amazed at the quantity of gravel dropped off. The deep ruts were filled. The road looked completely different. As we stood there checking it out a push of six or eight trucks arrived. As the drivers lumbered past they were all grinning and again gave us thumbs up. I have never seen drivers so happy. It was a nice feeling to have had an impact, however small.
When the day finally broke I began the work day with a depressing argument. It looked like things were just going to go downhill from there. Now a few days later I read that that same day I was so rudely awoken somewhere between 30 and 120 villagers, womes, children, elderly were accidently bombed in a fight between US and insurgents in the West of the country. I have no idea when the battle took place of if the jet that left me so shaken took part. The coincidence still leaves me uneasy.
A few days ago we had lots of rain. We had been having thunder storms for several days. This day though it just rained steadily all day. At the beginning of the work day we heard that one of our fuel trucks was stuck on the road near the pump house. Around 10:30 we headed over to check the progress on getting it unstuck. By then it had been freed but the road was a mess. The ruts were almost 2 feet deep in the mud. It was bad enough that the KBR personnel who run the pump house weren’t allowing any more trucks to use the road fearing more would be trapped. This had stranded about eight trucks at the pump house. Not good for the drivers or our fuel operation. The drivers were hungry and don’t appreciate sitting around. Now, to add insult to injury there is a construction area just past the mud-soup road that offers an alternate access to the pump house. Unfortunately since the construction is ongoing no one was allowing the heavy trucks to use this access. We made sure food was enroute, halal MRE’s, and went off to see what we could do to help the situation.
My assistant and I went straight to Public Works and spoke to a senior NCO who agreed to dump gravel on the road. He was unable to do other work that day because of the rain and was happy to help. He promised to send several truckloads of heavy gravel and a front end loader to spread it around. After lunch we headed back to the pump house to check on progress. When we arrived the road was still a mess and the drivers were still sitting around. We went and spoke to the foreman at the construction site to explain the problem and ask who we would need to get permission from to allow the trucks to transit the site. He was going to call his boss but decided to take the initiative to allow the trucks to pass. As we stood by guiding the trucks through the site they all had big smiles and gave us a thumbs up. About the tim
e the last truck exited the gravel trucks began showing up to fix the road.Two days later, we went to check on the road. The weather had been sunny and dry. When we got there we were amazed at the quantity of gravel dropped off. The deep ruts were filled. The road looked completely different. As we stood there checking it out a push of six or eight trucks arrived. As the drivers lumbered past they were all grinning and again gave us thumbs up. I have never seen drivers so happy. It was a nice feeling to have had an impact, however small.
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