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Quinton

As we are getting ready to return home, I would like to share with the family and friends of our soldiers a few things about our surroundings on Tallil Airbase. If your soldier would like to keep familiar with the environment in Iraq he may want you to make a few changes.

I am going to start with changing things around the yard and neighborhood:

• Remove anything green and replace with 2-3 inch gravel, sand, dead trees and shrubs.
• Place Texas (large concrete) barriers and Hesko (large sand/dirt filled baskets) barriers with razor wire stretched on top all around the house. Please do not confuse Texas barriers with Jersey and Alaska barriers.
• Place the Jersey (smaller concrete) barriers in the driveway (staggered) so you will have to steer around each one of them on approaching the house.
• Remove all bathrooms and laundry contraptions and place a laundry trailer and shower trailer somewhere around the yard.
• Have at least two porta-potties, which double as sauna baths during the summer months, in the backyard.
• Have one large skid of large (1.5 Liter) bottles of water in the yard somewhere.
• Place a large generator (for electricity) next to the bedroom window and turn it off for maintenance for at least four hours per day during the summer months.
• Convert all electricity to 220 volts. Buy only 110 volt appliances and try to figure out how to plug everything up, using a minimum of 5 power converters and 3 power strips, without burning down the house.
• All wiring and outlets must be outside of the walls. That is because most tents do not have walls and the walls of the trailers are not thick enough to allow for wiring.
• Establish a supply room and an orderly room somewhere in the house. Anything leaving the premises must be signed out using a hand receipt.
• Place clearing barrels (for weapons) at the entrance of the home. These should also be placed in front of you favorite restaurant, grocery store, shopping mall, fuel station and any other place you regularly visit. You should always be prepared to show your ID (identification) card at entrances to these establishments.
• Community speed limit cannot exceed 20 MPH.
• Remove all guard rails and limit street signs. Also change speed limit signs every other week.
• Littering is allowed.

As we enter the house there are things to change here also:

• Get rid of all the furniture and rebuild tables and shelves using unfinished ¾ inch plywood. You can use folding chairs to sit in.
• No need for closets. Issue each family member a wall locker, footlocker and 5 duffle bags.
• Hang pictures with scotch tape and self-adhesive hooks. No holes in walls.
• Throw away the fine china and silverware and replace with plastic plates, forks, spoons and knives. Use paper cups for drinking.
• Have a sign of rules placed near the entrance of the kitchen area. Let your 6 year do the spelling.
• Set up a hand washing station near the kitchen and place instructions on how to use a fingernail brush while washing hands but throw away the brush. The instructions need to be printed in 3 languages (Arabic, Pakistani and English).
• Keep a supply of empty aforementioned water bottles beside the bed for those times you do not want to walk 100 meters to the aforementioned porta potty.
• Must have at least 2 fly strips hanging from ceiling in every room.
• Post signs in the shower requiring everyone to take "combat showers". (combat showers are 5 minutes: wet down, lather up, rinse off)

Now let us look at a day trip in the family car:

• First, all vehicles must look similar. For example, green camouflage HumVees with tan doors. Color does not really matter, though, as long as the vehicle is the same.
• Take out the ignition switch and throw away the keys. Have a cable welded on the dash near the steering wheel. Put a loop in the other end. This will allow you to lock the steering wheel with the cable and a lock.
• Armor the vehicle with whatever you can find.
• If your vehicle has a sunroof have a person with an automatic weapon standing through the opening. This vehicle will serve nicely as a gun truck.
• Before the trip one must do PMCS on the vehicle (Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services) according to an operator's manual which will be 3 times bigger than the glove box.
• To take a trip we must fill out a convoy request form and submit to convoy operations officer. A convoy brief will be given before the trip and an after action review will be given on returning.
• The convoy cannot consist of less than 3 vehicles.
• You must allow for at least 8 extra persons on your trip to pull security.
• Always pack plenty of candy, harvest bars, soccer balls (and/or toys) MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), school supplies and water.
• You and the occupants of the vehicle must wear a helmet which weights 3-5 pounds and also a body armor vest weighting at least 35 pounds.

Some miscellaneous items:

• Each person must have ID card, dog tags around neck, drivers license, shot card, a card that tells you what to do if you have an argument with somebody, a weapon of some kind and a reflective belt for evening wear.
• Each person wears the same style clothing.
• Have family gatherings twice weekly around 1900 (7 PM).

I hope this list has brought to light a few things the soldiers of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Engineer Brigade have had to endure during our stay here. It could have been worse.

WARNING: Before changing anything consult you soldier.

And as one soldier told me "Happiness will be seeing Tallil Airbase in our rearview mirror".

SFC Pete Quinton is the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) assigned to the S-5 Section of the 194th Engineer Brigade (TA).