Today I begin "The Chad Chronicles", which will be a regular feature here at Troop Salute and on the daily Military De-Briefin' at 5-ish on the Green House show. My relative Chad, whom you've read about and heard from before, will drop me updates from Iraq once a week if he can. He has seen this new Troop Salute page from there already. Part One now...The Chad Chronicles...Since the last time we've really talked... I decommissioned the Constellation in 2003, and moved 7-8 hours up the coast to Monterey. Worked for 3 years in the Public Affairs Office/Institutional Advancement Department at the Naval Postgraduate School. Beautiful place by the way. Expensive, but beautiful. June 06, I took orders to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion ONE, homeported in Gulfport, Miss. When I left California, the battalion was deployed at the time, so I met them in Okinawa, Japan. We got back in December last year, spent some time in homeport doing all the training, and we were back on the road to Iraq around Sept-Oct.

Now, let me explain to you a little about these orders. I know, sounds strange... Navy, but no ships. Well, NMCB ONE is a Seabee Battalion. Just like the movie with John Wayne (i think), Fighting Seabees. The 'Bees are the Navy's construction force. We're a battalion with about 650 people. Most have jobs like Builders, Steelworkers, Mechanics, Equipment Operators. Then, there's a small group of us that are stationed with them as their support (ie. supply, medical, admin, etc.). To give you the textbook definition of what a battalion does...

"Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCBs) provide responsive military construction support to Navy, Marine Corps and other forces in military operations, construct base facilities and conduct defensive operations. In addition to standard wood, steel, masonry and concrete construction, NMCBs also perform specialized construction such as water well drilling and battle damage repair. They are able to work and defend themselves at construction sites outside of their base camp and convoy through unsecured areas. In times of emergency or disaster, NMCBs conduct disaster control and recovery operations."

Deployments are a bit different with a battalion than on the ship as well. Bee’s will never send all 650 people to one location. Instead, they have 10-15 detachments that will be run by the battalion during a deployment. Some “Dets” are larger (200-250 people) and some are relatively small (20-30). Last deployment, we had about 15 dets mostly spread out throughout SE Asia. This deployment, we’re spread out in Iraq, Afgh and Guam. Yes Guam. Not sure how that factors into the equation, but we’ve got a decent sized det there.

As for me, I'm doing about the same thing here as I was back on Connie. This time I've got a little more rank on my collar, so life is getting better. haha. My office basically gets paid to make these Bees look GOOD, through photos and news articles. Though it's not a tough task, we do a hell of a job in my opinion. I’ll try to gather up a few older photos that we’ve taken for you to post, and when we get our new stuff approved for release, I can add you to distro if you’d like. Just let me know.

So far, Iraq isn’t half bad. Haven’t really started to miss home too much yet. The key is to hold off on those thoughts for at least the first two months. It also helps if you always use the word “only” before you say how long you’ve got left. Like, we’ve ONLY got 6 months left. The largest factor in making time go by though is your friends. If you’ve got good friends to keep you laughing through deployment, it will be a breeze.

The food here is decent. Not great though. I’ve come to the conclusion that people complain about the food only because they don’t have options, like they do at home. At home, if you feel like a cheeseburger, you go get yourself a cheeseburger. Here, you might feel like a cheeseburger and get to the galley and have Turkey Adobo. What exactly adobo is, im not quite certain. But, if you’re in the mood for it, it can taste pretty good.

The heat isn’t an issue this time of year… actually it’s the cold that’s an issue. When you wake up in the morning, you’re going to want to throw on your sweats before you decide to walk to the showers. Pretty chilly… not Wisconsin chilly, but Iraq chilly. I normally dread the walk so much that I’ll stay under my covers for as long as possible, then run to the bathrooms. Works well for me.

The hardest thing to get used to by far, is the moon dust that covers the camp. In some places, the dust is about 4” thick. If you’re picturing sand, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s exactly what I said it is… dust. It looks as if someone has been emptying their vacuum cleaner bags here for centuries. It gets in just about everything. I’d hate to see what the inside of my computer looks like right about now. I know it cant be good. We go through canned air like it was… well… air.

I get to talk to the family back home just about at will, so long as I’ve got time in between work and stuff. Mellissa and I chat back and forth online, and now I’m even able to see and talk to her and Keegan on our webcam. So, its nice to be able to talk to them and see their faces at the same time. We’ve even got computer illiterate mom to get online and start sending instant messages and talking on her microphone. Thank goodness Andy is around to walk her through it all. Otherwise, I’ll try to call home once a week or so just to check in and let everyone know I’m safe and all that.

I’m going to get going here, but there’s one thing that I would like you to mention to all of your listeners… all of us out here appreciate everything people continue to send to us (snacks, toiletries, etc.). Even if it’s just a letter to a random servicemember, you’re bringing a smile to our faces, and that’s sometimes greater than anything. On behalf of all the men and women of the armed forces, we thank you for SERVING US.

~Chad