Christmas in Iraq
A little bit of excitement this week. We regularly capture contraband at our main gate as civilian supply trucks come in. Alcohol is illegal on U.S. bases in Iraq, but we find cases of the stuff on trucks all the time. Plus, occasionally, we find a drunken soldier or civilian contractor here on post.
Well, we got word that an Iraqi store owner may be bringing illegal items onto the base. In fact, we had evidence a soldier may have been helping him do it that same day. We wanted to move on this evidence as quickly as possible, so I set up a raid on his store. I gathered together as many of my guys as I could, plus some from another section. Plus, we added an interpreter.
We sealed off the building, detained and searched all the employees, and then started searching the place - including all of their personal belongings. We didn’t find anything illegal, but we definitely found a kitchen I sure as hell wouldn’t eat from!
It really looked like something out of COPS, and it was pretty exciting - especially for an artilleryman! When it was done, and we hadn’t found anything we could pin on the owner, we pulled him aside and questioned him. He didn’t admit to anything, and called the deal with the guard just a big mistake. We did squeeze him a little bit, to see if he would name any other store owner on post, but he didn’t give in.
Yeah, we didn’t catch him at it, but the word is going to get out that we are doing these raids, so hopefully we won’t have as many contraband issues. If not, we’ll do it again on someone else.
My mother sent me a microwave for Christmas (she’s a great mom). Problem is, it’s a 110 volt appliance in a 220 volt country. Plus, it’s a powerful son of a gun. So, the first time I plugged it into my little voltage converter, it popped the fuse. Looks like I need to buy a more powerful voltage converter!
Other than the things I’ve gotten through the mail for Christmas, it really doesn’t seem like the holiday. I’m ending up working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My regular day off is on the following day. The dining facility has some Christmas decorations up, but they were put up by Muslim workers, so it really doesn’t have the same feeling.
Even in Iraq, we did have a Saint Barbara’s Day dinner last week. For those of you who don’t know, St. Barbara is the patron saint of artillerymen. There’s a whole story involved which has nothing to do with artillery, and she never actually fired an artillery piece, but we go along with it anyway.
Every year in December, artillery units throughout the U.S. Army celebrate St. Barbara. There are two artillery units here at QWBC (other than ourselves), and we all got together for the event. We even had some of the local Iraqi Army leaders in attendance. As part of the event, you are required to create something called “artillery punch”.
Now, in the U.S., it actually tastes pretty good. Basically, it’s a mix of a variety of alcoholic beverages with a lot of ceremony as each type of beverage is poured in. They also throw in the bowl some items of interest to artillerymen - a primer from a gun, the occasional can of oil, an old G.I. sock, and a lady’s stocking. There’s much to-do about the mixing of all these things, and they make award recipients drink the stuff.
If you drink from the top of the punch bowl, it’s not bad. However, if you are toward the back of the line, and you are drinking the stuff down by the sock and oil can, it’s pretty nasty!
Well, since we are in Iraq, and alcohol is forbidden on U.S. bases, things were a little different. They started off with a punch bowl that was actually a toilet bowl (never used). Then they mixed in water from the Tigris River. Actually, I kind of doubt it was real river water because that stuff will give you dysentery. Then they added a bunch of different flavors of soda, a smoothie (of all things), a ton of Tabasco, some rifle bullets, and some Iraqi chai (a kind of tea). I didn’t drink it, but based on the reactions of people I saw drink it - it wasn’t particularly good.
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