A relay runner in the third annual 26.2-mile Boston Marathon in Iraq crosses the finish line April 14 at Camp Adder, Iraq.

This blog is a bit late, I know, but I was a bit busy this week and still wanted to fill you in on how my weekend went.

As I said before, the third annual Boston Marathon in Iraq was held here at our base early Saturday morning. It kicked off at 5 a.m., so I set my alarm for an hour and a half earlier, giving me enough time to wake up, shower, shave and get dressed.

I had to be at the race site extra early in order to meet up with two fellow Army journalists who had secured a vehicle so we could zip around to different spots along the route and get the shots we needed. However, the photo we were banking the whole morning on – runners passing by the Ziggurat of Ur temple – turned out to be a bust.

Being so early, it was pitch dark outside for the first third of the race. The lead runner was expected to reach the Ziggurat within 30 minutes, so that was our first stop. We arrived to find that not a single high-powered lamp had been set up at the site and the only illumination sources we had were the high beams of our four-wheel Gator and pocket flashlights. From what I hear, the halfway point of the race was lit up like a theater stage, but no such luck for a 4,000-year-old place of worship.

Anyway, what ended up happening was all 300-plus runners ended up passing us by before the sun had even thought about considering the possibility of coming over the horizon, and all of our photos were dark, blurry and unusable. So we headed back to the finish line and waited for everyone to come back.

The overall winner of the race was the same guy who has won every running event since I’ve been here: 1st Lt. Elias Gonzales, a Florida National Guard soldier who finished with a time of 2:35:50. The first-place female finisher was Staff Sgt. Jennifer Yurczk, who came in at 3:34:39.

The next evening, we hosted a simultaneous Iraq-Minnesota dinner where we were treated to thick grilled steaks that had been donated to us, and a few soldiers in the unit had the chance to see and talk to their families via a live video teleconference. (Picture at left: Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Knoblach flips a set of steaks
during the St. Paul-to-Iraq Steak Fry April 15 at Camp Adder, Iraq.)

Dinner started at about 8 p.m. local Iraq time (it was lunch time in Minnesota), but since our office was in charge of setting up cameras, a projector screen, a satellite and all sorts of other audiovisual equipment, our day began a bit earlier. It was a nice reward to sit down and enjoy a delicious meal after two and a half hours of taking photos and cueing a line of soldiers to speak into a microphone, wave and ignore the time delay.

Now I’m just counting the days until I’m in Japan ...

Posted by · April 20, 2007 8:00 PM · Comments (0)

I’ll be going to bed early tonight so I can get enough sleep to be ready for a 4 a.m. wake-up Saturday to take photos of the third annual Boston Marathon in Iraq. There are an expected 300-plus participants registered to race the 26.2-mile route, which will pass by the iconic Ziggurat of Ur temple near our base. It promises to be a great event, and I’m more than happy to be photographing it rather than running it. After it’s finished, I’ll be sure to provide a quick rundown (pun fully intended) of the event and post some photos.

Trip to Japan

In other news, I finally got confirmed dates for my “R&R” trip to Japan early next month. It’s going to take a lot of preparation and paperwork before everything gets squared away, but from there I’ll have 15 days of vacation time with Noriko, Rachel and my parents-in-law at their house in the Tsukui countryside.

I had to attend a mandatory briefing this afternoon with a large group of fellow soldiers who will be taking R&R around the same time as me. An Army chaplain was the first person to speak to us, and he told us our two-week reunions with our families might not be all hugs, kisses and carefree relaxation like we might be expecting. My first thought was, “Uhh ... yes it will. I’ll get to see my wife and daughter for the first time in nine months. What’s not to like?”

Then the chaplain started to explain himself further, saying our families have readjusted to life without us in the weeks and months since we’ve been gone. They’ve taken on new and different responsibilities in our absence and in some cases have had a tough time doing it. I’ve had the fortune of knowing Noriko and Rachel have been in the best of care since they boarded a plane to Japan and I headed to South Carolina last July. My in-laws are wonderful people, and I’m extremely thankful they agreed to take on the additional burden of two extra tenants – one of them an endlessly energetic little girl – living in their long-empty house for an indefinite amount of time.

As for Rachel, she just turned 4 years old and won’t understand any explanation my wife or I give her as to why her Dada has been gone for so long. However, the chaplain said children between the ages of 4 and 11 are old enough to remember their parents after an extended absence and will be, for the most part, extremely excited to see them.

By far, the biggest change I’ll have to adjust to when I first arrive is the fact that, since being in Japan for the last nine months, Rachel has become completely and exclusively fluent in Japanese. Before we left El Paso she was fairly proficient in both of her parents’ home languages (and a bit of Spanish), but not anymore. I’m not worried; she’s a sharp girl and I’m sure she’ll be able to pick English back up once we return to the U.S.

I can’t wait until R&R, and I’m sure we’ll all have a great time, but it was nice to be made aware of all the facts beforehand.

Posted by · April 13, 2007 4:00 PM · Comments (0)

Springtime in Iraq is on its way out the door, and the most obvious indicator that summer is right around the corner – aside from that world-famous sweltering heat, which thankfully hasn’t reached its peak yet – is the constant onslaught of bugs.

Texas is home to its fair share of six- and eight-legged critters, winged nuisances and a plethora of various other pests that seemingly hang around all year to ruin our outdoor barbecues, birthday parties and trips to the park. The pint-sized insects of Iraq can’t even compare to some of the Lone Star State’s gargantuan, under-the-refrigerator residents, but in terms of pure swarm concentration, this place is unmatched.

For about the last month now, my co-workers and I have been locked in battle with a never-ending army of flies that somehow find their way to our office every day. We have foregone the use of spray-can poisons and useless flypaper, preferring to dispatch the buzzing intruders with calm, samurai-quick slashes from a $1 pink flyswatter, the most used and most effective weapon in our arsenal.

We keep count of the kills. The ritual is equal parts annoying and cathartic.

The flies aren’t exclusive to areas of excessive filth or stench like garbage cans, portable toilets or stagnant ponds, either. They’re everywhere – by the basketball courts, in the barber shop, along the two-mile run course, around my laptop comp— knock it off! Stupid fly ...

Much smaller but infinitely more irritating than the fly is the gnat, thousands of which linger all over this post at eye level in thick, cloudy groups and end up in your ears and nose if you’re unfortunate enough to unknowingly walk through a swarm of them without realizing your mistake until it’s too late. Another one of the gnat’s favorite hangouts is the common bathroom sink. I tell you, there’s nothing that will spoil your morning quicker than waking up to brush your teeth and seeing hundreds of black specks drowned in small puddles around the faucet, like someone sprinkled cracked pepper all over the place. It negates the very principle of hygiene, and that’s not cool.

Mosquitoes, eager to ensure the other bugs aren’t cutting in on their action too much, hunt our arms, legs and necks with the same fervent blood lust as they do stateside. These guys own the night, stalking us as we take a load of laundry to be washed, go to the gym or sit outside to jam on acoustic guitars and shoot the breeze. They’re aggressive, too.

Insect repellent is a valuable and necessary commodity here. Your best bet before leaving your room in the morning is to spray down your uniform completely the night before and let it soak in. Dealing with the sickly-sweet smell of bug spray all day is a small price to pay for the connect-the-dots-like maze of red bites and bumps you’ll avoid later on.

Posted by · April 5, 2007 10:08 PM · Comments (0)