Traveling Trilogy....The Final Chapter

Hello Friends,

Germany '09.  Africa '11.  Middle East '12.  It has been quite a journey.

As many of you know, I have recently deployed to Bahrain to serve as the Lead Exercise Planner with a focus on joint and multi-national exercises.  The command I am assigned to is US Marines Central Command (MARCENT) which is the Marine component of Central Command aka CENTCOM.

My hat is off to my ever lovin' wife, Jodi.  She is doing all the hard work back at home.  Thank you Jodi for being the woman you are.  YELH.

I call this the final chapter because this will be my last deployment in all likelihood.  Once I return, I will have 17 years of active duty.  If I hit 18 years, the Marine Corps has to keep me for 2 more years and I would then retire with a regular military retirement (50% pay for the rest of your life which is a pretty good deal).  The institution (USMC) is, shall I say, philosophically opposed to this. They will not bring me on because that pushes me a little to close to the edge of the cliff so they will want a 1 year buffer as a safety zone.  Yeah, I know it sucks and doesn't seem right, but that is the way it is.

After attending a conference in Tampa, headquarters of CENTCOM, I was off to the Saudi Arabian peninsula where the small island nation is located.  The big leg of my trip was from Dulles to Kuwait City.  We were in the air almost 13 hours.  Thankfully, the flight was at night and I managed to sleep most of the way.

I arrived Sunday night and one of my peers met me at the airport and got me to my lodging.

First, let me tell you that this is no Djibouti.  I live in a very well appointed 2 bedroom flat (apartment) on the 9th floor.  Most of the lights are controlled by a central touch pad or remote.  The living room is more glass than walls so the view is nice.  Gym is on the 22nd floor along with a sauna and a pool on the roof.  Maid service comes twice a week and the door to the flat is controlled by a pass card.  Forgot your pass card?  No problem, place your right index finger on a small biometric scanner which reads your fingerprint and the door lock pops open!

Bahrain is a large modern city.  You can tell you are in the middle east though.  There is a road by the base front gate called "America Alley" which features KFC, McDs, Starbucks, Macaroni Grill, and other American fast food joints.  I live near a Bennigans and TGI Fridays.  Kinda funny and not what I expected.  Thank you to all of them for keeping Americans fat wherever they may find themselves.

I work on a small piece of property leased to the US Navy.  There are about 5000 US service people here along with government works and contractors and I live about 8 minutes away.  The people at work are great and number around 160.  I just found out last week that I will be going to Jordan near the Israeli border for 3 weeks.  Never been so it will be nice to get another stamp in my passport.

Work seems like it will be pretty predictable with hours of 7:30 am until 4:30-5:00 pm.  The days we work are Sunday through Thursday in keeping with the Muslim holy days (Fri and Sat, much like the Jewish faith).

After eating nothing but Cliff Bars and beef jerky for a couple of days, I was eager to get some real food at the commissary (military grocery store).  People told me that food was expensive here and I got a real shock at the store.  While many things were a little more expensive then I was used to paying, some things were triple of their normal price.  1 qt Silk brand soy milk was $5.50 and a 10oz package of Sara Lee sliced turkey for sandwiches was $7.29!

Ironically enough, liquor is much cheaper then you would expect.  Back in NC, 1L of Jim Beam will set me back $17.95.  Out here, I pay the same for a 1.75L bottle.  Seems like you would want the food cheap and the booze expensive.  Deploy people to the middle east and sell booze really cheap, great idea!

Additionally, since liquor/beer/wine is fairly scarce in this area outside of hotels and clubs, we have a ration card just like we had in Germany.  I think there are a couple of liquor stores out in town and I can only imagine that it is pretty expensive.

Speaking of cheap, 1 gallon of gas in the US is around $4.00.  Bahrain: $.40.  That's right, 40 cents. It is actually a little cheaper than that at 10 cents a liter.  Now that is a number I can get behind!  I have a subcompact rental car and it costs around $3.50 to fill it up.

I live around the corner from a grocery store where people who live here would shop.  I checked it out and will shop there for produce and meats/fish.  They even have camel sausages.  I am definitely going to check that out.  People I knew in DJ tried camel and said it was pretty good.  The port of DJ routinely ships camels down the coast where they are slaughtered and used for food.  Like the bathroom butt sprayers in DJ (and here), when in Rome....

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share with you right now.  My old computer didn't make it and I bought an Apple MacBook Pro.  My camera has pc based software and will not work with an Apple.  I tried to download the correct drivers but they are not available.  I have a new camera being shipped to me as we speak.

Looks like I will be able to continue to dive out here also which is great.  Research indicates that it is not as good as the Horn of Africa but it is something to do on the weekends.  I had a winning formula out in DJ and look forward to keeping on the same track here.  Exercise, work, eat low fat foods, and find something rewarding to do with whatever free time you have.

Anyway, I promise to post once a week and it looks like I will have a little more material to work with out here.

Cheers,
Michael