Back from Jordan

Hello All,

Large quantities of roasted meat, yum!

Hittin' the shisha pipe.



Enjoying tea and new friends




Our last meal at the compound


Wish I could have come up with a better title for this post but nothing really worked.

At any rate, I am back from Jordan after having been gone for most of the month.  We were in a pretty interesting spot from a geographical standpoint.  The small outpost we occupied was in the very southern portion of Jordan probably a mile from the Saudi border.  Across the Red Sea was Egypt (about 12 miles away but we had a really good view) and you could see a little slice of Israel from our vantage point.

The reason I was in Jordan was for an exercise called Eager Lion 12.  It is an annual exercise but this one was a little bigger then normal....12,000 troops from 19 different countries.

I had only been in Bahrain a short time when I was told I was going with most of everyone else on this exercise.  Trouble is that no one really gave it much thought beyond that.  I hit the ground running but really didn't have a job.  Sounds like fun?  No.  Try filling an entire day with no real mission.  You can only be helpful for so long before you start getting in the way.

After about 5 days of "helping".  I was given a new task.  I would travel 2 hours north to the main training area and assist the Jordanian HQ with their planning efforts and provide a critical comm link back to my command, which happened to be the higher headquarters of a large USMC unit and the Jordanian brigade.

I was issued a satellite phone, a laptop computer, and a device about the size of a bathroom scale which would provide for a satellite uplink for the computer.

Once I arrived to their headquarters compound, I was greeted like I was a rockstar.  A few of the soldiers carried my bags in and I was promptly brought some chai tea.  Turns out that we would be drinking A LOT of chai over the course of the next couple of weeks.

The Jordanians are structured much like the Brits probably were many years ago.  The Jordanian commanding officer, also a LtCol like me, has 2 full time porters whenever he is awake.  These guys clean his office and room, wash and press his uniforms, bring him water to wash with in the morning and prepare and serve his food.  The 6 other officers have a couple of porters themselves but they mostly served the officers tea and food.

I thought this was kinda weird at first but quickly got used to it.  I was the guest of the commanding officer so I was treated much the same as he was although they didn't do my laundry.

Turns out that the Jordanians as a society are very welcoming and friendly people.  Everywhere I went, I received an invitation for tea, coffee, lunch, or dinner.  Even a stop for 30 seconds of info would often turn into a 30 minute meeting, most of it socializing.

As I had previously learned, this is the way you do business in the Middle East.  It is not "right down to business" as Americans are accustomed to.  First you have tea, ask about family, share a little info about yourself, where you are from, etc.  As that is winding down, move on to the purpose of your visit.

I was meeting with the "Sahara Police" (desert police) to address a problem we were having with nomads stealing our targets.  After finishing that meeting, my vehicle needed gas so I stopped at a gas station down the road.  After the attendant finished pumping gas, guess what he did....invited us in for tea!  I really got a kick out of that.  I was in my uniform along with a couple of Jordanian officers.  They told me that to entertain a US officer would be a great honor for the man.  It was rare that I turned down an invite which is seen as very rude, but the Jordanians said we had to get back. We apologized to the man and told him that we hoped there would be another time to sit with him.

My time there ended after the counter-attack against a national enemy.  There were many distinguished visitors including the US 4 star General in charge of US military operations in that region and His Majesty, the King of Jordan.  The King was very pleased with how everything went so we all considered it a success.

It was an awfully long trip but I was glad I went.  I made several new friends, was immersed in Middle Eastern culture (you would be surprised how quickly I mastered eating with only my right hand and you probably remember what the left one is reserved for), and got a new stamp in my passport.

Until next time,
Michael