Photos from the sand box re post with link fixed.

Hi again,
If you had any idea how much I hate Yahoo software. Anyhow the guys on the gun board say the link is now working properly and I wanted to share these here too. Sorry about the screw ups.

Jack Crow.
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Hi all,
Thought you were entitled to some good news for a change.

Some recent photos you might like.

If you follow the link…. http://photos.yahoo.com/ka2zev

It should take you to some photos I've posted on Yahoo.

663 You see things painted on Army Vehicles. This was on the nose of a Hemmet (sp?)

662 In case you couldn't read the logo, this is a close up. One of my favorite things.

665 These guys are visiting the base. Very much the High Speed Low Drag kind of dudes. Seems the closer to the rear areas, the more subdued the artwork becomes. These guys usually operate 'up north' and don't care so much about pissing off the locals.

672 Here you get to witness the proper clearing of a blender.

674 Proper clearing of a rifle before going into the dining hall.

675 Sgt C. A solid citizen.

653 These guys came to the base a couple of times so far. Offered one of them two hundred bucks for one of the vehicles. They refused to take my offer.

649 Some good guys to know. ROK troopers. They look relaxed but I wouldn't want to face them across the DMZ.

659 The Scania Dental Clinic. A very basic clinic. But it's ours.

646 Royal with Cheese. My last meal in Paris when I was on R and R there. Remember Pulp Fiction? This was no accident. Please note, I did not look up 'The Gimp' on my vacation.

Have fun all
Jack Crow in Iraq
Down to 80 days!!!

--------------------
"You are
What you do
When it counts"

The Masao

Re: Photos from the sand box re post with link fix

Thanks. Great pics. Stay safe.

Re: Photos from the sand box re post with link fix

they have mcdonalds in iraq?no way lol realy do they?

Re: Photos from the sand box re post with link fix

R,
That photo your looking at was taken in Paris France, not in the mid east. The coment....

"646 Royal with Cheese. My last meal in Paris when I was on R and R there. Remember Pulp Fiction? This was no accident. Please note, I did not look up 'The Gimp' on my vacation."

Is a refference to the movie "Pulp Fiction". In the film they make a big deal out of the burger "Royal with Cheese".

That photo was taken in Paris, I was just reliving a little bit from the movie.

Diden't you ever do something just for the fun of it?

Some people run up steps in Philly to re enact the scene from Rocky.

Some people visit the Empire State Building and wait for King Kong to get there.

How many people go to Chicago to visit the tax office the Blues Brothers went to see.

This visiting is a way to make these places real to us. Other wise it's just television. (the shade of Max Headroom) The difference between special effects and real bricks and steel.

Ive been to World Trade centers, and trying to discribe them in words fails miserably. They were neat buildings.

Walked some of the halls in the Pentagon too.

That's why museums are so amazing. You get to see the real things. We went to an aircraft museum in England called Duxford. They had flying examples of P47's, P51's, Spitfires, and Hurricanes. They also have a working B17. Impressive gadgits.

The wife and I went to Portmiriron Wales. That's the place where the out door shots for The Prisoner were filmed. Im also told a Dr. Who was done there as well. It's a magical but very small place.

As for the subject of fast food in the mid east.

At Camp Adder Iraq, there was a Burger King built into a truck trailer. Across the court yard there was a pizza dealer. When your 9 thousand miles from home, these are rather good alternatives to let's say MRE's. This far out, anything that's a reminder of home helps.

Why do you think I hang out here. This is a little bit of home. CPF keeps me sane. People talking about things I consider normal.

When I take a meal here, care to guess what small talk is like? Bad news from Baghdad, or if Im sitting with Engineers about some VBIED the found. (Vehicle Based Improvised Explosive Device aka car bomb)

War changes people, and usually not for the better. Im going to have a real problem fitting in when I get back. Im going to use the same words other people use, but the frame of refference is going to be skewed. Ask anybody about their war experience and see if you dont' get lost in the discriptions. It's as if those of us who have served in war have a different language.

The Iraqi's know next to nothing about high preformance lights. Been working with one to see market interest. Mostly they have cheap third world stuff. Stuff that would have been popular in the 60's back home. Here it's cheap and they toss it when it dies. Buying food is more important than seeing in the dark.

At camp Doha Kuwait there is a regular food court. Subway, Hardees, KFC, Pizza Inn, Starbucks, Basken and Robbins. Along with the Base PX, a donut dealer, plus some local merchants selling gold, rugs, vitimans, photo finishing, and dry cleaning.

Camp Doha is huge and has a large population.

My base (Scania Iraq)has about 1000 full time staff and between zero and 3000 visitors at any given time.

If you want some Saddam Dinars, PM me an address to send them too. Will also prepare a QSL card for the trooper radio station here, WTFO.

Im down to 79 days, so get back to me soon.

Hope all is well
Jack Crow in Iraq

Re: Photos from the sand box re post with link fix

Thanks for sharing your pics and thanks even more for serving!

Re: Photos from the sand box re post with link fix

I sort of understand what you mean by your frame of reference changing. I, and most of the guys in my company, will be somewhere in the middle of people who haven't been at all, and those who've actually been in conflict. We're not anywhere near any fighting except for some terrorist activity. Maybe a little more danger than the guys in the batallion guarding the two larger bases in Kuwait (Doha is one), but bascially the same thing as them. Some of our guys were able to volunteer to deploy with a different unit last year, and were attached to the 4th ID. It will be wierd talking to them about their experiences, and having to state what I did. But it's still different than what the civillians, and even our rear detachment people are doing. In some of the bigger cities, DC, NYC, LA, etc, people live with the knowledge that they might be a possible target. We know that we are being watched. Even politicians who are real targets, don't have to expect to find a bomb in the cars that are being searched daily. We have a number of false alarms every week, sometimes because of the dust that collect on the vehicles from the amount of explosives used in the entire region. Better safe than sorry though.

Too bad you won't be in Kuwait later on than you will be. I'm volunteering to spend some time there to get our stuff packed up and on the ships for home. Actually a buddy of mine volunteered to stay and asked me to stay too. Why not. I just have to find a way to tell my wife. It won't be for a while though, so you'll be gone by a few months.

Those are pretty cool pics. I like the HMMWV. I was never allowed to personalise ours (probably because I wanted to mount a mummified cat we found to the gun shield) and I'm a bit jealous.

What are the Koreans like? I've never met or worked with any of the ROK Army.

Only 79 days left. Damn, I have more than that until my "mid tour" leave. Oh, well at least I won't have too much time left when I get back since it's almost at the end of my tour.

Take care.

Re: Photos from the sand box re post with link fix

U,
Im supposed to be off today, can't spend a lot of time.
Dead cat on your truck? My I was thinking of a bumper sticker that reads in english and Arabic "Pork, the other white meat". Anyhow....

The ROK were very polite dudes. Astonished that anybody was willing to be nice to them. I once gave a ROC trooper a grape drink and that was the nicest thing anybody did for him that week. The ROK are nobody I want to face, but are happy to have them at my side.

Got to go, more later ..

Jack Crow in Iraq