TIME TO GET IN PLACE

As the morning passed by, it was time to take your place and let the show go on.

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THE PRESS IS HERE

It was nice to see that CNN is here to see the Gradation of the Iraq Army
for the first time and for all of us workers. We have been getting ready
for this so they will be in command some day. That day is here !!!

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WAL-MART IRAQ

This the best Wal-Mart you are going find 7,000 miles from home.
Its out side of the front gate. You ask them, they have all from
electronics to jewelry and food. You want it, just tell them.
I did ask for a small refrigerator and they got it for me.
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PARTY CONTINUES

It felt good to sit back and relax and visit with everyone.

The food was good, got to meet and greet several people.

As contractors, we had one thing in common, we are

retired military with at least twenty years plus military

expertise in training the new Iraqi army.

TIME FOR A BREAK!

Just like Americans, we must take time out for a cookout!!
Our military and the contractors got together and grilled
hamburgers and hot dogs.  We also served salad and cold
sodas.  This was a good time for all of us to get to know
each other.

COMPLETION OF MOSQUE (DAY & SUNSET)

After several months of their hard work, these are the final results!!

We were the first ones allowed to see the mosque after completion,

before the grand opening.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit

a mosque, they are very beautiful and worth visiting.

We hope, with our friendship, they will now have a better

understanding of Americans.

REBUILDING MOSQUE IN IRAQ

These Iraq workers rebuilt the mosque in our camp. After

noticing these workers, Andy and I went over and introduced

ourselves and brought them cold sodas and cold water, as a

friendly gesture. We found out two of the workers had been

sergeants in Sadaam's army. One person was a karate

champion in Iraq. Sometimes we would have dinner with

them, most of them spoke fairly good english. They lost their

jobs after we invaded Iraq. They were experts in the field of

masonry and painting.

LUNCH TIME (BEEF STEW)

It was a cold day, and we had been out inspecting our trucks, boy did
this beef stew taste good! This inspection was performed by us, as
contractors, before we turned them over to the Iraq army.
These trucks are really useful, could use one of these back in the USA.

NEW IRAQ ARMY VEHICLES

These are SUV's used by Army officers and dignitaries. These are the
new type trucks used for transportating soldiers back and forth from
the field and to their destinations. This is a photo of me and my best
friend in the maintenance field (he made stuff happen),

BEGINNING OF MAINTENANCE TRAINING

This is our first group of Iraq soldiers being trained in a maintenance
patoon. They adapted to the training presented to them very easily.
This group was excited to begin use of their training. They were eager
to learn, and make it happen.

CLASSROOM TRAINING FOR IRAQ ARMY

Our trainers are conducting classes in admintration. The students

were knowledgeable in this field, some had prior experience.

The soldiers entered the army on a volunteer basis,

regardless of the warning from their peers concerning the

welfare of themselves, as well as their families .

MAINTENANCE TRAINING FOR IRAQ ARMY 2

More classroom on-hands training , with some of our military
personnel assisting. The Iraq interpreters that worked with
me were college electrical engineers and they were very
knowledgeable in their field.
Our working relationship was of the highest standard.
They were appreciative that we freed them from Saddam.

MAINTENANCE TRAINING FOR IRAQ ARMY

In the fall of 2003 we started our maintenance training with the Iraq
soldiers. In these photos I am conducting classes in electrical
components for vehichles. This was a challenge because we had to
conduct the classes with an entrepreneur, in their Arabic language.

Marble & Gold Palace Bathroom

This is the type of bathroom everyone needs in their home,
marble and gold, with bidet and toilet. I visited many other
homes in Iraq and their bathrooms certainly did not compare
to this one.

THE PALACE CHAIR

Soldier is taking a rest from his duties in one of Saddam's huge
palace chairs. This solider deserves a break for the day..

BAGHDAD PALACE CHANDLIERS

The interior is just as beautiful as the exterior, with
numerous chandliers, gold trim on the ceilings, marble
tile floors and large (heavily decorated) furniture.
This is where you need a 54" TV screen to watch all your sports!

PALACES AROUND BAGHDAD

As you saw and heard on TV, these are palaces Saddam built in
various locations, while his people lived low to middle class.
The buildings and landscapes were beautiful, as well as the interior.

BABYLON

During one of my stops, I visited Babylon and was able tour the ruins and take photos of the scenes.  Some of the ruins are still under reconstruction, but it was great to be at a place where history was made thousands of years ago.

SADDAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 2003

After the war, I got the opportunity to go to Baghdad and one of our
stops was at the Saddam Airport. Since 2005 the airport has been
open to commercial flights. I have been there several times as I
traveled into the country, from there I would transfer flights to
other locations. They have some restaurants and souveniers shops
to visit while waiting for your flight.

Joe B. Jackson,Murfreesboro Tn.

Job B. Jackson the former Murfreesboro, TN mayor who was buried Saturday, lead the city in an official capacity for 30 years. He was 87. His legacy will live much longer than that.  Jackson was mayor from 1982-1998.

Jackson had many accomplishments, such as a superb college athlete, self-made businessman, World War II veteran ( Third Marine Division ) and successful political figure.  Jackson was a humble, outgoing gentleman and statesman who treated all with consummate courtesy and respect.

Jackson was a leader of many projects, with some of the most notable as the new City Hall and greenways.  The city invested in his ideas above the norm, resulting, as would be expected, in considerable debate.

I knew Joe B. Jackson for the last 10 years of his life and his three brothers and his sister. I saw him 3 days before he died, we had a good chat.  He would ask me if I had the oil tanker filled with up of oil and I said yes it is in Kuwait City but I need a $850,000 down payment.  Joe said "let's call my brothers and sister they have all the money." Ha Ha Ha.

When you go to Murfreesboro you will most likely see the Joe B. Jackson Parkway.

Good by Joe B. and God bless!

FUN WITH WINDOWS VISTA!

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JUST DOING IT

Team Work

We were here to train a new Iraq Army in infantry, medical, signal, administration, transportation, and maintenance motor pool. My position was to train them in maintenance.
The personnel I worked with had prior experience training other
personnel and this was a great asset. With a two man team, we
took on different tasks and came up with a training program.

The training program originated from the our military program.
After all this was done, we had to have the program translated
into Iraq Arabic. We had a group of interpreters and translators
that would assist us in making this transition happen. Now we
are ready to start classes! As we received the students we
interviewed them to see their potential. These students were very knowledgeable in the field of mechanics. That was a bigplus to us. Some of the students had been under the reign of
Sedum’s military, and some worked as mechanics in the civilian garage.

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Sun Set

This is what the sun set looks like most every day.

New Home

OUR NEW HOME

This place was not home, it looked as though we had been dropped off in a time zone. The camp site was built in l986
but was abandoned for about 20 years, here we are going to restore it to a military training site.

What a nightmare! The living conditions were bad (18 men to one big room), no privacy, we to share the showers, drinking water only from bottled water, food was from the Army (T-rations in a can, which they heated and served hot to us). After about a week getting accustomed to the heat, and getting acquainted with other contractors, we started to put together our training programs.
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How It All Started

Sometime in July 2003, I was going home after work and got a phone call from Vinnell Company by a person by the name of Glenn.` He asked me if I would be willing to go to Iraq. He said the job would consist in building the new Iraqi Army. He advised me that he got my information off MilitaryHire.com (which just a few months before I had put my resume on their web site).

My answer was “how soon do you need me?” His reply was “this weekend”. This was on a Tuesday and he wanted me to fly up to Virginia on Friday for a Saturday introduction. I made it!! We did our introduction, signed contracts and did our paperwork and headed back home on Sunday. I had two weeks to get ready for my first meeting at Ft. Benning. Georgia.

While there we continued our training, which lasted about ten days, then we headed to the Atlanta airport and flew to London, then to Kuwait. We stayed in Kuwait at a fancy hotel for three days while the personnel arranged our flight into Iraq. When it is time to go, we went to the military airstrip in Kuwait. There we boarded a C-130 aircraft with baggage and personnel all packed in the aircraft, and it was very hot!

After a few hours in the air, we started our decent into Anaconda. That place was known as Bald, Iraq. Here we met up with an Army convoy to escort us to Camp Caldwell (sometimes called Kirkush, near the Iran border).