AJ

Well, I am finally in Kuwait and starting the job I was picked to do.  The flight over was pretty uneventful.  Because we took Navy transportation we had to overnight in Scotland so the aircrew could get a rest period in.  A few of us took some time to walk around the town of Irvine, but we were only on the ground for 12 hours and a lot of that was spent checking into the hotel or sleeping.  We had a quick stop for fuel in Souda Bay, Crete then we arrived in Ali al Salem, Kuwait.  It is a smallish airbase with a Navy Customs presence, so they took care of us until we could get bused over to Camp Arifjan, or AJ.  The trip here was pretty depressing.  The whole desert along the sides of the road is just filled with trash of all descriptions.  The highways in America may have trash alongside them, but I guess the grass and trees cover it up a bit or maybe those Adopt-a-Highway folks actually pick things up.  Here there is no place for the trash to hide.

AJ itself is a huge city, but a lot of the residents have left.  I am told that at the height of the Iraq war this place was packed, there were 6-7000 more soldiers here than there are now, and everyone leaving Afghanistan or Iraq and rotating back home spent three days here going through what is called the Warrior Transition Program.  That is now located in Germany (so I have that to look forward to in June…) and of course there is no more war in Iraq.  We are also trying to do more work processing folks right in Afghanistan so they don’t have to make a stop in Kuwait.  All that means that life has slowed down a lot here.  The place has amazing facilities – two exchanges (like a mall), Starbucks open 24 hours, great gyms, a huge dining facility, all within walking distance or a shuttle ride if I want to go over to the other side of the base, but there is this slightly weird vibe here with all of the empty tents.  Maybe I will get used to it.

I give up a little in privacy.  I went from my own hotel room in Norfolk to a shared 4-man room at Ft Dix (there were only 2 of us in it and at least we could close the door) to a modified open barracks here at AJ.  The officers below O-5 and Chiefs get what used to be an 18-man barracks.  They stuck in a bunch of 7/8 height walls and sectioned off these 3-man spaces.  Each of us gets a bunk bed and about 4 lockers positioned around the bed to make a little room.  The lockers and walls don’t go to the ceiling, so while you have the illusion of privacy any noise you make travels throughout the space.  There are tons of items from past residents; I had two TVs and lots of random stuff (foot powder, Pepto Bismol, sheets, and a tourniquet among other things) left in my room, along with ¼ inch of fine desert grit on everything.  I am better off than the rest of the sailors; they are in a true open bay with no walls or TVs.  I don’t get the impression that folks stay in the barracks much, though.  They work, work out, eat, and come back to sleep.  Then the next day comes and off you go.  There is apparently a group that gathers to smoke cigars outside, you can get Cubans here so I might try that out.  There is an MWR tent that shows movies 24/7.  All in all, not bad.