Arifjan

Yesterday was a little hectic to say the least.  I got a phone call @ about 12:30 maybe 1:00 in the morning from my platoon sergeant... Master P.  He told me they where taking one of the guys down the Camp Arifjan.  The reason - Earlier that day one of the team leaders was having some abdominal pain.  He went to the TMC (troop medical clinic) to have it checked out.  They can't really do much here and obviously their medical staff isn't all that great.  They said well his symptoms aren't indicative of appendicitis.  So they just gave him 1000mg of Tylenol and sent him on his way.  That didn't help.  He went back later and still no reassurance or attempt from the TMC.  He was in some real pain that night and went back to the TMC around 11:00 pm.  They decided to take him down the AJ (Camp Arifjan - the biggest base in Kuwait... about an hour maybe a little more).  P called me, I called my commander, he called his commander and I'm sure with all the reporting we do it got to Obama eventually.  I went back to bed, there really wasn't anything else I could do.  The next morning the word was they were going to do an appendectomy (remove his appendix), it hadn't burst... yet, but the Doc said "well we'll go in there and if it's his appendix we'll take it out.  If it isn't... we'll take it out anyway".  It's kind of nice when the Doc knows he isn't getting paid anymore or less depending on what he does.  Needless to say they removed his appendix.  The appendix guy's (sorry I'm not going to use names... I'm HIPAA Trained) squad leader went down with him that night.  This was after a 12 hour shift so he was running on 32 hours awake when I got there.  I took another guy down there to stay with appendix guy until he was ready to come home.  It's the whole never leave a man behind type of thing.  Anyway I swapped those two and then came back.

Now let me explain what has to happen to get off post for a trip like that.  If you have a military ID you can get on post no problem, but getting off is a different story.  You have to have a memorandum signed by and O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel) and above or a E-9 (Command Sergeant Major).  To my knowledge there is only one of each on Camp Virginia.  This memorandum has to have a date time group (DTG - eg. 091200AUG2011) for when you are leaving and when you plan on returning, a destination, names of who is going, last 4 of their SSN, what weapon you are taking and contact information.  Sounds like a lot but it's not bad.  Attached as to be a Composite Risk Assessment Checklist.  It has the destinations again, times, weather conditions, etc.  This is more of a pain in the ass.  Attached to it is the Composite Risk Management Worksheet (CRMW) this gem has risks, initial risk level, controls to mitigate those risks and risk level after mitigation.  Oh yea and it has dates and all that jazz as well.  Now, that is really all you need to travel off post, but this command decided to make it their own and add 3 more sheets to the overkill.  You also have to attach a medevac map of Kuwait, a emergency contact information sheet and a PCC/PCI (Pre-Combat Check / Pre-Combat Inspection) checklist.  The checklist just has mundane stuff such as; do you have water?  Is the tank full of gas?  Is there four tires on the car?  Stuff like that, well maybe not the four tires one, but might as well be.  So... after you compile this "packet" you have to get it signed by someone with too much power.  Usually you put it in a folder and they sign them at the end of the day and then you pick it up the next day and go on your merry way.  I didn't have time for this.  I got everything I needed and went to the Commanders office to have him sign it.  He knew of the situation and was obliged to do so.  After a bunch of running around I grabbed the guy who was going to stay and we headed that way.

We have a Mitsubishi Native (same as a montero) for our NTV.  It's not bad at all I like driving it.  The only problem is after you break 120 kmph it starts beeping.  120kmph is the max speed in Kuwait, but if you drive the speed limit people will pass you like you're standing still.  130-140 is more appropriate.  That's about 80-85 MPH.  So we just cranked the radio up and rocked out to dance music cause that's all they play here.  Long story short... we made it switched guys and came back.  Appendix guy made a hasty recovery and came back this afternoon.  All is well.  I just wanted to explain what it takes to get off this sore zit on the ass of Persia.

woohoo!  He did look like he just got his ass kicked after the race, but he finished and he is still alive last time I saw him so I think it's all good.

No crazy workouts this time... we should have a good one coming up.  I do have a picture though...