Month 10 Day 20

Notebook entry

Morning combined combat operations center, analysis, Salim map reading, :-), map creation, free trucks, petroleum oil and lubricants.

Journal entry

I went to the Combined COC in the morning.  I tried to describe to the S2 what we are hoping he will be able to do every morning.  That is, look at the Significant activity from the day prior and make some assessment of what they enemy are up to, planning, etc.  After I showed the s-2 he wanted me to show Salim as well.  It was a bit of a pain.  Salim has really been stepping-up of late and the same things happen to them as happen to us in the USMC.  Competence is a curse, so Salim is told that he needs to drive everyone over to the commander's conference.  Anyway.  I went back to the CCOC a second time to teach Salim the same stuff for a second time. 

In the midst of writing this.  I just caught a rat in the COC.  I put the trap out for him earlier, he has been screwing with me for the last three days.  He is 13 inches long from head to tail and 7 inches long from nose to the end of his body.  I had to smash the trap a second time because it didn't kill him right the first time.  That wasn't nice. 

Anyway,  so I taught salim that stuff and I also showed him how to pull up maps on Google maps.  If they every get the internet that could be a good resource for them since they can't give it viruses. 

The ANA brought two brand new firetrucks down yesterday Ford F-550s, with a really nice rig on the back.  I can only imagine how expensive they are.  I took a couple pictures of one of them.  The ANA had hoisted it up by the grill-guard, breaking that, and the tow truck they were using was gushing spurting hydralic fluid when they removed the wheel support.  These guys aren't new, they are from 5th kandak and have been around for a year and a half.

I gave the weather to salim, but I was so sick that I had to lay down.  When I woke up Brian was watching young frankenstein on his computer.  The only thing that struck me as odd was the way they dealt with rape, twice in the movie it was a punch-line, and the woman was totally good after the fact, smoking a cigarette with the Creature.  I don't think that would happen in modern movies, but when I think back to the Shakespearian era jokes about cutting off maiden heads, or to the decameron where the punch line of one of the stories was a guy going into another guys house and accidentally sleeping with his wife because she was in the wrong bed.  Mores have changed, I wonder where they are going?

In the meeting they talked about depending on the ANA for Petrolium, Oil and Lubricants (POL) they switched over contractors.  The old one used to fix the ANA's stuff for them, the new one is supposed to train the ANA.  Shock, the ANA supply system is not dependable and we are now looking into how we can buy oil, fuels, etc. for them with Field Ordering Officer money because it is an emergency and we are worried that they will just keep driving their trucks until the motors blow up.