235 CEF Fighting Gumbies: Gumbie Update #1

February 10, 2004

Gumbie Update #1

Hello to all of our friends and family. The 235th Fighting Gumbies have arrived safely at Tallil AB in Southern Iraq, but, in true Gumbie style, our journey was not without incident and many many laughs!

Our quest began on Monday, January 26 when we all showed up at Martin State Airport (our home unit) pinching ourselves to make sure this was real. We promptly took over the conference room with enough luggage to cloth and equip half the populaiton of Iraq! We had a fairly busy week taking care of paperwork, getting shots, oogling at the new uniform equipment we were given and a few of us had to complete weapons qualification. In some of our idle time, Scooter (aka SMGT Scott Wallace)educated the rest of us on the finer aspects of combat knives, and proudly showed off his new equipment. Little did we know what he was starting!

We left Martin on a privately chartered airplane. Actually it was a C-130J from the Wing, but were the only passengers and it sure made for a nice initial send off having our brethran within the Wing take such good care of getting our team to our first destination, Ft Benning, GA. We arrived at Ft Benning wiht little fan fair and after a short wait were on our way to our temporary home at the CRC. The CRC at Ft Benning is basically the processing center for all DoD members (military and civilian) who are on thier way the war zone. The encampment can house some 500 troops, but there were only about 200 there while we were there. Since we had accomplished all of our necessary training at MArtin prior to our deprature, and we were not destined for a combat role, we had little to do at Benning other than wait for a ride. We quickly found joy and anticipation through meal time! Some of the Gumbies quickly started to work-out to compensate for the extra caloric intake; other merely began storing resources to be drawn upon over the next few months!

There were a few highlights from our week at Benning other than the food. There was the Lord of the Rings marathon where watched all three movies within a 24 hour period. Then there was the trip out for wings and beer and watching the Superbowl at the o'club. But the clear highlight had to be te trips to Ranger Joe's Army surplus store. The team testoterone sure started to flow when we entered the hallowed halls of Ranger Joe's. Of course, by this time we had been encouraged by Scooter's hourly update on combat knife status. Al Moore had the bug bad too. We stood back and counted the moments before we witnessed the first Gumbie blood being shed! It didn't take long as Scooter lopped off the tip of one of his fingers at Ranger Joe's. Later that day, Al sliced the palm of his hand as he was demonstrating how quickly he could unsheath his new cold steel! Now that we're here, I'm failry confident these will be the only injuries to our team!

After almost a week, we found ourselves loading up the bags and processing out for the flight overseas. We were grouped with some other USAF troops heading for Iraq that were also processing through Ft Benning. After a quick stop at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah to pick up some Army troops, we were on our way to Kuwait City. Our stop at Hunter helped to point out more of the differences between the Air Force and the Army. There we were, the proud USAF troops, loading the plane with our laptops and portable DVD players. There they were, the proud USA troops, loading the plane in full body armor and carrying M-16s! Too funny! The flight wasn't too bad at all, there was actually enough room so that each person seemed to have an extra seat beside them. We made a quick stop at Rhiem Main AB in Germany and then reloaded for the flgiht to Kuwait City. Finally, a mere 28 hours after leaving Benning, we were on the ground in Kuwait.

Kuwait was a military processing marvel. Troops coming in from all directions trying to get in-processed into the theater of operations and get transportation to the final destination. This was quite a session of hurry up and wait. After about 4 hours were done and headed for our bunks and to get a shower and hot meal. We finally laid down about 1:00am and rose 4 hours later for the "showtime" on our flight to Tallil. Our short night was not very restfull since were in a tent with about 50 other troops. But luckily, we all got on the next flight out and by 8:30 in the morning we found ourselves on another C-130 for the short flight to Tallil. Within the hour we touched down at our final destination, roughly 42 hours after leaving Ft Benning.

We were shortly greated by the USAF Base Civil Engineer who arranged for a couple trucks to get us and our gear to our hooch. It wasn't much when walked in, but after about 5 hours of scrounging furniture and re-arranging it was looking up! We are all quite comfortable now. We are also quite happy that we made arrangments to live within the Air Force Tent City. Although we're actually working the Army here, they do not enjoy accomodations as nice as the Air Force does. We are already working to bring up the standard of living for the Army troops.

As far as the mission is concerned, we are serving as the DPW (Department of Public Works - i.e CE) for the 300th Area Support Group which is the US Army Command in charge at Tallil. Essentially, we're the installation engineers. We've wasted no time getting into the mix and in two short days the Gumbies have made our presence known and are providing some much needed engineering expertise for the Chapel building, trailer beddowns and wastewater handling issues. There is much to be done, but we are quickly getting our hands around the scope and our program.

We've all been taking pictures and will get some of those posted to the site soon so that some of this written description can start to make more sense. We will try to provide weekly updates of our team's activities (and antics!).

I feel confortable speaking for the entire team when I say that we miss you all very much. Please know that we are all fine, quite comfortable and most importantly, proud to be here and proud to serve. Stay in touch.

Love - the 235th Fighting Gumbies!

February 10, 2004 at 11:13 PM | Permalink

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April 2004