Q-BLOG #35 Reality Check

Reality Check

Each Tuesday we have a staff meeting with each department providing updates or feedback on their area of responsibility within Iraq and or Kuwait and Afghanistan. We normally start the meeting off with a briefing from our Military Liaison. He reviews daily temperature highs, road conditions, the number and type of attacks that have occurred the previous week and information that we may need to prepare for possible attacks. During his briefing this past Tuesday we had two mortars hit. One hit close enough to break up our meeting. We thought it hit just behind the PX. It did not, but the BOOM! was loud enough and the plume of smoke near enough that our thoughts were such.

On this same day we were leaving the DFAC after lunch. We must cross the main road leading in/out of Camp Liberty. There is always quite a bit of traffic, mostly Humvees and civilian vehicles. Today we had one of those sobering sights. There were several military 18 wheelers carrying loads of Humvees and tanks that had been destroyed or damaged by IED's. It is a hard thing to see. Reality is suddenly right in front of your eyes and your thoughts immediately wonder who was killed or hurt in these explosions. I say killed or hurt, because by the damage you see to the Humvees and the tanks, it is obvious that some were killed and others most likely survived but with injury. It is a hard thing to see and yet it is a reality check.

Victory Base Complex (VBC) consists of 5 different Camps. Liberty, South Victory, Striker, Slayer, ATOC. In essence it is a small city. As one person stated, we are the largest trailer park in the world. There are over 50,000 people residing on VBC. It is considered by most, one of the safest places in Iraq. We are only 15 minutes from central Baghdad, right off Baghdad International Airport where the "most dangerous road in the world" runs right through VBC. It is easy to become complacent here. You go to work. You eat. You go to the gym or stop by the Green Beans coffee (which is opened 24 hours) to remove yourself from the war outside the walls. You visit one of the swimming pools at any one of the 3 palaces. You shop at the PX which inside looks just like one of our stores back in the states. You try to escape from the war raging around you. You often succeed. And then the mortar hits close. The Patrols come in and those soldiers look exhausted. The Convoy's come in and fill up the parking lot of the PX, these soldiers coming from FOB (Forward Operating Bases) throughout the country where they may not have a PX. You hear their road stories. You see blown up Humvees and tanks being carried off. You walk past memorials to soldiers who have died in combat. You can run, but you cannot hide. Reality check.

I sometimes wonder if we don't need something back in the "real" world to provide a reality check. Maybe it happens and we don't always realize it. We become complacent in our jobs and our lives and our relationships. We try to escape some of the realities of the world and go shopping, go clubbing or hide ourselves away trying not to let the raging war around us seep in. It is a different type of war, but a war just the same. I wonder if we even see it that way? I know I didn't. I know that I became complacent and tried to hide myself in other things. My reality check was Iraq. Is Iraq. It helps me focus on what reality is and what fantasy is. It helps me understand myself and my relationship to the world and others. Bombs explode trying to provide reality checks. Storms and fires and floods and the list goes on. I think it is natures way. A way of cleansing. A way of keeping in check, reality.

There is a place to snow ski here in the middle east. It is in Dubai. They have basically created an oversized freezer box and placed a mountain in it with snow. There is a bobsled run and a ski slope. For $35 US, you can spend 2 hours skiing. Ski's and clothing included. It is so easy to escape from the reality of the 120-140 degree heat outside for a few hours. It is easy to find yourself believing that you are somewhere else instead of the Middle East. Yet you must come down from the mountain and go out into the reality of where you are. It is a fitting contrast. It is a perfect example of life. Even as I sit in the reality of Iraq, I know some of it is indeed fantasy and I will return to the reality/fantasy of Dallas. The difficulty is in understanding the difference between a war that is physical and one that is psychological. Either way, you cannot become complacent. You must always be prepared for a reality check.

Blessings and Peace.

Robert