So...farewell to MAJ Martin! MAJ Martin was actually assigned to a totally differen
t organization but through the Machiavellian skullduggery of some enterprising managers he wound up with a cubicle in our area and, unsurprisingly, some of our work as well. He is a very gifted Army analyst and we leveraged his talents to produce such feel-good products as Attacks and Deaths updates and Violence in Context briefs. A real Dr. Death. Fortunately his interests were much broader and he was a very trusted contributor to the collective brain-trust of this organization.
t organization but through the Machiavellian skullduggery of some enterprising managers he wound up with a cubicle in our area and, unsurprisingly, some of our work as well. He is a very gifted Army analyst and we leveraged his talents to produce such feel-good products as Attacks and Deaths updates and Violence in Context briefs. A real Dr. Death. Fortunately his interests were much broader and he was a very trusted contributor to the collective brain-trust of this organization.MAJ Martin departed here to join his wife, also MAJ Martin, at Ft. Knox KY. Unfortunately for him, she only recently arrived there, having suffered the packing in northern VA and subsequent unpacking in KY all by herself, if you discount the two very young boys she had to manage simultaneously. I'm guessing his honey-do list will be a bit larger than the norm for redeploying husbands. Army Strong!
Speaking of farewells, I attended a lovely little USF-I Hail and Farewell event Saturday evening at al Faw palace. This was for the senior officers and non-commissioned officers across all of USF-I. The organization I work for hailed just one colonel but said goodbye to eight. I hope all the replacement bubbas are in the pipeline somewhere, but the steady drawdown of US forces to reach 50,000 by the end of August does not bode well for one-for-one replacements.
Because it was the big goodbye for so many workmates, I dutifully took my nearly-new compact camera to capture some fond memories. I turned it on, the lens came about halfway out and froze, an error message flashed across the display and it turned itself off. With the lens still frozen in place. No amount of coaxing, cajoling, sweet prose or bitter invective had any noticeable effect. Turned it on and off numerous times with no different result. Removed and replaced the battery a couple of times, in vain. Finally got miffed and just put it away, hoping for some time-induced miracle (GEN Sullivan made famous the quote "hope is not a method." I will make famous the quote "but sometimes it's all you have.").
When I returned to my CHU later (yes, my wet CHU!) I took the camera back out, tried the same futile sequence of actions, and finally beat it against my night stand. The lens retracted and it's worked fine ever since. Brute force and ignorance wins another round.
And now, what you've all been waiting to hear about...the wet CHU. The Life Cha
nging Event here in theater. The downside is visible to any who might recall pics of the first CHU I had. Same size container, but now a big chunk of it is taken up with a bathroom containing sink, toilet, and shower. I had two wall lockers, now I have one. I had two nightstands, now I have one. But it just doesn't matter. No more packing of the toiletries bag to tote back and forth for showers. No more getting ready to shower and realizing you forgot the towel. No more of the 0300 staggering outside to go to and from the toilet.
nging Event here in theater. The downside is visible to any who might recall pics of the first CHU I had. Same size container, but now a big chunk of it is taken up with a bathroom containing sink, toilet, and shower. I had two wall lockers, now I have one. I had two nightstands, now I have one. But it just doesn't matter. No more packing of the toiletries bag to tote back and forth for showers. No more getting ready to shower and realizing you forgot the towel. No more of the 0300 staggering outside to go to and from the toilet.It's all self-contained now, baby. After the first two nights I discovered some serious 
feng shui shortcomings, largely centered on the breeze from the A/C unit hitting me in the face all night. A quick swap of the bed and wall locker positions fixed that. One of the departing colonels subsequently bequeathed to me some very desirable CHU-warming gifts. A heavy duty orthopedic mattress topper, a mattress cover and silky 400-thread count sheets, a folding chair and small table, and a guitar. The guitar was a nice plus -- I was going to order one of those little backpack guitars for here but full size and free is way better.
feng shui shortcomings, largely centered on the breeze from the A/C unit hitting me in the face all night. A quick swap of the bed and wall locker positions fixed that. One of the departing colonels subsequently bequeathed to me some very desirable CHU-warming gifts. A heavy duty orthopedic mattress topper, a mattress cover and silky 400-thread count sheets, a folding chair and small table, and a guitar. The guitar was a nice plus -- I was going to order one of those little backpack guitars for here but full size and free is way better.I am totally Hollywood now. All I have to do is figure out some way to make work go away so I can actually spend some time in it.
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