DIGIJOURNAL 016--1 APR 2007

DATELINE 1APR07 PATROL BASE PALIWODA

Dear Friends,

In an attempt to keep things updated, I am trying to write as stuff happens. Hopefully this will prevent big breaks in postings. I continue to work on correspondence and listing who has sent items. Your support has been overwhelming. Eventually, I will get to everyone. I am somewhat embarrassed that I still have to write back about some things received from this past Christmas. Please know that it is not intentional oversight but just plain busy-ness. God bless you for your patience.

ALL CONGREGATIONS
Your support has been tremendous. Yesterday I unpacked 2 leather study Bibles that one church donated. I gave the first one out to our chief mechanic, CW4 B. He was overjoyed. Between the Bible studies, food, snacks, items for Iraqi children, and letters, our soldiers continue to benefit from your faithfulness. It also helps their morale to know that they have not been forgotten. Again, many thanks.

WEST SIDE GANSTAS
About half of our battalion operates out of Logistical Support Area Anaconda (LSAA). This is the largest base in Iraq, with over 38,000 soldiers and contractors living there. They have indoor and outdoor pools, many gyms, great mess halls, a PX, numerous fast food outlets, and a movie theater amongst other things. Life is not terribly hard for the majority of folks there. Although they do receive frequent incoming mortar fire, the base is so big and the rounds so inaccurate that the risk equivalent of getting hit is like being struck by lightning. Dangerous, but not imminent. This should mean great times for our soldiers, except for the fact that, not only are they too busy operating outside the wire, all the fun stuff is over 35 minutes away on the other side of the base. We live on the West side while most of everyone else lives on the East. A large airfield splits the LSAA, so it is a long commute, out of personal intercom range, to the other side. For unfortunate reasons (my too many travels to the trauma hospital CASH), I have been over to the East side. It is a mixed blessing. Yes, there is much to do, but that all means many ways to get into trouble.

We have started calling ourselves the West Side Ganstas because we seem to live in the “hood” when compared to our East-dwelling brethren and sistren. Our little piece of the LSAA pie looks like an antenna farm posted on the outskirts of civilization. We are close enough to the airfield that for 24 hours a day we hear the constant drone of aircraft and helicopters coming and going. We do not even notice anymore. For nighttime entertainment, we have the Naval chain gun working as an anti-mortar system. Radar picks up incoming rounds, and this rapid fire weapon system fires along the inbound trajectory, blowing up the shell. At night it looks like a large roman candle as the tracers laser-beam towards their target. Fortunately we have gym facilities nearby, so most everyone is trying to get in better shape, especially before they go home on leave. When times get hard for the West side boyz, I remind them that “it is not easy to be a gansta.” You can call me chaplain “street cred.”

PALM SUNDAY
Celebrated Palm Sunday this morning. We will have another service tonight. God blessed me with another timeless, Iraq memory. As usual, I forgot to think about palm branches for today. In the past, our very faithful and wise church secretary would have already ordered them, bailing me out. Which is another thing, we had to pay for the palm branches. Not this year. I was able to walk ten feet from the front door of my room/chapel and cut off some branches for the communion table. How many more times will I get to do that in my ministry life (hopefully never again, for that would mean I have made another deployment)? The service, like all our worship services, was good and meaningful. Meaningful not for anything earth shattering I said but because it was a moment of brotherhood in His presence. It is Christ working through our soldiers (and our Chaldean Christian interpreter) who makes it special.

Gratia et Veritas
Warhorse Archangel