Austin in Iraq

Photos

2009-07-16T16:04:00.001+03:00

Here's some photos from time so far.

May-June
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172191&id=34404463&l=eb2944049e

July
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2178576&id=34404463&l=a90ebec79b

In a Routine

2009-06-22T17:38:00.002+03:00

Sorry it's been a while since the last post. We have been moved around here on post a few times but are now settled in to our permanent housing, for which I am very thankful. I know that there are guys and units out in sector doing the real army jobs that have it off a lot worse than we do. It stinks for them, because they are doing the brunt of what goes on here in Iraq, but their living standards and conditions are a lot worse than the support personnel here on post, many of whom will never leave the safety of the base or even meet a real Iraqi. People don't know how good they have it.
We have settled into a routine with our job as quick-reaction air-mobile infantrymen. We spend two days at a time in a warehouse right next to the helicopters we will board in the event of an emergency. Our standard is that we have to be briefed on the situation, come up with a plan of action, have all our gear on and operational, and boarding the aircraft all in a span of 20 minutes. It can be extremely hectic, so we have to learn how to pre-stage everything down to the minute level in order to shave precious seconds off of our reaction time. We usually run a drill once every two-day cycle to find deficiencies in our movements and streamline our actions. In the meantime, though, there is only so much that one can accomplish in a building that we are not allowed to leave. I am almost through the second season of House and am about a third of the way through writing a book for the army. I am reading through almost 400 field manuals for the task. There is plenty of time to work on it.
Thank you for all of you who prayed for our soldier who lost his fiance. He returned from his home country of Palaou in the Pacific Rim last night. I am not sure what the plan is now for his one-year old son.
That's about all the news for now, I will try to put up photos pretty soon. Take care and keep us in our prayers.

Pray for one of us.

2009-06-02T17:41:00.002+03:00

I would like to take this time to ask all who may read this to pray for one of my soldiers. I do not wish to have his name made public, but he just found out today that his fiancee, whom he shares a nearly one-year old son, died nearly a week ago back in their home country. She had been having kidney failure for quite some time. He is one of our best soldiers, and I know it is a devastating loss for him. He had not seen her in quite some time, for more than a year, I think. I don't really know what to do as a leader. It is not my place to be the counselor, though I know it is would be a good thing to do. Pray for all of us.

What a Wierd Week

2009-05-26T21:29:00.002+03:00

It has been a little while since my last post, but trust me, it isn't because nothing has been happening (well, sort of. You'll see.).
Our leaving from Kuwait to Iraq was delayed for a few days because of a rather serious matter. Many people in our company were getting sick with flu-like symptoms, so the powers-that-be had the entire company marched off to the clinic and tested. The ones that were sickest remained in a quarantine tent while the rest of us got ready to leave for Iraq.
Getting up at 2 a.m. is never a pleasant experience, even less so when your destination is a combat zone. But that's the way it works, I guess. We left our camp in Kuwait and traveled by bus to a larger air base about 45 minutes down the road. The entire time we were on the air base, we saw old aircraft hangers for individual fighter jets that were about the size of high-school basketball gymnasiums. (1A, to be specific) I estimated the walls and roofs of the hangers to be about 10-15 feet thick of solid concrete, built that way to protect the aircraft. This was in Kuwait, mind you, but Saddam had apparently commandeered them during his little excursion of 1990, thinking his fighters would be safe. However, nearly every single one of these gigantic concrete bunkers were destroyed like flimsy sand castles by precision bombs and missiles from the US military. It was amazing to me to see all the bunkers crushed and imploded like paper-mache houses. A testament to the power of well-placed kinetic energy.
The ride to Baghdad International Airport (or BIAP, formerly Saddam International) was the charter flight from hell. (Some would argue it was the charter flight TO hell, but I disagree.) All 55 of crammed like sardines onto the side net-seats of the Air Force C-130 for the 75 minute flight to BIAP. It was burning hot inside the metal non-insulated bay, extremely loud, the leg room was approx. 2.5 inches, and all the while we had our 50 or so pounds of armor or gear on. And I had to pee. Reeeeeealy bad. Normally, going in a bottle is no big deal, but when it is in the sitting position with 50 lbs of gear resting directly on your bladder, in a shaking aircraft, during a combat descent (dropping thousands of feet in barely a minute to avoid surface-to-air missiles), and to pull the whole think off covertly, well, I think I deserve the Guiness Record notation.
We waited at BIAP for about 36 hours for choppers from Taji to come pick us up. We spent the night at Camp Striker, neat the airport. We spent a little time browsing through some of the completely-illegal bootleg video stores dispersed around the camp. It was pretty aggravating to see the compete works of House and MASH available for $20 each, while I had spent almost that much for each season of each series. Blah. But I alleviated the stress by requisitioning the complete works of Bones for only $20. My wife wanted me to find all the seasons of Say Yes to the Dress off of TLC for her, but I don't really think it is in high-demand here.
Spending all that time waiting on the tarmac at the Baghdad airport was an eye-opener to just what kind of situation we were in. Every once in a while, we could hear outgoing US artillery near the airport, and hear gunfire off to our east. At nighttime, there would periodically be illumination flares shot up by nearby units which would light up the sky with their eerie magnesium filings glow, providing light for friendly forces searching for insurgents who might be probing their defences. About every other military helicopter flying in would fire off their anti-heat-seeking missile flares of green and white as a precaution as they slowed to make their descent, making them look like schitzophrenic christmas trees. The chopper ride to Taji, when it did come, was worse than the C-130, except to top it off it was completely blacked out inside the chopper, in order to not give bad guys on the ground an aiming reference. Once here, we were uncerimoneously welcomed and dumped into the "temporary" barracks here on the base. It is better than what we had in Kuwait, though. We have mattrases instead of cots and lockers to put our gear in rather than live out of our backpacks.
The next day, to add insult to injury, we were informed that five of our sick members back in Kuwait and six of our number here in Taji had the honest-to-God Swine Flu, exact strain and everything. And so, to prevent an international incident, we were summarily confined and quarantined to our building for the next three days. This is the first thing I have done since our "parole" was granted. It really does a number on the hiney muscles when you can do nothing but sit on them for three days and nights. But I got a lot of scripture reading and writing done, so it was not a total waste. I feel like a vampire, though, not having been exposed to the sun for so long. We will start back to work tomorrow, building our command center and preparing to come on line for full-duty status in a week or so as the current unit prepares to leave. I should be able to start putting up pictures in a week or so when we get to our permanant residences. Until then, see you in the funny papers and keep us in your prayers!

Austin

Hurry Up and Wait

2009-05-20T08:29:00.002+03:00

It has been an eventful last five days. We spent a day at a marksmanship course, where the learning objective was to be able to engage targets out to 500 meters, whereas our normal qualification standards are to be able to shoot out to 300 meters. I had to be on radio watch the whole day, and the only bit of diversion was to engage in a bullfight of sorts with one of the three-foot long lizards that live out there, lizards that make gila monsters seem as cute as kittens.
We then spent three days at a range where a bunch of former Special Forces and Ranger guys taught us the finer points of engaging targets at extremely close ranges and about urban combat techniques such as clearing houses. We spent a lot of time practicing transitioning from our rifles to our pistols, and I am proud to say my quick-draw speed and accuracy is on par with most 60's western movies. Living out in the desert was nice and simple, a good change from being in the hustle and beuracracy of the large camps. It was nice and quiet and peaceful, with the days being as life in the desert is to be imagined, with not a cloud in the sky and a blazing sun all day. With my standard uniform being sunglasses and no hat, my face resembles that of a raccoon, only with the dark and light spots reversed. The rooms we stayed in at night were comfortable, but we had to sleep on the floor, which we wouldn't have minded so much had it not been for the discovery of the hole in the wall which was allowing beetles the size of young peaches to scurry around at their leisure. Also, after three days of no showering and wearing 60 pounds of gear for three days in the 105 degree temperatures, people tend to graduate past the normal body oders and move into the realm of fermented apples. A true delight for the senses.
After coming back (and showering) we have been on notice to pack up and leave for Iraq on about six hours notice. There has been some major setbacks in those plans, however. 12 men in our 60-man company have been quarantined for having flu-like symptoms, and the longer the CDC personnel here determine they have to stay locked up, the longer we have to wait to leave. And with our bags packed up and being on a short leash, as it were, there is not much to do but re-read magazines for the forth or fifth time. Worst case scenario, we may be here for up to five more days like this. We will make the best of it, though.
Las night the USO put on a show for Asian-Pacific Islander American month here at the camp. It was Hawaiian-themed, with a lot of bands and comedians from that neck of the woods. I felt bad for the hula girls, who had to endure many arduous and clamoring calls for marriage from the audience.
Well, we will continue to sit and wait. My next post wil lprobably from Iraq once we settle in. Until then, please keep us in your prayers.

Austin.

Kuwait, the real-life Groundhog Day

2009-05-13T15:01:00.002+03:00

It has been an eventful week here in never-never land as we ramped up our training before heading up to Iraq. A couple of days ago, we started going out to the ranges we reconed prior to that. One of them was a two-day training event where our platoon was given the assignments of conducting dismounted security patrols along a route into the town to ensure the route's security, meeting with the town mayor and other leaders to assess the needs of the town and evaluate how the US Army might help, and patrol outside of the town to confirm or deny any enemy activity in some specific areas. These type of events are designed to force units to problem-solve, both on a strategic and tactical level. Along the route, we encountered some IEDs. In the town, the crowd was attacked by a suicide bomber while we were conducting our assessments, and we engaged in a firefight with the perpetrators for a good half hour, and were ambushed as we were patrolling south of the town. Our platoon performed admirably, and the good fortune was added to by the fact that our Battalion and Brigade operations officers as well as our Battalion Sergeant Major were tagging along to watch how we did things. It was a good, simple few days of training. It was not much more complicated than sleeping, eating, and fighting. It was peaceful being away in the desert, away from our large camp. In such remote places and times, soldiers have to find ways to be creative to not get too bored. During one long stretch of radio watch, I and our medic had a very thourogh discourse on our favorite kitchen utensils and which sort of kitchen knifes we prefered. There was a large camel skeleton outside the camp which we examined, and a few guys tried to see if they could catch 100 skittles in their mouths thrown by their compatriots. Such is the life.
In this stressful and pressurized environment, it is a great effort to remain friendly and proffessional as we go about our day. But I have found a person that I feel can be used as a justifiable target for all our pent-up anger. That person is the AT&T automated operator. Calling home is a big enough chore with having to wait in line to get to the phone and even then there is no promise that you will even have your calls answered by the person you are trying to reach. I do not need the bright yet souless voice of some lady telling me about the great deals AT&T offers on phone cards or about how easy it is to refil my minutes. I just hate that she drones ON and ON for almost five minutes before my dialed number will even ring. AT&T has a monopoly on the call centers over here anyway, so why prolong the soldier's attempts to talk to their loved ones. I will punch the person in charge of the messages in the head if I ever meet them, regardless of gender or age.
On that happy note, I bid you all adeiu. Keep us in your prayers, and tip your waitresses.

2 Weeks Down!

2009-05-12T20:46:00.004+03:00

The first 2 weeks of Austin being gone have been full. There has not been a time in which I have been bored and wondered what to do and for that I am very thankful. I always resented the Army wife motto, "Stay Busy" because I didn't want to live trying to fill my life with things so that I could forget that my husband was halfway around the world. I am thankful that God has given me opportunities to "stay busy" doing things I enjoy or that have an eternal purpose. It started when I moved to San Angelo to live with Austin's family. They were so welcoming and even encouraged me to decorate and paint my room to make it more of a home for me. If you know me, you know that I love to decorate. Austin sometimes teases me and says "Patterns, colors and textures oh my!" because I love how God created all the variety and can get lost in it at times:) The Huckabees let me choose a color and paint my wall. It was a lot of fun and meant a lot to me. This past week I went back to Killeen to help out the flower shop I worked at for Mother's Day. It was crazy and long as all holidays are at a flower shop. I was kinda dreading going back because in Army towns everywhere you look there are men wearing the same uniform as Austin and I knew it would make me miss him even more, but I am glad I faced it. I don't want to hide from life and reality. It was actually good to see everyone and to have some familiarity as so much has changed in these 2 weeks. On Saturday I was able to go and see my family in Huntsville. My sister was getting ready to go to England for a mission trip so it was good to see her before she left. It was good to be home for Mother's Day. We had a wonderful lunch and one of the sweetest ladies in the world came over. I want to be just like her. She has been through deployments and much more so maybe I am on my way. Saturday night I went with my best friend to her boyfriend's house to see his pet flying squirrel. That was interesting to say the least, especially because I don't really like small animals. It would glide from one person to the next and crawl all over us. It was kinda creepy but an experience none the least.
On the long drive back to Angelo, I stopped and had lunch with my friend Christina and her son in Killeen. It was very encouraging because her husband has deployed before. She said that during that time, her faith in God grew by leaps. I am looking forward to growing closer to God and seeing Him work during this time. He has already taken care of and blessed me in so many ways. He has shown me that He is the ultimate comforter and strength. I can not imagine life without Him as my Savior.
Today we started packing for Africa! We leave on Thursday. This is an opportunity that God has given me that I would have never seen coming. It is proof to me that Austin and my time apart is not in vain but that God has plans for each of us that He will accomplish because of and during the separation. This gives me so much hope.

love,

Britt

This is a picture of my newly painted room!

Here is my family on Mother's Day

Here is my friend Christina's son and me at lunch. He is a sweetheart and really made my day.

Sleeping Like A Calvinist...

2009-05-08T08:33:00.002+03:00

Last night I slept for seven hours. This might seem uneventful to most, but to me it was monumental. It was more sleep than I had gotten in about the last four nights combined. Ever since we arrived a week ago, our schedule, combined with the difficulty of adjusting to the time difference, made it impossible to sleep when we should. We have usually been training or going to classes in the morning, and then sleeping for 4 or so hours in the afternoon during the hottest part of the day. I usually slept the whole time between lunch and supper. Taking this siesta made it impossible to clock out when we were supposed to, and I would usually wake up around midnight or so, lay in the cot in the hot tent for a couple of hours, and then get up to wander like a zombie around camp until it was time to go. But yesterday, I forced myself to stay up throughout the day, even through a horribly boring intelligence class in which I would perodicly do the head snapping motion. So needless to say, last night was great. Not that I was looking forward to facing the day in this antithesis of a paradise, but I was happy when I woke up that I wouldn't be running on minimum voltage.
Yesterday morning I and some other officers jumped in some SUVs and went out into the desert to scout out some ranges we will be going to in the next week. As we made our way further into the desolation, the void of this place seemed to increase as we got away from our built up areas and further into the nothingness where we were the only ones as far as the eye could see. I was the navigator in the lead vehicle, the one with the map. Many people are intimidated at the prospect of driving in the desert because of the lack of landmarks, but growing up in west texas, with somewhat similar scenery, made it a cake for me. My wife often says that being able to see everything at once makes it impossible to keep track of where you are, but it is pretty easy for me. The only sign of life we saw out there was a big gila-monster-looking lizard, light colored and spotted, about three feet long. As we were looking at our map, I had had no idea that Kuwait was so small, or how close we were to the Iraq border. At the turn-off to one of our ranges off the main road, the only working border crossing into Iraq was only about 10 minutes ahead. Kuwait only seems to be about 60 miles from north-to south, about as far from San Angelo to Brady. As we were headed back to camp, we passed a couple pf 18-wheeler convoys that were about 40 or 50 trucks each, heading to Iraq with supplies. Well, I've run out of time on the computer, so take care and pray for us if you remember it!

Austin

In Kuwait

2009-05-06T04:52:00.000+03:00

Well, here I am in Kuwait. I'm not really sure how I got here, both literally and metaphorically. It is a absolutely beautiful place, with tall mountians, majestic pines, cool breezes, and filled with people who are at the cutting edge of progressive culture. God obviously new what he was doing when he took the time to make such a wonderful place. And now that this joke has run it's course, the truth: This place makes Van Horn, Texas look like paradise on earth. I have driven through southern Wyoming, and I thought THAT was desolate. This place is as sparse as can be. There aren't really any descriptive words to allude to the vast emptiness of it. After we flew in to Kuwait City (which reminded me of downtown Chicago, another large downtown right on the waterfront), it was about a two hour drive to the camp where we are currently located. Driving through the desert out here at night, it felt as if we could've been on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean during a cloudless, moonless night. There was absolutely no light, no landmarks to orient oneself, no sense of how far or how fast we were traveling. Daytime is not much better. In fact, nighttime is preferrable because it hides the stark ugliness of the place. Imagine a flat parking lot as far as the eye can see in all directions, covered in sand. That's about all there is to Kuwait.
During our flight out here, we stopped for refueling in Minneapolis and Amsterdam. Both places, the authorities had only a small waiting area available to us, and we unable to traverse the airports to purchace food or drink. I made a joke to one of the well armed Amsterdam airport police that they and the barriers were in place to keep the Americans from invading his country, but he didn't find it as amusing.
Here in Kuwait, we are mostly recieving all our gear and personnel from the States and conducting training similar to what our jobs will require of us in such an environment. It makes me wish someone would start a bloodless war on a golf course in Colorado. We have been taking classes on counter-IED training, SE (Site Exploitation - taking apart a bad guy's house to find his hidden stashes of bad-guy things), and today we are going to be conducting emergency medical training on lifelike dummies that actually bleed and react negatively if you don't follow the proper steps.
We have already had a few incidents that make me want to pull my remaining hair out. For example, one of my soldiers knowingly deployed to this, a combat zone, without his bulletproof plates for his vest. It is akin to deciding to go scuba diving but not wanting to take air tanks. Kinda defeats the purpose. I guess that what the Army has leaders for.
I cannot post any pictures until we get to Iraq, as the internet cafe computers will not allw it. But more will follow in the future. Until then, please keep us in your prayers.
Austin Huckabee.

New Beginnings

2009-05-05T19:11:00.001+03:00

We decided to create this blog so that everyone we love can keep up with us even though we are thousands of miles apart from eachother. We hope that through this year our writing will be an encouragement to others as God uses this year for His purpose.

love,
Austin and Brittany