Fitting in with the locals in Iraq
April 23, 2007 by Michael A. Romig, Baghdad, Iraq

Although I live in the green zone I interact with Iraqis every day, both at work, at local business and with our residential security team. I frequently eat in local Iraqi restaurants inside the green zone and have locals buy food and equipment outside for me when needed. I’ve done my best to pickup the local greetings and have attempted to learn Iraqi Arabic as much as I can in the relatively short time I’ve been in the country.

One thing I’ve noticed at several local restaurants and at other shops is the “discount” that emerges with loyalty and frequency to a place. There is one restaurant, very close to where I live. It’s “hidden”, like many restaurants are. You can’t see it from the road and even if you did and were looking directly at it you wouldn’t recognize it as a restaurant. All but a few of times I’ve eaten there I have been the only American in the place, all others being locals or at least Iraqi Americans working in the IZ.

OPSEC, PERSEC and Keeping Folks Back Home Updated
April 23, 2007 by Michael A. Romig, Baghdad, Iraq

So my web updates stopped. I don’t mean a little, I cut them off completely. Why? Well I hope this update explains, at least in part, for some of you who wondered what happened. For those that don’t know OPSEC stands for operational security and PERSEC stands for personal security. As some back home know, I’ve been a civilian contractor deployed in Iraq for the last 9 months. When I was preparing to deploy and even right after I did deploy I didn’t “know” what these terms meant. I knew what they stood for but couldn’t completely grasp the concept. I’d heard of this kind of “stuff” before and figured most of it was just paranoia and overreaction by big brother. Now, I’m happy to say, I firmly understand OPSEC and PERSEC is no joke. Now what can I say to you to try and get you to see as well.

All of the news outlets are now covering the verdict of the trial. I thought I’d type up a quick on the ground story from someone literally a short walk from where the trial has been going on, and the other court building where the verdict was just handed down.

Many Iraqis are pleased with this news. There has been lots of sporadic celebratory AK-47 fire into the sky by various Iraqis here in Baghdad for the last hour since the local news announced the verdict.

I just witnessed an impromptu parade of sorts. Local Iraqis normally working at the various Ministries and Government buildings in the IZ were driving down the streets, waving their shirts over their heads and honking their horns. The bleat of the horns alone side the shouting sounded like music in the distance, but as they drove closer, it was just the raw sound of celebration. AKs and pistol fire into the air accompanied the caravan as it proceeded down the street.

For security reasons I typically delay this kind of information a while, but I stopped working for the company I had been working with and have joined with another. I was working on the largest US Airbase in western Iraq in Al Anbar. My new job is in Baghdad, in the International Zone (aka Green Zone). I have been here several weeks now and am enjoying my new work.

I miss the routine of my last job. The work was steady. Every day I would work directly with Marines and some Army soldiers. My new job is different every day. I work every day with Iraqis and US State department officials. My work previously was only technical and limited in technological scope. My new work is much broader in terms of technology and role. It is much more challenging.

So I do IT infrastructure work here in Iraq, basically. In the US it can be pretty routine stuff at times. I wanted to share this next account so others would understand some of the “fun” distractions we get working out here.

On Friday, October 13, 2006 I had been working over at the computer site near the Blue Room. I was visiting a bit with the system administrator and the other Marines assigned there, when I noticed a lot of lightning in the sky. It was quite late in the day, and many had already turned in, with the night crews in place. It was dark, very dark, except for those streaks of lightening I kept noticing. All my time so far in Iraq had been dry and hot, with no real storms at all. One morning we had the sky open up and it sprinkled some rain on us for around 2 or 3 minutes, but then it vanished.

I am a civilian working for a civilian company, but attached to the military as a contractor. There are many contractors here in Iraq and Kuwait. I would say the whole operation at this point would slow down considerably if not halt all together without all the contractors in the various roles. Many contractors from the United States come to work here for economic opportunities, but many find much more.

I’ve heard from more than a few civilians in Iraq who have gained good clarity about their lives, relationships and what they believe. Not all of the epiphanies end happily, as some finely end unhappy marriages or leave some weary issue of the past where it belongs…in the past.

The Desert has some of the most beautiful sunsets. Very different than the sun setting over the fast expanses of ranch land in the Texas hill country where I’m from. Different from the lazy dropping of the sun into the ocean or behind snow capped mountains where I vacation. And even different from the setting sun over the vast corn and soybean fields of the mid-west where my wife’s family is from. It is beautiful, just a different kind of beautiful.

I’m learning a lot about the desert. There is beauty and at the same time without water or appropriate supplies this place could be devastating. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying I’m not without water or supplies. The military does an excellent job keeping cases and cases of water around all the time and the chow at the dining facilities is excellent.

I’ve given myself what I believe is an appropriate amount of time to settle into my new environment and feel up to sharing about some of my experiences being in theater. There are many changes you have to go through moving out of civilian life in the United States and moving to a combat zone in Iraq. In my case, even more changes than just working abroad as my new home is on a military base and I’m surrounded by and work with Soldiers, Airmen, green Navy, and Marines every day in a war-time operating environment. There is no doubt there is additional stress in a military life. I wouldn’t dare say I experience the same amount of stress as those professionals in uniform; I don’t get up at 04:30 and PT each day for example. But even with my relatively lax civilian lifestyle I can’t help but be affected by and indeed restricted and constrained by the military way of life living on a base in the AOR.

It has been a good week. They run the individual replacement processing very well considering how many things they have to do. I have enjoyed the food and housing well enough. I've even enjoyed the novelty of eating the MREs. I do like how this post has the DFAC (Dining Facility) label all of the food items with their calorie information. Good for weight loss and staying in shape. I've heard some of the bases over in Iraq also do that. MRE's also have each item with the nutritional information. I'm glad the Army has committed itself to this. If only the rest of the food providers in the civilian life would adopt such a philosophy, it might help turn the tide in childhood and adult obesity in the USA.

I had been reading the Weekly Routing Table Report on NANOG for a while and decided to email the author for more information about the report so I could get the most out of it. Happily Philip has spent some of his time and developed a HOWTO on the report. You can see it at: http://thyme.apnic.net Thanks again Philip for the great resource!