Stories from the Road

After ten months of being on the road many stories and anecdotes have accumulated, as can be expected.  Not being one who likes to repeat things I do not have first hand account of, the only stories I can share are those concerning either myself or my CLP (clip).  I apologize right now for not sharing these in chronological order, but time is something that passes in an unusual manner on the road.  Sometimes it goes by in the blink of an eye, sometimes a moment lasts forever, and quite often the days simply merge into each other and we're left wondering how entire months have gone by without our noticing.  For better or worse, here are some of the tales told by and about Hawkeye 3-1.

Pops and the Chow Hall

One of the additional duties a CLP member may have is the TCNLNO.  Simply put this job entails coordinating between the military members of a convoy and the civilian contractor drivers that are with us.  The drivers are from nations other than the US, Iraq, or Kuwait and called TCNs (Third Country Nationals) by the military.  For about five months or so our TCNLNO was Pops.  For those who have not had the pleasure of meeting Pops, he's quite the out-going and friendly guy.  Our CLP has a reputation among the TCNs as being one of the best to work with.  The reason for this being that we treat the TCNs who are with us better than other units.  Pops is especially good at working with the various cultures and nationalities the drivers we have are from.  Its not uncommon to find a driver walking the line of trucks in a staging area offering us tea.  Toward the end of the deployment Pops started staying in his truck full time and received a lot of invites from the TCNs to share a meal or two with them.  Many times when we are at the staging yards of the bases in Iraq we will have drivers that have worked with us in the past approach and chat with us or see if we can help them out with a problem they might be having.

A couple of missions ago we were at a base that allows the TCNs to eat in the chow hall along with the military and US civilians.  It was close to closing time and only a handful of US personnel were around.  There were a large number of TCNs from the various convoys that were at the base, and a few recognized Pops from a mission previous.  Pops sited the guys as well and walked up to them, started shaking their hands, and asking how they were all doing.  At that moment it was like someone hit a switch and turned off all the background noise in the world.  All eyes were on Pops, from both TCNs to US personnel not on our CLP.  Everyone was staring with mouths wide open as they tried to comprehend what they were seeing.  I am sad to say that few US personnel will socialize with TCNs, which caused what Pops did to totally amaze them.  After a brief catch-up with the TCNs Pops went back to our table and ate lunch, but I couldn't help notice a good number of glances in our direction as people stared and wondered.  Even now, a few months later, we still have TCNs come up to us in the staging lanes and ask if Pops is with us, a sign of not only the great job he does, but the positive impact he has on cultural relations.

Sometimes the Truth is stranger than Fiction.

Back around June I was on a mission with Racer X as my driver when one of the oddest things I've ever seen on the road occurred.  We had been diverted to CSC Scania, which the US forces had just returned a large section of the road leading past the base to the Iraqis.  The entryway into the base was now a lot narrower than it used to be, with concrete barriers on one side and the wire/paper/sand Hesco barriers on the other.  While driving ahead to the gate Racer X told me the truck felt a bit sluggish.  From what I could see in the mirror everything looked fine, so 'X dropped it to low gear, gave it some gas, and we moved ahead.  I glanced in the mirror and noticed that our trailer was starting to disappear into the Hesco barriers.  Racer X did his best to keep the truck between the barriers on either side but due to the amount of traffic that had been by before many of the Hescos were already damaged and spilling onto the roadway. 

The first pause waiting to get into the gate I hopped out to check on our trailer tires.  Only one tire was flat, but the last outside tire was missing.  The tire wasn't blown and barely holding on, but all the way removed from the rim, which was still as round as usual and undamaged.  It was about at this point that Double Trouble (our maintenance team) called up on the radio to let the convoy know that which-ever truck had lost a tire, they had picked it up.  Once the CLP was parked for the night Double Trouble brought our tire to us, and everyone agreed there wasn't any damage to it that we could find.  However it had happened the best any of us can tell is the tire was simply pulled off the rim by the Hesco somehow.  Definitely a trip I'll remember.

These two short stories of happenings on the road aren't even a scratch on the proverbial tip of the iceberg for things that have happened to members of our unit over the last nine to ten months.  Each member of each clip has their own collection of stories and tales of what has happened on missions.  If things this deployment are anything like previous ones, our stories are something that will never truly stop being repeated among not only ourselves, future generations that join our units, and in some cases even family.

Be safe.

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