Additional Duty

It really has turned into Ground Hog’s Day. There isn’t much that is exciting on a daily basis but each day typically brings a funny or interesting situation.

I was tasked to be the Environmental Compliance Officer for the COB about six weeks ago. When I was told I would be the ECO, I didn’t even know what an ECO was until I looked at the point of contact’s info and he had ‘environmental’ in his title. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out I was going to be doing something with the environment. So John, the POC, is asking me a litany of questions about my background; whether or not I have any experience in this line of work or if I have a biology degree to name a few.

Unfortunately and to his dismay, I didn’t have any such qualifications for this additional duty. He tells me he really needs someone to identify fuel spills and work on having them cleaned up. He directs me to an on-line course and off I go. As good stewards of the environment, it’s important that we clean up any messes we may have made but we are on a floating bed of oil. I would think the fuel spills would just leach back into the ground and become the product we buy. I guess if I had taken biology, I would know how that works.

During my research phase of this job, I needed to speak to personnel from the fire department. The deputy chief and I were talking about their involvement in spills and he had left the room to gather some information for me. The other gentleman in the room mentioned he had only been in Basrah for 3 weeks. I told him he was lucky since it was a real pit when I had arrived and the Brits didn’t seem to care. As the conversation went on, I asked him where he was from and he mentioned that he had lived in Sudan for 7 years. We talked about that and then I asked him, “Where are you from originally?” “The UK”, he stated. FOOT IN MOUTH!!!! Honestly, he didn’t sound like a Brit! I figured it best not to say anything …what was the point? Hopefully, I would never see him again.

I really don’t have anything against the Brits. They are just really easy targets for some humor just as Americans are easy targets on their BBC channel.

The last few days have been incredibly warm, yet there are varying opinions on what the actual temp is. On line, the high for today was 124 degrees. This matches relatively close to the digital thermometer that I have. However, from various co-workers and friends come even higher numbers. All I know is that it is unbelievable hot! The hand sanitizer from the Porta Johns burns your hands in the middle of the day so now it’s more than just your butt getting burnt. Yesterday, I changed my physical training shirt 3 times and I only ran once. And when I finally was going to go shower after my run, the generator had quit working and hence, no water. I knew better too…I should have taken a shower the minute I got back from the run. I waited until 4pm to take a shower. Good thing I had some body splash spray from the neighbors to tide me over.

One of my friends was telling me that his roommate is a great guy but he has bad foot odor. I had a good laugh and had to break it to him that all guys’ rooms smell like a locker room to some degree. Maybe they aren’t receiving all the special lotions and body sprays that us female Soldiers are receiving or they’re holding onto their laundry extra long. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to be a female!