Information and Links
Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.
- Other Posts
- Junkyards of War
- The Perfume Palace, Baghdad
The Information-Age Marine
(Originally published in the New York Time Select on March 22, 2006 - link)
It wasn’t long ago that hand-written letters from deployed service members were like gold to their families at home, and vice-versa. News traveled at a snail’s pace, and the information a service member read in correspondence with his loved ones was sure to be weeks if not months old. The information age has changed all that for good. I’m sure my wife appreciates my e-mails, but I don’t think any happy dances are transpiring as she checks her inbox, although I could be wrong.
In this war of fully operational bases amid an insurgency, the infrastructure present for the deployed marine is immense. Remember, we have been here for just short of three years. Camp Falluja has almost all the connectivity one could want. AT&T calling centers and D.S.N. (defense switched network) telephone lines connect our voices to home as often as we can make time to call. E-mail is provided for most deployed marines, and is available to all through internet cafes, allowing our written thoughts to be transmitted just as easily.
Actually, I prefer e-mail for communication. It is instant, always convenient for both parties, and you can rest assured that a broken connection won’t impede your conversation. I have yet to have a truly clear phone conversation with my wife since I have been in Iraq. At least 30 percent of my precious calling card minutes are frittered away in volleys of “Can you hear me?†and “Please repeat that. You broke up.†I would go as far as to say the frustration caused by poor phone connections has probably contributed to several divorces.
The unfortunate flip side of our ability to communicate so easily is that now all those itty-bitty, tiny problems, issues, and other events that don’t need to clutter one’s mind while in a combat zone are only an e-mail away. For example, I recently spent a day worried that my loyal canine companion might have hip dysplasia after learning that she had a limp in her hind legs. It turned out to be nothing more than a blister on her paw, and I don’t blame my wife for telling me in a passing e-mail, but it certainly caused me some unwanted mental stress. What can I say? I love my dog. But imagine facing something more serious, like financial or marital problems, and you can see how it might be a recipe for disaster.
Beyond one-on-one communication we have AFN (American Forces Network), television broadcasting provided by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES). Network and cable TV providers donate programming to AAFES, which broadcasts its signal for anyone with an antenna and a TV to receive it. Programming runs the gamut — news, sports, prime time shows and, of course, talk shows. Only an inspirational episode of Dr. Phil can make you feel like putting a ballpoint pen through your eyeball right in the middle of the barber shop. Of note is that since the programming is donated, it has no commercials.
In order to produce full 30 and 60 minute segments AFN adds informational messages such as advice on how to accurately judge your alcohol consumption, strict warnings against sexual harassment, and gentle reminders to keep your barracks clean. Only an episode of “Baywatch†could rival the lame acting and cheesy music of an AFN commercial. You can find AFN playing at the chow hall, your workplace, and even your trailer if you’re persistent and industrious enough to hook it up.
My boss and I are lucky enough to have an AFN antenna right outside our trailer. Hooking up to it was relatively simple, but we soon discovered the reception was not up to par. Video was coming through clearly, but audio was extremely garbled. This resulted in a late-night antenna adjusting excursion that involved one of us calling out directions from inside the trailer as the other clumsily adjusted the 15-foot antenna.
“Better…better…better…worse…better…better…Stop! Crap, go back the other way! Better…better…Stop! No, the other way!â€
Despite our best efforts the TV would tease us with just a second of crystal-clear audio, and when we stopped moving and released the antenna it would immediately revert to vicious white noise. I think I even heard an ominous voice from inside the box say “Get out of my trailer!†to which I replied, “Hey! Get out of my TV!â€
Comments this article received on NYT.com:
#
I had a sargeant that spent hundreds of dollars for a satellite dish and decoder that worked in Iraq, on which he would watch Nascar for days on end, interrupted only by PMCS and casualties coming in to our aid station. He probably spent 10 percent of his time (with one of the junior enlisted forced to help him) adjusting his satellite, since the medevac choppers would consistently blow the satellite down or out of alignment. Amusingly, it survived a mortar fragment, but couldn’t survive a Raven strike. The Raven teams would fly from our Aid Station roof, and one day they crashed the little remote control aircraft into our roof, and his satellite dish, a few feet from their sandbagged roof bunker.
CPT Robinson,
Physician Assistant
Comment by Scott Robinson — March 23, 2006 @ 2:22 am
#
I have seen huge satellite dishes outside people’s trailers and wondered what they were for. Perhaps they’re NASCAR fans?
Comment by Jeff Barnett — March 23, 2006 @ 10:18 am
#
Lt. Barnett - thanks for the vivid portrait you’ve painted of downtime in Iraq. These slice-of-life excerpts help give us a broader overall picture of your total experience, and hopefully with that, a broader undertanding. And they are humerous to boot. I guess the days of impromptu musicals set in an activity tent, like we’ve seen in MASH, are long gone.
Comment by George Recine — March 23, 2006 @ 12:32 pm
#
Lt. Barnett — I am glad you’re enjoying your truly luxurious accomodations in Camp F. My son and others have none of these amenities down the road a piece (up the river). Nor am I aware that they get time off for an occasional visit to your comfortable facilities. Couldn’t that be arranged at certain intervals -monthly, bi-monthly etc? Thank you, anyway, and good luck on your remaining tour of duty.
Comment by Pierre Secher — March 23, 2006 @ 6:05 pm
#
Will we ever hear from an non com?
Comment by William H Stieger — March 23, 2006 @ 7:26 pm
#
Pierre,
Thanks for the kind wishes, and give your son my best. While I am glad Camp Fallujah has the amenities it does, I don’t think “luxury†and Iraq belong in the same sentence. I have colleagues in Ramadi (up the river) and while they don’t have everything Camp Fallujah has, they still get AFN in their workplace on a 42″ plasma screen. In any situation I think one is about as happy as they resolve to be.
Comment by Jeff Barnett — March 24, 2006 @ 10:08 am
#
Thank you for the pictures of your room, breakfast, and the children. This is my son’s second deployment down the road and his digs were nonexistent the first trip. As for communications, the lines were long and free time spent sleeping. My primary souce of news was from Marineparents.com. No showers for 28 days until finally you good engineers got water flowing. Thanks for your engineering degree! His digs are better this trip. As for time off, my son must be with Pierre’s. Are you still under constant mortar fire? Are the children able to go to school where you are now? How about in Karma?
Comment by Linda Farrer — March 24, 2006 @ 4:34 pm
#
Linda,
We don’t take mortar fire very often. A stray one landed on the south side of the base a couple weeks ago, but that was the first time in months. I don’t have a lot of visibility on Karma, but I see children attending school in other surrounding areas.
Comment by Jeff Barnett — March 25, 2006 @ 2:24 am