A Cool end to a typcial week

On Saturday evening, on my way to Mass, one of the officers from the Econ Division asked if I would like to join him on a trip to Al Tuwaitha on Sunday. I reviewed my schedule in my head and said, “Yes, I have to clear it with the Chief as I have a project due to him tomorrow and by the way what is Tuwaitha?” (A trip is a trip and I was going no mater what – only the second trip in 4 months!). Since I had just seen the Chief running into the gym, I went up and asked. He said yes, I went to mass and then back to the office for 3 hours to complete the report.

Up at 5 on Sunday (I was tired) to get ready for the Helo ride to the site. Tuwaitha is basically the site where Saddam completed all of his research on making an atomic bomb. The Iraqis had progressed quite far in the process, but US bombing in 1991 effectively ended their program (something we now all know in hind sight). The project now is clean-up and my mission was to accompany the researchers from Texas Tech who were assisting the Iraqis in executing the clean up of the site. I will take about 15 to 20 years to complete the project. The contamination is localized to a few building. Here are a couple of articles on the site written by the scientists I was escorting.

http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/op-eds/what-we-found-al-tuwaitha

Having been on board a nuclear submarine I was well aware of where to go and not to go. For the most part I will let the pictures do the talking.

Before I get to the pictures, my mom asked me about what Iraqis were like and what is the culture like. As to the culture I would have to get an article - I am not expert. As to the people, they are much like everyone else. People are people. They love their families, want to do well and take pride in their work. As a group I find they are searching to define their future. For decades anyone who stepped out with initative and unpopular (although right idea) was killed. I am amazed as the few Iraqi men I meet. They are hard working to change a way of life deeply engrained by the decades of dictatorship. It will take a long time.

This is about ¼ of the site. The burms were put in place to protect the site from attack. Didn’t provide much protection from the air dropped bombs.

This is me overlooking the site. The reactor site in the background is the “French reactor”

The French Reactor Close up. The man in uniform is an Iraqi Policeman. US military need to be accompanied by either the Iraqi Police or Iraqi Army when ever leave the bases.

This is one of the other reactors (the "Italian" one I think). None of them produced electricity, they were all used for research (weapon, chemical and biological) and weapon fuel production.

The same reactor from a different angle. The “hot” is the marking for a radioactive hot spot. For my Nuc power friends you will notice that this in not the normal standard for markings.

This is where the Iraqis enriched their uranium to weapons grade. A feat they achieved sometime before 1991.

Last and not least a picture of the Helo ride.

The Tigris River

Typical Iraqi housing.

Peace,

Chris Culver

Odds and Ends

Greetings to you all,

I hope you are having a great Easter Season! Easter is one of my favorite times of the year ... Mainly because it is a 50 day celebration. For my part I have been having (forcing myself :-)) a dessert every Sat and Sun to celebrate the time. It is hard to engage the Easter of this year, but God is everywhere - especially in the Church community here and for that I am very thankful.

I thought that I would share a some of the little things that are part of every day living. While the safety situation is improving greatly for most Iraqis, we are still confined to the bases as our green uniforms are targets. Terrorism at its fundamental root makes no sense. It is a war of destruction and here in Iraq, the terrorists have readily shown themselves to be little more than thugs and common criminals. They only differ from the common criminal in their desire to kill. The good thing here is that the Iraqi's themselves have seen these groups for what they are and the Iraqi people are bringing them to justice and ridding them from their land. Until they are finished, we US citizens live in the in between times. I imagine 10 or 20 years from now that thousands of US citizens will come to Iraq to visits it incredible sites. Until then the in between time has some unique characteristics.

For the first one I do not have a picture. ... One of the things that most people look forward too is showering without wearing shower shoes. I have not showered without wearing something on my feet for coming on 5 months. My choice of shoe is blue swimming crocs. I tried sandals, but the crocs provide a little more support and easily drain. It is the shower shoe of choice. I have to admit that when I go home for R and R in six weeks, the showering without shower shoes is one of the things that I will greatly enjoy ... that and walking outside in the grass without any shoes (OR BOOTS)!

On this picture you can see the smoke, not from a bomb, but from the plant down the river. It puts out smoke all day long. Fortunately we only smell it when the wind is blowing in our direction. Of course there are other plants in the other directions so we are in the smoke stream a good 40 to 50% of the time. And when the smoke is not an issue, the sand storms can get you. We are entering sand storm season so we get them about once a week. A simple cloth over the face is enough to walk outside, but it means no running on those days - have to work inside on one of the machines in the gym.

This is my view everyday.

I miss them very much and am looking forward to seeing them in 6 weeks. We will finish up a few things with the new house (BTW we signed a contract today for the "old house") and then heading down to FL. The big event there will be a day of swimming with the dolphins (which was Sophie's idea) !

Lastly, I have a pictures of some bunkers and T-walls (the large cement walls) located at VBC. I would show you bunkers at the Embassy Complex(NEC), but there are limitations on taking pictures at the NEC. It is simply part of life here. We go in the bunkers when the terrorists are shooting mortars on the base. It is a very random event and they rarely hit anything but open ground and fortunately even more rarely injure or kill anyone. As things are improving and the Iraqi Security Forces is making real gains in disrupting the terrorists ... it has been a while since I had to go to a bunker. Thank God.

A times life here is a little surreal, but then war (even in its transition to civil authority) is not what life is all about - or at least for this Catholic.

I pray all is well with all of you.

Peace,
Chris Culver

Happy Easter

Easter was a mixed bag. Typically Father says Mass at three bases that are down the road from each other, but for Easter he wanted to celebrate as a larger community. We had to arrange travel, but in the end I liked it. I was able to attend Mass on Holy Thursday and the Vigil. I missed Good Friday service because I had a meeting that ran long and I missed the bus. We meet at the Chapel, which a in the old pool house of Saddam’s wife’s former palace (the palace itself is bombed out). The acoustics in the chapel were incredible. Father has a great chanting voice and the choir was well done – all making for a very enjoyable liturgy – even kneeling on the marble floor.

Photo of the Chior getting ready for the Vigil

The Vigil starts outside on a little patio that served next to the palace's lake.

The entrance to the Chapel

And Easter Holy Water!

The Photo is of the Palace that is near the chapel. The top was bombed out in the invasion in 2003.

On the down side, after sleeping in on Easter Sunday, I went into work noon and stayed until 10:40 pm. There had been a slowing down of things for a couple of weeks, but last week things started to pick up and I had work quite extensively this weekend. I was a little made about it for a while, but the work paid off and in the end I offered it up. Things starting Easter started to heat up here in Iraq. We will see how the rest of the week goes … continue to pray for peace.

Some of my students asked what I do and I wrote the following. I think it adds some clarity and offer it all to you. “As to my mission ... Different than I expected, but still focused on building up the Iraq Civil Capacity. I work in the J9 Plans sections. The "J9" means that I am focused on military to US Embassy, UN, NGO and other relationships, in addition our boss is the spokesman for USF-I (United States Forces - Iraqi or the bulk of the military in Iraq) so we have to keep our situational awareness high on all of the major happenings in Iraq - both good and bad. We also work with the Iraqi government on a number of projects from Energy to Sewage. Right now, the military is in a supporting role to all of the organizations (which is a switch from in the past when we were in the lead). The US military to Iraqi military relationships are handled by other sections of USF-I.

The "Plans Section" means that I am not integral any one of the above projects. Rather I work on various ways to bring the efforts together. Sometimes it is a job, just to get two different groups to work together. Other times it is getting into the nitty-gritty of reducing redundancy and ensuring that efforts work together to create a momentum greater than each working alone. The Iraqi's are a sovereign country and is to the point where many groups are trying to have their influence here. Some are good and some are malign. My efforts are to work with any group and any country that is for a free, democratic, stable and prosperous Iraq - and to minimize the efforts of malign interests. The job requires me to have my fingers in a lot of various pots, but I do not actually "do the work." Most of the people I work with are UN or American - they in turn end up going out in town working in their various arenas.”


Lastly, we closed on our new house on Thursday! After I get some pictures I will write an entry. The other house is still for sale in South Bend if anyone is interested!

Peace,
Chris Culver