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| Friday, 7-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Random Ramblings
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7 January 2005:
Today is a typical day in many respects. It is about 2100. I’ve worked a full day, mostly on organizing case files, handling the 5 (count ‘em five) more courts-martial that walked through the doors today, and chewing out one of clients who screwed up last night in his company. He almost blew our pre-trial deal which would’ve led to much more exposure for him when the day of reckoning comes. We now have about as many cases here as in Baghdad but with less than half the attorneys. But, hey, bring it. Anyway, after that full day, we are on our way 2 hours north to Navistar to drop off MAJ Schmitt so he can convoy north to Talil early tomorrow. I’ve been trying to coordinate this trip all week and everything was all set. Then at the last minute, I was told that to get him (a non-unit member) on the truck convoy, I had to get one star approval from the Transcom. So then it was a matter of tracking the general down. We finally got word about 2000 that we could do it. So here we are.
There are tons of stars here. I see at least two generals at every meal. I’ve even run into one a couple of times (literally at the coffee silver bullet—don’t stand betw. me and my java). This is the rear, so all the generals in charge of support units like Transcoms and Engineering Brigages are here. The funny thing is that the official organization in charge of Arifjan is CFLCC (pronounced C-flick) (Combine Forces Land Component Command). CFLCC’s command group is ASG-KU (Army Support Group-Kuwait) and they’re motto is “Always Forward.” Yeah, always forward of Atlanta maybe. They are definitely the rear. That’s why this place is so built up and why, I suspect, it is the place that VIPs tend to visit more than any other. One of the first days I was here, I saw one of the Senators from Missouri in the mess hall. Kitt Bond I think.
I’m getting fatter and fatter. I keep looking for new ways to eat less, but in place where you have the option of eating a cheeseburger and fries at every meal and where the cheeseburger is the best food available. And in a place where the dessert is really the only thing that tastes just like back home. Well, it results in fatness. So I am trying to exercise regularly—now that my schedule has evened out some. Yeah, right. I try to run a couple miles on the treadmill on one day and then run a 4 mile loop on the other days. I have this course that starts at the amnesty box outside my building and loops around from guard tower to guard tower around the outside of the camp and ends up at the amnesty box again. A couple of days ago, I was running out near the hospital and had a military ambulance speed up, stop, and block my way so that a hospital blackhawk could zoom in, dust swirling. Oh and if you are non-military and wondering what an amnesty box is, they are big red wooden boxes, surrounded by sandbags, with a mail-like slot on the front and they say amnesty. They are all over in theater and you see them at stateside posts sometimes too. Anyway, they are the Army’s solution to getting people to turn in contraband items, like ammo, grenades, drugs, etc. I know a guy who tried to turn in ammo a while ago and the arms room didn’t have record of issuing it, so he stuck it in the box. When I was about to run a couple of days ago, I look in the slot and there was an atopine injector stuck in it—which I shoved the rest of the way in. I saw a guy chucking something in there in the middle of the day the other day—not real bright. That’s an activity best conducted under the cover of darkness.
Mary, my erstwhile secretary from WTK, wrote and asked what exactly a 27D is. A 27D (say 27 delta) is the military equivalent of a paralegal/secretary. In its most basic form it is a soldier that has certain GT (roughly equivalent to IQ) score that has been through basic training and then has been to AIT (advanced individual training) for 10 weeks and 3 days, teaching them the fundamentals of justice military style. Beyond that, what you get is anyone’s guess. Some have a lot of rank and a lot of experience. Some have little rank and little experience. Some are motivated great soldiers. Some are something less than that. Our 27D is SPC Ellis, as I have mentioned before. He’s a baby 27D fresh out of AIT. But he has those key ingredients of being quick and being motivated. I have worked him like a stepchild and he keeps on keepin’ on. He does everything from give briefings on Article 15s to organizing my files to helping me interview witness. It’s not unusual for something to come up in a 32 that indicates that another witness may be involved. I’ll write him a note and he’ll charge off and interview the witness on the fly and bring us back the notes in court. A good Delta really is “combat multiplier”
Mark, I could tell you really liked me in a tiara. But I do not even know what some of those other accoutrements were that you were talking about, so . . . that whole thing seems to be much more your scene.
Terri, if it’s you keeping Mary under control instead of vice versa, we’re all in a great deal of trouble.
It’s well after 2200. We’re close to Navistar. Looks like I’ll see the beginning of another day before hitting the hay.
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| Thursday, 6-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Pics From Christmas
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| Wednesday, 5-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Sand sand sand everywhere and not a drop to drink
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You may be asking why pics of water bottles. Everywhere you go are water dumps where there are pallets of cases of water. The most common one is the Rawdaitan. Some people say it makes them sick, but I think people like the others just bec. they’re “exclusive.” The Abraaj is has picture of the official Kuwaiti shaped water towers. They don’t look like ones in the states. The look like funnels (no rounded top) and they are all painted with blue and white stripes. They actually look very artistic on this barren landscape.
Today I spent almost the whole day doing preparation for expert psychiatric testimony for an upcoming trial. WTK has prepared me well in that regard.
I did get to talk to Anastasia this morning while it was still her birthday.
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| Tuesday, 4-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANASTASIA
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"Hard pressed on my right; my left is in retreat. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking. Attaquez!"
- General Ferdinand Foch (to General Joffre during Battle of the Marne)
Today was just one of those days. The network went down and stayed down, making working on the computers well nigh impossible. We managed to scavenge the day by taking a trip up to Camp Beuhring aka Udairi to interview witness in the sentencing case of a court-martial that we have coming up. Good thing we did too bec. as is often the case- what you hear from the witness is not what you’re expecting to hear. As you might recall, I’ve been to Beuhring before, but it was at night. In daylight, the place is even more desolate. It’s a huge staging area in the middle of nothingness. You turn off the highway, go 12 miles west and then 6 more north and then in the midst of featureless sand, you come to Beuhring. Met with some members of maintenance unit. They basically run a big junkyard/recovery operation. They have have offices set up in the back of 18 wheeler trailers—very cramped as you might imagine. They do the maintenance in big Quonset hut-shaped tents. The soldiers do their mechanics’ duties in OD coveralls. When night fell and it started getting cold, they kept warm by burning pallets in a barrel. It had the feel of shantytown. Got back late at night. Computers still weren’t up. Tried to call Anastasia bec. it was her birthday. But I missed her. My office sang happy birthday to her on our answering machine.
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| Monday, 3-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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03 January 04:
At midnight last night, we got back from picking up CPT Emery on her return from Baghdad. I stayed up until 0130 to make a call to a witness in one of my cases that had redeployed to Florida. Her dad had told me that she would be available at 0130 (5 p.m. FL time). So I stayed up and called and she was not there. Gotta love it.
This morning I got up just in time to go to Court for a 32 hearing. It appeared to be a pretty cut and dried larceny case. While I can’t get into the facts right now, let’s just say when the trial counsel asks that his star witness be read his rights the case suddenly looks better than it did.
I met an officer today from the 42nd ID which is going to be at FOB Speicher in Tikrit. I am supposed to be going the same place and am trying to get the 42nd to take some of my gear up there, so I can fly up unencumbered. I heard from the officer that FOB Speicher has been fairly quiet with the exception of some mortars on New Year’s Day. I also heard today that two of our TDS JAGs were in that mess hall in Mosul that was hit with the bomb about a week ago. They both took some shrapnel and are getting purple hearts.
Someone asked me recently if unfriendly witnesses and victims in courts-martial cases are willing to talk to us and do they have to? The short answer is yes. The rule is that the both sides must have equal access to all witnesses that the government has. The way that plays out is that we always get a chance to talk to the other sides witnesses. Usually there is no issue. You just say I am Major so and so and I need to speak to you about the so and so case and they say okay. I have seen instances when I was trial counsel where the one side told the judge that they had not had equal access to a witness. The MJ would stop the proceeding and say, “okay, how much time do you need?” Sometimes there is a wrinkle though—particularly with victims. I had a young JAG in my office a couple of weeks ago, insisting that since he was the Victim-Witness Liaison, he was entitled to be in my meeting with an alleged victim. I had to not so politely send him packing. Every once in a while, despite the side your on, you will want someone the victim knows in your meeting with you. But its your call, not the other sides. Sometimes you want to get to the witness first to lock in testimony. Sometimes, you want to get there last and develop testimony, counting on being more thorough than the other side and gaining the advantage of the “last word.” And, of course, you can’t control the candidness of a witness. For instance, CID usually is very tightlipped with the Defense but not so with the TC. Those are all things you have factor in.
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| Sunday, 2-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Another Day in Paradise
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Here's some more pics from the last month of trips. I also put a ton on January 1st. More pics later:
2 January 2005:
New Year’s Day in the ole combat zone was just another day in paradise. Amy’s absolutely normal chaos in our house is more entertaining (https://amy-efaw.fotopages.com). I’ve really done nothing but try to get substantive work done and ended up just putting out a series of fires. In between, I’m glued to Sky News and the BBC. From what I can tell, the U.S. press has covered the tsunami to some degree, but on European news it is the only story—wall to wall coverage. And given the scope of the tragedy, that’s not surprising. Today the death toll is at 150,000+. I don’t think we can picture that kind of devastation. The stories and footage they have shown are heart wrenching and make me want to reach out and hug my kids, which, of course, I can’t.
Back to here though. On New Year’s Eve, CPT Emery was compelled to go to Baghdad to attend a New Year’s Day deposition. It’s a long convoluted story which I won’t get into except to say that all part of capital murder case. The victim’s wife, a non-English speaking Iraqi, was to be deposed. To make a long story short, after moving heaven and earth to get CPT Emery there, the deponent either did not show or was turned away at the gate by uninformed guards.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Ranch Arifjan, the place was gearing up for the big party in the gym. I had planned to work most of the night, but ended up going over to the “party” with my SPC Ellis, my 27D. I figured, I’d keep my 19 year old soldier out of trouble. We first went to the gym where there was something resembling a dance—though it was described to me by the Chief of Justice as a scrum. The lights were down, hip hop was blaring, and a strobe was going. As you came in the door, MWR was passing out all sorts of crazy New Year’s hats, noise makers and tiara’s. I went for the tiara option. There was food catered by local hajee’s—kabob’s and other middle eastern food—and I think it was the best food I’ve had since I’ve been here. SPC Ellis dared me to get my picture taken with some girl he thought was all that but apparently too afraid to talk to—so I did (with my tiara). I’ll get the picture up sometime later. Ellis and I sat on the bleachers, ate, watched, and bet on how many clients the night would generate. You had to be there to really understand it. In the middle of the dance floor were all these guys decked out in all their bling bling with one hand in the air like they were all cool cats and on the outside were the few women that showed but they weren’t about to get in the middle of that pack of male soldiers. It was really pretty funny. Ellis filmed the countdown and so we duly recorded the ushering in of 2005.
The next day, New Year’s Day, I fully intended on getting lots of work done to make up for lost time on New Year’s Eve. I got up after sleeping five hours and ran the New Year’s Fun Run—and was among the first 350 that got the t-shirt. Didn’t really see many troops from the night before, interestingly. When I got back from that run, MAJ Glenn Schmitt had called from Doha to let me know that he was in country and needed to be retrieved. Glenn is from the same reserve unit that I am and was instrumental in getting me here and has been trying for sometime to get himself here. (He’s been cooling his heels at Fort Campbell. And then he went through the mobilization process (that I went through at Bragg) at Fort Bliss. Glenn used to work with Mark Kennedy (of Wheeler Trigg and Kennedy) in Cleveland. Then he decided to get a masters in public policy at Harvard and enter the world of public service. Since then, he has served on the hill as counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary and has drafted several pieces of significant legislation. Currently, he is the deputy director of the National Institute of Justice in the Department of Justice. We picked up Glenn and he, of course, is not quite sure what day it is yet. I secreted him in my squat and in a couple of days we’ll send him north to southern Iraq to provide TDS services there. After picking up Glenn, I finally got to get some work done on Reply brief that I have been trying to get done.
Today was mostly recovery and catch-up. Glenn and I went for a four mile run this afternoon around the camp. It was a beautiful day. I called Amy via a DSN number that I recently got to Buckley AFB. From Buckley, I just told the operator that I wanted to make a morale call and they patched me through to my house. I got to talk to Amy for two hours, uninterrupted and for free. That was nice, but I am really starting to feel what 365 days feels like and it feels long.
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| Saturday, 1-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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| Friday, 31-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Local Talented
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Somehow the Letterman pictures migrated up here. I guess, when you're a star you can't stand to be out of the lime light. I also put a couple of pics of Camp Virginia down on Dec. 2.
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| Thursday, 30-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Miscellaneous Pictures
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| Wednesday, 29-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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29 December 04:
Yesterday, I kinda hit the wall. To tell the truth, I can't remember what I did most of the day. Today, I spent the morning on Day Two of that 32 Hearing that started at Navistar. Things didn't get any better for the government's case. And they just might?ve gotten worse. We're to convene yet again a third day, very unusual for a 32. We're trying to track down a critical witness somewhere in Florida. That's a big prob. Over here--witnesses redeploy back to the states and disappear.
This afternoon was just odds and ends, helping a major draft a rebuttal to his General Officer Letter of Reprimand (GOMOR), prepared for some expert testimony in another case, prepared the closing for one of the pending 32's. At 1700, we were actually done for the day. After going at the pace for so long, it was hard to figure out what to do with the time. So I took a hot shower and just puttered around while watching a lame Van Damme movie on HBO India.
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That ghost ship was just as spooky as you described it to me 
!!!!!!
!!!!!! I hope you are doing all right 
!!!!!!!!!!