Survival at FOB Melting Pot

[unhappycamper]

Several nations are represented at the base in Iraq, including these Georgians being blessed by a chaplain. Coalition forces outnumber U.S. troops 3 to 1.


Survival at FOB Melting Pot
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, February 7, 2008

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq — Many U.S. troops in Iraq are doing jobs that hardly resemble what they trained for or perhaps what they did on previous tours here.

But few have drifted farther afield than Cpl. Kenneth Bournival and Spc. Matthew Brodka, field artillery soldiers who have found themselves running FOB Delta’s makeshift post exchange out of a room the size of a closet.

“If I’d wanted to do this, I would’ve stayed at Wal-Mart,” is how Brodka, 25, of Pittsburgh, puts it, though as a line of shoppers waits to peruse the new goods they’ve shipped in from Tallil, he and Bournival clearly take some pleasure in their turn as storemasters.

The two men greet many of their customers — at least the ones who speak English — by name, including a KBR contractor who’d gone missing for a while.

“I got stuck in Dubai,” the contractor explained, somewhat sheepishly.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52267

[thunder rising]

1. Wow KBR gets PX privileges