Mail in Baghdad

Please remember this is all in the
joint-venture to the post office!

We load into our vehicle, exit the parking lot and surf through a maze of concrete barriers and speed bumps necessary to keep the “bad guys” away. We proceed to practice defensive driving techniques that would make any driver’s education instructor proud…all I have to say is that it’s worse than driving in L.A. around here! I’ve yet to see a privately owned vehicle that didn’t have duck-tape or some other monstrosity holding it together.

One of our amazing land marks near the Convention Center is the Iraqi version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – erected after the Iran-Iraq war paralyzed both countries.

Next, we weave our way through the Green Zone to get to Steel Dragons to mail our packages. SPC Almengore stays with the vehicle and SrA Pilmeir and I proceed to duck our way across the street (they don’t believe in yielding to pedestrians here!), show our ID to the guards, clear our pistols and walk past what I’m sure once was a beautiful Palace, but now huge sections of it are rubble. We fill out our customs forms, hike back out and the whole time we’re thinking that Almengore must be roasting to death in the heat – but the smart Solider he is, he chose to sit next to the humvee in the shade.☺

We now continue on to the main Palace to do mail call for all our co-workers in the CPIC (Coalition Press Information Center). On the way, we see burnt up cars and other trash left over from car bombs and other terrorist acts.

God bless, Andee ☺

Hello, everyone! Today we enjoyed a nice 108 degree day with the same outlook for tomorrow. I’m going to use this e-mail to start telling the story of my trip to the post office … it might sound like an easy task, but rule No. 1 in Baghdad: Nothing is easy!! (I will send this in a few separate e-mails so I don’t crash your computer with the size of the pictures) Approximately 2:30 p.m.: Army Specialist Almengore offers me a ride to the Steel Dragons compound to search for one of the only post offices in the Green Zone that allow us to send packages. Air Force Senior Airman Pilmeir joined us on our journey as she is departing the AOR today and needed to send herself some boxes back home.
Our transportation for the day was a nice, comfortable, air conditioned humvee (there are a bunch of ways to spell it, but this is my preferred method) – I’m grossly exaggerating the comfort of this vehicle, but there’s something to be said for the power of positive thinking! The catch here is that you have to have on your battle-rattle to enjoy the comfort of these military works-of-art. Because some of our humvees are equipped with exceptionally secured doors (i.e. they get stuck and you have to throw all your weight against the door to get it closed) we sometimes need a little teamwork. Below I’m getting ready to lock SrA Pilmeir into her seat. Please remember this is all in the joint-venture to the post office!
We load into our vehicle, exit the parking lot and surf through a maze of concrete barriers and speed bumps necessary to keep the “bad guys” away. We proceed to practice defensive driving techniques that would make any driver’s education instructor proud…all I have to say is that it’s worse than driving in L.A. around here! I’ve yet to see a privately owned vehicle that didn’t have duck-tape or some other monstrosity holding it together.	Enter our pilot for the day…Army Specialist Almengore, originally from Guatamala but currently teaching elementary school in L.A.
One of our amazing land marks near the Convention Center is the Iraqi version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – erected after the Iran-Iraq war paralyzed both countries.
Over many of the roads here we have this dome-type structures that adorn the city.
Next, we weave our way through the Green Zone to get to Steel Dragons to mail our packages. SPC Almengore stays with the vehicle and SrA Pilmeir and I proceed to duck our way across the street (they don’t believe in yielding to pedestrians here!), show our ID to the guards, clear our pistols and walk past what I’m sure once was a beautiful Palace, but now huge sections of it are rubble. We fill out our customs forms, hike back out and the whole time we’re thinking that Almengore must be roasting to death in the heat – but the smart Solider he is, he chose to sit next to the humvee in the shade.☺ We now continue on to the main Palace to do mail call for all our co-workers in the CPIC (Coalition Press Information Center). On the way, we see burnt up cars and other trash left over from car bombs and other terrorist acts.
I will never again say that I think Chicago is a dirty city! Here’s the catch…you have to get through a bunch of check points to get your vehicle into the main Palace area where another post office is – BUT you can only pick up mail here, not mail it (see Rule No. 1). After we get though the maze of craziness, I have to exit the vehicle again and clear my weapon. When I turn around from the clearing barrel, one of the Marines had just got an Iraqi national who flat out dropped in the heat from dehydration – the guy is out cold and the Marines and trying to help him. They unbuttoned the guy’s shirt and started pouring freezing cold water on his chest to cool him down – in a very nice way I asked them to please not kill the man and go get luke-warm water instead. Meanwhile, the guy’s chest starts heaving and I’m sure he’s going to go into cardiac arrest, so I’m monitoring his pulse and breathing. One of the Marines shows up with a bottle of warmer water and I used it to wet his head a bit, elevate his feet and the other neat things we learn in self-aid buddy-care class (there’s something to be said for computer-based training!). Oh! I asked the Marines if they had called the medics and after a bunch of meek “no’s” I suggested they might want to do that. ☺ Note: I have not been CPR certified since I was a cop, so I was praying the guy didn’t stop breathing because I was calling on long lost information! I have one of the Marines grab his ID and after calling the guy’s name (Kerem) for about five minutes his eye’s finally start shuttering – the guy was out COLD! Anyway, I got him talking and then let the Marines watch him until the medics got there – our vehicle was blocking traffic. Again, please remember that I’m just trying to get to the post office!
	Okay, now we finally get to the Palace and SPC Almengore and I grab our packages we have to forward to our guys who already left the AOR, and get ready to grab a boat-load of packages to take back to our guys. To our extreme excitement, the post office was “Closed for Mail Processing!” At this point I admit I lost my “cool” and wanted to wring someone’s neck…I mean, really…I’m just trying to pick up the mail! When we leave the Palace and go out back to our humvee, SrA Pilmeir was joined by the crazy Army Specialist Gatlin (he’s a little “off,” but he’s a nice enough guy).
At this point I’ve already drank my entire CamelBak dry of water (I shared with SrA Pilmeir because she didn’t bring any water), I was hot, sweaty, tired of wearing my body armor and ready to get back to the office. Fortunately for me, the trip back was uneventful, though we had to deal with the pain of a failed mission. That’s the rest of the story and while it might seem trite, just remember…I was just trying to get to the post office! God bless, Andee ☺