Hurricane Season!

Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm (for now) Hannah are packing a one-two punch in the tropics this week. Tampa looks safe for now. But Gustav will shred whatever locality unfortunate enough to be at landfall. HF1

A Little TDY to Qatar

I recently returned from a short TDY (temp duty away from station, for you non-mil folks) to Centcom's forward HQ in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. You can pronounce it "kuh-TAR" or "cutter" or even "gutter" but either way, it's a small nation with a population similar to the city of Milwaukee. It earns great wealth from natural gas and petroleum reserves. In fact, a minority of its citizens are Qatari nationals. The rest are "third-country-nationals" (TCNs) who are brought in to do all the menial and blue-collar jobs. TCNs perform most of the food and cleaning service jobs on the American military bases. Overall, Qatar has the very rich and the poor (TCNs, etc.) and no middle class to speak of. I saw very poor apartments and gleaming mansions and condos in and around Doha, the capital. In my short two trips off Camp As Sayliyah, I saw a whirl of activity, some of which is shown below. You can read more about Qatar here.


Here I stand along the Corniche, Doha's long promenade along its bay leading to the Gulf. Construction is booming everywhere with all the oil money coming in.

One site near Camp As Sayliyah boasted no less than a dozen cranes (above). The type of crane above is something like the national bird here in Qatar.

The ads are becoming more westernized. Here a woman urges Qataris to check out a great deal on TV, Internet, and phone for one low price (I don't read Arabic. I saw the same poster in English downtown).

Whether rich or poor, Islam is the underlying support of society. This mosque above is one of the newer ones on an outer ring of the city near As Sayliyah.

I thought it looked strange to see a Chevy Impala-type sedan with Qatari tags.

Petty Officer "Archie," one of my Centcom acquaintances, decides where to shoot into the traffic at a roundabout. Neenah roundabouts are nothing compared to the insanity of Arab driving in the Middle East. We plunged our Chevy Tahoe into the fray with pedal to the metal. The military leases SUVs exclusively to make sure everyone's safe and that we can make a quick getaway if necessary.

More roundabout madness.

Wrecked autos line the roads all over outer Doha. I saw no less than eight on one quick trip to pick up someone at the international airport. Here a bus must have recently lost control and shredded a section of the highway boundary fence.

This is the wildly-shaped Doha Sheraton along the Cornische. After dinner at the Four Seasons buffet Thursday night, I located a geocache in front of the Sheraton. It really looks neat illuminated at night.

Here's another item for rich Qataris to show off with: A Harley! I thought about getting one of those t-shirts with Harley and the dealership city, but those were $35! No thanks!

I don't have any on-camp photos since pictures are strictly forbidden. Safe to say, Camp As Sayliyah looks a lot like Tatooine on the Star Wars movies. Sand color, drab, hot, dusty, and strange creatures everywhere (Centcom people!).

I spent several evenings after work talking with soldiers and Marines on R & R breaks at the camp. The Army has a pool, a club, and a USO warehouse made to approximate a town main street with an Irish pub, wine bar, and Mexican restaurant to go with an 8-lane bowling alley, wi-fi, and a performance stage to say nothing of the sports TVs and other things. The NY Times wrote an article about it in 2005, click here to view. It's great to see the troops enjoy their four days of leave. It was an honor to chat with many of them each night. Our country is in good hands with these people representing our nation to the Middle East and Afghanistan. HF1

6:15 PM, Finally

For all the excitement, Tampa has finally gotten a little rain from Tropical Storm Fay. Originally, she looked to be bearing directly in on Tampa. But what a difference a day and a half makes. Of course it's a blessing not to have a huge storm hit, but I thought it'd be a little more intense. The Weather Channel guy in Naples made a valid point that despite some discomfort, overall Florida is blessed by this slow moving storm that's filling up drought-plagued aquifers. Areas farther south have flooded a bit such as Everglades City, Naples, and over on the Space Coast. But all's well from SoHo in Tampa. Check the latest radar image here. Cheers all! HF1

The Bucs Come To MacDill

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished their training camp and came to MacDill's gym complex for a walkthrough ahead of their Sunday Night Football game against the Patriots. The first photo shows me with none other than "Chuckie" or Jon Gruden the head coach who came right by me. Fortunately he was saying, "Thanks for all you do and God bless you." We usually see other God-prefixed utterances flying out of his mouth on game day...



Fan favorite Derrick Brooks delighted the fans and kids.

Journeyman QB Brian Griese good-naturedly came down the line, exuding a down-to-earth demeanor with the fans.

Fan favorite and returning Buc Warrick Dunn posed with many airmen including these guys.

All in all, a nice time before getting on with the day. HF1

Good Times w/Friends Old & New

My Reservist friend Ray visited Centcom on some annual training. We had a blast working at the HQ and getting to know another Centcom troop, Carlos. The three of us enjoyed many stories, laughs, and all parted ways this week. HF1

Gabe Gross at MacDill - 8/5/08

A few weeks ago, Rays outfielder (and former Brewer) Gabe Gross came to MacDill's credit union to meet and sign autographs. The family and I went to four Rays games while they were here and we rooted for Gabe and Eric Hinske, the former Menasha Blue Jay. These two guys are part of the Rays' unsung heroes as they defy logic and keep a three game lead on Boston. He's a great guy from Dothan, Alabama who started QB at Auburn and has the PA play "Blessed Be The Name" when he comes up to bat. In the photo above, Gabe signs my ballcap that Jack and I got at Brewers' Spring Training in Arizona. We saw Gabe there but couldn't get close to him. HF1