Day 32: Time's going by...

A good day on the job today. Finished up several reports. We are supposed to submit one every two weeks or so, with a larger one once a month, and 3 commander's interview during a 6 month tour. And we aren't supposed to need to start collecting until a week or so in after we've gotten to meet people and understand the unit and mission.

I've been here just a little more than a week and submitted my first piece day before yesterday, have another one in the wings, have a commander's interview complete, and another one scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Frankly, I thought that the piece I wrote was really light and naive. So much that I really wanted to trash it and not submit it. Finally, I took the coward's way out and just sent it to my analyst to let him make the decision. I got it back today on the cc line, as it was forwarded to the operations chief with the comment: "Here's MAJ C's first lesson of the day. It's excellent work. I've made a few changes, but otherwise, let's get it published asap." Little surprising and pleasant, but I still sent it back to the subject matter expert I interviewed to get his take on it. If he thinks it's too superficial, I think I will scrap it.

I inbriefed with my "local boss" today. Really, I just wanted to get his take on what I should prioritize looking at. I could spend my time on a dozen different things. He did suggest 3 or 4 things. One was the port in Basrah. There are a lot of different Iraqi and US state dept agencies all fighting for a piece of the pie. How the military handles it and the lessons we learn will be interesting.

Also, just in general, how unit leaders work with the provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), civilian experts from the state department, will help provide a guide for the rest of the nation, once they've stabilized and start being able to move towards reconstruction.

Okay, computer time's up, so gotta run. Take care all.


I miss my Chinese $6 massages....