FOB Marez, Mosul __We went tonight to an Iraqi army post on the east side of the Tigris River to have dinner with Iraqi soldiers.
Briefly continuing the food review theme of the last post, it wasn’t bad at all. There was lentil soup, almond rice and the excellent flat bread they make all over Iraq. It tastes a lot like Nan, that bread you can get at Indian restaurants.
This was an entirely Kurdish battalion. A lot of the soldiers are former Peshmerga who had bitterly fought Saddam Hussein for over a decade.
The lieutenant colonel who leads the battalion survived Saddam’s poison gas attack on the Kurds. Many of his family members didn’t. Other relatives were buried alive by Saddam.
Two Fort Lewis soldiers live at the post with the Kurds. Their company commander, Capt. Brent Clemmer of Steilacoom, has dinner at the post just about every other night. The Kurdish soldiers call him their brother.
These soldiers loved having their picture taken. Everywhere Tony went with his camera, they called out to him,”take my picture!” Then they’d look at the view screen on the back of his digital camera with delight.
“Good, good.”
-- Sean Cockerham

FOB Marez, Mosul __ Living conditions for Fort Lewis soldiers in Mosul are definitely better than those faced by their comrades in Baghdad.
Soldiers in Mosul live in small trailer units that have actual mattresses. It is close quarters, and soldiers tell me sometimes their roommate gets on their nerves. But it’s nothing compared to the living situation in Baghdad.
Soldiers in Mosul groan with sympathy when they hear Fort Lewis troops down at Camp Liberty are still living in tents and sleeping on cots.
The food is a lot better here in Mosul, too. It got to the point at the Camp Liberty chow hall where Tony would get the buffalo wings for every meal. It’s the only thing he could trust.
Tony loves to grill back home in Tumwater and was profoundly disturbed by what the KBR contractors did to meat at Camp Liberty.
They boil T-bone steak, Tony says with disgust. A note to contractors at Camp Liberty: Just because you slather barbecue sauce over a piece of meat doesn’t make it barbecue.
The KBR guys here at FOB Marez in Mosul do a much better job. It might sound kind of trivial. But the quality of chow is a big deal to soldiers in a war zone. Soldiers have to eat this stuff every single day for an entire year.
It gives them something to look forward to when they’re heading back to base after dodging bullets and IED’s in the streets of Mosul.
I haven’t heard any complaints about the chow hall in Mosul. They have a mean Mongolian grill and most things seem pretty good.
-- Sean Cockerham