Not Enough Power to Give Power...

I just looked at my last post and saw that it has been almost two weeks, sorry for the delayed update. Most of the Iraqis are still on leave and we won't be doing any training for probably the next month as they will be celebrating their holy month of Ramadan. During this time they fast from sunrise to sunset, not even taking water. You can see why we won't be conducting training for them during this period. Also, I would like for them to get the electricity up and running so that they can at least have a little comfort in the AC instead of fasting all day in the heat. I thought I had finally got an answer to part of the problem by getting a crane and forklift coordinated to go over to their side and position the generator that has been sitting on the back of a truck for months. I thought that all they needed was for this generator to be put on the ground and put into operation for their stuff to work. I was only able to get the crane and forklift for an hour in the afternoon, so time was tight. While I was in the midst of getting the Iraqis to understand that we only had a little time to get things done, the Lieutenant Colonel calls on the radio and says to leave the generator on the truck because it's broken and he's going to take it to a mechanic in the village to get repaired...this caused me to have some mixed feelings and questions...

1) Why didn't you tell me it was broken to begin with?????
2) How is the "mechanic in the village" going to fix the huge generator while its on the back of the truck, I know they don't have the means to take it off the truck
3) How long are you going to wait to take the generator to the mechanic???
4) Why are you allowing your Soldiers to suffer every day?????????????????

So, I'm pretty upset by this time and I don't know how to tell the Sergeant Major that I was working with that his boss is jerking us around. The truck is still sitting and the generator is collecting dust as I type this. I at least could have had it taken off the truck and have everything set up so that IF it is broken, we would just have to take the piece off and get that piece replaced.

Another bad turn this week, the maintenance company that I'm advising lost all their good mechanics to the Division. I have yet to get a number on what they have left, but I'm sure it isn't good. They only had 40 something to begin with and of those only a few were experienced. I guess that means I just have to provide more training to them.

On a good note, I started two online college classes this week, Earth Science and World History from 1500, so at least I'll be busy all day and possibly night depending on the work load. The past few weeks have flown by, hopefully these classes make the time go that much quicker. That's all for now...I'll add some pics on the next one hopefully.