Initial Impressions and Mailing Addres

Hello All, well at least I'm over the jet lag. I've had 3 nights in a row of decent sleep and I am in the middle of establishing a routine for myself. I'm still shadowing the man that I will replace, so I still am becoming familiar with what my responsibilities are. The way I see, I still have 11 months, and 21 days to figure out what I'm suppose to be doing here, so why rush?

Although I live in Baghdad, my view of the world is limited to only a square mile or so. I only travel to a few different places to work, to eat, to attend meeting, and to go to the PX, so I can't say I am aware of everything that is happening in Baghdad. Case in point, I was watching CNN this morning at breakfast and heard the news about a car bomb "in Baghdad that killed over 70 people." If I hadn't seen it on the news, I would never of known about it. Didn't hear a large boom, didn't see a blum of smoke rising in the air, didn't see ambulances racing by. Baghdad is large enough, and I'm in a secure enough area of that large city, to be sheltered from many things. From my own standpoint, this is a good thing.

I did make one interesting observation yesterday. I was standing on the roof of a building looking out over the city. I was able to see the famous "crossed sabers" and many other landmarks I had seen on the TV. But then I noticed something else that I hadn't heard about or seen on the news. I counted at least a dozen large building cranes. The type that you see at construction sites in urban areas that shoot straight up in the sky and have an extended arm to lift God knows what.

It struck me that Baghdad is indeed a city being reborn and that no matter how many car bombs blow up, these construction cranes are still being put up. And so long as the skyline is marked with these cranes, Baghdad will remain a city progressing towards a better day.

OK, enough of me on my soap box.

Here is my mailing address, but please send NO cookies. I'm determined to stay on my healthy diet started a little over a year ago and don't want to use this deployment as an excuse to get off of it. If you find the time for a hand written note or a card, I would love to hear from you. But an email or a comment on this blog is also a great morale booster for me. Anyways, heres the address

MAJ Lockard
DOS/PCO-JC
APO, AE 09348

Take care

Bill