CRC Day Two: Empty Space

The road between the sets of barracks on the CRC compound. We are frequently told to stay off the tan, sandy-substance, seen here, called "grass", lest we kill it. Must be a Georgia thing.

I think a monkey got a hold of the meeting schedule here.

First formation was at 7 AM this morning. We were to be fitted for our body armor and uniforms. I assumed that all 400 of us would be showing up at the same time, same place, and the early hour was needed in order to make sure we'd all be processed before the next formation. I assumed a somewhat complex set of measurements would be taken, or at least our shirt, pants, and helmet sizes would be recorded. I was wrong.

Instead, all the Department of Defense (DoD) Civilians reported at 7, all 23 of us. (That's right, 23 civilians, total, out of 400 slots. The rest seem to be about evenly split between military and contractors.) The military don't need uniforms and body armor from CRC, as they have it already. The contractors were to report at another time. The "fitting" consisted of a specialist handing us different sizes of body armor and informing him whether or not our belly buttons were covered by the vest. We were then to jot down the proper size on a form he pushed at us, staple a copy of our orders to the form (of course - 14 copies, remember?) and hand them to the secretary. Finished. The entire group took 20 minutes, maybe. I was happy for being done quickly, but annoyed that I had to wake up early for such a brief activity. Maybe it was a fluke, or just always planned this early because they never knew how many people they would have in each group. Whatever. I went and watched two more World Cup games and took a short nap.

Cue second bout of insanity. Meals are served in the Dining Facility (DFAC, pronounced dee-fak) three times a day. Breakfast and dinner are both served for four hours. Lunch is only served for two, from 11 AM to 1 PM. 400 people need to eat in these two hours, so this is by far the busiest point of the day. The staff has seemed very efficient in the two days I've been here so far, but this kind of crush understandably stresses the crew. Lines build up very quickly, both at the serving line and at the dish drop-off, as everyone is trying to get in their meal during the two hour window, and seats are at a premium.

So why, WHY, would you choose to schedule the second formation of the day at 12:30? Now we only have an hour and a half, amplifying all the problems that already existed. Starting to feel less like a fluke. To make it worse, the briefings they bused us to from this second formation took 2.5 hours for about half of the deployers, 3.5 hours for those that hadn't done their POW training. Would it not have been better to schedule this meeting for the morning, give the full two hours for lunch, then do the uniform/body armor fitting in the afternoon? Yes? Can I get a nod from the monkey with the sharpie in his hand?

I think I'm more annoyed by this than I should be. As an Operations Research Systems Analyst (ORSA), optimizing things is part of my job. The last project I worked on modeled an optimal flight schedule for unmanned aircraft. If this place hired TRAC for a week, the CRC schedule could be worked to get people deployed in about two days instead of seven. Grrrr.

So here I sit at 3:30 PM, finished for the day, killing time until dinner and trying not to think too much about home. I had been told not to bring any books as I wouldn't have time to read. This might be true in Afghanistan, but not at CRC, and I am extremely glad I didn't listen to that advice. My laptop, iPod and DS are good entertainment, but all have batteries that need to be charged. There is also an unfortunate tendency for valuables to walk-off around here, so every gadget that needs to be charged also needs to be babysat, even if its in your room. As I type this, all of my electronics are getting their first juice since Friday morning before I left home. By contrast, my trusty paperbacks need no electricity, nor are they tempting targets for theft. So far I've finished one and am halfway through another. I have another five with me. I thought that would be enough to cover me for the week plus travel time, but given all the free time I have here, I'm not as certain any more. I may have to start rationing.

I'll close tonight with a picture for my girls. Daughter Prime and Little One are crazy about bugs, so I know they'll enjoy this. Wallflower is terrified of bugs, just like her mother, even running in tear-streaming terror from a fly on occasion, afraid of being "stung" by it. I hope she'll make an exception for this particular bug because, well, it's pink. Behold, the Rosy Maple Moth. Rawr.



See you next time. Out here.