A Virtual Tour of Kalsu
Camp Kalsu is not a very big place. You can see all of it from the airfield control tower, as well as much of the surrounding area. It would take less than half an hour on foot to see everything that’s here.
From my very limited perspective, there are three basic parts to the FOB – the airfield, the living and support areas, and everything else. The airfield is primitive yet effective considering our only traffic is helicopters. The tower controllers, refuelers, and A/DACG (passenger and cargo managers) are adept at getting flights in and out with minimum delay. On a busy day (or night), it’s like a well choreographed dance of arrival, unloading and loading, refueling, and departure.
The Living Support Area (LSA) technically consists only of the tents where we live and our shower facilities. The tents are arrayed like little houses on little streets, complete with alleyways and “house numbers.” There are no street signs, however, so you need to know where you’re going. There are actually several “neighborhoods” in our “town.” Mine is called “A.”
There are numerous shower trailers located throughout the LSA. Most of them are open to anyone, but there are several for women only, and one for male officers and staff non-commissioned officers (SNCOs, the senior enlisted Marines). The officer/SNCO shower tends to be the cleanest one I’ve been in, and recently the water has been hot and plentiful, which was not always the case.
Giant concrete barriers divide the LSA “neighborhoods” and surround the shower trailers and chow hall, ostensibly protecting us from indirect fire (IDF) attacks. There are actually two sizes of these barriers – big (Texas barriers) and bigger (Alaska barriers). Most tents are surrounded by “Hesco” barriers – basically big wire and felt tubs that are filled with dirt. Once again this is to protect us from IDF.
The rest of the services include a laundry facility where we can drop off our dirty clothes for 24-hour turnaround, the “Internet Café” tent with computers and IP phones, the gym, the “Iraqi Mart,” the PX, the chapel, the MWR tent, the chow hall, and the barbershop. The Internet Café and gym are both very popular, and are both open 24 hours a day. They are much less crowded in the middle of the night than they are at the “peak” times of early morning and early evening.
I have only been in the Iraqi mart once (to take a picture for the blog!) and the PX only rarely. At the former, local Iraqis are permitted to come on the FOB to sell bootleg DVDs, imitation Persian rugs, and fake Rolexes. It is much more popular than the PX, where you can find underwear the wrong size (S and XXXL), “legal” (and expensive) DVDs, and toiletries.
The chapel is one of the nicer tent structures on the FOB. It actually consists of one large tent and two smaller ones attached like arms of a cross, in cathedral style. I found it ironic that the sign in the front calls it an “All Faiths Chapel,” while the cross at the altar made me wonder if the sign shouldn’t read “All (Christian) Faiths Chapel. To their credit, there were (Arabic) copies of the Q’uran on the “tract rack,” along with many varieties of the Bible and other Christian literature.
The chow hall, as I’ve mentioned, is not too bad. I live primarily on rice, beans, and vegetables, with the occasional foray into the world of potatoes. They are building a new and improved facility next door, so I hear.
The barbershop is, like almost everything else here, housed in a tent. It is run by two Iraqis who actually do a pretty darn good job cutting hair. At any rate, they’re much better than the young Marine who sheared me at Al Asad back in October! Going to the barbershop can be very frustrating, however, for those who work at night. The posted hours are 8 AM – 4 PM, which for me is like having it open from 10 PM to 6 AM – right when I’m sleeping! This is compounded by the fact that the barbers show up when they please, seldom before 9 and usually around 10. I have managed by getting up early and hoping there’s not much of a line.
“Everything else” on the FOB consists of the places I have no reason to visit in my daily (nightly?) life. It includes the MEU headquarters area, the medical area (although I went there once when I was sick), the Army area, the Iraqi National Guard area, the Regional Detention Facility (RDF), and the small-arms range. I’ve never seen the small-arms range, but I get to hear it, usually while I’m trying to sleep.
From my very limited perspective, there are three basic parts to the FOB – the airfield, the living and support areas, and everything else. The airfield is primitive yet effective considering our only traffic is helicopters. The tower controllers, refuelers, and A/DACG (passenger and cargo managers) are adept at getting flights in and out with minimum delay. On a busy day (or night), it’s like a well choreographed dance of arrival, unloading and loading, refueling, and departure.
The Living Support Area (LSA) technically consists only of the tents where we live and our shower facilities. The tents are arrayed like little houses on little streets, complete with alleyways and “house numbers.” There are no street signs, however, so you need to know where you’re going. There are actually several “neighborhoods” in our “town.” Mine is called “A.”There are numerous shower trailers located throughout the LSA. Most of them are open to anyone, but there are several for women only, and one for male officers and staff non-commissioned officers (SNCOs, the senior enlisted Marines). The officer/SNCO shower tends to be the cleanest one I’ve been in, and recently the water has been hot and plentiful, which was not always the case.
Giant concrete barriers divide the LSA “neighborhoods” and surround the shower trailers and chow hall, ostensibly protecting us from indirect fire (IDF) attacks. There are actually two sizes of these barriers – big (Texas barriers) and bigger (Alaska barriers). Most tents are surrounded by “Hesco” barriers – basically big wire and felt tubs that are filled with dirt. Once again this is to protect us from IDF.The rest of the services include a laundry facility where we can drop off our dirty clothes for 24-hour turnaround, the “Internet Café” tent with computers and IP phones, the gym, the “Iraqi Mart,” the PX, the chapel, the MWR tent, the chow hall, and the barbershop. The Internet Café and gym are both very popular, and are both open 24 hours a day. They are much less crowded in the middle of the night than they are at the “peak” times of early morning and early evening.
I have only been in the Iraqi mart once (to take a picture for the blog!) and the PX only rarely. At the former, local Iraqis are permitted to come on the FOB to sell bootleg DVDs, imitation Persian rugs, and fake Rolexes. It is much more popular than the PX, where you can find underwear the wrong size (S and XXXL), “legal” (and expensive) DVDs, and toiletries.The chapel is one of the nicer tent structures on the FOB. It actually consists of one large tent and two smaller ones attached like arms of a cross, in cathedral style. I found it ironic that the sign in the front calls it an “All Faiths Chapel,” while the cross at the altar made me wonder if the sign shouldn’t read “All (Christian) Faiths Chapel. To their credit, there were (Arabic) copies of the Q’uran on the “tract rack,” along with many varieties of the Bible and other Christian literature.
The chow hall, as I’ve mentioned, is not too bad. I live primarily on rice, beans, and vegetables, with the occasional foray into the world of potatoes. They are building a new and improved facility next door, so I hear.
The barbershop is, like almost everything else here, housed in a tent. It is run by two Iraqis who actually do a pretty darn good job cutting hair. At any rate, they’re much better than the young Marine who sheared me at Al Asad back in October! Going to the barbershop can be very frustrating, however, for those who work at night. The posted hours are 8 AM – 4 PM, which for me is like having it open from 10 PM to 6 AM – right when I’m sleeping! This is compounded by the fact that the barbers show up when they please, seldom before 9 and usually around 10. I have managed by getting up early and hoping there’s not much of a line.
“Everything else” on the FOB consists of the places I have no reason to visit in my daily (nightly?) life. It includes the MEU headquarters area, the medical area (although I went there once when I was sick), the Army area, the Iraqi National Guard area, the Regional Detention Facility (RDF), and the small-arms range. I’ve never seen the small-arms range, but I get to hear it, usually while I’m trying to sleep.
posted by Greg at 12/24/2004 10:55:00 AM
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