Letter from Iraq: Adam Fohrman writes home

Adam Fohrman is working for a private contractor in Iraq. He wrote home in the following letter on June 17:

Hi everyone… been a long time since I’ve written. Time here has way of flying by…

I spent 6 weeks at camp Liberty in Baghdad… it was awful. We spent the entire time working in the yard from midnight to noon… The people there were jerk-offs, and we lived in a filthy tent on cots… We paid our dues, and are soooo glad to be “home” at good old JBB (Joint Base Balad) in our private hooches… with a shower & a toilet!

When I say “we” I’m not using the royal we… I’m talking about myself, and my buddies Mark and Henry… we came here together & got sent off to Liberty together… Around here, we don’t use our names over the radio, my callsign is “The Dude”, Henry is “Pace Car,” and Mark is” Q-ball”… there are some funny ones… like “spread Eagle” or “slutty puppy”… kinda weird, unless you know someone from Houston, you rarely know their real name…

Since I’ve been back we have been running a lot of convoy missions, and recently I got my dream job, which is “Convoy Commander Driver” which basically is what it says, I drive the CC.

That means I’m in the first truck, directly behind the Military Convoy Commanders vehicle which is usually a HMVee and ahead of him are two gun trucks (MRAP’s) and a scout. It’s nice because we have communication with the military, so when we stop on the MSR (Major Supply Route) I now know why… when you’re in the convoy, you have no idea how long you’re gonna sit (sometimes hours).

Usually it’s because there’s an oncoming patrol or convoy we’re letting pass, or there’s a breakdown, or they have found something in the road…The BEST part of being a CC driver however is I am permanently attached to a CC and his “Crew” which consists of himself, me, a “bobtail” and a secondary “bobtail”…. the bobtails’ jobs are to fix, or tow any broken down trucks while we’re out on the MSR. They are the last two trucks in the convoy & don’t pull trailers…. we only run missions together, and we can’t be shipped out to another base, like I was to Liberty.

I also have some other responsibilities depending on what’s going on, mostly to do with making sure everybody is where they’re supposed to be while we’re out, doing accountabilities, which means roll call, and running part of the crew while were preparing a mission. Qball is our secondary, which is cool. Our CC is a guy named Buckeye… quite a charactar … we have fun going down the road… we don’t have a permanent primary bobtail yet, so we have worked with a few…

I was explaining to someone the other day that working 7 days a week 12 hrs a day is like everyday is monday… a really long monday… Not a lot of time for much more than work, eat,  sleep… I’m going to try and post some pictures somewhere… stay tuned for that.

I’ve seen some interesting things here… the people, what few Iraqis Ive met have been very friendly, although the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Military are just plain scary. To us at least. I’ll tell it all when I’m done here, but let me just say this country is in big trouble when we leave.

ok well… I’m off to bed. I hope everyone is well, I love you all.

ADAM