On line from the Front Lines

Satellite dishes jam the tops of living trailers at FOB Marez in Mosul, Iraq. Except the large dish on the right, all are personal, commercial systems. (From Stars and Stripes)

That's not my camp above, by the way, but it's typical of most in this country. I mention this because I get questions like this a lot:

"Where are you and what do you do over there? How do you people in Iraq have so much time on the internet? Aren't we at war?" and "I have a brother who's there and he says they never get a chance to email!"

First: Where am I? What do I do? Sorry - too much info. Nothing heroic, nothing glamorous, how's that?

Next:

1. There's more "down time" in a war then you could possibly imagine.

2. I was blogging before I came here, so I came here with a plan. The Mudville Gazette is produced on my personal laptop, pictures that I take are done with a camera donated to me by a a fellow blogger.

3. My military duties always come first. The average entry on this site takes me 10 minutes to do. I send a burst of email to the Mrs, she posts them throughout the day. Thus I'm not on line as much as you might think based on post times of my entries. Sometimes I send her a url and say "link this" and she does the rest.

3a: Sometimes I put more effort into a post. These are the ones with photos and a lot of my own writing. I wish I could do more of them. Some weeks I'll have more time than others. This week I was compelled to waste a bunch of time on this entry.

4. The most remote bases I know of here have morale tents with email access - whether your buddy/son/brother/whoever chooses to spend their spare time waitng to use it (or the X-Box or the TV or whatever) is up to them. Note: there may be exceptions I'm not aware of. So give them the benefit of the doubt - if they say they only get email twice a year I'm sure it's true.

But for your own peace of mind don't read this from Stars and Stripes:

LOGISTICAL SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Iraq — Across the sea of aluminum conex trailers at bases around Iraq, small orbs of communication are sprouting like foliage.

Units and groups of people are pitching in to buy satellite systems for either television or Internet service, to help bring them a little closer to home.

“It’s working out pretty well,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dave Smith, a Florida National Guardsman serving with Company H, 171st Aviation Regiment at Anaconda.

He and a few colleagues bought an Internet satellite system from the unit they replaced and plan to sell it to the one that replaces them.

Up to 12 people can use it, although they try to vary usage so everyone isn’t on at once.

“We try to be courteous and not download big files,” Smith said.

Having the system allows them to communicate with family back home at odd hours, without a long walk to a Morale, Welfare and Recreation tent.

“Mostly it’s just the convenience,” Smith said. At the MWR Internet tent “you had to wait in line and you could only use it for 15 minutes.” He now chats with home via instant messenger a few times a day.

<...>

More common than Internet is satellite TV, found in nearly every living area in the country.

Servicemembers can buy antennae and dishes for the American Forces Network or several other types of TV lineups.

At Anaconda, members of the 28th Public Affairs Detachment each pitched in about $25 for an Orbit satellite system and one year of television service.

“You pay that for one month of cable in the States,” said Staff Sgt. David Gillespie, noncommissioned officer in charge.

<...>

In the 276th Engineer Battalion living area at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, clusters of satellite dishes line the horizon above the trailers.

Master Sgt. Robert Scholtz, communications section chief, said there really aren’t many rules governing satellites. For security reasons, troops are not allowed to use wireless technology anywhere in the theater.

At some bases, groups with Internet satellites have been told not to use Web cams in their trailers.

In either case, Scholtz said, he always reminds soldiers about operational security.

“OPSEC is always a big thing. We always tell them, ‘Whatever you put out there, they’re listening.’ ”

Which brings us right back to point one - I don't talk about where I am or what I do.