[Vanity] Son-in-law being deployed to Djibouti - anyone know about the location?

Vanity Post ^ | 5 Nov 2003 | COBOL2Java

[COBOL2Java]

My Son-in-Law is being deployed to Djibouti for up to a year. About all I can find as far as information about the place is some scary info from the US State Department:

• http://travel.state.gov/djibouti_announce.html
• http://travel.state.gov/djibouti.html

And some generic information:

• http://www.fecamp-normandie.com/travel/djibouti/desert1.html
• http://www.worldrover.com/vital/djibouti.html

Just wondering if any Freepers out there have other information or experiences. Regardless, we'll be keeping him (as all of our troops) in our prayers. Thanks in advance!

[grobdriver]

Djibouti!

Holee Molee!!!!
Detached out of Dodge to there for a couple of days. Cockroaches big as rats! Big rats!
We slept with the light on. Interesting native stuff available on the street.
Had to haul in our own sonobouy loads, got our tasking from the embassy comm. center.
Traded cap devices with an airport guard. Folks were OK there 20 years ago....

[Conan the Librarian]

CIA website http://www.cia.gov. Click on the World Fact book on the bottom left of the page (all the way down at the bottom) Current data, collected with your tax dollars.

Prayers to your child!

[VxH]

Just north of Somalia...

Religions:
Muslim 94%, Christian 6%


He's in our prayers.

[Bikers4Bush]

You have freepmail.

[robowombat]

Presumeably your son-in-law is going to camp Limonier, a former French cantoonment, provided to the US. Thanks to a large contract operation the facility is now minimally habitable with flush toilets, potable water, electricity, and structures that at least shelter one from the intense heat and blasting wind. Individuals sent to Djibouti can expect to lead a rather hermetic existence as movement off post is strictly limited tomilitary business and is done in convoy and these missions are kept to the absolute minimum. The purpose of the base is to support SOF type operations in Yeman and the Horn of Africa and secondarily to provide some residual military presence for port calls by the very large NATO and other allies (including Japan) who conduct the large maritime interdiction operation in the western Indian Ocean and south Arabian Sea. The primary military presence is a French Foreign Legion garrison which has infantery, armor, and artillery. You s-in-l is going to have a curious year.

[Shermy]

"Interesting native stuff available on the street."

Qat?

[brownsfan]

We docked there for a few days when I was in the Navy. Probably 1980? What a horrible God-forsaken place. I send him my best wishes. It will be a long year.
Interesting to me. Our black shipmates saw as we came in the port and they were all excited about going to the "motherland". They weren't so excited once the experienced the place. Perhaps those who wish for reparations might want to see what their alternate path would have been, had they not come to America. (Admittedly under dire conditions no one should endure).

[cmsgop]

Found a pic of Downtown Djibouti........