Posted on 04/21/2003 4:25:31 AM PDT by KineticKitty
Messy camp costs troops calls to home
By Cox News Service
April 20, 2003
CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - On the eve of Easter, Fort Hood's sons and daughters couldn't call home from this miserable desert outpost because the place has been declared too messy.
The perhaps aptly named "Mayor" Bosse closed the phone tent "until further notice" and created an uproar among thousands of 4th Infantry Division troops waiting here for convoys into Iraq.
Dubbed the mayor because he is in charge of administering the camp, Mayor Bosse is actually Lt. Col. Peter Bosse, a reserve officer from Minneapolis, Minn.
It's not as though this is a scenic site. There is no vegetation - only sand and rocks and tents and tanks and Humvees and soldiers. There are also very few trash cans. Litter consists mostly of empty plastic water bottles.
The trash piles are possible breeding grounds for rodents and fire hazards, Bosse said.
The phone tent opened only a couple of days ago. Lines for a call home are hours long but soldiers willingly wait to hear the voices of loved ones.
Bosse said when the camp is clean, the phone tent will "absolutely" re-open immediately.
"I suspect that will happen soon," said Bosse.
Again, Thank You.
Hi LILSIS, sorry for my lateness to the subject as well. I am currently tracing my husbands footsteps thru Iraq from the moment he entered to the moment he left. And while researching this, I came upon this post.
Now for the interesting part, I received the same info as this kinetickitty from my husband which is home now. There were not enough trash receptacles etc. In fact yes, your "brother" also tried to take away the phones when Aafes misplaced one of their own barber shop chairs. Makes sense? no. But thank god Aafes found it before the soldiers had to be "punished again". My husband had to wait till after this phone ban to find out that I gave birth etc. Oh well it's the life of the military. Luckily the ban only lasted a few days
You talk about not being so quick to judge, and then you turn around and imply the your brother didn't question his orders, and got his affairs in order before he went. What is that statement? It certainly seems to be implying that anyone not in agreement with your brother did not. So much for non-judgmental.
And then in your own words you say, unless we were in camp we don't have all the facts. Well this would mean (to your own admission) that you do not have all the facts yourself. Doctor heal thyself.
Now that the boys are home, we are hearing a lot of stories about what went on in Iraq period. (including the Udairi incident this post talks about) And I can tell you a heck of A LOT of people -all ranks- are in agreement that the phones being turned off were wrong. You know, officers can actually be wrong from time to time, Look at General Hack himself.
Just because there were a lot of people that were having fun lobbing personal attacks at the original poster (To not even taking the time to read in her post that she never claimed to have NOT received a call) to even attacking (not debating) with other soldiers that dared to stand up with her on this story being true, doesn't give you the right to lecture a military dependant about freedom.
So the next time you are criticizing those who disagree with your "brother" and that have also given you the freedom to do so, maybe you'll be less judgmental yourself before you also jump on the witch hunt bandwagon to discredit someone over something that did occur -regardless if they were a little over-emotional about it.
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