Please Help Iraqi Children and Schools (Kurdistan Province)

I know you all see the news, but this is not getting covered. It's not sensational enough. Americans are loved as heros in this part of Iraq, and every time I get a chance to visit the Iraqi states of Erbil and Dahuk I take it, for more often than not, selfish reasons.

But I would like to help and give something back in a small way. You can help too.

First let me tell you what our government is going here on our thru the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). We are building schools and renovating new ones. We are building schools in the poorest parts of the country. Place where Sadam Hussein gassed, burnt all the forest, and placed minefields because the people living here are Kurds.

I know what some of you are saying, there are places in the US that need help. That may be true, but I have never seen anyone ever live the way some of these people do. Even our homeless can find a place in a shelter with a warm bed, shower, and electric these people can't.

We are trying to help these people by educating their children. Not giving hand outs. Sure we are doing power plants, oil fields, and military outpost, but none of those projects will have as a lasting effect as the schools we are building. I think the pictures will speak for them selves.








So here is how you can help, it is not much. The school teachers have to by their own chalk and no supplies are provided to the children. If the parents can't afford pencils and paper the kids don't go, instead help tend the sheep and cattle. Gather up some school supplies and things for children and mail them by US Postal Service to:

USACE Dahuk RO
426 th CA BN
Task Force Olympia
APO AE 09334

Also it would be nice to send a small note thanking the Contruction Reps and Engineers representing us all so well.

Please pass this link along, the more people that can help the better.

God Bless,

Frank Wolfe

Satellite Dishes Are From Hell

Warning those of you that are not true computer geeks stop reading now.

Talk about stress. I can now honestly say that when it comes to working in the IT field I have done it all. These past few days I have been installing a satellite internet system for our resident office in Dahuk, Iraq. When I say install, I mean build the dish that comes from Satan himself from the ground up. Can you tell I didn't have a great time doing it. LOL.

When we I was building the dish, assembling the frame and mounting the dish on the brackets, I didn't realize the previous owner was he DEVIL. What you have got to realize is we don't have any of the fancy equipment the pros have to site the dish in.

Let me explain the process a little.
First someone provides the GEO coordinates for the location the dish is to be provided. You see this was my first mistake. I took somebody's word for the location. The location is then sent back to Segovia, the company providing the equipment and service. They then give an elevation for the BUC and LNB (geeks no what they are) to site the antennae.

Now please take a minute to think about the task at hand. Satellite 23,000+ miles away (size of a desk, small desk), one man trying to find it with a 1.2 meter magnifying glass. Tough enough as is!!! No throw in that I was given wrong latitude. Off by about 30 minutes. So my location appeared to be about 200+ miles further south. Making the angle of elevation more than what it really needed to be.


So we construct the dish and aim it in the general direction and elevation (in this case 136 azimuth and 23 elevation + 10 degrees). Then we slowly rotate the dish left and right by hand. It is very tough to move also. Drop it a half a turn on the elevation screw. Repeat or and over!!!!!!

Now another IT person is setting in front of the PC watching the signal strength. Back ground noise registers as .03000 volts. You see a lot of that number. Come to find out the siting software in faulty and there are some undocumented tricks to get it to work properly. Discovered this after troubleshooting my coax cable for 6 hours. See Satan was at work from almost the beginning. LOL

So on walkie talkies. (borrowed some) you hear the following conversation.

"Turning antennae"

turn, drop, turn, drop

"Anything yet"

"NO"

turn drop, turn drop

"NO SIGNAL YET"

2 hours later

"GO BACK GO BACK"


Guess what? Wrong MF satellite!!!!!! Really fustrated at this point!!!

2 1/2 days later, we finally found the right bird. I am grumpy, tired, sore and really stressing. Rest of work took remainder of third day, but who cares we already missed our ride to the next site.





God Bless,

Frank

Snow in the desert

This picture was taken about 15 minutes into the snow storm. It has been snowing for about 2 hours now and we may have an inch on the ground.

Well the VSATs are in and it looks like we are going to be traveling again.

I will try to keep everyone updated as I get the systems installed. If I can't get them to work I won't be able to post updates.

God bless,

Frank

Waiting to get back in the groove?

First good news people. frankwolfe.net is about ready to go live. At least for pictures anyway. For the time being you can access them at http://odessa.sslcatacombnetworking.com/~frankwol/images/.
Many of them are pictures of schools and the work that is being done there. I have alot more to post and will do so withing the next day. If you have any questions email me with the directory and pic number and I will provide some clarification.

So, I am back at Mosul Palace (aka FOB Freedom) my home away from home. I will be on the move again soon setting up sattelite interent systems at out other sites through out northern Iraq.

I might get the job as IT Chief for USACE northern district here in Iraq. It is still up in the air, seems there is a GS-13 slotted to come here, but the deputy commander here wants me for the job. He says it is a combination of me being prior service and understanding the mission comes first, that this is not a state side duty with me being operationally oriented and not organizationally oriented, and finally I have both a communication and IT back ground. Either way it doesn't matter to me. Would look good on a resume though. IT Manager US Corp of Engineers Northern Iraq District lol

I have been back here for about a week doing admin duties. I won't bore people with all the geeky details. If you really want to know email me. I will be soon taking off again. In all we have 12 VSATs to install and it will take me from almost to Syria in the West to almost Iran in the East and city of Duhuk in north to Bayji which is just north of Baghdad.

And while we do all that, it seems we are moving to different digs here at FOB Freedom, IT systems and all!!!

God Bless,

Frank

Post Election Update

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while.

Since Jan. 28th I have been in the city of Dahuk in the Kurdistan area of Iraq. While here, I was caught by the travel ban, which was just lifted on Feb. 1st. I however won't get back to my home base, Palace in Mosul(aka Camp Freedom) til Feb 5th. Since Mosul is a hot area I have to wait for a PSD team to arrive with someone and hitch a ride back.

I finished up my IT related work here in the first two days, so I have been playing a sort of tourist. In case I didn't say it before Kurdistan is almost an entirely different country, we are loved here.

Here in Dahuk, travel is more limited in ErBil, mainly because there is an Army Major here in charge of the PAO (Public Affairs Office) compound that USACE is a part of says so. So we travel with Pesha Merga guards. They are a great bunch and all battle hardened. They all fought the Replublican guard here in the north. They are slowly teacjing me a little Kurdish. That is all I need my fifth language to butcher.

So I have been visiting projects with the USACE construction reps. Mostly schools in poverty ridden areas. When we get there the kids swarm us. Alot speak english very well.Sort of like Darrell before he has his coffee in the morning. (Sorry Darrell! lol) I have pics and short videos I will post soon. These kids are the real reason we are here.

The mountains here remind me alot of home, except there are no trees. Not because they won't grow here, but because Saddam order everything burned to make it hard on the Kurds. Erosion of the mountains can be seen everywhere.

When I get back to Camp Freedom I will post the pics.

The election up here was completely different than in the rest of the country.They were very open, of all the Kurds I met the first thing they did when they met you on election day or the day after they showed you their right index finger with its blue tip from the ink.

Got to see two other countries today, Syria and Turkey. Could have thrown a rock and hit both. Also saw a 1000 year old bridge in the northern most city of Zakoh. Yes I got pictures and yes I Will post them later. lol

God Bless


Frank