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StraitDJ
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Name: Dan
Birthday: 6/26/1980
Gender: Male
Interests: Loving God and those that He puts in my life. My family is HUGE on my list, but so are my friends. I'm still learning to love the unknown that He brings.
Almost anything aviation, from flying light aircraft, to flying radio-controlled airplanes, to flying computer flight simulators, to drawing/designing aircraft, etc.
I enjoy listening to music and I love to sing. I'm not the most talented, but I am passionate about it. I don't play an instrument, but I have written a few songs.
Expertise: A Jack of all trades but master of none, I have had the opportunity to dabble in more than my fair share of experiences. Some were good, others not nearly so...
Occupation: Electrical/Mechanical - Level
Industry: Wind Energy
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  straitd@aol.com
MSN: dan_merlin_strait@hotmail.com
Yahoo:  danieljaystrait@yahoo.com
Member Since:
1/12/2005
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| Closing out the month of May The time is starting to tick by quicker and quicker. It's hard to believe that I'm already a quarter of the way through my time in Kuwait! The temperatures have averaged every bit of 110 this past week, add to that the couple of days that I was sick and it was rather unpleasant. The biggest news of the week was probably my first experience with the
less than hospitable wildlife over here.
On Tuesday, my roommates and I
captured, photographed and then killed a scorpion. He was only about
three inches long, but he wasn't real happy. The following night we trapped a snake. At first he was sliding over the ground but we eventually coaxed him into a bucket that he couldn't get out of, of course we then needed to try and figure out how to dispose of him, so we ended up taking him to the Fire Department and killed him with a shovel. Later that night while looking over the pictures and identifying him on the internet, I found out that the horned desert viper (AKA "sidewinder") is not only poisonous, but that there is no known anti-venom for it. That was just a a little unnerving...
   
I want to give you a picture of what we do, this is the inside of our Customs inspection tent with an Army redeploying(going home) chalk in progress. there are people unpacking, getting inspected and repacking all at the same time and in that one room. We can inspect up to 36 passengers at a time by having one inspector man two tables. It's an inherently painful process but we do what we can to ease it and still make order out of chaos. This particular chalk had over 280 total personnel and we completed them in about three and a half hours.
I have an amazing story to share with you as well. I had a Marine two days ago personally carry six full duffel bags
and rucks to the table and set them all down. He was visibly weary and
had a LOT of baggage(the average guy going home has four) so I asked
him, Did you collect enough souvenirs while you were over here?" He looked me straight in the eye and said, "No, they aren't all
mine. My battle-buddy died last week from an IED attack and I'm taking
his gear home for him." I struggled to find the words to break that
awkward silence. They had spent eight and a half months in Iraq only to
have their convoy be hit on their way to Kuwait to get demobilized.
After about five minutes of looking through the contents of these
bags I found out that this young man was a Christian, loved by all of
his comrades and was even leading a Bible study with some of them in
Iraq. It wasn't until after this young Marine was gone that the man
standing in front of me came face to face with his own mortality and it
was an incredible honor to be able to encourage and pray(briefly) with
a days-old believer. This is the kind of story that you read about in Guideposts
magazine, but it happened to me. I can't help but feel that God has me
here for a reason and it is an incredible feeling to be doing what we
do.
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| The things I see at workToday was my "TOC day", my one day a week that I spend working in the Bravo Company's Tactical Operations Center. Now I know that the title probably calls up visions of elaborate war rooms filled with high-tech gadgetry and super important people, but basically all that means that I get to sit in an air-conditioned office and answer phones and use a computer all day. We DO work on sensitive, even classified information. Our primary purpose is to interface with about five other groups, trying to coordinate schedules, routes, manifests and keep track of who is where. Its an important job for sure. When things go south in the TOC, the effects roll down into the rest of the operation like a snowball down a mountain. At any rate, here is what the outside of the shack looks like.
I was never more grateful to be inside the air-conditioning than today. The temps got high. REALLY high. This picture was taken around 3 in the afternoon, after it started cooling down a little.
The job is going really well. We tallied our numbers at our 'one month into the mission on our own' point.
6 April - 5 May
156 missions (think in terms of number of flights going home)
33,475 passengers (customer service anyone?)
97,798 bags (all of which were inspected by us)
In addition, last week I was able to travel to Camp Arifjan for a 5-day work center supervisor leadership course. This is particularly exciting because it was the one requirement keeping me from taking my advancement exam for E6. There was some minor fall-out from the details of our merry adventure traveling back, but it's all working out.
Take care everybody, I hope to get back on here sooner next time and try to keep you updated more often.
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| Honing the IntensityI can't believe that I've already been here for 3 weeks! Our tempo has been fast and furious, we literally hit the ground running when we got here and we have been turning heads ever since. Our "two week turn-over" lasted all of three days and it was trial by fire for those first two weeks, but we are still pushing and fighting our way through and seeing absolutely phenomenal results. We are breaking records set by the previous customs rotations in terms of numbers of passengers and bags searched, groups scheduled daily, our level of customer service, and consistency and accuracy in clearing contraband. Within our first month we are seeing the successes begin to mount. Those that I am serving alongside are genuinely an inspiration, my chain of command is unbelievable.
This mission is so insistent on attention to detail, and rooted in the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment that it's impossible to NOT see the impact we are making over here. There is so much integrity required and job satisfaction derived from processing these soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines back home. It is such an honor to spend those few minutes talking to them, asking about their lives, their time spent here and challenging them to stay safe when they get home. My time with them is so small and yet there are many that desperately need that final little glimmer of hope. It's a big responsibility to be expediting these heroes home to their families and it is solemn to think of the many throbbing heartbeats and tears that are shed within 24 hours of my little talk with them. I may never be noticed again, but I am confident that I am playing a part in changing lives forever.
Is it easy? No.
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| Our "official" group pictures from Williamsburg
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