At the Car Wash: A Salute to the TCN

"You might not ever get rich
But let me tell ya it's better than diggin' a ditch
There ain't no tellin' who you might meet
A movie star or maybe even an Indian chief
(Workin')At the car wash"

In my case, I met niether a movie star nor an Indian Chief, but Sri Lanka is CLOSE to India, so I'm not that far off . . . . Charles from Sri Lanka works washing cars at the NTV* Maintenance Facility on base. He has been here for FOUR years. Looks like Charles saw the Armed Forces Network commercial on avoiding hypothermia "which has been known to occur as far south as Florida." Keep that in mind Florida! Hopefully you will finally have your voting system squared away this fall but make sure you DRY off after the shower. You heard it here.

*Blog Quiz: If you remembered that NTV stands for Non Tactical Vehicles, award yourself 10 bonus points.

TCN stands for Third Country National (all civilians) and it is truly TCNs that provide the backbone of our operations here. From security to food service to hair cuts to manual labor, TCNs make this place work - ask anyone. These folks are hard workers, quick with a smile and immensely bright.

Look at the big things those Virginia Tech Hokies go onto in life! Samatna, working at the carwash, and I stand in front of my freshly de-muddied F150 Crew Cab. Yes, that is right. Banish visions of me driving a humvee - "Ford! The official vehicle of Bob's OIF II Tour!" I have never had a better appreciation for the value of 4-wheel drive, but the six CD changer skips every so often . . . life sucks.


Must be AC unit maitenance time! Two times a year the AC units have to be stripped and powerwashed to take off the quarter-inch of caked Iraqi dust.


All of our DFACs as well as some of the entry control points are guarded by . . . . wait for it . . . . UGANDANS. No kidding. No ID, no meal. Seriously. And keep that line moving.


My buddy Yahya, from Turkey, makes sure my uniform is pressed just the way I like it. He keeps up with his friends back home via his My Space page on the internet.





And lets not forget the really amazing staff that churns out all the food we eat here.



As you will recall, "DFAC" stands for "Dining Facility." FDFAC stands for "Fine Dining Facility." Fortunately for us, we only have DFACs so there is no way to mess up the name. I yearn to once again and on a regular basis drink from a glass that is indeed made of glass and use utensils with some steel content (when I need a temporary fix, I just go over to the Air Force Base). This may come as a surprise to many of you who were familar with the mantra of my younger days, "one man, one bowl and one box of plastic cutlery," but I have moved on. The DFACs have a very motivated staff of TCNs and one might think that they were compensated based on the amount of food they put on your plastic plate, a plate which often faces structural collapse long before it reaches maximum volume of food. For your reference, I offer this simple language translation guide for use in any DFAC you might come across in Iraq.



You say: "I'd like a PIECE of chicken."
They hear: I'd like A chicken.

You say: "One serving is fine."
They hear: "One serving comprised of 17 serving spoons is fine"

You say: "That's enough, thanks."
They hear: "Good, when I say 'enough,' what I really mean is keep going, but now just do it twice as fast."

You say: "No sauce, thanks."
They hear: "Does that come by the quart?"

Finally, I could not help but be mesmerized by the beat of the brick tossing as these guys built this wall.