Day# 144 - Cigar Extravaganza

A little over a week ago I received six packages in the mail and after looking at the return address I realized I had no idea who the person was. Inside the boxes were cigars ... lots of cigars ... probably around 200 cigars or so. After making a few phone calls I finally found out that the person who sent the cigars was a friend of a friend of a friend, who had found out that me and the boys like to enjoy a cigar from time to time over here in Iraq. Well, it turns out this person spread the word to a few of his buddies who then proceeded to send him cigars. He then compiled them and sent them all to me. The cigars came from people all across the U.S. and even Canada.

Their timing was perfect because this past Saturday my unit gathered for a dinner to celebrate the approaching half way point of the deployment (the doctors and nurses are switching out at 6 months but the majority of the unit is staying for 12-15 months). I wanted to share these cigars with the rest of the guys, and besids there were way too many for me to smoke before I left. So I set up the cigars on some tables and let people pick and choose what they wanted. Everybody loved it and it was a great opportunity to initiate some new members into the cigar smoking club.

I have includedsome pictures below and just wanted to thank all the guys from CigarAficianado.com and CigarOutcast.com for their tremendous genorousity. This was a really big morale booster for our soldiers over here and a great reminder of how great a nation we are fighting for.

Day# 143 - Earthquake

I was laying in bed last night around 23:30 trying to fall asleep. Suddenly, everything in my room started shaking. No explosion, no boom, no warning sirens. It felt like someone had picked up my room and was shaking it back and forth. This lasted about 15-20 seconds and then it stopped, and everything was quiet again. I bolted out of my room, heading for the bunkers, as was everyone else in our living area. But after 15 minutes of quiet and a quick Google search we found out an earthquake was the culprit. It hit about 35 miles south of Mosul and measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale. That was my first earthquake experience and hopefully my last ... not a good time. Rockets one night, earthquakes the next night ... I really think it's time to get back to San Antonio where the biggest dangers are 48oz margheritas and extremely large mosquitoes!

Here's a link with more information about the quake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009jfbm.php#details

Day# 141 - Bunkers

Things have been unusually quiet around here lately. That trend was broken last night as I was laying in my bed half asleep. I thought I heard a explosion and jumped out of bed, not sure if it was part of a dream or had really happened. Then came another boom, this time a little bit closer. And then the sirens went off alerting everyone that we had incoming rockets into our compound. Now they had my full attention. And as we all stumbled out of our quarters and into the bunkers the explosions continued, each one sounding closer and closer. I spent a good 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours running back and forth between the bunkers and the ER last night. When it was all said and done a total of 10 rockets had been launched into the compound. Thankfully no one was seriously injured. Some buildings and equipment were damaged but that was the worst of it. So we all made our way back to our beds and attempted to get some sleep. It's no so easy though when you are wondering when the next rocket attack might come and whether or not the ceiling above your head is strong enough to protect you from a direct hit. Man, I can't wait to be back home in my own bed ... only 50 more days, but who's counting right??

Someone had a camera on them last night and got a few shots of us hunkered down in the bunkers. As you can see there isn't a whole lotta room in there. They are about 2-3 feet wide by 4 feet tall. Gets pretty uncomfortable after a while as you can see by my hunched over position way in the back of the bunker in the pictures above and below.

Day# 137 - Nothing Doing

All remains quiet here in Mosul, at least for the coalition forces. A couple of large explosions occurred this morning targeting the Iraqi police but none of our soldiers were in the area and no casualties were brought to us for treatment. Both good things as the status quo continues.

Came across this map on the internet. Thought it was pretty hilarious because for a lot of Americans this map is probably not that far off from how they really do perceive the rest of the world. The text is a little small so follow the link for a bigger map: http://www.boredstop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=32

Day# 135 - Report to the Commander Immediately!

Yesterday, I was just minding my own business, doing some reading in my CHU when I get a page saying that the hospital commander is looking for me. Great I thought ... this can't be good. So I made my way over to the ER to find out what was going on. The nurse on shift told me the commander had called twice looking for me and wanted me up at the TOC (Tactical Operations Center ... a.k.a. our unit headquarters) ASAP. "Sweet" I said sarcastically knowing inside that this couldn't be good. So I made my way over to the TOC while at the same time trying to figure out what I could have possibly done to warrant this attention. Maybe a patient filed a complaint, or maybe one of the staff in the ER screwed up, or maybe they decided to let me go home early since I have been doing such an outstanding job (yeah right like that would ever happen).

Anyway, so I finally get up to the TOC and there is a sign on the commander's door. "CPT Cuniowski report to the conference room across the hall." Awesome. So now not only am I going to get chewed out but I am going to get chewed out in front of a conference room full of people. So I walk in and the commander and a bunch of higher ranking people from the unit are having a meeting. The commander calls everyone to attention and the sweat begins to form on my palms. He then says in his thick Louisianna drawl "CPT Cuniowski I have some bad news. We just got word this morning that unfortunately ..." and he pauses for effect, prolonging my agony "... we won't be able to call you Captain anymore. You have been selected for promotion to Major. Congratulations son!" And with that he started laughing as the room broke out in applause and he saw the look of terror and confusion slowly melt away from my face. "Good one sir ... you really got me there" was the only response I could muster as I slowly shook his hand.

So now I am Captain (Promotable) Cuniowski, soon to be Major Cuniowski. Good news since I was really expecting much worse. Just wish my commander didn't enjoy messing with people's heads so much.

Here's a picture of myself and the hospital commander at one of our weekend BBQs.

Day# 134 - Sitting This One Out

While war still rages just a half mile away in the city of Mosul, things have been very quiet for us since the June 3oth deadline mandating all U.S. forces pull out of Iraqi cities. We haven't had seen any traumatic war-related injuries to U.S. or coalition soldiers in over 2 weeks. However, the killing continues for the Iraqis. Yesterday two suicide bombings in Mosul killed over 30 people and injured more than 60. None of the injured were brought to us for treatment per the new Iraqi Security Agreement.

So life goes on for us on our little island of peace surrounded by a raging storm of violence. It's definitely a relief that the number of patient's we were seeing has dramatically decreased. Not patroling the cities, means none of our guys are getting blown up or shot at. However, the boredom has definitely begun to set in. I have about 7 weeks until I'll be heading back home, and if things remain the same then my days will consist of reading, movie watching, cards, ping-pong, cornhole, working out and cigar smoking. Not a bad to-do list ... I know I shouldn't be complaining .. but even the fun stuff gets old after a while.

Plenty of time for training now. We stopped for a photo op during one of our training sessions in the ER. That's me standing on the far left, along with my fellow ER nurses and medics.

Nice shot of the sun setting over Mosul with an Army chopper flying above the city.

Day# 127 - Day at the Range

I took some time off this morning to go to the range. We have gotten to know the special forces guys pretty well and today they took us out to fire some of their weapons. It was an awesome time. I got to shoot a lot of weapons that I will probably never see again, including an AK-47 and a high powered sniper rifle. It was a great experience despite being out in the sun in full body armor as the thermometer read 118 degrees at 11am this morning.

Myself and one of the ER medics getting ready to hit the range at 6am this morning.

Shooting paper targets with the AK-47.

That's me in the crouching stance firing the AK-47.

Me blasting away with th AK-47.

Close up of our paper targets ... gotta love shooting at minature Osama bin Ladens.

Myself and our Orthopedic Surgeon.

G3 sniper rifle with high powered scope.

Me locking and loading the sniper rifle.

This rifle was awesome. I was easily hitting targets on the top of that hill all the way in the background of the picture.

Me taking aim with the scope.

All smiles after a day at the range. Got some complimetns from the special forces guys on my accuracy. Not bad for an ER doc ...