I have been meaning to take a picture of a tanker right when it comes in and then again right when it leaves to show you the difference in height. Every time though I keep forgetting. However, fear not because, like everything else on ABOT, there is no end to the repetition here so if I forget, I just wait 3 days, they gas up, leave & another one replaces it. I will take better before and after pictures, but here you have in the foreground, a fully fueled tanker getting underway (I took this picture from right where my CLU is so you can tell how close we live to them). In the background, you can see a tanker that just pulled in. While the depth difference between the objects obviously makes the one in the foreground seem bigger, you can tell how the one in the background is sitting SO much higher on top of the water. The red part will be FULLY submerged under the water when the tanker is full, which takes anywhere from 2-4 days. The departing ship you can tell, is sitting much lower due to the fact that it is full.
These babies can hold 1-2 MILLION BARRELS of un-refined oil- WOWZERS!
Every day we get an email of how many barrels of oil were pumped a day. (Despite having four berths, the terminal can only pump 2 tankers at a time due to the damage that the pipes running from Iraq have taken over the many wars; however there are always 4 tankers berthed here so there is never a break in the re-fueling of these tankers to keep the Iraqi economy afloat.) The guy that I stand watch with is a "nuke" and working on his masters in nuclear/systems engineering so he is an excel guru and every day that we receive the total barrels pumped from the day before, he Googles the price of oil per barrel for that day and then inputs it into his spreadsheet to calculate how much money in oil went through the terminals. He is adding this up over our time here to we know exactly how much money we protect here.
(Interesting fact: after talking to the Iraqi Marines, including some of their senior leadership! they actually asked us what WE, as in the US Navy, does with all of the money that we get from being here and protecting the terminal. Yes, you read that right- wide-spread thought throughout the ranks up to senior leadership actually thinks that WE, the people out here, are getting to keep this money that the "terminal" receives from pumping oil. It is so crazy, outlandish, and astonishing to learn that, it's ALMOST funny. But really, it's really really sad. Our CDRE explained to the Iraqi's that their country gets the money and it is what helps their country provide services for the people. They then asked how maybe that they could see some of the money. Then he explained to him that their government has to order the Ministry of Oil to "give the money" to the Ministry of Defense and then they could use all this money for more ships, and training, and Sailors. It was like a lightbulb, a concept they never thought of. Until last week, the people here actually thought we were sending the oil money back home to our families. They could not understand that our only paycheck from defending the platform is helping to keep their economy running so that they can better fund the infastructure of their government and their military and the training required to run their country themselves. That and helping to keep the Iranians in check and from dominating the waterspace in the North Arabian Gulf. Which is really all the payment we need! Like I said, it was such a crazy thought, it would have been funny, had it not be really sad that they have so little knowledge of what is going on here to think that)
Anyways. So like I said, it's "DV Season" on ABOT and everybody wants their picture taken here! I am going to start following the Navy Times, All-Hands, etc in hopes that maybe this place will get a little coverage in the media (at least on the Navy side).
What does that mean? It means that it's time for what we call "the dog and pony show" whenever important people go anywhere. It means despite sweltering heat, we must wear our "blouses", not just tee-shirts and roll down our sleeves. We trade in our floppy desert "gilligan's island" hats for our rigid and silly looking (on me at least!) 8-point covers. While saluting does not happen in a "war-zone", we brush up on our military bearing and customs and courtesies for our high-ranking officials. We have a string of visitors including many Admirals who I will tell you about after their visit over the next few weeks; like 1-2 a week until the holiday season.
The ALMCO workers spent the morning moving everything that we normally have sitting out on the main platform like spare generators, storage containers and pallets and pallets of bottled water (like heaven forbid an Admiral knows that we keep plenty of bottled water sitting around; or worse- it ends up in the media- gasp!) Anyways. They also powerwashed the decks to make it look cleaner. And Fizel, everyone's most favorite ALMCO worker/head server (he's not the "manager" for all of the ALMCO workers but he does run the kitchen, serves all the food, makes late plates for anyone who misses dinner, and stocks the fridge, shown below ) made sure that the DFAC was stocked with plenty of "ABOT Double XL's" for our visitors. Here is Fizel and one of the other ALMCO workers and lots of ice cream bars:
Fizel also always makes me laugh at least once a day. He pronounces my name "Loo-far" with his accent and it makes me smile too much to try and explain how it is pronounced. Every day I eat dinner around 1830 and if I am ever a minute or two (or 15) after that, when I walk in his face lights up and he says "Loo-far you are sooo late to-day. Every day I wait, 1830, 1835, where is Loo-far?" and he is legitamately disappointed every morning that I have only oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. When I walk in, he stops refilling the fridge and scrambles behind the serving line and says "ooonly cereal? but i have fried eggs, and sausages and breakfast burritooooes...." in his Indian accent. Fizel is awesome. He knows EVERYONE here by name and he notices if you did not make it to dinner & he will make you a plate of food and cover it with foil for whenever you come in.
Here is the refrigerator in the DFAC that is stocked with ANYTHING you could EVER want to drink, all the time, for FREE. It's kinda like the break-room that Dan had at his office in Bain, for which I was so jealous of. Now if only we got an equally cool office supply closet, I would be really happy!Additionally, to keep our visitors cool, the SeaBees spent the morning hanging more desert/camouflage netting stuff. Actually, it looks nicer and I think they they are going to keep it like this for the rest of the time.
To the left, you see about 5 refrigerators, there are 7 freezers/refrigerators total that keep all of our water and Rip-It Energy Drinks cold. The freezers keep the ice cream cold :)
The SeaBees are a small group of SUPER hard working reservist Sailors who keep the place running and in one piece. What a talented group of selfless hard working people!
Alright, well that's all for now folks. I am enjoying blogging in the morning more because then I can spend the evenings doing work after dinner and then working out and getting good sleep. I have gotten in sync with the guy on the Nimitz who is doing my job so I know when he stands watch /checks email/writes email, etc so I am trying to stay on this schedule because it allows us to correspond when we are more likely to get responses from one another in an expeditious manner. Anyways. More to come on our visitors!
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