Arrived at Camp Doha Kuwait

Jim and Rocio Camp Doha Kuwait 13Jul04

Sorry Steve you didn' t make the photo shot. It was a choice of this photo or one with just you and Rocio. You lost out.

So I... we, arrived into Kuwait around 7am Sunday 11Jul04. Getting closer to my destination... Iraq. My two amigos and I, along with the other passengers on our plane boarded buses for the 30 minute ride to Camp Doha. I was hoping to see some of Kuwait City or even Kuwait in general but the route we took I guess wasn't on the Kuwaiti sightseeing map. I can tell you though they have a nice freeway.

Once we reached the base, we had to go through so many checkpoints, weave through so many barricade's, I couldn't count them all. Gave you a sense of security once we got on base. When the buses stopped we all mustered in a large white tent to be handed over to our POCs. To make a long story short, our ITT rep (Mike Davis) was not there and we ended up waiting 3 hours in the heat for him to show. And it was hot! When he did show, Mike loaded us and our bags in his van and drove us to where we would be staying until our departure for Iraq. All the transit personnel are housed in what use to be warehouses. Inside it is setup like open bay barracks. Rolls and rolls of bunk beds. The shower and toilet facilities were in trailers setup at the end of the building. Not too terribly bad for Army folks but not what us civilians were expecting. We didn't know it at that time but this was to be our home for the next 5 days. In our section of the warehouse I think there were about 30 or so people. Mostly US Army and Korean soldiers and about 6 or 7 ITT civilians. The female area in the section next door was full. Rocio, being the only female in our area, bravely stayed with us. Steve and I was there to look after her. I think she felt secure in knowing that.

The next day, Monday the 12th, we met with Ernest Davis the Camp Doha ITT site manager. The three of us, Rocio, Steve and myself were curious to when we were leaving and where in Iraq we were headed to. Mr. Davis didn't know but expected to have an answer by Thursday. We had heard and met ITT people who had waited weeks and even months before getting to Iraq. Also known as going down range. I was so looking forward to getting to Iraq I didn't want to stay in Camp Doha anylonger then I had too. Steve and Rocio felt the same way. What do we do in the mean time we asked Mr. Davis. Wait, use the camp facilities and DO NOT leave the base!