Life on FOBs - getting around on FOBs

In case you are wondering how we get around in FOBs, we don't all drive tanks, Humvees, and MRAPS. 

 

When we are on a FOB, and some of them can be very big, it is often hard to get around.  When you are on a base in Iraq you have a few options.  Personally I bicycle when I can.  I bought a used bicycle from the Arab market on JBB pretty cheaply when I was there and have been using it ever since.  Each unit has a very limited number of vehicles that everyone must use and it is pretty tough to get access to it all the time and I hate always bothering the people with the keys.  When I take the keys it often means that the soldiers have to wait to do something that it often more important.  So unless you want to walk a lot, bicycling is a good option.  It is a bit annoying when you have to bicycle in the rain or dust storms though.  But it has not been too much of a problem for me yet.  It is sometimes really unpleasant in the summer heat when you are wearing a uniform.  My unit is kind of resourceful and we got a few "gators", so our guys get to drive in those. 

 

Lager FOBs have buses, or vans, that travel on specific routes.  JBB has quite a few, Speicher has one or two.  Some more remote smaller FOBs have none.  On Speicher there is a very nice culture of people stopping their vehicles on the side of the road when someone is walking and offering them rides.  It happens to me quite often.  Almost no one minds going out of their way to drop someone off.  The heat is oppressive and lots of people are pretty good about it.  I made an interesting friend or two that way. 

Once, on a smaller FOB I have quite literally walked up to a complete stranger in civilian clothing at the airport (what we call a PAX terminal) and asked where some place was.  Turns out it was a local interpreter who just gave me a ride straight to where I was going.  

Flying from FOB to FOB is a whole different story. There are whole procedures you go through for getting flights, and many can be quite adventurous.  I have ended up in the wrong city or wrong country through no fault of my own.  It happens.  Then you just stay where you are until they can get you to where you have to go.  Obviously I have to be sketchy on details about this and about what follows.  If you go from the FOB to the nearby city, that is if you "go outside the wire" you would almost definitely take an uparmored vehicle.  Obviously I can't give details, but it is safer than it sounds.  Same for convoys.