Orientation and BOOM!

Today I attended an orientation for new hires and transfers into Camp Speicher. Some of it was informative but most was more of what we heard in Houston over and over. Some people were falling asleep while one of the sleep nazis went around tapping people to wake up.

During one of the presentations, we heard a distant boom and almost immediately the whole building rattled and shuttered. Everyone looked around and the presenter, at first paused for just a couple of seconds and proceeded with his presentation. I was bewildered with what happened. I didn't hear an explosion, just a muffled boom, but the fact that the whole building shook caused alarm, for me anyway. The presenter continued for another minute or two when he came to a stopping point. He then announced he was going to check on the situation.

He went to the rear of the class and into the lobby and office area. When he came back, he said that the camp was going to be under a Red Alert and shortly thereafter, several radios went off to announce for us to take cover in a bunker. We rushed but didn't run. Some people just moseyed along like nothing. No one knew what was going on but there was a lot of speculation. There were no further booms or anything else. There was lots of conversation on different radio channels and I was fortunate to be standing a couple of people away from someone who had a radio on the right channel.

The bunkers we were in were made of concrete. Picture a large square concrete pipe about 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide and about 20 feet long. Now picture the bottom part taken away. That's basically a type of bunker. The floor is the ground and the walls and ceiling are about 8-10 inches thick.

The class filled several bunkers. After about an hour and a half they announced the All Clear. Know one knew what happened, only that it was clear. Later, during our orientation, one of the head honchos addressed the situation...... there was a car bomb about 3 MILES away that sent shockwaves for miles. Apparently it was a large one somewhere in the city of Tikrit. Maybe we'll see something int the news.

For now, we're good. (whew)