Saturday, July 12, 2008

Get lay of land around Camp. Plan for VETCAP. I will fly commercial to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and stay night in Sheraton which was recommended by LTC Bethany Lenderman. They work full day on Saturday. Send note to PHP Department:

CENTCOM
Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa
Camp Lemonier, Djibouti

Dear PHP,

I am very late in sending this to thank you for the wonderful send off you gave me and the great set of gifts you presented. The autographed pigs were awesome, especially the one who oinks at the touch! I have finally figured out the Ipod and used it to fill the time during our five hour C-130 flight from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar to Djibouti this past Thursday. That was such a wonderful, thoughtful gift. I suspect I was the only one of the troops on that airplane listening to Maria Callas sing opera arias; the others probably were listening to something a little more contemporary, but no better than the many tunes that Jacqueline loaded onto the Ipod..?they were wonderful to listen to and kept flight comfortable despite the plastic woven jump seats arranged in the Airborne configuration for paratroopers that can be a little uncomfortable.

I have now been here at "Camp Lemonier" for two nights and the better part of three days. Beginning this Monday July 17 I'll only spend ten days here until Oct 17 when the current round of planned VETCAP missions (Veterinary Civil Affairs Projects) is complete. By the middle of October we will have completed missions in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. We will be treating and administering vaccinations and preventative treatments for diseases I have never seen before, including Foot and Mouth Disease and "Nagana" (trypanosomiasis). The largest expense on our list of biological and pharmaceutical products is FMD vaccine, with about a thousand doses of Exotic Newcastle/B intraocular vaccine for poultry thrown in for good measure. Thanks to Drs. Barnes and Wages for their admirable poultry vet training period for me before I departed!!!

So far I have not seen any of the infamous snakes that they warn you about when you get here. All snakes in Djibouti are poisonous and some have no available antivenin, so best to watch where you walk. The good thing is that it's too hot for them too this time of year, but they do tend to be in shady places that we try to avoid.

Although I sincerely miss NCSU and PHP I am very happy to be here and looking forward to our trips into very interesting parts of East Africa. I'll be with a Civil Affairs team composed of soldiers in my group. My Team Chief is a Navy Captain, so this is a first for me. I have not told any Navy jokes so far and he has returned the favor by being somewhat kind to the Army. Also so far I have had no interactions with the citizens of Djibouti other than a few commercial ones in the Navy Exchange on the camp, so I'm particularly looking forward to the chance to meet and work with many of them.

Thanks again so much for your many kindnesses to me before I left. I thoroughly enjoyed my seven + years as the Department Head and count myself blessed for having had the opportunity to know each and every one of you.

All the best,
Jim Floyd