Photos courtesy of Henry Bass

Henry Bass says he couldn't find a packing list when he was called to active duty, so he talked to friends who have deployed. He built an inventory list in Excel and shared it on the blog.

Henry Bass and his family -- wife, Lisa and sons Ethan (left) and Eric — enjoy pizza on the Fourth of July. Bass returned from Iraq this week.

Henry Bass (center) joins two other U.S. Army Individual Ready Reserve majors -- Michael "Riz" Rizzo (left) and Thomas "Mark" Jadrich -- at Camp Buehring in Kuwait in December.

Oct. 8, 2008, Whiz Quiz

Lights were out at 10 p.m. last night, and lots of snoring was happening in our open-bay barracks. UGH! Suddenly, we're woken up at 4 a.m. There are three lieutenant colonels in our group, so as a major, I dodged the bullet of being class leader. That means I'm not the guy who has to turn on the barracks lights at 4 a.m. and deliver the pleasant news that our urine will now be tested for illegal drugs.

Everybody forms up, and really has to pee. But three are missing, and we can't start till everyone's present. So we wait and 20 minutes later, we're only missing one, and we proceed anyway. A few soldiers have paid $10/night for separate quarters, and they were supposed to know to be at our little event. It's an observed pee in the Army: nothing up your sleeve. ...

We'll stop to let the enlisted soldiers begin receiving their uniforms. Officers have to buy theirs, and they'll give us time for that this afternoon. Most folks have been in civilian clothes thus far. I believe we're down to 45 of us -- only one was sent home so far.

Jan. 30, Pausing to Reflect on Sgt. Kyle J. Harrington

It has been a while since I've posted anything. You see, on Jan. 24, Sgt. Kyle J. Harrington died at the age of 24 in service of his country. It was a tragic accident, and Sgt. Harrington is truly a fallen hero.

The internal conflict for me recently is that my blog messages are always upbeat and positive about the Army. I do enjoy serving my country, and I'm proud to be here, but the reality of military operations is that we are at war, and people get hurt.

Sgt. Harrington's loss was felt across the camp. He was a bright light, and spread his light through a positive attitude even in toughest times. He worked in the maintenance team where I work and our unit here sincerely misses him.

We are grateful for his time with us, and our prayers are with his family. Our memorial service was deeply moving, and there were similar services in Tallil, Iraq, where his unit is headquartered, as well as Fort Lewis, Wash., and his final resting place in Swansea, Mass.

Feb. 9, Super(?) Bowl LXIII

You've no doubt heard that the U.S. forces were allowed to drink beer in Iraq for the first time during Super Bowl 43. This had its own twists in Basra, where we're really not quite plugged into the U.S. support system. So our logistics support team was involved in getting the beer to Basra and Bucca camps, while at other camps it was all handled by the U.S. Dining Facility system. ...

As a result of this fantastic event, we now have four nice plasma screen TVs in our dining facility! ... The Super Bowl aired three times in our area: once live at 2 a.m., rebroadcast at lunch, and again at 8 p.m. Almost all of us in Basra still had a mission to accomplish, so participation was only about 70 percent. Many folks finished their two beers shortly after kickoff and went back to bed for the live event. Our group had scheduled the 8 p.m. rebroadcast. I saw the kickoff, but had to leave for a mission. When I came back, shortly after halftime, the dining facility was vacant except for eight soldiers! The Armed Forces Network does not permit sponsorships or advertising, so we didn't see any of the entertaining commercials this year.

April 2, COB Basra Overview

I've been contacted by a few soldiers and contractors headed to Basra, so I wanted to take the opportunity of yesterday's historic transition from U.K. to U.S. forces to refresh an overview of our happy home.

PX (store): We have a PX the size of a Dollar General store, or less. A bigger PX is being built late this summer.

Internet for individuals is sketchy at best right now. Sniper Hill might set something up. I personally have worked a deal with the local Internet Cafe to beam about 100K/sec to a shared office, where five of us are using it at $75 each right now.

CHUs (10x10 room) -- still being brought in daily. Right now, the crowding on the COB has necessitated three people to a CHU for O4 and below. O5, like me, two to a CHU, if you get one at all. Tents is what most soldiers are in right now. For contractors, it will depend on where and who you work for as a contractor. They've got some CHU accommodations, typically with a roommate.

DFAC (Dining Facility): converted from U.K. to U.S. today. There are some growing pains going on with this, but it's getting better each meal.

MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation): We used to have a tent with movies, games, phones to call home, and free computer use. It went bye-bye mid-March for the sake of bed space. AT&T has just set up a trailer near DFAC IV, and in the next few months, an entire DFAC is going to be converted to an MWR and gym. We get USO/MWR-sponsored celebrity visits about twice a month. A comedian group and rock band are both on this month's schedule.

Mail: Mail arrives three times a week. In May, we're preparing for daily shipments. The Stars and Stripes newspaper comes with it, generally about a week old.

Flights: Both helo and fixed wing serve Basra pretty regularly. Space-A is the norm. Going anywhere usually averages taking three days, even though it's a one- to two-hour flight.

Force protection: I won't say specifics, but suffice it to say we're doing a lot better than one year ago during the surge and battle of Basra. Still, Basra is the second largest city in Iraq, with a population between 1.4 and 2.2 million, by various reports.

May 2, Typical Day, Revision 2

I've been asked by family and new soldiers headed here what a typical day on the COB is like for me, or for troops in general. During the winter, when I was meeting convoys, there really was no typical day! Every day was different depending on what was due in, and I could be grabbing a nap between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. to get ready for a 2 a.m. arrival; or I could be in the office most of the day with reports and e-mail. I usually mixed up my day, though, to keep it interesting and blood flowing beyond my posterior -- I'd go check construction progress on our fuel farm (and take pictures, make corrections, etc.), or head over to the container storage yard to check security. I was often escorting Iraqi truck convoys into the COB and mispronouncing Iraqi phrases!

My new work is a sustainment brigade representative (liaison officer, LNO) to the Division Headquarters, and that's considerably more routine. I'm in the G4 office, which oversees all supplies, equipment, transportation, fuel, water, and property accountability in the Division. I say routine, but of course it's a lot of problem solving, and every day is different. Perhaps the best way to characterize is that every day used to be insanely chaotic, now it's just chaotic. I'm definitely up earlier, though, starting around 0500 or 0530. One big driver for me being up early is that Mr. Sun starts his day off about 0500 here, and that's going to get worse before it gets better!

Breakfast opens at 0530, so having a custom-made omelet is my new favorite way to start the day. By 0630, I'm in the office getting set up for the first meeting. Usually it's an update briefing via video teleconference. Next, there's a daily G4 "huddle" where we go quickly through all the outstanding issues. From there, a bit of time to work the issues and take care of business. Lunch comes along as my first chance to see what the day has turned out to be: Hot? Dusty? Thunderstorms? Then it's back in the climate-controlled HQ for an afternoon meeting or two, more e-mail, and reports. ...

Several times a week we have a Brigade Battle Update Analysis where the LNOs always have a slide about recent activities, presented to the Brigade commander and attended (online) by every section in the brigade (about 120 slides! Break for dinner, then back to work, until 8 or 10 p.m., depending on how things are going. During the huge buildup, we were often at work until 11 or later ... but things are much better now. Plus, there's two of us now. Maj. Jim Reis is a huge help. In fact, it's not unusual now to hit a lull between meetings and have time to go to the gym or the Internet cafe. That makes a world of difference in my morale!

Aug. 14, Internet Available in Basra Living Areas

After nine months in Basra, I finally have my own Internet connection! The COB has awarded an Iraqi-based company, Al Dalham, with a contract for wireless and wired Internet service. They have several bandwidth options, but the common plan seems to be 128K for $70/month.

Several visits to their office, and lots of trying to connect, revealed there was just too much spectrum interference for me to use Wi-Fi. So the manager dispatched these two young men, who quickly set up a receiver, spliced the Cat V cable, and configured my IP addresses to have a wired connection.

I was impressed. But for my readers that are headed to Basra, be patient! It took about two weeks of me working with the Al Dalham team, showing them my problems, and patiently returning time after time.

They're on a learning curve, but I'll say this: they're learning fast. I expect it's already twice as good as when I bought in two weeks ago. ...

Sept. 6, Band o' Bros at Holy Joes

Desert Ministry: Here in the sands of Basra, Iraq, several members of the 34th Infantry Division have started a "Men's Bible Study" but on steroids. We read the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge, and meet early Sunday morning to share our experiences and journey into our hearts. The theme is that men are genetically different, created differently by God, for a unique purpose. Common to each man's purpose are three principles: Man wants a Battle to Fight, an Adventure to Live, and a Beauty to Rescue. We explore these principles and dig further: what wounds are we carrying? How perhaps were we denied validation as young men, what vow did we make to overcome that wound, and how has that wound and vow impacted our adult lives? Through sharing our journey, within a bond of confidentiality and the shared circumstances of war, we have built enduring friendships, explored our hearts, and struggled to piece together how this can make us better husbands and fathers. Our leader is Dr. (LTC) Dave Ronan, and he has done this before. In fact, I was pleased to learn that the Band of Brothers book and accompanying video series is very popular in deployed environments: Kosovo, Afghanistan, as well as previous Iraq deployments.

For me, I mentally weave this with an Army training program: Warrior Resiliency and Thriving. This is a mandatory sequence of training for soldiers after they have BOG (boots on the ground) for a few months. It challenges soldiers to look at their circumstances, the war around them, the stress of combat, and being away from their family. Will your deployment merely be spent counting off the days until you return? Or will you take up the cross, the sword, the opportunities before you to return from deployment a better person? Thus, the thriving: Given the stress of what we're doing, can you rise above it? It's easier for some than others, and many are in such dangerous circumstances that survival alone is all there's time for. But by challenging our soldiers to thrive, with a healthy level of stress, they return better people, better leaders, and better adjusted to the stress of combat. And isn't that why we joined the military? To serve our country and be a better person.

Sept. 17, Army Strong

* Last blog entry from Iraq

As a mobilized soldier from the Individual Ready Reserve, I've read articles focused on the negativity of how our military services are straining under such long-term engagements. So it is refreshing to examine the underlying facts and composition of our current force. The fact is that only 1 percent of the U.S. population has ever served in the military. Gen. Frederick Kroesen published an article a few months ago citing the specifics of our force makeup, which I'll summarize as a select crowd of smart, fit and well-trained men and women.

You have heard that the U.S. Army continues to meet and exceed its recruitment goals -- only slightly attributable to the down economy, but more driven by the combination of effective results and continued strong patriotism of our citizens. I myself am constantly impressed with the letters we receive from schoolchildren, workplaces and church groups telling soldiers how valuable their contributions are! Our nation's patriotism transcends individual emotions and various negative opinions on the legitimacy of specific conflicts.

Our military track record is good, and that helps: With successes in Bosnia, great results thus far in Iraq, and serious brainpower and resources being applied to Afghanistan, I think the U.S. military is establishing a reputation that we're not just in it for ourselves, but truly here to help other nations move away from violence and oppression.

Meet the author

Henry Bass is an Army reservist from Christiansburg and the owner of Blacksburg technology firm Automation Creations.

He found out about his deployment, assigned to support a medical unit in Iraq with logistics, in August 2008. He was deployed a year ago this week.

This is the first time Bass has been on active duty since the Gulf War.

Back in the New River Valley, a committee of employees is overseeing Automation Creations. The company does much of its business creating Web-based software applications for companies looking to enhance their online operations, but its bread and butter is a searchable materials database for engineers called MatWeb. His wife, Lisa, and two sons, Eric and Ethan, live in Christiansburg.

Bass has been blogging at www.henrybass.com/blog since he received his deployment orders. Originally scheduled to return home Nov. 9, Bass was moved up in the schedule last week, and was quickly moved from Iraq to Kuwait to Wisconsin to Roanoke this week.