Inside The Wire

A colleague and I recently went on a two-week trip to Iraq to install a computer system for the military and train them on how to use and maintain it. We spent most of our time "inside the wire" at a base near Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town located about 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river. We were on a well-protected military base during our stay, and I must commend the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen who work diligently to provide security there. That commendation should be doubled for the courageous ones who venture off-base to patrol the more dangerous parts of Iraq.

It was a privilege and an honor to work with our fighting forces on this trip. It never fails to amaze me how tech-savvy the young generation is today, especially in the U.S. Armed Forces. I was impressed at their skill and level of knowledge. In short, my trip was a success, we accomplished our goal, and I definitely made some new friends in the process.

Nate and a coworker dressed for success in Iraq.

Preparing for the trip

An HP iPAQ Pocket PC not only accompanied me on the trip, it proved to be invaluable in planning for it. The packing list for a trip to Iraq is a little different than your average business trip. For one thing, you really don't know what your accommodations might be—a trailer, a bunker, a tent, you just don't know. You might have a stable source of power and you might not. Don't hold your breath while you're looking for Internet connectivity. And even though it's a desert, it gets cold there in the winter, so bring a sleeping bag.

The point here is that you have to pack a lot of stuff you may not ordinarily have to drag along on a business trip. One of the ways I lightened the load was to leave my laptop PC at home and rely on my iPAQ for my basic computer needs. But even so, I ended up with a duffel bag, a large rollaway suitcase and a knapsack for my gadgets and travel documents. That's not counting the Kevlar vest and combat helmet I was issued in Kuwait and wore most of the time during transit.

I carried my passport and contractor ID with. You don't go anywhere in Iraq without these, and I also brought backup photocopies of them. In addition, I carried a paper notepad and pen with me to write things down in case my gadgets wouldn't work. Figure 1 shows the gadgets I brought with . They included the following:

• A battery-powered alarm clock.
• AC power adapters and plug converters for the different outlets used in Iraq.
• Headphones, which are more comfortable than ear-buds for extended use.
• An extra battery power source (and surge suppressor not shown). You need all the extra juice you can get.
• Hard cases for the Pocket PC, camera, and other accessories. Your stuff may end up smashed under a mountain of duffel bags loaded in the back of a C-130 cargo plane.
• A Pocket PC—I took my older HP iPAQ 3955 Pocket PC with me and it worked wonderfully.
• A Satellite phone or quad-band cell phone. Unfortunately, the phones were not that reliable.
• USB memory stick, memory cards, card reader, and an iPAQ expansion sleeve.
• Adapters for both wired and wireless connectivity via Ethernet. A lot of folks there share satellite network connections, but I found good old-fashioned LAN to be the most reliable form of connectivity when it was available (but somewhat slow). The cell and satellite networks are hit and miss depending on location, weather, etc.
• A small flashlight or key-chain LED light that you can clip onto your belt loop. The military stores sell red-light versions that illuminate the area close to you, but don't make you a target.
• A decent pocket knife.