49:23.7!

...and Dennis, our speedy brother-type, ran a personal bast of 49:23.7 in the Nordion 10K on the same weekend.

Way to go, flash!

B&R

Oi. Hot.

And that's what theweathernetwork.com had to say about today's temperature here in Kuwait. Summer's here, all right...

4:23:38.6!

Sean Blaine, our intrepid brother-in-law, has just completed his first marathon in an awesome time of 4:23:38.6.

CONGRATULATIONS!

The End of the Iraqi Tank Graveyard

You may recall that we visited the graveyard with Mom and Dad vS back in Jauary. They had begun to dismantle the Iraqi armour and weaponry stored just north of the Ali Al-Salem Airbase. I decided to make a return visit to see if it was still there. Well, the place is about 70% cleaned up, with only a comparatively few intact vehicles still there. Most of the site is twisted, cut metal piled into heaps for removal.

I guess cutting all those tanks and armour uncovers the ammo and such that they still carried, because the place is strewn with unexploded tank shells, bullets, and mortar bombs, many of which have their arming fuses intact. I imagine the environmental risks are real, particularly from the depleted-uranium dust from the anti-tank rounds that the Americans and British used to defeat the Iraqi armour. I was there for maybe an hour, and the workers are there every day, all day and yet they carry on without any extra precautions. They were quick to point out some of the more dangerous looking debris (and ask me if I had any dirty books for them). Needless to say, I made a mental note to walk only on paths and wheel-tracks just to be safe... from the explosives, that is, not the book-seeking workers!

I imagine it will be all gone in the next year or so, so I'm glad I went to see and hang out with the ghosts of Gulf War 1. Enjoy the pictures!

Brent 

 

 

Cutting crew, Iraqi tank graveyard, Kuwait, May 10, 2006. 

Turret, Iraqi T-55. 

 

 

Iraqi BMP-1 armoured personnel carrier. 

 

 

 

Un-fused mortar round. One of the workers saw me photographing it and was quick to say, "No touch! No touch!"

Scary that they have to work around all this unexploded ordnance... 

43mm anti-air rounds from a ZSU-23. Live. 

 

1oomm HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) round. This one actually had the fuse embedded in its rear and was ready to fire. 

Sabot round, sans-penetrator. 

 

Check out the muzzle... if rusty artillery pieces could speak, eh? 

 

14.5mm belted anti-aircraft rounds for the ZPU-4 gun in the background. 

Congratulations, Heinbuchs!

We just got the word that our frinds Matt and Julie Heinbuch just had their first baby, a bouncin' boy named Nathaniel Bruce.

Way to go, matt and Julie! Congratulations!

B&R

Chase, could you come here...?

B&R's thought du jour: what's in a trendy name? How many Ethans, Paiges, Chelseas, Dakotas Madisons, and Spencers does the world need?

Stir it up, we say--forget "Apple"--go for Bibi, Najla, Hashem, or Abdullah...

Hi, everyone!

So, wow, it's May already. Exactly one month until our students' exams and then 11 days after that and we're released for the year. We'll be given airline tickets back to Canada for the night of the 17th, and it looks as though a goodly number of our colleagues jet out straight away (flee, I say! Flee!). Before we know what our DEROS will be, we have to find out about summer training dates, so we're not giving an exact date just yet. We have been reassured the decision is in the very near future, however.

In keeping with the name theme, have you ever wondered what your soap-opera name would be? (Who hasn't, right?!) To find your soap name, put your middle name together with the name of your childhood street: Brent's would be William Grenfell.

Have fun with that! We hope you're well,

B&R