AAR: Al Udeid In Review

I could not believe how good Germany smelled. After 195 days breathing the heavy, humid air at Al Udeid Air Base, air that was quite often thick with the scent of sewage and/or diesel exhaust, the crisp, pine tinged air in Western Germany nearly brought me to tears. A quick jog over to the Base Exchange (conveniently located next to the passenger terminal), and the two guys I was redeploying (coming home) with had eight German beers to split, which we drank sitting, unashamedly, in the middle of what I think was a hotel lobby. The three of us even peer pressured an Army troop into sharing our last beer, which was surprisingly easy. Just a few hours later, we were in Baltimore, and the next morning I was back in San Angelo.

The 195 days prior to that joyous journey back to the United States were filled with what I currently consider to be one of the best experiences I have had to date. True, the work was often stressful, and it was hot as hell and three times as humid, but many of the people I met and worked with in the desert made a lasting impression on me, and may have just made the whole thing worth it.

Often (at least twice) referred to as the “Construction Mafia,” my flight consisted of me and three other Airmen, one Senior Master Sergeant (E-8) from the North Carolina National Guard, a Staff Sergeant (E-5) from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, and a Senior Airman (E-4) from Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. Had I been able to handpick my flight from the people in our squadron, and had I been confined to a flight of four, I would not have made a single different pick. Our flight got along very well, and it felt like we clicked almost immediately after I landed (I was the last one to arrive to the flight).

Did we have our conflicts among ourselves? Of course, you cannot be around people for 12+ hours a day for 6-7 days a week for 6 months and not have interpersonal conflict, but we were able to handle it internally, and it was all relatively minor. We all learned a lot from each other, across many different topics including work. I could not have asked for a better group of people to be in my flight, and I am sure we will all stay connected as time goes on.

Being in such a fast paced environment, I think I learned more as a Contracting Officer in six months than I had in the eighteen months that had preceded my deployment. That is not at all a knock on the home-station training I received at Goodfellow AFB, the pace of work was just so high I had to adapt and evolve as I went, from day one. This was actually my first experience as a Warranted Contracting Officer, meaning this was the first time I was authorized to actually obligate the Air Force’s money. Had I really had time to think about that, it may have freaked me out, but I was signing my first contract modification the day I received my warrant, and I awarded my first contract within two weeks of arriving in Qatar.

Luckily, as Al Udeid is very near Doha in Qatar, we were often able to bum around downtown Doha. As a city, Doha is incredibly opulent. There are Toyota Landcruisers all over the place, and no trip downtown was not complete without seeing a $100,000+ vehicle on the road. Personally, my favorite part of Doha was the food. There was an amazing burger joint called the Burgeri (or maybe the Burgerry, they were never very clear on that), which many people ranted and raved about. While the Burgeri had an incredible burger, my favorite foods were also the simplest and cheapest.

Nestled in the outdoor market, referred to as the “Souqs,” was a little hole in the wall shop where they served these egg wraps that were served with just about everything that you could think of, including (but not limited to): this incredible cheese spread, honey, hot sauce, chicken, some weird looking stuff, and some more, slightly weirder looking stuff. These egg wraps cost anywhere between 4 and 7 Qatari Riyals ($1.10-1.92). A few yards away was a little stand, run by a couple guys who also sang strange songs and performed some magic tricks, that served iced lemonades for 10 QAR ($2.75). Then, on the way back to base it was incredibly important to stop at this chaotic gas station (Qatari gas stations are basically just cramped strip malls) and acquire a chicken shawarma (Large, extra chicken) for 10 QAR ($2.75) and a honey “pie”with labna (cream cheese) for 5 QAR ($1.37). While you are waiting for your fresh shawarma to be made for you, it is required to swing next door and order a fresh pineapple juice for 14 QAR ($3.85).

How does one find all of these culinary delights behind gas stations? Well mostly we were the beneficiaries of over 20 years of American Military presence in Qatar, but the Honey Pie was a new discovery made by my flight, which they were kind enough to share with, quite literally, the entire base. I was not with them when they made the discovery, but was fortunate enough to experience the pie several times after the discovery was made. These honey pies are not pies in the traditional American sense, rather they are like a large, flat bagel with sesame seeds, cream cheese, and liberally drizzled with honey. They were best consumed hot out of the oven, and they became a staple of on-base events after we used them as refreshments for my promotion ceremony and our squadron’s change of command ceremony a few weeks later.

In order to make sure that you do not come away from this After Action Review (AAR) thinking that a USAF contracting deployment is just fun and shawarma, let me tell you a little bit about what I actually was out there to do. As the construction flight commander, my flight and I spent the vast majority of our working time working with the Civil Engineers, who can be an incredibly demanding customers, and the various construction contractors, who were often incredibly frustrating, that we had in our employ.

I say that the Civil Engineers are difficult customers, and I very much mean that, but our team of Contracting and Civil Engineering professionals really made a lot of great strides in improving the construction portfolio across the base. What made the Civil Engineers a demanding customer was translating their language into contracting language, and then translating that contracting language into simple instructions for the contractors to follow. Plus having to tell them “no, we cannot do that” at least 10 times a day, every day, for 195 days.

Speaking of language barriers, the contractors are almost all Other Country Nationals (OCN’s), which means that they are neither American or Qatari. Most of them were from the Philippines or Nepal, and English was not usually their first language. A few of the contractor representatives were actually American, and they were, ironically, our problem children in the group. One of the contractors had an American project manager who would straight up lie to us whenever we would ask her any questions. She eventually left, leaving several projects in near-ruins, and was replaced by a Filipino project manager who had been in Qatar for a decade, and he almost immediately whipped everything back into shape.

With regard to the contractors, our single biggest problem was getting them access to the base. The base access process was convoluted, and subject to the whims of the particular Qatari bureaucrat who happened to be working that day. Several of our contractors lost access to the base for various reasons, and all of them had various issues getting their badges back. This set several projects (nearly 60% of the total construction portfolio at one point in time) back several months. Base Access loss was one of the leading reasons for the fact that we had construction projects that had been going on for over 5 years, and are only just wrapping up now.

In the end, the six months in Qatar was long, stressful, and hot. I am very glad I was able to go, and I believe this was a really good first deployment. I was able to gain a lot of experience (and lose a bit of weight), and I made many connections that I hope will be lifelong friendships. If given my choice, would I want to go back to Al Udeid? No. No I would not. I would much rather go to a “true” deployed location. Al Udeid, however, was a great place for me to gain the experience that will help me perform as a Contracting Officer in the future. I was glad to go, and I sure as hell am glad to be back.