OCR Text |
Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, September 4, 2008 NOTES FROM IRAQ The Chow Hall Factor Page 8 Staff Sgt. Brock Jones A soldier's life in Iraq can hardly be considered ideal and for those living in small forward bases and joint security se-curity stations and outposts across Iraq, the living and working conditions are by nature austere, dangerous and uncomfortable. Always there's a nagging of instability instabil-ity and uncertainty. The encroachment of instability insta-bility is countered by creating constant and unchanging factors such as security, sleep and sustenance. The dining facility at the smaller bases and joint security secu-rity stations is the hub around which life revolves. It is here where soldiers refuel their strength reserves for the con-i stant rigors of deployed life and where service members find a taste of that necessary stability. Schedules are often planned around dining facility facil-ity hours, even though the doors are never really closed. Snacks and semi-cold drinks are usually available at any time. During off hours, the mess hall is the place to watch the Super Bowl or the Olympics Olym-pics or some made-for-TV movie on one of the Armed Forces Networks. The chow hall is the center of social life on a forward base, with friends meeting to break bread together. It is also used by some as a place to sit and eat alone, to read a yellowed newspaper. Even when operating away from base during missions, a soldier's mind will wander to what the chow hall is serving, as he or she sifts through the memorized contents of another an-other meal ready-to-eat. Physical sustenance is only part of what happens in a forward base's chow hall. In m mom. muma i lim m LEtll QMMEft STVII5TT orem :: pleasant grove alpine many areas, the chow hall . also serves as the place for spiritual sustenance. Usually one of the base's the bigger rooms or tents, the dining area often serves as the chapel as well. Both Army cooks and chaplains use the chow hall to "feed" soldiers, each in their own way. Mess halls at the smaller bases are rarely crowded and are like the mom-and-pop diners across America that openly welcome all who pass by, places where every regular knows each other and feels the loss when one of their own no longer comes in for his or her turkey melt and Coke. For soldiers living on both small and large bases across Iraq, "regulars" sometimes don't come back from patrols or convoys or missions, and everyone is affected by the loss, whether they feel it or not. Dealing with death and the possibility of being hurt is one of the coasequences of life as a soldier. However, whatever evil the day brings, the sun rises huge and orange in the dusty eastern sky the next day, and life, the ultimate ulti-mate inconsistent constant, continues its course. Armed with the knowledge of a few small constants, soldiers draw strength to fight off the fear caused by instability and uncertainty. On the forward bases and security stations throughout Iraq, sitting down with friends or eating alone in the chow hall, simply having a place to unwind, is one constant con-stant aspect of deployed life that soldiers have to hold on to. Every meal eaten in Iraq is another dinner or breakfast or lunch closer to enjoying a home-cooked meal at your own dining table. . ' -t f I If Sometimes, saving money isnt easy; We can help. Whether you're looking for a simple savings account, a CD, an IRA, or automatic transfers from checking to savings, we have the savings vehicles for every need, Call 222-9006. " i: c I I Eagan Smith, 7, looks to her sister, Keisa, 9, as the girls participate in mix of song, story and puppeteering during the 19th Annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival at Mt. Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon Saturday, August 30, 2008. The festival, which ran Thursday through Saturday, featured musicians, puppeteers, vendors and stage performances by some of the world's greatest storytellers. Attendees told to 'it the beast' oi non-readership Caleb Warnock DAILY HERALD An estimated 26,000 people attending the 19th Annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival Festi-val learned on Saturday that to find out who we are, individually individu-ally and as a community, we have to show up. And fight the beast. One of 10 featured storytellers storytell-ers flown in from around the nation, Grammy award-winner Bill Harley told audiences to let their children get bored so that they might learn to turn to books. Harley drew, standing-room-only crowds at the festival, held at Orem's Mt. Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon. "When something can be exciting and funny at the same time, it is amazing," he said, talking about the Gold Rush stories he read as a child. Now, as a professional writ-;ef writ-;ef I the lesson is the same as it was when he was a youth. "I have to show up every day to see what happens; it is ;the rule of writing and creating," creat-ing," he said. "You have to show up." And sing. Harley taught his huge audience to sing backup to "Build Me Up, Buttercup" by The Foundations. He also told a cautionary tale, all in rhyme, about a young pirate who faces off against his older sister, also a pirate, in a war to steal everyone's socks and underpants. i The moral? "If you've got an older sister, I feel bad for you, for just as long as you're alive, Women in "Women in Science: Doing More than Kitchen Chemistry" will begin the 15th season of Women in Leadership. Dr. Juliana Boeric-Goates will talk about her own experiences as a woman chemist and why, despite de-spite years of funding from the National Science Foundation, there is still a strong gender imbalance in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) faculty at American universities universi-ties and colleges and also in American industries. She will Utah County's PREMIER local sports coverage www.heraldextra.com Save for j she'll tell you what to do," Harley Har-ley told the crowd. Music has the power to help us explore emotions we would otherwise be uncomfortable expressing, he said. "We don't show emotion in public," he said. "It just kind of freaks us out. ... That is what the blues are about I'm singing, sing-ing, singing; I feel so bad that it makes me feel good that transmogrification." Another teller also packed festival-goers into the schooner-sized tents, with people sitting and standing around the edges, straining to hear her voice: Carmen Deedy. Late Saturday afternoon, Carmen told the story of her first time at the library, a tale which has become one of her signatures. Today books are checked out with bar codes and scanners scan-ners "and you don't even need to look a person in the face," she said. In contrast, in the ancient days, books contained con-tained pockets with cards that showed the history of who had read them "an unofficial readers' report." Checking out a book meant taking on the librarian, li-brarian, who would pull out the smeary purple ink and a date stamp and threaten to charge "one penny for every day this book is past due." Having fallen in love with books, Deedy told stories of conniving to hide her habit, day and night, from her no-nonsense no-nonsense mother. Today, children still must fight to love books. "A reader has to develop survival strate Leadership begins with science also discuss the overall decline of U.S. enrollment in STEM majors which has serious implications impli-cations for the continued leadership lead-ership of the U.S. as a world power. The meeting will be held Sept. 11, beginning at 11:30 a.m. for networking and noon for the actual meeting presentation. It will be held in room 309 of the Provo Library, 550 N. University Univer-sity Avenue. For underground parking, enter on the east side and drive around to the west one. Community BanK Life's needs. Life's bank. HCOMMUNITY.COM 7 's" i 1 i r f gies," she said. "The entire world is in conspiracy to keep you from your book. We must fight the beast. Fight the beast!" The huge crowd rang out in applause and support. "A book fits perfectly inside in-side a church hymnal but you didn't hear that from me," she said. "If you must find a place where they can't find you, a closet will work with some light source. Or go outside and stay outside." As a girl, she read in the natural saddle of a tree, "sucking "suck-ing Tang from Tupperware" and eating peanut butter sandwiches. sand-wiches. Ending her tale with a love song to libraries, Deedy left the stage to the sound of the audience's audi-ence's thunderous standing ovation. Joy and Leon Henrichsen of Cottonwood Heights attended the festival for the first time after af-ter hearing of it for years'. The ' couple brought some of their grandchildren with them. Their 8-year-old granddaughter grand-daughter said her favorite was Victoria Burnett's tale "of the wolves because it kind of taught me some stuff. It taught me that some people lie just because they want to go into wars and stuff." The couple's 10-year-old grandson said he had been invited onto stage by Burnett, where he sang back-up to a song. "I had little butterflies, but I am used to doing that because I do that at school," the grandson said. The couple asked that neither child be side entrance to park and take the elevator to the third floor. A buffet lunch will be available for $8 for members and $ 10 for guests. , Boerio-Goates received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and is presently a professor of chemistry at BYU where she has received the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Facul-ty Lecturer award and the Karl G. Maeser Professor of General Education award. She has vast experience in her field and is an Where else would you advertise? Jl ' CELIA TOBINDally Herald named because their parents were not there to give permission. permis-sion. "I think he has a future in storytelling," said Joy Henrichsen Henrich-sen of her grandson. Peggy Haynie of Orem was also attending the festival for the first time. She had just moved to Utah from Florida, and the festival experience, while "not the least bit" disappointing, disap-pointing, was perhaps not quite what she expected. She said she would likely return but not every year. Gil and Vinona Rawlings of Orem brought three grandchildren grandchil-dren with them and said they had been coming for years and have even been volunteers for the festival. "This is a great way to bring your big summer to a close," Vinona Rawlings said. "The storytellers are incredible. incred-ible. I always feel like I have been given a life moral and an education. It's like going to church, but not. They are just plain fun." Festival Coordinator Janet Low said 26,000 people attended attend-ed last year and organizers estimated they'were on-target to meet that number again this year. Some people may have trouble grasping that a storytelling story-telling festival is for adults, though children are welcome too and also enjoy the event, she said. "It make adults remember being a kid, and helps kids understand adults," she said of the stories. "It helps us understand under-stand ourselves, the community commu-nity and each other." author of over 85 publications. Women in Leadership was established in 1993 as a nonpartisan non-partisan forum which explores current issues, and supports and prepares women for leadership leader-ship in volunteer, appointed or elected positions on community, county or state levels. The organization or-ganization believes that women provide a necessary balance and perspective to all decisionmaking decision-making bodies, and membership member-ship is made up of women of all ages from all walks of life. www.heraldextra.ciun H H unit! FWC,. |