Camp Virginia Denizens

Camp Virginia is quite cosmopolitan; there are Coalition members here from Great Britain, Republic of Korea, Republic of Georgia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Fiji Islands. Of these, the Fiji Islanders are most ubiquitous, especially at the DFAC (curiously, no one seems to know what they actually do). Inside the PX, there is a wall were previous visitors have left name tags and ID pictures. I even found a sticker from the Naval Air Station Fallon, NV Search and Rescue Squadron; I was assigned at NAS Fallon as a reservist for four years between 2000 and 2004.

The DFACs are staffed with Asian Indians and the local maintainers of the camp (truck drivers) appear to be Kuwaiti.

The Navy uses the camp primarily for incoming personnel while the Army and Marine Corps use it for outgoing personnel. That is, the Army and Marine Corps use this pace to decompress before going back home. The Navy uses it to prepare and give final training for its personnel coming into theater. There is a constant litany of moving armored HUMVEEs and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) rumbling through camp. Their electronics and communications gear wreak havoc with the tenuous WiFi network which I am using to keep the blog up to date. Some of the Marines I’ve seen look like they’re ready go home. They don’t look shell shocked, just ready to leave. I wonder if I’ll look like that a year from now.