Self-sufficient soldiers make the best of life at Combat Outpost Aztec

Company D, 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry (Stryker) Regiment is headquartered in this abandoned meat processing factory — Combat Outpost Aztec — in Baghdad.


Self-sufficient soldiers make the best of life at Combat Outpost Aztec
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, November 15, 2007


BAGHDAD — Soldiers at combat outposts lack many of the quality-of-life services afforded to their counterparts at larger facilities but, for many, the simplicity of life on a small base makes it a good trade-off.

Combat Outpost Aztec, which lies just south of Baghdad International Airport, doesn’t have a golf driving range, Baskin Robbins ice cream parlor, indoor basketball court, American Forces Network television or Green Bean coffee shop — delights that can be sampled at nearby Camp Liberty.

When they are not working, the 2nd Cavalry (Stryker) Regiment soldiers at Aztec — members of 2nd Squadron’s Company D — get their kicks pumping iron in the weights room, watching movies on a big-screen television, surfing the Internet (after waiting in line) or playing video games in their rooms.

It is a spartan sort of life, but it is one that most appear content to live with for the duration of their 15-month posting to Iraq.

Company D 1st Sgt. Michael White said the unit arrived at Aztec, a gutted meat processing plant, in early September after deploying from Vilseck, Germany.

The administration building where soldiers work and live had been briefly occupied by another unit but was not particularly habitable at that stage, he said.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50280

Gardens, bartering with others, building community and relations with the locals....

So much the MY ideas about self-sufficiency.