T-Walls

The insurgents don't like us! They'd love to see the coalition forces leave Iraq tomorrow and let them gain control. After all, at $100/barrell, the 2 million barrels of oil that are produced here every day, makes for a pretty handsome treasure chest! So, they use their only weapon to try to diminish our resolve to do our work here....terror. One way of creating terror is through the use of "indirect fire". That just means that somewhere outside of the International Zone (IZ), a couple of insurgents fire a rocket or mortar into the IZ. They can't aim very accurately, so they just lob 'em over and run. That's the bad news. The good news is that we are experiencing indirect fire very rarely now. A few mortars were fired into the IZ on Thanksgiving Day, and then we had no more until Jan 15th...almost 2 months! A year ago, the IZ was receiving indirect fire almost daily! So, things are getting better!!

Oh where was I going with this? T-walls, that's where! Everything in the IZ is separated and surrounded by T-walls. These are huge chunks of concrete that are placed in rows so that they create a heavy-duty barrier against blast damage and trespass. The T-walls are individual chunks of concrete that are about 12' tall, 5' wide and 2' thick. They have extra wide bases at the bottom which makes them stable enough to stand upright. They just stack those T-walls side by side and make long walls around everything. These T-walls surround the various "compounds" here, like the US Embassy compound, and many of the areas within the Embassy compound. Rows of T-walls surround my little "subdivision". These T-walls protect us from the indirect fire. With concertina wire on top of the T-walls, they also keep anyone from crawling over the top (which wouldn't be easy anyway)!I can't estimate the number of cubic yards of concrete required to make all the T-walls that are inside the IZ....it would be in the millions, I bet. There are miles and miles of T-walls spread all throughout the IZ.