So tell me....what exactly is an ABOT

I'm sure you are wondering, hmf.  What exactly is an ABOT?  Well, ABOT (I had to inquire) is an acronym which stands for Al Basrah Oil Terminal. I don't have the tools to upload my own pics, but I've posted a couple I found.  

This morning I awoke to the wonderful smell of tanker fumes.  Smells a bit like rotten eggs and diesel fuel.  Goody.  

However, to lighten my day, was a call for all hands on Papa 4.  So, out of the bed I roll to see what the commotion is.  Strap on my  boots, undershirt, wrap up the hair, and off I go.  I stumble down the rusted rickety stairs to find all of the Navy personnel waiting.... So, I turn to my roommate, and inquire about what's going on at 6am on a wednesday that's so important. Well, stores of course!  Basically, the unloading of pallets of food and goodness.  A replenishment ship from Kuwait called Inchape pulls up next to one of the tankers that's tied to Papa 4 and the pallets are taken from the Inchape onto the tanker, and then from the tanker's crane it gets let down to the platform.  Interesting to watch, really.  So the pallets come down and they're wheeled over to the freezer/fridge/storage container and we rip them open like christmas pulling back wrapping.  Hah, never thought I'd be so excited to see fresh fruit and vegetables, juiceboxes, real milk... -A sidenote here..the lettuce here is very strange.  It's like when they grow it they put a large weight on top so it grows out only.  So basically a large flat head of lettuce.  More like a discus of lettuce.- Then we all line up and pass the goods along from hand to hand and into storage it goes.  There were only about 12 pallets today, which went by very quickly since everyone was out helping.  There's something refreshing about seeing everyone work together smoothly without any complaining.  Like a well-oiled machine. It's nice to see comradery.  

The other oil terminal is called KAAOT: Khor Al Amaya Oil Terminal

This is the terminal the Iraqis solely run, we have poured countless hours of manpower, training, and money into it and turned it back over to the Iraqis.  They have let it run down and it's basically falling apart,  I may be traveling over there to check it out so I'll have to take pics.  Basically all the tankers pull into ABOT because KAAOT is run down and can't pump at nearly the speed/efficiency as we can.

The pictures up top: 

1.  This is the Tactical Operations Center, where I work.  There are basically 4 boxes stacked on top of each other and inside is our comms equipment.  This is platform 5.  This is also where boats tie up to take our garbage, and where we get dropped off and picked up.  When I arrived, the helo dropped me at USS Hopper and we took a RHIB over to this platform and you climb up a ladder on the side there.  I look at it like a clubhouse up there, really.  A bit more tactical though = )

2. This is what it looks like if you're standing at the top of platform 5 down on the other platforms.  You can see all those con-x boxes stacked on one another, that's platform 4.   On the right is the galley and the MWR/rec center, internet cafe, etc.   On the left are living boxes.  I live in the top right one, but there's camouflage all over it now a days.  

3.  This is an older view of ABOT, before US got knee deep.  It's improved a lot since then.  But this is a good look from above.  You can see the tankers on the left haven't filled up yet since they're so high in the water.  Only 2 can fill at a time, so usually 2 are filling and there are tankers pulling out/in to the other 2 berths.   It's crazy how low in the water they get.

4.  Another view from platform 5, those are the MA's that walk around and protect the ABOT.