Marine Cpl. Carl Collmer of Prattsburg, N.Y., and the 8th Tank Battalion of Tallahassee, Fla., goes up for a lay-up during a nighttime basketball game at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. The camp's 12-team league plays three nights per week. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Marine Cpl. Carl Collmer of Prattsburg, N.Y., and the 8th Tank Battalion of Tallahassee, Fla., goes up for a lay-up during a nighttime basketball game at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. The camp's 12-team league plays three nights per week. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Maj. Julie Roche, an Army reservist from Sautee, Ga., and member of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, tends to a baby raven that apparently got kicked from its nest. The bird, which Roche's son named Feathers but her fellow soldiers have dubbed DJ, for Djibouti, is being nursed back to health by Roche, a veterinarian both with her civil affairs unit and back home in Georgia. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Marine Capt. Scott Johnson of Camp Lejeune, N.C., commandant for Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, gets a scalp massage from Jiji Lal after his haircut on the base. A haircut, followed by the complimentary scalp massage, costs $5. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti — The outdoor court is like one found in almost any city in the States, which is the point.
“It kind of feels like we’re back home, when the league gets going and the crowd gets jumping,” said Sgt. Kenyon Graham of Florence, S.C., coach of the undefeated 8th Tank Killers, one of 12 teams playing in the Camp Lemonier league.
The games are played under the lights, outdoors and at night, thankfully, because the daytime temperature here pushes 100 degrees even in November. There’s no worry about rainouts. Good crowds of friends and fellow competitors half-fill the metal bleachers for the games.
“It’s definitely good for morale,” Graham said.
The Killers are made up of Marine reservists called up from the Tallahassee, Fla.-based 8th Tank Battalion. In Djibouti, they are part of the 1st Provisional Security Company. They patrol the flight line, guard the gates, perform searches and generally keep the camp safe.
Graham said coaching the Killers, who were undefeated through five games, helps him be a better sergeant to his junior Marines.
“It helps me to communicate better,” Graham said. “The more I play ball with them, the closer I get to them.”
For 40 minutes — 20 minutes per half just like the college game — the players get to forget about their jobs and concentrate on ball, according to Lance Cpl. Anthony D. Smith of Rochester, N.Y.
“We have something to look forward to,” Smith said, “and that’s the next game.”
A bird in the hand
An airman found the baby bird between two buildings and brought it to the civil affairs tent. He knew a vet was there — veterinarian, that is.
“It had blood on its wings and beak,” said Maj. Julie Roche, an Army reservist from Sautee, Ga., and veterinarian with the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion. “It must have been just pushed out of its nest by one of its siblings.”
Fed at first with a syringe, the 2-month-old raven started eating on its own last week. Chow hall food seems to work — ground Spam, tuna, kidney beans.
The bird has been dubbed DJ — short for Djibouti — by Roche’s female tent mates, and Feathers by Roche’s 6-year-old son, Clancy, back in the States. The little raven doesn’t have tail feathers yet, so flight is probably another month away, Roche said.
Some of her male colleagues inside the civil affairs tent said the bird smells. A few threaten to eat it when it gets big enough.
As a vet, Roche will continue to do what comes naturally.
“We’ll have to teach it how to fly [inside the civil affairs tent],” Roche said. “I think it’ll hang around. It gets fed pretty good.”
Head rubs and haircuts
The Djiboutian barbers give scalp massages with a haircut. For $5, a guy can get a high-and-tight and afterward have his head rubbed.
“There’s too much stress,” said Senthil Kumars, one of the barbers. “This helps blood circulation.”
Marine Capt. Scott Johnson, the camp headquarters commandant, said he used to get scalp massages with the haircuts in Okinawa. Other troops said they’ve gotten them elsewhere in the Middle East.
“I guess it helps you relieve a little stress,” Johnson said after a recent rubdown.
Lockdowns fool the enemy
The camp was in a lockdown starting Wednesday, meaning only persons with a mission-essential reason could leave. Liberty into town to Djibouti City, where servicemembers like to patronize the restaurants and clubs, was canceled.
So, too, was a Morale, Recreation and Welfare excursion to nearby Lake Assal, the lowest point in Africa at almost 500 feet below sea level.
The reason given was that a security threat of some kind had been detected.
Marine Capt. Brian Dibb, the base’s force protection officer, would not specify the threat. He did say that “liberty secure,” the condition that restricts travel, happens once in a while and not just because a threat is detected.
“We change the picture so the enemy can’t profile us,” he said, adding that such decisions are usually “intelligence driven.”
Even though U.S. troops haven’t fired or been fired upon in Djibouti, Dibb said the area was still potentially dangerous for troops and other Westerners.
