Iraq's mismanagement shines

from the local paper:

Sgt. Shaun Groom of Garner, who was deployed in February 2003 and returned in August 2004, said the hardest thing to adjust to in Iraq was the sand, the dust and the heat. He said the sand wasn't like sand on the beach. It was more like powder.

The unit also didn't have latrines for the first three months.

Groom, along with 13 other members of the 482nd, was transferred to the 459th Transportation Co. from Springfield, Mo. That's how he met the woman he is now married to, Mitzi, who was serving as a cook in the 459th.

Mitzi Groom, who transferred to the 482nd after marrying Shaun two weeks ago and moving to Iowa, became a truck driver after the unit got to Iraq.

"I couldn't stand the thought of being over there to do nothing," she said. She also had some of the training for the job already.

At first there were no private accommodations for female soldiers, she said.

On top of that, everyone in the unit initially had to go without showers for several days at a time and didn't have a clean place to sleep.