Just found out that my brother is now stationed there.  What's it like?  Thank you in advance for your service and all informative responses.  

I happen to be hanging around sykes at the moment.  A lovely hole in the wall.  No mortrars or IED's at night, what more could you want, but it is a way to the nearest action as far as I can see.  Your bro isnt in the cav is he?

Ahh, FOB Sykes, home of the MUF.

No better place to be stationed in Iraq, IMHO.   All the amenities now of the larger FOBs, but none of the BS.  Plenty of work outside the wire to keep everyone busy and productive.

Thank you both for the replies.  I actually got to speak to my brother this morning for the first time since he deployed a month or so ago.  Made my day to say the least.  He asked me to send him some Copenhagen as there seems to be a shortage over there.

He is with the 25th, 3-4CAV, attached to some kind of recon platoon.  That is all I know about that.  Before he left he thought that he would be put behind a 240 on a HMMV for the most part.  He says that he can't say much about what his day-to-day is like due to OPSEC.

Both of your posts are very reasuring to me.  Just the kind of info I needed to hear.  I would love to be over there with him, but they wont let me.  Oh, what is the "MUF"?

Thank you both for your service, and thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.  I sincerely appreciate it!

"MUF" stands for multi use facility, its a gym/theater/game room.
My buddies keep talking about getting in the MUF.....strange.

My brother is a few years older than me so he can probably relate to your wanting to be in the sand with your bro, who better to watch his back 24/7

Cruising around in a HMV can be bad business.  I met some MP's in Mosul and got a close look at some of the new armor and it looks like great care is taken to protect the occupants even the guy hanging out on top.  I also met some stryker guys, if I was on the ground I would dig cruisin in one of those.....screw that give me an M1.

Tell your bro good luck and if they need any quick suppression give 1-17 cav a ring.

Sorry, I missed the MUF question when you first asked it.

The story behind that name is long and colorful, to put it mildly.  Gist is that the project was started during OIF I, then held up by Congress due to the unit in question overexceeding its authority to commit government funds, according to the bean counters.

The money is there - its all about what you are spending it on.  The bean counters said it was too expensive to be an MWR center.  So now its a MUF, and priority for use of the gym always goes to sleep overflow Soldiers and the theater for unit briefs / classes.

In reality though, it's really just another MWR center - since EVERY MWR center is used for mission related things as needs arise.  This made the bean counters happy, though.

Funny thing, the Major who managed to get funds released to complete the project (had been held up for a year or so) didn't really expect us to use the word "MUF" - it was just something his team pulled out of their ass in wrestling with the dicks in DC, since they were so humng up about it being too much money for MWR.  These guys were assigned to FOB Diamondback, and really got a kick out of it when I told them the fact that the sign out front actually read "MUF."

True story: during construction, a TCN construction worker fell off the roof and was seriously injured.  He was the first and only reported incident of a "MUF Diver."

Carry on.

Thank you for the explanations and kind words.  Is there no chewing tobacco in Iraq?  Seems kind of silly as I'm sure that a sizeable % of the deployed soldiers use it.  Anyway, I sent him 40 cans of Copenhagen long cut, that should last him a day or two.  There goes my monthly ammo budget...  Dont get me wrong, I would send him 100 more today if he asked.  

I am 4 years older than my brother, and would like nothing more than to be watching each others backs over there.  I might be a litte LSHD for him now though.  I will have to ask him if he has been MUF Divin' lately.  

Again, thank you for the replies.