881 Signal Squadron - Chowl Zari Team Site

(88 Signal Regiment related photo): Team Site 3 Chowl Zari, Iran - This was our home while deployed in Iran. The boys (John Spencer, Jim Kelly and Jim Gouthro) did a great job getting the place all cleaned up inside; coco and rubber matting on the floor and fixing the screen door. Jim Kelly also painted murals (awesome) inside the back walls where the three slept and I slept up front within our so called kitchen-living quarters. It really wasn’t that big inside but we made it work for the 3 months while we were there. At night, we would swing open the screen door and run out very fast. Scorpions always fell from the roofs edge onto the ground and none of us wanted to get one caught on our head. One day as I walked into the bunker, Jim Gouthro was standing in a corner with a pick axe handle, eyes as wide as saucers. A scorpion was inside on the floor. I told him I would spray him with the oven cleaner we had (we didn’t have an oven). When I did, the scorpion went snaky and was running all over the place. Well if you could have seen Jim that day, it was the funniest thing. He started hitting that scorpion, or at least trying too with the pick axe handle, continuing to miss it after each fierce strike. Knocked it senseless after a bit; our new pet was put in a jar as a friendly reminder of the entire episode.

Credit: Paul Cormier