Phones

Phones are like computeres in this office. They seem to replicated at night when we are not looking, taking up more and more space on the not so large desks. Never mind that we have more than half a dozen people jammed into a room not much more than 12×14. And a fridge, several printers and the bike boxes still unpacked in the middle.

At any one time, I have my choice of phones. There is normal DSN (Defense Service Network) with which I can call world wide to US military phones and mostly reach 800 numbers in the US. There is the classified phone system (US) and the classified phone system (NATO). Then there are also the Roshan network cell phones, of which I don’t yet have one.

The other day, I asked an interesting question – How does one dial a DSN here from a civilian phone number? Completely blank faces looking back at me. Now, everywhere else there is a conversion posted in the DSN phone books for dialing into the system. It saves military installations from having two sets of phones – one for military and one for civilian. This might not seem critical until you think about the medical facilities on base. Obviously there are people who live off base who need to call for an appointment. So that takes care of the US and most overseas locations.

It is now a week later and still no one has a clue as to how to dial into our DSN. I am going to wander down and ask Finance and Signal, they might just have an idea. In any case, I have turned the T-Mobile Germany based phone back on. Obviously, calling it from anywhere in the world might be incredibly expensive. Unless you happen to have somekind of voice-over-IP or other way of beating the charges. Texting should not be quite as expensive – but I am not going to try that either.

In any case, I can be reached in an emergency. Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?

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One Response to Phones

  1. AlisonH says:

    Take care of yourself. Sending up prayers from here.

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