Groundhog day

Well,
It is starting. What you ask? Groundhog day. Everyday is starting to look loke the other. Yes, some tasks in the day are different, but basically, everything is the same.

I wake up, I do a little pt, I take a shower, go to breakfast, then to work. At around 1200, I go to lunch. I usually end the day around 530 going to dinner. I then either watch TV or play some computer games before I go to bed. Every day! Every day! Every day! (get the hint?)

There are some things that throw a wrench into it. There is the occasional mortar attack, or VIP visit. I have met the Sec of Army, and a couple Generals. I have also met a few high ranking Iraqi Generals too. Then there are the mass casualty events. Hopefully, we won't have any more of them.

I am starting to like my near beer. The Coors one is probably the best to me. Today, there was a detail repairing some fighting positions. They took a break at 1030 to enjoy a beer-near beer that is. They were drinking Becks near beer. It seemed odd and all, but worth a laugh. For one soldier, it was her first beer. She is only 19. She chased the beer with a red bull! I think that's worst!

The weather here is beutiful. At night, it is in the 40's, and in the day up to the 70's. Of course sunny, and an occasional cloud. We did have a rain storm about a week ago. It rained all night, and they led to mud for the next two days.

Not much else right now. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

Later.

Mail Call

Laura has been sending me stuff almost every day! Now my parents are in the game as well. I am the most popular guy in the mail room. In fact, the mail clerks come to me to tell me if I have mail or not.

Hey, if people want to send me mail-go right ahead. Here are some things that I need:

Slippers
a coffee mug with a built in coffee press (laura is still looking for one)
a new pillow-I brought a travel one, but now I am sleeping on a twin bed

Here are things that I have found over here:
I found a rug store. They had a hand woven silk rug for $900. It was only 2ft by 3 ft. I have found little trinkets and such. Also, the jewelry is very nice. However, the prices have jumped up since the initial war. I found a Noah's ark charm braclet for Molly-it was priced by the weight. It was not cheap, that's for sure. There are also the fake rolex's, and other high end watches. The going rate for those is around $50.

There is also a lot of marble, bronze trinkets, tea sets of all types, and of course, souveniers. Let me guess. Everybody wants a t-shirt?

My Thanksgiving was wonderful. I hope yours was the same.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well,
I am writing this entry as personal notes to my readers. I want to thank all those that are reading it and posting comments. Thanks.

Laura,
Loves and kisses. Say hi to everybody! I hope you didn't spend too much money at the scrapbooking store!

Allie,
I apologize if I write in incomplete sentences or phrases. I am no longer at ECU, and I did a brain dump of all of my English 1000 rules.

Stu,
Thanks for my G-string!

Jen and Toby,
Thanks for being the best neighbors. Jen, I will send you half of my tax free money for some chocolate cake!

Dave and Donna,
Thanks for inviting Laura and Molly for Thanksgiving!

Molly,
Thanks for being the doodle bugs! You're my favorite doodlebugs, in the whole world!

That is what I am thankful for! Thanks!

Some pics of us at work

This is a picture of one of our Non-Comissioned Officers supervising the loading of a UH-60 with patients . On this day, we saw many wounded-US and Iraqi. Not everything that goes on here gets picked up by news outlets back home.

Don't woryy boys and girls, I will get a picture of me and post it.

Another quick note: The Command team here, including myself, will be pulling Guard Duty for Thanksgiving. It is the least we can do for our soldiers.
Again, Happy Thanksgiving! (except the forementioned assh#$%!)

Mother F*$#@!

Some one tried to kill me this morning! Let me re-phrase that: Someone tried to kill someone this morning-in my vicinity! At 05:00 this morning, some butthead fired three mortars at our FOB! They landed, shook the ground, woke me up, and forced us to get into cover!

I am all for someone fighting for a cause: Fighting for the fallen regime, fighting for your country, but fighting in the name of religion? That is like have sex to save a virgin! Aren't we suppose to love eachother and all that crazy stuff?

Bottom line, everything is fine. We were woken up early, people running to bunkers-some with no shoes, some with shoes on the wrong feet, some with all their gear (geeks), some with very little gear(not me either). I was in the middle of the spectrum.

You could officially say that we had our cherry popped. We were getting lulled into this false sense of security with no fighting and all.

Other than that, things are going good here. I've had to go on a diet and limit the food intake. There is so much food here at the chow hall, it is not funny. I've made some slide shows and a video to the song "Pretty Donna" from Collective soul. I will try to get it posted on the front of the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (except the AS!@#$% who fired on us)!

I don’t consider myself religious by any means, but when I saw the deceased soldier being wheeled down the hallway, I crossed myself like a good catholic. Why?

I saw our country’s blood spilled on a floor of a hospital. Again, I asked why?

I watched my soldiers perform like a well oiled machine. I did not train them for the large number of casualties, they just did it. Why?

I helped Iraqi Army soldiers out of trucks with tremendous injuries. They did very little complaining. They are some of the bravest people I know, fighting for their country. They continue to go and look for the enemy. Why?

No chow or shower this morning. No laundry drop off. No idea when this mass casualty incident will end. We stand ready to help those who can not help themselves. I am proud of my soldiers. More proud then most will ever know.

So here I am...

So here I am, in a combat zone. And now the Army bureaucracy kicks in. What's with all these daily status reports? I should only send in one at the beginning of the day, and everyone should assume there are no changes until I tell them otherwise. Has anyone ever heard of the Federal Paperwork Reduction Act? I am not making this up. It was a law passed in 1995. The goal was to reduce paperwork in the Federal Government. However, since adoption, paperwork has actually gone up over 100% in the government - and the military leads the way! Status report please!

I am learning how to work with the program Movie creator and Nero here. My goal is to make some cool ‘home’ videos here - for the unit, and for me. It’s a lot of fun. For example, I’ve mixed pictures of the facility with AC/DC music—and done a slideshow of my commander to the song "Heartless" by Heart! I might have to change the music before I present that one.

In my former Army life, I was an Air Traffic Controller. I ran into a bunch of ATC guys here. Amazingly, I knew the 1SG, and we gossiped about people we both know. It’s a small Army. There’s a new bunch of controllers coming in this winter, I might know a few of them as well.

I also discovered free moral calls. Laura was on my ass about calling on the debit card, so I decided I’d better figure it out. The quality is not the greatest, and it is only for 10 min, but hey, it's free. I feel I shouldn't have to give AT&T my hard earned tax free money. This brings up another point…

Presently, the military is pushing CFC - the Combined Federal Campaign. It’s a program where soldiers can give money to charities of their choice. I am all for charities. However, the military mandates that every soldier be given the opportunity to donate – which means a mandatory briefing with a sign-in. Where in the private sector is this done? Asking a soldier in a war zone to contribute to a charity just seems bizarre to me. The percentage of soldiers that are donating here is low, go figure. We are already giving so much - some with our lives. And now they want more. Am I going to give? Let's just say...

She's going to live...

The policewoman will live. She will be a quadrapalegic. Her life won't be the same ever again.

On a brighter note, Condeleca Rice was here, for about 20 min. The rotars on her helicopter never stopped turning. Yea, you can tell she really cared about the city.

I am finally settling in to a routine here. One thing is for sure-I always have rock hard buggers!

I am slowly learning the little shortcuts of life here to make my stay a little more enjoyable. Laundry is next day turnaround, I know where the faster internet is, I made friends with the vet detachment so I can play with the strays before she puts them down, I found the supply stash and made it my own...

I am slowly getting there. Life is not a bunch of roses, but it's not septic tank either. I have been out of sorts lately and I apologise. I think it is the phase of the moon...

An Iraqi Police woman was abducted today and shot through the neck. Someone found her in the street, and took her to the local University hospital. They transferred her to us because of our capabilities. She was doing her job protecting her community, and this is the way she was treated.

COL P had me watch the operation to help me understand our purpose here. That, I can understand. What I don't understand is the nature the woman was treated - being abducted and shot. That really bothers me.

We don't know yet if she'll survive. She lost a lot of blood. We gave her four units in the first couple of minutes. Her BP was low, but her HR was OK.

The Army sent men to the area where this happened to secure it and look for those who did this. Small arms fire broke out, and we sent in Apache support. Small arms fire continued for about 1/2 hour. Yes, I am in a war zone. I see the affects here in my AO, I hear the affects in the city. I wonder sometimes why all this death and destruction must happen.

If I don't sound my usual self, I'm not. I am trying to deal with the big picture instead of my just lane. I'll be fine, I know it. I have to be.

I want everyone to know..

I would like everyone to know that Laura is the best in the whole world! I miss her terribly. She is keeping the house together, and raising Molly to be the wonderful child that she is. She email's me Molly's school calndar to keep me informed, and I really don't have a say in anything-because of distance-but she is always there. I wish I was there for her.
Laura, I miss you, and love you. You are the best thing in my life! You are an awesome cook, the greatest mother, and my best friend! Smooch!

Now, for everyone else, here is a pic of my living conditions out here. It is really rough!

Talk about sand

Sorry for the delay in writing, but after 23 hours of flying-the last thing I want to do is sit down and type.

Anyway, I've been here at an intermediate staging base for three days getting some last min. training. It's hot, windy, sandy, did I mention hot?

Things are going well. The food is great here. It is going to be hard to lose weight here with all of the food and stuff here. There is also a subway, pizza inn, a PX, jewlrey shop, gym, library, barber shop, beauty shop, alterations, cleaners, and probably more that I haven't found yet.

I will send Laura my mailing address when I get it. It will probably be another week before I get that.

Talk to you more soon!