Well it might have been 3 months being married yesterday but today was 2 months in country. It seems to have gone fast but the 10 months ahead seem like they will take forever. There is some new news that will break it up for us. The Polish will be leaving Iraq in October and focusing thier efforts in Afghanistan. Since our whole misson here is to be the liasons for the Polish forces we will be going with them. So I will probably take my leave in October and when I come back I will be going to Afghanistan.
I don't have many details and this move isn't a done deal but it looks like veryone has blessed off on it. So it looks like I will get to spend the Summer in Iraq and winter in Afghanistan. THe best of both worlds right? This is truly a unique opportunity to serve in two theaters on one tour. I will update everyone as I learn more.
So its Friday! The only way I was reminded of that around here was we had Pizza at dinner time. Other than that the days don't matter much. I do sleep in on Sundays but I still do the same amount of work.
I was chatting with Micca tonight and she said she loves when I blog about us, she says its like a love letter. My days here are full of work but it's always interspersed with thoughts of home. Drake, Ashtyn and Dade are the first things that pop in my mind when I see kids or anything that reminds me of kids. It doesnt take much to get me thinking about Micca. We have so much in common which isn't uncommon with married couples that have been married for awhile. We came into the realationship thinking so much alike and had so much in common already.
Well I'm full of random thoughts tonight why I don't know. I guess I'm a little homesick... is that ok for a grown man?
Later for now,
Brent
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
A couple of guys like me
Today was like most other days, hot and sunny thats no big surprise. I took care of the usual issues and even got a few more things done than usual. The new Special Forces guys came in and we got to talking and they mentioned they had brought a couple of chemical guys. So I got to meet a couple of guys that were doing the job I had back in the late 90s. It was pretty cool to be able to talk about my career field with others that had some similiar training. Until they showed up Loren and I were probably the only two chemical guys in 300 miles. We are a rare breed and it's not that often you get to chat with peers and what not.
Other than that not much else to talk about. Tomorrow is friday I think. It's Pizza day on Friday's I think. The days all run together and the best thing I can do to pass the time is stay busy. I don't seem to have any shortage of work so staying busy shouldn't be to hard.
Another day in the book and today is 2 months in country as well as 3 months being married. Poor Micca marries me and then I run off. I'm pretty sure she knew what she was getting into but didn't realize how difficult it would be for us to be apart. She is quite the woman but like most struggles with my absence. I miss her and the kids dearly and really would rather be home than here any day. Micca and I joke around alot but I know we use that to cover up the pain we both feel. Those of you who don't know us really would have a tough time understanding how inseperable we are in our free time. Even when we have to do seperate activities we will try to be together when we are doing them. I use to drive to go get the kids and Micca didn't have to go because she needed to sleep since she works thirds. Often she would just ride and sleep on the way. Ok enough about that, but you can see where my mind is most nights.
Brent
Other than that not much else to talk about. Tomorrow is friday I think. It's Pizza day on Friday's I think. The days all run together and the best thing I can do to pass the time is stay busy. I don't seem to have any shortage of work so staying busy shouldn't be to hard.
Another day in the book and today is 2 months in country as well as 3 months being married. Poor Micca marries me and then I run off. I'm pretty sure she knew what she was getting into but didn't realize how difficult it would be for us to be apart. She is quite the woman but like most struggles with my absence. I miss her and the kids dearly and really would rather be home than here any day. Micca and I joke around alot but I know we use that to cover up the pain we both feel. Those of you who don't know us really would have a tough time understanding how inseperable we are in our free time. Even when we have to do seperate activities we will try to be together when we are doing them. I use to drive to go get the kids and Micca didn't have to go because she needed to sleep since she works thirds. Often she would just ride and sleep on the way. Ok enough about that, but you can see where my mind is most nights.
Brent
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day
Alright lots of stuff happened today.
The day started out with my group of guys doing a presentation for our fallen soldiers. It was done before our first meeting of the day and went off pretty well. I have posted pictures of the display that we put together. We each placed an item on the table as the COL read the narrative. We took the display to the DFAC afterwards and it was amazing at how many people stopped to look and read about the display.
After our presentation the Polish put on their presentation to honor our Memorial Day. I thought that was quite nice. The Polish really are quite gracious hosts and are very accommodating and understanding. I am very fortunate to be stationed here at Camp Echo as part of the multinational division. The things I am exposed to on a daily basis is astounding. The challenge of working through the language barriers and accomplishing a military mission is quite rewarding.
After the Polish ceremony for our Memorial day I took a trip over to the flag pole and began to flay the flags my dad had sent me. I have been waiting for this day thinking that there is no other day that better represents what our flag stands for and the sacrifices that have been made. It is a significant day and that’s what I was looking for. I took each flag and raised it up all the way then down to half mast, tied it off then saluted and began to prepare the next flag. This took me about an hour but I enjoyed it and felt so proud every time I raised our flag. It may only be a symbol but the history behind the symbolism is what makes it so great. To fly those flags on Memorial Day brings a lot of that history to light. I think I could go on and on but It’s getting late and I still have more to write about.
After my flag flying, I began to work on the deck project and worked on it most of the afternoon. It is nearing completion and should only take a couple more hours. I don’t know if it will ever really be done. I think this is something like an adult tree house and I’m sure we will continue to make improvements as time goes on. Now a funny story occurred while we were working on our tree house… I mean deck. Now some days they make announcements that there will be controlled detonations which usually involve one or two big booms for some ordnance the EOD guys have collected. Well today we are standing on top of our trailers and here the first one go then another and another. Difference here is we can see the blast and there are several. We then see some dust kicked up between us and the helicopters which are about 600 meters away. We do a quick assessment and decide that isn’t right and decide to unass the project and hit the bunker. We continue to hear a series of thumps and explosions. We come to find out that the Polish were doing a mortar demonstration. Controlled det does not equal a mortar demonstration. You would think they would make that a little bit more clear. So we give ourselves the all clear and go back to work. Others start grilling and everyone breaks open the near beer.
In the end we had a little Memorial day celebration. We had steaks brought in from Baghdad and although they weren’t as good as the ones from home they are the best I have had in a couple months.
The day started out with my group of guys doing a presentation for our fallen soldiers. It was done before our first meeting of the day and went off pretty well. I have posted pictures of the display that we put together. We each placed an item on the table as the COL read the narrative. We took the display to the DFAC afterwards and it was amazing at how many people stopped to look and read about the display.
After our presentation the Polish put on their presentation to honor our Memorial Day. I thought that was quite nice. The Polish really are quite gracious hosts and are very accommodating and understanding. I am very fortunate to be stationed here at Camp Echo as part of the multinational division. The things I am exposed to on a daily basis is astounding. The challenge of working through the language barriers and accomplishing a military mission is quite rewarding.
After the Polish ceremony for our Memorial day I took a trip over to the flag pole and began to flay the flags my dad had sent me. I have been waiting for this day thinking that there is no other day that better represents what our flag stands for and the sacrifices that have been made. It is a significant day and that’s what I was looking for. I took each flag and raised it up all the way then down to half mast, tied it off then saluted and began to prepare the next flag. This took me about an hour but I enjoyed it and felt so proud every time I raised our flag. It may only be a symbol but the history behind the symbolism is what makes it so great. To fly those flags on Memorial Day brings a lot of that history to light. I think I could go on and on but It’s getting late and I still have more to write about.
After my flag flying, I began to work on the deck project and worked on it most of the afternoon. It is nearing completion and should only take a couple more hours. I don’t know if it will ever really be done. I think this is something like an adult tree house and I’m sure we will continue to make improvements as time goes on. Now a funny story occurred while we were working on our tree house… I mean deck. Now some days they make announcements that there will be controlled detonations which usually involve one or two big booms for some ordnance the EOD guys have collected. Well today we are standing on top of our trailers and here the first one go then another and another. Difference here is we can see the blast and there are several. We then see some dust kicked up between us and the helicopters which are about 600 meters away. We do a quick assessment and decide that isn’t right and decide to unass the project and hit the bunker. We continue to hear a series of thumps and explosions. We come to find out that the Polish were doing a mortar demonstration. Controlled det does not equal a mortar demonstration. You would think they would make that a little bit more clear. So we give ourselves the all clear and go back to work. Others start grilling and everyone breaks open the near beer.
In the end we had a little Memorial day celebration. We had steaks brought in from Baghdad and although they weren’t as good as the ones from home they are the best I have had in a couple months.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
It's been awhile
It's been awhile since my last post. I realy do appreciate the comments and feedback. For those of you that post thank you, it kind of gives me incentive to keep on blogging.
Since my last post on went on a RECCE flight. It's basically a recon flight don't ask me what it stands for. we flew up by Najaf and I was really surprised by how lush and green a lot of the places are. There is still a lot of desert but you would be surprised at how green some of the places are.
The helicopter I was riding in was a russian made MI-8 HIP but flown by my Polish partners. It is basically the thier version of our big cargo helicopter. It was a decent flight about an hour and let me see quite a bit of the country.
It was neat to see the kids and adults waving at us as we flew by. I'm sure there were lots of mean looks too but those are harder to see than the excited hand waving.
We also had a range for all of my unit. That was pretty uneventful but quite hot. Yesterday hit 116 and today was quite dusty. Today was a slower day and I worked on our deck and got it about half done. I should finish it up in the next couple of days.
I have officially been gone from home for over 2 months, it seems to have gone fast but at the same time the end seems so far. I will have been married for almost 3 months and 2 of which I will have been gone. My Wife Micca is so awesome. She did tell me that I had to make all of the phone calls for the rest of the time when I get back. Everyone is so supportive of me, but it is the families that are left behind that really need the support. I have my friends and battle buddies to talk to every night whereas Micca really has no one. I mean she has family to talk to but it just isn't the same.
I have quite a few pictures to post so I will get to doing that. Well its late now so maybe tomorrow :)
Since my last post on went on a RECCE flight. It's basically a recon flight don't ask me what it stands for. we flew up by Najaf and I was really surprised by how lush and green a lot of the places are. There is still a lot of desert but you would be surprised at how green some of the places are.
The helicopter I was riding in was a russian made MI-8 HIP but flown by my Polish partners. It is basically the thier version of our big cargo helicopter. It was a decent flight about an hour and let me see quite a bit of the country.
It was neat to see the kids and adults waving at us as we flew by. I'm sure there were lots of mean looks too but those are harder to see than the excited hand waving.
We also had a range for all of my unit. That was pretty uneventful but quite hot. Yesterday hit 116 and today was quite dusty. Today was a slower day and I worked on our deck and got it about half done. I should finish it up in the next couple of days.
I have officially been gone from home for over 2 months, it seems to have gone fast but at the same time the end seems so far. I will have been married for almost 3 months and 2 of which I will have been gone. My Wife Micca is so awesome. She did tell me that I had to make all of the phone calls for the rest of the time when I get back. Everyone is so supportive of me, but it is the families that are left behind that really need the support. I have my friends and battle buddies to talk to every night whereas Micca really has no one. I mean she has family to talk to but it just isn't the same.
I have quite a few pictures to post so I will get to doing that. Well its late now so maybe tomorrow :)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Anything new?
Well not much has happened since my last installment. Things here are still relatively quiet.
We have commenced working on our project. We are building a deck on top of 3 of our trailers. The wood was beginning to rot and what not so we decided we would do something with it before it went to waste. I'm fairly excited about it. Its kind of like an adult treehouse. There is 3 of us really working on it and I think once the first installment is done I think it will grow and grow. There are plans to put a driving platform so we can drive golfballs from it. I don't know how well that will go over if we hit something we shouldn't.
I know some people who read this might think man these guys have a lot of time on thier hands. and to a certian degree you are right. We work 12-16 hours days and have 3 or 4 hours to kill a night so that starts to add up after awhile when you concentrate on something.
Not much else going on today was a busy day for me. I have been trying to email Ashtyn and Drake daily and it's not until right now that i realize I missed a day. I'm looking forward to summer since I should get to chat with them a little more often. Micca is looking forward to summer as well. She hasn't got to spend a whole lot of time with Ashtyn and Drake and the Summer makes thier schedules a lot more flexible so they can come over and hnag out at thier other home. Knowing Micca she will have all sorts of stuff planned out for them.
Not much else to say. I will take some progress pictures of the deck over the next couple of days. It won't take long now that we have part of it framed up.
Later
Brent
We have commenced working on our project. We are building a deck on top of 3 of our trailers. The wood was beginning to rot and what not so we decided we would do something with it before it went to waste. I'm fairly excited about it. Its kind of like an adult treehouse. There is 3 of us really working on it and I think once the first installment is done I think it will grow and grow. There are plans to put a driving platform so we can drive golfballs from it. I don't know how well that will go over if we hit something we shouldn't.
I know some people who read this might think man these guys have a lot of time on thier hands. and to a certian degree you are right. We work 12-16 hours days and have 3 or 4 hours to kill a night so that starts to add up after awhile when you concentrate on something.
Not much else going on today was a busy day for me. I have been trying to email Ashtyn and Drake daily and it's not until right now that i realize I missed a day. I'm looking forward to summer since I should get to chat with them a little more often. Micca is looking forward to summer as well. She hasn't got to spend a whole lot of time with Ashtyn and Drake and the Summer makes thier schedules a lot more flexible so they can come over and hnag out at thier other home. Knowing Micca she will have all sorts of stuff planned out for them.
Not much else to say. I will take some progress pictures of the deck over the next couple of days. It won't take long now that we have part of it framed up.
Later
Brent
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Very very very full day
Well tell us Brent how full was it? Well let me tell you. We started out the day heading out to a mortar range. The Polish were training the Iraqis on how to use mortars. Now let’s just say that Headquarters in Baghdad was a little leery of this training. Most of the time when we are attacked it is IEDs or indirect fire which includes rockets and mortars. Now we aren’t accusing the Iraqis of using things against us but they have bad apples just like we do. So teaching them the right way to do indirect fire makes everyone a bit nervous.
The Polish did a good job of showing them the ropes and I hadn’t seen a 60 mm mortar fired before so it was interesting to watch. Once that was over we headed back to Camp Echo. Convoys are always an interesting thing and I got to do a little bit of aggressive driving. There was one truck in particular that didn’t want to stop so I played a little chicken he got the idea and stopped but it’s always a little exciting to have things like that happen.
We made it back to Camp Echo and unloaded the truck. Now you just don’t jump in a truck and drive off like you do your POV (privately owned vehicle) We do what we cal pre combat checks. It’s basically going down a checklist to make sure you have everything and that it is packed where you know it should be and where you can get to it if need be. From water and food to the stretcher. We have to have the radio frequencies we will be using and make sure we know the route. The list is quite extensive and when you get back you have to put stuff away. It ell you all of that because upon our return we found out we had to go to a ribbon cutting ceremony at a school. This was of course after we had unloaded almost everything.
So we load everything up and head back out with our Colonel and the Polish general. We go down into the city and end up taking over several streets and the helicopters keep flying overhead. We make a pretty big presence when we show up. There are kids everywhere. Some are more obnoxious than others. They want candy and water and whatever we will give them. We had a bag of suckers. LOL if orgot this part. On our way into the city or through the city we are hauling butt doing 40 or so and the kids are always waving and what not and I start chucking suckers. It made me think of being in a parade except we were doing 40 MPH. I was doing a hell of job leading the little suckers. You have to take into account when the sucker leaves your hand its already doing 40 plus what I add. I’m sure there is some pissed of parent because a kid has an imprint of a sucker in the side of his head.
So anyways we finished at the school and headed back. Wait…. Forgot to mention the haphazard wiring all through the city. OMG!! No wonder they don’t have power half the time. We are rolling through the inner city and our radio antennas are bouncing under all of these power lines and what not. I was worried we were going to rip them down. I’m quite sure we broke a few but we didn’t leave the city wearing any around our turrets.
So back to Echo, the AC died in our Hummer…. Not that it really helps that much, we get back and I drop off my hummer to be fixed and the power goes down to part of our camp. This is fairly normal when it gets hot. SO Now that I am back I can’t get my paperwork work done since the power grid is down. Well I do some odds and ends and the power comes back I finish my paperwork and decide I should go do PT. I go run a couple of miles run through the chow hall and then work on my deck , which we are building on top of our trailers. SO that was my day. Busy very busy.
My internet has been out so this was actually yesterday (Monday)
check the bottom for pictures
The Polish did a good job of showing them the ropes and I hadn’t seen a 60 mm mortar fired before so it was interesting to watch. Once that was over we headed back to Camp Echo. Convoys are always an interesting thing and I got to do a little bit of aggressive driving. There was one truck in particular that didn’t want to stop so I played a little chicken he got the idea and stopped but it’s always a little exciting to have things like that happen.
We made it back to Camp Echo and unloaded the truck. Now you just don’t jump in a truck and drive off like you do your POV (privately owned vehicle) We do what we cal pre combat checks. It’s basically going down a checklist to make sure you have everything and that it is packed where you know it should be and where you can get to it if need be. From water and food to the stretcher. We have to have the radio frequencies we will be using and make sure we know the route. The list is quite extensive and when you get back you have to put stuff away. It ell you all of that because upon our return we found out we had to go to a ribbon cutting ceremony at a school. This was of course after we had unloaded almost everything.
So we load everything up and head back out with our Colonel and the Polish general. We go down into the city and end up taking over several streets and the helicopters keep flying overhead. We make a pretty big presence when we show up. There are kids everywhere. Some are more obnoxious than others. They want candy and water and whatever we will give them. We had a bag of suckers. LOL if orgot this part. On our way into the city or through the city we are hauling butt doing 40 or so and the kids are always waving and what not and I start chucking suckers. It made me think of being in a parade except we were doing 40 MPH. I was doing a hell of job leading the little suckers. You have to take into account when the sucker leaves your hand its already doing 40 plus what I add. I’m sure there is some pissed of parent because a kid has an imprint of a sucker in the side of his head.
So anyways we finished at the school and headed back. Wait…. Forgot to mention the haphazard wiring all through the city. OMG!! No wonder they don’t have power half the time. We are rolling through the inner city and our radio antennas are bouncing under all of these power lines and what not. I was worried we were going to rip them down. I’m quite sure we broke a few but we didn’t leave the city wearing any around our turrets.
So back to Echo, the AC died in our Hummer…. Not that it really helps that much, we get back and I drop off my hummer to be fixed and the power goes down to part of our camp. This is fairly normal when it gets hot. SO Now that I am back I can’t get my paperwork work done since the power grid is down. Well I do some odds and ends and the power comes back I finish my paperwork and decide I should go do PT. I go run a couple of miles run through the chow hall and then work on my deck , which we are building on top of our trailers. SO that was my day. Busy very busy.
My internet has been out so this was actually yesterday (Monday)
check the bottom for pictures
Saturday, May 17, 2008
So what is missing
So I wrote my sister today and got to typing about how I was missing my kids and hers and it dawned on me I haven't talked to or interacted with a child in almost 2 months. I've seen them standing on the side of the road waving but that is about it. It's just one more thing that I find that I am missing over here.
I say this stuff not lucking for sympathy but just to provide perspective.
As I type this it seems the dust is rolling in. It rained for a few minutes this morning but only enough to clear the air amd make some paste, it's not really mud lol. I have managed to still run even though it is dusty. I have been running indoors on the treadmill. I found out that my heart monitor that tells me my pulse on my watch also talks to the treadmill and puts it on the display rather than having to hold the hand grips to get my pulse.
I think I have talked about the Maintenance team I ave worked with before. They are from Alabama and will leave here in a few days. They only spent 10 months in country since the Army is only deploying the Guard units for a year total. Most units will train for a month or 2 before they leave. I got a whole week of training... well it was more of a processing lol. I get to spend my year here. I prefer the year here to 2 months training then 10 months here. It is nice to be all settled in and know what I'm doing.
Acronym of the day is MWR Morale Welfare and Recreation. It is a term that is used quite often in the Military and it is just what it says.
Later,
Brent
I say this stuff not lucking for sympathy but just to provide perspective.
As I type this it seems the dust is rolling in. It rained for a few minutes this morning but only enough to clear the air amd make some paste, it's not really mud lol. I have managed to still run even though it is dusty. I have been running indoors on the treadmill. I found out that my heart monitor that tells me my pulse on my watch also talks to the treadmill and puts it on the display rather than having to hold the hand grips to get my pulse.
I think I have talked about the Maintenance team I ave worked with before. They are from Alabama and will leave here in a few days. They only spent 10 months in country since the Army is only deploying the Guard units for a year total. Most units will train for a month or 2 before they leave. I got a whole week of training... well it was more of a processing lol. I get to spend my year here. I prefer the year here to 2 months training then 10 months here. It is nice to be all settled in and know what I'm doing.
Acronym of the day is MWR Morale Welfare and Recreation. It is a term that is used quite often in the Military and it is just what it says.
Later,
Brent
Friday, May 16, 2008
Pushing up Daisies
Ok maybe not the best title in the world, but Dade picked out and sent me some daisies to grow. They have just started to push trough. I will post some pictures tomorrow I hope.
Today was really dusty. The dust storms come and go. I did PT inside today. I have really been doing really well about running every day. I ran 4 miles on the treadmill and would have ran further but we are only allowed 30 min on the treadmill and mine would only get up to 8 miles an hour. I ended up going for a little longer than 30 minutes so I could get my 4 miles in.
Well I have definitely gotten settled in. We are talking about a building project around our trailers. Actually we are talking about building on top of our containers. You see every night we gather on our steps and sit and chat kind of like you would do on a porch. Well we have plenty of lumber so we are going to build a deck on top of 2 of our trailers. I will keep everyone updated as we go and I will take plenty of pictures. We plan on making a planter up there as well and that’s where I will probably plant the corn.
Later,
Brent
Today was really dusty. The dust storms come and go. I did PT inside today. I have really been doing really well about running every day. I ran 4 miles on the treadmill and would have ran further but we are only allowed 30 min on the treadmill and mine would only get up to 8 miles an hour. I ended up going for a little longer than 30 minutes so I could get my 4 miles in.
Well I have definitely gotten settled in. We are talking about a building project around our trailers. Actually we are talking about building on top of our containers. You see every night we gather on our steps and sit and chat kind of like you would do on a porch. Well we have plenty of lumber so we are going to build a deck on top of 2 of our trailers. I will keep everyone updated as we go and I will take plenty of pictures. We plan on making a planter up there as well and that’s where I will probably plant the corn.
Later,
Brent
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Wednesday??
Wednesday..... well I made it through most of the day thinking it was Tuesday. How does that happen, well the days really do run together, I don't have any other explanation.
Today I had to take the Colonel into town. We went with 6 other HMMWVs and even had to take an unexpected detour. There was a traffic jam in front of us. We don't stop so we made a u-turn and went another way. Our Detour made me a bit nervous because the first thing that runs through your mind, is was this done on purpose. We know the enemy tactics for the msot part and they aren't that well organized but you have to be on the edge. I was driving today and had fun being aggressive. There really is no feeling like flying through the city streets with everyone diving out of the way and if you don't you make them. It's not an ego thing it's a safety thing. If you don't forse them then they might do something to get your buddy. All the same it's a pretty big rush.
So we got the COL to his spot and the Polish General was also with us. We gave away some ambulances to the hospital and then we got out of there.
All in all it was an uneventful trip but thats the way we like them.
The other night I was eating dinner, and of course there is the usual shenanigans that go on. People get up to get something to find thier drink missing or soemthing like that. On occasion whole cheesecake slices get swiped if you arent careful. Well bob was sitting across the table but down a seat or two just out of my reach. He had been taunting me about going to get some cheesecake and wasn't going to get me any. When he came back I made the long reach to stab a piece of cheesecake. He intercepted me and disarmed me of my fork he then proceeded to snap my plastic fork on the table and toss it on my tray. It was all done very nonchalantly (i know i spelled that wrong) I then pulled out my sppon and finished my salad.
It was all too funny.
Later for now,
Brent
Today I had to take the Colonel into town. We went with 6 other HMMWVs and even had to take an unexpected detour. There was a traffic jam in front of us. We don't stop so we made a u-turn and went another way. Our Detour made me a bit nervous because the first thing that runs through your mind, is was this done on purpose. We know the enemy tactics for the msot part and they aren't that well organized but you have to be on the edge. I was driving today and had fun being aggressive. There really is no feeling like flying through the city streets with everyone diving out of the way and if you don't you make them. It's not an ego thing it's a safety thing. If you don't forse them then they might do something to get your buddy. All the same it's a pretty big rush.
So we got the COL to his spot and the Polish General was also with us. We gave away some ambulances to the hospital and then we got out of there.
All in all it was an uneventful trip but thats the way we like them.
The other night I was eating dinner, and of course there is the usual shenanigans that go on. People get up to get something to find thier drink missing or soemthing like that. On occasion whole cheesecake slices get swiped if you arent careful. Well bob was sitting across the table but down a seat or two just out of my reach. He had been taunting me about going to get some cheesecake and wasn't going to get me any. When he came back I made the long reach to stab a piece of cheesecake. He intercepted me and disarmed me of my fork he then proceeded to snap my plastic fork on the table and toss it on my tray. It was all done very nonchalantly (i know i spelled that wrong) I then pulled out my sppon and finished my salad.
It was all too funny.
Later for now,
Brent
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A busy day
So today was a busy day. I seemed to have non-stop visitors for one reason or another. My Polish counterparts needed me to help write some awards they had to do in English.
So today I helped the Armenians, Romanians, Ukranians and Polish. Guess I'm living up to my titile of multinational advisor.
I have to say that when I woke up today I jsut wasn't in a very good mood. That is one thing that I have noticed here is how my emotions are somewhat amplified. For those of you that know me I don't get to excited or mad or whatever but internally I was in a pretty bad mood this morning and didn't know why. I wasn't even going to go for a run but I decided that I should, physical activity is always good for a bad mood.
After my lunchtime run I seemed to feel better and I got to chat with Micca a bit. My lunchtime run was ok. I told myself today that I would have to remember to tell everyone how during my run as I was going out around our airfield I almost got blew over by one of the Hind helicopters. It keeps things from getting to boring sometimes.
I have a counter on my computer that counts down the days and tells me how many minutes, hours, days, weeks and even how many meals I have left here. My point here is that I looked at it today and noticed I had made some measurable progress. It display your time in a pie chart with the time you have spen uncovering a nice picture of the ocean and beach and your time left is represented by a desert landscape, lol imagine that.
OK time for word or rather acronym of the Day!! HMMWV = High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, often reffered to as Hummer. It is really the workhorse of the ground forces and as of today it takes pretty much a tank round to blow one up. They have turned into heavily armored vehicles. If it is small arms fire your best bet is to just stay inside, It spider the glass but bullets wont come through. In fact the doors are so darn heavy that they will make you want to cry if you get something shut in it. I was stting half in the HMMWV with one lef hanging out messing with some radios. Unbeknonst to me I was on a slight incline that made the door swing close on my leg. Man did that hurt. Its like a vault door closing.
Thats it for tonight, tune in tomorrow for more adventures lol
Later,
Brent
So today I helped the Armenians, Romanians, Ukranians and Polish. Guess I'm living up to my titile of multinational advisor.
I have to say that when I woke up today I jsut wasn't in a very good mood. That is one thing that I have noticed here is how my emotions are somewhat amplified. For those of you that know me I don't get to excited or mad or whatever but internally I was in a pretty bad mood this morning and didn't know why. I wasn't even going to go for a run but I decided that I should, physical activity is always good for a bad mood.
After my lunchtime run I seemed to feel better and I got to chat with Micca a bit. My lunchtime run was ok. I told myself today that I would have to remember to tell everyone how during my run as I was going out around our airfield I almost got blew over by one of the Hind helicopters. It keeps things from getting to boring sometimes.
I have a counter on my computer that counts down the days and tells me how many minutes, hours, days, weeks and even how many meals I have left here. My point here is that I looked at it today and noticed I had made some measurable progress. It display your time in a pie chart with the time you have spen uncovering a nice picture of the ocean and beach and your time left is represented by a desert landscape, lol imagine that.
OK time for word or rather acronym of the Day!! HMMWV = High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, often reffered to as Hummer. It is really the workhorse of the ground forces and as of today it takes pretty much a tank round to blow one up. They have turned into heavily armored vehicles. If it is small arms fire your best bet is to just stay inside, It spider the glass but bullets wont come through. In fact the doors are so darn heavy that they will make you want to cry if you get something shut in it. I was stting half in the HMMWV with one lef hanging out messing with some radios. Unbeknonst to me I was on a slight incline that made the door swing close on my leg. Man did that hurt. Its like a vault door closing.
Thats it for tonight, tune in tomorrow for more adventures lol
Later,
Brent
Monday, May 12, 2008
The day after Mothers day
I don't have much to say today. I decided to post a copy of the letter I sent to Micca.
I sent a letter to Ashtyn's class today in response to all of thier questions and comments.
Well when I say letter I should clarify and say email. I figured if I mailed them back today it probably would't get there until after school was out.
Although things seem to be coming quicker now. The dust storms haven't been as frequent or severe so the convoys can move a little more freely. Nobody moves without air cover. They always want to make sure that the MEDEVAC helicopters can pick someone up if need be and it's always nice to have the guys that can shoot back available too.
Well now that I thik about it I do have a little something to write about. The people that do the Maintenance on the american vehicles that we have loaned to the Polish are getting ready to leave. Their replacements are here so the end is in sight for them. I'm happy for them but very jealous at the same time. I can tell they are so very anxious to go home. The nearest I can describe it for an adult is if you can remember back to christmas time when you were 8 or so and how the days would never end. Well that is how it gets when you get near the end of a deployment. You also start to worry more. All of the what if scenerios that you put in the back of your mind coming rushing forward, you get the feeling that somehow someway the stars will line up against you getting home. It is the greatest amount of anticipationyou will ever have in your life.
Later for now
Brent
I sent a letter to Ashtyn's class today in response to all of thier questions and comments.
Well when I say letter I should clarify and say email. I figured if I mailed them back today it probably would't get there until after school was out.
Although things seem to be coming quicker now. The dust storms haven't been as frequent or severe so the convoys can move a little more freely. Nobody moves without air cover. They always want to make sure that the MEDEVAC helicopters can pick someone up if need be and it's always nice to have the guys that can shoot back available too.
Well now that I thik about it I do have a little something to write about. The people that do the Maintenance on the american vehicles that we have loaned to the Polish are getting ready to leave. Their replacements are here so the end is in sight for them. I'm happy for them but very jealous at the same time. I can tell they are so very anxious to go home. The nearest I can describe it for an adult is if you can remember back to christmas time when you were 8 or so and how the days would never end. Well that is how it gets when you get near the end of a deployment. You also start to worry more. All of the what if scenerios that you put in the back of your mind coming rushing forward, you get the feeling that somehow someway the stars will line up against you getting home. It is the greatest amount of anticipationyou will ever have in your life.
Later for now
Brent
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day
I hope all of the Mother's out there had a Happy Mother's day. I'm pretty sure that Micca and my Mom would like to have me home but I will be there next year to celebrate.
Today was fairly quiet except for some unkown reason the contractor that maintains our facilities decides Sunday morning is a great time to change out our wooden steps for another set of wooden steps that have to be screwed into our little trailers and cut to size. Of all days they decide they want to do this.
Now they hadn't quite reached my trailer but I had heard something going on when Bob my next door neighbot busts out of his trailer and yells you have got to be kidding me. He wasn;t quite that nice. It was very obvious that he had been very much asleep. Keep in mind we have been pretty busy around here lately so sleep is in short supply. Now this is obviously a significant emotional event for Bob. It's made even funnier by the fact that Bob's thinning hair is standing straight up and he's got his blanket in his hand and stomps off saying he is going to go to sleep in our playhouse which is a little rec room we have set up.
In the mail I got today I also got a lot of letters from Ashtyn's class it was very sweet and I will be replying to them here as soon as I can.
Now this next story happened the other day. I was finishing up my run hatinf life when a pretty good song came on my IPOD by AC/DC you shook me all night long. Then as I'm starting to pick it up just a tad two blackhawk helicopters coming trucking in, it was a very cool pick me up and made me feel proud.
Later,
Brent
Today was fairly quiet except for some unkown reason the contractor that maintains our facilities decides Sunday morning is a great time to change out our wooden steps for another set of wooden steps that have to be screwed into our little trailers and cut to size. Of all days they decide they want to do this.
Now they hadn't quite reached my trailer but I had heard something going on when Bob my next door neighbot busts out of his trailer and yells you have got to be kidding me. He wasn;t quite that nice. It was very obvious that he had been very much asleep. Keep in mind we have been pretty busy around here lately so sleep is in short supply. Now this is obviously a significant emotional event for Bob. It's made even funnier by the fact that Bob's thinning hair is standing straight up and he's got his blanket in his hand and stomps off saying he is going to go to sleep in our playhouse which is a little rec room we have set up.
In the mail I got today I also got a lot of letters from Ashtyn's class it was very sweet and I will be replying to them here as soon as I can.
Now this next story happened the other day. I was finishing up my run hatinf life when a pretty good song came on my IPOD by AC/DC you shook me all night long. Then as I'm starting to pick it up just a tad two blackhawk helicopters coming trucking in, it was a very cool pick me up and made me feel proud.
Later,
Brent
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Busy day
Today started off like most other groundhog days. For those of you that have been following my blog I'm talking about how I've gotten into the habit of doing the same stuff just about every day. Today was a little different.
I was out on my lunchtime run like usual and was just finsihing up when I was told that I needed to be ready to leave in 30 minutes because we were going to take a general out to one of the Iraqi stations. Well we were a little short handed so we had one of our Ukrainians drive and I was in the turret gunning. Well lets just say that our driver ended up pushing the Hummer to its limits of lateral control. He was going to fast for a turn and I swear he about rolled the sucker over. Needless to say I wasn't a very happy camper.
Not much else happen today. Our providence is really quite quiet and is setting the example for the rest of Iraq. Good for me, quiet nights are good nights.
Well wearing all of that body armor really wears me out. So I'm not writing anymore. Thats all i've got for tonight, I've got to clean up my room. With all of my quick changes it is not it's usual organized self.
Later
Brent
I was out on my lunchtime run like usual and was just finsihing up when I was told that I needed to be ready to leave in 30 minutes because we were going to take a general out to one of the Iraqi stations. Well we were a little short handed so we had one of our Ukrainians drive and I was in the turret gunning. Well lets just say that our driver ended up pushing the Hummer to its limits of lateral control. He was going to fast for a turn and I swear he about rolled the sucker over. Needless to say I wasn't a very happy camper.
Not much else happen today. Our providence is really quite quiet and is setting the example for the rest of Iraq. Good for me, quiet nights are good nights.
Well wearing all of that body armor really wears me out. So I'm not writing anymore. Thats all i've got for tonight, I've got to clean up my room. With all of my quick changes it is not it's usual organized self.
Later
Brent
Friday, May 9, 2008
Nothing much
I haven't posted in a couple days because I haven't had much to say. If you have ever seen the movie groundhog day, this place kind of reminds me of that. In ground hog day I think it is Bill Murray plays the same day over and over and over again. Well it's not quite that bad but it's getting there.
Lately I have been pretty good about running everyday. Micca sent me my new running shoes and a little adapter that plugs into my IPOD that tells me how far and how fast I'm running. When I get on theinternet it synchs up to a webpage and shows you a lot of statistics about your run. There are also challenges people put up, I'm currently in a challenge to see who runs the furthest in 15 days. I'm in second place right now we will see where i end up. You can also set a goal and I set mine for 60 miles in 30 days. I thought that should be pretty easy for me. My shortest run is about 2.6 and my last 3 runs have been about 3.75. It's a pretty cool toy and the different feedback provides some motivation to run that is sometimes hard for me to muster on my own. I have also decided that all of the food at the chow hall is going to make me fat so I figured I better start doing more. I started at 202 and I have gotten down to as low as 193 after a long run. I was obviously dehydrated but not that much.
So I understand that not everyone is totally famailiar with the Military in general. So I thought I would explain the difference between an Officer and enlisted soldier. It's probably easier to tell you what you have to do to become an officer. First I should specify that there are two types of Officers one is a Non commissioned officer often reffered to as an NCO and the other is a commissioned officer. I am now that latter and the way I went about it is the less conventional of the 2 methods. The primary defining qualification is that all officers have college degrees, that isn't to say that some NCO's don't have degrees too. That was the case with me. I was on my way to earning my degree and applied for officer candidate school (OCS), upon completion of that program along with my degree I became a commissoned officer. Prior to OCS I was a non commissoned officer. I was a Sergeant First Class (SFC). I wa by no means the norm. Most SFCsdon't go to OCS because they have established themselves as a fairly high ranking NCO. I t would have only been possible for me to get promoted twice more as an enlisted soldier. Enlisted meaning not a commissoned officer. Enlisted means you basically walk into the recruiting station and say sign me up. If you pass the test and the physical then you go to basic training and your specialized training. All services work under the same basic principal. Ahhh I forget the other method of becoming an officer. There are colleges that have programs called Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) thes college students go above and beyond the normal college student and attend military classes and spend extra time on weekeneds and the summer partici[ating in military type stuff. Upon thier graduation they become officers.
I could have explained that a lot better, I hope I don't leave you to confused please feel free to post questions and Ican clairify.
I used plenty of acronyms today so no need to post any more.
Later
Brent
Lately I have been pretty good about running everyday. Micca sent me my new running shoes and a little adapter that plugs into my IPOD that tells me how far and how fast I'm running. When I get on theinternet it synchs up to a webpage and shows you a lot of statistics about your run. There are also challenges people put up, I'm currently in a challenge to see who runs the furthest in 15 days. I'm in second place right now we will see where i end up. You can also set a goal and I set mine for 60 miles in 30 days. I thought that should be pretty easy for me. My shortest run is about 2.6 and my last 3 runs have been about 3.75. It's a pretty cool toy and the different feedback provides some motivation to run that is sometimes hard for me to muster on my own. I have also decided that all of the food at the chow hall is going to make me fat so I figured I better start doing more. I started at 202 and I have gotten down to as low as 193 after a long run. I was obviously dehydrated but not that much.
So I understand that not everyone is totally famailiar with the Military in general. So I thought I would explain the difference between an Officer and enlisted soldier. It's probably easier to tell you what you have to do to become an officer. First I should specify that there are two types of Officers one is a Non commissioned officer often reffered to as an NCO and the other is a commissioned officer. I am now that latter and the way I went about it is the less conventional of the 2 methods. The primary defining qualification is that all officers have college degrees, that isn't to say that some NCO's don't have degrees too. That was the case with me. I was on my way to earning my degree and applied for officer candidate school (OCS), upon completion of that program along with my degree I became a commissoned officer. Prior to OCS I was a non commissoned officer. I was a Sergeant First Class (SFC). I wa by no means the norm. Most SFCsdon't go to OCS because they have established themselves as a fairly high ranking NCO. I t would have only been possible for me to get promoted twice more as an enlisted soldier. Enlisted meaning not a commissoned officer. Enlisted means you basically walk into the recruiting station and say sign me up. If you pass the test and the physical then you go to basic training and your specialized training. All services work under the same basic principal. Ahhh I forget the other method of becoming an officer. There are colleges that have programs called Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) thes college students go above and beyond the normal college student and attend military classes and spend extra time on weekeneds and the summer partici[ating in military type stuff. Upon thier graduation they become officers.
I could have explained that a lot better, I hope I don't leave you to confused please feel free to post questions and Ican clairify.
I used plenty of acronyms today so no need to post any more.
Later
Brent
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
So.... what is it like
To be in a war zone? Well I know I have talked a little bit about this but you will have to induge me if you are going to keep reading. For the most part my day to day routine isn't to much different from what I would normally do. There are some little things that we take for granted at home that we don't have here.
If you want drinking water it is going to come out of a bottle. We have running water but it's not entirely safe to drink. We shower with that water and shave with it. Our bathrooms and showers are usually a short walk away no plumbing in your room except for a fewer of the nicer places.
We work more hours but it's not really that big of a deal since there isn't that much to do. The best thing to do is to keep busy.
The worst thing about being here is the what ifs. You try not to dwell on it but you can't help but think about it. The what ifs are alwalys in the back of your mind which is good because it helps you react when the time comes to react but you also find yourself reacting sometimes we you don't need to. I will just give one example but there are many.
There is a speed bump about 75 Meters or yards away from where I sleep. And when an empty semi truck goes over it just right there is this sound that is similar to a boom. The reaction isn't to go run to a bunker but it is more like if someone scared you. It's often reffered to as an exagerrated startle response. It can be more prenounced in some people than others, you may have heard about people dropping to the ground when they hear a car backfire or something like that but it can be something that is internal as well. I have found that I jump just a tad but I catch myself before I go into the full fight or flight mode. My heart ends up beating faster and the adreniline starts to kick in. It usually seems like this happens right before I go to sleep as I am pondering all of the what ifs before I go to bed.
It's just one of the little things that we deal with every day and don't much talk about. Every once in awhile there will be something that happens that gets us all and we end up laughing at each other.
So on a lighter note in a war zone something that we have to deal with is our mail shows up about once every 2 weeks. Imagine if all of the mail in town wasn't delivered for two weeks and then the mailmen and women were allowed to deliver it in a day or two. Another thing is the PX which is more like a very small walmart very small. Ours has 4 isles and each isle is about 25 feet long. Imagine if that place got stocked once a month. You can imagine that some things are very hard to find and the popular stuff goes quick.
Enough of that, not much else is going on today. We have another dust storm. The swiffer duster Aunt dawn sent me is getting a work out. Micca is sending me on of the Flylady's feather dusters too. If I'm not careful I end up being a full fledged flyguy lol.
Just thought of something I think I will do an acronym of the day. I'm sure I won't run out. Todays acronym is PIC Provencial Iraqi Control. This is somthing that we are working towards with the Iraqis. It is basically giving over certain areas of the country to Iraq and telling them they are now responsible for the security and welfare of the occupants. This is what is going on in Basra. Obviously it is going a little rough but that is to be expected. The insurgents want to cause as much problems as possible as to destabilize the government and turn the Iraqi people against thier government. The Iraqis actually have done quite well in Basra and continue to do better.
Well anyways I'm done teaching for the day.
Later for now
Brent
If you want drinking water it is going to come out of a bottle. We have running water but it's not entirely safe to drink. We shower with that water and shave with it. Our bathrooms and showers are usually a short walk away no plumbing in your room except for a fewer of the nicer places.
We work more hours but it's not really that big of a deal since there isn't that much to do. The best thing to do is to keep busy.
The worst thing about being here is the what ifs. You try not to dwell on it but you can't help but think about it. The what ifs are alwalys in the back of your mind which is good because it helps you react when the time comes to react but you also find yourself reacting sometimes we you don't need to. I will just give one example but there are many.
There is a speed bump about 75 Meters or yards away from where I sleep. And when an empty semi truck goes over it just right there is this sound that is similar to a boom. The reaction isn't to go run to a bunker but it is more like if someone scared you. It's often reffered to as an exagerrated startle response. It can be more prenounced in some people than others, you may have heard about people dropping to the ground when they hear a car backfire or something like that but it can be something that is internal as well. I have found that I jump just a tad but I catch myself before I go into the full fight or flight mode. My heart ends up beating faster and the adreniline starts to kick in. It usually seems like this happens right before I go to sleep as I am pondering all of the what ifs before I go to bed.
It's just one of the little things that we deal with every day and don't much talk about. Every once in awhile there will be something that happens that gets us all and we end up laughing at each other.
So on a lighter note in a war zone something that we have to deal with is our mail shows up about once every 2 weeks. Imagine if all of the mail in town wasn't delivered for two weeks and then the mailmen and women were allowed to deliver it in a day or two. Another thing is the PX which is more like a very small walmart very small. Ours has 4 isles and each isle is about 25 feet long. Imagine if that place got stocked once a month. You can imagine that some things are very hard to find and the popular stuff goes quick.
Enough of that, not much else is going on today. We have another dust storm. The swiffer duster Aunt dawn sent me is getting a work out. Micca is sending me on of the Flylady's feather dusters too. If I'm not careful I end up being a full fledged flyguy lol.
Just thought of something I think I will do an acronym of the day. I'm sure I won't run out. Todays acronym is PIC Provencial Iraqi Control. This is somthing that we are working towards with the Iraqis. It is basically giving over certain areas of the country to Iraq and telling them they are now responsible for the security and welfare of the occupants. This is what is going on in Basra. Obviously it is going a little rough but that is to be expected. The insurgents want to cause as much problems as possible as to destabilize the government and turn the Iraqi people against thier government. The Iraqis actually have done quite well in Basra and continue to do better.
Well anyways I'm done teaching for the day.
Later for now
Brent
Sunday, May 4, 2008
12km or 7.42 miles it hurts either way
Ok everyone it's story time!!! I can't really start out the story starting today. I need to set the stage by starting with yesterday. Yesterday was the Polish Independence day and they had a 5km run to start it off. THat run started at 8 in the morning. The time is the key point in my story. You see Even though I have been in the Army for almost 17 years I still have never learned to like waking up. I do when I have to but generally if I can wait until the last minute I do. I'm a night owl and hate getting up. So yesterday I decided that I was to tired to run and wanted to sleep a little more. So i missed the 5Km run that started at 8 am. That brings me to today. Today's run started at 0700 and was 12Km long. So now you see my stupidity.
So we kick off the run and run 3 times around the camp. Some people walked and others ran. I never walked but I did run very slow at times. When we started the race it was about 80 degrees when we finished it was around 94. Now you have to picture our route. It is mostly gravel and there are these 12 ft walls that we run against. The walls provide a bit of shade except for some of us taller people. It provides shade for most of my body except for my head. SO those that are shorter in stature has a slight advantage in that they got to stay in the shade longer.
Today's goal was for me was to just complete the race without walking. I accomplished my goal so I was happy with myself. I ran it in 1 hr 16 min and change. Nothing to brag about but I did it so I'm happy. There is this one saying that came to mind today. "I am so far behind I think I'm ahead". At one point I had lost sight of everyone in fornt of me and there was no one even close to being behind me. So I self annoited my self the leader of the slowbies. OK enough about my little run.
Mail came today and I had a bunch of boxes. I got my new shoes... just a little to late for the race. I also got my helicopters and a bunch of plants from Dawn and Don and a Yo-Yo.
Well I have lots of stuff to do and put away so I've got to go. I really appreciate all of the mail it was almost like christmas today :)
So we kick off the run and run 3 times around the camp. Some people walked and others ran. I never walked but I did run very slow at times. When we started the race it was about 80 degrees when we finished it was around 94. Now you have to picture our route. It is mostly gravel and there are these 12 ft walls that we run against. The walls provide a bit of shade except for some of us taller people. It provides shade for most of my body except for my head. SO those that are shorter in stature has a slight advantage in that they got to stay in the shade longer.
Today's goal was for me was to just complete the race without walking. I accomplished my goal so I was happy with myself. I ran it in 1 hr 16 min and change. Nothing to brag about but I did it so I'm happy. There is this one saying that came to mind today. "I am so far behind I think I'm ahead". At one point I had lost sight of everyone in fornt of me and there was no one even close to being behind me. So I self annoited my self the leader of the slowbies. OK enough about my little run.
Mail came today and I had a bunch of boxes. I got my new shoes... just a little to late for the race. I also got my helicopters and a bunch of plants from Dawn and Don and a Yo-Yo.
Well I have lots of stuff to do and put away so I've got to go. I really appreciate all of the mail it was almost like christmas today :)
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Technology is great
Today was a quiet day. I had every intention of getting up and running in a 5K race the had here but I decided to sleep in instead. Tomorrow is a 12K race and I think I am going to go run in that one. That's a little over 7 miles.... I will have to just gut that one out. THere is no way around the fact that it's going to hurt. Why you may ask.... well it's a challenge I suppose. I think that's one of the reasons I was drawn to the military. I've never shyed away from a physical challenge although a marathon is probably a bit much.
Technology is great was my title...... I guess I was thinking again how lucky I am to have the internet and what not. Today I got to not only talk to, but see Micca, Drake and Ashtyn. Skype or any other video conferencing program is great and it's free to use.
So tomorrow I will tell on myself if I decided to get out of bed and run or if I blew it off.
Later,
Brent
Technology is great was my title...... I guess I was thinking again how lucky I am to have the internet and what not. Today I got to not only talk to, but see Micca, Drake and Ashtyn. Skype or any other video conferencing program is great and it's free to use.
So tomorrow I will tell on myself if I decided to get out of bed and run or if I blew it off.
Later,
Brent
Friday, May 2, 2008
Nothing really new
Well today was one of those days were I went to work and kind of hung out. Work has become more difficult now. It seems that my coalition counterparts don't have quite the amount of things to do that I do. They like to come in and ask my opinion about everthing from computers to camcorders to food and whatever else you can think of. One particular Ukrainian LT likes to come in and use me to practice his English. He speaks very well. I'm quite jealous of my counterparts that speak English, I really don't speak any other language. Many of my coalition friends speak at least 2 some speak 3 or 4 or more. English is clearly the dominant language but it wouldn't be bad to learn another language or two.
So everyday is interesting and learn something new almost everyday. We have 8 other countries that work together here.
Oh so anyways my young Ukrainian LT friend invited me to play basketball, he is only 22 and is quite cocky. He is only 5' 8" or so... so tonight I paid special attention to him and made him eat a few of his words. It was quite fun to hear the Ukrainians break into thier native language to try and get their act together to school the americans.
That reminds me... I need to go into work tomorrow and make a sign using powerpoint making a fake sign that offers basketball lessons. They are very good natured and appreciate the ribbing that I give them. I use a lot of different phrases that they like to hear. The english language is very complex and there are phrases that if taken literally can be totally missed. For instance taking some one to school or down in the dumps. both have double meaning and I think they are using me to learn which ids fine by me, but damn I'm going to have to start closing my office door to get some work done.
Well enough for now maybe more tomorrow
So everyday is interesting and learn something new almost everyday. We have 8 other countries that work together here.
Oh so anyways my young Ukrainian LT friend invited me to play basketball, he is only 22 and is quite cocky. He is only 5' 8" or so... so tonight I paid special attention to him and made him eat a few of his words. It was quite fun to hear the Ukrainians break into thier native language to try and get their act together to school the americans.
That reminds me... I need to go into work tomorrow and make a sign using powerpoint making a fake sign that offers basketball lessons. They are very good natured and appreciate the ribbing that I give them. I use a lot of different phrases that they like to hear. The english language is very complex and there are phrases that if taken literally can be totally missed. For instance taking some one to school or down in the dumps. both have double meaning and I think they are using me to learn which ids fine by me, but damn I'm going to have to start closing my office door to get some work done.
Well enough for now maybe more tomorrow
Thursday, May 1, 2008
A little shooting today
Well today was one of the nicest days I have had since I've been here. I got up this morning and headed over to the range. I shot about 800 rounds all by myself. The group I'm with doesn't like to shoot so much except for Bob and he had just got a couple of detainees he had to deal with.
So I just took my time and worked on some of my fundamentals. It's only a 30 meter range so in order for me to practice any distance shooting I have to shoot at small stuff. Thats one of the nice things about being in a war zone you pretty much have all of the ammo you can shoot. I wil post some pictures of some of the casualties of todays battle.
The 29th has come and gone along with it being Mom's Bday it was Micca's and my 2 month anniversary. So it's official now. I have been gone more than I have been home since we have been married. It so hard to be away. I will spare everyone the sorrowful story but things are made a little easier with the internet. My favorite part of the day is when I head into the office and I get to read the comments or emails that people send me. We don't get mail very often, in fact I think we have got mail 3 times since we have been here. We really are off the beaten path when it comes to convoys and air travel and with the poor weather it makes those convoys and air travel all that more sparse. The weather has been good the last 36 hours so I'm hoping to get some mail soon. If not the occasional emails will have to do for now.
So I just took my time and worked on some of my fundamentals. It's only a 30 meter range so in order for me to practice any distance shooting I have to shoot at small stuff. Thats one of the nice things about being in a war zone you pretty much have all of the ammo you can shoot. I wil post some pictures of some of the casualties of todays battle.
The 29th has come and gone along with it being Mom's Bday it was Micca's and my 2 month anniversary. So it's official now. I have been gone more than I have been home since we have been married. It so hard to be away. I will spare everyone the sorrowful story but things are made a little easier with the internet. My favorite part of the day is when I head into the office and I get to read the comments or emails that people send me. We don't get mail very often, in fact I think we have got mail 3 times since we have been here. We really are off the beaten path when it comes to convoys and air travel and with the poor weather it makes those convoys and air travel all that more sparse. The weather has been good the last 36 hours so I'm hoping to get some mail soon. If not the occasional emails will have to do for now.
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