A Soldier's Story

I can see the finish line

2009-03-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

So now that I have less than a month before I am home, the reality has started to sink in that this thing is almost over. There isn't much I will miss about this deployment but there are some things I will remember forever and some lessons I have learned. I think I will leave the reflective sort of thoughts for another day though. Call it superstition or whatever, but I'm not out of here yet so the time for reflection is still a little ways away. I will take the time to say that out of the 11 people I started this deployment with, I knew only one of them, and through this deployment we have gotten to know each other much better than we would have ever would. Of the 11 and now an addition 5 that we caught up with in Afghanistan I can say that there are at least two that I will try to stay in touch with and to some degree miss. Is that odd that I would miss a friend? I would argue that the relationships forged in the last year will probably last longer than the ones that I had in High School. There is just something about these places and events that will have a long lasting affect. There is something to be said for comrades in arms. There are some people here that I would want to be side by side if the you know what hit the fan and it's sad to say that if I found myself beside some others I would sooner have an empty space than them. I at least know what the empty space would do. I know that sounds harsh but sometimes the truth and can be quite harsh.

I think I best stop now before I go off on some wild tangent.

Once I am out of this place it will be time to reflect. I don't want to count my eggs before they are all hatched..... funny, I have 12 days left here at Ghazni

Later,

Brent

19

2009-02-25T05:19:00.000-08:00

The magic number is 19. 19 days that is, before we catch a ride out of this place. I don't think there is anyone more anxious to get home than I. I'm sure there are probably 14 other people that would argue with me. There is one guy who is staying fro another year. He's a new LT with college debt so he sees this as a way to pay it off. I on the other hand have taken most of the extra money that we receive while here and have paid off most of my debt and have saved for a cruise to take the kids on a nice trip when I get home. My sister and Johhny and Jax will be going with us as well. It should be a lot of fun.

Things here are prety much the same. The weather is starting to warm up and the snow is melting. This means we we will probably see increased bad guy activity, which we have already started to see a little bit of. Our replacements are currenty going through FT Benning which is what we had to do this time about a year ago. When we are done here we will go to Bagram and wait for a flight to Kuwait. Once we get to Kuwait we should leave there soemtime on the 21st and then we will demobilize at Ft Benning which will take a couple of days. Then I will actually get to go home.

Later

Brent

34 or 27 that is the question

2009-02-14T02:41:00.000-08:00

34 or 27 days left, that is the question. It appears as though we have been told our drop dead date for being out of the CENTCOM AOR is the 21st of march. We weren't orginally suppose to leave Ghazni until the 21 but now we have to leave Kuwait by the 21st. When I took leave it took me 8 days to get home 7 of those were spent in between Kuwait and Ghazni.

It's been awhile since I have had direct access to my blog page. Micca has posted a couple of times for me. Today I managed to talk to the right person and get access to the wireless Polish Network.

Things around here have been pretty slow. The weather keeps the Medevac birds groundd a lot so we aren't allowed to conduct operations. It's a good rule but it makes things a little boring. The weather here is rather odd in that when the sun is shining and you are standing in the sun ot of the wind you get hot. THe sun is quite warm and believe the the altitude makes quite a difference. A couple days ago we got about a foot of snow overnight and today it is almost gone. The air temps get into the 30s but the sun is so warm it melts everything off.

To pass the time I have purchased a little remote control helicopter. It was a little more expensive than the ones you can buy at walmart... well ok a lot more expensive but it is eaily controled once you learn how. I fly it around the TOC (tactical operations center) when things are slow. I think at the moment there are at least 6 other people that have ordered similar helicopters. When I get home I have plans to upgrade and buy a bigger helicopter that I can fly outdoors. I had always wanted to be a helicopter pilot but my eyes were always to poor to pass the test. I guess this is how I can live out that dream lol.

Hopefully I will get back in the blogging grove and you will see more blogs before it is time to go.

Later,

Brent

Toodles

2009-01-26T21:28:00.001-08:00

Not much has been happening here in Ghazni since my last post. We are
trying not to count the days :) Our replacements are
due to leave Illinois around the 20th of February and should be in
Afghanistan by the 1st of march or there about.

Our weather around here has been surprisingly mild. It only got really
cold for a few days. I don't think I have seen it get much more than
into the teens. Most of our snow has melted. To be honest I am somewhat
disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing what 3-4 feet of snow
actually looked like. In most places we are back to walking around on
the big ole rocks. The snow was nice because you didn't worry about
twisting an ankle. With all of the freezing and thawing you do have to
worry about the ice though. I have some chain things I can put on my
boots. These boots offer very little traction on snow and ice and just
about everyone has "biffed" it a couple of times. So far I have managed
to stay upright but it has cost me coolness points cause shuffle around
like I'm 85 and half blind.

In other news I have new addition to the family. I'm a very proud owner
of a Yorkshire Terrier puppy. Her name is Toodles. I didn't get to name
her. I have a jewelry commercial I think it was Helzberg diamonds, to
thank for my dogs name. By all accounts she is settling in nicely and
likes to crash on the couch right beside Micca. Back to the commercial.
I guess Helzberg was doing a promotion and the dog from the commercial
"Toodles" was all over the store in the form of a stuffed animal.
Anyways Micca bought a couple for the kids, this was before we even
considered the idea of a dog. Fast forward a month and Micca puts down
the stuffed Toodles for the real Toodles to see and she growls and
attacks it. I'm sure it was pretty cute.

Well that's about it for now, I'm just counting the days 53.....
52.......51 sigh it's still to far away for my liking.

Later

Brent

60 Days

2009-01-19T20:55:00.001-08:00

It is Tuesday morning as I write this. The weather this morning was sunny and about 14 degrees. We haven't had any snow for awhile but we are still dealing with the stuff that was left behind. Because most of it has melted and thawed many times we have mostly hard packed snow or ice to walk on. So far I haven't fell yet but almost every one has taken a spill. You don't dare walk around here with a normal stride. Everyone looks like they are in their 80s shuffling around not quite sure about their balance and footing which of course we aren't lol

The big news for us is as of today we have 60 days before we leave Afghanistan. Hopefully everything will go fairly smooth and we will be home about a week or 10 days after that. But if it's anything like trying to get home for leave it could take longer. I'm pretty sure just to spite me the Army will have us leave Kuwait on the 31st of March. The reason I say this is, is because if I left on the first I would get another month of tax free pay and my hazardous duty entitlements.

Not much else is really going on. Our replacements start their mobilization process on the 18th of February which puts them in Afghanistan sometime in late February or the first week in March. When moving as such a small unit nothing is for sure. We have to piggy back our movements on the existing system, whereas if we were a larger unit we would have our own planes and schedules and such. Honestly it's nice to be part of a smaller unit.

Later for now, 60 days and counting!!

Brent

Back in Ghazni

2009-01-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Well today is my second day back here in Ghazni. Believe it or not I got back here rather quickly. I left my house Thursday morning at about 0330 in the morning. Micca and I drove to Bloomington for my flight at 0610. My flight from Bloomington took me to Chicago which then took me to Dallas. I got there at about 1230 and had to register for our flight to Kuwait. For some reason there were not enough seats on that flight so I spent the night in a hotel in Dallas. I couldn't really go anywhere or do anything so I just hung out and ended up watching the national championship. I got up the next day and headed back to the airport which was Friday. We left Dallas at about 1700 that evening. I was lucky and got the first row behind the first class seats so I had quite a bit of leg room. We landed in Bangor Maine at about 2200 or so and let the plane refuel and then were back off on the next leg which took us to Ireland. Same drill as in Maine as in Ireland more fuel and then off on the final leg to Kuwait. Well not the final leg but the final leg of that specific flight. I arrived in Kuwait some 20 hours later on Sunday morning and got settled into my tent about 0330. I had to get my bag and track down my Body armor from the warehouse before I could crash for a couple of hours. I had to be back up at 0630 for accountability and possibly to find out what time the next flight was. When I had arrived the night before I had thought that I wouldn't have any problems getting on the next flight that would leave. There was only about 20 people who needed to get back to Afghanistan from my flight. Well when I got there at 0700 there was about 350 people there and the 2 guys that I was traveling with back from Illinois were still there, they had left the day before me. Well they called about 60 names and barely made a dent in all of there. We were told to be back at 1900 for another manifest call. So with nothing to do and tired as hell I thought I should stay busy and try to fight off the jet lag and then I would just sleep normal that night after the next accountability and manifest call. I didn't think there was anyway in hell I would get out on the next flight.

Well Imagine that at 1900, and after managing to fight off sleep we were told to be back at 2230 (10:30 PM). Well we all know that if we are going to start the process at 2230 than that means we won't fly until probably 0230 or so. That happened to be just the case. By the time you get done with the manifest call and baggage prep it is 0230 before we take off for the 3 and half hour flight to Bagram. If you are keeping track this is the 6th leg of my journey. We arrive in Bagram at about 0730 ( add another 1.5 hours for time change). Our next task is to see if we can catch another flight to Ghazni. Now this isn't near as easy as it sounds. Luckily we talked to our polish contacts and they took care of us and put us on one of their helicopters. I was back in Ghazni by about 1700. Not until after we landed did we find out that all the other American flight had been canceled for the day. It's very lucky we made it back when we did because it started to snow soon after we got here. Tuesday morning had about 5 inches on the ground and this morning we got about another 7 inches. It is suppose to keep snowing until Thursday. So as long as it took to get back it could have been much longer. All in all I spent about 26 hours of actual time flying.

Believe it or not it's good to be back, that may sound odd but I'm back knowing that I have about 60-70 days before I'm back home again.

Later,

Brent

Let the last 70 days begin

2009-01-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

So tonight I'm sitting in a hotel in Dallas because there were not enough seats on teh plane today to get me back to Kuwait. I'm not to heart broken I just wish I could have had this day at home instead of here.

My Leave was 18 days long or I should say short. By the time I get back to afhganistan I will have less than 70 days before I will be headed home.

It was great to finally get home and now evevn though I am sad to have to head back I am excited as well becuase the end is so very near. I'm really glad I decided to come home later in the deployment rather than half way through. Not only did I have the added bonus of being home of Christmas and New Years but rather than dreading the rest of the deployment I have a upbeat outlook since the end is so near. I'm sure it will drag out more towards the end but thats to be expected.

I will try to Blog a little more often. Micca is going to post for me since I no longer have access while in afghanistan or if I do it's kind of cumbersome to get it posted.

Thats all for now

Brent

On my way home

2008-12-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

So here I sit in the country of Qatar. Why you may ask. Well flights in Afghanistan to get out on R&R are all backed up and they were just trying to push us out. I will be headed to Kuwait in the next few hours where I will finally find out when I will get home. Things have gone a bit slower than planned. So far in the last 6 days I have had a 5 hour helicopter ride and a 3 hour C-17 ride. Still in front of me are another C-17 ride (1 hour) Commercial plane ride from Kuwait to Atlanta (15 hours) and another short plane ride from Atlanta to Bloomington. Hopefully I can cut out a leg to Chicago, we will just have to see.

I had hoped to be home by the 18th but now it doesn't look like it. I was hoping to surprise Ashtyn at school and go to Dade's last cub scout meeting but I will probably miss those. I should be home for Christmas but the way things are going I wouldn't go as far as to promise that. One good note is that the longer it takes me to get here the less time I will have to spend in Afghanistan when I get back.

Later for now

Brent

Waiting

2008-12-13T05:02:00.000-08:00

So the time has come where I'm so close to going on leave but for now I'm stuck in Baghram Afghanistan waiting on another plane. I say another because the 1st one is all full and delayed on top of that. So the next plane that comes in may not even be mine because all of the other people on the delayed plane may get on that one.

After almost 9 months to say that I'm a bit anxious is an understatement.

I haven't written in sometime as my access to a civilian internet connection isn't very accesible nowadays. You would think that in going to a larger FOB we would have more ammenities. Well we do have more things but internet isn't one of them.

Things in Ghazni have been pretty busy most of the time. We spend a lot of time watching unmanned arial vehicle feeds and the camera feed from our Blimp. I don't know if I ever mentioned the blimp. We have a blimp that is tethered to the base and provides a camera feed into our operations center. We are able to keep an eye on a pretty vast area with both of those platforms. Winter hasn't set in yet so the bad guys are still pretty busy. We can see the snow on the mountian tops which are at about 8k feet. I imagine the snow will be on the ground in Ghazni by the time I get back.

Speaking of when I get back. When I get back to Ghazni I should only have about 70-80 days before I am back home again.

I would really like to thank everyone that has helped out my family thus far. It is the support network that helps them out at home that helps me out here. It keeps me from worrying to much. My wife was able to move our entire household from Deer Creek back to Prairie City. I'm so excited to come home for Christmas!!!

Well that's enough for now. I hope to see those of you arund town for Christmas and New Years

Later,

Brent

One more day down

2008-11-06T08:01:00.001-08:00

Today was just another day but it was special since it was my wife's birthday. If you want to know how old she is you will have to ask her yourself but I can tell you she is younger than me.

Today was another beautiful day in Afghanistan. High of 74 and will probably get down into the low 40s or high 30s. While standing outside today enjoying the weather the guys and I heard a jet flying pretty high over head. When we finally found it in the sky we were looking at a B1B bomber. That was a very cool sight.

It seems as though I have found another friend here in the camp. Our camp pet is a 5 month old dog that looks like a german shepherd mix. Hes a very cute pup, big pup. The first night I was walking by and he started barking at me now he knows me from anywhere in the camp and comes up to say hi or just lay down and hang out. You would think that a dog like that would be hyper and kind of aggressive. This is the type of dog that you could take his dinner away from. I think its probably because he is the most well fed dog in the country. He actually turns down food. I sat down this afternoon outside the door of our dining facility and watched as everyone come out. They all keep something back and toss it to him on the way out. I found out his favorite food is M&Ms. That dog goes crazy for M&Ms LOL.

Well I dont know what else to talk about so that's it for tonight.

Later,

Brent

107

2008-11-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

107 is the amount of stargate SG 1 episodes I have watched. There may be more but that is all that I had on my terabyte hard drive. I have watched many other movies as well. While in iraq many of us bought a bunch of the boxed sets of movies. They are quite a bit cheaper there than in the states.

So what is in store for me now? I have the Sopranos all ready to go as well as the shield. The SHield happens to be one of Micca's favorite shows so I think I may try not to watch that until I get home. I'm thinking that may be something we can sit and enjoy together when time permits.

Nothing to adventerous has happen here. My Well diggers began digging the well today. It's a little disappointing knowing I won't get to see the finished product. It really is an experiance to work with the local people. Once they understand the hierarchy of our military structure, I think they come to view us or in the case of me as a tribal leader of sorts. It's a little wierd I don't know quite how to explain it. The Polish Captain and I are the 2 highest ranking officers here and because I am american I think those that aren't polish assume I am in charge of everything. I really am just an advisor and a resource.

In other news the LT that was suppose to show up today didn't. It seems as though he was told that the helicopter that was suppose to take him wasn't going to stop here. Well when the helicopter showed up only 2 polish soldiers got off. So that means one more day that I will spend here which is fine by me.

My big project for today was to inventory the kitchen stuff that the polish are using to make breakfeast and dinner and what not. It seems as though the Army has decided that they are going to contract KBR in to cook for us. It probably wont happen until after I leave but I have started the project in motion. I guess they need to know whats here so they know what to bring.

Another day is done and another day closer to leave :)

Later

Brent

Moving Again

2008-11-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

Now that I am all settled into 4 corners it looks as though I will be going back to Ghazni for the rest of my stay in Afghanistan. To be honest even though this place is lacking in amenities... lol to think that I would refer to any of these places as having amenities. I like the remote somewhat austere environment. My biggest task is managing the contract that has a local contractor digiing a well for us. Before these gentlemen showed up at the front gate I really didn't know that digging a well was so technical. Now converting these technical bits through an interperter is a challenge. Language is the biggest challenge alltogether since I have been here. It is either Polish or Pashtun neither of which I have much knowledge in.

So now that I ahve established the needed systems here and got things going they are sending someone in for me to train up so I can leave the this company and work for the Battalion. To be honest I dont mind moving as it keeps me from geting bored and learning new tasks and working with new people always makes things interesting.

Micca has only 2 days left of work after which she plans to concentrate on getting everything moved back to the Prairie City house. We are both looking forward to settling into the B-PC community. Dade will start school after the new year and he is excited as well. He has already met his teacher and seen his classroom and his cousin Jax has been sharing his homework with him to show him where he is in school and to be honest Dade is quite a bit ahead so hopefully any problems adjusting won't be because of school work.

I can't begin to convey how much I am looking forward to getting home. My vacation/leave comes towards the end of my time hereso by the time I finish my eave when I get back here I will have less than 60 days left. Micca and I have this calculator that figures how many days I have left and the percent of time served. Today I was at 62%

Thats enough for now

Later

Brent

getting comfy

2008-10-28T00:08:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally gotten settled into four corners. The camp here is quite small. It’s about 200 meters (think yards) by 300 meters with the helo pad taking up about a 1/3 of the space. When everyone finally shows up we should have about 150 soldiers here. Considering where we are this is actually pretty nice. The camp itself is an old Russian camp left over from the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
When I say settled I should say I haven’t completely settled in since I found out they may want me to go back to Ghazni and serve as a liaison for a battalion there. I guess now would be appropriate to discuss structure so everyone will have an understanding of how things work. Almost all military forces follow the same sort of structure.

Team = 3-5 soldiers

Squad = 6-10 soldiers

Platoon = 3-4 squads with anywhere from 30-40 soldiers with a Lieutenant in charge

Company = 3-6 platoons with anywhere from 60-200 soldiers depending on the company and companies have a Captain in charge of them usually reffered to as a company commander or the CO. This is the level I am working at and is probably the most enjoyable of all levels IMO as an officer. My job here is to assist the company commander with an US Forces that he may need or assets or contracts.

Battalion = 3-5 companies and has about 300-500 soldiers in it

Brigade = 3-4 Battalions and has roughly 1000-1500 soldiers in it

I tell you all to tell you this. I am no working at the company level with the polish but I may have to go back to Ghazni and work at the Battalion level. Because it is a larger organization I would be a little more focused on doing just operational stuff and not messing with the logistics so much.

So what do I think about this place. For now I don’t think I would mind spending the rest of my tour here. We are in a fairly remote location and rely heavily on helicopters for supplies. Which makes me worry a little about the winter. The Winters here are quite severe with lots of snow that is measured in feet rather than inches. The cold will make things pretty difficult and I wonder how we will adapt. The Polish are in the process of changing their soldiers out so this is an entirely new group. Some of the challenges I see will be keeping water running. We have a small well that is our water source for showers and washing clothes. We have our drinking water brought in by helicopter and it is all bottled water. I washed my clothes the other day for the first time in the late afternoon which was a mistake. I used one of the 2 working washers if you can call them that. You have to check the washer about every 20 minutes because when it is time for the spin cycle you have to undo the plug so the water can drain. They have no pump to pump the water out. So after your laundry is done you have to go hang it up wherever you can. Problem is if you remember I said I did my laundry in the afternoon, by the time it was done it was almost dark. So I had to string parachute cord all throughout my room and hang up 2 weeks worth of clothes (remember I’ve been in transit for awhile). I had to be careful walking in my room as I literally clothes lined myself about 3 or 4 times. Another thing that I realized about our water situation. Our water smells, not bad but like bleach, we add HTH which is basically bleach to the water tanks we fill with the well. SO everything has a slight bleach smell to include my room now since it was the location for my drying attempts. I should have know better since I had already realized this issue the first time I took a shower and came out smelling like I had been swimming in a pool.

We have a camp pet. His name is Outlaw. He looks like a small german shepard. He probably weighs in at about 60lbs so not to small. I’m not one to really make friends with camp pets since they are a source of disease and what not but the first time I walked out of the command center at night and he didn’t recognize me and started barking at me I decided we should become friends. Last thing I need is our guard dog attacking me.

I ran around the camp the other day for PT. I think I may have forgotten to mention our altitude here is over 6k feet so what I considered running might have only been a very fast walk or a poor attempt at running. The altitude does have an affect.
Well that’s enough deep thought for now.

Brent

Four Corners

2008-10-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

I made it to 4 corners. My living arrangements are ok for now. I am in a
little concrete building that is about the same size as my trailer in
Iraq, maybe a little smaller. For now I am by myself but LT Beier is
suppose to eventually join me so I will have a room mate. The FOB
including the airfield is probably about 4-5 acres so it is very small.
We will eventually have about 150 polish here and 5 americans with me
being the senior american and probably the most senior person in all.

It appears my duties will be pretty minimal so I may find myself going
back to ghazni after everything is established. I am busy establishing
computers phones and radios. Well I am here with the techs who will
eventually leave me.

The dining facilities have gotten progressivley worse since leaving Iraq
and culminated with tonights dinner. We had meatballs with some polish
salad. It was good but the selection was well there was no selection.

The nights here are getting into the 30s now but the days hit the high
70s.

I'm glad October is almost over then I just have to make it past
november then I will be super close to coming home for leave. To say
that I am a bit anxious is an understatement.

Not much else for now

Afghanistan Journal

2008-10-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

Today is the 12th of October. I have now been in Afghanistan 3 days or so. I am now at Baghram. I am 1 of 3 on here on the ground trying to figure out things. We left Iraq knowing we all had to end up in Ghazni Afghanistan eventually. I planned and coordinated the movement of our equipment from Iraq which was surprisingly quite easy. We have mentioned quite a few times how everything is easier in war. Back home if I requested a plane to move some equipment it would have to be requested 6 months in advance and all sorts of deals would have to be cut and then at the last minute the misson would get canceled. The planning I did here was to easy and I always kept looking for what the problem would be. It was or has been pretty damn easy realtivley speaking.
I left Tallil Iraq, wondering and hoping that this would be my last time I ever had to visit this country. It seemed somewhat fitting that I should be leaving through the place that I came through on my in to Camp Echo. Even more fitting was the backdrop of the base itself. There is a very old temple that was built there. Supposdely it is older than the Pyramids. I don’t know for sure but it makes sense since we are in the middle of the cradle of civilization, LOL one would think that if this was the cradle they would be ahead of everyone else but this is irony at its finest.
Afghanistan sure is different in every way. It’s a different war with different people and even though I haven’t left the confines of the air base I can tell things are already different. The biggest contrast is the landscape and weather. I am totally surrounded by mountains and the high today was 79 degrees. Tomorrow it is suppose to rain. If it rains it will be the first time I have seen rain in over a month. Even then is was just a couple of sporadic drops. It has been since April since I have seen any thing approaching a significant rain.
The other big thing that I have noticed here is the lack of T-walls and bunkers. The threat of indirect fire here is almost nonexistent. Many of the force protection standards that exist in Iraq seem to be missing here, I hope it’s because they are not needed. I’m sure of that for the most part since I have been following the intelligence since I have found out we were coming here. With winter fast approaching even the the stuff that was going on earlier this year will stop pretty soon.
I have had some time here the past 3 days and began watching an HBO mini series called generation kill. It is about some marines and their trek through Oraq during the first 20 days or so. I had heard it was done very well and pretty accurate. I have to say it was extremely accurate and should be added to anyones must see list, it can get graphic and quite violent but if you can stomach it, it is worth watching. While I was watching the series there would be many times I would have to stop it because of the sounds of the airfield bleeding over my headphones. The F-15s and F-16s taking off in real time sometimes fit right in while I wastching the show. I sometimes had a tough time figuring out what was real and what was playing over the headphones as I watched. It just seems weird, I don’t know if that is irony so to say but whatever it is it was just weird.
So today I am thinking aboutu what lies in front of me and what other things I will be missing while I am over here. Ashtyn just had her Birthday and Micca will soon have hers. Drake will have his as well while I am gone but Drakes Birthday marks the home stretch fro me. You see Drake’s Birthday is the 17th of February and my Deployment date started on the 18th of March. So in seeing this major events pass it saddens me but at the same time keeps me hopeful and plodding along doing whatever it is that must be done for the day. I also have an anniversary in there which is my Micca and I’s first. Today had me thinking that now I have less than 60 days before I can take leave, and once I return I will only have about 60 days left in country. So even though I’m just barely past the half way point in this deployment I fell like things should start to rapidly come to a close. With Leave comes Christmas and if every thing lines up just right I should make it home in time for Christmas and new years so at least I will be around for that.
As usual I am all over the board in thought and what not. I will have Micca post this to my blog as I will not be able to access it my self since my civilian internet access is sporadic if not non existant. Funny thing is that if you post a comment it comes to my army email and lets me see it. The army cant stop everything 
Later for now
Brent

Goodbye Camp Echo!! Hello Afghanistan!!

2008-10-03T01:17:00.000-07:00

Today was my last full day at Camp Echo. It is sort of bittersweet. The time I have spent here has been very interesting and probably unlike most everyone else’s experience that comes here to Iraq. My daily duties very rarely had me interacting with my fellow American soldiers, most of the time I worked with my Polish, Ukrainian, and Romanian counterparts. As of the 1st of October the Polish had officially turned over their responsibility to the American forces that have overrun Camp Echo, we affectionately refer to them as the locusts. Our camp is rather small with a total population around two thousand people. While we have been here they have almost doubled the camp population, now which will go down to more reasonable numbers once all of the Polish leave as well as us. But for now they are like locusts consuming everything that had been plentiful for us in the past. The dining facility rarely ever had a line and most visitors would comment on how nice our dining facility was and the quality of food. It is not uncommon for them to run out of ice cream cookies and yes sadly, cheesecake.

Back to the Polish and the process which we call RIP/TOA which is pronounced RIP just like it sounds and TOE short A sound. It stands for Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority. It isn’t as simple as one unit leaving when the new one arrives. There is a transition period where both units operate together so the unit that has been in place can transfer their knowledge and lessons learned to the incoming unit. It’s a process that has been very effective over the years.

I have the utmost respect for the Polish Army after serving with them for the last 6 months. They do things differently and at times seem very backwards but their army was based on the soviet bloc model where all decision making is centralized, conversely the American army is a very decentralized business model if you will. Leaders at all levels are expected to make decisions that support the overall effort. This is ingrained in us from almost the beginning in basic training.

So in the beginning I said it was bittersweet. I think if I had the choice I would rather just have stayed here at Echo for my tour but with the new unit coming in I am glad that we are moving on, even if it is to Afghanistan for the winter. The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. Mid to high 80s in the day and down into the low 70s even high 60s at night. My leaving here is a milestone that helps me know that the end is somewhere in sight. The 1st of October was 6 months in Iraq for me and over halfway to being done. Over the next couple weeks I will help to move (I’m responsible for the unit movement) our equipment and personnel from here to Ghazni Afghanistan, where we will reestablish ourselves and continue to work with the Polish forces that are located there. This is no small task as we are the first that I know of to move from one Area Of Responsibility (AOR) to another on the same deployment. During the planning process I constantly heard “really”, “you are doing what”, “I”ve never heard of that”, and so on and so forth. I think an English teacher would hate this blog, my main idea tends to drift from paragraph to paragraph, but anyway, leaving here is a huge milestone because it coincides with our halfway point. We get to recapture that feeling of anticipation of doing something new and unknown again which I look forward to since it really does help the days go by faster. Things here have become mundane in that it’s the same thing with very little variation, ok here I go again off the main topic, we have these counters that almost everyone has that count days minutes seconds and meals. Why meals? Well your life tends to revolve going to work every day and your meals are mini milestones that break up the day for you, at least that’s my take. So I really feel like I am on the downhill side of my deployment. I am fortunate that I have put my leave off until the final third of my tour. If I’m lucky I will be home for Christmas. My leave is scheduled for that timeframe but because of where I will be planning travel is sometimes difficult. I should leave before the big snows but by the time I return we will measure our snowfall in feet. Ghazni and its surrounding outposts are on a high plateau. Ghazni itself sits at over 7 thousand feet. That is much higher than Denver or any other major city in the US. When I return from my leave I should have less than 60 days left.

I think almost hourly about being home and the things I am missing. This deployment if anything has helped provide perspective. It has made the decision for Micca to quit her job and have us move closer to Bushnell where Drake and Ashtyn live a no brainer. There were many reasons for that decision and we probably would have come to the same decision but this separation has probably helped it along. I really love and cherish the thought of when I come home I will come “home”. Deer Creek is a very nice community and the school district has been great but in my heart it is a place I have lived not what I would call home in my heart. It amazes me that Micca sees and feels the same way about Bushnell. Everyone has been so supportive to her and I’m pretty sure she feels the same way that I do.

This post has been longer than most and I have rambled across many topics. I hope that my thoughts and feelings aren’t to incoherent or jumbled for you to understand. I don’t know what access I will have to commercial internet so Micca will keep her Blog more updated with emails from I or she may copy and paste to my blog for me. Be sure to check her blog with updates from me. One final note I will have a new address for anyone who would like to send snail mail.

Brent Russell
101st ABN DIV (AASLT)
TF WHITE EAGLE
FOB GHAZNI, AFG
APO AE 09354

Later for now

Brent

A Couple of Endings and Beginnings

2008-09-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today should be one of my last days here at Echo. I am a little sad to go but at the same time ready to go. Our little Camp here was quite unique. It was very different than most of the Camps and FOBs in Iraq. The polish are leaving and in thier place will be another US army unit. Its not bad but its just not the same. Iguess if I had to describe one versus the other I would call it more relaxed with the Polish in charge.

As of right now I am waiting on permisson to ship our unit equipment. It's been a big to do. The big wigs in Iraq don't want us to take our Hummers to Afghanistan, even though the big wigs in Afghanistan want us to bring it. SO my days of work are pretyy much done bit I will sit here until a decesion is made one way or the other.

In other news My wife Micca has decided to put her profession on hold to pfinish up her college degree. That means she will be moving to the B-PC area. She will move back into the Prairie City house while we continue to try and sell it. We intend to buy a home in Bushnell when it finally sells. THe hardest part about all of this is trying to convince Dade to change schools. I think we have finally got him sold. Micca broke the news Drake and Ashtyn last night and they were really excited. Jax and Johnny are excited as well. Jax has been saving papers for Dade so he will know where they are in school.

If anyone is free the weekend of November 15th I'm sure Micca and whoever else could use a hand with moving.

I can tell you that the thought of coming home to Bushnell after my deployment has me very excited. I really appreciate all of the packages and mail and newspapers that I get. It just seems so right that I should come home to the town that has supported I and my family while I am gone.

My future ability to post may be a bit hampered so Micca is going to try and keep her page updated and update mine through email and what not. The army network doesn't allow us to view or post to Blog sites from the army network. THere are ways to get around it which Micca and I will have to do together.

I will try and post again before I leave Echo.

later for now,

Brent

Sherlock Holmes is on the case

2008-09-15T11:26:00.001-07:00

I can't remember if I have mentioned this but one of my Polaris gator type vehicles was stolen a couple days ago. Since then we have gone to all sorts of extrodinary measures to find it. I have called to have convoys that have left Camp Echo inspected and many other things. Well today we got a tip that someone had seen a Polaris parked out of the way. Now there are only 5 of these types of vehicles in roughly a 1 square mile of area. 4 of them belong to me. So upon recieving this tip I run over to grab the Polish MPs and we take off to find my stolen gator.

We get to the first area and check it out and come up with nothing. Upon further investigation we determine we are in the incorrect location and speed off to what we are now sure of is the location. We get there and the gate is closed but alas it is unlocked. We let ourselves in and walk about 50 Meters and there my gator sits. Now you would think if you stole something you probably wouldn't leave the key in it but they left the key in the gator as well. The tip we had received was from someone who had changed out the ignition on this thing. So you would think if you went to all the trouble to steal it and have the ignition changed you would take the key.

Well the perp is still at large but we are hot on his/her trail. It's a very small place and we will eventually get our man/woman.

That's about as much excitment as I get these days

Later for now

Brent

September 11th

2008-09-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well even though today was like many other days it is still fairly significant in that 7 years ago America was attacked. I had started to write that the twin towers and the pentagon were attacked but I don't think that quite covered the scope.

For my generation this is our Kennedy assassination, we will all remember where we were when we first found out. I remember where I was very vividly. I was preparing for training that day in Albuquerque New Mexico. That days training had us responding to a WMD incident involving a dirty bomb. Instead we found ourselves prepping our equipment to be picked up by military airlift. We didn’t leave until the next day but when we did the pilot pointed to the radar scope and said, “see that?” I didn’t see anything on the radar, that was the point there were no other aircraft in the air within 250 miles.

So here I sit in Iraq on September 11th upset that I am away from my family but proud that I am able to serve my country. Many soldiers have given their lives and many fire fighters and police officers gave thiers on that day. Everyday our officers and firefighters are putting their lives on the line just the same as the soldiers here in Iraq. Of course I am a bit biased since my wife is a deputy, but it doesn’t change the fact that many of the first casualties of this war were the first responders who died that day trying to save so many others.

So today is like many others but yet it is different, and will never be the same.

Today my day started with a wake up from a soldier telling me his gator had been stolen. It is still gone and we have not been able to find it yet. I think that it may have found it’s way into a container and is on its way to Poland. I hope we find it lol. So after my wake up I got dressed and headed over to do my portion of the general’s brief. From time to time I am required to give a portion of the brief. After the brief the Polish then conducted a little ceremony in remembrance of 9-11. I thought this was quite thoughtful and in light of the Polish ceremony for our loss I came to the realization that although it was America that was attacked it was really felt the world around. I came to realize that this was an attack on all civilized nations and one of the reasons why we have so many allies in this war.

Well I think that is enough of my philosophy and insight for the day. The bottom line for me is I still believe in what we are doing!!

Later for now

Brent

Yuck!!!!

2008-09-04T10:22:00.001-07:00

Probably not what you are thinking. So today was a prety much normal day with a high of 118. All throughout the day I kept thinking man it's really hot today. It's the worst ever. Then it dawned on me. We have humidity today. we normally sit around 10-15 percent humidity during the day and maybe 20 at night. Today we had 30 percent humidity and it's at about 40 percent right now. I know I know that's nothing in Illinois but damn it makes a huge difference here.

I went to chow tonight to be greeted by the 10 mountian jazz band. All army divisions have there own bands and this was suppose to something nice for dinner, which I suppose it was.

I posted another video. I made it for Micca. It's mostly pictures of me from this deployment but has some of our family and some of just us in there as well. It's uses a song that she likes.

Enjoy

Later,

Brent

Check out my video!!!

2008-09-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

Ok I have to admit I pretty proud of myself for busting into the whole YouTube video thing. I have been messing around with video and stuff for awhile but I think I've got it pretty well figured out now. The link on the right hand side of the page has two clips. They are both the same but they are of different quality. I wasnt sure if I would ever get the good quality one uploaded so I uploaded the same video in a smaller format. Anybody using cable should be able to watch the better quality one no problem.

I have lots of video but it takes forever to cut it and and music and effects. It's time consuming but it's a nice distraction when I have extra time. So do me a favor and let me know what you think of my new hobby. I will try to do more but it takes a long time to upload. The high quality one took almost 3 hours to upload. I will do what I can.

Later for now

Brent

I'm all out of topics......

2008-09-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

I'm out of things to write about. I've got the usual stuff to say, such as I miss my wife and kids.

The thing that think about most while over here is what things will be like when I finally get home. I see pictures of the kids and can't believe how much they are changing. Drake is growing like a weed or appears to be and Ashtyn isn't far behind him. Both of them will be taller than Micca before long. Poor dade will be the short one for quite awhile still. Eventually Micca will be the shortest one in the family. Drake has started his Freshman year and it really bothers me that I can't get daily updates on his progress and how he is doing. He's never been one to write much so I get updates from everyone that talks to him. Ashtyn is becaoming the internet wiz which scares me a little. I will have to discuss internet safety with her when I get a chance.

It's funny how things I hear and see everyday are commonplace here but would be out of place or downright odd if you heard or saw these things at home. For instance we have Armed forces network TV which is a network put together by the department of defense that is a compilation of all differetn kinds of TV. We don't have commercials like you think of commercials they are more like public service announcements. They cover everything from the different types of powers of attorney to the difficulties of deployments on marraige. The big one I see now is the push to have people seek help for PTSD rather than try to hide it. The military is making the illness more mainstream and is getting rid of the stigma associated with it.

I thought the heat was starting to break and we were headed for fall but after a rather cool high of 118 yesterday we were back up to 122 again. I'm sure when I'm writing from Afghanistan in January I will be wishing I could have the heat back.... LOL. As the syaing goes when the soldiers stop complaining then you know there are really problems.

Well thats it for tonight

Later

Brent

ok this place sucks

2008-09-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

LOL I have come to the conclusion that this place sucks. It's only taken 5 months for me to figure it out. Well ok not really I think I might have figured it out in the first 10 minutes. I was probably a little bit biased considering all of the media about this place and the drive up here didn't help the reputation either.

What is going on, nothing is going on, I guess I should be careful about making a statement like that. Ramadan started today. I'm sure Al Queda will make an attack this month but they haven't been targeting us. It's the poor Iraqis who will pay the price.

Hmmmm not much else to add my life here is pretty boring.

Later for now

Brent

nothing is something?

2008-08-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

It’s been a few days since my last post and to say that I have been busy has been an understatement. Who would have ever thought that we would be training in Iraq to get ready for Afghanistan. The Special Forces that are located here have been kind enough to take some time and train us up on some skills that have gotten quite rusty since we have been here. We have been working on shooting and some close quarters combat stuff, along with reacting to enemy contact and IED recovery drills. It’s something you hope you will never use but thinking it will never happen is what gets people in trouble. I rather be prepared and never have to use what I know than ill prepared and will probably be one of the most dangerous times in my life.
The Taliban are on the run and by the time I get there snow will be about ready to fall and the bad guys go home for the winter. Where I will be is going to be about 7k feet which is about 2k feet higher than Denver.

Along with training I somehow weaseled my way on to an MI-24 HIND helicopter flight. This helicopter is pretty cool and when armed is one of the most feared helicopters in the world next to our Apache of course. Unlike our Apache this gunship is made to carry 6 guys in addition to the pilots. So I was lucky enough to snag a ride.

I would love to post more pictures but each picture has been taking almost 20 min to post. My internet connection upload is very slow.

The weather here is about the same. We have seen a little reprieve in the heat as it only hit 118 today. The highest I have seen it was 125. My thermometer is in the shade so in the sun the temps are easily in the 140s. It’s almost painful.

I may have used this before but Damn it's hot!!!

2008-08-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Today was the hottest day yet. I have told some people in emails tha we were lucky in that it had only been hitting 110 or so. We weren't so lucky today. Today hit 125 in the shade. Of course I spent most of it outside in the sun. It was probably 140 or so in the sun. Somebody is going to have to remind me what's so great about this place. It was just stupidly hot. Get this it rained for about 2 minutes. I was perplexed to see water hitting the ground and the HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle)I thought someone was throwing water over the T wall at me.

This week should be better than most as we are training up and refreshing our skills before we head off to Afghanistan. The local SPecial Forves team is coaching us along. We are starting at 0600 and getting done about 0900 before it gets to hot. LOL it was 110 by 0930 this morning.

In the states we are so controlled in our training, over here we are free to do pretty much whatever we want as long as it is safe. For example in the states we aren't allowed to even handle ammo most of the time unles we are getting it and going to our firing position on the range. Here we have loaded weapons a lot of the time, and always have ammo on us. At a minumum I have my 9MM and 2 15 round magazines. When I'm out on a mission well lets just say that I have to use the word thousands to describe the amount of ammuntion we are carrying, not to mention the grenades and flares and rocket launchers. Bottom line is if we engage the bad guys we win. They don't want to go toe to toe with any american force. You shoot 1 round we shoot enough to make you stop. If you happen to be shooting from a building and are hiding well that what the rocket launchers are for lol.

So are training is fun, well for me it is. I'm pretty sure that some of the other rather be behind thier desks. Me, well I generally look for an excuse to get out from behind it. Some days I'm a softy and the heat gets the best of me but most of the time I rather be out an about.

Not much else to report. The coming days will bring a lot of changes as the polish begin leaving and this place turns over to an all american camp. I will talk more about that later.

Later for now,

Brent

My 14th annual 21st B-day

2008-08-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

So my 35th Birthday is spent in Iraq. It's not that big of a deal, I hate missing those other important days like the kids Birthdays and anniversaries, my own and my parents. What I miss most is just getting together with family and visiting and catching up on whatever.

Today has been like most other days. I went into work and found my door decorated with ballons and and a sign saying happy birthday. A little later that day all of the polish officers that live work in the building, its about 10 or 11 crowded into my office and sang happy birthday to me in Polish. They gave me a book as well which is written in Polish and English that talks about all of the things the Polish military has been involved in. It was really kind of neat. The Polish are very hospitable and go out of there way to help us celebrate our holidays such as Memorial Day and our Independence day. It is really a neat place to be when you think about it.

My fellow Illinoisans gave me a card which I will post a picture of if I can get it to upload. On the front it has puppies eating a cake which is kind of an inside joke. We tend to use puppies a lot when we are emphasizing things. For example "man my stomach is messsed up I left a bowl full of puppy S*&t, or another one that seems to be common when we are talking about detainees we often say he was as soft as puppy S&@t.

So not much else to say. I had some ice cream from the Dining Facility for my Birthday but then again I have that almost every night. I was hoping for a taco salad from the taco bar but instead I ended up with a crushed taco mess for dinner. Much to my dismay I realized to late we were out of lettuce once again.

Thank You for all of your emails wishing me a Happy Birthday it's nice to know that people still remember who I am, LOL!

Later and good night from Iraq

Brent

My trip to Baghdad

2008-08-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

I returned yesterday from my Trip to Baghdad. I left late Wednesday night/ early Thursday morning. The Chinook came in about 1230 or so and picked us up with about 50 other people. All helicopters fly in pairs just in case they have problems. We landed at a couple of other places before we made it into Liberty pad which is one of the landing spots for camp Victory. The flight was pretty uneventful for the most part except for when they decided to dump some flares. Now as I understand this is a fairly common practice. They use flares to fool heat seeking missiles. Now no one shot at us but sometimes when they fly over certain areas they use the flares just in case. Anyways it was a surprise to most of us on the helicopter.

So we made it into Bagdad pretty late and went to bed not long often getting settled. I should add that we (one of the other members of the team) stayed with some of our Ukrainian acquaintances. That was very convenient otherwise we would have had to worry about a vehicle and getting around. They took care of us for the duration of our stay. Now camp Victory is one of if not the largest military Camp in Baghdad. There are at least 2 other large camps in Baghdad not to mention the green zone. It is huge compared to my little camp Echo. Camp echo is about 1.4 miles around camp victory is 29 miles around.

While I was there I got visit the big PX (think Walmart) but didn’t buy much. I bought some body soap for one of the guys since our little PX (think convenience store). I couldn’t really buy a whole lot since my whole purpose for being there was to get new armor plates for our new bullet proof vests. Each plate weighs between 6-9lbs and I had to carry 10 of them home plus all of the clothes and stuff I already had.

While I was there I got to visit Saddam’s Palace. The Military has turned it into a very large office building. In the hallways they have built 8 foot walls and made office space out of those because the hallways themselves are almost 30 ft wide. My pictures just don’t do anything there justice. I needed a wide angle lens because everything is so huge. There are only 3 floors but each floor is double the average floor of any building.

So nothing else was to spectacular I hopped on a Blackhawk for the ride home at about 1030 last night the ride was only 40 min but it was kinda of hellish. Metal seats with canvas strung between the bars, but that’s typical of almost all cargo type aircraft. The seats are meant to be stowed so they can carry stuff if need be.

So I made it home in one piece not that I expected any issues.

On another completely different note. My picture of what is this. Well I was told the wrong thing so my clues are a little off. It is a big tower that they use to look into the city. It’s stuck and not working right now lol.

Later for now,

Brent

Don't let the cold water burn you

2008-08-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Thats what one of the ukrainians said I was on my way to the shower. I thought man he screwed that up, thinking he got his English all mixed up. I thought he was telling me the Hot water was really hot.

I step into the shower and now I'm a little cautious so I turn the shower on all cold which is always at least 85 degrees or so, the cold water is never really cold. They fill up these big plastic tanks that are 10-15 feet tall and 10 feet weide. They fill them almost every day which is important to the story.

The Cold water comes out and almost scalds me. Come to find out the water didn't get filled today so the low level of water combined with 2 days in the sun made it a nice hot water heater. It wasn't really scalding but it was about as hot of a shower as you would want to take.

Now this isn't my first experiance with this type of thing. When I was in Kuwait many years ago the cold water would get so hot it would scald us. We then got smart and turned off the breakers on the hot water heaters which were inside our little trailers. We then had a cold water reservoir in which to shower with.

Since I'm talking about water. I guess I should give another clue to my picture I took. So there it is... the clue that is "water"

Well I've got my new body armor. I took a break to type a little. Everyone set up thier armor a little bit differently depending on how you work and what you do. There is a lot of trial and error so it takes some time to lace in all of the ammuntion pockets and first aid kits and what not.

When I'm done I will take a picture of my armor and the next time I wear it I will post another picture of me. It's not much different but it is a little lighter and a lot more comfortable. The big thing I like about this one is it comes in a long size. Before I use to joke that my body armor looked like a halter top. It didn't really even cover my belly button. This one comes all the way down to my belt line.

Well anywasy back to my toys.

Brent

August

2008-08-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

So August is here and another month has gone by. I know I have discussed this a bit but the months and days that are in the past seem to have flown by. When I look ahead it still seems like a long road. I have been here for 4 months and been married for 5. My poor wife is holding down the fort but I know it's tough for her.

August is suppose to be the hottest month much like back at home. You may be interested to know that our latitude here is similar to that of Georgia. Georgia is warm but not this hot. So far our hhottest dat has been 121. I hope we don't see the 130s that we are being promised. My little trailer air conditioner won't keep up when it get's that hot. The last couple days it's been freezing up on the inside because it is working so hard to keep it cool. If you call cool 84 degrees. But in comparison to 120 84 seems pretty damn cool.

Today was the 2nd time I have been to our laundry only to be told my laundry can't be found. Today was my last day of clean underwear, lol I will figure something out for tomorrow.

People are now starting thier mid-tour leaves. We have one on the way back and one more left the other day. One more leaves next week. Micca and I have decided that I am going to wait until Christmas. We figured I would do a long stretch and take it towards the end of my tour so it won't seem as long when I leave again. Being home for christmas will be special at least being home around then. Sometimes it's hard to predict the flights and what not.

NOthing witty tonight just my boring life in Iraq.

Brent

Reprieve

2008-07-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

The last couple days have seen a reprieve in the heat. Today and yesterday only got up to 108. I know 108 LOL!!

Not much to report on when it comes to the war. It's pretty much as the news reports it. Things are very quiet around here. Baghdad had a large bomb go off and injure lots of civilians. Thats about all they can to do to us anymore. We find most of the IED's and the ones that go off don't usually hurt much.

My biggest battles are with the contractors. I sometimes wonder if they remember who the customer is. I get so upset with them. When you ask them to do something you have to fill out a form and wait and wait. I've finally just start getting almost mean. I hate to resort to that type of tactic but when everything else fails I can get upset like anyone else it just takes me awhile to get going. I got upset enough to remind one of the guys that we wear the guns and yuo work for us and if don't want to do te job then get out of the way so I can. Don't get me wrong most of them are great but damn there are some I would like to strangle.

On the other side of the coin I really appreciate the packages I get from the BSSG. Although I am trying to watch my weight I few snacks don't seem to be hurting me. It's always nice to get things from home. Kind of stinks on those days where mail shows up and you get nothing. I almost always have something.

Not much else to report. If anyone is interested in an older home in Prairie City talk to my dad. My old home lost it's renter and I've decided to put it up for sale. Between being the Mayor and the mowing man Dad is a very busy guy. Just like any house it needs kept up and I'm not around to do it so I might as well get it sold. Micca and I will most likely build a house once I get back. We have the plan all picked out. With all of the housing lending mess going on we will have to see what the market is like when we get home.

Ahhh yes almost forgot a clue for the picture.

It is something the Iraqis could use, it's not military equipment.

Later for now

Brent

Another day in Iraq

2008-07-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Didn't know what to title this today so it is just another day in Iraq. I posted a picture of my corn. I am going to replant here shortly.

Yesterday was an ok day. Micca had emailed me because she was having issues with our insurance. Sometimes they can be so dumb. I have to say I have very good health insurance and almost never pay for anything. But nonetheless I had to call them and explain thier system to them. They concided they had made a mistake and would call and have the bill paid. It seems that health insurance companies have forgotten they are providing payment for healthCARE!! I think the insurance companies have forgotten that operative word. Anyways it's taken care of, hopefully we won't have any more issues.

I've had a couple of guesses on my what is it picture. I will give another clue here shortly.

Now that 4 months have gone by and we are getting into the groove I think a lot of us are pretty much just grinding the days out. What I mean is for awhile we were exploring the limits of what we should do and what we could do. Now we know what has to be done and we get our jobs done but most of the estra stuff is just kind of pushed to the side. I'm excited about our change in mission. It will all be new again and will help the last 4 months go by hopefully just as fast.

Well I can't think of much else to say hopefully I will have more to talk about tomorrow.

1/3

2008-07-22T13:36:00.001-07:00

Today’s post is titled 1/3 because yesterday was 4 months since I have left home. I Have mixed feeling about the time. Part of me thinks it has gone by very fast and then when I look ahead it seems to have gone so slow. No matter what it’s a year and that’s a long time.

So yesterday and today were a little weird. We had clouds. I was walking to my office thinking how hot it was going to be and thought things looked odd. I took off my sunglasses and decided it wasn’t the dust in the air and then looked up and saw clouds. They were trying to block the sun but not quite getting the job done. It made things look weird though.

As much as I complain about the heat I much rather have it hot than cold. From what I have read about where we are going I am going to be in for a rude awakening. Ghazni is located in between Kabul and Kandahar on a high plateau. It sits at over 7000ft in the mountains. From what I have read it gets the most snow and the coldest weather in all of Afghanistan. Talk about extremes lol.

Not much else to report I have started growing the corn. My Aunt sent me some chia pots and I converted them to corn starter pots. The plants are doing well they are about 4 inches high. I have to water them as many as 4 times a day. I am hoping that I will have corn before I leave. I will take pictures soon and post.

Now I took a picture of a very interesting object the other day. There was much speculation as to what it was around the camp for about a week. I thought I would start a contest. I will think of a prize. I’m not going to give any hints to begin with. So scroll to the bottom and take a look and post a guess of what the item in the picture is. If no one gets it in a couple of days I will start to give out hints.

Later for now

Brent

PIC!!!

2008-07-17T03:19:00.000-07:00

PIC is done!!!

Today was an interesting day and one that I won’t forget anytime soon. Today was PIC (Provincial Iraqi Control). Today was a significant day because now this providence is responsible for its own security. It doesn’t mean we are leaving or going anywhere but it allows them to take charge of most things. The U.S. and Coalition forces won’t go anywhere for awhile but it is a monumental step for Iraq becoming independent.

My task for the day was to escort Rear Admiral Buss throughout the day’s events. We had a plan all set in place for how things were to go off, but that all changed once all of the general officers hit the ground. Their helicopters arrived at about 0745 and on them were Lieutenant General Austin (3 star) Major General Oates (2 star) and Rear Admiral Buss (1 star). They also had an ambassador of sorts. I guess once you become an ambassador you retain that title forever. So what she was an ambassador of I don’t know. With Admiral Buss was a British officer, I only remember his first name it was Nick. Nick had all of the paperwork that had to be signed by the governor and General Austin.

As they all got off the helicopters I was thinking man that is a big dude. The big dude was the “Big Dude”, it was General Austin. He’s tall black man that would not be out of place as a NFL linebacker. General Oates and Admiral Buss were both about 6’2” and General Austin made us all seem small in comparison. I wonder how General Petraus feels when he is standing around with these guys. Petraus is on the short side at only 5’4” or 5’5”

So the day starts out with me introducing myself to Admiral Buss. He is a very personable man and was very easy to keep happy. Some general officers are very high maintenance, I was thankful he was not. I found out that Admiral Buss was a fighter pilot and we talked about the irony of bombing something then becoming responsible for fixing it.

The original plan was to go to city hall and sign the documents and eat lunch. The actual plan had us go down to the center of town and participate in the ceremony which included a parade and some demonstrations of the police and army capabilities. We all then headed to City hall and had lunch.

There are many things that I will remember about today. Oddly enough the announcer for the ceremonies and the parade will stick in my mind. I say oddly because I only understood about 2 words the entire time. The thing I will remember is the pitch and the fervor in his voice. He had me excited and I didn’t know what the hell he was saying. The overall enthusiasm by the participants and the crowd was very tangible. You could tell this was a big deal for them and meant a lot.

It was really an honor to be there and part of something I believe to be a significant event, and milestone in Iraq becoming an independent stable nation.

As usual it was hot, very hot. By the end of the day you couldn’t touch anything without burning yourself. I had taken my glove off for some reason and grabbed my pistol to clear it and almost dropped it because it was so hot. It’s odd that you have to wear gloves because everything is to hot to touch. Bare metal is really unbearable to touch, even if it is in the shade. If it is in the sun it is downright painful and can cause burns.

I could write a small book on today but honestly I am tired and think for the first time in a long time I will sleep well tonight. I can count on one hand the time I have been asleep before 2400.

Fireworks

2008-07-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Thnakfully no fireworks here, no rockets red glare or bombs bursting in air. Things are quiet at camp Echo tonight.

The 4th of July is like most days here. I did get an award along with the other 10 people that came here with me. We were awarded the Multi-National Central South Coalition Service Medal.

Not much to report at the moment. It is July and its not significantly hotter yet. It gets about 120 everyday. As I write now it is 2200 or 10:00 P.M. and it is 94 degrees. It will drop into the mid to low 80s tonight and heat up pretty quick.

Sorry I don't have much more to talk about. I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July

Brent

PIC

2008-06-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

PIC= Provencial Iraqi COntrol. I have talked about this a little bit. Today was suppose to be the day. But i guess it wasn't meant to be. The weather was abd in Baghdad so the Priminister couldn't make it here and he wouldn't allow everything to be signed without him being here to participate. I guess somehow if he wasn't here it would give this govener (spelled wrong I know) more power than what he should. Don't ask me the specifics I just know that it wasn't going to happen.

We were all very much looking forward to this. There has been an enormous amount of time and planning that has gone into this. Our little camp has swelled by about 300 people just for this event.

My job for the day had me escorting a 2 star marine general around. He didn't make it because of the weather either.

So the whole event is a bust :( We will have to wait awhile since our turn has gone by. There is another providence that will be turned over very soon and we have to wait until that is done. We can't do these things at the same time because of all of the resources that have to be devoted to security. I just wouldn't be a good thing if we were handing things over and the event took a rocket or mortar round. The news coverage just wouldn't be favorable.

Since I have been here you can really notice the difference in the security situatioo. Amarah (probably spelled wrong to) was taken over with very little resistence. We were prepared for the worse. The difference is the populace. They are tired of all of the crap. They want the bad guys out of their country and they know we will take care of them. There is a element of trust not only in us but in thier own countrymen. They believe in themselves whhich turns the tables on the bad guys and all of thier propaganda.

I have been quiet for awhile busy with this and trying to provide support to my family back home. Micca's grandmother passed away this last week. It has been very difficult for all of us but mostly Micca has had to deal with the brunt of it. I give what support I can but it's just not the same as a reassuring hug or squeeze. I hope this is the worst thing that gets thrown at us because it was a toughone.

I would like to thank everyone for the help and support during this time. I owe a special thank you to my sister who was so kind as to take time off to take Ashtyn and Drake back and forth so Micca didn't have to worry about it. It's so comforting to know that thier are people back home willing to help me out when it's needed.

Thank You!!

Brent

"Granny"

2008-06-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Granny….. She has left us now :( I had the privilege of knowing her for only a short time. But in that time I can see where my wife got a lot of her attributes. Knowing that she is hurting so badly right now hurts me so deeply because I can’t be there to comfort her. In some strange way it helps a little to write about it. I know how deeply this will impact not only my family but all of the families that are associated with the VanDykes. She was such a strong person fighting until the end. She had to let everyone say their goodbyes. Shortly after the last family member stepped in to say good bye she then left this world.

There just doesn’t seem much more to say. This is one of the many things that service members go through every day. We miss so much. But in some strange way I think we learn better than anyone how precious life is and how our time with our loved ones is so limited. We don’t take those simple things for granted. I will be better for being gone, and so will everyone else that is close to me, only because we will work hard to make up for lost time and then some.

But just because I will be a better person in the end doesn’t mean I would volunteer to do this. I’m very Proud to serve my country, this is an example of how my family serves with me.

Granny is such an awesome person. She will never be gone. Every time I look at my wife I will be reminded of granny. She has had such a profound effect on all of those around her that everyone that has been around her will take a piece of her with them. In the case of wife I think she has more than most. If you knew both of them you would know exactly what I am talking about.

Goodbye Granny………..

A sad day

2008-06-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well the last couple days have been pretty hard. Micca's Grandmother "Granny" as everyone calls her has been pretty ill. To top it all off she fell and broke her hip and now everything seems to be coming to an end.

I know everyone thinks how horrible it is that I am over here when things like this happen but it's not I you should feel sorry for, it those people that I leave behind that I am such an integral part of thier life. I hurt because I know it hurts that I am not there for them in time of great sadness or for celebrations.

I live with people who all have the same problems and we can lean on each other. When I am gone there is no one to replace me.

My wife is such an incredible person she always feels like she isn't doing enough. I worry about her because I think she does to much. She works third shift and often only gets a few hours of sleep because there is always t-ball practice or a dinner or reunion or b-day party or whatever. She worries about me not coming home but I often worry about not having her to come home to. Did I mention she is a Police Officer to be more specific a Deputy. It's not like her back up is down the block or even in the same city.

Everyone calls the soldiers heroes, I don't hardly feel deserving of the title. It's my family that are the real Heroes, they are the ones that are left behind to take care of whatever it is that I have left. Whatever support I may have given is now gone and not easily replaced. My life here is easy by comparison.
Drake, Ashtyn, Dade and Micca are my Heroes. My Dad and Mom and Sister rate right up with them too. They are all sacrificing so much while I am gone.
Today is by far the low point in my deployment, I feel so bad for being gone, not there to share and to support my family when they need it. I think this has got to be the one of the worst feelings.

Ok enough about me, as bad as I may feel I always try to look on the bright side and think well at least I am here to feel something. Morbid? It may be but being here and seeing and knowing first hand about war makes you different. Different how I don’t really know. You become numb to some feelings or maybe you just learn how to suppress your thoughts and feeling so you can function. It is so easy to think about the what if. There is always two sides to the what if. It’s a combat zone you live in some fear but it is mostly suppressed. The two sides of the what if start when you hear of someone being killed by an unlikely event. The bad guys shoot rockets every once in awhile. Sometimes they hit people. I know I’m rambling here some what but I think I have a point. If you think about that being you, you will go crazy the way around that is to think about how it was just an unlucky event and how the chances of that are so incredibly small that it won’t happen to me. The thing is, is that it does happen. So where was I going with all of that I don’t know I think I am talking about coping and how just being here can be stressful without you ever knowing it.

Well enough of the introspective thoughts.

“Granny” she started this whole entry today. She is one of the strongest willed, opinionated people I have ever known. Micca told me early on that Granny ruled the roost. It didn’t take me long to realize that she was right. She made no bones about speaking her mind lucky for me I make a good first impression. I’m sure I underwent some scrutiny but I passed the “granny test” She is the focal point of the family make no doubt about that.

Well this post has taken me all over the map hope you could follow it.

Later for now

As always I’m Brent!!

Another day in the city

2008-06-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

Today was another day where I had to take the Colonel into the city. Today we went to the police headquarters in the city. It was a little drive about 10-15 minutes. It's always nice to get out but there is some stress involved you never let you guard down. TOdays meeting had the head of the Iraqi army the head of the Polish Army and the chief of Police for the city. The Iraqi army is right outside our camp. So we stop in the Iraqi army compound to pick up the Iraqi general. We don't really pick him so much as meet up with his convoy. So once our convoys are together we take off into the city. We get there without incident and the Colonel takes off inside. We wait outside in the sun for the next 2 1/2 hours. Now our Hummers have air conditioning but all that does is keep it from turning into an oven. The meeting goes well they have a lunch and lots of information is exchanged. We head back in and I go to work for the rest of the day. When I get there I found 15k worth of office supplies have been dropped off in my office. They get sorted but thats about it. I'm beat and done for the day.

Later

Brent

Money Money Money

2008-06-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I know I know my time between posts seems to be getting longer and longer. I guess I have gotten settled into a routine and there doesn't seem much worth writing about. So why did I title this Money Money Money. Well the government has a program that we buy goods from local vendors to support our misson. We can buy everything from pens and paper to computers and many other things. So today I picked up 20k dollars in cash. This may seem odd but in a worn torn country like Iraq the american dollar is still king. By spending money in the iraqi economy it is one small way to help infuse money into thier economy. It's really scary how much cash we use over here. We are all use to credit transactions and bank transfers. It's kind of wierd to see a contractor paid to build a building in cash. It's not uncommon to see transfers of more than $200-$500k.

You can rest assured there are very tight controls on the money. It takes 2 people to complete any transaction and 3 to request the money. Give me a credit card any day it's much easier.

Well the temperature over here has seemed to hold at about a steady 110-115 everyday. Some of the hotter days have gotten into the 120s. We are told that 140's in the summer aren't uncommon. I'm not looking forward to that. I've asked some Iraqi's how they deal with the heat. They say they go find some shade and air conditioning lol.

PIC, I think I've talked about this before. It is Provencial Iraqi Control. That is when we give a providence over to the Iraqi's to manage. We still stay here but we don't intervene unless we are asked

Our Providence will soon obtain PIC, which is a big deal. People talk about how little progress we are making, I can honestly see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I'm not saying we will be ready to leave any time soon but I think things will start to look a lot more like they do in Germany.

I could go on and on and get on my soapbox but I will save that for some other day some other time.

On a completley different topic my step son just turned 6 which if you had asked him a day after his 5th birthday he would have told you he was almost 6 then. I'm sure he's telling everyone now he's almost 7. In just a short time Dade will have his Bday party My sister along with her boys and lots of the family will be there as well. Oh I forgot to tell you that they are having the Bday party at a go cart track. It's days like today where I really want to be home. I want to be home every day but it's days like today that I want to be home even more.

Well I hope everyone has fun today and the weather holds out. Micca is going to try and skype me in for some of it we will see how that goes.

Later for now

Brent

It's been a few days(have I used that title before)

2008-06-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

So not a lot has happened in the past few days but remarkably the week flew by. Te most interesting thing I had to deal with was an Iraqi Police chief who wanted to know the status of some weapons that were turned over to the Americans between 2 and 4 years ago. The conversation was very interesting to say the least. My interpreter has a very thick accent and as interpreters go isn’t the best of the lot. So the Police chief wants me to tell him that we received the weapons which I am not going to do since odn’t have any thing saying we do. In all likely hood those weapons were turned over to the American forces but the likelihood of finding the paperwork is close to zero especially after 4 years in the case of the one. He went on to try and make me feel bad and say that one of his officers would be punished if I didn’t provide documentation. Those of you that know me may or may not know that as soon as someone try to threaten me or leverage something against me, well you might as forget about me bending whatever rules I may be bound by. There are grey areas that we all learn to work in but as soon as someone force me there or tries to, things suddenly become black and white.

Not much else is going on. Iraq is pretty quiet for the most part. You have your spots of violence and what not but then again so does the US, ours just isn’t to the same degree.

I had to confiscate a polaris from a group of people that work for me. I guess they were going 42km in a 15km zone and the polish MPs stopped them and gave them a ticket. Not a real ticket but one that lets you know you were wrong. A copy of these tickets goes to my boss who wasn’t to happy. In all honesty I don’t feel bad at all for taking the Polaris from them. They had been warned a couple of times and now they have to pay the price and walk.

The last couple days have been pretty dusty so it has only gotten up to about 99 degrees or so. I was asked to give an update on the plants. Well I haven’t attempted to grow the corn as of yet. The daisies that Dade sent me sprouted just fine but the heat nailed them. I am now attempting marigolds. I am trying to keep them inside and then let them catch the morning sun and take them inside for the afternoon. We will see how that works out. The 3 plants that mom and dad sent me initially are all dead except for the one. It lives inside with me and I try to open my window to give it some sun but I’m afraid I will kill it to if I put it outside. These plants don’t die from lack of water they die from the heat. We kept them pretty well watered but the heat just kicks their butts.

On another note the 11 of us are anxiously awaiting information about our mission in Afghanistan. We know we will be working with the Polish again that is why we are moving. They are leaving here and moving all of their troops to Afghanistan. We will be going to camp that isn’t as well developed as what it is here and we will be at about 7000 ft above sea level. It looks like my deployment will be full of sand and snow. Don’t know who I made mad enough to make me spend my summer in Iraq and my Winter in Afghanistan. My thermometer will make the trip with me that’s for sure.

I will keep every one as up to date as possible on my move but as usual I probably won’t be to detailed.

Later,

Brent

Nothing much

2008-06-04T11:16:00.001-07:00

Well not much has been going on. It's been hot as you can see by my thermometer. THat has been one of the best things sent to me. It has a button that you can see the maxium and the minumum for the day. I'm always catching people checking it. I don't mind thats why I put it out there.

Today I might have ruffled some feathers but we have had this on going issue with control of some armored suburbans we have. KBR which I am sure most of you have heard of is a huge contractor for the military and this camp is no different than most we have a large contractor presence over here. They have been giving me a problem saying that they own these vehicles which they sort of do but we get to tell them how they are being used. Well I tried to work things at the lowest level but lets just say some people are being less than user friendly. Soooo I went to to see the head of KBR at camp echo. My problem was no longer a problem after talking with no kidding his name is Rambo. I went back to the shop where they give out the vehicles to make sure they had gotten the word and guess what problem solved. Feathers were ruffled but oh well they had thier chance to resolve the issue at thier level.

THe funny thing about KBR is they sometimes forget who they are working for. The Army has them here to serve us. Sometimes they forget that and we have to remind them of that. To say that there is some comtempt for them might be a slight understatement. Any time you ask them to do something it seems like you have to renegotiate thier contract. It's like having a union in a warzone. Don't get me wrong the vast majority will bend over backwards but it is the mid level managers that I wanna shoot sometimes.... we do carry guns here too, of course I am just kidding but the thought has crossed my mins a couple of times.

They have this area that is the KBR compound which they control access to with an unarmed iraqi dude who is there to keep other Iraqis out. Well they like to stop the soldiers going in too. Well now that I know what they are there for I'm kind of an asshole. I know where I am going and who I am seeing. So I just walk by and ignore the liitle guy or guys that are trying to stop me. They sometimes follw me in but it's kind of comical and has become a game of sorts for me. One day I might find one that is froggy but Ive yet to see one over 5'4" and 140lbs. I'm at leat 6'2" and 190. I don't think any one of those guys is going to try and stop me lol.

Well thats I have for now.... sorry I'm so boring these days

Brent

false alarm

2008-06-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

So yesterday and today have been pretty quiet. Same old stuff just different days. It is routinley hitting 115. It's amazing how many people stop to look at my temp gauge.

Yesterday I was typing away. It was about 1800 and I know this.... well because well you will see. I had finished up my reports for the day and was checking the internet for whatever it isn't important here, when I hear the CRAM (Counter Rocket and Mortar) alarm go off. Now we haven't heard it very many times since we have been here so needless to say in about 3 seonds flat I'm in the Bunker. I am very close to the bunker there is only one trailer between the Bunker and I. You would be surprised at how much jumps through your head in 3 seconds.

What is that?
That's the CRAM Siren
Are you sure?
It's in the middle of the day they don't usually shoot at us in the middle of the day
OH S*&% I better go to the bunker
No one else is running to the bunker
Umm was that the CRAM siren?
Yes of course it was the Cram Siren

Now I'm inn the Bunker

Hmmm odd no onelse is here
Did they change the siren and not tell me?
Damn i bet I lost a lot of cool points
I wonder if I can get out of here without anyone seeing me
Damn Polish dude.... he doesnt count ..... made it

So I say to one of the guys as nonchalanty as I can so what was the siren for today... leaving it as ambigous as possible. He calmy replies you ran to the bunker didn't you.

It's at theis point I could A. say no or B. Fess up. I took option B and busted myself out. He admitted he started to run but didn't see anyone else moving for the bunkers so he played it off too.

Come to find out they had published an announcement on one of our 3 computer systems, just so happens it is the one I check the least lol.

Hope you got a decent laugh I did!!

Brent

2 months in Paradise

2008-05-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

A couple of guys like me

2008-05-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

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

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

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.

It's been awhile

2008-05-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Anything new?

2008-05-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

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

Very very very full day

2008-05-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

So what is missing

2008-05-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

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

Pushing up Daisies

2008-05-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

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

Wednesday??

2008-05-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

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

A busy day

2008-05-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

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

The day after Mothers day

2008-05-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

Busy day

2008-05-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

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

Nothing much

2008-05-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

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

So.... what is it like

2008-05-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

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

12km or 7.42 miles it hurts either way

2008-05-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Technology is great

2008-05-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

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

Nothing really new

2008-05-02T11:42:00.003-07:00

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

A little shooting today

2008-05-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Rain Dust and my eyebrow

2008-04-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

Now if the title doesn't get you then I don't know what will. We lost our private internet here for a couple of days but we appear to be back in business.

Micca and I were getting use to chatting and talking quite often and these last couple of days I have been kinda of blahhh and I think it is because I haven't got to chat like usual. We have other ways to talk. I called one day and we both have the army instant messenger which allows me to chat with her on my work computer. Things like yahoo and aol aren't allowed on the work computers. So yesterday and today were both pretty dusty but later it started raining. Today it rained pretty hard and you would think the sand would soak it up. Well what we have her isn't the sand you think of like on a beach. It is more like a powder and when it rains it turns the powder into a muddy muddy mess. The end result is we have had some cooler nights. It has gotten into the 70s which is pretty cool for us.

Ok now for the eyebrow. Anyone that knows me very well knows I have some pretty thick eyebrows and if I don't pay attention I will end up with a monobrow. So bob and I and a couple others are sitting in the mess hall. Someone remarked I had a wild eyebrow hair pointing out like a horn. Well of course i tried to quickly smoosh it back into place but noooo it wasn't going to behave. So Bob the barber/groomer whips out his leatherman and quickly goes to the needlenose pliers. If he chose the knife I would have ran but I figured ahhh what the hell needle nose pliers can't do to much damage. So I stand very still fearful taht something bad will happen. Bob goes in for the first grab and pull and misses...... no keep in mind we are doing this in the middle of the mess hall and everyone at the table is just waiting for this to go wrong. Bob goes in for the 2nd grab much slower this time making sure he won't miss and it get a good grab and yanks. Of course it comes out root and all. So no blood spilt and nothing more than a big ole eyebrow hair to show for it. It's the little things that I find humor in and this one had us cracking up.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to shoot for a bit so I should be able to take out all of my fusturations on some water bottles and wood pallets.

Hopefully I won't have anymore internet issues

Later for now

Brent

It's Monday or is it?

2008-04-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

Today's title is kind of how I feel sometimes. The only reason I pay attention to the days of the week is to try and stay in touch with what is going on at home.

So I was walking to work today and thought man a pool would be nice. The ironic thing is that we have one here but it's been turned into a water treatment plant. It's not a place to go swimming now lol.

For the most part today was like most days. It was suppose to be cooler and I suppose it was but it still got up to 108 and that was with the dust.
Tonight I took the front of my air conditioner off and it took a shower with me. I don't know who was dustier and dirtier but we both came out a lot cleaner. Micca is sending me a Flylady featherduster I don't even know if that will help me out but I'm willing to try anything.

I scheduled a range for Thursday so I plan on going and shooting some bullets. Things here are not so regimented which makes for a casual range. I can also work on some more advanced marksman ship skills which is tough to do with a large group of people. We don't get to shoot enough in the army so I plan on doing a lot of it throughout the year.

this got posted a late because my internet went down right before I hit publish

The Dust is back :(

2008-04-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

The dust is back with a vengeance, the side effect is it won't be quite so hot tomorrow. It is only suppose to be 98 tomorrow.

So today was suppose to be my morning off, but we found out yesterday that we would have to escort the Colonel to see the Governor of our providence. It was only a few miles outside of Echo but you always have to be prepared. I played the gunner today so that meant I was standing in the turret od the Hummer ready with SAW (machine gun). The meeting took about two hours but we had to stay outside and pull security. It ended up being about 115 today so standing the turret was a little warm, ok it was downright hot.

I felt bad yesterday when I was talking with Micca last night and she mentioned that I got to sleep in tomorrow and I told her I had to work. We then had to deal with the conversation of I can’t tell you what I’m doing, which is bad for us because we tell each other everything. Don’t get me wrong Micca is all to understanding of my situation and it’s not that I don’t trust her with the information, but we always have to assume someone is listening to unsecure communications. So for everyone’s safety we just don’t talk about some things until they are done with and there may be some things I can’t talk about at all.

I do have to say that as far as I am concerned, when it comes to doing convoys I am always concerned that something might happen but I am not scared. The bad guys more times than not get caught nowadays. They may bloody our nose every once in a while but I am confident that they won’t get away with it. The firepower that we project makes people think twice probably three or four times before doing something. I of course always temper my confidence with the knowledge that many soldiers had the same confidence as me and won’t be going home. But our job is not much more different than a police officer’s. They go out there every day confident they can handle most situations but there are some that don’t come home at night. Ok enough of the reality check, but I want everyone to understand the state of mind for most everyone here.

Later for now,

Brent

Sooooo..... it's Saturday and......

2008-04-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing much new to talk about. If you have been following the news things were a bit tense yesterday. I will explain a little more. Fridays are like Sundays in the states. On Fridays you can imagine the rhetoric that goes on with in the Mosques. Fridays are generally either really quiet or in this case everyone knew Sadar was going to make a statement. And most of us believed he was going to end the cease fire. Well he seemed to keep everything in place. It's interesting to say the least.

My area here is important because it has done so well. The Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army have all but put a stop to IEDs and IDF. Talk about discrimination!! the town has a curfew for all men 15-35. So when people talk about racial profiling in our country well... they are doing it here to the extreme but it is quite effective.

Today was 114.5 I think that is the hottest yet. We still think we prefer the this heat to the humid Illinois dog days. We will see when it hits 130or 135 if I have changed my tune. I am talking in the shade not in the sun. Ove rhte next few days it is suppose to cool off. On Wednesday we are suppose to have a high of only 98 but there is a trade off, the reason it is suppose to cool off is because the sun wont be getting through. If you have been following me you might have guessed it we are in for a sandstorm.

Tommorrow is of course Sunday and my cleaning day but I'm thinking about skipping it because of this storm lol.

Not much else to talk about for now. There are lots of things going on I would love to share but unless i read them in the news I can't say so much about them. If you want to know more and want my take on things in the news I can do that to a certian degree. This year there is so much happening it will be very interesting to watch.

Later for now,

Brent

Small victories

2008-04-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today was one of my first real successesconcerning the Army supply system. When Ifirst got here and realized that I would be responsible for ordering things I figured I better order something just to check out the process. Well low and behold I got some of the first items I ordered. Chalk up one for the chemical guy turned Log Dawg.

Technology is absolutley incredible. I remember the first time I deployed and how out of touch I became from things at home. Now with skype and messenger I am staying more and more in touch. I know Micca was having a really difficult time to begin with and it wasn't exactly easy for me but having been married less than a month it would be hard on anybody. We truely are inseperable. A perfect example is on both of our cruises we have been on. You might think that everybody needs a little alone time to do thier own things. Well I bet in total on both cruises we werent seperated for more than 3 or 4 hours total. Micca is truely my best friend. I think that was what was probably the hardest thing for us. We were never more than a text or phone call away... let me tell you we probably have the record for texts in a month. Anytime anything good or bad happens we always call or text to tell the other as soon as possible if it can't wait until we get home. I remember this one time.... yes this is story time again, it was pretty late or pretty early however you want to put it. Micca calls me... first off before I go any further I need to tell you that we don't call each other very often. We almost ALWAYS text. So when I get a call in the middle of the night I am at first worried. And then to hear Micca she was talking so fast I couldn't understand her. Once I get her calmed down I begin to understand every other word and I find out that she finally tazed someone. In case you don't know a tazer is a gun that shoots a couple of darts into a person who fails to verbally comply with an officers instructions those darts then transmit... I think it is 50,000 volts and will cause the subject to loose muscle control. Well Micca had been shot at the police academy for practice so they would know what it feels like. She had yet to return the favor to a noncompliant subject... until now. When she called me she was so excited I think all of her adreniline had dumped in and she didnt know how fast she was talking. I forgot where I was going with this.....lol. Well you get the point of how it might be tough for us to be seperated for a day much less.... well it's been a month now. I love talking about my wife, I know she is proud of me but I think I am even more proud of her. There are plenty of male role models bu what Micca has accomplished is much tougher than anything I have had to overcome.

I'm very proud of my Wife!!

ok enough boasting for now, I didn't have much else to talk about but I start talking about her I can talk all day.

Later for now

Brent

It's getting hot out here.. the plants don't look so good

2008-04-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!!! today hit about 112 in the shade. I know this because of the thermometer that Mom and Dad sent me. It shows me the maximum temp for the day and the max humidity. Most of the time during the day it is around 15% humidity and it goes up at night but it has never felt muggy. So I went running today at lunch.. Dang it was hot, something close to 111 when I got done. The plants aren't doing so well... I have moved them inside but they are not happy.

I think I've got skype figured out and yahoo IM. Micca and I have had some decent conversations although the last one she did all of the talking... just like usual... Just kidding honey. My Mic wasn't working right but I think I have it figured out now. So if anyone wants to chat you can find me on yahoo Im and skype just talk to Micca and she can tell you how.

Well not much else, maybe someone could send me a generator cause ours seem to wanna die when it gets hot. I hope they make it through the summer lol

A funny story

2008-04-23T13:32:00.001-07:00

Ok so like every good Army story I have to start out...

NO S@#! they we were

My buddy Bob and I sitting on the airfield in the little Polaris... you can refer to the pictures I have posted to reference both.

It is night time and I am waiting with Bob waiting for the helicopter to make sure he gets on so he doesnt have to walk back with all of his gear. We have to be an hour early even thought the helicopters are almost always late.

So we are bored... We are guys.... We have guns...NOO we didn't shoot anything, but we did get these cool laser grips that project the laser dot wherever we aim. So inquiring minds.. Bob and I wanted to know how far they would go. The short answer is pretty damn far. The long answer is much funnier, not necessarily in what happened but what could have happened and this is why the story is kind of funny.

So Bob and I are sitting on the Polaris, It's a very nice night and we are just enjoying the evening. We both remember that our pistols laser sights didn't go but 20 meters or so in the daylight so we try them out at night. We try the retaining wall that is close to us.... about 70 meters away, I think I said "wow that works really well" Then we both start aiming for the opposite wall all the way across the airfield which is probably 300 meters away, and damn you guessed it they worked. This is where we realized hey you know we are in a combat zone and this might not be such a good idea. We had a good laugh about how dumb we were and the we watched a truck driving around the perimeter where we had just been pointing our lasers. Now vehicles don't usually drive around this way so we are thing UH-OH we stirred up something, but then we realized that they were out changing the guards out of the towers. The truck stopped right where we had been shining our lasers and we came to another realization that those towers were manned with guards with live ammo. These guards are from the mongolian Contingent and they are know to fire firt and identify targets after the fact. So that led to more speculation on our part about how dumb we were and how we would have chewed our soldiers butts for doing something stupid like that.

Just the thought of what could have happened after the fact had us laughing for a a good 30 minutes after. Yeah I know it's not something we should be laughing about but you find humor in the wierdist places in comabt zones.

It's not as funny once I have written it down but it's my story for the day I hope you enjoyed it.

Oh I got mail too, The girl Scout troop from Avon sent me a care package with cookies and I got the Flags Mom and Dad sent with some other little goodies. I also got a card From Aunt Dawn. I really appreciate the mail I get. I think I am the only one who has got something in every delivery. Thank you so very much!!

Brent

Outside the Wire

2008-04-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

Well today was the first time have been outside the wire since I have made it to Camp Echo. We were suppose to be part of a convoy that ws going to escort a british 3star general around to a nearby Iraqi Army camp to show the progress. Well word got out and everyone knew he was coming so they decided to do flyovers in helicopters instead. I should say that we were ther for our Colonel since he was going to be part of this. Well like I said they decided to fly but they still wanted us at the destination point in case something happened to the helicopter. The Convoy was composed of the Polish Special Forces (insert joke here) and some of the special security for the general.

The ride out and back was unremarkable. I drove and Bob was in the turret. I can see me having driving issues at home once I get back if I do this more often. We drive down the center of the road and drive at anyone who doesn't get over. We drive on what ever side of the interstate we want to. All Iraqis now that when a Colation Convoy is coming you had better get off the road and stop. If they don't they will get a couple rounds over the car then a couple in the car and then... well you can see how it goes.

SO basically if anyone has road rage issues I have a place for you. Aggressive driving doesn't begin to describe what we do. Anyways that was my day. This week is suppose to get hotter. The weather reports are saying 109. It was 102 while we were out today. It didn't feel to bad but I was tired when we got back. It took me a long time to cool down. People may think I am crazy but I still rather have the heat than the cold.

I posted some pictures bot big and small so be sure to scroll down.

Well that's it for now

Brent

Guns and stuff

2008-04-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Today Bob and I decided we would go out and test fire some of our weapons that we have. We ended up getting to shoot a couple of AK-47s too.

We have a SAW its not powertool or something usually used for cutting. It stands for squad automated weapon. If you think machine gun that's what it is. We each shot about 1000 rounds a piece with our personal rifles machine guns and pistols.

This is where I get on my soap box about saying I have a pretty good chance against the bad guys, in fact after shooting an AK-47 which is wha they have I feel a whole beeter knowing that they are basically just spraying rounds while we are aiming and shooting. So I will happily kick thier butts over here, so they don't come home and knock down any more buildings.

I put on my body armor again yesterday... I don't have to wear it everyday. I swear it weighs 50 lbs with all of the ammo and everything.

I will take some pictures of the stay puff marshmellow man I mean me tomorrow. I will try and post some of some pictures I took today of all of our weapons. I didn't look at them so I don't know if they turned out.

Well it's getting late so I'm going to sign off tonight and maybe post a picture or two

Later,

Brent

edit: check the bottom picture I posted a new one

Sunday mail and plants

2008-04-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

Today is Sunday and this is the closest thing I have to a day off. I'm not required to go in in the morning and really only have to go in to turn in my report. So i spent part of the day cleaning, I can only stem the tide of dust I can never say it's clean.

Unlike the states our post office is open everyday so we got mail today. There is even some speculation we may get some more tomorrow. I received two packages from the Bushnell Soldiers Support Group, or at least I think thats what it stood for. 2 of the 3 plants made it in pretty good shape. We are trying to revive the 3rd but it's not looking good. I took some pictures of the plants I will see if I get them posted tonight.

Micca and I have got our messenger and video working. I think as long as we don't use the voice it will work.

I also got both of my thermometers. It is 2000 or 8 P.M. and it is 80 degrees and 22% humidity Earlier today it was 98 degrees but wasnt to bad because the dust haze keeps the direct sun to a minumum.

thats it for now

Brent

I'm back... but with nothing new

2008-04-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

I missed a day, I got sort of wrapped up watching the cubs and it got late so I didn't post anything.

The mail truck came in late today so you will have to stay tuned tomorrow to see what I got :)

I'm back on track with yahoo messenger so for those of yuo that would like to chat with me from about 11 PM until 2 or 3 PM add armyguy8675309 to your users or friends or whatever it is.

Today was the first day I was sort of disappointed in the Dining Facility. I wanted to have a salad and all the had was cabbage and we have been out of tomatoes for a couple of days as well. I imagine our food resupply came in with the mail.

Today was pretty slow, I did my lunch time run thing. I was still sore from playing basketball the other night so it wasn't the fastest run of my life but it wasn't really slow either. I have to be careful on parts of the run. On part of the route there is this roud that goes around the airfield and all that seperates the airfield from the road is about 6 strands of razor wire. I'm always worried i'm going to roll my ankle and fall in it. I usually run far enough away so if I did fall I wouldn;t fall into it.

Tomorrow is my cleaning day, although I do some sort of cleaning almost every day. Even with my trailer all closed up I got dust coating everything daily. The days we have dust storms make it worse.

Well Micca and I just got our webcams going so I am done for now

Later,

Brent

Dusty Dusty day... Not very hot

2008-04-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well today wasn't near as hot but that was because we a had or rather are having a pretty bad dust storm. Visability is about 200 feet and the air quality is horrid. You don't really feel the dust blowing against you as much as see it. With all of that dust in the air it tends to keep the temps down.

Today was the first day I got asked a lot of maintenance and maintenance related questions. At my level it's more about the accountability of stuff then it is me actually fixing it. I have people that do the fixing... they don't belong to me. I'm the conduit to all of the information and if I don't have it then I usually know where to go get it.

Even though I was busy today I wasn't to busy to give Micca a call this morning, this afternoon for me. I got my other phone put in my office that lets me call through the military network for nothing. It's very nice and convienient to just be able to call from office and not have to wait in lines. We got to talk about everything and nothig almost like we would do if we were together. Micca admitted she is still having a hard time and I only say that here because I'm pretty sure she would tell anyone else the same. I couldn't be prouder of her though. Every time i ask a question about stuff she's already got it done or is waiting on someone esle to do their part. I'm really a much better soldier because of her. I don't have to worry about anything she is so great.

I found out this week that my company I just left will most likely be headed to Afghanistan in October with the huge deployment from Illinois. I have mixed feelings about them going without me. The current Commander will not go since he just returned from Afghanistan. So that leaves them without a commander and I sort of wish it was me. Granted I would be one big stressed out mess when I got done, that's a lot of responsibility to take 130 soldiers... Moms dads sisters brothers sons and daughters into a combat zone. Afghanistan is the safer of the two for sure.

Well like usual I am going to post some pictures like usual and that takes awhile.

Thanks for the encouragement and support. I appreciate everyone looking out for my family.

Brent

Hotter still

2008-04-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

Well the heat is on, guess I should quit whining I can sit in the air condtioning most of the time.

I skipped my afternoon run today, I'm going to try and run in the morning. I played Basketball with the youngins tonight, I never thought I would be the old guy on the court. I held my own for the most part. The polish like to play as well, they are pretty physical which is fne by me but they don't like to be treated the same way so some of the younger kids were getting bent out of shape. I was just there to get off my arse for the evening. I put on my heart monitor that Micca had got for me to see my heart rate and count my calories burned. I burnt up almost 1000 in an hour I figure if I can do that everyday I should start seeing a few lbs drop off. The heat will help too lol.

For those of you that have my email I really enjoy getting mesages throughout the day. Whenever I start to get bored I go to my email and it's nice to read whatever you have to say.

Tonight for dinner we had steak and crab legs... well they claim it was steak, the crab legs were ok. I should have just had a salad the steaks were pretty sorry. I know they are trying but... well it just didn't cut it.

So I had a cookie and a shake lol

Later for now, Hopefully I will have something exciting to write about one of these days.

Brent

Wheww!!! It's getting warmer

2008-04-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Today was a little on the warm side. I don't know how hot it got but it was 104 by 1100 hrs in ths shade. My thermometer only went to 120 and it was maxed out in the sun. So to answer Dad's question yes we are headed into summer. They do have seasons here but it's more along the lines of what Florida would see for seasons. Baghdad saw snow this last winter for the first time in 60 years.

Not a whole lot... well I cant really say that but I will say not a whole happened here at Echo today. Today is the end of the 3 days of morning for Sadar's father brother?? whatever being killed last year. Soooo there has been a little more activity today then what we have seen for awhile.

I worked on getting another phone into my office. I only have the Secret type phone in my office and now I will the regular one which will allow me to call to the states for free then I can use a phone card to dial as if I was in the states, plus it will be very convienient to call from office.

Well most evenings thus far I sit in my little trailer with the door open and we will usually end up outside just talking. Tonight as I sit here with my door open I'm thinking it is pretty hot, it is still 84 at 2000.

I guess one thing to note is that I had the mongolian liason come see me to day to borrow a video projector. I'm truly the international supply guy, I also helped the Armenians find a place they could wash their trucks.

There are some other things that I do nothing to special but it's not something I should advertise on an open forum. We are constantly being reminded that we should be careful about what type of information we post on tthe internet. In fact I don't even throw envelopes in the garbage for fear that the return address will go to the bad guys. There have been cases where family members have recieved mail from the bad guys, propaganda and such.

Well now that I have scared everyone it's time for me to post some pictures.

102 degrees and a language barrier

2008-04-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Hopefully I haven't bored you to death by now. Today was 102 when I got done with my run at 1145. I caught another gecko, I think this one was pregnant, and when I let her go she tried to run up my shirt sleeve. I screamed like a girl that was good for a laugh.

As for my language barrier today.. I about had to beat a polish soldier to death. You see we have 3 computer systems that everyon eoperates off of. We have one that is for unclassified stuff one for secret stuff and one for secret stuff that is for our allies. We don't share all of all secret stuff. So anyways the Polish are in charge of the last one. The person I had replaced had dropped off a computer to them to get fixed, I went there and was trying to explain that. It took me about 30 minutes to get my point across only for them to tell me they don't have it. SO I am missing a computer. I might find it somewhere I am still inventorying stuff.

Short one tonight, I will see if I can post some new pictures

A little about me

2008-04-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Today was Sunday so I slept in or rather just stayed in my room trailer until 10 or so. The stupid birds here are loud in the mornings so it’s hard to sleep in. Wish I had a shotgun instead of a rifle.
Today was slow for the most part. I always have things I can do but I have learned to pace myself already. I’m still setting things up and think I should be set in the next couple of weeks.
Micca decided to write about herself .. well we decided we should write about ourselves since we have a larger audience than what we thought and I have been a little slow to do so. That’s so typical of us. She goes and gets it done and I am always lagging behind.
So for those of you who know me you can read on or fast forward.
I was born and raised in Bushnell, Dad came to Bushnell as the recreation Director and PE teacher and coach. Mom did some teaching, coaching and many other jobs as well. It’s kind of important to know what they did because it impacted me at a pretty early age. As I kid I was always around one sport or another and when I was old enough begin participating, and when I say participating that’s about all I did. Whatever athletic ability I had didn’t really show up until my freshman year in highschool. I had some limited success in Baseball before that but nothing to great. I did ok in school, if I had applied myself I probably would have gotten better grades but I had more important things to do lol.
I graduated high School with Honors…. Barely!! My senior year or rather even before my senior year I signed up into the Army’s delayed entry program. Things went well my senior year I did well in football baseball and basketball. And not even a month after I graduated I left for Ft McClellan, AL for basic training and my advanced individual training. After that I took off to Germany for my first duty station. Carrie and I got married a year later after she finished school and she came over with me. We had Drake there and then it was time for us to move and we ended up at Ft. Campbell, KY. Ashtyn was born there and It was around that time I decide I was going to get out of the Military. As I was preparing for my departure from the Army my mother told me about a job in the Illinois guard that was with a Weaponns of Mass Destruction Civil support team. This was in late 98 early 99 before the whole terrorism thing. For once the army had some foresight in what they were doing.
I applied and got a position there. The unit was located in Bartonville, IL so carrie and I picked up and moved back to IL. We ended up in Prairie City. T was so very nice to be back home and to have the kids attend a school that we both knew. After working In Bartonville I took a job in Macomb…. OOOO wait I forgot the fact that I became a military officer at some point in there. Ok back to Macomb lol, I took a full time job there and was asked to become a company commander in Rockford, IL. Carrie and I got divorced at some point in there.
Micca and I met via the internet and chatted for hours at a time before we ever met. When we finally did meet the conversations just kept going and going. She made mention of how I relate our relationship to my parents. I always remember mom and Dad staying up to the wee hours of the morning talking about whatever. I moved over to Deer Creek so we could live together, She has a residency requirement to live in Tazewell County so we picked my old Nemesis Dee-Mac to live in. During high school that was the school we played several times in the Playoffs. We won some we lost some.
We got engaged on our second cruise and got married shortly thereafter, partly because of this deployment.

Micca is such an awesome person, I truly got to marry my best friend. This deployment has been pretty difficult simply because we have always communicated almost every day all day. We both had blackberry’s which is a type of phone. We had to have them simply so we could text back and forth. One of the funniest things I remember that illustrates how we have to tell each other everything; Micca calls me at 3 A.M my first thought is uh oh what’s wrong.. normally we don’t call each other we just text a lot, I can barely understand her but the first thing she says is I am ok cause she knew I would be worried, then she proceeds to tell me how she got to taze someone, as in use her tazer.
Alright enough about me, if you wanna know more just ask.

A little perspective

2008-04-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Looks like my random thought might have been a bit to random.

Anyways,

I had to wash my little Polaris today it was looking very dirty. They have a washrack here on the camp maned by TCNs, Third Country Nationals. I was talking to the head guy and I am sure he makes probably 120k for managing this little facilty. It is really nothing more than 2 pressure washers and some manual laborers (the TCNs)I asked him how much the TCNs got paid and said they start out at about $0.80 and hour and some are up to $1.02. But you might say hell I bet the benefits are great... well nope they aren't. The last rocket attack here hit right by the washrack one of the TCNs took some shrapnel in the thigh and stomach he was out 2 weeks and hasn't gotten paid for that. He was back at work today. Talk about a trooper. I have a lot of respect for some of these kids. They really just want a normal life where they can go to work and provide for themselves and their families. It just reinforces what I think and makes me glad we are here.

My Commander has his own interpeter who fled Iraq in 1996 when he was 16. He was from northern Iraq. Every home had a bunker in the basement, makes you think about how lucky we are in the US.

Tomorrow is Sunday for me, so I will sleep in for a bit but that's about it for a day off. It's really not that bad. If I had a day off I would probably go do some work anyways. I might work out a little longer or something but there isn't much else to to but work.

So next time you think things are going bad, just be thankful you were born where you were and have the rights that you do. I think we can afford to give a little to those people that have pretty much nothing. The US has taken the high road while others have taken the highway home. Ok enough of the soapbox I don't want to start a debate just wanted to share that I am happy I am here supporting a higher cause.

Ok one random thought that kind of goes with the kids month thing for those that have parents serving in the Military. I often have people thanking me for my service to the country... the next time you see a spouse or child of a military member you might think about thanking them as well. Without them we can't function as a soldier they are our support network. For that I say Thank You!!

Brent

MILITARY KIDS MONTH

2008-04-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Check out the links to the right

I've touched on this topic a couple of times and it's actually an act that has been passed in Congress.

It's of small consequence that they have a month but at least they are recognized.

If you see Ashtyn, Dade or Drake let them know that they are doing just as much as their Dad. They are just as important as the soldiers in Iraq or Where ever, they are one of the many reasons that bring us home safe.

Brent

Random thoughts from Iraq * warning very random*

2008-04-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

I go through the day often times thinking and often making notes about what I should write at night. There are many things that seem of no consequence but I am sure … well not sure, but think you might like to hear about.

So… tonight I had walked over to one of the offices to make my Friday night phone calls… afternoon for most of you and as I walked out I thought Damn it’s dark. It’s not that much darker than any other night but it’s dark nonetheless. What little light we have on the FOB is stopped by the 12 foot T walls we have everywhere. So walking across the camp can be an adventure and even a little unsettling for a 6 foot 2 inch 185…. O ok 200lb guy. In one of my pictures I just posted you can see my little LED light attached to my US Army Nametape. This is everyone’s handy dandy flashlight.

Calling home is a planned event for me. It’s not as simple as picking up a phone and speed dialing your BFF; best friend forever for those of you not so internet savvy. First things I have to consider is what damn time is it back home? The best invention ever is my dual zone Timex that takes a lot of the guess work out of it. But of course this year Iraq decided not to play the daylight savings time game. Did you know that not all countries do the savings game at the same time….. It’s just crazy. Ok back on track the phone call here we go. Ok now that I have consulted my watch and done my algebraic equation (sarcasm) to make sure I’m not calling someone at 3 am well unless it’s Micca and she’s working then it’s ok. She works thirds. IT’s called random thoughts for a reason… lol Micca and I have often played this game of how did we get on this topic and would ,ap out each step for each other…. More randomness… are you still with me lol. The phone call right. Time is checked and then I walk across the camp to my buddies office. He has the good one that calls to other military phones at no cost. So I call camp Lincoln in Springfield…. This is why Friday’s are important, well any week day. So I call camp Lincoln and get somebody there. I ask them to connect me to another number. Then I pray for an answer. Now If I do get an answering machine I must leave a message and this is why. Almost everyone has caller ID these days and the number that rings in is out of camp Lincoln. So if you were a person that screened your calls and didn’t answer you might call the number that just called back. In this case Imagine my wife calling back to camp Lincoln not knowing that it was a camp Lincoln phone number. (Camp Lincoln is the State National Guard HQ) People could very easily jump to conclusions. I will leave it at that. Whew!!!
OK moms and dad’s this is where the kids stop reading

So no kidding there we were… I’m telling this joke cause it made me cry I laughed so hard and it was totally of fthe cuff. One of our group is a school teacher who teaches Biology and we got on the topic of birds and what kind we might see there. She said she would have to get a book so she would know. And one of the guys (not me) says maybe you will get to see the very elusive double breasted bed thrasher. Now reading this isn’t near as much fun as hearing it happen in conversation but thus far that has been my favorite line
If you can’t tell I’m in a writing mood tonight.
I had a great conversation with Micca and my parents tonight. It is always great to hear about home. I plan on trying to call the kids tomorrow. I feel so out of touch with their lives right now. I can’t tell Micca enough how much I appreciate her spending time with them. I know she does it because she wants to and cares for them but… well I don’t think a lot of kids are as lucky as my 2 that have such an involved stepmom. She is the best. Everyone should remember I am not the only in the family that is in the Army. My whole family is and I often think they have it tougher than I do. I have plenty of company in my misery but Micca and the kids have to go quite a ways to be able to talk with others that can relate.
My last random thought for the night… I may have mentioned this already. Did you know we have to take bottled water to the bathroom with us to brush our teeth. The water we bath in is not fit to Drink.
One last comment. I understand that a lot of people are reading what I am writing. I hope I didn’t lose you tonight.

came back to edit because I remembered something funny we were talking about in the mess hall. There are some words like Shiek i think I spelled that right that is commonly pronuced SHEEK here at home but the proper way to say it is SHAKE. We got to laughing tonight wondering if the most important people in Iraq know if they are associated with an ice cream like substance that tastes really good. ok I'm done I did lots of stuff tonight.

But please feel free to ask questions. As the year goes on I’m afraid I will bore you to death.

Thanks,

Brent

Things that will be wierd when I get home

2008-04-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

I was on the airfield the other day and a bunch of contractors were talking about what they would have to get use to when they got back home.

Going to a resturaunt and paying for a meal... we eat for free all of the time
Going to a convienience store and paying for a soda or gatorade... kind of like the one before this we have all of the gatorade and soda we could drink
YOU MEAN YOU ACTUALLY PAY FOR BOTTLED WATER ROFL
Getting up in the middle of the night to go pee and not having to walk around the block to find the bathroom... well we don't usually do that we recycle our water bottles in a different way.
You mean I cant drive down the middle of the road or even on the wrongside and those stop light things are for everyone else
Hearing the noon fire alarm and trying not to find the nearest bunker
Driving off from the gas station without paying
Dusting every damn day
I can wear something besides ACUs and PTs??
CLearing my weapon before I enter a building... every time we enter a building we have to clear our weapon... lots of ammo=accidents and this prevents that.

So I posted a couple new pictures... those of you that know me well, know it wouldn't take long before I caught a gecko. Mom and dad can tell all kinds of stories about me and whatever insect or animal or worm I could find when I was a kid.

SO what did I do today? Well not to much more than the usual it was pretty slow. I think I'm going to be ready for my helicopter if it ever comes. I'm getting caught up and even getting ahead to some degree. It's a good thing I replaced 2 people otherwise I would be very bored and boredom is something I need to stay away from.

Thats it for now

You've Got Mail!!

2008-04-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day we recieved mail since we have been here. I received 2 boxes from Micca and 2 cards one from Don and Dawn and the other from Cheri. I really do appreciate the cards and support. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal to get mail but I have to say I was quite excited. Ashtyn even sent me her latest and greatest artwork. It now has a place on my wall. My walls are steel so it's like a big magnetic bulliten board. I think the boxes Micca shipped were sent around the 20th of March. Unless you are going to use those special boxes it doesnt make much sense to send it priority. They get here roughly the same time. Our mail comes by truck every couple of days... well it has been a week since the last one.

I took a minute to take some pictures today... one of the card sent since it was of grandma and the other is of my building that I work in. The one side isn't that heavily fortified whereas the other side is T walled and bunkered up... taht is my side :).

I've continued my daily routines and found my motivation today to get quite a few things done. I am reveling in the fact that I am not directly supervised and I don't have anyone working for me which is even better. I know that may sound wierd since the Army has trained me for years to be a leader but it is kind of nice to have that break. I really enjoy just doing my own thing and not having to coach people along to get things done. That means I have to actually get up from behind my desk and do stuff rather than tasking others to do it. I was even given the opportunity to have someone work for me and I quickly declined.

Today was a little warm, in the mid 90s and it felt good to do PT with the sun beating down. The last couple days have been cloudy and dusty.

Well if anyone has been watching the news things are portrayed as being somewhat fragile.... that I wont dispute but I can tell you things here at echo are 180 degrees from what they were last year.

Well now I am going to try and post pictures, that generally ttakes awhile so I best get to it.

The flight=NO GO

2008-04-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well today I waited on the airfield for my flight that was suppose to arrive at 1135, we have to be there an hour early just in case the helicopter shows up early. Well I cold draw this story out but the short of it is that the weather was crappy and the helicopters couldn't fly or if they did it would be to late for me.

We have problems with dust storms here and that limits the ability for the helicopters to fly.

As I am writing this I am writing a DVD to send to Micca. It should be there sometime next month. It will have everything from Easter up until today.

Also as I am writing this I am listening to President Bush giving a Medal of Honor, its kind of sobering. It probably has something to do with tomorrow being the 5th anniversary of this war. I don't think that came out right. Make no mistake about it I truely believe in what we are doing here. Those of you who know me know that to be true. I always have said what chance do people have walking around in a skyscraper? Well I know what I am getting into to. I wear 45 lbs of armor, have a pistol and a rifle, and if I am in a vehicle it will take nothing short of a tank round to blow it up. I'm prepared, those at home are not. Let me hop off my soap box lol.

Today after I got off the airfield I really didn't feel like doing anything. It's the first time I have felt that way. Eventually I got in the groove. I'm really missing the kids and Micca and I think that was hitting more than usual today. I will continue to immerse myself in my work and try to stay busy.

Forgot about something I so I had to come back and edit this post. I was going through my pictures and realized that there are some significant things going on. We gave some Hummers to the Iraqi Police through the Polish. It was a fairly big event. We decided to get the Iraqi's the Hummers sonner than what we had planned because of the anniversray tomorrow and the suspected cessation of the cease fire. So we may see some fireworks tonight or tomorrow or not. Things around here are going well and are quite stable. Ok enough editing

Well, I'm tired so that will be it for tonight.

Brent

Another day in paradise...... well not really

2008-04-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well lets see,

The weather here has been very pleasant. Today was in the low 90s with almost no humidity so it was quite comfortable. It was overcast as well and even sprinkled for a minute, it did the same thing yesterday.

I head to Ballad tomorrow for a quick class. Honestly I'm in it for the helicopter ride and tour I could have probably got out of the class but I figured what the hell I have to take the opportunities when they come along. I'm not suppose to get back until late but I hope to post some new pictures in the next couple days. I've got quite a bit of video that I am going to put together here pretty soon and send out some DVDs.

We talked about taking leave tonight and it got me to thinking about when I dhould put in for mine. I'm thinking about shooting for New Years and missing the big rush home. Micca and I talked about taking it later rather than earlier. We will have to see how she still feels about that.

I've been taking a lot of video but it just occured to me I should take more pictures and post them more often.

Well thats all for now, not much to say tonight.

Brent

So how are things different..

2008-04-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

So today I was thinking at how different we operate here in Iraq than at home. I will give you some examples. The biggest and most apparent one to me is how we handle weapons and ammunition. At home an individaul is never allowed to keep ammo on his person and is issued in a very controlled manner. Here I have over 1000 rounds of 5.56 (rifle ammo) and about 80 rounds of 9mm (pistol Ammo). Weapons control is way different too. For one we are always taught to never point a weapon at a person, well back home people tend not to pay attention and sometimes when you are unslinging or turning you sometimes inadvertenly point it at them. We call this flagging someone. Imagine that there is a laser coming out of your barrel all of the time and try not to ever make it hit someone. Because are weapons are loaded a lot of the time we have to be much more careful.

Another thing about weapons at home is that if we arent using them they are locked in big elaborate vaults... no vaults here lol.

Bottom line is if Hagi ever makes it inside the wall and starts something I don't think it will last very long. My pistol is on my nightstand and my rifle and ammo are in my locker about 3 feet away. Some may say we are paranoid I just call it being prepared. This is pretty standard so thats why they stand off 15 miles and launch rockets and mortars at us.

Speaking of rockets and mortars. I had to laugh at myself tonight. I had just finished locking a door to our little playroom, I will post pictures of it in a couple of days. Well I heard this whistle I paused and listened some more.... now you have to understand the FOB (forward operating base) has lots of continuous backround noise. Well the whistle go louder.. I started to run for the bunker and quickly relaized it was a atv of sorts that must have had a turbo that was whistling and the motor was masked by the generators until it go closer. I had to look around to make sure no one saw me. LOL. We are all very vigilant knowing its only a matter of time before things start to heat up again here.

Someone posted and asked who our littel friends are. If you look at the closeup of the christmas tree light you can see him hiding behind it. We have a gecko infestation lol. There are 3 or 4 in our little bunker.

If you have any more questions let em fly it makes writing about stuff that much easier.

If for some reason I don't post the next couple of days I have to take a little helicopter ride for some training. The flights here are even less reliable than those in the states. Believe it or not we fly standby too lol. We have been having issues with the weather specifically the dust makes it so we cant fly.

Anyways what is suppose to be a 1 day trip might turn into 3 or more.

Settling in... some more

2008-04-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and special hello to Micca, Drake, Ashtyn, and Dade. Ive been thinking about calling but whenever I do I'm sure Ashtyn and Drake are in School. So as I sit here now I'm thinking I need to go find a phone... but firat I will finish this.

Today was a pleasent day. It was a little on the warm side but hey it's Iraq. Oh yea and there was a dust storm too. But really t was pretty nice. I wore my heart monitor that Micca had got for me. That's an interesting story that I will let her tell. It was pretty cool. I will use it everytime I run which should be daily and I hope sometimes more than that.

I did my usual stuff today and still fell like I'm not getting caught up. I have several projects that I want to fiish and once I have those done then things should run more smoothly. I keep getting interuppted while trying to get this stuff done but one of todays interupttions was rather rewarding. My Polish counterpart had a dilemma. Now first you must understand that the polish are using Hummers that we have provided for them and we are responsible for thier maintenance. They have lots of other vehicles here as well. One of them happens to be this big fuel tanker used to fuel the helicopters. The tires on it are going bad and they have no way to change them. Well I think shoot this is no problem I will ask the guys who do the maintenance on the hummers to take care of the tires. Nope wrong answer they don't put tires on rims here they have the whole thing shipped in. AHHHH but the maint team leader had an idea. There is a company who contracts the convoys in and out of here with lots of semis. SO we toodle over there and talk to the head guy for the contractor and get them to agree to take care of the tires.

Now I really didnt do any work but I got to facilitate the resolution. I felt pretty good. Don't tell anyone but My job is beginning to remind of Klinger off of MASH LOL. No dresses for me though lol.

I'm really gertting to know the people here and the ones that can get stuff done. I think it helps a little that I have the 2nd highest ranking officer on the base at my disposal if anyone gives me to hard of a time. The contractors have to keep us happy or we will find a new one.

Well thats it for now.

Game on!!

2008-04-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well today is the first day without my counterpart to coach me along. Things seem to have gone ok. The day just speeds right by. I have been taking time out to do my Physical fitness. The Dining facility here lets us have as much as we want which is a problem for me. The last 3 nights they have had cheesecake and Micca can attest to what it's like when I have free access to cheese cake. They also have the best cookies and they have baskin robbins icecream. Sometimes I wonder if I should just skip the main course and go for the desserts. The main line is ok. There is enough of a variety. There is also a taco bar as well as a pretty good salad bar. Bottom line is if I am going to stay somewhat fit I will have to have a physical fitness program. Today I ran 3 miles on the little track they have set up. The hours here are rather odd so I ran around noon. I don't know how much longer I will keep that up. Today was about 90 but didnt feel to bad. I just drink lots and lots of water.

Lets see what other things of note happeneed today. Well this is a multinational camp of which the polish are in charge. The Polish General had a dinner last night for the americans that were leaving and to welcome us. It was a private affair which was kind of nice but it was nothing special to speak of.

Today I wanted to find the range so we could shoot next week. When I got out there I found the polish special forces shooting away (you can insert joke here) We had a one sided conversation where I talked and they acted like they understood what I was saying lol.

Back to last night. I stayed on the airfield until about 0030 local time to see off the guys we were replacing. I also took a pair of night vision googles and tried to video tape the Chinooks (BIG BIG helicopters with 2 rotors) I havent viewed the tape as of yet but I think you will get the idea of what it looks like when looking through NVGs.

HMMMM i a little more time before my meeting.... so you ask what is my normal day like. Well I get up about 6 and shower and shave, I have to walk about 100 meters to the shower and bathroom. Head over to breakfeast about 7 and I get to work about 8. Work until 11 then do PT and eat lunch the back to work about 2 until 4 or 5 then eat then back to work from 6 to 8 or 9 or so. These are the hours my polish counterparts work so I kind of mirror what they do.

Well thats all for now now new pictures but I will take some of my living spaces and post them tomorrow I hope.

Brent

My night time routine

2008-04-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share this, I kind of have mixed feeling about writing about this because I don't want to scare everyone.

My routine begins before dark. I plug our christms tree lights in. You may ask why Christmas tree lights? Well there is a small walkway between our 2 rows of our trailers and it gets very dark at night. These lights light the way to our bunker. Then I go to dinner and work out then have a meeting about 2100 about general army stuff. I usually go to shower next which is a little ordeal. The shower point is about 100 meters away not to mention the latrine is also there. What a pain in the but in the middle of the night to have t get up and walk to go pee. Well us innovative male soldiers have found a use for our empty water bottles. They get reused and then disposed of in the morning. With all of the water that we drink it is not uncommon to have to get up to go to the bathroom 3 or more time in the night.

Alright, now that I have showered I can settle in for the evening so I usually do some email and a little blog or what not. After I am done with my computer I close my laptop and turn everything off. I cover everything with towels so the dust is caught on something bedies my computer and monitor. THe dust is absolutley incredible. Then I set my sandals by the door somewhat staggered and ensure my door is unlocked. Then I crack my window just a little so I can hear the Indirect fire (IDF) warning alarm all the better. We now have an early warning system that tells us when thier are rockets and mortars heading our way. Then I crack my chemlight and hang it by the door. When I turn the lights off it is very dark and I need to see a bit so I can make it to the door and slip my sandals on.

Ok now that everything is in place I can go to sleep. So far I haven't had to utilize any of my preperations. But its always best to be prepared :)

April Fool's a little late

2008-04-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

Many technical difficulties

Ok so I wrote an entry for today but it timed out.... lesson learned, I will copy before I sumbit just in case lol

Today was a pretty good day. I'm slowly learning my duties and all of the people I will have to talk to on a daily basis. I am replacing 2 soldiers so my job will keep me a little busier... well a lot busier than i thought. I will be worling with the polixh making sure thier Hummers get fixed by the american forces that are here. Sounds simple but well it's more complicated. I will have to give you an example later. My other job is to account for much of the property on the camp.... that job is going to be overwhelming at first but I think after a couple of weeks I will get the hang of it.

I have posted some pictures of todays activities that took me out to the airfield to send off some of the guys that my group is replacing. I also took some pictures that I had taken previously. Our internet is running horridly slow so it takes about 5 min to upload one picture.

Well its getting late again although I dont fell like sleeping I probbably should. Damn the jet lag lol

30 March

2008-04-01T11:52:00.001-07:00

The last couple days have run together. We arrived in Kuwait at about 2130 local time which is 9:30 PM it took us 17 hours from the time we left Atlanta to the time we landed I Kuwait. From there we inprocessed and headed out to meet with our convoy at about 0430. We didn’t get any sleep that night and have only had a few cat naps as I type this. It is currently 2130 local time 0n the 31st of March. We didn’t make it to Camp Echo tonight because we got a late start. Even though we arrived on time to pick up our convoy they were on crew rest until 1100 hours since they didn’t arrive until 0300 that morning. The trucks that we rode in were very well equipped. They had as much armor on them as the Hummers do which was quite comforting as we crossed into Iraq at about 1230. There were several camels walking around the fence and the polish troops jumped out and took the opportunity for a photo op with the camel. It was quite humorous. As we drove along Kathy (the truck driver) took the time to point out many of the features about Iraq. Mainly she pointed out some of the IED craters left by IEDs… duhhh lol.
We arrived at Tallil (Camp Adder) about 1630. They put us up in a nice trailer with some AC and I got a chance to take a shower for the first time in 3 days. The Dining facility was absolutely amazing. They say Camp Echo is even better. If that is the case I am going to have some difficulty losing the weight I want to. Well maybe not today was 101 degrees and it was pretty overcast for the most part. I am told that Camp Echo regularly sees temperatures in excess of 120 and often 130. It was Kind of funny today during the convoy one of the trucks blew a tire and the entire convoy pulled over to wait for it to be changed. Loren and I were standing between trucks pulling security as we waited and we commented that we should get out of the truck exhaust. We moved but the exhaust seemed to follow us. We quickly came to the conclusion that it was just damn hot. Don’t forget we are wearing our Bullet proof vests and helmets. The new vests with all of the protection easily weigh 45 lbs but I am guessing that the bigger ones are pushing close to 55 or 60. I do feel really safe but It is very difficult to move.
Forgive me if I ramble, but I’m a tad tired and just typed todays events as I remembered them.

THis is actually 29 Mar

2008-04-01T11:50:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. I’m writing this today the 29th of March. It is about 10:00 AM local time and I’m currently in Leipzig Germany. I’m writing this knowing I won’t be able to actually post it until later. We are waiting for the aircraft to refuel. I’ve been stuck on that plane for just over 8 hours. I will soon reboard and head out for another 5 hour flight to Kuwait. I certainly don’t envy people who travel internationally all the time.
This flight is rather odd in that it is not all military. We have about half contractor and half military. Another thing that I find funny is how we can just carry our weapons right onto the aircraft. They did make us remove our bolts from our M4 rifles but we didn’t have to do anything to our pistols. I guess I should quit trying to apply common sense to some things.
The man that is in the seat next to me is an Iraqi national that left Iraq when Saddam invaded the first time in 90. He left his current job to go back to be an interpreter. He said he had been at the same job for 16 years but this was to lucrative of an opportunity to pass up.

They call it freedom flight

2008-03-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Well today was another busy day. We started out by qualifying with our 9mm pistols which was farily easy for me. They pop targets up at different ranges form 15 to 40 meters and you shoot them down. Then we went to the M4 range. That was a little more difficult for me but I got it done nonetheless. In theater we will carry both weapons. I feel very fortunate and kind of special since most people coming through here only get one or the other and I get both. It made for a long day on the ranges though.

After qualifying we got our transportation brief. We were told the plane we will be flying on is called the freedom bird. Yeah it makes me wonder who the smartass was that got to nickname that flight.

Today things have finally started to hit me. I think everyone else is feeling somewhat the same way. I am both anxious to get to where I am going and get to work and part of me would rather just go home. The latter of course isn't an option. I do miss Micca and the kids terribly already, but I think that is pretty much understood by all.

I appreciate the posts and would love to hear from anyone about anything. I will hopefully start posting some pictures soon once I can find a better connection.

Later for now

Brent

Back in the blogging saddle (maybe)

2008-03-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since my last entry. So much has happened. First and foremost Micca and were married on the 29th of February. We enjoyed our 21 days together before I had to leave. I sit here now at Ft . Benning working through the mobilization process. We are suppose to leave on Friday which would put us in Kuwait before the end of the month. I hope I hit the ground before the end of the month since there are many advantages in pay. We should only spend a short time in Kuwait (less than 24hours) and convoy out to Camp Echo.

I am excited to get this part of our deployment over with. Our accommodations here are ok but honestly I would rather be in Iraq so I could get settled in and into my routine. We still have a couple days of training left. So far we have received our new high speed equipment. The new helmet is nice but the body armor seems to grow more and more. With all of the plates and accessories it weighs in around 45 lbs. I don’t know if we will wear every piece of it since we won’t be in a high threat environment. So far I have 3 duffle bags of equipment they have issued. I processed through medical yesterday and felt fortunate to only have to get 2 shots. I got my 9th Anthrax shot. They told me I could get 250 bucks when I get back for a pint of blood since I had more than 6 shots. Today we finished all of the personnel stuff like life insurance and pay and what not. Tomorrow will be spent in the classroom and the day after on the range. The weather should be nice as it is a very nice time of year to be in Georgia.

Well that’s all for now I hope to be more diligent in my blogging in the future.

If you have questions or what to know more please feel free to post your questions and comments. That makes it easier for me to have something to write about.

Brent

Getting ready to go

2008-01-31T16:47:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I spent the day at the headquarters getting all of my paperwork in order. It was a somewhat sobering experience. I can't even count the amount of paperwork I had to review. It makes you realize that the possibility is there. Most of us (soldiers) never think it will be us that plays bullet or IED catcher. More times than not we think we are too well trained protected and armed for that to happen to us. The fact is that on occasion it does happen but there are lots of survior stories as wll and I think most of us think we will fall into that category.

Today Drake had surgery on his leg to lengthen his achilles tendon this is the first of two surgeries. I'm so glad I was able to be here for the first one, it will make things easier on me when I won't be here for the second one.

Drake cracked me up today when one of the nursed asked him if he was allergic to shellfish and he replied, "what does that have to do with this surgery are you putting shellfish in my anesthesia?" He is in good spirits and doing well.

Just starting out

2008-01-28T17:43:00.001-08:00

Well first off hello to everyone that may take time to read what I have to say.

I welcome your comments and hope this will serve as a place where my family and friends can see what is going on in my world on a daily basis.

I feel I should share a little background on why I'm here doing this. There are a couple of reasons. The first one is that I am deploying for Iraq on about a month having only been told about 3 weeks ago that I was going. Secondly I just returned from a cruise in which blogging was a theme of the cruise. That sparked my interest and I thought I might be able to share my thoughts with more than just my close friends and family.

So here I am about 4 weeks away from leaving and I have a wedding which will be my second for myself and my future wife. My son is having surgery to help correct the way he walks and I have to conduct my change of command for my company. Needless to say my plate is full.

I hope this sets the stage. I encourage anyone who reads this to give me some constructive feedback.

Thanks