Iraq and Back

I am Home

2009-12-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and support. I know this post is long over due, but I made it safely home on 22MAY09. I picked up my Fatboy the very next day and was able to put 4500 miles on it this summer. I will keep this Blog alive just incase the Army decides to send me someplace again.

Chris

Trip to Ur and other random stuff.

2009-04-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

05APR09

I was fortunate enough to make it on one of Ur visits. Ur is the city referenced in the bible as the home town of Abraham, the man who God called to follow him. Some say it is also the birthplace of Christianity as Jesus comes from Abraham's lineage. You can read more about Abraham in the Old Testament. The city of Ur is also famous for being the oldest recorded city in history, over 5000 years old. It is the birthplace of the wheel, written language, commerce, interest, loans, and much more...I have some links on my blog site if you are interested in reading more, or you can google for yourself. I have been blessed to visit a place of such historical significance.

The other photos are just some random stuff, a few shout outs to some local establishments back home that I like to visit and plan on doing so when I get home, probably a few times.

As always, enjoy the pics.
Chris

The US Flag

2009-03-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is a video I made for Triton Middle School. Here in Iraq we can fly flags over our double HAS on special occasions or for special events. I flew a flag on the 20th of February for my sister and her family (its her birthday) and one for Triton Middle school as a token of my appreciation for all their support. The video highlights the birth of our nation and the role the flag plays through out our history. There is a lot more behind the flag than one might think, and this video is just a small clip of its significance. I hope you all enjoy.

Chris

St Patrick's Day and more ramblings

2009-03-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

22MAR09

Nothing real new or exciting happening here in Iraq, well nothing you probably really want to hear about. For example how the new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) contract was signed a ways back and as part of that agreement we have to release all the POW and now the bombings of our base have increased…I wonder if there is any relationship of the two??? You can read more about the SOFA under History Links, or google it.

Other than that, there was a 5.55k race on St Patrick’s Day sponsored by the Triple Nickel Engineer Battalion (555 ENGS). It was my first run since my injuries and I felt pretty good. Perhaps if they didn’t start the race 10 minutes early I could have finished closer to the top, however I was still walking into the stadium when they started the race. It was probably for the best as I told myself I was going to take it easy this race, although we still ran a 6:30 pace! Grupe and I ran it together wearing all the St Patti garb that Jane sent us - THANKS Jane!! To say the least, I think we were the best dressed and 2 most popular guys at the finish!

The 555 ENGs did a great job putting the race on; there was music at the half way point and green NA beer at the finish, what a perfect way to start the day off.
People are getting excited about coming home, I know a few of my soldiers have begun to pack and mail stuff home, I plan to do the same here in the next coming week.
With only a couple of months to go, I finally got the new printers and monitors in that I ordered the first few weeks I was here. I think I blog about the PR&C process in earlier blogs….well better late than never! Still haven’t received my uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) which were the first items to get approved in the PR&C packet, any day now – right?!

I have been emailing my Harley Dealer Colt, and he said my bike is in and waiting, boy that really adds to wanting to get the hell outta here. My dad is going to take a trip to the dealer and check my bike out and take some pics for me.
It has tried to rain here a few times, but nothing too bad, at least it dries up a lot faster as the weather has really warmed up here. We went from highs in the 60s to 80s in what seemed like only a few days.

If anyone was thinking of sending care packages the last day to send here will be 20APR, but I am letting everyone know I am set and do not need anything. Thanks to everyone who has sent stuff, I really appreciate it – you guys are GREAT!!

I know I have a lot more friends here in Iraq now…no I haven’t met anyone, its that my old unit, where I was the commander at is now deployed here to Iraq. I hope to be able to travel to their base and say hi-bye before I pull-pin out of here!

Well I think I have rambled on enough; pretty much steady-state here, just counting the days down.
As always, enjoy the pictures.

Some thougths and pictures

2009-03-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

10MAR
It rained all last night. It was soothing to hear the rain hit the tops of our tin CHUS, everyone knows that sound, and the constant rhythmic beat slowing sings you to sleep. Usually when you think of rain, you think of life, you think refreshing, you think cleansing. Not here in the desert. The rain may bring all those to locals, but to us in the military, it brings nothing but a mess! 99% of the time before the rain moves in, we get hit with a dust storm. It looks just like fog from back home, but it is made of pure dirt. Yesterday, just as expected, one of these dust storms swooped in. That evening I walked to the gym for my daily workout session, as I signed in and made my way to the bathroom I looked in the mirror and my hair looked as though I just came from the barber and got my hair frosted. That is how thick the air gets with dirt. As I wiped the sweet from my face, my white towel slowly stated to turn tan from all the dirt.

Then the rain comes. You look down on your black shorts and you see little dirt spots all over you. The rain tries to clean the think dust from the air, but as it does, you end up looking like a leopard from all the little dirt bombs that hit you with each rain drop.

I have to take a break from running. My shin splints have returned along with some pain just below my right knee. The bone is very sore to the touch and even walking is uncomfortable. To say the least it has really bummed me out. I was just hitting my prime and ready to turn the corner in my marathon training. There are several 5k races coming up, a 15k, and even a Boston Marathon Satellite run. I was really looking forward to running all these, but when it hurts so much to run, it does not make it any fun. I have not quit, I have just varied my routine. I now alternate between the elliptical and stair stepper. I go for one hour 5 days a week, and for two on my long days. I will sometimes throw in an easy 1-2 miles run on the treadmill too. I think the problem stems from my shoes and possibly my orthotics need to be tweaked a little bit. But I am thinking mainly my shoes because all throughout running at Ft Sill and in Kuwait, I did not have issues. It wasn’t until I bought some new shoes here in Iraq, a different brand than I had been using, that I started to notice all my problems. So I quit the other shoes and am just sticking to my New Balance, I will do the light impact cardio until the pain in my legs subside and then hit the pavement to see how it feels! More than likely I will still run all the 5ks, I will just take it easy, like an 8min pace verses a 630min pace, I got to collect all the T-shirts I can! The main goal is to recover and get in adequate amount of training for Grandma’s Marathon on 20JUN upon my arrival home!

As for the fight here in Iraq, things are pretty quiet, mortar attacks have subsided somewhat. I think they, the terrorists, are getting the message that if they leave us alone, we will get out of this country and leave this shit-hole to them. Hopefully President Obama will pull us out of here and send us to Afghanistan where the real fight is. Why anyone would fight so hard to keep this place is beyond me, I think it is safe to say only God knows why! Yes it is rich in history, but it is nowhere near the paradise it used to be back in the times of the Old Testament. If you are really interested in what this place use to be like, there are two links under the HISTORY section of my Blog.

Less than 90 days to go...random posts from here on out.

2009-02-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

10FEB09
Today was the windiest day I have experienced in Iraq so far. It was so windy that the only way I could ride my bike into work was standing and peddling in the highest (easiest) gear, and yet I just barely inched a long. It was so windy that it blew my MWR satellite dish out of sync! Not only did the wind totally suck today and degrade all my signal strength causing stuff not to perform at ideal capacity…the BDE Share Server crashed yesterday morning and still wasn’t on line today….how can I explain the significance of this situation….basically the total historical documentation and all current operational data was lost for a period of 24 hours.

All the digital media, reports, forms, SOPs, awards, spreadsheets, word docs, everything we created, GONE!! And, AND, BDE did not have one good backup of my file because a specific permission was missing from the folder structure, therefore not allowing the server to back up my file!! Bad, Bad, just very bad. Well we let BDE attempt to recover it on their own, before I sent my ace in the hole, AKA, CPT Grupe up there to square things away, and by the grace of God, he was able to get the server to boot and our BN’s data backed-up to an external drive!! I thought I just had sealed my fate as a Signal Officer; I was careless not to have my own back-up procedures in place and to trust all “my” files to be cared for by one entity. I did have a plan in the works to back-up my files; I was just waiting for the equipment to arrive! I believe I have just weathered this storm and things will be better tomorrow.

21FEB09

The share server is still not up, and I left to go to Kuwait on 14FEB for a week long training on MS Project, but not before I was able to run the Valentine’s Day 5k race. Our flight did not leave until 0100, so plenty of time to get stuff in order before flying out. The class will help me organize and plan all tasks that I need to accomplish before I can leave Iraq and hand the reigns over to my replacement.

My marathon training has been going pretty well, at this stage I am averaging at least 30 miles a week within a minimum of one long run of over 10 miles per week.

Kuwait is nice, you do not need to carry a weapon and after duty hours you can wear civilian clothes. I have been able to maintain my run routine, lift and take in a nightly movie. Arifjan Base is about as close to feeling like home as you can get over here.

As most of you may know, I got to spend my Birthday down here in Kuwait, it was just another day, other than all the Birthday Day wishes I received on Facebook and emails, thank you everyone who took the time and sent me a message, it really made my day!!

I brought “Teddy” with on the trip and have been able to get some good pictures, even took one with some Aussie soldiers we met down here. For of you not familiar with Teddy, he is a traveling Bear sent to me by my friend Gladys from back home whose child is doing a project related to the journeys of traveling Teddy.
We are suppose to be headed back to Iraq today, but appears as though the weather is not going to cooperate, no big deal, get to spend another fabulous night in Kuwait!

Tallil, Baghdad, Iraq - Oh my!

2009-02-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Iraq, home sweet home, it has been quite some time since I last spoke of my new home away from home….so where do I begin, luckily I was still taking pictures to help refresh my mind, because after a while it gets to fell like the mud you will see in the pics.

When I returned from leave on the 23DEC, I was immediately assigned as an IO (Investigating Officer) for a situation concerning improper use of the network. The only thing good about the investigation is that it allowed me to do some traveling off of JBB. I was suppose to Skye my family on 27DEC as that is when they were celebrating Christmas, but due to the circumstances and timing of events, if I left on the 27th I could catch a non-stop flight to Tallil, the beginning of my investigation. There was a special mission leaving that night via helicopters and I was able to piggyback on their flight an if all went well, I could return with them the next day. This sounded more appealing than flying on a C130 standby, hoping to get on. Other than decorating the DFAC with all kinds of cool sculptures made of food, Christmas was just another day here in Iraq.

In Tallil, is the city of Ur (I included a link on a little history of this city under History), in short it is considered the birthplace of Christianity and civilization. There was a tour starting at 1000 that I would have loved to attend, but I did not know the course my investigation was going to take and as you can imagine, after all is said and done, I would have had time…oh well, perhaps another time.

200901_Iraq

I wrapped up my portion of the 15-6 (Informal Investigation) in Tallil, jumped back on a UH64 (Blackhawk) and headed back to JBB. The next stop on my 15-6 is BIAP (Baghdad International AirPort). I flew down there on FRI, 02JAN09. Oh, I should mention that my ringing in of the New Year was not that spectacular, Me, Grupe and Garret partied at our CHU with NA beer and watched a movie….ok, back to BIAP. The flight done there was neat as me flew during the day so I could catch a glimpse of what he country side really looks like outside my narrow scope of JBB. Surprisingly it is kind of green out there with lots of palm trees, I guess after all this is supposed to be the home of the Garden of Eden. It has gotten so cold that on the shallow puddles in the field, you could actually see the sun reflecting of the thin layers of ice, who would have thunk it!!

BIAP is quite interesting; it is actually made up of numerous Bases know as Victory Complex (Camp Liberty, Camp Victory and Camp Slayer), see the links in History for more details. Well since I missed out on the last historical trip of a lifetime, this time I planned to see some sites. Apparently the first meeting I had here, the individual was not ready to see me, so to stall; my escort took me to the Radwaniyah Palace, also known as the Presidential Place, this is/was the nicest palace in Iraq, you will see me sitting in the chair that Yasser Arafat gave to Saddam. All the lakes in Baghdad are man made, there is history behind having control of such an abundance of water you can send an email and ask or search on your own, but Saddam had them stocked with a special breed of fish, they look like a cross between a catfish and a carp. Apparently now, the water is no longer safe to swim in.

After I met with who I needed to meet with and get the information I needed, I signed up to go on the “Victory Over America Palace” tour. Saddam was actually building a palace named that. He had a palace built called “Victory Over Iran” and the VOA was being built to inter mesh with the VOI palace. The VOA was the place that the first bombs (see JDAM link) of the Iraq “war” hit. In the pics you will see the damage. In all the sculptures or carved art work in the palace, Saddam had his initials inset.
The next place the bombs hit was the Bathe Party House. It is report that 250 members of Saddam’s party members died with that strike and if it would have happened 15 minutes later, Saddam would have been there.

There is a picture of a swimming pool with a black stain in it. This pool was never filled with water, it was where Saddam executed his people if they messed up, or if he was just having a bad day, I will let you guess on what the stain is from….The big open bays of this building is where the boats docked, and because Saddam did not like the heat, he actually had this outdoor area cooled by AC. He was also fond of chandeliers, in the Bathe House use to be one of the largest chandeliers in the world...not anymore!!

Most of the buildings you will see in the water are actual brothels, Saddam believed and certain Muslims believe that no sins can be committed on water. So Saddam and all his cabinet staff had their own brothels, Saddam’s personal one is with building with the Hearts carved in it, and just to the left of that building is the house where Saddam’s mother-in-law lived.

In some of the other pics you will see “Flintstone Village” that Saddam had built for his grand children after he murdered their fathers (Aka Saddam’s son-in-laws), as you can see he was a real nice guy.

One last Saddam story…he had over 70 palaces throughout Iraq and since he never stayed in one place for more than a night, the palace staff had to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner at every palace, everyday, just in case he showed up!

Still to come: 101st Airborne 12 mile road march, MN Hockey Day, and other stories….as always, enjoy the pics.

29JAN09 – EuroTrip Part Duo

2009-02-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

Austria here we come. The highlights from Austria was the Sound of Music Tour, we lucked out and basically got our own private tour guide. She was originally from England, so the accent made all the more fun. We literally just caught this trip…came off the train went to the Info desk and they had a trip leaving in 5 minutes, so we hopped aboard. That evening we went to musical dinner event featuring works by Mozart, after all the Mozart School of Music is located in Salzburg, as well as Mozart’s birth place.

We also took a tour of the castle; it is the one you see in the Sound of Music movie. We met a guy named Christian from Germany who was there for a business meeting and he let us crash their party and have all the free Hot wine we could drink. The castle will always hold a special place in my heart for a number of reasons.

Salzburg had a beautiful Christmas Market too, which Vern took advantage of and bought herself some nice pink boots! From Salzburg, we left for Wien (Vienna).

Wien is a gorgeous city too, they have an awesome Cathedral and the biggest Christmas Market in Europe, well at least of all that I visited. Again by chance we were in the right place at the right time and Verna snagged us a great deal on a pair of tickets to the Wien Symphony Orchestra featuring music by none other than the one and only Mozart. From Wien to Venice; we thought we had it all figured out so that we could catch the fast train to Venice leaving at 0630 and arriving at 1330. We were all set to go, made it to the train station bright and early only come to find out we were at the wrong station, there is a West Hauptbahnhof and a South Hauptbahnhof. We arrived to Wien via the West, but I failed to see that we needed to leave from the South. We did a little train hopping back and forth, but we were not lucky enough to catch the early train; instead of arriving in Venice by 1330, we arrived at 1800.

We went out for dinner, then ff exploring the nightlife of Venice…needless to say; it was an early night as Venice has no nightlife. We were up early the next morning to explore Venice in the daylight, we did the famous Gondola ride down the Canal Grande, then made our way to San Marco Square and Cathedral – beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, and you’ll have to take my word on it, because of our whole trip, those are the only pictures we lost. There is soooo much more to these stories; you will just have to ask. Florence, look out here we come.
I think of all the cities I visited in Italy, Florence is my favorite. It has the right amount of action, shopping, and scenery. On our way to Rome, we took a pit-stop in Pisa to go see the famous Leaning Tower.

Rome is amazing; definitely need more than 2 days here. We arrived Saturday evening, settled into our hotel then went out for a nice dinner. The only disappointment in Rome was that we planned our main sight-seeing day there was a Sunday and Vatican City is closed, that means we did not get to see the Sistine Chapel. We took one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours with the audio tour. I really enjoyed it, there were 12 historic stops on the route and you can stop at whatever one you want and stay as long as you want, the ticket is good for 24 hours, but we only had 12 hours to see all of Rome. We were going to try and make it back to Milan by 1800 for a Christmas part of all Vern’s relatives…we rolled into Milan about 2100, met up with Ryan, Verna’s cousin and went out for dinner…next day back to reality.

Hope you enjoyed, I know I cut things short because I am so behind in my blog, but if there is anything of interest you want to hear about, leave me a comment or send me an email.

Next entry will be more escapades from Iraq!

EuroTrip 2008, Part I

2009-01-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

06JAN09. Well the two major holidays have come to pass, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, that means I am that much closer to coming home. Plus there was a few birthdays; Corey’s, Stacy’s, William’s, and Grandpa – Happy Birthday to you all!! Quite a lot has happened since my last entry and I do not know how I am going to tell all the stories??? I suppose I will just go in sequence and if I get too long winded, I will break the blog in two. Ok…I am breaking it in two, enjoy the first half….

I was able to get a slot to go on mid tour leave for some R&R and as a last minute kind a thing planned a trip through Europe. I was going to hit 11 cities and 4 countries in 15 days and who do you think was crazy enough to go on this adventure with me….none other than my special friend Verna. Verna and I traveled the Philippines together a few years back which eventually lead to us dating. The dating thing lasted about a year, but we have remained great friends since and who knows what our futures hold!!?? We do know that we travel well together and what good is exploring if you don’t have someone to share all the experiences with, so she was game! The plan was to meet in Pisa Italy, but through some unforeseen circumstances, Verna flew into Milan, which worked out since she has family there and I ended up going to Pisa. The adventure started on 6DEC for me as I had to fly into Kuwait first and that is where all my travel coordination took place. I was very fortunate and was able to get in and out of Kuwait in less than 24hrs. I touched down in Pisa on 7DEC and had reservations all set to stay at Camp Darby, an Army base in Italy. My stay there was short lived. I was planning it to be my base of operations, however I landed late on a SUN and everything was closed, plus I was informed that MON was an Italian holiday so most things probably would be closed then too. I was planning to rent a car, but I did not want to wait 2 days, nor did I want to go back to the airport and try to rent one from there...good thing, because it all worked out for the best. I got a hold of Verna and decided to meet her that night, Milan was just a 3 hour train ride away. So I check out of my hotel and made my way to the train station. Of course the train I was suppose to take, the tracks were under construction, so I had to hop a bus and go to another station where with a little help from the locals I was able to get on my train and off to Milan I was!! Really having no idea where I was going, I got off at the wrong station, but good thing I was quick to realize the wrongs of my way and I was able to catch the next train to the Milan Central Station. After arriving 45 minutes later than I expected, I was able to make a phone call and miraculously hook up with Verna and her uncle. Verna had already arranged a hotel for the evening so I didn’t need to worry about that, a pleasant surprise, so we were off to meet some more family, then off to our hotel to get a good night’s sleep so we could tackle the morning early to take in all the sights.

20081208_Eurotrip

The next day we got up, had our complimentary breakfast, met up with Verna’s uncle and away we went. We started with the town square and Cathedral. We tried to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting, but the place where it is kept was closed, Italian Holiday. From there we left to go to the Christmas market and see other cool buildings, side note, I will be using the term “cool buildings” a lot as I cannot remember everything we saw, and I do not have the time right now to research it, so bear with me….ok, where was I, oh the Christmas Market, there we met up with one of Verna’s cousins. This is where I had my first beer, a Heineken, and some kind of Italian sandwich. This was the first beer of many to come that night. After all the sights were taken in, we were off to meet more cousins. We ended up partying the night away, enjoying beer and some good authentic Italian pizza. We eventually escaped to go and see another one of Verna’s uncles where I was introduced to balut…enjoy the video:

From Milan we caught the train to Zurich, Switzerland. We spent one night there and when we arrived it was raining. We did not know where are hotel was, we booked it right from the train station, they have this huge wall with all the hotels and you just pick and call. We got directions for the one we choose, but somehow I think they got lost in translation. A kind gentlemen out strolling his baby kindly directed us to our hotel, there would have been no way we would have found it otherwise, well of course I would have found it eventually, you know being in the Army and all. After we checked in and got settled, we asked for a recommendation for dinner and the gentlemen point across the street there was a nice family owned restaurant. We said perfect and ran over. This would be our first sit down and relax meal. It was delicious; I had a Swiss beer and something to eat.

The next morning we were off to see the sites, check out the pics. Switzerland is very clean and very beautiful. There is an old part of town and a new part and they are divided by a river.

From Switzerland we were off to Garmish Germany, It was a 3 hour train ride through the Alps, beautiful! Upon arriving at Garmish train station, we hailed a cab and we were off to Edelweiss Resort. It is a gorgeous get away located on an Army base; It was nice to see people that speak your language. We checked in, got our room, arranged our stuff, and then went off exploring the Hotel. The hotel had all the amenities, awesome pool, a neat outdoor hot tub, a couple of restaurants and a bar. It is getting late and we were hungry so we quickly changed and made our way to the restaurant where I had an awesome T-bone steak and some German beer. The next day we planned to go skiing/snowboarding, and then get a massage later that night. We weren’t able to do any, the weather although nice, in the mountains it was foggy with zero visibility, there went snowboarding in the Alps (1 of the 100 things I want to do before I die), I guess I will be going back to Europe again. As for the massage, we didn’t reserve in time, and all slots were full. Didn’t matter, we adjusted plans and went exploring the little town of Garmish.

Garmish to Munich to Prague, oh my!! On our way to Prague, we had a couple of hours to kill before catching the train so Verna and I went and explored Munich. Munich is where a kind lady educated me that although German’s love their beer, it is more of a summer drink and they prefer to drink hot wine in the winter. I said, “That sounds great too, as long as I am here in Germany I am going to have a beer, then I will try the hot wine, thanks!”

Homeland, here I come! It was a 6 hour train ride to Prague, we left right around dusk so we did not get to take in a lot of sights on the way, instead we choose to rest, relax and catch some zzzzz’s where we could. Upon arriving in Prague, we were greeted by my friend Tomas. Tomas and I met while I we attended Signal Officer Basic Course at Fort Gordon, GA. He was the most gracious host; he put us up in an apartment and offered to be our personal tour guide. My friends Mike and Amanda from London flew in for the weekend too, so Praha, look out here we come. The major mission in Prague was to find some kolachies and dumplings – mission accomplished, see the pics. Praha is beautiful, the St Charles Bridge, town square, the castle, peeing statues, Christmas Market, the beer, what a great time. We even took in some night life, check out the video.

We had a blast in the Czeck Republic, but it was time to head off to Salzburg, Austria. Watch for Eurotrip 2008, Part Duo - Coming soon to a Blog near you!

I think I am half way done?

2008-11-30T04:32:00.000-08:00

16NOV08. The election has come and gone, I guess I didn’t win the election for Mayor of Montgomery, probably would help if I wasn’t the only one to vote for me. So we have a new President-elect, will he be the answer to all our troubles, I guess time will tell. I do know one thing, if you are interested in owning semi-automatic assault rifles; you better buy them now, because we all know what happened to gun control under our last democratic president. Our Task Force has out together an order for a commemorative rifle; I will be purchasing the M4 223.

Another deer hunting season has come to past and it looks like my cousin Bill and brother Jake bagged themselves some nice deer, if you look closely at my pictures you will see my brothers. He tagged a 10 point buck, dressed out at 200lbs, way to go little brother! My cousin Bill arrowed himself a nice 9 pointer that dressed at 190lbs if I remember right. I am hoping to go on an Elk hunting trip down to New Mexico with Grupe and Wildman when I get back, pending I get picked for a license.

What has been keeping me busy here the last few weeks you ask, well I ran a couple of 5k races. I did ok for taking a week off from running. I develop shin splints in my right leg so I took some time off to let it heal. After a week, it still felt the same and I was going through runner’s withdrawal so I started back up. The pain is tolerable, feels like a bruise and stops hurting after a few minutes into my run and a few minutes after my run. I have changed running shows and I think that is one of the causes, so I will go back to my New Balances and see if that helps. On 11NOV, we had the Veteran’s 5k run, out of 2000 runners, I placed 19th, not too bad for an old man!

In the work place, we are having issues with a computer virus. It has shut down 9 of my computers so far. It is believed that the virus is being transferred by the use of external media devices, commonly known as thumbdrives. My higher command has decided to block all USB ports and therefore banning the use of these devices. I do not mind at all, there really is a very, very limited need for such devices as we have a sharedrive where everyone can store their information and access it anywhere from any computer over here!! The situation has been keeping my guys busy.
23NOV.

Charlie Company was kind enough to let us “have” their trailer here since the bulk of them are working from another location. We have turned that office space into tech lab as you can see in this month’s photos. It is still a work in progress, but it is perfect for my guys to work on their A+ and networking skills. The goal is for them to build a LAN and utilize their skills to manage and troubleshoot different problems we run into. We want to set up a centralize server where we can push out our own virus updates and any other software patches/upgrades remotely making us a little more efficient.

A week ago there was a malfunction on one of the F16s and it caught on fire. The munitions started to “burn off” sounding the alarm for us to all take shelter in place since it was impossible to predict where the rounds where going to hit and or land. Thankfully no one was injured, except the Aircraft, see the picture.

These past few weeks the S6 section really scored with care packages. First Capella University sent us close to 30 I believe, I lost count as I was receiving so may per day. They set us up with over 140 DVD movies, about just as many books, if not more, music CDs, Playstaion games, coffee, creamer, lotion, and the list goes on. We have set up a video library for soldiers to check out movies as well as a reading library in out Tech Lab. We shared the coffee and the rest of the goodies with everyone too. You can see pics of all the boxes of stuff and the happy soldiers tearing into them. At the same time, the VFW Post 6316 and the Ladies Auxiliary out of Blaine, which my Aunt and Uncle are members of, sent a nice care packages of pocket flags and goodies too. One of my favorite things I received is a new embroidered shower towel that I am modeling for the Ladies Auxiliary in this month’s photo album – Thank you ladies!

It does not stop there the Dentist office of Dr. Eisenhuth, sent three HUGE boxes of candy, and toothbrushes! We literally have enough candy, and I am talking the good stuff, milk duds, dots, butterfingers, kitkats, reeces peanut butter cups, heath bars, snickers, laughy taffy, and the list goes on. They also stocked us with toothbrushes and dental floss, smart idea….in addition they threw in “Thank You” letters from kids, that was a nice touch – Thank you Dr. Eisenhuth and her fabulous team.

The week of 17-21NOV, I thought it would be a good idea to take Combatives Level One training, wow, I hadn’t quite planned for such a butt whooping. Check out the pics, I came home with a few bruises. Combatives, for those who do not know, is the Army’s new program for personal protection. It is similar to Mixed Martial Arts fighting and is a 40 hour course. You learn how to suppress your enemy with your bare hands. It is an excellent program and great training. Here is a link to what it is all about: https://www.infantry.army.mil/combatives/

To close out this month’s blog, was the celebration of Thanksgiving, one more holiday gone, another month closer to home. The dining facility went all out with cool sculptures a, made from food, check out the pics. They served the traditional meal, turkey or ham or prime rib, along with mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, I think you get the idea, so when it came to food, we were not missing out.

Next blog entry should be full of pics as I decided to take leave and go on R&R to Europe….stand bye!!

As always, enjoy the pics.

Here Comes the Rain

2008-11-02T01:28:00.001-07:00

02NOV08, two days before the elections, what does that mean to me….just a good day to get caught up on some blogging...oh yeah, I did vote already, Are you?? I want to say thank you to the Woxlands, Asburys, and my parents. I got your care packages with everything I wanted. You all came through so I will not be needing any more dental floss, or toothpaste for the rest of my deployment!! Aunt Rea, thanks for the embroidered towel, I will have to send the Lady’s Auxiliary a nice picture of me modeling my new towel!! The pocket flags are really nice, I have been handing them out and I will get a nice picture of that too, so stop by often.

For this entry I think I am just going to babble in no particular order, whatever pops to mind is what I am going to write about. These past few weeks we have received our first rainfall, boy what a mess. In one day we received twice the average rainfall for this time of year. I can see how the Great Flood of biblical times happened; there is no place for the water to go. The ground here is so dry and so packed that the water cannot be absorbed into the ground, it just pools up and lingers until the Sun can heat up enough to evaporate it all. The fine dust that is on the ground, which you could mistake for cinnamon turns into a brown paste like glue that sticks to everything making it miserable walking/biking/driving from one point to another. I have a few pictures, I kind of been slacking on those, of the mess. We are entering the rainy season so I am sure I will have plenty of opportunities for more.

To try and combat the misery of walking in this crap, Grupe and I constructed our own elevated walk way so that we can make it semi-safely to the port-o-potties and the shower. Of course we talked about doing this before the rain came, but procrastinated about it, so as soon as it dried up somewhat, we were out there constructing (see pics).

In preparation of the rains to come, my high speed guys constructed an awning for our porch outside the office, it adds some addition shade so we can keep the door open and let some fresh air in…one nice thing about the rain, it suppresses all the dust in the air, so it is actually nice to be outside breathing this Iraqi air.

I did break down and purchases my 2009 Pewter Pearl Harley Davidson Fat Boy form Twin Cities Harley in Lakeville, it will be ready for pick-up when I get home in JUNE 2009!! I cannot WAIT, to ride it!!! (Click to see Pic)
Our new found favorite spot here is called the DRMO lot (acronym for something), it is where units bring equipment that is no longer working. Notice I did not say repairable, because my Joes have found some things and were able to piece together some working items. I am trying to acquire some more real estate here to build a computer lab so they have a place to work on their new projects and also gain some valuable experience in the area of computer repair and networking…I’ll keep you posted.

Some projects we have been doing around our AO include the running of a new CAT5 line to bring some more users up on our network, Giddyup and I handled that job, I like to get out in the field once in awhile to show these young pups a thing or two. The items I talked about in earlier blogs that I was trying to purchase came in, so we were able to install 5 more CISCO IP phones, and will probably install a few more here down the road. We are also working to set up some stand alone LANs to link some workshops together with a printer and we may have a mission to install SINCGAR radios into some vehicles. Other than that, we continue to refine and improve on our ongoing missions.

I ran a few races since I last wrote, same old same old, finished in the top 10. My last race was the Tulsa 15K where I placed 6th with a time of 62 minutes, that was on 25OCT and it was also the last time I ran. I have developed a shin splint in on my right leg and I am giving it time to heal. There are two 5ks coming up this week in which I plan to still run, I will truly be doing them as “Fun Runs.” Starting on 3NOV, I will bike and do the elliptical to get my CARDIO back up, I really do miss my running though. So Amy, that ice/heat back you sent me is going to be real important in my recovery – thanks! You can see my actual results from the 15k by clicking this link: Race Results (The top results are the ladies, scroll down for the men).

If you haven’t heard, the new Social Network Fad is www.Facebook.com. I have reconnected with some old high-school friends and am staying current with other friends going ons….it is a neat way to stay on top of things without having to do any work other than logging in! I can see what people are up to and if I want I can leave a comment or send a message, this works real well with my schedule!

The other neat online thing I have been doing is www.Skype.com, I have been able to Skype with my sister and family, which was really cool and with my friend Verna, surprisingly she has been getting to see me the most, it must be her work schedule??? I have a plan to Skype my parents this evening 2NOV and another for Thanksgiving, I can’t wait. BTW my Skype handle is chrispkline.

People have been asking what I do for fun over here so let’s see, on Halloween I went to my first Movie, “Pride and Glory” had a NA beer and popcorn, cost me all of $2!! On 1NOV went through a Haunted House, then went to the Driving Range and hit a few golf balls. I have been hitting the weights regularly for a month now, so although I am not running now, I am still exercising. I have been watching the TV series Nip/Tuck; I have seasons 1-4. Building my music and movie library, I guess that has really been it, nothing too exciting. I am hoping to start taking some Israeli Mix Martial Arts and Weapons training, that will be a few nights a week, From time to time they offer Salsa Dance, I may try to hit that occasionally; the MWR here has all kinds of neat things to do, I just need to plan my schedule a little better…believe me, I am not bored!!

One thing I have noticed here and that is – I do not miss my cell phone one bit, although it is funny, from time to time I will “feel” this phantom vibrate in my pocket and I will place my hand there to feel if my phone is there, only to realize, it was all in my head!

I have started a dialog with my replacements, the 628th ASB out of Pennsylvania, I am hoping to provide them all the info they need to make it a seamless transition when it comes time for them to replace us.

I will leave you with this quote, it came from one of the Company Commanders during a Command and Staff brief, he was telling us a story of how some of his soldiers didn’t perform a task quite up to standard, leading to some mishap, no one was injured thankfully, but this is how he stated it: “You can go ahead and laugh at my Privates now, because I am sure I will be laughing at your Privates later.” It took him a minute to realize what he just said, the whole room just busted out in laughter – I hope you all can find the humor in this.

As always, enjoy the pics.

Iraq - The Early Days

2008-10-12T03:04:00.000-07:00

Well the weather has started to cool off reaching mid 90’s at its high and I have been waking up to the 60’s, feels nice. Since I last wrote my big things to do were my spending budget and getting the Motor pool connected to the network.

First the budget; our Battalion has a shortage of automation equipment over here and it is one of my duties to identify the shortages and filter the needs versus the wants of all the soldiers my section supports. Believe it or not that is the easy part; the tough part is all the paperwork it takes to submit the request on up the chain for the final approval. I had to write three Memorandums of justification per item that I am requesting and had 72 hours to get it done as I was given a very short suspense. I identified five major areas where we could use a little help; printers, monitors, phones, switches and uninterrupted power supplies. Along with the memos, I also needed three quotes. You would think no problem with the internet and all, but there is a catch, all three quotes need to be from Iraqi vendors; the US is trying to stimulate the economy over here. This has been an interesting challenge, but nothing that couldn’t be solved through email; it only took me about three weeks to get what I needed. Now the process moves forward, oh, did I mention that I shouldn’t expect to see all this equipment until a month or two before our rotation here ends. The process takes that long to get approved, so basically we are setting up our counterparts.

Our first big project here was to get the motor pool reconnected to the network. The motor pool is about 350 feet away from the nearest network switch and CAT5 pretty much loses its signal strength after 300 feet. The unit before us had them connected via CAT5 using a pair gain modems. They suspended the CAT5 from the double HAS over to the motor pool, probably about a 450 foot run. Shortly before they left they took their modems back and the cable got cut; thus they lost connectivity. LT Grupe tried some magic with his wireless CAISE system, but it just wasn’t working so we had to do it the old fashion way. My guys worked with the motor pool to get them to use one of their forklifts to break up the ground for a trench. My guys trenched the 300 plus feet, secured some PVC piping and ran a new line of CAT5. I had some spare switches that LT Grupe worked some magic on, and with the help of some of his CAISE HDSL modems, we were able to get the motor pool back up and running (see pictures of us trenching).

This little endeavor, along with another similar project coming up goes to show just how important and how much we rely on technology for our jobs. I won’t say to do our jobs, because we can still perform the tasks that we need to get done, but for sure technology makes them easier and us more efficient. I have heard soldiers say that their jobs are not as glorious as being out there on the front lines kicking in doors, but it is because of all of our specialties that makes our Army the best in the world….you just go ahead and ask someone how important their email is to them or their phone service, and I think they all will say that they “can’t live without it.” Whether it is for business or MWR, the internet is coveted by everyone, and it is my team’s job to make sure it stays up and running.

On 18SEP our Task Force suffered the first casualties of our deployment. A Chinook helicopter carrying 7 soldiers from Kuwait to Iraq crashed. The soldiers killed were mostly from Texas and Oklahoma. When something tragic like this happens, the Base goes under what is call “COMMS BLACK OUT” and nobody is allowed to communicate with anyone back home. This is out of respect for the families affected and to allow for proper notification. So if you hear of anything or see anything on TV, just be patient, I will send something out as soon as the ban is lifted, usually within 72 hours. It is one of my jobs to advice the commander on how to ensure that essential means of communication stay active while trying to minimize the use of those considered less essential.

During this blog posting, I ran the Air Force Half Marathon, the Army 10 miler and the Navy 5k. I placed in the top 10 of all races, and yes there were more ten runners in each race!

On 4 October in honor of Duck opener back home, I purchased some pellet guns in the morning and then SPC Wiering and I went out hunting around 1800. I have some pictures and a little video footage of that adventure.

This week I also broke down and bought a bike for $50 bones….actually a bike is the best way to get around on this side of the base. If I hadn’t mentioned already, the base is basically divided in two East side (Blue) and the West Side (Green), colors representing Air force and Army. There is a road that circles the perimeter called Victory loop and we are not allowed to run or bike on this road, therefore we are restricted to our sides of the base. We can go to the “otherside” if we want, we just need to take a bus or drive one of our NTVs (NonTactical Vehicle) over there. On the East side is where you will find the Olympic size pool and the movie theater, go figure!!

Not too many pictures this time around, I will have some more, so check back often to see what I’m up to.

As always, enjoy the pics.

Well I made it to Iraq

2008-09-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

I touched down safely in Iraq on the 25th of August as most of you have probably figured out by now. We were greeted by our TORCH party personnel at the airport, to include my guy I sent STRATAIR, SGT Murphy or as I call him, M5; it was good to see him! I have been affectionately nicknaming all my soldiers; M5 got his because I have two SGT Murphys in my section, one is a SGT E5, the other is a SFC E7, so as you can guess the other SFC Murphy is M7 or I just call them by their number. In blogs to come, you will learn more about my crew.

We arrived late, so that evening we stayed in transient housing, or short term lodging. We slept 8 to a building with the bunks being bunk beds. Everyone found their gear, a bed, and then ran off to the shower. This was the first night in 2 weeks we all got to sleep on a mattress vs. a cot, it was a nice change. The next morning we all needed to be ready by 0900 to go receive our housing in-brief so that we can get our room assignment on the West side. Grupe managed to secure a seat on the ADVON flight so we remained partners in crime and are roommates for the deployment. For the deployment we will be living in CHUs; Containerized Housing Units, check out the pictures.

The next few days we spent getting settled into our rooms and meeting our counterparts. I met the soldiers of the 412th ASB, the unit we are replacing. They are a good crew and did a lot of stuff improving the BN AO (Battalion Area of Operations) with wiring projects and the addition of switching cabinets.

On 28AUG, we were informed that our RIP TOA (Relief In Place & Transfer Of Authority) was bumped up a week sooner. This expedited our training timeline significantly and the rush was on to start setting up all the accounts in our name. We have Toby Hanna, the Army Depot where we bring computer systems to get fixed, COMSEC account, the DRMO, where we dispose of hazardous materials and most importantly our IMO (Information Management Officer) training, this gives us the right to administer and manage the BN network. CPT H and his soldiers gave us the tour of Balad and my AO; all the places I have customers to support.

Of course Grupe and I found time to run and signed up to run a half marathon on 31AUG, the Rock ‘n Roll Virginia Beach half Marathon. This was my first and we ran it in 1:38.44, finished in the top 20. Had we started at the front of the pack instead of lining up in the back, I think we would have placed in the top 10, securing medals…oh well there will be plenty more races, overall this was a Great Run!

The following days I spent getting acclimated to my new job, learning all I can from CPT H and taking in the new sites, sounds and smells of Iraq.

All around me there are things flying, like Black Hawks, Apaches, Chinooks, F16s, C130s and a whole slew of other types of aircraft; it is loud. I think it would be the equivalent of living right on the runway of the MSP Airport. Here is the sound of the F16s taking off, they do this constantly, ALL day long. At night they look like rockets with their afterburners, pretty cool, I'll try to get a video...

(I distorted the Video for OPSEC reasons)

The smell, dirt and diesel all day long; if you ever did any landscaping and order up a nice load of pulverized black dirt, after they dump it, there is that fine dirt in the air, not only can you see it, but you can smell and even taste it, throw in a little diesel and that is what it smells like here.

It is 4SEP and still pretty hot here, 120s or so…and our bathrooms on the most part are Port-o-Potties…let me tell you, there is nothing more soothing than sitting on a nice hot toilet to take care of business, only sometimes it gets real hot and you have to ease yourself down on the seat, sort of like when you are stepping into a real hot Jacuzzi, you have to take it nice and slow, but when you get there, it feels good!!! LOL

Today, 5SEP I ran the 5k freedom run, and took 5th place overall with a time of 22:18. I sure felt good on this run and I am thinking no way it was only a 5k, so the next morning I had Grupe run the course with, he didn’t run the race-choose to sleep in, and it was a little long, about a 1/3 of a mile long, it was actually 3.4 miles. I still have not got a medal here in Iraq, but I am working on it.

Well we had our first dust storm of the deployment, check out the pictures, I missed most of it as I was in my office working, but one of my soldiers snapped a few picks from on top of our HAS (Hardened Aviation Shelter).

11SEP, this morning I ran the Patriot 5k with Grupe as we were a team carrying our BN Colors, if you ask him he will let you know it wasn’t one of his better runs as he just finished up some “paperwork” if you know what I mean when the race started. He didn’t catch up to me until the first mile and he looked in rough shape so I carried the colors to mile 1.5, handed them off to him where he carried I think maybe a mile or less, then I took them for the last mile or so. The top 3 teams received awards and we came in 5th, just missed again! Today also happens to be the infamous day, 5 years ago today is the reason we are here and coincidently today we were “Patched” which means we received our right shoulder, or combat patch. I have the history of the significance of this event under my "Some History" link. It is a big thing to me, not sure how others feel about it, but I feel more like I am part of the team, that I pulled my weight, that I now have that bond with my brothers and sisters in Arms…it is hard to explain, but I feel more accepted.

For the most part I am trying to get into a routine. I go for a run in the morning; I have been a good boy flossing my teeth every morning too, shower and off to breakfast. Usually start my day at 0530 and am into the office just before 0900. I go through the taskers from the night before and then check my email for new Help Desk Tickets. I am still putting out a lot of fires like, my printer doesn’t work, my radio lost its COMSEC, I need a new computer, can I get another computer drop in my office, I want AFN in my office, I can’t log onto my computer, I am locked out of my computer, can I get another phone line…you get the picture. I am trying to automate our Helpdesk procedures to help alleviate this. To do this I am trying to establish a share drive, plus we use Microsoft SharePoint here too. I have 2 networks I manage, a secure or secret network, and then the regular network like you all have at work. Each one has its only policies and protocols that must be enforced, so that means I have twice as much of a chance for something to go wrong. I will talk more about my job as things move on.

Since I have been running, I have lost 19 pounds, I am down from 167 to 148, and I have pretty much lost my belly, which is good. I am hoping to hit the gym starting 1OCT and my goal is to get back up to 160, I will keep you all posted. My poor feet have been taking a beating however, they are still trying to acclimate. I was setting a lot when I got here and my feet basically shed all their skin, just like a snake would. I am getting more use to the climate now and not sweating so much in my boots and my feet are slowing healing up, in another week or so, they will be better than new! It might be to the fact that it is starting to cool off here, it has to come to the point where 100 degrees fills like 60 back home. For a while I did not think there was such a thing as cold water here, hot or warm, but now I can feel traces of cold water when I first turn on the shower. I am not a real “Hot” shower taker, I like it warm and for a while I would just have to turn the cold water on, now I have to crack the hot just a little bit.

14SEP – the dust in the air today is horrible, it looks like an early spring morning back in Minnesota when the air is thick with dew, instead; here it is dirt. It sucks…(Can you tell which pictures they are??) Here is the Video I promised....

As always, enjoy the pics.

So long Kuwait

2008-08-31T01:13:00.000-07:00

Well my stay in Kuwait has come to pass. My main tasks there were to get acclimated to the time change and weather, plus fire my weapon to insure that it still works. Tasks related to my Army job was to get system administrative privileges, baseline some computers for the Kuwait network, set up a phone line and make sure my Commander could log into his computer and make calls from his phone – mission was accomplished.

In Kuwait we had to take combat showers because all water has to be shipped into Camp Buehring and each soldier is allowed 15 gallons of water per day. Here is how a combat shower works, you turn the water on, get wet, shut water off, lather up with soap, turn water on, rinse off, your done, get out – next!

While I was turning in my paperwork to get network access for my soldiers, I made small talk with one of the civilian Techs that works there and asked how much money he made, and he goes, “I am one of the lower paid guys year and my salary is $110K per year.” Not a bad gig, they do the same thing that I will be doing over the next 10 months. They are all contracted through ITT.

The day we need to go fire our weapons we had to get up at 0330. We left at 0400, drove an hour out into the desert to a range. While we were in route to the range we were briefed that we need to be careful not to shoot any camels as they kind of free-range out where we are going. If we were to shoot one, there is more paperwork involved with that incident verse a soldier getting shot. Apparently all these “organizations” have to come out and declare the value of the camel. In case you are interested, brown or black camels go for $8k a piece and white camels go for $100k a piece, why do you think white camels go for so much? If interested, send an email and I will tell you.

16AUG there was a “Victory in the Pacific” 5k race that a bunch of us Red Bulls participated in and wouldn’t you know that we had runners place in all the age categories(See the pictures) . I took 2nd in my age group with a 19:22 time and Grupe took third place. This was the start of my Medal collection… I am going to try and run all the 5k races, they usually have them on Holidays over here. We’ll see how many medals and T-shirts I can collect!

On 18AUG, a group of us decided to go and get haircuts. I can honestly say that the barber cut every single one, see this entries picture. I think I got finagled into this as the others did not get as close of a cut as I did, or it could be the fact that my hair is just not as thick as it used to be. We were all supposed to get a “high-fade” as seen in the pictures. We had a good time and good laugh watching everyone’s reaction to getting all their hair chopped off, I think It hurt me the worse as I am very protective of the hair I have. Now we will let the hair grow in and start growing mustaches, should be fun! The 18th of AUG is also the anniversary of my commissioning; I have been a commissioned officer for 6 years now.

I had heard rumors of a SPA on post, so I sent out to investigate and low and behold, I did find one, so I got myself a massage, 30 minutes for $21 bucks from a nice Filipino lady. The entire SPA is run by Filipinos, the do manicures, pedicures, and haircuts too. I think the massage also helped me beat the Kuwaiti krud. The entire base is powered by diesel generators, so it is loud, dirty and the air is just yucky. I run outside, about 40 miles a week and I am breathing in all that crap…so this is why I treated myself to a massage to help work all the toxins out of my body. After my massage, I stopped at Starbucks (yes, they are everywhere) for a caramel frappuccino.

On 23AUG I entered a CARDIO-STREND competition which consisted of the following events: 100 floors on the Stair-stepper, 5 miles on the Elliptical and 2 miles on the treadmill. I came in third place, but not without controversy. There was no doubt Grupe had first place wrapped up with his astonishing performance on the elliptical, 5 miles in 15 minutes. Second place was a surprise as I thought I had it in the bag, but out of nowhere Bibeau snuck by me and stole away the silver. Apparently the trick to the elliptical was keeping it on level one and just push through it, I on the other hand had mine set on level seven, and took 30 minutes to go 5 miles... cost me the gold. So to insure Bibeau’s silver, he says to me, “let’s run the two miles on treadmills next to each other.” I was like sure…later to find out he knew he had beat me by 10 minutes on the elliptical so all he needed to do was stay within 10minutes of me on the 2 mile. The order of the medal presentation went Bronze, Silver, and Gold; when I did not place, I knew something was wrong. After the presentations were complete, I went to the judges and demanding a recount, I mean a re-add of the times…and sure enough, I at least came in third, stripping SFC Saladin of his medal! It was all good and we had fun!

The next day Grupe and I decided to run a 12 miler as it would be our last run in Kuwait. This is my longest run since I ran the Twin Cities marathon back in 2001. I felt pretty good, so afterwards I treated myself one more time to a massage, actually I got the full package, a foot spa, manicure and 30 minute massage from Melvy, boy did I sleep well that evening. The next day I got up, finished packing and left for Iraq later that day on a C130 flying high, very hot and super sweaty, miserable hour and half flight.

As always, enjoy the pictures.

Kuwait - I have arrived!

2008-08-13T01:47:00.000-07:00

12AUG
I left Ft Sill Oklahoma on 10AUG and arrived to Camp Buehring Kuwait at 120330AUG08; for as fast as those two days went, they sure felt long. We flew on a DC10 with some Marines, Navy and Air Force soldiers; we were all just one big happy family. I did not sleep on the flight from Minnesota to Bangor Maine, but choose to watch the on board movie, “Fools Gold,” I thought it was ok. We had a 2 hour lay-over in Maine. We had a nice reception, there were prior Vets, VFW, Legion, and civilians there all through the day greeting soldiers and thanking them for their service. We used this same airport for when I came home from Bosnia. I used my time to send out a few quick emails and to also try and get my video player to work. I downloaded the latest codecs and drivers, but no luck…I was hoping to finish watching “The Godfather Part II.” Can you believe I have never seen those movies, well to say the least, I will get the whole series completed while here in Kuwait. Our next stop from Maine was Shannon Ireland, the movies for this round were “I am Legend” and “The Contract.” This was a 4.5 hour flight to Ireland where we were going to have a 2.5 hour layover there and again, I used the time to send out some quick emails, I think it was 0330 on 11AUG, I had been up for 20 straight hours at this point.

By this time I could not take it, I was getting easily annoyed and crabby. I decided to find I nice row of seats in the airport and passed out. I think I was able to squeeze in a 45 minute cat nap! I was awaken and told to get on the plane, next stop Kuwait, just 6.5 more hours to go. I do not know what it is, but my right knee just starts aching if I have to sit for more than a couple of hours, it is probably just old age settling in, I’ll have to ask MSG Olsen about that….I decided to get some more sleep because I knew once we got to Kuwait, it was going to be a long day. I woke up a couple of hours later to see my battle buddy resting nice and comfortably on my right shoulder, awww he was so cute, until I pushed him off of me….just joking! We both woke up and finished watching the movie, “Oceans 13 or 14 or 15,” one of those….

Once we made it to Kuwait, we had few stops before making it to our final destination, Camp Buehring. We unloaded the plane and immediately got on the bus, drove for a little while; I could swear they had speed bumps every 100 meters! We stop for a piss, smoke and water break. I think it was still on the Kuwait Airport. Next we drove to Camp Victory, there we unloaded our gear from one truck, got rid of the Marines and Seamen, loaded our gear on to another truck and headed North to Camp Buehring. Oh, Amy, I got a rock for you from Kuwait, there is nothing cool about it, other than it will be from Kuwait.

I think I slept most of the way; it was a quick 45 minute drive. Besides the first thing that comes to your mind when you think desert, that is exactly what this part of Kuwait looks like. A light tan, real fine sand, almost like the texture of cinnamon, but does not taste the same what-so-ever. How do I know you asked, because it is breezy here and any little gust, if your mouth is open, you’re getting some sand. The sun is also extremely bright here, I think it is because of the reflection off the sand, also the analogy of the blow dryer I stated in my last Blog, TRUE; it was 119 degrees today!

Upon our arrival, we got scanned in and brought to our new home for the next few weeks. After we unloaded our gear and got our living quarters situated (see pictures) we went and got some breakfast.

I had an omelet made my way (ham, cheese, green peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes) umm, umm, umm, plus some wheat toast with honey. I am going to have to start running soon, or the 15 lbs I lost will be found in no-time!! After breakfast we had time to shower and catch a nap before our next event, the welcome briefs ….. they went over dos and don’ts, possible threats, and safety concerns…dam it was tough to stay awake after only 4 hours asleep for the last 48….well, I made it….after which I went to the PX to get some supplies, then to dinner, then did some S6 (computer account stuff) wrote my blog and now I am going to bed, need to be up by 0300 to drive a hour into the desert to shoot my weapons, to ensure they work…..until next time – GOOD NIGHT!

One last thing, I have a new favorite song, hopefully it will be out on Karaoke by the time I get home next year, it is “All Summer Long” by Kidd Rock…I have a link to the video under My Favorite Songs.

Next Stop - Kuwait

2008-08-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

As I reflect back on my days here at good ol’ Ft Sill, I come to realize 100 plus degree weather isn’t really that bad, but honestly, I do prefer the Minnesota weather. If I need to be in this type of climate, I much rather be sitting on a nice sandy beach in the Caribbean with a fruity drink or nice ice cold beer and beautiful scenery like beautiful women in their favorite swimsuit….oh, I must of started day dreaming there, sorry…..where was I , oh-yeah, Ft Sill. Well the past few weeks I have begun to turn-in some of the equipment I am signed for and certain rooms out at the airfield I was responsible for. Since I am leaving ADVON, I needed to do a 100% inventory of all the equipment I am signed for and sign it over to my NCOIC who will then make sure it gets all turned in and my hand receipt cleared. I did receive 99% of the automation equipment I requested so me and a couple of my soldiers made sure to get all them packed so they can ship STRATAIR. (BTW – I included an acronymfinder link under Links of Interest on the right)

I did a secure Video Conference with my counterpart via the internet using Adobe Breeze interface, that was cool. It is basically the same as using CISCO Meeting place, or along the lines of Skyping or Yahoo Video conferencing. Speaking of, my Skype handle is “chrispkline” so if you have a Skype account, look me up.

As for this Blog’s picture album, you have to be patient, I have my people sending me pics, but here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

To help keep the morale up and also show us that our leadership trusts us, they allowed for us to go off post for an evening to eat dinner as a section and to catch a movie. My section, S6, CSSAMO, the Chaplain and some peeps from the S1 all went to Meers Restaurant, somewhere out in the boonies. I got to say, the food was divine and the service was great! To top things off, if you can believe this, an Army Vet that was eating there picked up the tab for all 30 of us, over $400 bucks….he tried to sneak out, but we were able to rustle him back in and say THANKS!! We are also planning to do something for him as we got his business card….stay tuned.

Well Kolacky Days of Montgomery have come and gone, I heard the weather was nice…other than that sounds like I didn’t miss too much. No big bar brawls, marriage break-ups, or stabbings…I guess for the police, this year was kind of boring!?

There is one funny story I can include in this month’s Blog, it is a short story that I call “The Cockroach Hunters.” I do not remember the exact day this event took place, but I do remember the events of the day very vividly. I believe it was about 2300 hrs, and I had just drifted off to sleep when I was awakened by a loud “aaaaahhhhhrrrgggg!!! COCKROACH!!” from the Chaplain, then Grupe comes running out of the bathroom, yelling “COCKROACH!” By this time all of that were sleeping are up by now. The Chaplain then yells to turn on the lights, so WAM! Lights on, I roll over to see what is all the commotion and through my tired, sleepy, pasted eyes, I see Grupe with a broom… and he is stretching it as far as it can reach to attack the cockroach. The Chaplain then Yells, “Don’t smash it; you’ll get the eggs all over!” So here I see Grupe ever-so-gently-trying to squish the cockroach…after that I knew it was all safe and I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Just a few days ago we had the Big Farewell Ceremony and BBQ Bash. The Governor came down, senators, the TAG, the DIV Commander, a whole bunch of supporters from MN to cook us steaks and a live performance from JB Layton. More importantly, my favorite visitors were my parents, sister, nephew, niece, grandpa and friend Verna all came to visit for a few days. I took them to see Geronimo’s Grave, the Historic Medicine Hill Bluffs and a mini tour of Fort Sill. We spent most of our time hanging out by the pool, enjoying the weather and some tasty beverages. They all just left a couple of days ago, and they all owe me pictures!!!

Verna and I did make a trip up to Oklahoma City (OKC) where we attended a Reggae festival and also went to see the OKC Bombing Memorial.

Well that wraps it all up from Fort Sill, the next entry will be from Kuwait, where I hear it is even warmer. I think someone explained it to me like this – if you want to know what it is like, take a hair dryer, put it on high, aim it right at your face, and then try to breathe…. So it may take a little getting use to. As always, enjoy the pictures.

A Month into it

2008-07-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

I have been down in Oklahoma for just over a month and I have missed my brother’s birthday, my mom’s birthday and a couple of good friend’s birthdays. I will have a lot more misses as more birthdays continue to come and go, and always the hardest, the Holidays. Since I last wrote I have wrapped up all my mobilization training and am certifiably ready to head over there. Speaking of over there, there is a FX mini-series titled “Over There” that me and my roomdogs have just finished watching on our Big Sheet TV. The series is about the Iraqi War centered around year 2004. I recommend checking it out if you get a chance.

I am going to try something different from this point on with my pictures and am going to just post them in a slideshow, this album will include what our living quarters look like, the white tents are where we eat and is affectionately known as the “MOB CAFE,” Geronimo's grave, an armadillo, some artwork, and me getting my third dose of the anthrax vaccination. Well I think that pretty much sums this month up, as always, enjoy the pictures.

My section has completed all its training as well except for one late MOBer, not exactly sure of his fate at this time, but as of right now, I will have 6 soldiers going over with me. Right now our focus is on the Mobilization Readiness Exercise (MRE) and our Command Post Network (CPN) training.

The MRE is our culminating event for which we are graded on to see if we as a Battalion are ready to go overseas. The CPN is basically a mobile AT&T that my section operates to provide voice, data and video to the Battalion Commander (BC).
I continue to fight for equipment shortages to ensure that I have the right equipment to do my job in Iraq, right now I am awaiting the results of the Memorandum I submitted to US Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), I will let you know how it goes.

I got my third shot of my series of Anthrax, handled it like a pro, boy that shot stings and your tricep is sore for about 4 days after, it feels like you went to the gym and just smoked your triceps or like someone punched you real hard about 10 times in the arm….I think I get one more shot of anthrax before I leave Ft Sill and then another one once I am in Iraq.

I am proud to say that I have not had a chew since 03JUN08, I told myself once I left MN, I would quit dippin’ and so far so good! I have also picked up my running and have logged over 180 miles since getting here, which is about 40 miles per week. I have lost 10lbs so far going from 160 to 150.

I have not started lifting weights yet; I am waiting to do that once I get to Iraq. I run at 0500 when the temp is about 70 degrees and the humidity is 80% because it quickly warms up to 95 plus degrees. I placed a temp gauge on my website so you can see what it is down here and when I get to Iraq, I will update to reflect the temp there.

I am sad to report that I did not get to sing with nor make the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on the 4th of July as I pulled Guard Duty with Grupe and another Officer so that our enlisted soldiers could enjoy the day off, regardless, I was still able to have some time off and enjoyed being able to wear civilian clothes for about 4 hours.

All my gear has been packed and is heading overseas, all I have left is the essential items to get me through the next month.

The wildlife down here is pretty robust, thus far I have seen tarantulas, deer, armadillos, elk, a fox, lots of raccoons and lots of skunks, which like to run with Grupe and I for about 25 yards before hitting the ditch, makes for an interesting morning.

I am looking forward to 4AUG as my parents, grandpa, sister, niece, nephew and friends are coming to visit me one last time before I head over there.

The First Weeks at Ft Sill

2008-06-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got email...I am in Oklahoma now, been here for about two week. It is HOT, averages about 96 degrees, and outside is like your own personal sauna with the humidity as high as it is here. I live in a room that is about 20’x 20’ with 6 roommates. We do have our own bathroom, with one toilet and shower. The hot water can not keep up with us, so most mornings I take a cold shower, to be honest I don’t mind that much. I will try and get some picks of the building as well as my view, but for now, here is one view of what my room looks like before my roommates showed up:

I was greeted by a dead cockroach in the bathroom as shown in the picture below.

I have heard others encountered rattle snakes and tarantulas down here already, I have been lucky thus far. I got a lot of shots on the Friday I got down here to include, typhoid, Anthrax, small pox, TB tine and a blood draw. I am proud to say that I did not pass out this time! I thought I hurt my chest from working out, but I have come to realize that my small pox inoculation has caused my lymph nodes to swell in my left armpit, I am relieved that I did not pull a muscle, but dam my arm is sore!! Here we are all lined up down the hall way getting our TB tine read:

I typically get up at 5am to go running when it is only about 65 degrees out. I am up to running 6 miles a day with my training buddy and room-dog Chris G. We are working on leaning up and getting acclimated to the heat, eventually we will make it to the gym here in a little while, actually we were lifting in the evening, but we have gotten too busy so we made running our priority. Chris and I decided we are going to train so that we can run Grandma’s and the TC Marathons when we get back in 2009.

My team supports over 500 soldiers that we take care of when it comes to computer issues and automation support, so I have been pretty busy these past weeks. Currently my days consist of getting individuals permission to log on to the Ft. Sill network, requesting additional automation support like copiers, faxes, scanners, thumbdrives, etc…In addition we have a classified network that select individuals have access to that I also support. I have a team of 6 right now that assist me. I will have one more arriving in the next few days. We finally are getting settled in. I have our help desk set-up where people come and submit requests for support. I also have my battle-board set up which tracks where my soldiers are, tells me where I need to be, any major projects for that day, what our training focus is for the day and other important information.

I did start reading my one year bible that mom gave me, with the idea when we are done reading it, I will be home…right now it is tough keeping up, but I am doing my best. Mom, how are you coming along?

Here is a picture of the momentous people gave me before I left:

The big ticket training is going to start here this coming week, like weapons qualification, Convoy live fire, Vehicle rollover drills and the like. All our leadership flew to Ft. Rucker for an Aviation Training Exercise (ATX) so I have been left back to pick up the slack. I am the acting XO, S3 and the actual S6 so my life will be interesting for the next 10 days. Later on as I continue to write I will describe what an XO or S3 or S6 is, if you can’t wait, you can always Google them.

One last thing, Lynyrd Skynyrd is coming here to play on July 4th, HooAH, maybe they will let me on stage to sing "Sweet Home Alabama" with them!?!?

That’s all for now, as always, enjoy the pictures.

Depature Ceremony

2008-06-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

31MAY we had our big send off with all the MN Dignitaries; Governor Pawlenty, the First Lady, MG Nash, BG Kelly, Senator Klobuchar , Representatives Bachman and Kline. Plus the most important people of all my family and friends…Lots of nice things were said and promises made…we’ll see what happens when we all come home.

We all decided to go out to Olive Garden after the ceremony…enjoy the pictures.

Here is my mailing address while at Fort Sill, Oklahoma:
CPT Kline, Christopher P.
HSC 834th ASB, S6
6609 NW FORT SILL BLVD
FORT SILL, OK 73503-1800

2008 Going away Party & Memorial Day

2008-05-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well it has come and gone...a bitter sweet feeling. The anxiety before the party was driving me crazy, I needed to be a lone for a while before the party to energize for the big event, after all, I am a Rock Star...

The party kicked off at 1400, with a few guests showing up shortly after; of course the bulk of my family was already there!!

I walked up to the White Front from my parents, we'll I attempted to twice, but forgot a couple of things so I needed to turn around twice, by the last time, mom was back at the house to pick up something, so I just caught a ride with her...when I did arrive, I was in the zone and ready to party!! This is what I saw when I walked in:
(Thanks to Niener and Budweiser!)

The food was already out and kept multiplying...it was all delicious!! Niener did an awesome job and Thank you to everyone else who contributed, lots of positive comments!

The night could have not went any better, all my friends showed up, even those that I never thought would venture to Montgomery.

Even though I got there at 1400, I told myself I could not start drinking until 1800, and of course I held myself to the standard. Once 1800 hit, I had a Bacardi Lemon Coke and 2 shots of Patron.

I put my best friend Tim in charge of making sure I consumed water at the same rate that I consumed alcohol…he did his job because I remember having at least 2 glasses of water every time I had a drink in my hand. The only problem is that after so many shots of tequila, I can’t remember much of what went on unless somebody would say. “ Do you remember” then I could reminisce. I need to find that balance... I will continue to research!

Of all that I can remember is that, I am a rock star; and that I rocked the Microphone all night long. Speaking of Rock Stars, all I know is that my next T-Shirt I make will say on the front, "I'm a Rock Star" and on the back it will say, "Just ask me!"

I will eventually publish my address in Iraq to this page, I know many of you have been asking for it...I can't wait to see what goodies from HOME I will get!.

Thanks to everyone who came out and showed their support. Enjoy the pictures and see you all again in 400 days for the “Welcome Home” fiesta!!

Thanks,
Chris.

Vegas - Baby

2008-02-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

My time here in the USA is growing shorter, so I need to take advantage of vacations and hanging with family and friends. No better thing to do, but combine the both and head to Vegas. I went to visit Heidi, my cousin and hang with some friends who live in Vegas and traveled with me. I left on 23 FEB and returned on 27 FEB.

We partied hard the first night. First we met up with Shawn, Brooke, Darcy and Brandon downtown on Fremont Street. Apparently Brooke had just gotten married last weekend to her mother's surprise.

We had a couple of drinks then made our way to RumRunner. Heidi and her roomy, Jill, have some connections there so we were able to bypass the ridiculous line and march right on in. The club was OK, but spendy, $10 per drink. The dance floor was respectably busy, but not obnoxiously packed which I like - although I never made it on the floor. On our way out we caught the last few seconds of the trapeze act - then we busted outa there.

Next stop Coyote Ugly. Again our connections got us right in without having to wait in line. Once in we got hooked up with drinks and begun to get our groove on. Lots of ladies dancing on the bar, how can you not like it. Not too many single ladies out on the dance floor - well at least I could not single any out!! My crew, we just kicked it, Heidi, Jill, Tim, Holly, Tom and Shawn - we had fun!

So much fun I don't even remember taking this picture. The thing I remember quite vividly about that night was the end because I ended up puking my guts out. Heidi had to come rescue me...but I am glad I did, because I felt just fine the next morning.

Sunday's highlight was a comedy show at Hooters featuring Bobby Slaten, outstanding, that kind is down right dirty and hilarious. After the show we made it to the Hard Rock Cafe where I started playing my favorite game - Craps! I was lucky to get on a hot table and met some cool people from Germany and Tehran. We were on fire, I almost pissed my pants because I did not want to leave because the dice were so hot. After all was said and done, I was up $135!! Tim on the other hand got to catch a couple doing the hibbadibady in the men's room and was solicited by a hooker - I call that a successful night!

Monday was poker night, Tom, Holly, Tim and I took our chances on a $40 buy in game, I took second place, not too bad. We were downtown and decided to just stay down there and gamble. We tried Pia Gao, Black Jack, and finally craps. We had beginners luck on our side as Tim and I got on a hot role and were able to win back some of the money we lost playing the other games.

Tuesday morning I woke up and went for a run. I only wanted it to go for 40 minutes, but it turned out to be about 80 minutes because, this is hard to admit, I got lost. Good news was I had my cell phone and Heidi was able to rescue me again - Hey! I was only a block away!

We all got ready for another day on the strip. This time we stared a little earlier. First Heidi, Tom and I grabbed lunch at Chipotle, my favorite, before hitting the strip. We met up with Tim and Holly at their room, they stayed at the MGM, had a couple beers them went to NY NY to ride the Roller Coaster. Boy I wish I had a camera with to take a picture of Tim, let's just say he DOES NOT like Roller Coasters. After the ride, we went to gamble a little bit at the MGM, Craps of course, this time the house took back a good chunk of their money, fortunately I was able to walk away with some money still in my pocket! I headed back to Tim and Holly's room to have some more beverages and wait for Heidi to come get us so we could get ready to go out for our last night in Vegas.

We were planning to go out to Planet Hollywood. On our way to get ready we stopped at the Olive Garden for dinner, this was at 2100 hrs. By the time we were done eating, we all kind of look at each other and Heidi says, maybe we should just go chill and watch a movie...I think we were all glad to hear that because no one wanted to be the one to "cash" out...so everyone kind of at once said "yeah" or that's a "good idea." I think no later than 5 minutes after hitting the couch, we were all out cold!

Wednesday morning came early, Tom and my flight left at 0910. Heidi got us to the airport safe and on time. We said our good byes - and off into the sunset we went...hence the next adventure starts, the ride home.

Check in was smooth. While standing in line, I initiated conversation with this rather charming looking young lady. She happened to be there on business. After Tom and I made it through security, quite the long line, we found out Lindsay was on our flight. The flight was not full, so I made the move to go sit with Lindsay. We had a good time chatting it up, so much so that we apparently were annoying the elder couple ahead of us. The flight attendant came to us and asked if we could take it down a notch. We did our best, however, I think it wasn't good enough.

When we finally landed, the old lady ahead of us, stood up and with a sneering face, said, "Did you get it all talked out?" I made a comment and they were on their way. All through the airport this old lady would give us dirty looks, funny, ha ha I think.

We said our good byes, Tim came to get Tom and my friend Kelly came to pick me up and thus ends my Vegas vacation.

Getting Started

2008-02-22T13:19:00.000-08:00

In preparation of my next big adventure, I decided to set up this blog site instead of sending out monthly Word attachments to everyone's email address. I am sending this link out to you all to have if you want to hear/see/learn about my adventures, or to delete if you could careless; makes no difference to me.

Nothing to exciting going on right now, still finishing up all my home station training, I don't expect to go on to active duty orders until end of MAR when I start my Annual Training.

One thing to note is that I am planning a going away party for 24MAY, down in Montgomery, the town in which I grew up in. It is tentatively set up to be at the Whitefront Bar from 2-6pm, with follow on partying through out the evening, of course everyone is invited, there will be free food and beer from 2-6pm!! I will post updates to this site as I finalize my plans.

That's all for now, just trying this Blog thingy out.

Later.