St Patrick's Day and more ramblings

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.