Christmas Shout Out

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas. Unoriginal I realize, but effective. Thats me and Eddie and our Gingerbread house. Engineers we are not!

Well Christmas has made it to the barren desert. The day went pretty well, which is to say it did not suck. This is mostly due to the fact that I got the whole day off! Thus the first shout out goes to my boss, LTC Gary. We were scheduled for a 1/2 day today, but LTC Gary told us to enjoy the day and he would come in and deal with anything that came up. All he asked was that we keep our cell phones on. He did call me once for a minor issue, but the rest of the day I did absolutely nothing. I slept in. Went to chow with my roommate Jeff. Then proceeded to fall into a triptophan induced coma as a result of the mass of turkey I ate. I slept until about 1700 when I got up and went to the gym. I came back to my room, showered and Skyp'd my parents and Emily then promptly went back to sleep. That my friends is a good day.

I have plenty more accolades to bestow on family and friends so please read on. I have to start with Emily. Many of you know that I had asked that I not receive any gifts this year. I am a little concerned that my girlfriend did not heed my words, but at the same time it was sure nice to have a box full of fun gifts to open. We will address the not listening issue later ;) I got a whole bunch of little snacks and games and just fun kinda stuff. I have to give a shout to Helena, one of Emily's pals in DC. She is always out shopping with Emily and I wanted to say thanks for helping to pick out fun stuff. You're doing great! It was fun opening my gifts while watching Emily have Christmas over Skype. As usually she went above and beyond. I am a very lucky guy to have a girlfriend that doesn't listen to me...

Next up is my family. My mom, sister, grandmother, great aunt, and cousin all sent me stuff. Mostly cookies and treats from home, which are all gone! My Aunt Rita sent me enough almonds to last me a few months I think! She is so fun. Aunt Helen made some of my favorite cookies, little powdered white butter cookies with nuts. They lasted for like one pot of coffee! My mom sent her usual pile of yummy cookies and some other stuff just like I told her not to. Again, a very lucky guy to have women around me that don't pay any attention when I talk....Sometimes I think my mom is trying to get me fat so I can't be in the Army! My mom is a great cook and baker; heck shes a great mom all around.

My sister gets a huge thanks not just from me, but from the whole unit. My sister thought it would be nice to get some folks to send some cards to me and the soldiers I serve with. I don't think she expected the response, but I received over 300 cards and letters. I handed out all I could to folks around here. I took the rest up to another camp and gave them to a unit that was putting together a Christmas party. They told me they had plenty of soldiers that did not get very much mail or any at all. This was going to be a real treat for those guys. I want to specifically thank the following groups that my sister identified as having sent cards:

• Employees of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources


• Mrs Bender's class at Mayo Elementary School


• Mrs. Weissmueller's class at Sunderland Elementary School


• Ms. Kirchner's class at St Mary's school


• Stevensville Girl Scouts


• Bowie Girl Scouts

Thanks to these great Americans some young trooper far from home had a little bit brighter and happier day. I can tell you from personal experience, there are times when one single letter can make the difference between a soldier crying and a soldier laughing.

I also want to say a huge THANKS to Emily's family, all like 10,000 of them! I know there are some goodies in the pipeline. I don't know what they are but I know they will be great. More than for the treats and gifts I want you all to know how much it means to me to have such a supportive family. Being there as your daughter, sister, cousin, etc deals with loving a soldier at war is a difficult thing. It is a sacrifice, make no mistake you are fighting for freedom and America as much as those of us deployed. Thanks for your support of me and especially for taking care of Emily. I know she is OK because she has all of you. Knowing that lets me focus on my mission and my soldiers.

So that is Christmas from Arifjan. I hope yours was peaceful and warm.

Christmas Eve

I lucked into a Christmas Eve feast! I had to go up to another camp today and deliver some equipment to a warehouse there. We have contractors that run the warehouse and most of them are from India. When we got there they were having lunch and invited us to join them. What a great deal!

We had some sort of BBQ chicken, some curry shrimp and rice. Some vegetables and flat bread, it was great. Turns out there is a very good restaurant near where all these contractors live and they "catered" all the food. It was really good chow and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and the food.

You can see by the picture that we are all enjoying ourselves and getting along just fine. Fairly ironic considering in the group there are Christians, Muslims and Hindi's! It is a surreal feeling to celebrate Christs birth in a Muslim nation with friends of Hindu faith. When we left to head back to Camp Arifjan all I could do was look north to Iraq and shake my head in wonder.

Not a visit from Santa, but it'll do!

It must be Christmas. You can tell, not by the decorations or music in the PX, but by the number of visitors we get. Some of you may know of the USO tours made famous by Bob Hope. The USO is still at it and brings a lot of talent in especially around holidays. You can check their website and read all about them, and yes they accept donations. Since I have been here we have had the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders twice, Chuck Norris, and a few comedians. I haven’t had time to go to any of those, but I made time today.

This USO tour is sponsored by the Sergeant Major of the Army, SMA Kenneth Preston. He brought along the Cheerleaders, and some singers and a model. I realize many of you are not military so I will take a minute to explain the SMA. The Seargent Major of the Army is the highest ranking enlisted Soldier in the Army. You can read about this personal accomplishments here http://www.army.mil/leaders/SMA/bio.htm . The US Army’s website describes the SMA’s duties and responsibilities; “The Sergeant Major of the Army serves as the Army Chief of Staff's personal adviser on all enlisted-related matters, particularly in areas affecting Soldier training and quality of life. The SMA devotes the majority of his time to traveling throughout the Army observing training, and talking to Soldiers and their families. The SMA sits on a wide variety of councils and boards that make decisions affecting enlisted Soldiers and their families and is routinely invited to testify before Congress.”

I found out late in the afternoon he would be available for a meet and greet, so I headed over with my boss and a camera. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to see not only SMA Preston, but a model that has been in some men's magazines (I read them for the in depth and compelling articles), Darryl Worley, and a couple other singers. We each got our turn to go up and get a picture and an autograph. Each of the celebs was great. Asked us how we were, where we were from, that sort of stuff. Shook hands, hug, pat on the back, the whole thing. I realize this is all PR for them but really, you gotta want to do it to be that into it hour after hour. Keep in mind these folks have been doing this around camps in the area for days and will be going around to Iraq and Afghanistan.

So for all that this being away for the holidays sucks, this was fairly bright spot. I have to say thanks to the USO. They are the organization that put this stuff together. They do a lot of other morale stuff as well. For example, they run the “canteen’s” at the major US airports. These are places where military members and their families can get a snack, watch TV and relax in between flights. Some have bunks if you are going to have a lay over. Thanks USO, and thanks to the folks that come out and visit us. We appreciate it.

I met a Marine today

I really do get to do some cool stuff here. A few days ago I was invited to meet LtCol (ret) Oliver North. LtCol North was moving through on his way to Iraq and someone I knew here needed an assistant driver to ride along up to the airport to pick him up. If your not aware I deal with Foreign Military Sales. LtCol North was involved in "a bit of controversy" surrounding that very topic, so my buddy thought I might want to meet him. That issue did not come up and I'll not discuss it here. What I will say is that after meeting and talking to LtCol North I have no doubt that whatever he did or did not do he was driven by a love of country and believed he was doing the right thing.

I got up to meet LtCol North after he landed and had made his way to the waiting area where he would stay until he could get a flight to Iraq. This means that I was meeting the guy after about a 14 hour flight and an hour or so truck ride. At this point he is in a big tent just like every other Soldier, Airman, Sailor and Marine that comes here. There is no VIP room, and after meeting the guy I don't think he'd go to one if there was one. Nobody should be excited or in a good mood after all that, but he was!

Things just kinda conspired and my partner, Leroy and I were just kinda left standing there with LtCol North while his people and the escorts were working out some details. Not really knowing what to do or say, Leroy and I just kinda stood there not saying or doing anything. LtCol North took the lead, he could see we were a little uncomfortable and not sure how to approach meeting him. Just as if it was nothing at all, he walks over to us, "Hey, how ya doin Ollie North. Whats your name? Where you from?" Man and like that it was on! Just a pleasant conversation about how long we had been there, how our families were doing, what our plans were when we left, if we had been on R&R. It was just cool. We lucked into like a 15 minute conversation. Just the three of us.

I realize I don't know the guy that well, but I do know people. I know when people are blowin smoke and when they are genuine. This guy is the real deal. I got to hang around with him for a few hours while his travel plans were finalized. I watched him interact with others. I watched him approach young troops he knew were to nervous to come up to him. He engaged them, not the other way around. He seemed to want to meet them as much as they wanted to meet him. He truly, genuinely cared about these folks. You could see it in his eyes. When he asked how you were, he really wanted to know. When somebody remarked about the son or daughter they were going home to see that they had never met you could see his expression change. He felt it.

LtCol North was really an engaging and interesting guy. It seemed to me that he truly liked being around us. He seemd to draw energy and enthusiasim from us. I will tell you though, he loves his Marines, and they seem to truly and deeply respect and love him. When he got around a group of Marines, it was different. Nothing I could define, nothing I can really describe, but unquestionably different. There is a bond among Marines that does not exist among others. It was amazing to actually see.

LtCol North took any amount of time anybody asked of him. Signing autographs, posing for pictures, etc. My section, since we deal with Foreign Military Sales, has had a picture of LtCol North hanging on our wall for as long as anybody knows. It is there to remind us to focus on the details. I explained the pic and the reason we had it up. I thought it would be cool if he signed it, and of course he was happy to. That joker in the background is my partner Leroy. So now we have the pic up and I get to tell my story of the day I met a Marine.

Its cold, and I am thankful

Well the temp has settled out a fair bit. It is in the 60's or colder at night. Usually doesn't hit much above the 70s during the day. This is all perfect with me. There are plenty of people here that are not as OK with it as I am. I see a lot of "cold weather" gear being worn around. Me, I am still in shorts when i go running. That's about the only time I don't have my uniform on.

Still pretty busy. My boss is gone on R&R so I am in charge. Now that I have a real handle on what needs done I am enjoying it. The first few days were a little tuff. I still don't like all the briefings, meetings, working groups and other such gatherings. I know have to go at least 2 hours of briefs a day. That spikes to 5 1/2 hours of various meetings once or twice a week. Still, I'd rather be in charge than not.

Thanksgiving was OK. The DFAC did the best they could. They really did a great job decorating. Butter sculptures, displays, food carvings the works. The food was OK but really, it was just another meal. I am thankful for that. I am glad I didn't think it was great. It just means to me that my family and holidays with them are in fact special. That no matter the quantity or quality of the food, the lavishness of the presentation; it is the company you are in that makes a holiday. In fact, you can have a holiday any time you want, because what matters is who you are with, not what day of the year it is.

I would like to say a few things I am thankful for. Not the laundry list sort of thing, just a few comments.

• I am thankful to God, for all of it.
• I am thankful for my parents and my forefathers. They gave me not only life, but they gave me "a life". From my parents who sacrificed so I didn't have to and love me unconditionally in spite of my many faults; through my great uncles and aunts who fought and died or worked at home for liberty; all the way back to my forefathers who took a great risk leaving all they knew to come to America and forge a new life.
• I am thankful for Emily and her family. I have found a true friend and true love in Emily, I simply can't express the impact she has had on my life. I am thankful beyond measure to her parents for the faith and trust they have put in me in dating their daughter and for always making me feel welcomed and loved.

Certainly I could go on and on, but doing so would cheapen what I have already said. If I have learned nothing else in the past few years, I have certainly learned that defining priorities and then acting in such a way as to respect those priorities is key to success and happiness. The things I mentioned I am thankful for are important to me. One can expect that the bulk of my efforts and energy will be directed at ensuring the safety and happiness of those included.

November 3d!

WOW, so I just realized that my last blog was over 2 weeks ago. Man, every yesterday seems so long ago. This is a weird place for time. I might be able to tell you what day of the week it is without looking at my watch 20% of the time. There is also the whole groundhog day thing to deal with as well. It so no so much that everyday is the same its that everyday runs into the next or is just a continuation of the last. So thats not so good. What is good is when you look at a calender to find what day it is and realize that, yes it is Saturday, but damn it is Saturday the 17th. Of November! So thats cool. Then of course I start day dreaming about the 17th of Dec, Jan, etc etc.

This Saturday was particularly interesting. Work is work. I'd say it sucks, but nobody is shooting at me and I don't have to live in a tent or go outside and down the street to an outhouse, so I am not going to complain. I'd say it was great because Ohio State dominated Michigan, but that made Emily sad so I am a little sad. I won't even pepper my blog with all the yummy details except to say Ohio State was, by every metric, the dominate team. So it was an interesting Saturday. 13 hours at work and then a nice 4 hour football game before bedtime.

Today is Sunday so I'll be heading off to Mass in a few minutes, and then to work. Doing some laundry today as well. That'll be about it for the day, and that'll be about it for this post.

300 and Flat G

I am happy to report I have broken the 300 barrier! I am under 300 days remaining in theater. I realize this doesn't seem like all that big a deal, but it is one of those landmarks. The next, in case you are wondering will be the 101st day. That will occur on 05 December.

In other news Flat G has arrived! Finally after months away Flat G has found me again and is diligently watching my every move. Flat G is an interpretation of the popular children's book "Flat Stanley" This all stems from my tour in Korea. A buddy of mine, Mike, has a son named Charlie that sent him a drawing of himself. The drawing was a "flat" representation of himself, Flat Charlie. The idea was that Mike would take the picture around Korea take pictures and write his son about where "they" went. This would be a way for the two of them to bond and tosatisy a class project for Charlie.

Well, we got hold of this and started taking Flat Charlie everywhere. We took Flat Charlie to work, out to dinner, up to Seoul. We even took him places 3D Charlie, or for that matter any of us should not have been! After a few trips to places I liked to go Mike decided he didn't want his son, flat or otherwise hanging around with me and took him back. Unfortunately Flat Charlie was left in the back seat of a cab by his dad after a Korean wedding. Ooohhh the horror and loss! Somebody decided we needed a new friend and alas Flat G was born.

Flat G is a picture of our Team Commander in Korea. Again we took him everywhere. This time though we decided to send him around to people that had been part of the unit. Flat G went with some folks to Thailand, went to Ft Lewis with me, was in D.C. with Mike and Toni. Now Flat G is here with me. I was thinking about creating a Flat G blog all it's own. What do you think?