Bad News

Things that you can’t talk about, I sometimes wonder if even I will be able to make any sense of this blog when I get out of here. Things that I can talk about are things that can be read in the news paper. Last night was a bad night we had a suicide bomber walk into a gym over here and kill eight CIA agents and wound countless others. One thing this has done for our FOB is make people a little more observant and less complacent. We have many rules here some you never talk about but none the less they are rules and need to be followed. Loss of life in any way makes this place a little more depressing than it all ready is but we should all consider ourselves lucky, our FOB was not targeted and we are all safe all we can do is Pray for the families of the Americans that lost their lives last night fighting for their country.

Ok on a lighter note tonight is New Years Eve and many of my friends are spending the night in our TOC waiting to bring in the New Year. Me however I will spend the time in my room writing on my blog and setting my alarm for tomorrow so I can call my family and wish them a happy new year. I just wish I could be there for the kisses. Night all

The Package

Well I will have to say that today I received the absolute best package ever. Today in the mail I got a huge banner with a picture of my kids and all sorts of kind words from all of them. I cannot tell you how much this package made my day. I am going to try to call home tonight and talk to all of them. This might be my last chance for a while I am on the flight schedule pretty heavy for a while so time is a ticking. I just wish that I had a bigger room so I could hang my banner without having to fold it in half. I just have no wall space but I will take advantage of the great picture of the three kids that we took on our last cruise. I am going to try to post a picture of my new banner tonight if the internet will cooperate.

I hope that all of you are enjoying the holidays and that you all have a great New Year. I wish that I could be in Savannah at the stroke of midnight to give Marie and the kids our new year’s kisses but as you all know I am a little tied up at the moment. But next year you will not be able to stop me from doing so and I am looking so forward to it. For all of you that end up at Sue and Jim’s house this New Years Eve I hope that you all have a great time and that you play many games of cards and eat a lot of junk food and totally enjoy yourselves. I wish that I could be there too, maybe next year.

As for Afghanistan, my friends and I are trying to hold down the fort and take one day at a time. This country has a lot of problems and I really do think we are doing all that we can to try to help make it a better place. I am getting pretty tired of the little kids trying to throw rocks at my aircraft when I come in for a landing and get a little too low though. But fortunately for me the kids over here are more into soccer and not baseball. Next time I am out during the day, I will have to take my video camera with me and try to get some video; they are pretty cute when they try to hit us with rocks.

I would like to thank everyone who sent a package to me this holiday season!! It really meant a lot to me that you would go to the trouble to do that, thanks. I wish that I could have returned the favor there are many things over here that are of real value than can be picked up at the bizarre for a great deal. All you need is time to sort through all the junk to pick out the nice stuff. Many of my friends are learning all about precious gems. Diamonds and emeralds are pretty abundant over here, uncut of course. But you really have to know something about them to find some of value. One of the guys from the Unit we replaced bought many while he was her and I have heard that a couple of the ones that he bought ended up being worth a great deal of money. To me it just seems like too much work, however I do think I am going to try to pick up a Persian silk rug. They are truly beautiful and are totally handmade they have over 1000 knots per inch. They say it takes a whole family over 9 months to make just one, they go for about 800 to 1000 dollars but in the states they are much more. But something like that I would never be able to sell, it would have too much history and I would pass it down to one of my little ones who would pass it down to one of their little ones etc. etc. Ok once again I run on at the mouth time for me to go and get some work done or something, night all

Christmas + 1

Today was the day after Christmas and just a routine training flight with one of our new W2 right from flight School. It was going pretty well we were flying around in the traffic pattern doing normal progression work when over the radio came a call for us to respond to troops in contact. I only had about 900 pounds of fuel on board so we had to hit the FARP which is like a gas station for us where we can get fuel and ammo. So we raced into the farp got fuel and received a little more info on what was going on and where we needed to go. Just as I was repositioning from the farp to the active to set up for departure we got called off. The team of UH-60s that were there were low on fuel and had no more station time so they had to leave So I would not have had a sister ship so they scrubbed the mission until they could launch a team of aircraft. Which after I thought about it for a while it was probably not a bad thing seeing how my front seater at that time had 3 hours in country and was right out of flight school. Not that she is doing badly but a little more practice will definitely not hurt.

Tomorrow I am off and I think I will sit in my room and do nothing all day but call home and try to talk to Marie and the Kids. I got her e-mail today and she told me more about how Christmas morning went with the kids and it made me miss home that much more. I think the big hit item this year would have to be Elli’s new gym shoes with skate wheels in them. Marie said that she had them on all day and even wanted to where them to bed. She is too darn cute. And by the way Shirley if you happen to get on here,, A where are my pictures ??

It’s hard to believe in just a few short days it will already be 2010, time seems to pass by so much more quickly the older we get. Not that I am complaining in this place because I am ready to go it’s just that sometimes I think to myself that when I get home Robby will almost be 17 Shirley 14 and Elli 10. Where did the time go? We are going to plan for the biggest vacation our family has ever taken. I don’t know where or what we will do but I will tell you this it’s going to be epic !!

Tonight I helped Joe put up a shelf in his room for his new TV we spent no time at all getting it done. You pretty much have to help your neighbors do things like this because their walls are also your walls so it’s easier to put screws in from my side to help hold up his shelf. You have to remember that our walls are only sheets of plywood. I look forward to having Joe and his wife over when we get home, they are my age and I think it will be nice to have them over for a pool party sometime. Joe is 45 and his kids are in collage already I can’t even imagine what that must be like. Although Robby is only a few short years away from that himself and Marie and I told him as long as he keeps his grades up we will be buying him a car when I get home. I can’t even imagine what that will do to our insurance but we were all there once. Fortunately for me he is a good student and that help with the rates, and Shirley is not too far behind him. Oh well I have rambled on for long enough and it is getting late so for now I will cut this one off, night all

X-MAS EVE

Christmas Eve 2009 and here I sit in wonderful Afghanistan. But hey I am ok with it, I really feel like we are doing some good over here. Of course we could be doing so much more if it weren’t for all the lawyers that keep stopping us from doing our job and then telling us later we should have taken the shot. It’s all kind of hard to explain really and I can’t even go into it so I will leave it right there.

Well it’s about midnight here in Afghani time about 2:30 PM in Savannah I was going to try to stay awake and call Cincinnati but I am just too tired to wait a few more hours till everyone is together. So I figured I would post to my blog and wish everyone a Merry Christmas I miss you all and I wish I could be with all of you. Especially my loving wife and my three wonderful kids Marie Robby Shirley and my little miss, Elli. I hope that you guys have a great Christmas morning. I am not on the flight schedule tomorrow and tomorrow we are doing our secret Santa gift exchange. We all picked names and spent about twenty bucks. I picked Mike he is one of our new W2’s I bought him a new pair of preflight gloves. The gloves are like mechanics gloves that we use when we are looking at the aircraft they help to keep your hands nice and clean. A lot of people bought Gag gifts from the Bizarre I went more on the practical side and I am sure he will like them.

Tonight we had our official Right shoulder patch ceremony; I was probably the oldest guy in the formation. For those of you who don’t know when you go to combat, you are awarded your right shoulder patch from the Unit that you served with in combat. So tonight I received my official Combat Patch. I received the Third Infantry Division combat patch. 3id is the most decorated combat unit in history, and that I did not know. However my Task Force Commander knew all of the facts about 3id and it was really interesting to hear all about the Units history. I thought the history of our Unit was pretty awesome, and I felt pretty proud to be standing there with some of my fellow soldiers receiving my first Combat Patch. It was like an early Christmas Present and the only thing that could have come close to topping it, is if my family could have been there with me. This is one thing that I will be able to be proud of and take with me for the rest of my life from this place. Well everyone it’s getting pretty late and I actually have to try to get up early tomorrow to try to get some paperwork done so I think I am going to cut this post short. But not before I say a few more things that I have been thinking about today. 1 life is too short, 2 don’t sweat the small stuff, 3 remember that most things in life are small stuff, 4 treat every day like it could be your last, and last but not least Smile, because it is so contagious and it really can make a big difference in someone else’s life. I love you all too much, night all

Just another Saturday

Well I was off shift again today, not that I am complaining its just that we live on a small FOB and there is not much to do so working really helps the time pass quickly. I went to the office about noon and saw that I had four packages, Wow I thought to myself. So I went to our little mail room although its more like a closet and picked up my packages. Three from Kari Schenk and one from sue and Jim. it was like X-Mas and it wasn't even the 25th yet. Sue I did see the sticker that said not to open till the 25th but I thought what the heck. Thanks to both of you that was really nice and Kari many of my friends would like to thank you too for all the greatly needed items you so caringly thought to send, it was awfully nice of you to do all that Thanks. As for me I think the rest of my day will be spent reading and preparing for a class that I will give in the days to come. If I find some free time I think I may watch a movie and spend some time with some of my friends that are also off shift. It's hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner it seems like it was just yesterday that I left Savannah and that was already the 2nd of Oct. Time is going by pretty quickly for now and I hope that it continues to do so. I Love you all and I will try to write more soon, night all

And another day

Well last night I spent a great deal of time trying to get my pictures to up load so that is my only mission tonight. Hopefully it will not take me too long to figure it out. Lucky me all my pictures just popped up so it looks like it was just a slow Internet problem last night. The pictures above are two of me just out flying around Afghanistan and one shot through the front of the aircraft to see my front seater and the forth picture is my sister ship with the snow covered mountains behind them, night all

Just another day

Its been a while, I need to try to keep up with this a little better. We have been busy though and we are trying to keep everyone safe from all the craziness over here. Sometimes it gets just a little to overwhelming there are so many places and so few of us at times to get to all of them quickly. the pictures that I uploaded with this post are from the other day I was out doing QRF with another ship and we flew around the bowl and I took some pictures of the snow capped mountains in the background. Its actually quite pretty to look at sometimes and then you remember that the people on the ground are not exactly what you would call friendly. But you know me I try to see the beauty in every picture I take, and there is beauty over here you just have to look really hard for it.



As for me I am doing well and X-MAS is just around the corner. I hope that all of you are having a very festive season and enjoying your time this year with each other. The holidays are for spending time with family, for spending time with the one's you love. It's no time for bickering and its not the time for hard feelings. Its a time to appreciate the one's who love you the most and to show them how much you care. I will miss Christmas this year but I know that my little ones are in great hands, Marie and Santa are good friends and I know that she will let him know how good they have been and I am sure Santa will hook them up. I am lucky that Shirley has followed in her Grandpa's foot steeps, she has become quite the photographer and I will be lucky to see everything through her eyes on Christmas morning. I cant wait to see her pictures and I will look forward to it until I can. Well I know this post is pretty short but I need to figure out why my pictures will not upload, so until next time, night all

Lobster in the House

Well it’s Friday once again and tonight in the chow hall we had steak and lobster tails, all and all it was a pretty good meal. Tomorrow I am on for QRF and Sunday I will be giving a check ride to one of our night shift pilots. Today I was not on the flight schedule so I spent most of my day improving my living quarters and working on the computer. I try to spend my free time doing something worthwhile but it’s getting harder and harder to stay focused on things that matter and easier to sit here in my room and watch TV shows and play games. I guess it’s ok to do that I think it helps me deal with the day to day stresses of being over here. Never the less though I still feel like I should do something positive with all of the time that I have off. Tonight at shift change I hope to be able to get online with Marie and the Kids, its right around the time that the kids get home from school. I talked to them just the other day and they sounded great, although Marie told me that there has been a couple of break Inns in our neighborhood. Fortunately for us one of Shirley’s girlfriends Dad owns his own alarm system monitoring company in Savannah and he has offered to come over and set the house up for his cost. That was awfully nice of him to do that for us, but like Marie said his daughter spends the night there sometimes too. I am sure that the break inns are probably kids looking for high end electronics and what not but you never know.

It’s hard to believe that I have been here for over a month all ready to me it really seems like the time is flying. Command is reworking our mid tour schedule and it looks like I may get moved to July now. This will work for me the kids will be out of school and it will not impact them nearly as much as September would have. Not to mention it’s a little closer to the middle and I think that will make it easier for me.
I will be trying to up load some picture tonight it all depends on how the Internet is working I hope it is pretty quick. We still are not on our own satellite yet but hopefully we will be up and running soon. Today I walked around the FOB with my big camera and took some pretty good candid shots of some of my friends. Joe was out getting ready to do a test flight and they were doing some work on the aircraft before they could launch so I stood around and gabbed with them for almost an hour. I hope to get together with him and his wife when we get home, they are real close to Marie and I in age and we have so much in common. Well as much as I could ramble on all night I need to get off this computer save this word document and put it on my little computer along with some pictures so I can try to upload this post. I hope all of you enjoy your weekend and that you all have great weather to boot, night all

My Home away From Home

Not really a home but it will have to do. I will make this small area work for the next 11 months and then I will turn it over to some new guy who is hoping to come over here and make a difference. Please don't miss understand what I am saying because I truly feel that when it is all said and done the history books will say that we did the right thing over here and that we did make a difference and influenced many lives. As for the pictures in this post, this is my room it's about 7.5 feet by 11.5 feet. And it will work just fine for me for as long as I am here. The walls go up 8 feet from the floor the typical length of a piece of plywood and the ceiling is about 10 feet high so as you can imagine we are living in cubicles the sound travels rather easily over the walls. This picture below is the top that I put above my bed, it allows me to store some of my junk and boxes that I will not need till I leave this place. Needless to say I cant wait till I can get them down.

The Picture below shows my bed and a half shelf that I built to help hold and organise things. Space is limited so we have to be creative. As for wood we have plenty and lucky for me I shipped tools so I can build what ever I want. I plan on building some patio furniture this summer for the rooftop it's going to be our little get away. I will build some stairs to get up there too, not a problem I like to work with wood.

As for the picture below this is the desk that I built and the shelves that I added to the wall to help hold more stuff. All and all I cant complain this room will do just fine, especially once we get our high speed Internet up and running. Then it will be possible for me to post pictures to this blog and not have to reduce them in size. I hate to put pictures up that are such crappy quality. But these four pictures took me over fifteen minutes to get online and they are so small its pathetic.

All right it's getting late now and I still need to get off here and try to call home and talk to the family. I would love to keep rambling on about my penthouse suite but its time to role on off of here. As for me and whats going on, my buddy Joe has me hooked on some TV shows. Can you believe it Me I never watch TV accept to watch the news which I still do over here. My TV is always on FOX. Joe gave me like five made for cable shows and I am totally hooked. The Sara Conner Chronicles a spin off of the terminator movies. A Showtime show called Californication with the star from X-Files "Mulder" and a few others. It helps to pass the time when there is some time. Not that we have much time but when we do its nice to have something to watch. I was so lucky to bring all those movies with me that I got from Dave from my last assignment at Ft. Stewart they too are giving me something to fall asleep to. We work 12 hour shifts with one hour before and after to do a hand off with your replacement so you guessed it we work about 14 hours a day most of the time but you get use to it, its not so bad. OK like I said ten minute ago I need to get off here so I can call home, night all

Someones Birthday

Today was like most days get up check the schedule go to the chow hall and get some grub. Along the way check to see if the laundry is done, it’s running a little slow right now they just fired all the local workers because they were planning something bad. But it’s back on line and as far as I can tell no one lost anything. Well tomorrow is an important day for a little girl I know and I wish I could be there for her 13th birthday. I am sure that she will know that I am there in spirit and that I will be thinking about her on her birthday. I on the other hand have a very early morning tomorrow I will be on Day QRF from 6 till 18:00 a pretty typical day. I will try to call the house before or after the kids leave for or get home from school so I can talk to the kids. As for now getting tired, time for bed, night all