Steak and Movie day

Once again I sit here listening to my iPod and typing away at this blog that has really helped me pass the time. Last night we had a lot of excitement here at my FOB, we had some indirect fire and an attempt to get onto the FOB. Needless to say I missed it all because I sometimes sleep like a rock and apparently I slept through the big voice messages and all the sirens. But fortunately no one was hurt and no one was able to breach our FOB so all is good. Although I will have to figure out a way to get someone to wake me up in the event that something really bad happens here on my FOB.

I was not on the flight schedule today and I did absolutely nothing today but eat and watch movies and I don’t feel guilty at all. And besides today is Friday and you all know what that means, it was Steak Night. Dinner was great tonight not to mention they finally got Silk Soy milk in the chow hall and needless to say I have been stocking up. I have about ten cartons and I plan to get more until they run out again which hopefully will not be too soon.

I would like to say that I was glad to receive all the e-mails and Face Book notes from all my friends and family on my birthday it made it a little easier to be in this place and for that, I thank you all. This morning we took a company photo out on the flight line in front of one of the Aircraft needless to say I was glad to have my good camera and so where all of my friends. I have a couple of new friends here that I am sure that I will keep in touch with for the rest of my life. They are amazing people and I am lucky to have them as friends. This place really does something to you, I think it’s a matter of the fact that we are all away from our loved ones and we are all here because we want to be here. Yea I know I am here because the Army said Rob we need you in Afghanistan pack your bags. But that is only half of it I picked this life it did not chose me. The Army has been good to me and my family. I know what some of you are thinking though and you are right, there are a lot of hardships but there are hardships with everything we do and experience in life. Most are based on the decisions that we make and the direction we turn. Life has many ups and downs and as easy as it would be to think that this would be one of my downs it’s not. Yes I miss my wife and my three kids and yes I am 8000 miles from them and home. But in many ways I feel so much closer to them because I know that someday soon they will all look back at this time in their lives when their Dad was over in Afghanistan trying to make a difference that they too will believe in. They might not see that right now but some day I know they will. And as for my wife, she already knows and she has always supported me more than any wife could and for that I am truely blessed. I sometimes felt that I was sitting on the bench since that morning when the twin towers came down when I was at Rucker. I have lost many good friends to this war and a few good students I had when I was at Fort Rucker. I am proud to be here right now and I hope that we can bring this war to a close real soon. I don’t ever want to go and say good bye to anyone else that I have served with in the Army ever again.

Wow this post really took a downer and I need to put some air back into it. Have I mentioned that the weather here all winter has never gotten below 60 or so? I have two boxes of all this arctic super cold weather gear that I really need to pack up and ship home to Marie. When I packed at the house in Savannah I just didn’t know what the weather would be like here. And Supply was dishing out all of this super cold weather gear and we just all figured that we were going to freeze our asses off over here. I am so glad that it’s not the case I really have been getting spoiled living in the south. I was told by my career manager that if I would go to 1-3 Aviation that I would never have to call him again. That I could stay in Savannah until I retire in 2016. It’s hard to believe that I am getting so close, it seems like it was just yesterday that Marie, Robby, Shirley and I were off for Germany for my first duty station. That was May of 1998 and it was one of the best days in my life. I remember working at my dead end city job at the bus company thinking that surely there has to be more in store for me in my life than this. All I remember is that I seemed to live for the days when I could be a National Guard Bum and go flying with all of friends from Shelbyville. And occasionally I even got to car pool from Ohio to Indiana with my brother, the best crew chief I ever had the privilege of flying with. Had no Idea it would take me 18 years to get a proper salute out of him, but I did. I was in Oklahoma training National Guard units for deployments to OIF and OEF his was one of them. During our time there I got my orders for Chief Warrant officer Four and asked my Brother to promote me. So he was able to get a day off from his training for war to come over and Pin his little brother. After they read my promotion orders my brother Pinned my new rank on my uniform and then he gave me my fist salute and then we both got a little choked up and I said a few words and a few weeks after that he was off to Iraq. Ten months later I would be off for Afghanistan, He and I together have almost sixty years of service to the United States Army and within ten months we would both be combat veterans.

I find it amazing how I can’t seem to keep my thoughts focused long enough to stay on topic for just one paragraph. I am sure that this Blog will be hard to follow ten years from now when I am retired with nothing to do during the day when Marie is at work (just kidding Honey"and the kids are at school. I look forward to looking at this years from now and bringing back all of these memories some wonderful and others not so much. But like I always say the Army is only as good as its people, and we have some great people over here. Well guys its getting late and I need to put this one to bed, night all