Last night

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Kandahar and I will be there till the 11th of July. Then I will continue my trip to Savannah, hoping to be there some time around the 14 or 15. I can't wait to see everyone especially by beautiful Girls, I miss you three. Rob I will see you after your trip to South America, I hope it is an awesome adventure, I love you. Night all....

Last flight

Well the time has come once again, I flew my last flight in Afghanistan. And now I am in the process of trying to fit all my crap into a few boxes and bags. It was a little easier last tour because I was at a fob that was not shutting down so I mailed a ton of crap to the house. This FOB has not had out going mail for months so I am limited to what I can do. I will try to get buy with the amount of space that I have but I am sure some things will not make it home. I will have to make some tough decisions as to what I bring and what I throw away. Everything that I throw away I will burn myself, as to not leave anything here that can be used once we are gone. I have burned every package that Shirley and Marie have sent me just to make sure that the mailing labels are destroyed and addresses are safe and secure. Not that I am paranoid, it just makes sense to keep things secure, after all this place will be in the middle of nowhere in less than three months with no US forces around here for miles. 

My time here has been short, and I am not complaining I will be home two months early. My Apache company will be going to Kandahar and they will stay there till the end of Aug. the rest of us will be going through Kandahar to Savannah. I should be home on the 14 or15 of July if we do not have any travel issues. I am pretty excited to get home and have just a little summer left with the kids. Although Robby will be in South America till the end of July I can still spend some time spoiling my three girls. 

I look back at the seven months that I spent here and I think of all the things I have been through with Task Force Viper, I have been so lucky. Our BDE has had so many miss fortunes with aircraft and personal and bad shoots and a litany of other issues. We are so blessed to be taking all the Vipers home this tour, although our BDE Has suffered some losses and those folks will be missed and never forgotten. I thank God for looking over our team here at FOB Wolverine and getting us all home safe and sound.

Wow this is out of control

I woke up this morning to these flyers all over the FOB I can't even tell you how much this sickens me. The fact that this is shoved into all of our faces is a true testament as to how our society is going to the toilet. What about my rights to not have to have this thrown in my face, to not have to explain to my 12 year old what transgender means. I feel discriminated against I mean after all there is no heterosexual month, and nor should their be. Why is it the norm for all the gays and homosexuals to constantly be throwing this crap in my face.

This was the email that came with it....

As we recognize Pride month, we thank all of our gay and lesbian service
members, LGBT civilians, and their families for their dedicated service
to our country. Before the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," they
faithfully served their country with professionalism and courage. And
just like their fellow service members, they put their country before
themselves. And now -- after repeal, they can be proud of serving their
country, and be proud of who they are when in uniform. The pursuit of
equality is fundamental to the American story. The successful repeal of
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" proved to the Nation that just like the country
we defend, we share different backgrounds, different values, and
different beliefs -- but together, we are the greatest military force in
the world. It also reminds us that integrity and respect remain the
cornerstones of our military culture. The Army, Navy, Marine Corps and
Air Force implemented the repeal with a focus on respect and individual
dignity. So, come out and support this event to promote understanding,
teamwork, harmony, pride and esprit among all groups. This event will
take place 25 June 2013 at the KAF Fest tent @1100-1200. 

Not to many flights left

Today I flew an instrument ride with CPT Kelly, I worked with his dad at Rucker back in 2001. CPT Kelly brought a flag and we flew it then had to get a picture and here it is. 

Less than one month and I will be home, can't wait to see everyone.....

Fathers Day

I was not on shift today, but not much of a day. I am in my room laying in bed trying to face time with Marie and the kids and once again I have no Internet. So I will write all of my thoughts into my blog and post it the next time I have a connection.

Well for starters, I wish Dad was still alive to spend this day with his kids and grand kids. I also wish I was at home to spend this day with my own kids. Next year it will be different I hope, time is going bye too quickly. My kids are getting so big and they have lives of their own, all I can hope for is to be able to share some time with them and watch them grow in to the amazing young adults that they are. This generation is so different from when I was their age, the stresses and challenges that our kids face are so different. Elli is 12 and in ten years she will be graduating from college and starting her life. And at that same time I will be 57 wondering what to do with mine, I have three and a half more years of the Army and I will retire and after that I have no idea what life will have in store for Marie and I. I hope to stay put, the kids call Savannah home and hope to be able to keep us all together right there. There are many jobs that I would like to try my hand at after I retire, from EMS Pilot to greeter at Walmart. I am sure I will be able to find something in the middle somewhere. I spent my Army career flying the coolest helicopter in the entire world and I would not have changed anything about my career. Except for the few times that I could have put my family first and the Army second. I hope that some day my wife and kids can find it in their hearts to give me a pass. I know they understand my commitment to my job and my country and the feelings that I have about what it is that I do. But none the less there are so many things that I was just not part of in their lives and I can never get any of that back. For that I have much regret and all I can do is try to make it up to all of them as often as I can. You four are my life and I am so lucky to be your father and husband, It is the most precious gift I have been given and I love you guys with all of my heart. Happy Fathers Day........

Report Card Time

Time to start planning the GRF

The GRF also known as the global response force is the next chapter in the Task Force Viper book of woe. We and when I say we I mean they because I will be the BDE Master Gunner by then are to assume the GRF on 01 April 2014 and have it for six months or better. What this means is that if something should happen anywhere in the world they would respond to it. So needless to say that even though I will be nestled away at BDE I will play a major part in getting it set up and ensuring that Viper gets trained to accomplish the mission whatever it may be.

I also got word that Robby's ISOPREP is good to go for his trip, for those of you not tracking Robby was selected to go to South America for one month through his ROTC program to do some training. I am sure it will be an amazing adventure for him and I hope he embraces it and has an awesome time. I know I will miss him on my return, hopefully I will get home before he gets home and I can welcome him home for a change. Well getting pretty tired I hate to cut this post short I have so much to catch up on but I need to hit the sack, night all

Getting Crazy

Well it is getting more difficult to even wipe my nose these days, this place is literally falling down around us. This is the first time I have ever been involved in a retrograde operation to this scale. We have identified that we need 1700 trucks to line haul everything off this FOB and we are lucky to get ten trucks every few days. Well I am not the best mathematician but it's easy to see we are going to fall way short. 

As for me I have my marching orders, I will fly out of this FOB on the morning of the 29th of this month to be in Kandahar to testify in the FEB (flight evaluation board) of Jeff Crownover the morning of the 30th. He will probably be permanently suspended from aviation service for some really bad decisions that he made over here. So since there is no reason for me to go up there for two days and then come back here for three I will wait to be joined by my TaskForce on about the third of July. Then we will get the last four Apaches ready to ship home and through customs and once that is done sometime around the 14th we will fly home. I hope to be in Savannah sometime around the last week in July. I can't wait to see the girls and Robby. Although Robby I will have to wait to see because he was selected to go to South America for an ROTC program to teach English to kids in a small country down there and he won't be home till the end of July. 

For the last two days I have been in Kandahar at the commanders conference working on personnel lay down for once we get back. They have identified my replacement and I was told that I will be doing my handover with Dave Lewis prior toThanksgiving. Right after thanksgiving I will be getting my hand over from Tony Born who is the current Brigade Master Gunner. It's hard to believe that I have had this job for two years all ready. I was lucky to be given the opportunity to bring these guys to combat as their Task Force SP, it was a job that I will never forget. I hope that I will do as well with my next assignment as the Brigade MG. 

Well it's nice to be back in my RLB safe and sound on FOB Wolverine, even if its only for another twenty days. I will be out of here before I know it, the time has passed quickly and for that I am thankful. Well I will try to FaceTime with the girls here in a bit then I am going to bed, night all 

Wave One

Well another bunch of folks just left FOB Wolverine and are heading to the house. I am glad to see them go I am just that much closer to going home to my family. I am on tomorrow night and I hope it's a quite nite, we are now strictly QRF and unless we have folks in harms way we sit in our CP (command post) and wait for the call. Well speaking for myself I hope the call never comes I have a pile of paperwork three feet high and I can't ever seem to get ahead. I still love my job, but come on all ready enough with the paperwork. 

I sit here, no I am laying here in my bed listening to music on my iPad typing this post to my blog on the same iPad thinking about Marie and the kids wondering what they will be doing when they wake up. It's about 0600 in the morning in Savannah and I am sure the kids are on summer schedule by now sleeping in till noon or so. I miss them all the time and it get so much harder the closer you get to going home. I can't help but to think of how things will be once I get home, kids are older I know they are more independent and I know Marie has been running things on her own and doing a great job. Shirley has really stepped up to help around the house and from what I hear has really taken a liking to cooking healthy. I look forward to having her cook some home cooked meals but I also look forward to taking them all out and eating at some of our favorites around Savannah. 

I don't know if you all are tracking but I was able to hand pick this team from the entire Battalion, I was able to bring with me all of the people that I wanted to deploy with. Task Force Viper is the best group of folks I could ever hope to spend time with down range. These guys and gals are some of the finest sons and daughters our country has to offer and it's been my pleasure to serve with them. This morning we had the pleasure of promoting one of our specialist to Seargent, Seargent Spence he is our para legal. Spence has an amazing story, you see he has his doctorate and he was a practicing attorney in his home town. But Spence wanted to be a soldier, when he went to the recruiter they tried to give him a direct commission to Captain so he could operate as an attorney on active duty. Spence wanted nothing to do with it, he wanted to be a soldier, he wanted to go infantry but they would not let him based on his age. He is an amazing person and I am lucky to know him, he has given up so much to do what he feels is what every American should do for his country. I could not agree more, we have talked Spence into going green to gold once we get home and to serve the army in another way, he will be an attorney again. He is truly an inspirational man and so many people have learned so much from him and his positive attitude and how he deals with every task laid in front of him. 

Well it's going on 1600 and I need to start bringing this post to an end, I have found that the time I spend jotting these notes on here helps so much with everything that I do over here. I spend so many hours a day listening to so many people talk about everything that is bothering them, I am the oldest guy in our Task Force and with that seems to have come and additional duty that I will always be there to listen to anyone who needs to talk. It's a task that I know is needed and I try to always make myself available when anyone needs to talk or vent, it helps me as well. I sometime get a great big dose of reality and a sanity check as to what is really important and the fact that some things in life are really just not that important. We all have problems, and we all try to deal with them the best we can, but some times we just have to concede that some things are just out of our control. Life will go on and things will get better and sometimes you just have to have faith that things will work out. Night all