The Buffalo

This is a picture of a big truck that rolls around the base. The Humvee is included for scale. If you know how big a Humvee is, you can see how giant this beast is. We are not exactly sure what it is used for, but it looks pretty mean. There is quite the variety of vehicles here, some that I didn't even know existed. Since this is a coalition base there are also vehicles from other countries. I think my favorite are the British, they cruise around in Land Rovers with little Union Jacks (their flag) on the bumpers. We also see some of the private contractors vehicles, they have uparmored Suburbans with all kinds of crazy attachments. Most of them look like they have seen a few trips around the country.

Yesterday was Benjamin's 1st birthday. I called and sang him happy birthday and he seemed to like that. While we were on the phone he stood up by himself for the first time! He is a big boy now, no longer an infant and now a toddler. The hardest part about the deployment so far is being away from him and Erika. Missing his milestones never gets any easier. His party is this weekend, I'm looking forward to the pictures and hopefully some videos. I sent him some new books for his present. I think he will like them.

For those of you that are following along at home, today is Thursday, which means Mongolian! Another week is almost over. SSG Johnson has a new plan for Saturday's Fried Rice night. You can take your food to go as well for up to 3 people. He is going to eat one plate, then go back up and make another one and take it with him, so he can have Fried Rice for 2 or 3 days in a row. We had steaks last night, they weren't very good but at least they tried.