Half a World Away

Marathoner

2007-10-26T22:40:00.000+03:00

On to the race, as everyone knows by now there were record highs in Chicago. I was complaining to everyone all week long about how unfavorable the forecast was. The temps, plus my somewhat sore ankle, plus my shortened training schedule, really had me nervous. I had originally planned on a sub 4 hour goal, but with 3 things working against me I changed my goal to 4:30, figuring I had run all of my long runs at around 10 minute miles and that would be doable.

We flew out Friday night and had some pizza at Giordinos for dinner. It was crazy busy in there, we had to wait about 90 minutes to get our pie. Worth the wait though. Saturday we went down to the Expo, this is where they give you free stuff for running the marathon and also sell you stuff as well. I stayed away from the Finisher t shirts as I had no idea how far I was going to make it. I did violate rule number 1 of marathon training, don't do anything new on the day you actually run. I bought a new pair of shorts (to match my bright yellow Team Fisher House shirt), and also some GU, which is basically straight carbs that take while running to keep your energy up. But it turned out okay, neither one caused me any issues. Saturday night we ate at Weber Grill which was fantastic. I skipped the pasta and got prime rib. I did eat a bunch of bread though. After that we cruised over to the EspnZone and watched some team wearing the Scarlet and Cream get pummeled by the Mizzou Tigers. More carb loading in the form of a few Bud Lights.

I didn't sleep very good Saturday night, I was concerned with oversleeping so I woke up like a 1000 times throughout the night. Finally got up around 5:00am, had some breakfast, and then took the subway down to the start line. I was about 90 minutes early as I heard it would be wild, but it actually wasn't too bad. I could have got there about 10 minutes early and been fine. The crowd was intense though, it was fun to be a part of and there were runners as far as the eye could see.

After the gun went off, it took 16 minutes to actually get across the start line. I've run a few Corporate Cups where it took 2 minutes to get to the start line and I thought that took a long time. This wasn't bad though, it was a much more relaxed atmosphere and no one was really in a hurry. After all, it is a marathon, not a sprint. I remember only about 5 minutes into it starting to sweat, and thinking, wow, this could be a long day. I usually don't sweat much, so it was really a surprise. I chalked it up to the fact that I was running with 36k others in the same vicinity.

I held the pace okay until about the 8 mile mark. It was hot enough out that by the third water stop, I was stopping to get both gatorade and water. By the time I restarted, the 4:30 pacers were far enough away that didn't bother trying to catch them. I saw my wife for the first time at mile 12 which was a big pick me up, and was feeling decent. My ankle was sore by this time but not terrible. I felt if it didn't get any worse I would be able to finish. The crowd was great the entire race. There were people cheering and yelling, signs galore, and live bands around every corner. It really helped keep my mind off the fact I was running for almost 5 hours.

By mile 18 I was working pretty hard to stay close to 10 minute miles. Prior mentioned ankle had caused me to cut both of my planned 20 milers short. The farthest I had been was 18 miles, so I was expecting this section to be tough. The only thing that kept me going was that my wife was around mile marker 20, so I thought if I could get that far, I could gut out the last 10k. Sure enough, I sucked it up and once I met my wife at mile 20.5 I knew I would finish.

Shortly after was when I first heard that the race was "cancelled." I thought it was a joke at first, but upon getting to the next aid station they were telling everyone to stop running. I considered it briefly, but I was only 4 miles form the finish and didn't want to walk at this point. I don't know if I will ever do another one, and didn't want to have my first marathon cut short. After training since January, I was determined to finish. Plus, compared to the 120 degree weather I ran in while in Iraq, the 88 didn't probably have as much impact on me as others.
The next few miles were a blur, I considered walking a few times but decided to stick it out. It was crazy out there though, the cops were on the bullhorns yelling at us to quit running, start walking, it is just a fun run now, on and on. I was determined that unless they were going to physically stop me from running I was going to continue on.

I finished at 4:49 and change, not quite what I had set out to do but good considering the circumstances. I didn't walk, with the exception of at the water stations to make sure I stayed hydrated. I will say that at the time I went through, all but the first station had both water and gatorade. I have never been so tired and sore in all of my life. As soon as I stopped running, my right knee seized up and I could barely walk. There was no ice, so I gimped around trying to find Erika. They told the crowd that because the race was cancelled nobody would be finishing, so she was waiting at the fountain where we were to meet and didn't see my cross the finish line. I swear it was at least a mile walk, or at least it seemed that way. Of course I was hobbling like an 80 year old so it took forever. Finally I found her and also some ice so we sat for a while and I iced my knee down.

We had taken the subway down to the start as our hotel was about a mile away. Going back was absolutely insane. It was just like the Seinfeld where Elaine is on the car and stuffed in with all kinds of people, except that half of us had just run 26.2 miles and stunk to high heaven. I was glad to be one of the stinky ones as I'm sure that it was terrible for the non runners.

I stopped and bought a Budweiser to celebrate, did some more ice down time, and then took a nap. We went out to a great restaurant that night, can't remember the name (Rock Bottom Cafe?) but it was a brewery and their beer was really tasty. No more pasta for a little while for this guy. We got desert as well which of course tasty.

All in all, the marathon was far harder then I thought it would be. And I thought it would be hard. The time you have to put in training, your diet, and then the strain of the actual event is like nothing I've ever experienced. I'm glad to have it done it, however, and am proud to have finished on a day when it was so hot they closed the course. Plus I raised over 2200 dollars for a great cause, which made it all worth it.

Hey There

2007-10-04T04:05:00.001+03:00

Don't know if anyone is still stopping by, since I haven't posted anything in quite some time. I had to take a break from reading the news and blogging as I was a little bit burnt out. Frankly, since I've been home, I don't really read anything on the war, politics, or current events. I just can't handle anymore stories about OJ, Brittney, etc. etc so I pretty much just tuned everything out and am focused on my family. There is just so much negativity in everything out there that I don't have the energy to sort through it all.

Sunday is the big day, the Chicago marathon. Unfortunately I am nursing a minor foot injury so I'm not exactly sure how it is going to go. I injured it about a month ago and have been nursing it ever since. I couldn't really afford to quit running altogether, but I also couldn't run enough to really get ready. So, it is a little bit of a guess at this point how I will do. I've revised my goal down to just finishing, I'm going to go out at about a 1o minute per mile pace instead of the 9 minute per mile pace I was training for. That puts me around 4:30 so we'll see how that goes. I am going to do my best and thank all of you in advance for your support, both with donations to the Fisher House and your thoughts and prayers.

Being home is fantastic, better then I could have imagined. Erika and Ben are wonderful, I'm so thankful to be home safe and be back home with them. My wife is the real hero, how she kept things going around the house without me I'll never know. Truly God has blessed me with a strong, capable, loving wife and mother. Ben grows every day, he is so much fun to be around and to spend time with. Work has been good as well, ConAgra has gone above and beyond continually and made the transition easy for me.

Well, that is about I have time for now. I am not going to promise anything, but I do have some more posts I want to put up so if you check back in the next couple of weeks I'll put up my Chicago Marathon result and also some pictures that I have saved up.

Best Thing I've Seen in a Long Time

2007-10-04T03:26:00.000+03:00

I know I've been missing out on much internet hijincks in my absence, but this is priceless. Go check it out and see what happens when you fly the Mexican flag over the US Flag in the USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nONjlZ8YMkA

Home!!!!

2007-07-25T08:04:00.000+04:00

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, but a variety of things have kept me from the blog. Perhaps the most glaring was the fact that my computer crashed shortly after I got home on June 27th, and I just now got it fixed. Among other reasons/excuses is that blogging has slipped from its perch as my number 3 leisure activity while in Iraq (after gym time and running) to approximately number 46.

Anyway, I wanted to let anyone know that has been stopping by that I am home safe and sound. Reintegration with the family is a challenge but is going well, better then I expected. I had a spectacular coming home party a few weeks ago, and Erika and I just returned from 4 days in Lake Tahoe. I have pictures of both that I will be posting shortly now that I have a working computer with internet again.

Sorry this is so short, more to follow when things get settled down some.

Almost Home

2007-06-22T05:38:00.000+04:00

Well, we are back on friendly soil finally. We hit Fort McCoy, Wisconsin on Tuesday and are all well on our way to getting demobilized and out of here. The folks here are great, and it is wonderful to be back in the US of A. They are planning a little party for us when we get back, you can read about it at Omaha.com or LJS.com. More to come later when I have some more free time, internet and email access is very hard to come by and we've had some long days checking the boxes trying to get out of here.

Fisher House Update, On the Way!

2007-06-16T11:18:00.000+04:00

Quick update on the pledge drive in support of Fisher House. Thanks to David, the Duty Officer over at The Sandbox, who put my original post up on his site a day or so ago, I'm now at 140% of my goal. Outstanding! I think I need to set a new goal, but I'm not sure what a good number would be. If you have any suggestions leave a comment. I'm simply amazed at the power of community and all of the many, many supporters of me and my fellow soldiers there are. You guys are the best.

This is a pretty awesome link up at Blackfive that you should go check out. It is about a fellow soldier that wrote a letter to his best friend's children after he was killed in action. Gripping post, and another great example why Blackfive is one my daily stops.

Our travels have officially started. We left Anaconda yesterday, and are now in Kuwait. As far as Army travel goes, it actually wasn't too bad. Wake up at 0500, clear the wooden building that we had made our home for the last 3 weeks, have a formation to get accountability, board the bus at 0700, have a few more formations, and then wait. In typical Army fashion, the waiting room had about 30 cots, and there were over 100 of us from HHT alone, so most of us sat outside in the sun and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of Iraq for the last time.

Around 1100 we get on the plane, wait a few minutes more, and then liftoff. There were a few hoops and hollers, as we went wheels up, but not too many as most of us were waiting for the corkscrew maneuver they usually do when leaving/entering Balad. For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of a combat take off, they basically are looking to get airborne as quickly as possible, so it isn't your typical smooth ride. They hit the gas pretty hard, and then make some aggressive turns that leave your stomach in knots. The neighborhood we live in isn't the best, and there is always a worry that the insurgents will find (i.e. buy one from Iran) an RPG and shoot a plane down. Although I think that if they could do it, they would have done it by now. Needless to say it is quite an experience, thankfully this is the last time we have to do it.

We made the approximately hour long flight to Ali Al Saleem, which is where almost all military flights stop in and out of Iraq. The only real delay was on the ground here, we boarded the buses about 1300 and then waited for our bags for about an hour. After that a quick ride to Camp Virginia, our home until we leave theater in a few short days. Offload our baggage in quick fashion, and then a mad scramble for everyone to find their bags. You know how it is always hard to find your bag at the airport because a lot of luggage looks similar? Try finding your duffel and rucksack amidst hundreds of the exact same bag. Always a fun project! Once I had my bag, time to pick out a cot. And then wait. All told, we spent about 11 hours traveling around 300 miles I would guess. Not too shabby for Iraq, in fact if the rest of our travels go as smoothly I for one will be pleasantly surprised.

The weather here is absolutely brutal. We have been fortunate in that Anaconda is up North in the Tigris river valley, and although it is extremely hot and windy, it isn't terrible. Down here it is about 10 degrees hotter, and the real kicker is that the wind is constantly blowing sand all over the place. It is hard to describe what is like, I know I used the sticking your head in an oven to describe Iraq. Kuwait is kindof like sticking your head in an oven while somebody takes sandpaper to your skin while at the same time pouring gravel directly into your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Kindof like that. I think if I was stationed here I would have considered putting a bullet in my head. Or at least in the leg. But you have to hit bone, because if you don't and it goes right through muscle, you don't get to go home. Although you may get a short trip to Germany out of it. But enough on that, nobody is going to be shooting any one any time soon, primarily because we don't have any bullets any more.

We'll just be here for a short time, and then off to McCoy. The word on the street is that we'll be there for a few days shorter then we had planned. In fact, the Family Readiness Group back home is already telling our families the date and location we'll arrive home. Of course nobody has told us anything yet, but that is pretty much par for the course. Usually we hear from home what is going on before we get it through official channels, and the info so far has been pretty reliable. The important thing is that we are about 95% done, morale is high, and everyone is ready to jump through whatever hoops we need to in order to get home to our loved ones.

Interview with VAJoe.com, Other Stuff

2007-06-13T13:22:00.000+04:00

The fine folks over at VAJoe.com have been doing a series of interviews with military bloggers. Follow this link to check mine out. There is lots of other good stuff on their site, so spend some time checking it out.

We have our official transfer of authority (TOA) with our replacements in a few short hours, and then we are just waiting on our good friends in the Air Force to give us a ride. We'll spend a few days out processing in Kuwait and then on to the US. Until then, there is a lot of nothing going on except for your typical soldier hi jinks. This is a dangerous time for me, as when joe has nothing to do, he tends to get in trouble. I am hoping not to have any more work to do before we get home, but with a unit our size, someone is bound to do the wrong thing.

I have my Iraq retrospective piece about half done and am trying to get that finished up in the next day or so. I do a lot of my thinking when I'm out on the roads of Anaconda running. At home I like to think in the shower, but there are too many random naked dudes running around here to get comfortable. Also we are in transient housing now and the showers have this annoying pulsating between low and high pressure and also hot and cold water. Not fun. I usually can write a full post in my mind while running, but the problem is when I sit down on the computer I can only remember about half of it. So, that is my struggle right now, there is more info tied up in the back of my brain that I need to dig out. More to come soon.

I also wanted to wish my brother a Happy Birthday, he is down in San Antonio going through 68W (Combat Medic) training right now. He successfully graduated Basic Training (honor grad I believe) and is about halfway through his AIT. Keep up the good work little brother.

Erika and I also "celebrated" our 6th Anniversary last week. And by celebrated I mean we talked on the phone about it. Second in a row I've been in Iraq. But we'll be able to celebrate for real here in a few short weeks. Thanks babe for all that you do for me and Benjamin! You are my soul mate, a fantastic mother, and make me a better man. Love you.

In Remembrance

2007-06-05T14:02:00.000+04:00

Part of the process of getting out of here is remembering those that have gone before us. It struck me the other day as we were making plans for coming home parties, car purchases, and vacations, that not everyone that got on the plane with us is making the trip home.

One of the benefits that the Guard sells to young soldiers is that Guard is family, and I think this is true is the sense that you get to know your fellow Guardsmen over the years better then you would in an active duty or reserve unit as personnel are changed out more often. Most of the soldiers that you drill with are from your hometown, went to the same schools, and know the same people. The Nebraska National Guard has lost 8 or our brothers and sisters during OIF. While the loss of every soldier is a tragedy, our fellow Guardsmen usually hit a little closer to home. I didn't know any of these soldiers on a personal level, but they've all had a lasting impact on me, and my fellow soldiers, that I wanted to share.

The first 2 soldiers we lost were early in the war. MSG Linda Ann Tarango-Griess and SGT Jeremy J. Fisher were killed in action on 11 July 2004. I remember getting an email at work with a link to the story and feeling incredible sadness, shock, and disbelief. Most of us thought the war would be over quickly and without much loss of life. The fact that our fellow soldiers had paid the ultimate price was hard to believe.

The Nebraska Guard went over a year without another casualty. SFC Tricia L. Jameson was killed in action on 14 July 2005. SFC Jameson was a medic that had volunteered for her deployment to fill a spot that needed a soldier, and had only been in theater a short while. She was responding to an attack when her ambulance was targeted by a secondary IED, a particularly cowardly attack. The Combat Medic Training Center here at Balad is named after her.

Another year passed, and on 31 July 2006, SGT Joshua Ford was killed in action. His death occurred after we arrived in theater, which made it that much harder. Every soldier knows that there is the possibility this will happen, but as a coping mechanism, most of us think that it won't happen to us or anyone we know.

Unfortunately, the year between combat deaths pattern didn't hold. Task Force Saber lost our first soldier, SSG Jeffrey Hansen, on 27 August 2006. SSG Hansen was the victim of a tragic accident where his vehicle rolled over into one of the many canal roads surrounding Anaconda. SSG Hansen had been around the Cav for a long time, and was well known by many and loved by all. His memorial service was held here at Anaconda, I served on the rifle team and was part of the 21 gun salute. It was an honor to participate and allow the soldiers from his unit and those that knew him the best to attend the memorial.

A short 2 days after B Troop and the rest of the 1-167 had grieved for SSG Hansen, SGT Germaine Debro was killed in action. He died on 4 September 2006. For an already grief stricken unit, this was an incredibly tough blow. SGT Debro had volunteered for this deployment to serve with his friends and paid the ultimate price. I went home for leave a few days later, and attended his funeral in Omaha while I was home. It was obvious from the crowd and the speeches what kind of a man SGT Debro was and how much he was loved by his family and friends. The IED Training Lane here at Anaconda was just recently dedicated in honor of SGT Debro, in order to provide training opportunities to other soldiers and increase their chance of survival.

SGT Randy J. Matheny died in combat on 4 February 2007. His sister is a Staff Sergeant in a unit that is stationed here at Anaconda, and he would often spend time with her when he had a stop over during a convoy. His brother is also a member of the Nebraska Guard. His sister's unit held a small memorial here on post for him, and once again it was clear that SGT Matheny was a hero to those that knew him.

The final Nebraska casualty was SPC William L. Bailey III, who was killed in action on 25 May 2007. His unit was stationed here, and I attended his memorial. SPC Bailey was a father of 5 and had a lifetime of service. He was a volunteer firefighter in Bellevue, and had rejoined the Guard in 2005 after fulfilling his initial obligation because he wanted to serve.

One thing that struck me about each of these soldiers is that most, if not all, were volunteers. Not just volunteers to join the Guard, as we are all, but volunteers to deploy to Iraq and do what needed to be done. I know that most of them could have stayed home, having already done duty in Kuwait, Bosnia, or a prior deployment to Iraq. But they didn't. Their unit, their state, and their country needed them, and they answered the call. And they paid the ultimate price. This may be cliche, but "Where do we find such men and women?" I am proud to wear the uniform and to have served in the Nebraska National Guard with MSG Tarango-Griess, SGT Fisher, SFC Jameson, SGT Ford, SSG Hansen, SGT Debro, SGT Matheny, and SPC Bailey. God bless you all. We will never forget you.

Fisher House Update, Pre-Marathon Training Complete

2007-06-04T11:43:00.000+04:00

Well, my Fisher House pledge drive is off to a great start. Many, many thanks to everyone that has stopped by and donated. After just a few days I'm already 38% there. Much better then I had expected.

A special thanks to my friend Kathi at Mail Call! Supporting the Troops. She has been actively spreading the word among the many military blogs in her network which has helped tremendously. Thanks Kathi!!!!

So, I finished up my "pre-marathon" training yesterday. I will say this, the extra 16 weeks of training due to our getting extended and my missing Lincoln have really been helpful. I guess you could say that is something positive from our extension.

Week 14 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5/5 @ 8:55
Wednesday - 7/7 @ 8:45
Thursday - 5/5 @ 8:26
Friday - off
Saturday - 7/7 @ 8:37
Sunday - 12/12 @ 9:36
Total - 36/36 Right on schedule. Nothing unusual and a good week of running.

Week 15 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5/5.5 @ 8:55
Wednesday - 8/8 @ 9:07
Thursday - 5/5 @ 8:26
Friday - off
Saturday - 9/9.5 @ 9:22
Sunday - off
Total - 27/28 Memorial day was the BolderBoulder 10k, so I moved my long run to Saturday and took Sunday off so I would be somewhat fresh. Other then that had a good week.

Week 16 (planned/actual):
Monday - 6.2/6.2 @ 7:30
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - 8/8.1 @ 9:09
Thursday - 5/6 @ 9:06
Friday - off
Saturday - 8/7.7 @ 9:17
Sunday - 10/12 @ 9:34
Total - 37.2/40 My first 40 mile week! The 10k on Monday was great. I far exceed my expectations. As mentioned, I was looking for a sub 50:00 and thought I could maybe do a 48:xx. I ended up running a 46:40, which is a personal best by about 5 minutes. Can't beat that. I did a race report on Coolrunning.com, you can check it out here for the rest of the details if you are in to the sort of thing.

This week is week 1 of 18 for Chicago training. These extra 16 weeks have really helped, I went from an average of around 20 miles a week to an average of around 36 or so. My long run is up from 10 to 12, and the 12 doesn't bother me much as all. I don't have any nagging injuries. The biggest challenge will be staying disciplined when I get home, but that shouldn't be a problem. We got a bike trailer for the little man, so we can do family outings at the lake with momma and the mister on the bike and me out running. Also I have a jogging trailer that I never got to use before this deployment, so I may get some use out of that. Plus I've already paid my entry fee and I'm far too cheap to let that go. And of course I have the supporters of Team Sack to keep my going, so I'm confident that I'll keep after it. I'm excited to get out of the "pre" phase and start counting down the weeks.

Please Give Me Money

2007-05-31T10:53:00.000+04:00

Well, not me exactly. I was out on the Fisher House website the other day getting the link for my post on the Doonesbury Book. I noticed that they have a Marine Corps Marathon support team, where soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines that are running the MCM can raise money to support the Fisher House. I thought to myself, wow, what a great idea, too bad the Chicago Marathon (catch up on my training here) and MCM are on the same day. Not so fast my friend. They have another program where basically you can support any race you feel like running. So, a few short minutes later and I had everything set up for Team Sack.

This program is particularly good, because unlike other race sponsorships, where if you collect a certain amount they will pay your race entrance fee, travel/hotel, etc, the Fisher House team will get every dime of any money that you pledge. Also, they have very little overhead, according to their website 97 cents on the dollar go directly to help the families of wounded soldiers. These guys have a great reputation in the military community and are truly supporting a needed service.

I would like to raise a $1,000 over the next 18 weeks. Please consider a gift to this worthwhile organization. Since I'm running 26.2 miles (I hope!) you could consider a dollar a mile and donate 25 bucks and I'll do the last 1.2 miles for free. This would only require 40 people to contribute.

The easiest way to donate is to go to my pledge website and use your credit card. They will send you your receipt immediately and your donation is tax deductible. What is better then that? I haven't used the pledge website yet so if anyone does and has any problems please shoot me an email, you can find it in my profile, or leave me a comment. You can also fill out a pledge form personally for those of you that I'll be seeing in a few short weeks. Thanks in advance for your support!

Hard to Believe, but I'm Getting Published

2007-05-22T11:58:00.000+04:00

You may remember that I did a few stories for the Sandbox, a blog set up by the folks that bring you Doonesbury. The first one I submitted, Not My Grandfather's War, is going to be included in a new book that they are putting out (my other story is here). I'm incredibly excited and thrilled to be included, this book will make a nice reminder of my time over here. There are so many great writers out there blogging about this war and I feel honored to be included among them.

Here is the preliminary cover:

And the preliminary back:

All proceeds from the book will be donated to the Fisher House. From their website:

Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House™ Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful times - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.

You can pre-order the book at Amazon.com. It is only 14.95, so go out and get one. It should be out sometime this summer. I'll even autograph it for you. That is of course if you live in the Omaha/Lincoln area and make a trip over to my house. Or invite me over to your place for dinner, whatever works for you. I suppose I could even meet you somewhere, but we can work all of that out later. I've read almost all of the posts that will be in the book and they are all fantastic, you won't be disappointed.

Good News, More Souvenirs

2007-05-22T11:43:00.000+04:00

We got some good news about 2 weeks ago and it is finally official so we can share it. We found out we'll be leaving "early" from Iraq, so instead of getting out of here in mid to late July, we'll be leaving in early to mid June. We have a date but can't give it out for security reasons. Most likely we'll be home in time for the 4th of July. Obviously we are very excited and morale is high. There is much to do as we got short notice and have about 2 months of work to do in 2 weeks. That is fine though, it will make the time go back quickly. Unfortunately, the 167 is the only unit getting replaced early, the rest of the Red Bulls will be leaving as scheduled.

Chief Regan got all of his soldiers in the S1 an authentic Cavalry Saber as a thank you for all of our hard work. It is pictured below, along with the Squadron Commander, LTC Apprich (colonels aren't allowed to smile by the way). Thanks Chief! I am going to need to move into a bigger house to hold all of my deployment souvenirs.

CPT Varjecka and CPT Wangler went out and got Gold Spurs for the rest of Team America. I missed the day when they put them on as I was in Qatar, so we had a make up ceremony. I got the short end of the stick as we were in increased force protection so we had to have our IBA and ACH (body armor and helmet) on outside. They had me get in the front leaning rest (aka pushup) position while they put them on. With the body armor it was quite a challenge.

Then Beans rode me like a horse. Yee haa!!

As you can see by this time I was pretty exhausted and had to sag a little bit, but nobody ever said the Army was easy!

Pre-Marathon Update Weeks 6-13

2007-05-14T20:15:00.001+04:00

Definitely slacking off on getting my updates done on my training for the Chicago Marathon. Sorry. No good reason. I was planning on doing this once a month but lo and behold this is 2 months worth. I have a 10k coming up on Memorial Day. The BolderBoulder is putting on a satellite race here. The folks that run this are awesome, I had a problem with my registration and I emailed them and they took care of it right away. We actually registered on their main site so we'll get an official time and everything. Hopefully the folks here will do a better job organizing this then the Army 10 Miler. At a minimum I'm voting that everyone actually runs a 10k. I need to break 50 minutes (8 min/mile) so I can get a seeded runner's pass for the Omaha Corporate Cup. I usually run this every year as part of Team ConAgra, in fact the OCC is what got me into running longer distances. Usually about 10,000 people run it, and if you can prove you can run it in less then 50 minutes (for males) you get to start from the front. They don't have chip timing so when you don't start in the front it adds a good 2-5 minutes to your time, making it all but impossible to get under 50 minutes for me. I'm pretty confident that I can break the 50 minute mark finally, and my stretch goal is to run 7:45 minute miles for a time of 48:00. The 48 minute time will give me some confidence that my 4:00 goal for Chicago is doable.

I'll say one thing after 6 months or so of thinking about doing the marathon, this training is no joke. I knew that it wouldn't be easy, but what I wasn't expecting was the pressure each week to get my runs in. The schedule is so focused that if you miss even one day it messes you up and it is hard to make it up. For instance if I miss a Sunday long run there is no chance to catch up so to speak and that day is gone. So, it has been quite a challenge. The extra months to train for Chicago instead of Lincoln have definitely helped me get ready. Right now I'm trying to decide which plan I'm going to use. The original Higdon plan I was going to do peaks at 43 mpw, which doesn't feel like much of a challenge now. I'm either going to do the Higdon Intermediate II plan which gets up to 50 mpw or the Pfitzinger 55 mpw plan. The Pfitz plan has some speedwork built in, so it will be more of a challenge but also will better prepare me. I am thinking right now that I will start with that and if turns out to be too much I'll go back to Hal's easier plan.
Well, without further ado, here is what I've been up to:

Week 6 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 4 / 0
Wednesday - 6 / 5 @ 8.44
Thursday - 4 / 6 @ 8:16
Friday - off / 4 @ 8:41
Saturday - 6 / 6.25 @ 8:48
Sunday - 9 / 9.5 @ 9:04
Total - 29 / 30.5. Tuesday I was busy playing Gran Turismo 4 (which SSG Johnson got me for my birthday, thanks Brad!) so I moved everything back a day. Other then that was a good week.

Week 7 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 / 5 @ 9:03
Wednesday - 7 / 7 @ 8.30
Thursday - 5 / 5 @ 8:48
Friday - off
Saturday - 7 / 7 @ 8:19
Sunday - 10 / 10 @ 9:36
Total - 34 / 34. Right on schedule for Week 7, nothing exciting to report.

Week 8 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 / 5 @ 8:57
Wednesday - 7 / 7 @ 8.36
Thursday - 5 / 5 @ 8:49
Friday - off
Saturday - 7 / 7 @ 8:36
Sunday - 12 / 12 @ 9:36
Total - 36 / 36. This was the beginning of the week I was in Qatar. I brought my running shoes, and actually ran both Saturday and Sunday. They had a great trail that ran along the perimeter of the base (no snipers in Qatar!) that was really nice, so it was an enjoyable place to run and see some new scenery. It was really just a different view of the desert but what can you do.

Week 9 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 4 /
Wednesday - 7 / 6.25 @ 8.47
Thursday - 4 /
Friday - off / 3 @ 8:17
Saturday - 7 / 5.33 @ 9:02
Sunday - 9 / 0
Total - 31 / 14.58. Not a good week here. Tuesday I was still in Qatar and didn't get a chance to run. Wednesday I did, but Thursday I was traveling and that kind of put the rest of the schedule off. I still would have had a decent week but on Sunday they had the force protection ratcheted up and we couldn't be outside unless we had our Kevlar and IBA on, and there was no way I was running in that. I contemplated doing the dreadmill but just couldn't go through with it. So, this was somewhat of a rest week for me.

Week 10 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 / 5 @ 8:01
Wednesday - 7 / 7 @ 8.45
Thursday - 5 / 5 @ 8:41
Friday - off
Saturday - 7 / 7 @ 9:35
Sunday - 12 / 0
Total - 36 / 24. Missed the long run again. Hammer talked me and Princess into starting to lift legs again. I had quit lifting my legs a while back because of all the running I was doing. We did squats on Friday, and Saturday my legs were incredibly sore. I thought it would help if I ran Saturday to loosen things up so I suffered through the 7 miles. Sunday I could barely walk, and there was no way I was running 1.2 miles, let alone 12. We like to say in the Army that there is Hooah (going above and beyond and being a tough guy) and Hooah Stupid (going above and beyond and hurting yourself). Running Saturday was Hooah Stupid as it put me out of commission for about 4 days.

Week 11 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 / 3.25 @ 9:04
Wednesday - 7 / 3.25 @ 8.49
Thursday - 5 / 5 @ 8:48
Friday - off
Saturday - 7 / 5.5 @ 8:34
Sunday - 10 / 8 @ 9:42
Total - 34 / 25. Early in the week I was still struggling with the soreness in my legs. I suffered through a few shorter runs. At the same time, it started getting up close to a 100 in the afternoons this week. Sunday I was planning on doing the full 10 miles but I felt like I had just eaten a whole bag of cotton balls so I cut it off early (see Hooah vs Hooah Stupid above).

Week 12 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 / 5 @ 7:48
Wednesday - 7 / 7 @ 9:09
Thursday - 5 / 5 @ 8:58
Friday - off
Saturday - 7 / 7 @ 9:09
Sunday - 10 / 6 @ 9:18
Total - 34 / 30. Back to normal for the most part. I suffered through the afternoon heat for all of the runs but Sunday. Sunday I waited until later in the night when it cooled down as it was like 103 that day. I didn't end up going until 1030 at night so it was a little bit late to do the whole 10 miles. Plus I have a phobia about getting abducted by a group of insurgents. It is really dark here at night (no street lights to mitigate the mortars) so it is a little bit weird out. My fear isn't that I'll be tortured and killed, but that they will videotape the kidnapping and everyone will snicker when I don't fight them off. Of course they won't know that I just got done running 10 miles and was worn out. So there is that.

Week 13 (planned/actual):
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 /
Wednesday - 7 / 2 @ 6:56
Thursday - 5 / 7 @ 8:28
Friday - off / 7 @ 8:58
Saturday - 7 / 7 @ 9:10
Sunday - 10 / 10 @ 9:35
Total - 34 / 33. Wednesday we had a PT test so I took Tuesday off so my legs would be fresh. I would have liked to gone a bit faster on the 2 miler but was pretty happy with my time. In case you were curious, I had the high score out of the entire S1. Not bad for a 31 year old desk jockey. Of course I haven't brought this up at all since!

Aks on the Smith Range

2007-05-05T08:25:00.000+04:00

From time to time our guys end up with some contraband as evidence. One of the things that is in long supply over here are AK-47s. Every Iraqi is allowed one for self defense, but if they get caught doing something bad then they get taken. Our guys arranged for a familiarization fire out on the Smith range (named after SFC Paul Smith, the first Medal of Honor winner in Iraq).

Me and one of the better condition AKs. If you are curious, yes that is a moustache. And yes I have already shaved it. I started growing it in Qatar. I thought it was pretty sweet but it was hot and itchy so I got rid of it after a few weeks.

SFC Kerchal getting ready to fire.

We each got one magazine to fire off. Unfortunately I don't have any action shots of myself. You can rest assured that I didn't hit much though. Even at 25 meters the Ak is terribly inaccurate, especially on full auto.

SFC Kerchal double fisting.

Pretty good time. I also got to fire my trusty M16 on burst, normally on the range we fire in semi auto mode so it was fun to blast away. The M16 is much more controlled with the 3 round burst then the Ak is on full auto. Nothing better then a little gunpowder to get your day started right.

I'm Still Here

2007-05-03T14:18:00.000+04:00

Sorry for the communication blackout. Blogs are once again blocked, hence the sparse posting for the last 2 weeks.

Ran across this article today, which explains some of the problem: Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death. Basically the new policy is that you must get approval from your Commander before posting anything on your blog. Most of us are guessing that rather then waste the Commander's time, most units will just ban blogs all together.

It is really frustrating for us because I think most of you at home would agree that soldier blogs provide a window into this war that has never before been utilized. Not that it is always positive, but for most part they are real life. In a time when the military is struggling for public support, you would think our stories would be encouraged and not the other way around. I honestly don't understand where they are coming from. My guess is that the brass is just being risk averse and rather then have to deal with the few troublemakers that violate op-sec or something like that, they are going into widespread lockdown mode.

I'm not giving up the fight yet, as this blog has really meant a lot to me over the last 13 months. I honestly feel that my morale has been better because of it, and I think that my friends and family have benefited from hearing about what I'm up to. But, I'm sure it won't be long before the new rules get pushed down to my level and the plug gets pulled. We've already seen a pretty advanced decline in what we are allowed to read and say, so I don't see it getting better. It is a shame because I'm sure soldiers that are just getting into theater and have a story to tell will most likely not want to deal with all of the BS and resort to keeping in touch solely by email or phone. It looks like the Army will win this battle, but lose the war for public support.

Qatar Trip - Part 3

2007-04-18T19:13:00.000+04:00

One more batch of pictures from my recent trip to Qatar. Here is Brad and I in front of the harbor.

This is the City Center mall in downtown Doha. It was 4 stories of shopping fun, we had 2 hours to spend here and didn't even make it through the whole mall. It was quite impressive.

There was an ice skating rink inside, a bowling alley, a mini amusement park, and lots and lots of shops.

Some buildings outside the mall. Lots of construction downtown, the city is really growing.

Enjoying a Guinness back at the camp. Tasty!

Brad with a Tuborg. It is a dutch beer that is popular with the joes as you get a 16oz can for $3. The Guinness was $6.

Ma Beans sent me this shirt a while back. I had to get at least one Bud since I was wearing the shirt. Last beer of the trip!

All good things must come to end sometime. Packing up and heading back to Anaconda.

A somewhat blurry picture of the C17 we took back. This is the big Air Force jet we were hoping for, unfortunately we had a small group so they didn't put the good airline like seats in the middle like they usually do and instead filled it with cargo. I wasn't complaining though, much better then the C130.

We are back to work now. It was a fun trip and great to get away from the office. 3 months to go.

Qatar Trip - Part 2

2007-04-14T19:28:00.000+04:00

Part of the fun of going to Qatar is that they have excursions you can take off the base and into the city of Doha. Brad and I went out on what they call the cultural tour, which is an all day tour through the different parts of the city.

First stop was one of the local malls. It reminded me of a cross between the Venetian and Ceasers Palace in Vegas. You could ride the gondola through the inside of the mall and there was a painted sky overhead. Lots of good shops and interesting people walking around. We even grabbed a hamburger and coke at McDonald's before heading out.

Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games last year. I guess this was a big deal and they built a lot of stuff for it. This is a tower of some sort, I think our guide said that this was being made into a hotel with 500 rooms.

Outdoor venue where the Asian Games were held.

We stopped at the local camel market and took some photos. The camels made a crazy noise at us, kind of like Chewbacca when he was upset. I didn't get too close because I was frankly a little bit freaked out. Our guide said that a camel will remember your face if you hurt it for its entire life, and if it runs into you 20 years from now it will bite you and then sit on you until you die. Allrighty then. That is why the camel jockeys for the races are children, they won't remember them as their faces will change as the age. The camel market didn't smell all that great as you could probably guess.

We stopped at the veggie market as well, nothing too exciting there. Then we shopped for a couple of hours at the outdoor market. Lots of traditional stuff, they kept trying to sell us man dresses and burkas but we passed. I did buy a Rolex at what they call the gold market. I got a pretty sweet deal, I checked online and the model I got sells in the states for $13,500, I only paid 140 Qatari Dinars. Sweet. Next stop was lunch. We had a traditional lunch. Here is the restaurant.

After lunch, it is custom to smoke from the Hooka pipe. Brad and I shared one with apple flavored tobacco. Kids don't try this at home.

The Hooka was followed by coffee and tea. Hello, I ordered a large!!!

Cool building I saw. Can't really remember what it was though. They told us if we took pictures from the bus we'd be tarred and feathered so we had to do the tourist thing when we were stopped.

This is kind of a big deal. Giant oyster and pearl. I took a picture because everyone else was. The Persian Gulf is in the background and a couple of fellow 167 soldiers are on your right.

More to follow.

Qatar Trip - Part 1

2007-04-13T11:27:00.000+04:00

There are very few positives of the additional 4 months that got added to our time over here. One of them is that we are now eligible for a 4 day pass to Qatar, a small country down on the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. Actually, we were eligible for this before but due to manning requirements our Brigade didn't allow anyone to go. Once we got extended they opened it up and most everyone will have the opportunity.

I was fortunate in that SSG Johnson and I got to go on the same day, so I had a travel partner for the whole trip. It is about a 2.5 hour flight from Anaconda, and luckily we went nonstop. Unluckily we took a C-130 which is a prop driven cargo plane. You sit on netting and it is quite uncomfortable. Since this was military transport, our 2.5 hour trip took about 12 hours all together. You don't just show up 45 minutes before and get on a plane. We reported at 0400, took a roll call, and told to hold tight until 0600. At 0600 we were told to go get breakfast and come back at 0830. At 0830 we were told to hang out until 1030. Somewhere in there we finally got on the plane, and sat on the plane in the sun on the tarmac for another hour until we took off. Here is SSG Johnson on the plane.

After the flight, we went through customs in Qatar where they searched our bags for ammo and other contraband, and then we took a bus from the airport to Camp As Sayliyah. We got our in brief on the dos and donts, and then were blissfully released to do our own thing. Our only time hack for the entire 4 days was to be back at 2100 on the last day to check on our flight home. The first night we got in kind of late, so we went right away and got our allotment of 3 beers (I had Fosters on tap) and then went to Chilis for dinner and then to bed. Luckily, the travel day doesn't count as one of your 4 days so this was basically a free night for us. I think this is a picture of me at Chilis, wearing civilian clothes felt pretty good after being in nothing but ACUs and PTs.

They had a miniature golf course at the gym that we played. I got out to an early 3 stroke lead but SSG Johnson came screaming back and beat me by one. I had about an 8 foot putt on the last hole that I needed to tie but I misread it and pushed it left. Sad night.

They also had a combination Dairy Queen/Orange Julius right in the gym. They would even add a scoop of protein into your Julius for that post workout pump.

More pictures to come over the next few days after I dig out from under the pile of emails that were waiting for me.

More Deployment Souvenirs - Part 3

2007-04-02T19:20:00.000+04:00

Final installment of Spur Ride pictures. Follow the links for Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to get caught up. Beans also some coverage over at his blog, follow the links to the right.

All 12 teams getting lined up for the ruck march.

And they're off! You will notice CSM Hall and his sombrero off the right.

Beans and I on the march.

Team America after the march. You will notice how much sweatier Beans, a 21 year old college athlete, is then me, a 31 year old desk jockey, due to my superior physical conditioning.

S1 Spur Holders. SFC Kerchal, me, Burnometer, Hammer, and Beans. Not pictured: SPC Fleck, CW4 Regan, and SSG Johnson. Oh wait, they aren't pictured because they were too scared to compete. Maybe on their next trip to Iraq?

Team America: CPT Wangler, SPC Burnham, yours truly, CPT Varejcka, and SGT Benes.

As mentioned, each station was graded and you had to get a minimum of 70 points to pass and earn your spurs. The first day of competition 2 teams didn't make it so if you didn't train enough it was difficult. Team America finished 2nd out of 12 teams with a 92.6. The winning team had 93.5, so we were less then a point out of first. We left a few points out there on the map reading, weapons, and radio stations, so we were a little disappointed, but we had fun and earned our spurs which is what the day was all about. Since we earned them in a combat zone, we'll get gold spurs, if you earn them at home you get silver. The 2 officers were nice enough to purchase the spurs for the team, so we are thankful for that bonus.

More Deployment Souvenirs - Part 2

2007-03-30T18:42:00.000+03:00

You can find Part 1 of this post here. Here are some more pictures from our recent Spur Ride.

Me getting ready to head out on the ruck march. Team America is in the background.

Everyone's favorite soldier Beans looking sharp.

Burnham and CPT Wangler hooking up the radios at the commo station. CPTs Wangler and Varejcka pinned on E3 and E2 rank for the spur ride as they were just joes on the team. That got a lot of laughs throughout the day. Beans and I contemplated smoking them a few times but decided that the payback at the end of the day wasn't worth it. They had to put them together, load them from the ANCD, and then get them set up properly to communicate in a certain amount of time.

My gear for the day. I estimate that between the IBA and the ruck everything weighed about 75 pounds. We had a specific packing list that included 6 liters of water which definitely added quite a bit of weight. This was in addition to my assigned weapon which weighs another 11 pounds. I was at somewhat of a disadvantage as us staff pukes don't wear the IBA nearly much as the line guys.

I have one more set of pictures to upload, so check back in this weekend to see the rest and also find out how Team America finished.

More Deployment Souvenirs - Part 1

2007-03-28T18:34:00.000+03:00

The Stetson isn't the only accoutrement that can be earned while attached to a Cavalry unit. Another rite of passage is called a Spur Ride. The details behind a Spur Ride vary by unit, it isn't an official Army sanctioned event so it is up to the unit to come up with something. The driving force behind the Spur Ride is unit morale, team building, and a tie back to Cav history. The 167 Cav held a spur ride on the 18th of March, and I was lucky enough to participate.

Our team consisted of the 2 finest mail clerks in all of Iraq, Beans and Burnometer. Initially the Flecker was going to round out our team, but he got cold feet and backed out. In order to make up for the loss of a Specialist, we added 2 Captains to Team America. CPT Varejcka is our S4 (logistics) officer and CPT Wangler is in charge of the base defense projects like the new fence we are putting up and the new guard towers.

For TF Saber's spur ride, MAJ Teegerstrom wanted it to be training for what we do over here, so it was tailored for Iraq. There were 10 stations that we had to navigate as a team. They were: a timed ruck march, tire change on a Humvee, map reading, medical tasks, grenade throwing, radio operation, blue force tracker (the gps enabled computer system that we use to keep track of all of our guys), Cav history, and the senior spur holder station. We spent about a month prepping for each station so we could dominate each station like good staff Troopers should.

Here is the first batch of pictures from our day. Team America lining up to move out.

Map reading station.

3 man litter carry at the Senior Spur Holder station.

MAJ T giving a pep talk.

Team America changing the tire. I used my cat like quickness to hop into the trunk.

Weapons station. We had an M16, M9 pistol, M2 machine gun (.50 cal) and M240B machine gun completely dissembled in one big pile that we had to assemble in less then 6 minutes.

Putting the finishing touches on the 2 machine guns.

More pictures to follow in Part 2.

Haji Don't Surf

2007-03-26T15:23:00.000+03:00

I don't where they came from, but we have a set of old school shades floating around the office. We took a few pictures the other day with the shades. Here is me and my desk.

Me and Irene.

I think there is a striking resemblance to Lt. Col Kilgore from Apocalypse Now. What do you think?

Also, some good news from here. After 12 months here at Anaconda, we discovered there is an MWR lab right next door to our building. The battlespace owner, 2-82 FA, which is a 1st Cav Division unit, shares office space with us and our guys go out on joint patrols with them. The previous group never bothered to offer to let us use their MWR lab, but the new guys are much more gracious, so it will be a little easier for me to do blog updates. So look forward to some increased activity here.

Pre-marathon Update - Weeks 2 - 5

2007-03-24T13:48:00.001+03:00

I'm sure you've been waiting on pins and needles for my updates on my progress towards the Chicago Marathon. So, without further ado here is the last few weeks of what I've been up to.

Week 2 (planned/actual):

Monday - Off
Tuesday - 4 / 4 @ 8:19
Wednesday - 6 / 6 @ 9:!2
Thursday - 4 / 2.5 @ 9:22
Friday - Off / 2 @ 8:41
Saturday - 6 / 6 @ 8:53
Sunday - 12 / 12 @ 9:29

Total - 32 / 32.5 @ 9:08

Week 3 (planned/actual):

Monday - Off
Tuesday - 4 / 4 @ 8:37
Wednesday - 5 / 5.25 @ 8:57
Thursday - 4 / 0
Friday - Off / 3.1 @ 7:36
Saturday - 5 / 6 @ 8:39
Sunday - 9 / 6.25 @ 8:24

Total - 27 / 24.6 @ 8:31

Week 4 (planned/actual):

Monday - Off
Tuesday - 4 / 4 @ 8:07
Wednesday - 7 / 0
Thursday - 4 / 0
Friday - Off / 4 @ 36:36
Saturday - 7 / 7.25 @ 9:20
Sunday - 10 / 10 @ 9:27

Total - 32 / 25.2 @ 9:10

Week 5 (planned/actual):

Monday - Off
Tuesday - 4 / 4 @ 9:18
Wednesday - 7 / 7 @ 8:34
Thursday - 4 / 4 @ 8:15
Friday - Off
Saturday - 7 / 7 @ 8:38
Sunday - 12 / 0

Total - 34 / 22 @ 8:40

Now you can sleep at night! Week 3 we had a practice road march for the 167 Spur Ride (more to come on that) so I cut some miles from my long run on Sunday. Week 4 I had a dozen article 15 hearings in 3 days. After standing for 4-5 hours a day I didn’t' feel much like running so I missed a few. Last week we had the actual Spur Ride on Sunday and I was pretty tired after so I missed another day. Other than that, things are going okay. The weather has been nice which makes it easy to be outside. My current plan is to continue to run as it gets hot out and hopefully get acclimated to the heat so I don't get chased back inside again. We'll see how that goes.

Irene

2007-03-22T13:27:00.000+03:00

As promised, here are some pictures of my newest time killer. After buying the Picco Z, and flying that around for a while, I realized I needed something with a little more power. I did some research and found just the bird, the Blade CP. It is a 6 channel collective pitch helicopter, which means that it will fly forward, backwards, side to side, and up and down. It will also fly upside down, although I'm light years away from doing that.

Here is a pic with the old helicopter.

The controller. Lots of buttons and switches.

The canopy with a few additions.

The only negative so far is that I don't have a great place to fly. I use the Tomahawk range in back of our building, which is good unless it is windy. So I can only fly a few days a week. I'm done with ground school and have moved on to learning how to hover. It is quite difficult but I'm learning. Someone compared it to balancing a marble and a sheet of glass, which I think is accurate. The controls are very sensitive and you are constantly adjusting to what the helicopter wants to do. Good times!

I've only crashed once (at least once hard) so far, and I bent a piece that I had to replace. Other than that, things are going pretty good. Hopefully soon I'll be moving past the hover stage and doing some real flying shortly.

March Madness!!!!

2007-03-15T20:13:00.001+03:00

AFN is doing us right again, and they have 2, sometimes 3 channels devoted to March Madness. Hammer and I are currently holding down the fort in the office watching a classic battle between Maryland and Davidson. It is going to be a long weekend for us, as the games run pretty much all night. In fact, we have basketball on until 0630 tomorrow morning. We are looking forward to it though, it will be a nice distraction from the mundane. Sleep is a crutch anyway!

Once again, I'm buying into the hype and have picked KU to win it all. We watched the KU vs Texas Big 12 title game and I came away really impressed with the Jayhawks. They can pretty much play any type of basketball and have a ton of depth which is important in tourney time. I think they are the best time in the nation, but we'll find out in about 2 weeks. Rock chalk!

A Date with Desitny - 007

2007-03-12T15:27:00.000+03:00

I like to think that our section comes up with some good ideas from time to time. Our latest master plan is that we are working our way through the James Bond movies. LTC Apprich has the Ultimate Bond Collection, and was kind enough to give us the hookup. I thought I would review each movie as we watch them Monday nights. Tonight is week 3, we've already got 2 in the books. The collection doesn't go in chronological order, so I'll review them as we watch them.

Week 1 - Goldfinger (1964). I didn't start watching Bond until the early 80s, so I haven't seen many of the early ones. This is a Connery Bond, and was a definitely a good way to get our weekly movie night started. It was funny how much the Austin Power series borrowed from Bond, this one in particular. The villain (Goldfinger) has a diabolical scheme to pollute the world's gold supply at Fort Knox, thereby increasing the value of the gold that he holds. He has a pretty cool henchman (Odd Job) who throws a hat. Ouch.

This was a really solid film that we all enjoyed. Even though over 40 years old, there are some decent action scenes and Connery is on his game throughout. There are some classic cars, from the Aston Martin DB5 to what I think is a 64 1/2 Mustang convertible. Bond has some sweet tricks, the villain has some good lines, and the movie keeps a pretty good pace throughout. I give this one 4 stars out of 5.

Week 2 - Diamonds are Forever (1971). This one is another Connery, I believe his last. Unfortunately this movie really stunk. If it hadn't of been a Bond, I think we would have turned it off halfway through. The villain is dumb, and he has 2 henchmen that are incredibly annoying, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. Believe it or not, they are actually a gay couple, which I was surprised to find in a 70s movie. This one again centers around a smuggling ring, although diamonds this time. Not much to like in this one. Connery mails in his performance, dialogue is forgettable, and the majority of the film takes place in Las Vegas. The fun part of Bond is that he travels all over the world and Vegas in the early 70s isn't all that glamorous, although the villains hotel is pretty cool. Stay away from this one, far away. 1 star out of 5.

Tonight is the Man with the Golden Gun, our first Roger Moore. I'll follow up later this week with my review. We should be able to get through all 20 Bonds before we head out of lovely LSA Anaconda at our pace of one per week.

The Man Has Got Me Down

2007-03-04T10:37:00.001+03:00

Well, the blogging has been pretty hit or miss lately. It has been a combination of the MWR lab being closed for painting, being busy with work stuff (always a drag on my myriad number of hobbies), and lack of motivation. March is going to be the toughest month of the deployment. Everyday there is a new milestone for something that should or shouldn't have happened due to the extension. For instance, we should currently have our "left seat" training complete with our replacements. That is where we do the work and they ride along and take notes. Our "right seat" training should have started by now, which is where our replacements do the work and we watch over their shoulders. For us admin pukes, it is pretty simple because our replacements were to be active duty and probably don't need a Nat'l Guard unit telling them how to do their jobs. It was more of an update for anything special they need to know about being in theater. Friday, March 9th, was our original TOA (transfer of authority) date and we would have been outta dodge shortly after that. Each day that goes by we talk about how different things would be if we were going home and not spending another 4 months here. SFC Kerchal went so far as to say we may actually have all died in a mortar attack, and are currently in purgatory. Every time our new TOA date comes around we'll find out we are getting extended and never get to leave. I've been having nightmares ever since.

Once we get through March things will get better. We should have an idea of our new TOA date by the end of the month, and essentially April 1st will be sort of like December 1st. Time to start thinking/planning/working on getting out of here. Right now we are in limbo which isn't much fun. One of the Brigade staff officers used to always say that this deployment isn't a sprint, it is a marathon. He now says that is isn't a marathon, it is a death march. We have depicted this on our big white board with stick figures representing each month. Right now our stick figure guy is crawling along the ground. In April he will start to get up off the ground. May and June he will be heading towards the light. July he will be back on his feet. August he will be celebrating with his friends and family. So, we'll make it through some how.

I was planning on doing a post on my new helicopter today but I forgot my flash drive with the pictures. After consulting with the Dan the Man, I've named her Irene. I am still figuring out how to fly her, and things are going pretty slow right now. I found a flight instructor on the 'net (really!) and he is giving me some tips. Once I get the hang of it I'll do a more detailed post of me and my bird. I am done with Radd's ground school and am moving on to hovering right now. I had a little bit of a hard landing the other day and bent an important piece, but my Crew Chief (SFC Kerchal) and I did some maintenance and she is back up in the air. Good times.

New Interview at Thinking Right, Pre-Marathon Update Week 1 of 16

2007-02-23T15:33:00.001+03:00

Jim over at Thinking Right has a new interview up with another deployed soldier. Go check it out if you want to know what soldiers on the ground think about the effort. As always a good read.

Week 1 of 16, (planned/actual):

Monday - off
Tuesday - 4 / 4.5 @ 9:11
Wednesday - 6 / 6 @ 9:00
Thursday - 4 / 4 @ 8:31
Friday - off
Saturday - 6 / 6 @ 9:02
Sunday - 10 / 10.25 @ 8:56
Total - 30 / 30.75

Good week all together. First time over 30 miles in one week which is a good milestone for me. Here is the plan for this week:

Week 2 of 16:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 4
Wednesday - 6
Thursday - 4
Friday - off
Saturday - 6
Sunday - 12
Total - 32

Small Pleasures, Steaks, Castles

2007-02-18T10:04:00.000+03:00

Before you do anything else today, go read this story I found via a link from ROFASix. A few excerpts:

I've said it before - we've forgotten the days when we called for blood. We've forgotten the days when we listened to the President tell us that this would be a long war, would have many fronts, and would not look like any war we'd seen before, and our only response was the rallying cry of that horrible day - "Let's roll."

I have always believed, always known, that no foreign power would destroy my country. I have always known that my country was something amazing - something unique, and possessed of an innate will, an innate strength, which would always make her a fearsome enemy.

Our enemies - all of our enemies - hate what we are. They hate that we continue to snub convention. They hate that we flourish, because it exposes their failures. They hate that we exalt the individual achievement, because they see their own weaknesses. They hate that we do not apologize for greatness, because they see their own inadequacies. They hate our courage, because it exposes their cowardice. They hate those of us who speak plainly, who call terrorists and murderers and cowards what they are, because it exposes the thin veil of their lies.

Half a world away, men and women willingly risk their lives for a country that we would simply give away. To do so is the ultimate betrayal. It is an offense that is unforgiveable.

Go read the rest, it is well worth your time.

A few posts back I mentioned SSG Johnson's new toaster oven. Here is a picture. Not sure what that Goldbond is doing there. This is what passes for excitement for us now a days, making sandwiches and pizzas in our office.

Turkey/bacon/swiss hot out of the oven.

SSG Johnson enjoying his well made sandwich.

Here are the steak(s) I enjoyed for the Super Bowl. They didn't have any big enough to meet my standards for the Super Bowl so I had 2. Who needs sides?

The LSA Anaconda Consolidated Legal Center has a pretty neat paint job that I thought I would share. Right before the 3rd Coscom group left in September, they repainted the t-walls to look like a castle. Every building here is surronded by these cement barriers to help protect from mortar attacks. The paint jobs can be quite cool, but usually they are limited to one or 2 barriers right in front. Some poor joes got to paint the whole thing.

We know call it Castle JAG.

Branch crest.

Marathon Update - ChiTown

2007-02-15T10:41:00.001+03:00

I have been debating over what to do about my marathon plans for the last few weeks since we got extended and I won't be home for the Lincoln Marathon. After much internet research, I have settled upon what I think is a solid plan. I am now in training for the2007 Chicago Marathon, where me and 45,000 of my friends will get together for 26.2 miles of fun on October 7. From everything I read, it is a great race for a first timer like myself, and is flat and fast as they like to say. Team Sack still needs a few members, JAg and Ol' Buddy B are both on the fence at this point but I am confident they will make the leap.

Accordingly, I'll be updating my training schedule. I'm still going to use the same program, but will not start my actual training until sometime in June. I am of course going to keep running, but will looking to run more miles throughout the week and not necessarily get really crazy with the long runs until I start the actual program. I would like to get up to 40 miles a week with a long run of 10-12 miles. So I'm working towards that. I am going to continue to post my weekly schedule as it is a great way for me to stay motivated. Also it is an easy post I can do via email.

Week 5 of 18, planned/actual:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3 / 3.25 @ 8:12
Wednesday - 6 / 6.25 @ 8.25
Thursday - 3 / 3 @ 8:22
Friday - off
Saturday - 6 / 6.25 @ 8:26
Sunday - 12 / Super Bowl!
Total - 30 / 18.75

I was really planning on going for a 12 miler on Sunday, but at the time I knew that I wasn't going to be doing Lincoln, we grilled steaks for the Super Bowl, and I had to get up at 0200 to watch the game. I ended up not running so I could catch some sleep.

Week 6 of 18, planned/actual:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3 / 4 @ 8:15
Wednesday - 5 / off
Thursday - 3 / 5.25 @ 8.38
Friday - off / 3.1 @ 8:11
Saturday - 6 / 5.15 @ 8:45
Sunday - 9 / 10 @ 9:05
Total - 26 / 27.5

I don't remember what happened on Wednesday, but I ended up moving everything back a day. Saturday I looked at the wrong line on my schedule and thought I was only supposed to do 5, so I added an extra mile to Sunday. Good news is I'm down about 5 pounds in the first 6 weeks of training, it would be nice if I keep up that pace for the next few months.

I am going to change my numbering scheme, and this week is Week 1 of 16 of pre-marathon training, which is kind of depressing because we'll still be here when I finish up my pre training. Oh well, what can you do?

Week 1 of 16:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 4
Wednesday - 6
Thursday - 4
Friday - off
Saturday - 6
Sunday - 10
Total - 30

Mr. Mister and His New Best Friend, Online Chaplain

2007-02-08T13:02:00.000+03:00

Here is the little guy with the Cookie Monster I got him for Christmas. He likes to try to feed him cookies, and makes a funny sound as he can't say cookie just yet.

Looking sporty at Grandmas house. It looks cold there back home. I don't miss the winter too much, believe it or not. He looks to me like he is getting ready to go for a run.

Try number 2. I had just finished what I thought was a pretty good post and went to post it and it went somewhere into the internet wasteland. I am ready to put a few .223 rounds into this computer, but then I would have give myself an Article 15 and that would get confusing. So, I'm going to try again although I'm sure the second pass won't be quite as good. Sorry. Oh and the spell checker isn't working so I'm sure there are some typos in here as well. You can request a refund if it really bothers you.

Follow this link to find an outstanding blog post from a chaplain in another Battalion within our Brigade. I actually spent a little bit of time with him at Camp Shelby as we were fellow late mobbers and went through the makeup land navigation class together (you can't spell lost with LT by the way). The post is titled One Day Closer to Someday and when I read it, it pretty much describes how I've been feeling of late.

A strange thing happens to a soldier when they have been deployed for as long as we have been. Somewhere along the path this becomes the primary reality. It’ a scary thing and I have a better understanding of soldier atrocities, where soldiers have lost there humanity. I can no longer imagine what it is like to come home after a long day of work. I can no longer imagine what it will be like to sit and watch TV in the evening with my kids, or go for a Sunday drive, or sit down for a meal with my family. Without that imagination I have come up with this simple word of hope, “I am one day closer to someday.”

I don't know when I've felt this way in the past, but 14 months away from home, and my new reality is my daily routine here. Get up, go to work, go to the gym, go for a run, go to dinner, back to the office, call the wife, go to bed. Same uniform, same people, same office, etc. I can't remember when it happened, but I honestly can't grasp what it is like to not be in Iraq. I am no longer a husband-father-son-brother-employee. Those roles have been replaced by soldier-sergeant-legal guy-buddy.

What is odd is that there are days that the only thing real to me is my routine, and everything else is like a distant memory that I reach for but can't quite grasp. My son thinks that I live inside of either the phone, the video camera, or the computer, whichever happens to be in front of him at the time. How could he think otherwise? We've spent 19 of the last 375 days together, and I've now been gone longer then the time I spent with him. And I'm one of the fortunate ones, some left within a month or two of their child being born or even left with a pregnant spouse. I at least had 8 solid months to start building a relationship. Others have children that are old enough to know they are gone, and have to answer the question of "Daddy, when are you coming home?"

Driving a car to work, stopping to get groceries on the way home, mowing the lawn, and doing the dishes are now foreign concepts to me. Although Rik would argue that doing the dishes was a foreign concept before I left, but don't you believe her. I distinctly remember doing them at least twice. Maybe three times. Again, I am one of the lucky ones. I will most likely come home essentially the same person I was before I left, although a few pounds lighter and in far better shape. I've been to a combat zone but I haven't been to war. Soldiers that I serve with will live the rest of the lives with some of the things they've seen and done. Some will come home without all of the parts they came with and others won't come home at all. The worst case of PTSD I'll have is the horrors of Chief yelling over the plywood walls for Kerch and Johnson at least 10 times a day.

The Online Chaplain ends with: The 34th ID is one day closer to going home. So are we all. The bible says, we are one day closer to streets of gold. We are one day closer to…no more sorrow, no more pain, no more hardship of any kind. Although this life becomes our primary reality, there is another. Although this life’s hardships absorb me and capture me there are other truths. I’m not sure what heaven looks like, but I am sure it will be great. So, hang on tight. Don't let the pain win. You can do it. You will not always feel the way you do today. Remember, “You are one day closer to someday.”

I do know this, today is one day closer to coming home, whatever that day may be. And regardless of the things I miss about home, I still know that God has a plan for my life whether I understand it or not. He is strong enough to get us through our troubled times. Perhaps the most encouraging thought for me is that when I was home in September for leave, it took all of about 2 steps off the tarmac to forget about Iraq, the Army, and remember what it is like to be a husband-father-son-brother and a person with a first name. As soon as I saw my wife and son for the first time, I knew that was exactly where I was meant to me and what I was meant to do: to be the best husband to my wife and the best father to my son that I can be. I trust that it will be the same this summer, and that a year from now I'll be older but wiser, with a few good stories, and the knowledge that I served the cause of freedom and defended our great country.

Gettin' Some Stick Time

2007-02-08T12:27:00.000+03:00

I saw an article in one of the magazines I read, Business 2.0, shortly after Christmas that extolled the virtues of the latest toy craze. It was about mini RC helicopters and how they were the most popular toy of 2006. I was instantly intrigued, however, since we were due to head out of town shortly I decided against purchasing one. Well, once we got the news that we were staying, I decided a little break from the mundane would help cure my ills. I went out and purchased one, and even roped in SFC Kerchal and SSG Johnson. LTC Apprich and Chief Regan soon followed suit with a purchase of their own.

Here is the my chopper and controller, going through the pre-flight charge.

This one is a little blurry, but shows my lil' guy up in the air.

Getting ready to launch. They will take off from a flat surface or you can toss them around which is quite fun.

Hovering above Hammer's desk. My heli is drawn towards Hammer's work space, I think because it annoys him greatly.

In flight, out the door of the S1 section.
These helis are a ton of fun, but unfortunately they are only 2 channel (up/down and rotate left/right). You can't really hover or fly back and forth, they are so light that any air current moves them around. The main thing is just keeping them in the air and away from obstacles. They can really take a beating as most flights end up with a crash. I must say that I've become quite addicted, so with the wife's permission I am in the process of upgrading to a 4 channel model that will go forward/back as well. More to follow on that....

Still No Love

2007-02-04T20:59:00.001+03:00

Well, we are still locked out of our blogs and I am beginning to think it is permanent. It is really annoying, because the majority of mil blogs that I read are highly supportive of our effort over here and in my opinion help to counteract some of the bias from the media. I really don’t understand why they don't want us telling us our story and keeping our friends and families up to date on what we are doing. It is especially aggravating for me and the guys in my unit, as we got another 4 months added to our sentence and our blogs were a nice break from the day to day grind that is our 16 month vacation.

To add insult to injury, I went down to the MWR lab to post a story and the server was down, so I can't even go that way. So, I'm pretty frustrated with the whole thing. The MWR route takes at least an hour from start to finish, for a task that used to take about 10 minutes. I'll do my best to keep the posts coming but I've been pretty busy lately and it has hard to find the time to sneak away for an hour. I do most of my posting at night on my off time, and most nights the last thing I want to do is make the hike down the MWR building and wait in line for a computer. I know it isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things and I could have it much worse, but this blog was one of the few things about Iraq that kept my in touch with those of you at home so it is hard to have it taken away without any explanation.

We grilled some steaks tonight in celebration of the Super Bowl. They were pretty tasty. I would put up a picture, but, well you know. SSG Johnson's parents sent him a toaster oven so we had some cheese bread for a side item. We also toasted some sandwiches today and that was a nice change of pace. We are getting up at 0200 to watch the big game. Tomorrow will be a long day for sure. The only negative is no commercials for us. Just an endless loop of the same crappy AFN commercials we have seen 10,000 times.

Theater policy allows for a 4 day pass to Qatar every 6 months in theater. Our Brigade originally didn't allow anyone to take a pass due to manning requirements, but since we got extended we all should get the chance to go. I am slated to make the trip sometime in March. Flecker was supposed to go today and be the guinea pig but the flight got cancelled so he isn't going for another week or so. You can go jet skiing, go shopping in a mall, see the town, and drink 3 real beers a day. Most importantly, you get away from the office for a few days, which will be nice. The guys I work with are great, but after 10 months of seeing them everyday, all day, a break won't be a bad thing. We haven't started fist fighting yet but the verbal sparring has increased.

Can’t really think of anything else exciting to share. I better go try to grab a few hours sleep before the big game. Have a good week.

Posting by Email

2007-01-31T21:40:00.000+03:00

Okay, so I figured out how to post by email, so that will help out some. The only negative is that I can't do links or upload pictures via email, because in addition to blocking our blogs, they also locked down Outlook so we can't send or receive email in HTML, only in plain text. I'll make the trip down the MWR center for those types of posts. I have one in the works on our newest hobby/time killer, RC helicopters, and also some pictures of the little guy that I think you'll like.

Also I can't respond to any comments by email either, but I do have it set up now so I get any new comments emailed to me. So keep the comments coming! It always puts a smile on my face to know that someone is reading what I write. Have a great week.

Marathon Update - Weeks 3 and 4

2007-01-31T13:22:00.000+03:00

Still no luck on getting our blogs unblocked, so I'm stuck using the MWR again. Here are weeks 3 and 4 of my training for a marathon TBD at a later day.

Week 3 of 18, planned/actual:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3 / 0
Wednesday - 5 / 0
Thursday - 3 / 5 @ 8:57
Friday - off / 5 @ 8:57
Saturday - 5 / 5 @ 8:57
Sunday - 6 / 6 @ 9:59

Total - 22 / 21

I had some scheduling conflicts early in the week so I ended up having to reshuffle things a bit. Nothing else remarkable, the decreased mileage was nice though.

Week 4 of 18, planned/actual:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3 / 3 @ 8:57
Wednesday - 6 / 0
Thursday - 3 / 6 @ 9:44
Friday - off / 3.5 @ 8:45
Saturday - 6 / 6 @ 8:13
Sunday - 11 / 11 @ 9:22

Total - 29 / 29.5

The first big week turned out pretty well. I missed Wednesday due to a conflict (laziness) so I pushed the rest of the week back. The 11 miler was tough, partially because I ran 4 days in a row think. The good news is that on Friday I started running outside again. I even had some company, 1LT Shiley, the executive officer (XO) for HHT joined me Friday and Saturday, and SSG Johnson came out for the first lap on Sunday. It is great having someone to run with me as we can't wear headphones outside due to safety rules. The only "negative" (in quotes because I'm not sure it is bad) is that it is much easier to regulate your pace on the dreadmill. I am not supposed to be doing many runs above my target marathon pace (9:00), but it just seems too slow when I'm outside. I had planned on doing Sunday's long run at 10:00 but struggled to go that slow, if that makes any sense.

Plan for Week 5 of 18:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 6
Thursday - 3
Friday - off
Saturday - 6
Sunday - 12

Total - 30

First 30 mile week, I'm nervous for the 12 miler due primarily to the boredom factor. I run a 4 mile loop so that means 3 laps of the same colorless scenery. Not fun. At all. If anyone has any leads on some flesh colored or clear ear buds that I could buy so I could take some tunes with me let me know. I scoured the internet to no avail. I of course would only wear one of them so I could still hear and be safe at the same time.

Fun with Needles

2007-01-28T10:53:00.000+03:00

The Army can be a funny place sometimes. Exhibit A: this week we had mandatory Combat Lifesaver (CLS) re-certification. CLS is a 40 hour class that you can take that is kind of a middle ground between the medical skills you learn in basic training and then the full fledged medic course. To me, re-certification implies that you have the original certification and are just brushing up on your skills. Not so fast my friend. This is the Army where normal rules of common sense don't always apply. Everyone would take the re-cert.

SSG Johnson and I were somewhat perturbed as we were the only soldiers in the S1 that didn't have the original class. It really wouldn't be a big deal, but the capstone of the class involved giving (and getting) an IV. I for one didn't really want to jab a needle into one of buddies unless it was actually necessary. After much arguing and complaining, we resigned ourselves to our fate and went to the class with a heavy heart.

After a few hours of training on various topics like rescue breathing, tourniquets, and CPR, we were on to the IV. We got 5 minutes of training via an example stick and were released to do it on our own. SSG Johnson ordered me to go first. I actually wasn't all that nervous, partly due to the medic that was helping me out.

Prepping the site.

In goes the needle.

Success!!

One thumb up, one thumb down.

All in all, it went pretty well. I got the needle in on the first try without having to dig around. We then switched spots and it was my turn. SSG Johnson did a fine job, it was actually much better then most of the times I've been stuck to donate blood, party because we were probably more careful then a nurse that does it 100 times a day.

The posting on the blog may be a little sporadic here. The post computer nazis blocked our blogs again on the gov't network. This has happened twice before and they have relented in the face of much crying from the joes. However it has been almost a week now and no signs of them turning us back on. I am trying to turn on the post by email feature so that should help some.

KOLN, Dumbest Story of the Day, Most Inspiring Story of the Day/Week/Year

2007-01-23T23:54:00.000+03:00

My interview is posted on KOLN's web site. Our filter doesn't let us view any streaming video so I haven't seen it yet, but the word on the street is that it turned out well. The only correction was that at one time they mentioned my wife and daughter. Benjamin didn't take offense though, he is confident in his masculinity. Thanks again KOLN! They obviously don't have to do this, and my understanding is that they pick up a significant portion of the cost to do the satellite feed, so that is outstanding as we like to say in the military.

Here is the first line of the dumbest story I've seen in some time: NEW YORK - ABC news anchor Chris Cuomo was unhurt Tuesday after the convoy of military police he was riding with in Iraq was struck by a roadside bomb. And this is news why? Any idea how many of our Humvees get hit by IEDs every day and soldiers Charlie Mike (aka continue mission)? You can rest assured it is a lot. I think if we put out a news story each time this happened we'd run out of room on the internet. I'm sure that Chris didn't write the story and I imagine he is probably embarrassed that it got published, but who knows. I will say this though, the new uparmor kits on the Humvees are saving lives. You should see the new doors, I'll see if it is okay to post some pictures of them on here. The armor level of the trucks our guys rely on to stay alive has drastically improved in the 10 months we've been here. When you hear or BDE commander say that we are the best equipped, best trained force in history I don't think he is exaggerating. For a National Guard Brigade Combat Team, I can't imagine there is much stuff out there that we don't already have.

This is the most moving story I've read in quite a while. If you can read this without something getting in your eye, well, there may be something wrong with you. It is about a Minnesota soldier that lost both of his legs and 2 buddies in an IED blast. Here are some quotes:

"President Bush told me I was a hero," said Kriesel, a 2000 graduate of White Bear Lake High School. "Can you imagine that? He put his arm around my wife. Laura Bush was there. It was surreal. I don't think of myself as a hero. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all.

"So this is my life right now. My wife is here all the time, and that's great. And I have my TV schedule down. My favorite time is when Seinfeld is on. Then I relax. Actually, any day I don't have surgeries, I just relax.

"Three-quarters of my days are good days, if not great days. I'm here. God put me here. He was looking out for me."

Wow. And, to top it all off, SGT Kriesel's wife has a story of her own. Her employer went well beyond any requirement or policy to support her during this time. I got the following press release in my inbox tonight, and I can't find it anywhere on the Web so I'm going to post the whole thing. The highlights are that her boss worked to get her a passport in 2 days, arranged for her to fly to Germany and back, and then members of her company donated over 7 months of paid vacation time so she could be home with her husband. They've raised thousands of dollars through donations and are now working on getting enough money to buy them a new house to accommodate SGT Kriesel's injuries. Unbelievable. I know it is long, but it is worth your time.

America Supports You: 'Eagle' Flies to Military Family's Aid
By Samantha L. Quigley - American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2007 – Injured in Iraq, Katie Kriesel's husband is facing a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here. But her employer, Eagle Global Logistics, is making sure she'll get to stay by his side.

On Dec. 3, Katie, of Cottage Grove, Minn., got the call deployed servicemembers' spouses dread. Her husband, Minnesota Army National Guardsman Sgt. John Kriesel, had been seriously injured by a roadside bomb south of Fallujah the day before. "He lost both of his legs -- one above the knee and one below," Katie said. "He had a shattered pelvis and sacrum (a bone at the base of the spine) that they've had to fuse to his lower back, and then he had both bones in his left forearm broken in several places, (a) fractured right wrist and then some internal injuries to his abdomen." He arrived at Walter Reed on Dec. 8, and though he's only a third of the way through 12 weeks of mandatory bed rest after back surgery, Katie said he's doing very well.

Thanks to her employer, Katie is doing well, too. When she received that fateful call, she turned to her friend, Nancy Matthews, for moral support. Matthews also happens to be Katie's supervisor and knew Katie would need more than moral support. "I went over to her house that afternoon and just started doing stuff and playing with the kids until we could get some more news," Matthews said. Soon, John's condition stabilized and he was moved from Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. With two challenges confronting Katie - she had no passport and needed a flight to Germany - Matthews sprung into action. "I started pulling stuff off the Web on applications for passports, and then put in motion some of my colleagues in Chicago," Matthews said.

Eagle Global Logistics is in the cargo business. "As soon as I got in on Monday morning, I started talking to the (vice presidents) at Northwest Airlines that I know that work with cargo ... asking them if there was any way that they could get Katie and her mother over to Germany as quickly as possible." Soon, a Chicago colleague was walking Katie's application through the regional passport office. She was able to pick it up at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport a couple of hours before her 9:30 p.m. flight departed Dec. 4.

The flight, compliments of Matthews' efforts and airline industry connections, found Katie and her mother flying first class. "My employer actually got me Northwest vouchers to go to Germany, and all I had to pay was the tax on them," Katie said. She was to return to the states with her husband via military medical transport, but was bumped at the last minute when additional wounded servicemembers making the flight back required that more medical personnel be aboard. Distressed that she wouldn't be arriving at Walter Reed with her husband, Katie again turned to her boss for moral support. Again, she got much more than that.

Matthews arranged return transportation with Northwest for Katie, her mother and a military escort who had traveled to Germany with them. The support didn't stop with coordinating travel, though. Matthews knew this wasn't going to be a short-lived ordeal, so she turned to her 150 employees. "We're all a family here, even though we aren't related, and they knew John was over there," she said. "We told them that Katie was going over there and that we were going to try and do everything we could to help." In the first four hours, $2,200 was collected, Matthew said.

Perhaps more valuable than the funds, which Katie said grew to tens of thousands of dollars, is time to spend with her husband while he recuperates. John had been home for two weeks of leave in October, and Katie used two of her three weeks of vacation at the same time. "They set up a way for people all over the company, worldwide, to be able to donate vacation time to me," Katie said. "I have seven months of paid vacation time that people have donated, and it just keeps coming in."

So does the support from Eagle Global Logistics offices worldwide. They have given both financial support and paid vacation time, and the Chicago office took care of Christmas for the Kriesels' boys, Brody, 4, and Elijah, 5, so the family could celebrate the holiday in John's room. "They're in it for the long haul, and that's just so amazing to me," Katie said. "The support just continues and doesn't lessen. If anything, it grows, and that, to me, is just completely overwhelming."

Indeed, the support does continue to grow. Matthews said the company is planning a fundraiser for the Kriesel family in late spring. The hope is John will be able to take convalescent leave and attend so he can thank everyone for their support. Though John is very positive, he does have bad days, his wife said. To help both John and Katie battle the occasional blues, the company has created a distraction. "We are desperately trying to get enough money that we can build them a new house that can accommodate John's injuries," she said. "When John has had his really bad days and he's cried about having to sell their house, ... (we say), 'OK John, I'm sending you a plan book. I want you to pick out your perfect house.'"

Though Eagle Global Logistics has never had another employee encounter such catastrophic circumstances, Katie and John's situation was a wake-up call, Matthews said. The company now has created a corporate fund to assist other employees who encounter a similar situation. "If a corporation, for instance, wants to donate tax-free funds, they can donate it through this account that Eagle is creating," she said. "They can designate it just for John and Katie, and then if someone else has a tragedy of this magnitude ... other people can apply for aid."

While the level of support coming from Eagle Global Logistics and its employees seems phenomenal, Matthews said she isn't a bit surprised. "We all just told John we would take care of Katie while he was gone - Katie and the kids - and we did," she said. Katie, overwhelmed by the outpouring, said the value of the support is much greater than its monetary value. "I will never look for another job, ever in my whole life. I mean that very honestly," she said. "I will be with that company forever, because how would you ever replace that? "You can't put a dollar value on that," she said.

Individual donations to benefit the couple should be made out to the John and/or Katie Kriesel Benefit Fund, and mailed to EGS, Attn: Nancy Matthews, 3169 Dodd Road, Eagan, MN 55121.

KOLN, Getting Extended

2007-01-18T12:35:00.000+03:00

SGT Benes had his story posted on the KOLN website. You can find it here. I am next in line, I taped my interview on Tuesday, and it will air this Sunday, Jan 21st, at 10:00 PM CST on channel 10/11 in Lincoln and other places out west. It will also be posted to the website in about a week, if you click on the link for Beans you will see the other stories linked at the bottom. It was a lot of fun doing it. They also left the satellite feed up when the interview was done, and I got to talk to Erika and Benjamin for almost 2o minutes afterwords. They could see me but I couldn't see them. Benjamin was all over the studio getting into stuff. Erika said the folks in the studio were good sports about it and let him have fun. I was nervous at first but when I heard Brandee's voice on the other side of the satellite that helped put me at ease.

Our extension is official now. Lots of stories on the internet. This one is an op-ed piece in the Des Moines Register. Here are excerpts from a briefing the Brigade Commander, COL Elicerio, did via VTC back in the states. He has a great quote at the end, he said that we'll take care of the troops over here, and you take care of the families back home.

That is the hardest thing for most of us. We are all disappointed that we aren't getting home on time, but there isn't really much we can do about it. So, we'll suck it up an drive on like always. It is our families at home that we all worry about. Most were doing their best just to make it until March, now we are asking them to hold on to July. So, that is weighing heavily on me that Erika and Ben have to go it alone for another 6 months. They have it much harder then we do without a doubt.

Here is the official news release from the Red Bulls, and the news release from the Nebraska Guard. You can do a Google News Search for National Guard Tour Extended and gets lots more if you are an internet kind of mood. We are getting over the initial shock and getting back to work. Right now, the best we can do is hope (which is not a method) that they will get another Brigade spun up quickly and over here to replace us soon. Alternatively, one of the other battalion paralegals thinks that we are going to have a big MWR event in March and Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out of a cake and say that we just got punk'd. I for one would be okay with that!

Marathon Update - Week 2

2007-01-15T10:43:00.000+03:00

Well, I'm going to continue on my training plan for the time being, until we have some more concrete information on our pending extension. What I don't want to happen is that I quit training and they tell us the extension was just a big joke and we go home on time. Plus it will give me something to do.

My planned miles for Week 2 of 18 were:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 5
Thursday -3
Friday - off
Saturday - 5
Sunday - 9

Total - 25

Here is what I actually ran:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3 @ 8:57 pace
Wednesday - 4 @ 9:00
Thursday -3 @ 8:57
Friday - off
Saturday - 5 @ 8:57
Sunday - 9 @ 10:00

Total - 24

Pretty good week, I shortened the Wednesday run as I was getting tired and didn't want to push it too hard. My biggest struggle so far is getting the pacing right. The experts say that I should be running slower than I am currently to meet my goal, but I haven't been too winded so I'm going to play it by ear. I think as I keep increasing the miles I may find that I have to slow down some during the week.

Here is the plan for this week, Week 3 of 18:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 5
Thursday -3
Friday - off
Saturday - 5
Sunday - 6

Total - 22

The schedule I'm on has increases in mileage for 2 weeks in a row followed by a 3rd week of "rest" and slightly decreased mileage. So this week should be a little bit easier. Then week 4 is up to an 11 mile long run and 29 total, so the training really gets going.

5 Stages of Grief

2007-01-12T12:46:00.000+03:00

1-Denial-"this can't be happening to me", looking for the former spouse in familiar places, or if it is death, setting the table for the person or acting as if they are still in living there. No crying. Not accepting or even acknowledging the loss.

2-Anger-"why me?", feelings of wanting to fight back or get even with spouse of divorce, for death, anger at the deceased, blaming them for leaving.

3-Bargaining-bargaining often takes place before the loss. Attempting to make deals with the spouse who is leaving, or attempting to make deals with God to stop or change the loss. Begging, wishing, praying for them to come back.

4-Depression-overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, self pity, mourning loss of person as well as the hopes, dreams and plans for the future. Feeling lack of control, feeling numb. Perhaps feeling suicidal.

5-Acceptance-there is a difference between resignation and acceptance. You have to accept the loss, not just try to bear it quietly. Realization that it takes two to make or break a marriage. Realization that the person is gone (in death) that it is not their fault, they didn't leave you on purpose. (even in cases of suicide, often the deceased person, was not in their right frame of mind) Finding the good that can come out of the pain of loss, finding comfort and healing. Our goals turn toward personal growth. Stay with fond memories of person.

83 Million?

2007-01-10T22:56:00.000+03:00

I saw this on the news last night while spending some time with my best friend, the LifeCycle 300. Howard Stern was recently awarded an 83 million dollar bonus for meeting a subscriber goal. This is on top of the 5 year, 500 million dollar contract. The funny thing is that the company is not even making any money. A quick trip to Yahoo Finance shows that the stock was 3.75 on the day Howard signed his contract and was 3.79 yesterday. The first profitable quarter was the company was this last one, 4th quarter of '06.

But, I don't mean to begrudge Howard getting paid. Acutally, in a way I'm impressed that he has been able to make hundreds of millions of dollars talking about sex and flatuence. And swearing. Isn't that the American dream after all?

What I find interesting is that I didn't really hear any outrage over the amount that he is being paid. So, my question to you, my loyal readers, is why are CEOs of American companies subject to media outrage for their pay, while the entertainers aren't?

Here is what five minutes of surfing the 'net turned up:

From Forbes.com, Top Entertainer pay for 2006:

1. Speilberg - 332 million
2. Stern - 302
3. Lucas - 235
4. Winfrey - 225
5. U2 - 100
6. Seinfeld - 100
7. Rolling Stones -90
8. Tiger - 90
9. Dan Brown - 88
10. Bruckheimer - 84
11, JK Rowling - 75
14. Tom Cruise - 67
21. Dr Phil - 45
23. Simon Cowell - 43
24. 50 Cent - 41

Also from Forbes.com, Top CEO Pay:

1. Fairbank (Capital One) - 249 million
2. Semel (Yahoo) - 230
3. Silverman (Cendant) - 139
4. Karatz (KB Home) - 135
5. Fuld (Lehman Bros) - 122
6. Irani (Occidental) - 80
7. Ellison (Oracle) - 75
8. Thompson (Symantec) - 71
9. Crawford (Caremark) - 69
10. Mozolia (Countrywide) - 69
24. Sharer (Amgem) - 34

I honestly wasn't expecting that there would be such a gap. The top 25 CEOs on average make less then their counterparts in the land of entertainment. So where is the outrage? I did a quick Google Search on CEO Pay Congressional Hearings. I checked the first 21 pages and all had relevent hits detailing article sand stories about how outrageous CEO pay must be stopped and Congressional oversight must take place. Or the sky will fall on us all.

I did another Google Search on Entertainer Pay Congressional Hearings. Lots of hits. Zero relevant results. So I tried Celebrity Pay Congressional Hearings. Guess how many relevant? Zippo. Zilch. Nada. I even just looked at Celebrity Pay and couldn't find anything even remotely negative.

I guess I'm missing something. The heads of companies that make the products/services/etc that we buy everyday are demons, money grubbers, and selfish jerks for running profitable companies that provide a livelyhood for millions of Americans. Celebrites that entertain us are just getting paid. Getting theirs. Living the dream.

Why aren't we demanding that Congress that look into why Celebrities are getting paid so much? Seriously, I don't get it. They have a talent that others don't? Agreed, but sucessfully running a company that employs tens of thousands takes a little bit of talent too. Celebrities work harder so they earn it more? Yeah right.

Here is the only reason that I can come up with. We see these people on tv, in the paper, in magazines, on the Internet and the Ebay, and since they are good looking we like them. CEOs are the evil guys in pinstripe suits trying to figure out how to cut pay for their workers so they can get a bigger bonus. Easy target so to speak.

So, I'm going to write Nancy Pelosi and ask her to look into this issue for me. I think we need Congress to get right on this. After all, what problem isn't immediately solved by a little bit of Congressional oversight? I for one want Lucas to have to answer for Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars I.

Marathon Update - Week 1

2007-01-08T09:00:00.000+03:00

As promised, this is my weekly post on how my training is going for the Lincoln Marathon.

My planned miles for Week 1 of 18 were:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 5
Thursday -3
Friday - off
Saturday - 5
Sunday - 8

Total - 24

The reason I picked the Higdon plan is that it is relatively simple, it doesn't have a lot of different workouts, basically just "normal" pace during the week, and then a long run on Sunday. Other plans have hill workouts, track intervals, etc during the week that although are good for training make it more complicated and therefore easier to screw up. I am going to try to do one of the shorter runs as a speed workout each week, but other than that nothing fancy for me.

I got off to a little bit of slow start, as I stayed up until 0400 on Monday (New Years Day) watching Michigan get worked by USC and was a little run down on Tuesday. So, I skipped Tuesday's run and took a nap instead.

But, the rest of the week went well, here is what I actually ran:

Monday - off
Tuesday - nap time
Wednesday - 5 @ 8:57 pace
Thursday -3.1 @ 7:44
Friday - off
Saturday - 5 @ 8:57
Sunday - 8 @ 9:40

Total - 21.1

Here is the plan for this week, Week 2 of 18:

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 5
Thursday -3
Friday - off
Saturday - 5
Sunday - 9 (there is a MLK 5k on Sunday so I am figuring out how to work this in, I might do the race and then pull a Forrest Gump and just keep runnin').

Total - 25

Tuesday may be a challenge again this week, as Florida vs The Ohio State University is on at 0400, so we'll be getting up early for that. There is even talk of grilling out some burgers at half time, we'll see how that goes. As always, I'm sure there will be pictures taken and blog posts to follow.

Cotton Bowl Recap

2007-01-05T23:17:00.000+03:00

I am a little late getting this story up, but we capped off the 2006 Husker season in fine fashion. We begged and pleaded for the Colonel to let us use his office, and he graciously accepted. It was much better getting the hookup with the couches and the flat screen than watching on the 20 inch TV in our office. Or outside on the patio, it is getting quite chilly at night here. We picked up a few pizzas and some near beer and were on our way. CSM Hall was even nice enough to let us bust out some Husker gear for some good karma as well.

This picture makes me laugh because SFC Kerchal is carrying a case of beer and looks like he is up to something. We keep hoping they will mislabel a case and it will end up not being N/A but those Germans are just too efficient.

The S1 hanging out in style. The beer was a 16 oz bottle which was pretty fun. And tasty.

Lucky was the man. He was one of the few bright spots on offense.

TD Huskers!!! This is the view from the Colonel's desk. Not too shabby.

As you know, the game didn't end up as we would have liked. Did you know that we only had 64 yards or so from the time we scored our second touchdown with 9:00 left in the second quarter until the end of the game? Our coaches did a terrible job making adjustments at the half, which was really too bad as the defense played terrific the entire game. They definitely gave us an opportunity to win. Think how big the Michigan win was last year, this could have been the same sort of springboard for the 2007 campaign. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and we are still on the outside looking in of the nation's elite teams. Oh well, only 70 some days until the Spring Game!

Rockin' and Rollin' at the Machine Gun Range

2007-01-02T08:57:00.000+03:00

Every once in a while they let us out of the office to go have some fun and do some real soldier stuff. Saturday we got a late Christmas present: a date with a few thousand rounds and the M240B machine gun. We loaded up in the Humvee and headed out to the Smith Range here on base, named for SFC Paul Smith, the first Medal of Honor winner of this war.

The S1 section getting ready to fire. From left to right: Burnometer, Flecker, Johnson, Kerch, Beans, and me. Have you ever seen a more fearsome group?

SSG Johnson and I were a two man team. He fired first and I was assistant gunner. We fired off the new tripod which was really nice.

Me sending some lead down range.

Back at the ranch, SSG Johnson with his target. The A target was the practice target, the B target was the qualification. Nice shooting, Tex.

Me and my target. This was our first time on this machine gun and I put all but my last 2 rounds on target.

It was definitely a worth while trip, and one of the reasons why I joined the Army initially was to shoot things and blow stuff up. The whole section did really well, in fact I think between SSG Johnson and I we had the best score on the range. It is always good for us Admin guys to show the trigger pullers that we can shoot too. Army Strong!

26.2

2006-12-29T21:18:00.000+03:00

When I first found at I was getting deployed, my only desired outcomes were not dying and coming home with the same number of parts that I left with. The early rumor is that we would be doing full spectrum ops in the middle of Baghdad, and of course I assumed that meant I would be the guy kicking down doors and shooting people in the face. Luckily (for me anyway, the trigger pullers would probably rather be kicking down doors and shooting people in the face) the rumor was widely inaccurate like most rumors in the Army. Other than dodging a few mortars here and there, things here are pretty routine and although I'm in the office around 70 hours a week, that still leaves me plenty of free time. The only problem is that other than the occasional movie and going to the gym, there isn't much to do to fill up that free time.

One thing I've been doing to eat up some of that free time is quite a bit of running. Now, I don't really enjoy the actual act of running, but I do like the feeling I get after a good run and of course it is a big weapon in my war against the damage I did to my body in college. And after college. Actually pretty much my entire life up until this year. One thing I've always talked about doing is running either a half or full marathon. I usually like the excuse of too busy/not enough time, which you can read as too lazy if you so desire. Unfortunately, that isn't really the case here, so in the absence of a good excuse not too, I am hereby announcing my intention to run the Lincoln Marathon on May 6th, 2007. Please hold your applause until the end. Thank you.

For those of you that don't know, the marathon is 26.2 miles aka a really long way. You may be asking yourself why 26.2 miles? Well, it takes back to the Greeks, or the Romans, or some other now defunct civilization, where some dude (Marthones?) ran an important message to his general/king/master and then died. Guess how far he ran? You got it! Okay, I was just going to leave this paragraph as is, but did a little bit of research and found out that most of what I just wrote is wrong. If you want to, you can check out Wikipedia for more information. Go ahead, I'll wait. Or skip it, whatever, it isn't like you paid to read this or I got paid to write it.

The only real negative is that I haven't really built as good of a base as I need, the experts (read the people on the coolrunning message board that seem pretty smart) suggest 30-40 miles per week for 6-12 months before attempting to train for a marathon. I've done between 20-25 the last 6 months or so, which isn't quite as much as I would like. I put my odds at about 50/50 to make it through the training plan without tearing my ACL, 25% to finish without considerable walking, and 10% to meet my goal time. I am shooting for sub 4 hours(9:09 miles) which is somewhat aggressive but doable. Honestly I should say I have no idea if it is reasonable as my long run is 10 miles right now and I have do that 2.5 times at once.

My plan is to do an update on here weekly, primarily to keep myself motivated over the next 18 weeks. I will be less likely to skip my run and play Madden '07 if I know that someone is checking up on me. I'll be following the Hal Higdon intermediate plan, as I thought the beginner plan looked a little too easy in the beginning. If circumstances dictate, I may drop down to the novice plan about half way through.

Those of that you live in the Omaha/Lincoln area will be expected to be present at the finish line and/or random points of my choosing on the course. In case I pass out and die or something like that. I don't want a stranger giving me CPR. Gross. If I make the effort to run for half a day the least you can do is come out and cheer me on. And would it kill you to make a sign with my name and/or a flattering picture of me on it? I didn't think so.

I've also recruited a few friends. Ol' Buddy B is considering making the trip from the Big Apple for his first marathon and JAg has committed to at least doing his 2nd half marathon and maybe his first full if he can make the time. If there are any other aspiring marathoners out there leave a comment and we'll add you to Team Sack. Well, that is all I have to say about that. Training starts Monday! Actually Tuesday because Monday is a day off but you knew what I was talking about. Check back here on Mondays for updates on my plans/goals/hopes/dreams.

Jon Kary in Iraq, Christmas Cav Links, Plan for Iraq

2006-12-28T09:50:00.000+03:00

John Kerry made a little stop in the Middle East last week. Fortunately, he didn't make it to my neck of the woods. The word on the street is that for some reason, Mr. Heinz was not received too warmly. I wonder why. Here is a pic of him enjoying his breakfast by his lonesome.

ROFASix, a retired soldier and current blogger, has the link to the story His source, Scott Hennen of Hot Talk radio had this quote:

"This is a true story.....Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops. What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!"

Can't say that I feel sorry for him. Your actions have consequences John, and I guess you could say the joke is on you.

On a more positive note, your favorite Guard unit was featured prominently on Christmas day back at home. Omaha.com had a great story about the Brewer family. 3 brothers and a sister are all currently serving our Armed Forces, and at one point all 3 brothers were here in Iraq. One was part of the 172nd Stryker BDE, which you probably read about as they were extended in theater at the very last minute. He is home safely now. The other 2 brothers are in our LRS unit. The Journal Star also had a good story about another LRS soldier and his brush with fame. Check it out.

ROFASix has another great link that I would like to direct your attention to. It is the story of a Marine CPT who put together a incredibly witty PowerPoint on how to win this war against the insurgency. Sadly, CPT Patriquin died a week or so ago in an IED blast. Well worth your time.

Christmas in Iraq

2006-12-26T11:41:00.000+03:00

Although we aren't where we would like to be this year, the Christmas holiday provided a nice break from the mundane this weekend. Like usual, we are always looking for an excuse to get Grillzilla fired up, so we took advantage of the holiday and had a Christmas Eve cookout. We scored big time at the PX, and spent at least $15 each on a big Porterhouse. Mine was 1.5 pounds, which is right in the sweet spot for a holiday steak (see my ribeye post for a quick guide to what size steak you should use for different occasions). Hammer's topped the scale at a whopping 1.9 pounds.

SGT Beans and I in front of our Christmas tree.

Brad and I priming for the big party. I think Brad thinks he is drinking a real beer. I know I do.

SFC Grams from the S4 section (which is the other half of the ALOC along with the S1) working his magic. At one time he had burgers, chicken, pork, and our monster steaks going. Well played SFC Grams, you earned your pay this night.

Me, SGT Beans, and SFC Kerchal sporting our Stetsons. Brent's was a Christmas present from Ma Beans, who had to jump through a lot of hoops to get it ordered, wrapped, and shipped over here in time for Christmas. Check out his blog for the details. In the background is the patio where we watched the Texas game. In case you are curious SFC Whitehill is 12 years old.

No side items required. My steak was magnificent, really can't complain. My wife sent a bottle of Misty's so that goes a long way towards steak enjoyment.
While grilling and eating we had the TV set up for movie time, Christmas Vacation, followed by It's A Wonderful Life. Would you believe that this was the first time I've seen It's A Wonderful Life? Quality flick. Never seen the 10 Commandants either, I'll have to check that one out next year. So after dinner, we watched the movie, and then the Hammer and headed over to Air Force land for a Christmas Eve candlelight service. We sang some carols, heard some Scripture, and were on our way. Next stop was the JMMT for the second run of Christmas mail. Beans and Burnometer had things under control, so we headed back to the JDOC to wait for them to arrive so we could commence the sorting (the guys pick up the mail for the entire Squadron at once and then we put it into piles for the units). Since there are no street lights at Anaconda, we had to pull up a few Humvees so we had some light. We spent about an hour squaring the mail away and then were off to bed to wait up for Santa.

About 2 weeks ago I got a package from a group from Iowa called Operation Mom that had a stocking for each of the guys in our section. Rather than handing them out at the time, I tried to be a little bit sneaky and kept them in my room. I brought them back into the office after the rest of the gang had left and hung them with care. And by hung them with care I mean placed them nicely on everyone's desk. So, the S1 got to roll in Christmas morning and have a little bit of Christmas cheer. Thanks to the group at Op Mom for taking care of us. You are the best!

Beans and the Burnometer with their stockings.

Another really nice gift that we got was from the folks at Messiah Lutheran School. They hand made around 100 Christmas cards and sent them over to us. They even went to the trouble to personalize them and put our names on them. Very well done! The kids are quite creative and really put some time and effort into getting us these cards. Thanks to Mr. Weber for making it happen.

SFC Kerchal and SFC Whitehill's trailer. Photo credit is unfortunately mine, hopefully you get the picture that they put up some lights and a Christmas tree outside.

The ubiquitous PT belt, spoiler of my pictures since 2005.

Christmas day was pretty uneventful. I got to come in a little bit late which was appreciated after staying up late doing the mail and opening presents. We had a nice Christmas lunch with all of the fixings, prime rib, turkey and of course some pecan pie. We hit the gym as usual to work on the guns, as we figured that Jesus probably had some pretty nice pipes from swinging a hammer all day. After that it was phone call time to wish everyone at home a Merry Christmas, and then on to play one of my presents, Madden 2007, where the Colts have finally won a Super Bowl under my tutelage. All in all, the day was about as good as I could have hoped for considering the circumstances. I will definitely cherish next year's Christmas after spending this one on the other side of the globe.

Christmas Poem

2006-12-22T11:23:00.000+03:00

You may have seen this already, but thought I would post it on here in case you haven't. Merry Christmas!

Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice, I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl' on a day in December,
"Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram' always remembers."

"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile."

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home".

"I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother."

"Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?"
"It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long."

"For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

He Who Controls the Mail, Controls Information Holiday Edition

2006-12-21T08:01:00.000+03:00

I did a post back in July on the fine job done by Beans and the Burnometer on mail operations. We are always encouraged to constantly "improve our foxhole" which is an Army way of saying there is always more work to be done. In anticipation of the vast amounts of holiday mail we would be getting, the SMOOT (Squadron Mail Overseas Operation Team, an acronym I just made up) adjusted fire a little bit in order to become more efficient. Gone are the days of the whole section carrying in mail by hand. The new operation involves 2 connexes in the parking lot, a PLS (palletized loading system), a hotdog, a nut roll, and a shovel.

On the first I day hung out with the mail guys, the PLS was in getting serviced, so they used a hybrid approach with the LMTV and the forklift. Here is SPC Burnham taking the first pallet off the truck. They had to take 2 vehicles, 6 pallets in the LMTV and 2 in HQ01.

Here is HQ01, the S1s vehicle for moving around Anaconda. Those tan patches that you can see are a remnant of when Gaskins painted GO BIG RED and a Husker emblem on the armor panels. Although it was a nicely done paint job, it doesn't really meet the standard for an Army vehicle.

After we unload all of the pallets, the boxes are sorted by hand into piles for each unit in the 2 connexes. Here is connex 1, with Burnham and HHTs mail. As you can see, the pile is taller than him.

SGT Calvo and SSG Goldman from C Battery, 3-4 ADAR, 82nd Airborne. This unit mans the anti mortar guns that help keep us safe.

Day 2, the PLS is back. Burnham getting ready to roll out.
Newly promoted SGT Benes in the driver seat.

Loading the connex on the PLS. We're number 1!

SPC Burnham securing the connex to the PLS. His arms aren't quite long enough to reach the pin, so he has to climb up on the tires to do it.

The PLS with the connex loaded up. They take this down the JMMT and load the pallets directly on here. They can get 10 in one trip, so it is much more efficient than the 6 that can fit on the LMTV.

Carrie Underwood Visits Anaconda - More Pics

2006-12-19T09:48:00.000+03:00

Okay, so I figured out why the pictures were so small. It is because I'm an idiot. I've corrected the problem, at least with the pictures, and have some more photos to share.

2 Cav soldiers with Carrie in the JDOC.

Crowd shot. If you look really close you can see Hammer's head in the middle about 4 rows back, and my forehead to the right of him. Good luck!

Carrie Underwood Visits Anaconda

2006-12-18T11:53:00.000+03:00

The fine folks at the USO provided us with another great concert this week. Carrie Underwood, winner of American Idol and country singing sensation, made a trip to Iraq this past week. We were lucky to get her up at Anaconda on Saturday night. When the stars come over, they usually hit only a few bases due to the limited time that they have. We have had good success at Anaconda due to our size and the airfield makes it easy to fly in and out. Unfortunately, we aren't getting the WWE rasslers tour, but this was a nice substitute.

For some reason they decided to have this concert inside the beloved Sustainer theater instead of at Holt Stadium where all of our other MWR events have been at. This meant that only a select number of soldiers would be able to go, and there was a raffle for the tickets. Our unit only got 5 tickets, so our odds weren't good. Fortune smiled upon us however, and the Flecker and Beans won tickets. After much pleading, begging, and promises of future favors, they surrendered their tickets to Hammer and I (read his story here).

I've got the golden ticket!

You see, I'm not a big reality show fan, but the wife loves American Idol and watched every episode of Season 4. And of course since she was in control of the remote at the time, I was also forced into watching pretty much the whole season. Young Carrie became my favorite after doing a pretty awesome cover of "Alone" by Heart (I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what song this was, but it only took about 5 minutes to nail it down and then find the lyrics. I love the Internet).

I was pretty pumped to get the hook up and go to the concert. Earlier that day, Carrie and her entourage stopped by our building for a quick tour. She took some pictures in the Operations Center, and we thought she was going to do a meet and greet for the rest of us, but they were behind schedule, so we didn't get anything more then a passing glance in the hallway. After leaving here, she went down to visit our LRS (long range surveillance) unit, who does the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) mission. They are on call 24/7 so they don't usually get to go to the concerts. Here are some pictures of her with the LRS.

Carrie manning the .50 cal in a Humvee.

Carrie and the band.

The .50 cal makes me smile every time too.

We had to wait in line for about an hour to get in to the actual concert. I was worried we were going to kicked out of line after Hammer mouthed off to a Command Sergeant Major. In his defense, it was dark out and he didn't see his rank. We got seated up front and the concert was great. She did 7-10 songs. She did a cover of Sweet Child O' Mine by GNR that was pretty outstanding. I don't listen to much country music, but this definitely had a rock and roll feel to it. The only thing really country about it was the fiddle (if you want to play in Texas, you gotta have fiddle in the band). Other than that, the lead guitar was pretty nice, the bass player was solid, and the band sounded great. The only negative was that I was bracketed by 2 young females who kept screaming in my ear after every song. Darn kids.

Unfortunately, the lighting in the theater was not up to snuff so the pictures that Hammer took didn't turn out. They usually upload them to the intranet here, but for some reason they compressed them and this is the best I can do for a concert pic.
After the show, we filed out and were able to get a picture with Carrie. We had to get in groups of 5 and they herded us through pretty fast. The Air Force dude in this picture had a problem with him camera, so he joined our group, effectively forcing me into the back row. I look like a random dude that was walking by and stuck my head in the picture. After they snapped the pics, they booted you out so there was no time for any small talk about Josh Brown. Good times were had by all.

Your 2006 National Champions

2006-12-17T13:21:00.000+03:00

Congrats to the Husker Volleyball team, who completed a 33-1 season last night with a victory over Stanford to claim their 3rd National Championship. The crowd was the largest ever to watch a college volleyball game. You can read about it here, here, and here. The Huskers only graduate 2 seniors this year so will be loaded next year. Way to go Huskers!

The captains with the trophy.

Match point!

Packed house at the Qwest. I think we'll have a pretty good shot at getting another one of these.

Interview with Jim from Thinking Right, Misc Stuff

2006-12-15T07:50:00.000+03:00

I did an email interview this week with a gentleman named Jim for his blog Thinking Right. You can find it here. Thanks to SPC Erickson from Centcom public affairs for setting it up.

Also, the '95 Huskers were voted College Football's greatest team of all time. Herbstreit I guess accused the homer Nebraska fans of stuffing the ballot box, threw a hissy fit, and stomped off the stage at the show they had to announce the winners. Then they debated whether this years OSU team would compete with the '95 Huskers. No way. OSU is the best team this year, but greatest of all time? I think that is a stretch. This kind of reminds me of last year when everyone said last years '05 Trojans were the greatest team ever, right up unit the time they got beat by Texas.

Here are a few articles from around the web about our unit. SFC Lassek is one of our battle NCOs and runs a shift in the JDOC. This story from Omaha.com is about how his family is coping back home and a Sesame Street video that the military puts out. Benjamin gives the video 2 thumbs up. LTC Apprich, the Squadron Commander, did 2 interviews with Omaha.com while he was home. You can find them here and here. One interesting thing about being in a combat zone is there are lots of opportunities to do cool things. This story is about some of our guys that are part of an airborne command post, keeping the lines of communication open. SFC Brehm is one of our soldiers that went from being a medic to crew member.

Everyone's favorite soldier, SPC Beans, is going to be featured this week on KOLN 10/11. You can tune in Sunday night at 10:00pm. They profile a different soldier every week. After the story airs, it is posted on their website along with a short story.

Finally, I had to laugh when I read this article on Omaha.com. My brother is good buddies with the Jarvis brothers. My dad prayed for me when I left, their dad is giving them tips on how to be a better killer. Good stuff.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-12T14:00:00.000+03:00

UPDATE: I thought I would clarify that I didn't write this, I got it forwarded to me in the ol' email. Although I appreciate if you thought I was this clever.

For My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting these greetings, you are accepting the aforementioned terms as stated. This greeting is not subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself/himself/others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wish

For My Republican Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Electricity is a Crutch

2006-12-12T13:48:00.000+03:00

The weather here in Iraq has been phenomenal of late. Back home I'm sure you are familiar with the term Top 10 day. I would say that we have had roughly 40 Nebraska Top 10 days in a row here at lovely LSA Anaconda. The high has been around 65 or 70, very little breeze, and sunny every day. It really doesn't get much better in my book. The low has been between 35 and 40, but the nice thing is that is usually overnight and by the time it cools off I'm tucked away in my cozy twin bed in my 10x12 slice of heaven, with the heater set on 70 degrees, dreaming sweet dreams of ribeyes, blue n' chromes, and my wife and son.

That is until Saturday. For some unknown reason, we lost power to the whole base sometime in the afternoon. This has happened before, and usually it is back on within a few hours. The office has its own generator, so work of course didn't stop, but our hootches were out of power and therefore without heat and lights. By 10 o'clock we were a little worried as it had been about 5 hours and still no power. The blanket that I use is really thin (to minimize packing space) so I was seriously doubting its ability to keep me warm. I actually dug out my Army issued sleeping bag which I turned out to be a smart move that some of my lazier co-workers regretted not making. I fully anticipated that in the middle of the night the power would kick back on and all would be well. I drifted off to sleep without my usual tv shows to keep me company, cursing the horror of it all. Don't let anyone tell you different, life in this man's Army isn't always easy.

The worst part was waking up in the morning. I was actually pretty warm snuggled up in my cold weather sleeping bag, but at 0600 the temp in my trailer was about 40 degrees. I think I could even see my breath. Getting dressed was painful, as my clothes were also about 40 degrees. I hightailed it to the office so I could bring my core temp back to 98.6. I even broke out the black fleece coat, which is affectionately referred to as the bear suit. Of course my buddies all made fun of me for wearing a coat because it wasn't that cold, but that was to be expected and I would have done the same thing had the Hammer showed up dressed like I was.

I headed down to church at 0845 and was glad they I had my coat on, as I will still traumatized by the night spent in the meat locker. While SSG Johnson was on leave we had to rearrange our schedule to cover the office so I hadn't been to Sunday service in around a month, so it was good to get back. When I got to the chapel, of course there was no power there either, which means no lights and no heat.

I should back up a minute and describe the chapel. Many of the buildings that we are "borrowing" from the Iraqis here on Anaconda are hardstand buildings that were already here. The original design usually has 3 wings, with an outdoor atrium in between each wing. Imagine a capital E on its side. We are always short on space, so many of the buildings have had the atriums converted into rooms to allow for more offices. If there is one word you could use to describe soldiers in Iraq, it would be industrious. A tic tac, a toothbrush, and some bailing wire and you have yourself an office. Or a bomb, depending on the joe that is in charge.

Our Squadron chapel is in one of these converted atriums, so it is essentially a plywood room. There are other chapels on the base that are actual buildings, but we inherited this one, and we are the Cav, so we don't like to have nice things anyway. The accommodations could best be described as Spartan, really just a few chairs and a pulpit. Normally the lyrics to the worship are shown on a laptop as the projector that we have is famous for shutting down in the middle of a song and then taking 10 minutes to warm back up.

We normally keep it pretty basic, but add in the lack of heat, lights, and words, this past Sunday was especially bare bones. The door was left propped upon, so in addition to no heat we had a nice breeze as well. At this point I was glad that I had endured the wrath of the mighty S1 and put on my fleece, as I would have been freezing without it.

The message for the day was from Haggai. From chapter 1:

Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

The Chaplain discussed how the temple had been destroyed, and rather than rebuilding it, the people had instead worried about rebuilding their homes first. Wrong answer, said God through Haggai. The people were so busy about taking care of themselves, they had neglected the one who could provide for all their needs. I know this has been true in my life multiple times. Once I graduate from college, then I'll be happy. Or buy a new car or house. Or get married. Or have a kid. Or insert whatever here. But those things come and go, and guess what? The car gets a dent and looses that new car smell. The house isn't quite big enough for your family. Marriage and parenthood are rewarding but an awful lot of work. Same with the new job and the new salary.

Apart from God, these things are for the most part meaningless. In and of themselves, there is nothing wrong with having a nice home or a good career, in fact we are told to work hard and be good at what we do. But sitting in Iraq in a plywood chapel with a handful of soldiers, a guitar, a bible, and no heat or light, I was struck by how fulfilled and how happy I am with my life. I miss my family so much that I can't stand it some days, but my wife and I have the strength of the Lord to get us through it. I know that God has a plan for my life and for a reason that only He knows it currently involves me being half a world away. And that is okay with me. Romans 8:28 says: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Think about that. Are you working on rebuilding your house while God's house is still broken?

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. After 4 days of no power, they've got everything fixed and we once again have lights, heat, cable, and PS2. And I got a great reminder on God's love for us, and his faithfulness to see us through any situation.

Movie Review: Some Good Ones and One of the Worst Movies, Ever

2006-12-09T23:45:00.000+03:00

As mentioned earlier, the Iraqi Bazaar here at Anaconda sells movies while they are still in the theater. I gave up on buying them a while back, as the quality is usually poor and ruins the experience for me. However, some that are not as cheap me are willing to roll the dice, and occasionally get a pretty solid copy. One such movie is Casino Royale. I grew up with Roger Moore as Bond, with my favorite Bond being For Your Eyes Only. Pierce Brosnan has put in some solid performances the last few years and is a close second for me, I at times have even had a non-gay crush on him (but only as Bond). I know that Sean Connery is widely regarded as the Best Bond ever, but I am a little too young to have seen much of his body of work. I will admit I was skeptical about Daniel Craig as the new Bond at first. Bond is supposed to have dark hair and not dirty blond. Other than that I haven't really seen any of his stuff so didn't have much to go on, other than his washboard abs and perfectly defined chest that I saw on the commercial.

So, I was excited to check out the newest flick and see what the new guy could do. And I wasn't disappointed. Without giving up too many details, the movies goes back in time ala Batman Begins and tells the story of Bond getting his 007 status and going on his first mission. The first hour was incredible, the movies gets off to a fast paced start and just keeps rolling. I have to admit the second hour lost me a little bit. The pivotal scene involves not a car chase or gun battle, but a card game. Really? That is the best we can do here? I know that this is based on a Fleming book like the rest, but Bond facing down the villian with pocket Aces just isn't the same for me. The ending drags a little bit as well, but all in all it is a classic bond with a little bit darker twist. Definitely a much see if you are a Bond fan, if not you may not enjoy it. The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes were unbelievable, a stunning 94%, right up there with The Departed. I think they are a little high, this is a solid effort but not the best Bond movie ever as some are claiming.

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Another movie that I watched via bootleg copy is The War Tapes. Wow. This movie is what I think you would call a documentary. The producer gave video cameras to Nat'l Guard soldiers from New Hampshire that were a part of OIF II. They filmed virtually their entire deployment from the train up to the homecoming and the aftermath and impact of the war. They served primarily as a Convoy Escort Team and they were stationed at Anaconda for a portion of the tour, so they showed footage from this base back in late 2004. It has changed quite a bit, but there were some similar sights to what we see here everyday. The footage focuses primarily on 3 soldiers that were out on the roads everyday.

If you are looking for a movie on what this war is like, this is it. It was moving, compelling, frightening, and inspiring all at the same time. The soldiers they picked are a cross section of the military, each with a unique view on the war and their experience. Since it is soldiers filming soldiers, you get direct access into what they are thinking and feeling. Really good stuff. My favorite part was when they showed their homecoming ceremony back in the states. We are getting within sniffing distance of getting out of here, and watching them be welcomed home by a gymnasium packed full of their family and friends, flags and homemade signs everywhere you look, and soldiers hugging their wives and kids was fantastic. I've made a few comments in the past about I don't really care about what our ceremony is like, as I just want to get home, but now that I've seen some footage I think it will be pretty awesome.

The other part that was really moving was seeing the soldiers adjusting back to being civilians. I have never been more thankful that I am Fobbit/REMF, as I'll come home essentially the same person, except for of course being in superior physical condition due to the countless hours I've spent getting huge in the Sprung Gym. These guys were (probably still are) struggling to get past the things they saw and did. Their wives, kids, and girlfriends, all noticed the difference. It is part of the untold cost of this or any war, that even past the dead and wounded, there are emotional wounds for so many that may never heal.

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Movie #3 I checked out at the theater here just a few nights ago. We hadn't gone out for some time so we went to a movie called Touristas. Horrible, horrible movie. It is a horror movie about American tourists in Brazil and some bad things that happen to them. The dude from the TV show Las Vegas is the star, and then some other people you don't know. I've never seen Hostel but my movie going buddies said it was like that, except much worse. It is hard to describe how bad it is. Poor acting, dumb plot, unscary villain, really not much to get excited about. The only redeeming qualities are a cool scene where they swim to some underwater caves, but they ruin it later by overdoing it. I was walking out trying to mentally decide not whether it would make my bottom 10, but where I would put it. I haven't put much thought into this, but here is my first shot:

10. Oscar (1991). Basically 109 minutes of Stallone and his criminal buddies confusing a bag of money with a bag of dirty laundry. I saw this at Q9 back in high school with some of my buddies, and even though at the time I considered Naked Gun to be high cinema, I knew this was terrible. It is hard to believe that you can make an entire movie out of one joke. This movie is so bad that I haven't seen it since it came out and still remember this train wreck.

9. Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). Not good. And I wasn't expecting much. I thought that it would be some light hearted stoner fun ala Cheech and Chong or Half Baked, but no such luck. I don't walk out of or turn off a lot of movies, and this was one of them. It really doesn't take a lot to do a good movie about smoking pot. Funny characters doing dumb stuff, making their own bongs, and generally having a good time. This movie has none of this. I would rather dig my eyeballs out with a spoon then watch this piece of crap again.

8. Analyze That (2002). I want to stay away from the sequels because they are just too easy. But some are so bad that it would be a crime not to mention them. My better half informs me that we walked out of this movie at the theaters. The only thing worse than that is that I don't remember walking out of it. Dumb dumb dumb. Why must we subjected to these sequels? And why do I keep going back? Why does Deniro agree to these movies? And why am I asking all of these questions?

7. The Whole 10 Yards (2004). The first one is a classic, fun story, lots of stars, and French jokes. The second one is a classic let's mail in a sequel and laugh all the way to the bank. Nothing original, nothing funny, just the same stupid actors playing the same stupid roles and making stupid jokes. This movie is terrible. Perhaps I hate this movie so much because I enjoyed the first one. Bruce Willis should be ashamed of himself for participating in this. If I ever see him and Matthew Perry out shopping at Village Pointe I'm going to punch him in the face. Matthew Perry that is, John McLane would probably kick my butt.

6. Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001). Boring! I really hate this movie. How can Steven Spielberg put together such a worthless piece of trash? I went into the movie thinking it was the life story of Allen Iverson but was sorely disappointed. Nobody loves you kid. You are a stupid robot. Get over it. And the ending, you have to be kidding me. This thing drags on longer than Christmas Eve for a 10 year old. I found myself hoping that I was in the movie, was cryogenically frozen somehow, and then brought back to life after 2000 years so I could smash his robot face in and the movie would end. Ugh.

5. The Fan (1996). Deniro, Snipes, Tony Scott as director, can't miss, right? Wrong. Just writing about it makes me want to go play in traffic. Another sucky Deniro movie (can't believe there are 2 on here) where he is an obsessed fan stalking Barry Bonds. Or something, who really cares. This is one of those movies where it is so uncomfortable the whole time that you wish you were anywhere but watching it. PMITA prison? I'll take it. Drowning in ice cold water? No problem. Saddam's torture palaces? Sign me up! He kidnaps his son, throw a few knives at him I think, even wears his jersey or some crap. I think maybe he gets shot in the end but I don't really remember, as my brain had shut down to protect itself from injury, like those new IBM laptops for klutzy people that sense a fall and go into self preservation mode. You should do the same. Not a fan of this one. Not a fan at all.

4. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999). We wait 15 years for another Star Wars and this is the best you can do George? Jerks. Seriously, who in their right mind watched the draft versions and said to themselves, yeah, that Jar Jar Binks is alll righttt (imagine Kramer saying that and it is a lot funnier). And people will be interested in a snotty little slave kid flying around his junked out pod racer. Bill Simmons posted a while back that sports teams should have a VP of Common Sense that can review major decisions and say yea or nay. Movies studios need the same thing. No person in their right mind would think this was a good idea. This movie gets worse every time I watch it. Lucas should give back what ever money he made on this to every one that had to sit through it. I'll take mine in cash, thank you very much.

3. The Benchwarmers (2006). Saw this here at Anaconda. They don't make words to describe how utterly awful this movie is. I believe this was actually banned under the Geneva convention as it is cruel and unusual punishment. I would stay in Iraq another year before I would watch this again. This movie falls apart in the first 30 seconds. First of all, Rob Scheider is the lead actor and is playing a jock. Really. I'm not making this up. Second, his wife is Molly Sims (also on Las Vegas), and she wants to make a baby, but he wants to play baseball with David Spade, Napoleon Dynamite, and some sixth graders. Third, Rob Schneider is the lead actor and David Spade is in the movie. Fourth, grown men are playing grade schoolers in baseball. For real. And nobody notices that they are in their 30s. Fifth, there are only 3 players on one team, 2 of them suck, one is good, and they never walk the good player. Sixth, Rob Scheider and David Spade are your stars. Playing baseball. Against little boys. For real. Seventh, oh nevermind, just kill me now. Maybe little kids like this, I don't know, but it is stupid nonetheless.

2. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). I don't know if I walked out on this one but I should have. Let me sum this one up for you, Brando's character from Apocalypse Now is on an island with Val Kilmer and some messed up animals. That is all. Sound dumb? It is. I am running out of adjectives here for how bad this movie sucked. Perhaps a few quotes from the movie? I have seen the devil in my microscope, and I have chained him. Yup, that is what we are dealing with here. Another you say? I have almost achieved perfection you see, of a divine creature that is pure, harmonious, absolutely incapable of any malice. And if in my tinkering I have fallen short of the human form by the snout, claw or hoof, it really is of no great importance. I am closer that you could possibly imagine sir. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought a crazy person was talking there. Oh, you are crazy? I guess the mutated animals should have clued me in. Well, good day!

And... without further ado, my pick for the worst movie, ever.

1. The Prince of Tides (1991). I went to this one on accident. I think we got confused on the title and thought it was something else. This happened to me one other time, I went with my Grandma to the Flamingo Kid and thought I was going to see Karate Kid. That was what you call a disappointment. I cried the whole way home. That may actually explain why I am who I am today. But, I digress. Perhaps the fact that I was 15 or 16 and this movie is about everybody's favorite crazy person in real life, Nick Nolte, his suicidal sister, and his psychologist Babs hashing through their families neurosis has something to do with my dislike for this movie. I think if I was to watch this today, it would cause me physical pain. Disgustingly bad movie. I am going to stop writing about it now before I do something I regret in the morning, like smash my head into my laptop 100 times.

So, there you have it. This isn't technically my worst movies of all time list, it is the first 10 movies I could think of that I really didn't like, so I know that I missed some. Oh, and I forgot about Turistas. Umm, lets plug that one in at number 6. Oscar gets a reprieve, for now.

How about you? What movie(s) really grinds your gears? Leave a comment with your picks.

Husker Volleyball - Final Four

2006-12-07T21:26:00.000+03:00

Well, the Husker Volleyball team is making its 13th straight appearance in the round of 16. That is pretty amazing, not many programs in any sport can claim such a record. They also have the second best all time win percentage in history at .750 in post season play. Wow. Of course they will be dominating and heading back to the QWest center for the Final Four.

Of course the Final Four has been sold out for some time. They released some tickets today, but we were unsuccessful in getting through the Ticketmaster lottery and getting any. So, if any of my 4 readers have any connections or know of anybody that has any extra tickets, my wife would love to go. Leave a comment or shoot me an email at sack77@cox.net if you have any ideas or leads.

And, a big Happy Birthday to Brandee, one of my faithful readers, biggest supporters, and all around good person. Hope you have a great day!

Been pretty busy over here, another big legal case going on in addition to the normal daily business. It makes the days fly by but doesn't leave me a lot of "Sack time." I have a few posts I'm working on (movies and marathons) that I'll hopefully get posted this weekend. And my normal monthly email for December I have on the list and will get to as soon as I have a chance. Take care.

Internet Fun - 4

2006-12-03T13:19:00.000+03:00

Stuff from around the Web for your viewing pleasure:

I did a post awhile back about Rock, Paper, Scissors and how an Omaha guy won the nat'l tournament. It turns out there is a World Championship as well. However the to prize is only 8 grand, so this once again shows that the USA is still superior.

You have all surely seen or heard of the racist rant that Kramer went on recently. It was of course completely uncalled for and way out of line. The funny thing was that he said afterwards that he's not a racist. I think he would have been better off just saying he was drunk or on drugs, that would have been more believable. Of course, the people that he offended know exactly what will make them feel better. Some cash please! That always makes me feel better when I've been insulted. The 4 people that he directed his remarks at have a lawyer and are setting up a meeting. Gotta love America.

Here is an update on the story I talked about Friday with the AP and their use of unverified sources. In the same article you can find this quote from a soldier here on Balad about our living conditions.

Living accommodations are nice, but then the Army has this magical ability to lower expectations. They let you sleep on the forest floor and then they give you a bedroll and you think you have it made. Then at some point you graduate to tents without floors and you think to yourself, "Why do I need to buy a house--this is great." Then they give you a cot to sleep on and maybe a plywood floor. Your feet never get dirty and you swear to yourself that you'll do this for 20 years because they treat you first class. In Kuwait they gave us an air-conditioned tent which made it like sleeping at the Ritz. The smell of suntan lotion and sand made it feel like Miami without the water and palm trees. Finally here in Balad we get small trailer rooms with floors, air conditioning and heating. They even have TV hookup and power. I only think to myself "I get paid to do this--sweet!" This is like a five-star resort. It's the biggest secret in the world. I better not tell anyone or else everyone will want to come to Iraq. Pretty funny stuff.

This was on the front page of the LJS, Nebraska Guard soldiers watching the Big Red at Anaconda. Unfortunately, it is not about our unit, which we are a little bent about because they just got here, and we have been suffering for the entire season. They also got a live feed for the game last week. And it looks like their chain of command lets them wear there Husker gear. No love for the Cav.

Finally, I've been meaning to touch on the Muslims that were removed from the US Airways flight last week. But, I read this piece and don't feel I need to say anymore. I think we've taken being tolerant a little too far, when 6 Muslims that are acting in bizarre ways are surprised when they are pulled from a plane. You can find a copy of the police report here, along with an eyewitness account of the incident that shows there was way more involved than just Muslim's saying their prayers.

Sorry, Politics and no Pictures

2006-12-01T07:21:00.000+03:00

Lots of talk this week about the strategy for dealing with Iraq. The Iraq Focus Group has supposedly concluded their meetings and is ready to present some recommendations to the President. This is, as you might imagine, a topic that is of great interest to those of us over here. First, there is always a chance that our tour could be extended. Even writing that is causing me pain. I would put the odds at not likely for our Brigade. We are Nat'l Guard and the majority of the Brigade will end up doing over 18 months of active duty, so I would think that we would be about last on the list. But it could happen as the easiest way to bring up troop levels is to extend troops that are already in theater as we are already here, trained, and experienced. We are soldiers, so if given the orders, we'll follow them, but I one for am hoping and praying that we come home when scheduled.

I have a little tool on this blog that lets me see who is visiting, and where they come from. The nice thing is that it shows where others have linked to my blog, which is always interesting. I got a hit around Thanksgiving from a message forum where the war was being debated. The poster, a gentleman named Sang, used a quote from my Thanksgiving post to bolster his argument that the troops over here see the war a little different than those of you back at home, and that morale is generally pretty good. The response was that I didn't know what I was talking about, and was just saying that to justify being here. Whatever. You know, if you want to protest the war go ahead, you have that right, and I will protect that right no matter how much I may disagree with you. But don't tell me what I think, or how you know more about what is going on here then I do because you watch the news. I don't think so. The media does on thing well reporting the war, and that is telling you how many people died yesterday. Everything else is hit or miss. Michelle Malkin has a great post up about the AP using unvalidated sources to spread enemy propaganda. They even use sources that they have been warned are not credible. Whatever they need to get their headline. Where am I going with this? I guess the point, if I have one, is that yes, we do want, even need, the war to mean something. But that doesn't mean that we are grasping at false news or making up stories. We'll let the AP handle that. Generally, I think most see that this effort is worth it, and the consequences of not succeeding are real and painful.

Now, with that being said, I personally have been struggling with how we will know that we have succeeded over here. Or to put it another way at what point can we come home and feel good about it? There are a lot of people smarter than I writing a lot on the topic. It seems to me that there are 2 camps on each side of the debate. On the pro-war camp, there are the folks that feel that the War On Terror is necessary is to prevent the spread of Islamofascism, and that military action is necessary to show our enemies that we mean business. This is the preemptive strike doctrine.

The second group on the pro-war side believes that leaving Iraq before it is stable will cause a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions. You can read an example of this at the Rolling Stone of all places (credit to the Hammer for finding this gem). I'm haven't yet seen a counter argument to this yet, although I'm sure it is out there.

On the flip side, there are those that are against the war because of faulty pre war intelligence and they don't like the President. Basically there weren't any WMDs so we shouldn't be here, bring the troops home, etc, etc. What bothers me is about this line of thinking is that in order to think this way, you have to be convinced that the President is dishonest, immoral, and manipulative. I believe this be false. If anything, the President has not wavered from his belief that this war is the right thing to do, even in the face of continued, fierce opposition. If he was simply in it for personal gain/politics, wouldn't he have changed his tactics 2 years ago and left Iraq to defend itself? And, the same people that decry the President as an idiot, a moron, and too stupid to know how to do his job want you to believe that he is also a mastermind of manipulation. I don't think you can have it both ways.

Finally, there is a group that believes that fighting the War on Terror with a conventional army is a non starter, and that you can't treat terrorists like nation-states and fight them force on force. If you are against the war this seems to me to be an intelligent reason why, as you can definitely argue that we don't know how our actions here are impacting the people who would do us harm. An excellent synopsis can be found at Intel Dump (third/last story down), a blog that I've recently added to my weekly reading list. Good coverage on both sides of the issues. They have a few different writers, but the head guy is an Army Officer who spent some time over here so that usually lends to increased credibility in my book.

What do I think? First of all, part of the problem is that most of the information on this topic is opinion. There are very little facts that are offer any support, which makes it difficult to make a good decision. The key question for me is whether or not we are making America safer by "staying the course." Are we tying up Bin Laden and his cronies from making plans to attack America or are we creating more terrorists? Does our willingness to commit our troops show our enemies that attacking us is futile, and make them think twice about their next attack? Well, I think that the answer is yes, we are safer at home by fighting over here. But I sure wish I had more information to go on. I do think we need to adjust fire a little bit and mix things up some. More focus on training Iraqis and less on Americans doing the fighting. More money to rebuild infrastructure, add jobs, and increase the standard of living. More pressure on Syria and Iran to keep their terrorists at home and not over here. More int'l support which is of course a tough one due to the way this went down. I think avoiding mass genocide in and of itself is reason enough to be here. Hopefully, we are also spreadking democracy and deterring terrorism at the same time.

Thanksgiving in Iraq - the Pictures Part 2

2006-11-28T18:44:00.000+03:00

Our PAO (public affairs office) here on Anaconda has a website where they upload pics of the big events after they are complete. I did some surfing and tracked down a few from the Thanksgiving night show.

Here is Delilah strutting her stuff. Like I said, a little bit risque. And I just dated myself by using the term risque. I am 30 by the way. Almost 31. She had a soldier come up and help her take the garter off. Yeah, okay....

John Popper kickin' it old school style.

Jamie Oneal and John Popper.

Not sure who this is. Oh right, the cheerleaders. Nice win by the Pats this weekend, probably due to the good karma from sending their women to Iraq to cheer up the troops.

Here is me in the Colonel's office during the game, pretending to be the boss, and ordering a code red. Of course my friend the PT belt is always around to keep me company.

The rumor mill says that the WWE folks are going to be here before Christmas, so we are pretty pumped about that. We are going to camp out so we can get ringside tickets. Should be a great time. You know who we'll be rooting for.

9 Wins, Big 12 North Title, All Around Good Year

2006-11-25T18:54:00.000+03:00

As usual, your favorite soldiers downrange gathered to watch the NU vs CU game last night at 2330. Some of us got started a little early and gathered to watch A&M take it to Texass. Sorry Longhorns. Well, not really. I'm sure there are quite a few people in the Longhorn state that are pretty big Okalahoma State fans today, if the Cowpokes pull off the upset Texass will slide into the title game. If OU wins, they get to opportunity to lose to the Big Red. Actually, I am a little bit scared of Oklahoma, they can really run the ball well and their defenese is outstanding. We'll have a tough time moving the ball on them. But, we can break that down next week when we know for sure who we are beating.

We got a little bit crazy last night, as the big dog Lt. Colonel is back home on leave right now. Sidebar, this leaves MAJ Teegerstrom in charge of Task Force Saber aka Team Cav. The LJS did a nice story on him that you can find here. No mention of Tomahawks though. Back to the game, we bribed the CSM with some pizza and he let us hang out in the SCO's (Squadron COmmander) office for the game. There used to be a Brigade sized element doing our job, and they had a General in charge, so the SCO inherited a pretty nice sized office. By nice size I mean ginormous, it is bigger than the S1 section where we have 6 people working. As it was our 8 month anniversary, we always eat out, so we bought some Iraqi Pizza Hut, CSM Hall brought the NA beers, and we got to work. Very tasty. We joked about leaving all of the empty beer bottles and pizza boxes for him when we got back like some fraternity party, but decided that would be a CLM (career limiting move). Hammer took some pictures which I'm sure he'll post in a day or two for your viewing pleasure. All in all, it was a good time, the entire section (except for the Chief, as the nursing home locks him down at 2100), the Sergeant Major, SGT Hunt, and even the Chaplain hung out and enjoyed the victory. Good times were had by all. The only real negative is that some other group of soldiers came rolling into theater about a week ago and already have their own commercial supporting the Huskers. We've been here for the whole season, living and dying with every snap, and no love for us. Bummer. Plus they had on their Husker gear which we aren't allowed to wear, even in the office for the game at 0 dark 30. Well, what can you do?

Here are some pictures I ~~stole~~ downloaded from Omaha.com. Billy C sharing a last tunnel walk with Zac on Senior Day.

Barry Turner pulling in the TD on the trickery. We sure pulled out all of the stops in this game. Joe Ganz said this about the play: "Barry's always bragging about how he was a good tight end in high school. We ran the play in practice and he dropped it - so I didn't think I'd ever throw it to him again. And Defensive tackle Ola Dagunduro had this to say about Turner's catch: "I'm going to hear every day from him about that touchdown. But I'm happy for him. He was open and caught the pass. In practice he actually missed it, so we thought that we'd never go to him." How funny was it that ABC was ready with his high school stats at TE?

Purify making an acrobatic catch. That was a huge play, and came as they were interviewing his mom. I think if we are having problems moving the ball against our Big 12 South foe next week we should one of Taylor's relatives ready to interview. You are guaranteed a big play.

Brandon Jackson had another huge game. He is tough to tackle in the open field, as quite a few Buffs found out. He is slowly turning into one of my favorite I-backs.

This is one of the best pictures I've seen all year. Nice shot World Herald, Huskers carrying the Big 12 North trophy to the locker room.

On to the championship game. We'll be underdogs regardless of who we play. We'll need to eliminate the mental mistakes, turnovers, shoddy tackling, and penalties (6 false starts in the 12th game of the year is absolutely unbelievable) in order to have a shot. But we can beat either team with a solid performance. BCS here we come!

Well, I only got 3 hours sleep last night due to the late game time, so that is all I have to say about that. I am going to try to get bed early, so I can get up and watch the USC and Notre Dame game, which kicks off at 0400 our time. Most likely I'll reset my alarm for 0600 and just watch the second half, but a boy can dream. A boy can dream.

Thanksgiving in Iraq - the Pictures

2006-11-24T15:37:00.000+03:00

First of all, those of you that read the Omaha World Herald may have seen this already, but I've gotten some more free pub this week. This story was to run in Thursday's paper with a quote from yours truly. If you have a copy of it, and don't mind giving it up, I don't have one so if you could hook the wife up with it that would be pretty cool.

Thanksgiving was pretty much business as usual here. I actually had a pretty busy day and the day went by pretty quickly. Normally, we go to lunch in shifts so we can keep someone in the office at all times in case anything goes down. We decided to go ahead and get a little risky and went to lunch as a section. The only person we were missing was SSG Johnson who was enjoying the holiday back in Nebraska. It was nice to go as a group, it is the first time we've eaten together since, well, probably back at Shelby. Beans and Hammer have a post up too with some more pictures. Make you sure you check out Beans's post to see the tribute to SSG Matt Maupin, who has been MIA since 2003.

Flecker, me and the Burnometer getting ready to roll out.

The group on the .75mile (one way) trek to the chow hall that we make twice a day. In case you are curious I measured it on my Garmin Forerunner 201 one night while out running.

Some Thanksgiving decorations in front of the DFAC. We had a great plan, we went down early and didn't really have to wait in line

My plate. I saw no reason to mess around and had them load it up. They had prime rib and turkey with all of the fixings, and it was all really tasty. You can barely see it but there is a nice cut of prime rib under everything else. It wasn't as good as what you get at home, but much better than our usual meal.

They also had the chow hall all decorated up, and the workers were dressed in holiday attire as well. Some of the higher ranking officers even served us, so that was pretty neat. They put a lot of time and energy into the decorations and really did a nice job.

A decorated cake with some fun Army stuff on it.

So, after lunch, which was fantastic, we went back to work. SFC Kerchal cut us loose about an hour early and I went to run off some of the 2000 calories or so that I had for lunch. I wanted to continue the tradition that JAg and I have been doing the last few years, busting out a run in the morning as a pre-emptive strike against insane eating. This was also to make way for dinner as they had the same menu. I switched it up a little bit at dinner and had the pecan pie instead of the pumpkin, which was a nice move. It was much better.

After crushing another meal, we headed down to our entertainment for the night, which was a little USO show. Unfortunately, I was too far away to get any good pics, so this is the stage with the mosh pit in front. The rest of the ones I tried to zoom in on, but I got a little bit too crazy and they are all pretty blurry.

The opening act was the New England Patriot cheerleaders. They were of course a crowd favorite for the mainly male crowd. They did their thing, and then they had an Air Force band out there. They were actually pretty good. Next was John Popper. He really rocked. He played some great tunes that I really enjoyed as back in the college days I rocked quite a bit of Blues Traveler. He used the Air Force reserve band as his backup and they sounded great as well. This is where the night started to get a little bit strange.

Delilah, the radio gal that plays love song requests, came out next. I'm looking for the right term here, but she had a rather seductive outfit on. And her act was a little bit, umm, racy I would say. Which was a surprise. She did a little kit where she tried out for the cheerleader squad which was amusing. One part that was pretty cool was that she had recorded some phone conversations from 2 soldiers' husbands back in the states, and she brought them on stage and played them. Last but not least was 4 time Grammy nominee Jamie O'Neal. She sings country music, but it still sounded great and we enjoyed it. All in all, it was a pretty fun night. The crowd wasn't quite as big as Toby Keith, but everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time.

Here are some pictures of the coins I mentioned early in the week. The top one is a Brigade deployment coin that we were able to purchase as a souvenir. The one on the left is the one I got from MG Lempke, and the one on the right is from CSM Beam.

Here are the backs. the NE TAG has a nice Red Husker N so that is cool.

We received two of what we call "gimmee" awards today. These are the ones that you get for doing duty in a combat zone. The one on the left is for fighting in the Global War on Terror, and the one on the right is the Iraq Campaign medal. Afterwards, MAJ Teegerstrom gave us a little pep talk about staying focused over our last 4 months. We are starting to get in sniffing distance of talking about going home, but we still have the mission to think about first. It is exciting to start talking about getting out of here though.
Last but not least for those of you that have made it this far, today is our 8th month anniversary. And of course the Buffalo game. We are going to get pizza, watch the game, and drink a few NA beers. Maybe smoke a cigar. OK, definitely smoke a cigar. It is 1130pm tonight but that won't slow us down. Except for Chief, that is too late for him, but the young guys and me will be up cheering on the Big Red. We have a pool where we guess the score beforehand, and I have 60-0 Skers so I am hoping that we pour it on. Go Big Red!

Thanksgiving in Iraq

2006-11-21T21:56:00.000+03:00

I don't know how many of you watch The Office, but if you don't, you should. There is an episode in Season 2 where Michael (the boss) professes to be the King of Email Forwards. I can tell that you he isn't. That honor belongs to CPT WarCorn. I've mentioned him before on my blog, he is a former Nebraska paralegal and JAG that now lives in Florida and did a stint here at Anaconda during OIF III. He doesn't send me a ton of stuff, but when he does, it is always quality. From up to date Husker rumors, happenings in Iraq, to support our soldiers type stuff, he can be trusted to send a good email.

Submitted for your review is this Thanksgiving tribute that the good Captain sent me last week. Check it out while you are enjoying your long weekend of turkey, football, and family this weekend.

As with most other holidays, it will be business as usual here with one exception. The DFAC I'm sure will have something special planned for us. I don't suspect that we'll get a Butterball (umm, ConAgra, do you really think it is necessary to make me choose between English and Spanish before I access the Butterball web site? I sure don't). I'm sure they will do their best with what they have, and I'm hoping for some pumpkin pie. And some pecan too, it is Thanksgiving after all. Maybe even some ice cream as well. Might as well get crazy.

One of the Weber traditions on Thanksgiving is that everyone says something they are thankful for before eating dinner. I've always thought this was a good way to make sure that the purpose of the holiday is not lost amid the eating, drinking, and being merry. Since I won't be present this year, I thought I would share my list ahead of time.

I'm thankful this Thanksgiving for:

Having the most supportive wife in the world during this deployment, thanks babe, I couldn't do this without you
Being blessed with a happy and healthy son
The support of my family, friends and co-workers back home, your letters, emails and packages always but a smile on my face
A relatively safe job here on a base that has the most amenities of any in theater
Working in a great section with great guys, and at a desk with a/c
Internet, email, and phone access to stay in touch with everyone back home
Cool weather here, I don't miss the days of 115+
My employers generous support while I'm gone
Our weekly bible study
All of the people at home that our praying for me, my family, and my unit
The opportunity to grow in my faith while I'm away from home
Being able to serve in the finest armed forces in the world, for the greatest country on earth, on a mission that is bringing freedom to people that haven't ever tasted it

I had a few more but they are escaping me right now, so I may do some updating this week if they come to me. You enjoy your time off and hit the Black Friday sales for me.

BigRed Network, Ohio State vs USC

2006-11-20T19:27:00.000+03:00

One of the sites I've started checking quite often for news of my beloved Huskers is BigRedNetwork.com. I always surf by on Fridays to print out their handy pocket guide for each game. It has the 2 deep rosters for each time in addition to other fun facts and figures that you can use to impress your buddies during the game. They also do a nice job finding some of the more obscure news and links from around the web. For example, their link for a first person account at the A&M game led me to this little nugget. Herbstreit voted A&M #21 this week in his AP ballot. So surely the 'Skers are rated higher than that seeing as how the last game that was played we won. In College Station. Alas, we are no where to be found. I did some Googling (is that a verb yet?) this morning and tried to find his week 11 and 12 ballots to find out what he had us last week, but was unsuccessful. Maybe he turned the game off early and thought A&M won? If so, that is grounds for losing your vote.

The head honcho at BigRed Network contacted the Hammer and I to ask about how we roll on gamedays here in Iraq. They have a nice article you can find here with our answers. Head on over and check it out. Part II will be posted sometime soon, as usual I was long winded so you'll need a few minutes to dig through everything.

It was nice watching the big game on Saturday and not being emotionally invested. I was definitely rooting for Michigan. I've always been a fan of the Wolverines, ever since I harbored delusions of grandeur and attending U of M. However, those dreams were dashed when I found out they don't let poor people from Nebraska go there. Ohio State was definitely the better team on Saturday. Were it not for a few mistakes they may have won by a much bigger margin. Great effort by Michigan, but it came down to the basics and they just didn't tackle well.

So of course the big controversy is who is the best one loss team. First of all, I don't think everyone needs to get all worked up quite yet. Lots of football left to play. I saw a quote from Florida's coach Urban Meyer about how if Michigan and tOSU play again they need to immediately scrap the BCS. Settle down Urban. You've got a big game to win before you can get angry about getting passed over. Come back and get upset after you win the SEC and don't get a shot. In fact, but whining about it now I think you've assured yourself of a loss against the Razorbacks.

Second, as much as I hate to say this, I think USC will win out and jump Michigan. If they do, they deserve to get a shot. The main thing for me is that unless Ohio State plays and beats a good team from another conference, we won't know really how good they were. Michigan had their shot and they weren't good enough, sorry. Of course, by saying this I've now effectively locked USC out of the title game, see my earlier post about Auburn vs Michigan in the title game for an example. Nobody called me out on that one, so I am going to keep prognosticating. I wouldn't have a problem with USC, Florida or Arkansas in the title game. ND doesn't belong, but it would be fun if they beat USC, get the bid, and then get destroyed by Ohio State. That would be okay. I would only want to see Michigan get in if all of the 3 teams above lose in the next 2 weeks.

4 days to Colordao! Normally I'm the one warning about watching out for the Buffs as they always play us tough. Not this year. They are bad. Very bad. And we are a different team at home. Plus Cally with a week to prepare is always a good thing. I think we get up early and win handily. The game is on AFN so we'll be watching A&M vs Texass first and then our game, will be a good night of football.

Distinguished Visitors and The General Responds

2006-11-18T20:48:00.000+03:00

Our State Adjutant General, MG Lempke, and State Commander Sergeant Major, CSM Shunk, made a trip to Iraq this past week. It was good to see them out and about visiting the troops. There are currently around 650 Nebraska Guardsmen here in Iraq, and they visited us and a few other troops.

On returning back to the states, he commented on his visit in this story on Omaha.com. Here are some quotes from MG Lempke:

"I came away feeling that we've made an investment there that still has the potential to pay off for us, but it's not quite ready," said Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke.

"We need to be careful before we start talking about pulling out. But we do need to find new ways to pressure the government there to understand that we're not going to be the primary force forever," he said.

He also makes a nice analogy here that kind of matches what I posted last week about Secretary Rumsfeld's departure.

Lempke said he is hopeful that Rumsfeld's departure might foster renewed debate on U.S. strategy in Iraq, even if he disagrees with calls to withdraw from the country.
"When you know how the boss feels about something, you don't walk into the office with opinions that vary too much. Now, you'll see some freer discussion of strategy and tactics, which I think would be a good thing," he said.

I was lucky enough to get to have lunch with the General along with some of the other Nebraska soldiers. And, I was even luckier to get a coveted coin from him. For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, the senior leaders carry around commemorative "coins" with them, usually the size of a silver dollar and bearing their unit symbol, rank, motto, or something else memorable. They hand them out to soldiers as a way of saying thanks. So, that was pretty cool.

Additionally, just yesterday SFC Kerchal and I were walking to chow for lunch when CSM Hall stopped and picked us up and gave us a ride. He and LTC Apprich share one of 2 NTV (non-tactical vehicles aka Ford Explorer) in the Squadron, so we got to ride in style. When we got there we happened to walk in at the same time as CSM Beam, who is the CSM for Multi-National Corps - Iraq, which is our higher-higher-higher headquarters. We got to watch as the CSMs partook in their favorite past time, which is making on the spot corrections for soldiers with uniform deficiencies. Sleeves rolled up on your ACU? Wrong answer, fix it. Wearing a non-authorized US flag? I don't think so. Hair too long? Get it cut. Good stuff, it is fun to watch the soldiers' faces as they realize that who they are getting corrected by. As we were wrapping up lunch, CSM Beam hooked us up with one of his coins for our hard work. So, I went from January 2002 (coin from 1SG Valenzuela for guarding the airport after 9/11) to 2 coins in 2 weeks. Pretty sweet.

If I may continue on with the politics, General Abizaid, the commander of all forces in the Mideast, had a little meeting on the hill earlier this week. Here is a quote that I really liked:

"With regard to hope not being a method, Senator [Clinton], I agree with you, and I would also say that despair is not a method," he said. "When I come to Washington, I feel despair. When I'm in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to our soldiers, when I talk to the Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing."

First of all, I have to give Mrs. Bill Clinton props for using "hope is not a method" which is one of my favorite lines. That is the last time you will probably here me give Hillary any props so don't get used to it. Second, I think with a few exceptions most serving over here understand why we are here and support the effort. Granted some days are worse than others, but generally the soldiers doing the fighting and dying support this war. Failure is simply not an option if we want a safe America. I posted a while back about our nations failure to react to any terrorist activity from '83 to '01 and how this weakness may have contributed to 9/11. How much more so will be viewed as weak by our enemies that have vowed to destroy us and our way of life if we leave the job unfinished? I think our media has already gone a long way to aiding and abetting the enemy in this endeavor by continuing to push the stories that show this effort in a negative light. The withdrawal of US forces at this point would solve nothing other than emboldening our enemies and leaving us vulnerable to attack.

Anger Management is for Sissies

2006-11-16T14:25:00.000+03:00

One thing that is different for me this year is that I'm actually watching some NFL football. This is partly due to the fact that I'm stuck here with not much to do and partly due to our fantasy football league. I haven't done fantasy football for quite a few years, but we got a friendly league going here in the office. My team has been doing pretty well, at least up until this week. I was sitting at 6-3, tied for first in the league and looking to make a strong move into sole possession of first place with a victory over Chief Regan's team, who I absolutely dismantled earlier in the season. This was not to be, as he had Carlson Palmer (8000 yards and 20 TDs) and Frank Gore (842 yards rushing and 6 scores) have career days. So I needed Steve Smith to score 6 TDs on Monday night, and of course he didn't pull through. He really let me down with 150+ yards and only 1 TD.

Anyways, perhaps one of the greatest improvements to the NFL viewing experience since the last time I followed the league is the NFL Network. I believe there is some sort of litigation involving the NFL and Cablevision and Time Warner so you may not have it back in good old Nebraska just yet. The most enjoyable part is the NFL Replay, where they broadcast an entire game in 2 hours. They clip out all of the boring stuff between plays like the huddle, kickoffs that result in a touchback, and some 3 and out possessions. AFN broadcasts these replays throughout the week, so we get to catch a few more games than we normally would. Edited to add that they also show the interviewers with the players and coaches about certain plays while they are showing them. So you can hear what the coach was thinking when he called that bonehead play.

I do have a point here, so just hold on a minute and I'll get to it. So, there I was, spending a little quality time on the treadmill last night. Lo and behold, the St Louis vs Seattle game was on the TV directly in front of me. I knew that it ended up on a last minute field goal by Carrie Underwood stalker and Nebraska's own Josh Brown, but I was still excited to see how it went down. Classic game. St. Louis is up 16-14 midway through the 4th quarter. Seattle's Nate Burleson returns a punt 90 yards for the score on an unbelievable return, where he actually stopped dead in his tracks on the sideline, restarted, and nobody touched him. You don't see guys stopping in the NFL very much, usually all that is good for is getting your head separated from your body. This makes it 21-16 for The Seahawks. St. Louis battles back and marches down the field. With 2:30 left, Stephen Jackson scores on a ridiculous run where he breaks a few tackles and then pushes a couple of 'Hawks into the endzone. Huge, huge run to put the Rams up 22-21.

Now, here is where our story starts. After the touchdown run, there is a big pile in the endzone, and Mr. Jackson has his helmet ripped off. Guess who is there to protect him? None other than our favorite bad boy Richie Incognito! For those of you that don't follow Husker football as a religion, Richie was dismissed from the team back in 2004 due to continued "personal problems." He then transferred to Oregon or Oregon St. or some other Pac 10 team, not that it matters which one because he never played a down and left for the NFL. He is now the starting center after some other dude went out with a knee. So, Richie comes roaring in, drills a guy way late, and gets flagged 15 yards for a personal foul. Not a big deal, you say, they still scored. Well, we'll come back to that. So, St. Louis goes for 2 to open up a 3 point lead. And the conversion is good! Oops, wait a minute, there is a flag on the field. Holding, #68, on the offense, repeat the play. Nicely done Ritchie. The second try is then no good. The 15 yards is then marked off on the kickoff, which means St. Lous is kicking off from their own 20. Seattle takes it out past the 50, they only need about 20 yards to get into field goal range. You know the rest, Josh Brown is the first kicker (I think in history but I could be wrong on this) to beat the same team twice in the same season on a last second FG. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say that Richie greatly contributed to the Seahawk's win. Nice work Richie on keeping that temper under control. You've matured greatly since your days in the corn.

That Didn't Take Long

2006-11-14T20:22:00.000+03:00

I would have thought that the incoming majority party would have waited at least a week to start demanding changes, but I was wrong. Carl Levin, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, has already called for a troop withdrawal and time table for exit. The incoming Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, has also stated that a time table needs to be set and soon.

The White House had this to say:

"I believe it is very important ... for people making suggestions to
recognize that the best military options depend upon the conditions on the
ground," he said.

The idea by itself isn't a bad one. Think back to a time you started a new job, and the person you replaced still worked in your office. How easy was it to just head over to Eileen's and ask her a question about good ol' Hyperion, instead of figuring it out yourself? Why put in an hour on a problem when you know that that person can solve it in 30 seconds? But once they are gone, and you have nobody to go to, you end up learning more than you would have otherwise. Some things may get broken in the process, but eventually you get it figured it out.

In my opinion the issue lies in the getting the timing right. We do need to step back at some point and force the Iraqis to step up, take the training wheels off so to speak. But the risk here is more than just the numbers not adding up at the end of the month. What do you think happens if we leave too early and the country disintegrates? Thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of innocent Iraqis die due to widespread sectarian violence and extrajudicial killings. Or ~~someone else~~ Iran swoops in and fills the power void. Would that be better for America? I don't think so. Now, if we can set up Iraq to govern themselves we lessen the more radical nation's influence on the Middle East which I believe is a good thing. Which of course is the challenge in front of us. I don't think you can say we are stepping back in 4 months and have this thing work. The Commanders on the ground need to make that decision.

I guess I'm not surprised with the timing. After another brutal year of attack campaigns (one of the very few things I didn't miss about being home) it is hard to believe that the 2 parties have any common ground. I don't know what the answer is, but until our country finds a way to come together and end the incessant arguing, our problems will never get solved. Immediately after 9/11 the country was united, but along the way this spirit got lost and we are now more divided than ever.

I think part of the reason is that the general public was never really asked to do anything other than sit in longer lines at the airport. I know this isn't WWII, but where are the War Bond tours, Rosie the Riveter, and rationing of consumer goods? The American public was ready, willing, and able to support the war on terror, but instead a pretty small portion of our population, the military and their families, has been asked to do the heavy lifting over and over again. I think looking back 5 years that is probably the biggest fault of the current administration, that they failed to engage Americans to become partners to help protect our great country. Instead, most don't understand what we are doing here or how they can help, and just see the body count piling up.

The Lowest of Lows to the Highest of Highs

2006-11-12T11:54:00.000+03:00

I got a little bit of sleep last night and have settled down a little bit. Just a little bit though, I still can't believe we won that game. We really had no business getting the W. I don't know what it is about this team but we are just not a second half team. Do we just not make halftime adjustments? It is just strange how we've taken off almost 3rd quarter this year after getting up big. We have only scored 42 points in the 3rd quarter this year. Here are some sweet pics I got from Omaha.com.

Cody Glenn scoring early. What a stud. Definitely outplayed the Aggie's big back. Nice to see a Texas boy who had 60 to 70 friends and family in the stands get a couple of chances to take it to the house. Yup, he don't play.

Man, we needed a 3 and out and a miracle and we got it. Aggie fan can not be happy about their back going out of bounds on 1st down. I would blame the coach for running a freshman back towards the short side. That saved probably 45 seconds on the play clock and really gave us a lot of time to work with on the final drive. I don't think we win with only 1:15 and no timeouts. What a huge block. I read that Cryer said he knew the snap count and told Turner to just follow him. Nicely done.

What a catch. Wow. It is nice to see us exploit a matchup of WR vs corner as we have gotten worked all year on plays like this.

I think Mo is excited. He said this after the game: "(Taylor) said, 'I'll get you the ball, no matter what,'" Purify said. "All I was thinking was, I have to get it. I can't drop it."

What a great picture. With a bye week coming up, you know that Billy C didn't want to spend 13 days answering questions about blowing another big lead.

Positives:

The defensive line was great all night. Carriker and Moore have really arrived. The D tackles played I think their best game of the year. We had great pressure all night from the front 4 without doing hardly any blitzing.
Running game was great in the first half against a tough run defense. Our backs do a great job of finding holes and exploiting them. Nice to see Kenny Wilson get a few carries.
Lucky is a great receiving back. What a weapon out of the backfield.
I thought the game was very well officiated. I don't really remember any questionable calls other than some holding that didn't get called, but it looked like they were pretty consistent at least not calling it on both sides.
How tough is Taylor? Man did he take some shots and just keeps getting up. He is a warrior. Although he may be the worst scrambler I've seen this side of Drew Bledsoe. Get down buddy! Don't take those shots.
Offensive line did a pretty decent job on pass pro. Taylor usually had time to throw, although it looked a lot of the time like Zac couldn't find anybody open, hence the scrambles or sack.
How big was the late hit? I was relieved that it was a clear penalty and not a close one that would be debated for days.
Huskers did a nice job taking care of the ball, other than the one pick that was almost disastrous.
ABC didn't show one smooch that I saw. Nice. Nice.

Negatives:

First of all, the announcing was some of the worst I can remember. Did anybody else think that the was one of the worst examples of Homerism they've seen since Griese was calling Michigan games while his son was playing? I mean, come on, the play by play guy was screaming at the top of his lungs every time A&M busted a big play. They also constantly hyped the A&M players it seemed to me. The color guy was fine but the other yahoo really chapped my hide. I scoured the Internet this morning looking for a tie to Texas or A&M but couldn't find anything other than this and this. No smoking gun unfortunately, other then one of the dudes started 3 years at UCLA at QB and likes to play poker.
The telecast wasn't that great, other than the aforementioned no smooching. There were a lot of plays they didn't bother showing a replay, like that play where the ball popped out on the goaline. Maybe it wasn't a fumble, but can we at least get a replay on it? This happened a few other times I think. ABC should be better. And what was up with the camera being 3 miles away?
Where were the linebackers? Octavien had a few nice plays, Ruud had the athletic play where he knocked down the pass, but other than that I don't remember seeing them make many plays, other than Brandeberg who had some big hits.
Way, way too many dropped balls. Purify dropped 3, Peterson dropped 1, and Nunn dropped 1 as well that I can remember. Some of them were tough catches but this is D1 baby and you need to go out and make those plays on the road.
Tackling was piss poor for this late in the season. You know, I don't mind when our corners get beat because they aren't very good, but when 3 guys have a shot at making a tackle they need to bring the guy down. Wrap him up and wait for your buddies. Could have, and probably should have, cost us the game. Most of the big plays were a result of missed tackles as opposed to
What happened to out tight ends? Started out hot and haven't seen much from them at all.
I don't know whether this is a positive or a negative, but I'm going to drop a dime on my co-workers. We did our usual late night burger cook out, and SSG Johnson was in rare form. The nachos and burgers were great. After the Taylor interception, SSG Johnson, SFC Kerchal, and SPC Fleck left the office as they thought the game was over and they were disgusted by our collapse. I was disgusted as well but of course there was still time left and we were still in the game. I made a joke to Hammer that it would serve those guys right if we came back and won it. I also made a joke that hey, at least all of goals are still intact. Ha ha. I'm sure you are all laughing with me right now. Sure enough we roared back. Brad came sprinting back to the office after the TD to celebrate with us. SFC Kerchal went to bed and missed the finish. Good stuff. Hammer made a joke that once we cleared out the negative vibes it cleared the way for the Skers to come back. Lots of jokes in this section.

Bottom line:

I'll take the win anyway we can get it. On the road, ranked team, Big 12 south. Gutty performance. That last drive was awesome. Converted a 4th down, a 3rd and long, and made the plays we needed to. Nice job Huskers. I talked to Dan on the phone after the game, and he was at the Arena in Omaha. He said after the Taylor interception the bartender got on the intercom and gave a little speech about Veteran's day and not to give up on the Huskers just yet. Good work on the homefront.

So, a week off next week. Disappointing, but we have biggest CFB game since last year's Nat'l championship in Ohio State v. Michigan to take its place. Should be a great one. Michigan is 0-3-1 when undefeated against an undefeated Buckeye squad.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Texass loss (we held the Mildcats to 3 points by the way so I don't really care that you lost your QB). I don't like Texas. I don't like anything about them. Burnt Orange makes my physically ill. So, I root against them at every opportunity and nothing puts a smile on my face like a big Horns loss. It is even better than a Iowa loss (those happen quite a bit nowadays so they have lost their luster). Sorry Texass fans, this may not make me a good sportsman but you have caused me so much pain since 1996 that it is only right that you get a little bit right back at 'ya. I hope you lose to A&M and then lose your bowl game as well. Badly. By like 50 points. Sorry. I just can't help it. And I will hate the player and not the game. I'm making the down with the horns sign as we speak.

Are You Kidding Me????????

2006-11-12T03:05:00.000+03:00

MO PURIFY!!!! SCORING FOR THE HUSKERS!!!

I'm so jacked right now I can barely type. What a win for the Huskers. That was unbelievable. Our offense takes the second half off, and then decides to stage one of the greatest comebacks that I can remember. Unbelievable. And AWESOME!!! More to follow in the morning.

MO PURIFY!!!! SCORING FOR THE HUSKERS!!!

Louisville, Michigan vs Auburn, Texas A&M

2006-11-10T07:27:00.000+03:00

Wow! What a game. Woke up this morning and watched the end of the Louisville game. If you didn't see it, it was a barn burner. Louisville needed the win to keep their Nat'l Title dreams alive. They were up 25-7 in the 3rd quarter and Rutgers came screaming back to tie it up. Rutgers got the ball with under 4 minutes to go inside their own 10 yard line. They ended up driving down inside the 20 for a game winning field goal. And they missed! But wait, Louisville is offsides, and they get another chance that they convert. Unbelievable finish. Good stuff.

There were about 10 1 loss teams that were watching and cheering, let the politicking begin for who deserves to play Michigan in the title game. I think it will be interesting because you know that some of these teams will start talking about how they deserve a shot, and the coach that screams the loudest will usually be the one that loses a game before the end of the year. It always seems to work out that way. You heard it here first, but I think Auburn ends up the title game. I'm not a huge Florida fan, although they should cruise into the SEC championship. Most likely Arkansas will be their opponent, as they are unbeaten in the conference and even if they drop one against either LSU or Tennessee they'll have the tiebreaker with Auburn. So we could have some more BCS hi jinx where Auburn doesn't win their conference but still goes to the big show ala Nebraska in '01. And I'm all for controversy. Of course our beloved 'Skers will get a huge win in KC knocking Texass out of the hunt.

We are on a roll with the AFN folks, and they've picked up the A&M game this week. At the beginning of the season we were hoping to get the USC and Texas games and feel very fortunate to have had 4 in a row with a great shot at getting the CU game as well (and a Big 12 title game). The only negative is that the game is on at 1130 PM our time, so we'll be up late. Which is fine by me. I think we match up pretty well with the Aggies. College Station is one of the toughest places to play but we should have a good shot at shutting down the run. We'll have trouble running on them as well, but that is why we installed the West Coast Offense so we can throw it around a little bit. I'm already mentally preparing myself for the whole kissing your girlfriend debacle. I'm sure if you are a cadet it is pretty cool but watching it on TV really turns my stomach. I'm feeling a solid win for the good guys, we get up early and then grind out the W. We'll do our part with a SSG Johnson led BBQ in the middle of the night, you do your part with steaks on the grill and co' beers.

Rummy is Out and the Dems are In

2006-11-09T13:19:00.000+03:00

So I'm sure you've seen the news by know that ol' Rummy stepped down yesterday. Reaction has been somewhat mixed. Some have seen it as knee jerk reaction to the Democrats taking control of Congress. My personal opinion is that it probably isn't a bad idea to have a change at the top. After over 3 years it may be good to get another set of eyes on the problem. It will be interesting to see what changes will be made in the strategy.

In bigger news, the Democrats are poised to have control of both the House and Senate. I'm curious to see how Congress and the Executive Branch will get along. This article details the President and Nancy Pelosi, the soon to be Speaker of the House, making nice. Pelosi is as liberal as they come and the fact that she is so far left, and not a more centrist Democrat, makes me wonder how much the new Congress will look to change. I think you can trust it will be a lot. The worry for me is that the Congress will move swiftly to bring the troops home. As much as I would rather be home, there is still much work to be done here to stabilize the country.

This fact really hit home the other day watching a 60 Minutes report on the hospital here at Anaconda. Beans and I were getting breakfast before doing the mail run, and the story came on the TV. It gave a really nice overview of the entire medivac procedure from the time a soldier is wounded until they get home to the states. They had interviews with the staff of the hospital in addition to wounded soldiers. It was a powerful piece on the dark side of war.

What really affected me and I think everyone watching that morning (I didn't see one person in the chow hall leave or not watching during the entire segment) was the wounded Iraqis they showed. Over half of the hospitals patients are wounded Iraqis, and the vast majority were wounded by suicide bombers or sectarian death squads and not coalition forces. They profiled an infant wounded by a bomb and a 12 year old girl injured by shrapnel. The baby ended up making a recovery, but the little girl was beyond help due to a traumatic brain injury. If we leave before Iraqi security forces are competent, many, many more women and children will die needlessly. Regardless of how we got here, I believe we have an obligation to the Iraqis to finish what we started and set them up for success, and not for failure. In this way we can honor the lives of the approximately 2800 US Servicemen and Servicewomen that have given their lives, in addition to enabling a fledgling democracy to stand on its own.

VTC and Two Good Causes You Can Support

2006-11-05T11:09:00.000+03:00

I had the opportunity to do another VTC (video teleconference) with my family back home last night after the big win by the Huskers. Last time, we only had 10 minute time slots, which went by incredibly fast. This time I got an entire 30 minutes. It was, I'm searching for a word here, ummm, there it is, AWESOME! In all caps which is extra-awesome for me. Erika and Benjamin were there, along with Erika's dad who was at drill at the Armory and came to help with Benjamin, as he can't really sit still for more than 10 minutes. He did good though, he recognized his daddy and waved at smiled at me quite a bit. Erika's dad shared the latest news about what is going on back in Nebraska with the Guard. Nebraska was number 1 last year out of all of the states for Warrant Officer recruiting, which is one of his main focuses of his job. Quite an accomplishment. Benjamin made it about 15 minutes before he got bored and wanted to go play with some stuff. It was really nice to be able to talk face to face with the wife and see her smile and laugh at my dumb jokes. Talking on the phone is nice, but getting to see her and Benjamin in person is so much better. All in all, it was a great 30 minutes and that combined with the Husker W has me in a pretty good this Sunday morning.

Blackfive had a couple of posts this week that caught my eye. They are both charitable organizations that are supporting the troops over here. The first one is called Valour-IT. Here is a quick description:

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss (Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss' father), provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse.

Follow this link to get more information and/or make a donation. There are also updates every few days at Blackfives blog.

The second one that really caught my eye was a project called Snowball Express. This is an all expenses paid Christmas vacation for children that have lost a parent in the war.

Our goal is to make this holiday season as joyous an occasion as possible. The children and their surviving parent or guardian will fly to Southern California courtesy of Southwest Airlines, and will stay at hotels in Orange County that have been donated by corporations such as Marriott and Ayres, among others. Oakley World Headquarters is providing a party for the families, featuring an extreme sports show and major entertainment. The Crystal Cathedral will be hosting a special presentation of “The Glory of Christmas”. The weekend will end on a high note, with a full day at Disneyland/ California Adventure hosted by the Walt Disney Corporation.

You can go to their website at snowballexpress.org to donate. Check out the page called Why for a moving account on why the founder puts this together. Here is the summary post on Blackfive as well with some more information.

Husker Ramblings

2006-11-03T10:01:00.000+03:00

It may end up badly for us again, but we are on a hot streak with AFN. NU vs Mizzou will be televised, and again since it is an early game we will be able to watch it at 8:00 here. Now, the 3 games that AFN has picked up live are USC, Texas, and Okie St. Hmmm, coincidence? I am ignoring that they played Iowa State on tape delay as that doesn't help my argument. So part of me was hoping that they were going to not televise so we could break the streak.

I think the Huskers have some work to do this week. Obviously the balance of the season is resting on this game. I don't think must win quite covers it. The match up isn't a great one for us, as Missouri's spread offense may wreak havoc on our secondary and really challenge our linebackers. The front four is going to have to do a better job of penetrating and stopping the run, and the linebackers and secondary really need to show up for this game. Offensively we should be able to run the ball on Missouri, as Oklahoma looked to have some success against them last week without Peterson.

As far as last week's games, it really took a lot out of me. I kept waiting for the funk to lift all week so I could get excited for this game, but it still hasn't happened and the game is tomorrow. There is just something about the team basically shutting down that left me depressed. I still don't know why we went away from the run after the 1st quarter.

We were working out the other day and Scream was on the tv. There wasn't any sound but I was able to watch the first 20 minutes or so. Great horror movie, one of my favorites, and the opening scene is fantastic. Some say this reinvigorated Drew Barrymore's career. Anyway, the point of the story is that when you are battling a serial killer, and you get a nice heel stomp, head butt, or crotch punch in, you don't immediately run away. This never works. What you should do in this situation is seize the advantage, and seek to crush a windpipe, break a skull, or reign down repeated blows on the assailant before stealing his knife, stabbing him in the heart, and saving the day. Analogy time: this is what the Husker team seems to be lacking this year. We can score some points and get up early, but then we try to run away and crawl through the doggie exit in the garage door. (BTW, there is no way that a garage door could lift a person, even one as small as Rose McGowan, much less crush them to death again the garage). Next time we are up by 17 points early (tomorrow I hope), the gloves need to come off. We need to start breaking some stuff, and not go away from what got us the lead. Take that knife and put it firmly in the chest like a TO coached team liked to do.

The other thing that bothered me after the game was Billy C's attitude. The whole, "All of our goals are still intact" speil is starting to get old for me. While technically correct, it lacks the aforementioned killer instinct. I'd rather hear a Jim Mora profanity laced tirade about how the coaching was atroucious, our guys weren't ready, and we got beat but a second class citizen of the no so Big this year 12. Big 12 North titles are for the Kansas States and Missouris of the world, National Championships are what the Huskers should be focused on. Do I think we have the talent this year to compete for a National Title? No way. But that doesn't stop the focus and the attitude being on more than just winning the North and getting another shot at Texas and hopefully playing decent and not getting blown out. It is a subtle difference in my mind. If we do end up winning the North, playing well in the title game, and getting a decent bowl game, that would be a decent season. But we should want more. We should want to go on the road against teams like Okie St and Iowa St. and take care of business, leave no doubt that we are in the elite and they aren't. Beat them into submission. Let them know this is how you play if you want to compete in Division 1.

Well, that is all I have to say about that. We are going to do burgers and italian sausage on the grill tomorrow, so that should help. And by we I mean SSG Johnson, he is the NCOIC of grilling operations due to his superb showing so far this year. There is also a rumor of some semi-famous nacho dip being involved as well. The one good thing we have going for us it that SFC Kerchal's wife sent us some Misty's seasoning so that can only be a good omen. Go Big Red.

John Kerry is an Idiot - Part 2

2006-11-02T21:22:00.000+03:00

This is a little higher quality picture of the now infamous pic from Irak. Drudge has it as his top story currently. The headline is "GIs drop smart bomb on Kerry: hilarious heroes fire back over dem and dumber crack about Iraq. I like it.

Why do I post this again you ask? Because if you open it up and zoom in, you will notice the Red Bull insignia of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. Yup, you got it, our higher headquarters for this deployment was involved in picture-gate. Pretty sweet. Generally we have a love/hate (I can't tell a lie, it is probably hate/hate) relationship with Brigade as they are our higher and, well, nobody in the military likes their higher. I am lucky in that I get along with all of the JAG people at Brigade, but I can't say the same for the rest of the unit, and I'm sure they would say the same about the (insert expletive here) Cav. Anyway, I've never been more proud to be associated with the Red Bulls than I am today. It even went so far that the head honchos down in Baghdad sent out some talking points about the picture. Rest assured that everybody knows it is a joke and nobody will be punished in any way.

I guess Mr. Waffle decided to apologize, kindof. Here is what he said.

"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended," he added.

Man, this guy can't even apologize right. I regret that my words were misinterpreted? Not much of an apology in my book. I think he is saying that we in the military are too dumb to realize that he isn't really apologizing and is also saying that we weren't hip enough to get the joke. We get it John. Now go back to Massachusetts again please. The last 2 years have been nice without you.

Random Pics and Chuck Norris

2006-11-02T07:28:00.000+03:00

Blogger and I made up and are friends again so I was able to post some of the pictures I wanted to put up on the last few posts.

You may have to click on this one to enlarge it but this is what some of the troops over here think about Mr. Kerry.

Thick and tasty!

I got this emailed to me from a couple of different people last week. Just an awesome pic of the Star City and Ol' Grandma.

Wings and beer! Dan sent me this picture from the NU vs Texass game, which happened to coincide with B's birthday. The report is that good times were had by all.

Guess who showed up in Iraq this week? Chuck Frickin' Norris!!!
This pic is from one of the other Brigade paralegals who is at a different FOB out west. Unfortunately, they didn't allow him to travel to our neck of the woods, as he would have roundhouse kicked the insurgency into the middle ages where they belong and the war would have been over. Did you know that Chuck is now a columnist at WorldNetDaily? You can find his first article here. Chuck is actually a Christian and speaks about the recent Chuck Norris Facts phenomenon and his beliefs, so that is pretty neat. I would think that the mainstream media will have a hard time attacking him for his Christianity, as nobody wants to get a roundhouse to the face. After all a study showed the leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart disease, 2. Chuck Norris, 3. Cancer

John Kerry is an Idiot

2006-11-01T21:43:00.000+03:00

I'm sure that by now everyone has heard of the remarks made by Senator and almost President John "Heinz" Kerry. Omaha.com does a nice job with lots of good quotes. (Completely off topic, but if you love America you should buy Hunt's Ketchup, a fine ConAgra brand, instead of Heinz. Do a blind taste test and you will agree that Hunts is a thicker, better tasting ketchup and more affordable. And you will be supporting hard working Midwesterners like myself and not East Coast socialities like the Heinz-Kerrys. I tried to upload a sweet picture of a Hunt's bottle but Blogger is not behaving tonight so you'll have to come up with a mental image instead. End of commercial). To quote him:

Kerry told a college crowd Monday: "You know education, if you make the most of it, and you study hard, and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Excuse me? Now, since I wasn't born with the last name of ketchup or hotel chain I was forced to go to a public university and not an ivy league school. That may not rate very high in John's book but I am awfully proud of my degree that the Army helped me pay for. I also don't have a law degree like "the waffle" but I did earn an MBA while working full time (and no, SSG Johnson, I didn't buy it online either so stop telling people that). I'm sure that wouldn't impress Johnny boy either since it came from a pedestrian university in the Midwest. It isn't like I'm unique either. There are lots of educated people in our unit, and a good chunk of the guys were either enrolled in college back home or are working on distance learning here in their limited spare time. So to say that everyone over here is stupid and uneducated is a bit of a stretch.

He has since retracted the comment and said it was botched joke aimed at the President and he didn't mean anything by it. And of course accusing "right wing nut jobs" (he actually said that) of taking the quote out of context.

"I'm sorry that that's happened he said of his earlier comment. "But I'm not going to stand back from the reality here, which is, they're trying to change the subject. It's their campaign of smear and fear."

Right. For as smart and as educated as he is, you would think he would be able to tell a simple George W. is an idiot joke, I mean come on, you hear 10 of those a day from the mainstream media and the Hollywood elite. Surely it isn't that hard to get it right the first time for a Yalie and a lawyer. This to me typifies why people don't like this guy. Whether he meant it or not, it comes off as elitist, leftist, and, well, stupid. His response was typical as well. Cheney had this to say:

"Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it," Cheney said in a line meant to recall Bush's skewering of Kerry in their 2004 race for saying he had voted for war funds before he voted against them.

Well played Mr. VP, well played. You know that he has been waiting about 4 years to drop that line again. Howard Dean weighed in as well. This is a guy that I want in my corner after an embarrassing public moment.

"Bloopers happen," Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean told reporters in Burlington, Vt.

Pretty deep and insightful there Howard. Nice work. Bottom line, you said it John, so be a big boy, man up, and apologize to the troops that are in harms way, trying to do the right thing. Of course this rube will still think you are an idiot and continue to buy Hunts ketchup because it is the right thing to do (and the tasty way to do it).

Flags of Our Fathers

2006-10-31T22:43:00.000+03:00

Flags of Our Fathers opened this weekend here at LSA Anaconda. Our original plan was to go Sunday night, but due to a Husker hangover we pushed it back to last night. Wow. I had high expectations as I read the book on my way back to Iraq from leave and it was very moving. I think I'll go so far as to say that the movie does the book one better. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the movies tells the tale of the six soldiers involved in the flag raising on Iwo Jima during WWII. I have to admit that before reading the book and seeing the movie I didn't know much about either the flag raising or Iwo Jima. This is the story that the movie tells.

Iwo Jima was one of the costliest battles in the Pacific theater. 20,000 Japanese soldiers had built an underground fortified complex on the island, and were prepared to fight to the death. They knew that they could not win, but were prepared to die to slow the allied advance. It is estimated that 18,000 of the Japanese died in the 40 day battle. The allies desperately wanted this island to provide an air base for the planned upcoming invasion of Japan. Over 7,000 Americans were killed and another 15,000 wounded.

Early in the battle, the Marines fought inch by inch to take Mount Sirabachi, a volcano on one side. Once they had taken the hill, the picture above was taken. Immediately, the picture was recognized as an epic one, and was ran on the first page of every major newspaper which immediately sold out. The people responsible for the War Bond tours were desperate to raise enough money to keep the war going, and the decision was made to bring the soldiers that were still alive out of the battle field and back to the States to help raise money. On a side note, can you imagine if the gov't had to borrow money from civilians to pay for this war? I don't think we would have Baskin Robbins in the dfac or probably any bullets for that matter.

The movie tells essentially 3 different stories at the same time. The battle for Iwo Jima and the flag raising, the war bond tour, and then the author's search for what happened, as his father was one of the men in the picture. Some reviews that I read knocked the movie as confusing due to the constant era changes, but I thought it was easy to follow, although that could have been because I read the book recently.

I really can't say enough good things about this film. It was very faithful to the book, I didn't notice one thing that I thought was missing or mis-represented. The acting was phenomenal. Ryan Phillipe has really grown up as an actor and carried the movie as John Bradley, a Navy Corpsman and the authors father. When I first heard that he was the star I thought there is no way Sebastian is going to pull this off, but I should have know better than to doubt Dirty Harry. Adam Beach (you may have seen him in Windtalkers) delivers a haunting performance as Ira Hayers, a Navajo Marine. Barry Pepper, the sniper from Saving Private Ryan and a young Joe Galloway in We Were Soldiers, is very solid in a supporting role as Marine sergeant Mike Strank.

The battle scenes are terrifying, very similar to the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan. The conditions on the island were absolutely horrendous, as the invasion force had no cover and were shelled with machine guns, mortars, artillery, and small arms fire. They had no where to go but straight into the fire so to speak. But, this movie is different from Saving Private Ryan in that there isn't the climatic battle scene. Instead, the real impact of the movie for me was watching the soldiers on the war bond tour. They were hailed as heroes and celebrities and were taken from town to town to help raise money, literally just weeks after the battle ended with the horrors of the war still fresh in their mind. Although relieved to be out of the war and safe at home, the soldiers share the feeling that they aren't heroes, they were simply doing their job, and the real heroes are lying dead on an island in the middle of the Pacific.

One scene in particular really drove the point home. One of the soldiers said that he wasn't a hero, he was simply trying not to get shot. He saw things, and did things, that no person should ever have to do. He wonders if his sergeant would be ashamed at some of the things he was forced to do. Keep in mind that these young men fought and survived the bloodiest battle of the Pacific campaign but felt guiltily about their role.

I guess that is how I feel at times. I'm in the rear with the gear, so to speak, and although still in a hostile area, I pretty much go about my day without a care in the world other than how long the line is going to be for chow today. I don't mean to say that I want to be in harms way, I'm perfectly happy here at my little desk with internet access making sure the legal operations of the 1-167th Cav are running smoothly. Every role, even the desk jockeys like me, are needed to keep our guys that are doing the fighting, killing, and dying equipped and ready. But, to say that I'm at war or in combat is a little bit of a misnomer. Sure the guy in the next village over keeps tyring to hit me with mortars, but he isn't a very good shot so the odds are pretty low of that actually happening. My biggest hardship is the separation from my family, other than that I don't have it too bad. Luckily, I don't think they'll be asking me to go on tour as a hero anytime soon to raise money. I'm still proud of my service over here, but there are definitley many more that have sacrificed much, much more than me. And they are the true heroes.

NY Times + Omaha = Love

2006-10-30T19:12:00.000+03:00

I can honestly say that I never expected to read anything good in the NY Times about O-Town. I signed up awhile back to get the daily headlines from the NY Times emailed to me (lots of interesting stuff from the center of the Universe). Imagine my surprise when the following op-ed piece by Richard Dooling appeared in my inbox. The full story is here. The article addresses the falling real estate prices around the country (the topic du jour for the sky is falling crowd) and suggests that one solution is to cash out of the coast lifestyle and find a new home in the Midwest. Some highlights:

What if it is time to cash out? Where do you go? If you sell on either coast, then you need to find real estate somewhere that the housing bubble missed. Guam? American Samoa? Wait, how about eastern Nebraska? Downright frothless when it comes to housing: the median home price here usually chugs along at the annual rate of inflation and never goes down (up 4 percent last year, up 22 percent over the last five years).

Before you recoil in horror at the thought of living in Omaha, a city of 414,000 souls, consider that this year Money magazine ranked it seventh of the nation's 10 best big cities to live in, ahead of New York City, which ranked 10th. O.K., now you may recoil in horror.

So, why do people live in a state with high taxes, no mountains, no ocean beaches, no lakes to speak of, no major professional sports teams, no grand old museums or dazzling science centers? The three answers you hear most often from Nebraskans are: (1) quality of life; (2) good schools; (3) wouldn't moving be kind of a bother?

Surprising stuff. Now, there are some jabs at us simple Midwestern folks, which is to be expected, but all in all is a decent read. Of course, if you are reading this, live in New York, and are actually thinking about moving to Nebraska, don't do it. You won't like it. We don't want you. See, we aren't all that friendly. Unless of course your name is Ol' Buddy B than you are welcome any time.

Here is some other stuff I've been accumulating from around the web:

Dance your cares away. Worry is for another day. Let the music play. Down in Fraggle Rock. Yup, there is a movie is on the way. I think we'll be there on opening night.
This article is on everyone's favorite topic. Regardless of your stance on immigration, this should make you laugh. Or maybe not, but I laughed so there.
Paint ball guns are for sissies. We need armor!

Tomorrow is Halloween of course. Benjamin is daddy's little scarecrow and is quite the cutie. I am going to dress up as a Legal NCO for the first half of the day. Then my costume will be an out of shape sweaty guy at the gym. That is about it. Not really a trick or treat kind of town where I'm at, so you can rule that out. I'm sure there will be something good at the chow hall though. Enjoy your holiday and stay safe.

CNN Sucks

2006-10-27T19:14:00.000+03:00

Most of you that know me know that I am fairly even tempered and rarely get excited about much. Well, I've been excited for over a week since I saw the news that CNN was airing a video showing insurgent snipers shooting our troops. In the name of "journalistic integrity", they have chosen to air video that they secured from our sworn enemy. I haven't seen it, and won't see it, but from the description it depicts the insurgents laying in wait for our soldiers, planning their shot, praying to Allah for help, and then shooting, possibly killing, the soldiers that are protecting CNN's right to free speech. I am really at a loss to understand who thought this was a good idea. That video is of someone's son or daughter that is serving their country voluntarily (they may not have volunteered for this mission but they volunteered to join the Armed Forces). Can you imagine if that was your son/daughter/husband/father/brother/etc, and you either saw it flipping through the channels or someone emailed you the video off the internet? Is knowing the pain that this will cause to Americans worth the story and the ratings? I guess the answer is yes if you work at CNN.

You can read CNN's response here if you can stomach it. You have to scroll down a little bit, as Madonna's adoption is now the top story (who else besides me could care less about Madonna stealing a baby from some father that doesn't speak English). Some of the highlights are:

Of course, we also understood that some might conclude there is a public relations benefit for the insurgents if we aired the material, especially on CNN International.

You think? Wow, I'm glad that we have this kind of brain power behind this network. Of course, the media could care less about aiding and abetting the enemy, so I don't know why I'm surprised.

We also understood that this kind of footage is upsetting and disturbing for many viewers. But after getting beyond the emotional debate, we concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.

Substitute "ratings" for "newsworthiness" and I think you have something here. I've got an idea, how about we air some counter-footage of some of our snipers doing their thing? I bet that our guys are at least 10 times as accurate and deadly as the insurgent hacks. That would be still be upsetting and disturbing, but the question is would it help push CNN's agenda?

That decision, as well as the decision to build a piece around the sniper tape -- in fact, all the decisions about this story -- were subject to hours of intense editorial debate at the highest levels here at CNN.

Oh, well at least you thought about it first. I guess that makes it okay. I'm sure the mothers of the 10 soldiers that took a round for you, Mr. Highest Level of CNN, won't mind the footage of her son being shot by the enemies of America shown to the whole world.

Blackfive, who is one of the most well read military bloggers out there, has a nice summary with a little stronger language than I used. You can check it out here if you don't mind a little profantiy.

I for one will not ever watch a minute of CNN again. Ever.

Best Movie of the Year?

2006-10-25T19:46:00.000+03:00

I've seen a lot of movies during this deployment. From the train up at Shelby, where we would watch DVDs in the barracks, to the flight over here on the plane, to the MWR tent in Kuwait, and finally here at the Sustainer Theater, I would guess that I've seen, oh, maybe 100 movies. Some of these I had seen before and was rewatching, but many were new.

I think that I am ready to declare my pick for best movie of the year. Drumroll please. And the winner goes to... The Departed! We saw this Sunday night, and it was phenomenal. It was supposed to open Friday, but we got hosed by the powers to be deciding to have military American Idol at the theater instead of the movie. Jerks. The story was interesting, lots of suspense, and the acting was unbelievably good. Damon and Dicaprio are the leads, and both are outstanding. I haven't been a Leo fan since the Basketball Diaries, but he is really, really convincing in this role. Marky Mark is also great. Jack is Jack, and Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin round out the cast very well. This isn't necessarily a family movie due to the violence (think Goodfellas) but it is definitely something you should check out.

Flags of Our Fathers opens Friday night here so we are definitely going to check that out as well. I read the book on the way back over here from leave, and it was really well written and I hear the movie is outstanding as well. It tells the story of the battle for Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of WWII. It focuses on the image of the flag raising, and the story of the soldiers that participated. I have the Rotten Tomaotes web site linked on the right, if you are ever curious about how the critics are rating movies you should make this your first stop. What they do is they pull in most of the movie reviews for a particular movie and aggregate the ratings to give you an idea of what the critics are saying. This is nice becomes sometimes one critic doesn't give you the whole story, and with this website you can see all of the ratings at a glance. Anything over a 70% approval is considered "fresh", anything under is "rotten." For example, The Departed is a 92 and the Grudge 2 is an 8. That gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Another good website for movies that the Hammer clued me into was the Internet Movie Database IMDB, also linked at right. What I like about this is that it has some really nice links between movies, actors, directors, etc. If you are trying to figure out what movies someone has been in you can just search and then follow their career. From there you can see who else has been in movies with them, what they have directed, etc, etc.

Good news from Iraq! AFN is doing us a solid and picked up the NU vs Okie State game, so another Husker party is in the works. It will be 1030 pm our time, so not too bad. I would think if both us and Mizzou win and stay in the top 25 than that game next week will get picked up as well. Actually we have a good shot at getting A&M and CU too. Good times will be had by all, provided of course we pull in a few Ws. No room for mistakes at this point of the season.

Another Heartbreak, Texas Style

2006-10-22T10:51:00.000+03:00

I think I read somewhere that sometimes talking about your pain is an effective technique to help get over intense times of grief. So, I am going to attempt it. My first thought this morning when I got up was that I was going to pretend like yesterday never happened. But denial never helped anyone. I am going to post some pictures from our grill out and party first and then share my thoughts on the game, so those of you that don't care about the Skers can check out early.

As mentioned, the game was on AFN at 1900 here in Iraq. Now, when the game is on at 0300 only the diehards show up. For a prime time game, especially between 2 ranked teams, the fans come out of the woodwork. Our First Sergeant (head enlisted over HHT), 1SG Cleveland, organized an outdoor barbeque out on the patio that he just built. They had it all, brats, burgers, chips, salad, pop, NA beer, and 2 flat screens to watch the game on. The S1 showed up in force of course, we even picked up some nice steaks to get our grill on. You can find more pictures on Hammer's blog as well.

This is an early shot of the patio and people starting to gather. I'm checking out College Football Gameday, one of my favorite shows.

Beans and MAJ T running "Grill Zilla." This has been MAJ T's pet project while we've been here.

Another shot of Grill Zilla. This has been entirely fashioned from spare parts found around the base here. The grill on the left is a rotisseire and the one on the right is a charcoal grill. We cooked our steaks on the little Webers up front to avoid the brat and burger backup.

SSG Johnson, me, and the Hammer enjoying a NA beer and a cigar.

More people gathering and getting close to game time.

Steaks on the grill!

SSG Johnson was the grill master, and my t-bone was..... you guessed it, Awesome! Best cut of meat I've had in Iraq without a doubt. We even timed it perfectly so that we started eating right before kickoff and finished up just as the game started.

By the time the game got started I bet there were close to 30 people gathered around the tv. It was a fun way to watch an entertaining, although heartbreaking game. For me, this one ranks right up there with any of our Texass losses as far as pain. I felt after the game like somebody had dug my heart out of my chest with a dull spoon. I almost threw up at the end I was distraught. In no particular order, here is what I thought was good and bad about the game:

The Positives

Unlike Solich coached teams, Callahan's teams are always in games. I remember a time where if we got down by more than 7 the game was all but over. In this game I wasn't nervous being down in the 4th quarter as we can move the ball when the game is on the line.
Brandon Jackson is a stud. That TD was phenomenal against a great Texas defense. We watched in disbelief as the TV coverage switched to his brother during the run. Hammer and I were discussing and can't remember that ever happening before. Ever.
Halftime adjustments were outstanding. The second quarter was pretty sad as far as pass protection and run blocking, but the second half was entirely different. Taylor with time to throw is a good thing. Night and day picking up the blitz and pass rush.
I was really impressed with our defense. They kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win. Lots of big stops when we really needed them. Texas was leading the nation in points scored per game and Blackshirts kept them off their game for the majority of the game.
I wish I could have been there in person, because it sounded like the crowd was a loud of any in recent memory from start to finish.
I thought the play calling was solid, it was clear early that we weren't going to be able to run right at them, so we threw the ball more. I was worried we were going to keep trying to pound the rock but we had to take what the defense was giving. Once the pass pro help up we were then able to move the ball and then work some nice runs in.
I liked the pass call on the last 3rd down. If you complained that Cally was too conservative the last few weeks, then you can't complain that he wanted to seal the victory. The fumble sucked but I don't think the play call was the problem here. I went back and forth on this, as punting to them with less than 2 minutes and no timeouts would have tough for them to score, but this is Texas and if we are 2 yards away from the win, I say go for it.

The Negatives

Special teams. Wow. For this late in the season we had some bonehead plays that could have (and maybe did) cost us the game.
Turnovers. Goes without saying that they killed us.
Dropped passes. A couple of big ones that hurt us.
Penalties. Some dumb ones. We needed to be perfect and we weren't.
Clock management. No excuse for this at the end of the game. I don't know why we didn't call a timeout when they pushed the ball inside of the 10. At that point they are a chip shot away from going ahead, let's start calling timeout and save some clock.
I still can't believe that Texass threw the ball on 3rd down in double coverage. I know our corners are not very good but that is a risk that I wouldn't take. We came close to picking it off and ending the game. I really don't get it.
The return on the last play was lame, especially since we just needed 3 points. Run the ball right up the field and save the clock.
I am not going to let this go until someone confirms it for me. I think on the first hail mary, that the ball either hit Nunn in the hands or the helmet. Did anyone else see the same thing?

Bottom Line

3 Fumbles in the last 4 minutes (McCoy fumble on sack, Nunn fumble, Texass fumble on final drive). All go to Texas. Just one goes the other way, and we win. You can argue they got the bounces, but alot of it was good coaching and hustle. Cryer celebrates instead of seeing the ball and going after it. Nunn's ball goes right to the defense. On the last fumble, an o lineman is 15 yards down field to recover the fumble. That hurt.

I think in a few days I'll be able to see some positives. Like we stayed with the number 5 team and had a chance to win. We still control our destiny in the North. We proved we are back, somewhat. For me, I think the only consolation is that this loss was incredibly painful. This is a good thing I think. Back in the day, I took each loss personally and was sick for days after a loss. In the last 5 years, I've kind of gotten used to the Huskers getting beat in big games, small games, at home, to Kansas, whatever, and been able to respond with a shrug and a memory of better times in the past. Last night, the pain was back, which shows how far this team has come. So, back to work, gotta somehow put this one behind us, and get ready of Okie State next week. go big red (lower case due to my Husker hangover).

Weekend at the Movies

2006-10-20T07:17:00.000+03:00

I'm sure that most of you remember the Deal or No Deal post from some time ago. I hypothetically asked the question if there was a list somewhere of worst talk shows of all time. Sure enough, I stumbled across this article a few weeks ago. If you can think of it, it probably exists on the internet somewhere. The article is titled Talk Show Disasters, and here is how they broke it down:

The Queen Latifah Show
The Tony Danza Show
The Marsha Warfield Show (forgot about that one, wow)
The Caroline Rhea Show
The Chevy Chase Show
George and Alana
The Pat Sajak Show
The Magic Hour (!)
The Roseanne Show
The Tempest Bledsoe Show

No Howie?? I demand a recount!! The article has pictures and fun facts if you want a little more info on why exactly they picked these.

I also found quite a few lists of worst movie sequels ever. Sadly, Road House 2 didn't make any. Most likely this is because it is too new. Saying Alive is the top of This List from Entertainment Weekly. Caddyshack 2 had a strong finish at #2. The rumor is that they are making a Usual Suspects 2, which seems pretty unnecessary to me. I mean, seriously, the first movie is one of my favorite movies ever. What are they going to doing for a sequel? Have Verbal Kint pop up in some new town where they don't know him and play the same con? I don't get it. But, it goes to prove that if Hollywood thinks they can make a dime selling moviegoers a crappy product, they'll do it.

I'm pretty pumped for this weekend. The Departed is playing at the post theater tonight, so we are going to check that out. Since it is opening night, we'll have to get there early to get a seat. I've been waiting for this one since I saw the trailer while I was on leave. Sadly, The Grudge 2 has already passed it at the Box Office, which proves the point that a good movie isn't a requirement for a good showing at the box office. AFN picked up the NU vs Texass game for Saturday night. The PX had some t-bones, so we are going to take it up a notch and do some steaks before the game. The nice thing is the game is 7:00pm our time, so we don't even have to get up in the middle of the night. Should be fun. Go Big Red!

The Sandbox

2006-10-18T19:29:00.000+03:00

The folks that bring you Doonesbury have recently started a new blog called the Sandbox. Well, it isn't really a blog per se, but a collection of articles from different military folks downrange. In their own words:

Welcome to The Sandbox, our command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is GWOT-lit's forward position, offering those in-country a chance to share their experiences and reflections with the rest of us. The Sandbox's focus is not on policy and partisanship (go to our Blowback page for that), but on the unclassified details of deployment -- the everyday, the extraordinary, the wonderful, the messed-up, the absurd. The Sandbox is a clean, lightly-edited debriefing environment where all correspondence is read, and as much as possible is posted. And contributors may rest assured that all content, no matter how robust, is currently secured by the First Amendment.

I submitted a story last week and they decided to post it. You can find the Sandbox here. My story is currently on the top, but they post a few a day so it will start moving down the list. The permalink for my story is here. There is alot of good stuff out there, many different perspectives and experiences from people both here and in Afghanistan. Go check it out.

Game Day in Iraq

2006-10-15T10:20:00.000+03:00

The Husker season has really helped our time go by quickly here. Every game is a milestone, and with each Big Red victory we move one week closer to coming home. Between our fantasy football league and the college football games, we are hoping that the fall will fly by and it will be January before we know and time to start thinking about coming home.

I've mentioned this before (as have SGT Hanseling and SSG Johnson) that game days are still a big deal here. Due to the time change, the game was scheduled to start at 0210 our time. Ouch, worst possible scenario. Basically in the middle of the night, so sleep must be sacrificed in order to listen to the game. Plus the game was pay-per-view which meant no shot of AFN picking it up, which meant that we would listen to the game on Huskers.com. The S1 is semi-famous for having a pretty good showing at our late night parties, and our office has quickly become the place to be for the game.

SSG Johnson had the great idea this week to get our grill on. He bought some beef patties (at least we think it is beef) from the PX and then we snagged the buns, cheese, sides, etc. from the DFAC. I must admit, at first I was a little skeptical of how the whole thing would turn out. We can get burgers every day in the DFAC so it sounded like a lot of work for not much benefit. Let me be the first to say that I couldn't have been farther off. The burgers were fantastic. Our master chefs, SSG Johnson and SFC Kerchal, grilled them to perfection. Pics are below.

SSG Johnson getting the coals ready.

Our main dish.

Meat on the grill. My four favorite words.
We are talking about getting crazy next week and picking up some steak from the PX. It won't be a prime cut from Leon's but sometimes you have to make do. The sacrifices we make...

We should get the Texas game on AFN, and with the 1100 am start time we actually will be able to watch at a semi normal time (1900 IZ - we started our daylight savings time already so we are currently 8 hours ahead until you folks back in the States switch over). 3 weeks ago I would have said that the we didn't have much chance against Texas. I'm not so sure right now. Here is what I think we have working for us. Our game plan the last few weeks has been to grind the ball on the ground, build an early lead, stop the run, and force the other team to throw it every down. Texas's run attack has not been dominant, and I think we have a good shot of shutting down the run early, forcing their freshman qb to beat us at Ol' Grandma. If we have success with the pass rush I think we have a shot of taking the game into the 4th quarter, where it is anybody's ball game. If we can stay in the game until the 4th quarter, I like our odds at home.

I was surprised to see Missouri get beat by Texas A&M and Colorado hammer Texas Tech. I'll say this about the rest of the season, you can't point at one game on the schedule and say it is a gimmie win. I think we'll see a lot more games this year like the last few, tightly contested games whether on the road or at home. We need to be ready to play every week or we'll get beat. One thing to remember is that we aren't the Huskers of the mid 90s, so going on the road and getting a win is a big deal, whether we win by 18 or 80. It would be nice to see us put some of the teams away after building an early lead, but I think Coach Cally is content at this point to keep the offense simple and let the defense win games. The only problem with that is our porous secondary, the opponents are only 1 play away from a big td at anytime. I don't know about you, but if I was a Husker defensive coach, I would be scared to death by Okie State and Adarius Bowman. He had 300 yards receiving and 4 touchdowns this week against KU (see story on ESPN.com.) 300 yards!!! 4 touchdowns!!! Do you think they like the Jones/Grixby matchup? I'm having nightmares already.

I mentioned this before but I really like it when Iowa loses. Especially to Indiana. Ouch. Georgia losing to Vanderbilt was pretty crazy as well. Hated to see Adrian Peterson get hurt for the rest of the season. Bad deal. So, I was watching the end of the Florida - Auburn game last night. Great comeback by Auburn. On a side note, I picked the upset. I also won our weekly Husker pick 'em for the second time to become the first 2 time winner and undisputed champion. When you factor in that I missed 3 weeks while home on leave you will better understand my dominance. I am predicting that I will every week from here on out. Starting with the Husker upset next week! Anyway, back to the Auburn game. So Auburn is up by 4 and the last play of the game is Florida making an attempt at the old lateral, shovel, pitch play to score a touchdown. They end up fumbling the ball and Auburn picks it up and takes it to the house (they don't play). Meaningless points, right? Not so fast my friend. Immediately my thoughts go to the industry that is college football gambling. Florida was favored so no impact to the spread. But I am thinking to myself that there is no way that play didn't impact the over/under. Sure enough, Hammer told me this morning that the over/under was 40 points, and this play moved the game from "under" status to "over" status. (For you non-gamblers out there you can bet on the total points scored by both teams and whether it will be over or under a certain number, in this case 40 points). I had visions of guys with their mortgage payment on the unders thinking they are golden until the last second of the game, and then screaming at the tv for the defender to just take a knee. Priceless. The good thing is they can just double their bet on a few NFL games, and then when they lose those bet the farm on Monday Night Football. Someone is going to end up homeless becuase of this one hook and ladder play.

Pictures from Leave - 5

2006-10-11T18:52:00.000+03:00

Benjamin and I hanging out in the kitchen.

LC's BBQ in Kansas City. We went to KC for a night, hit the Plaza and Worlds of Fun, but the highlight of the trip was eating at LCs. On your next trip to KC I highly recommend that you stop here and get lunch. It isn't cheap or clean, but the food is outstanding. You won't be disappointed. Once you've had brisket from here, you won't be able to eat it anywhere else for some time.

Veggie tales before night-night.

Benjamin and Buddy on the slide at the park.

Anaconda 10 Miler and Stetson Update

2006-10-09T11:02:00.000+03:00

I'm sure everyone back home has been anxiously waiting to find out how the Anaconda (Army) 10 miler went. I am pleased to announce that the race was a complete success. First of all, SSG Johnson decided Friday morning while shaving that he was going to run as well, even though he hadn't really been training. I think he was on the fence a little bit on Sunday, but due to the constant negativity from some of our co-workers that he couldn't do it and he was stupid for trying (I'm paraphrasing here) he was committed by the time we went to bed Saturday. In spite of only running up to 4 miles at once prior, he ran with me the whole way, and it was really nice to have someone to talk with for the entire run. So give Brad a big hand for crushing the 10 miles like a pro. There were over 500 people running, which was about 4oo more than last year, they even ran out of race numbers they had so many people sign up.

As I mentioned before, I was hoping to run in less than 90 minutes (9:00/mile pace). With the help of my trusty Garmin Forerunner (a GPS enable device that gives you pace/distance/time updates by the second), we started out just under 9:00. We actually were able to slightly improve for the first few miles, and were running closer to 8:30 by mile 4. I had thought that due to not having run over 4 miles for about a month that about the 6 mile mark I would start to get tired and slow down, but that didn't happen for me until close to the 8.5 mile mark. By that time we were so close to finishing that I was able to power through it. We came it at 1:25:53, which worked out to an 8:35 pace. To top it all off, I wasn't even really sore afterwards and feel fine today, with the exception of a small blister on one toe. All in all, it was a great event. By the time we finished eating, showering, and getting ready, it was game time for our tape delayed Husker game. We successfully avoided hearing the score and were able to watch at 10:00 am our time. Good performance by the Huskers, I think that anytime you can go on the road in the Big 12 and get a W, it is a good thing. Cosgrove must have read my post last week because he definitely mixed it up with some pressure and even some dime defense. I'm sure that was I was the only one that noticed this and commented on it, so you have me to thank for the defense performance. We've already started emailing AFN to try to get the K-State game picked up. Wish us luck there.

SSG Johnson and I at the finish line.

These medics ran the entire race in this gear. PTs and running shoes are for sissies!

I am also pleased to report that my Stetson has arrived (see previous post here). Our New Jersey unit has a connection with the Stetson guys so we get a discount. Now, it comes looking like an Amish hat, so there is some work involved in getting it to look like a Cavalry Stetson. SFC Kerchal and CSM Hall helped me out. I can't tell you too much about it, that would be like David Blaine giving up the secret to how he levitates. I will say there is an industrial steamer, tomahawks, chicken parts, and horse hair involved, but that is all I can say.

Here is the Stetson. Inexplicably, the Flying Squirrel diagram is still on Hammer's white board, even though it happened like 4 months ago. Obviously he either doesn't have enough to work to do or is holding on this former glory. Because of too many incidents like this, the diving boards are closed, which means we pretty much quit going to the pool.

SFC Kerchal and I looking cool. Sabers ready!