Mr. Mister and His New Best Friend, Online Chaplain

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 Those roles have been replaced by soldier-sergeant-legal guy-buddy.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.

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

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

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!

Christmas Poem

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."

Husker Volleyball - Final Four

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.

Thanksgiving in Iraq

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.

VTC and Two Good Causes You Can Support

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.

Trip to the Zoo

More pictures from while I was home. We took a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo with my family. The weather was great and we had a fun time. The only negative of the day was that we had a flat tire and had to drive there on our spare tire, which is a donut, while the other one was getting repaired. The bad thing was we took the interstate, and could only go 50mph. The trip there wasn't bad, but on the way back we counted two people giving us the finger and 2 honked horns (all by truckers). We did make it home safely though.

Me, Bonnie (my brother's wife), Benjamin, Rik, and Jeff on the carousel. Ben loves the carousel, as soon as he saw it he pointed and made his "I'm excited" sound, which is kindof a grunt but a happy one.

Benjamin touching the big globe. I think it was like 20 tons are somewhere in that vicinity.

The family with the gorillas.

My mom, Benjamin and me.

Me, Benjamin, and my dad by the fishes. Sorry I'm in so many of these.

Benjamin and I, Bonnie is in the background.

Good times were had by all.

Pictures from Leave - 4

Latest installment of pics from when I was home. I have like 200 of these (digital cameras rock!, thanks to my co-workers at ConAgra for hooking me up before I left) so this may take awhile to work through all of them.

Me and Rik on the way to the Nicholls State game. I wasn't drinking yet, that is my "I can't believe I'm in Lincoln on the way to Memorial Stadium with my wife" face.

Husker fan in the making. Benjamin celebrating the big win.

Pictures from Leave - 3

More pictures from my time at home. Here is the first picture I took. We stopped on the way home from the airport and picked up some co' beer. This is about 5 minutes after we got back to the house, tasty.

We had my family over the next night for pizza. My sister-in-law Bonnie made this cake. It was also as tasty as it was patriotic. Did I mention that I gained 7 pounds while I was home? This cake, along with my mom's carrot cake that she brought over, were partially responsible.

Benjamin driving his car. I can't think of a way to work tasty in here. This kid likes the car and his wagon a lot. I also got him a bubble mower while I was home that he really likes to push around. We'll have him on the real mower by this time next year I'm sure.

So, I mentioned yesterday that AFN, our 10 channel cabel provider, was carrying the Husker game. Burnham went out late yesterday to check what channel the game was on and said he couldn't find it. At first I wasn't worried because I figured he had it screwed up. Then SSG Johnson went out and couldn't find it. At this point we were in full panic mode. The Hammer found a link on the AFN website that said the game had been pre-empted for, get this, the Astros/Braves baseball game due to the MLB playoff implications. Are you kidding me? So the St. Louis Cardinals September meltdown and complete inability to close out the Astros is costing me a Husker game on TV in Iraq? It is not like we can just run down to Brewsky's and have some wings and a pitcher. I haven't been this angry since Kiley and Booms went off the air.

All was not lost however. We can get the radio broadcast on Huskers.com, so we still got up at 0230 and came into the office to listen to the game. I only have this to say about the game, we need to do 1 of 2 things. Either come up with a pass rush from the front 4, or get the heck out of our base defense. From what we could gather we basically sat back in the zone all night and let KU pick us apart. At some point (like after KU passed the 500 yards of total offense mark) you've got to start making some adjustments. Also, our secondary isn't very good. But you knew that already. Brad made the comment that we really gave our upcoming opponents some good film to watch to spot our weak points. Should make the rest of the season interesting.

Some other observations from around the NCAA:

I love seeing Iowa lose. Couldn't be happier. I don't like anything about this team. Nothing makes me smile more than knowing that Sheldon, Lisa, Tanya, and John will be crying themselves to sleep tonight. Ha ha. Ohio State should march into the Michigan game unbeaten barring a meltdown as they have a pretty cake Big 10 schedule, but this team doesn't look to be one that will overlook any opponents. They don't inspire the kind of awe that last years Texas or USC teams did but I really don't see anyone beating them. We could up with Ohio State vs West Virginia title game this year, which would be pretty lame. Michigan looked solid. Not quite as good as my Michigan dynasty team on NCAA Football 2007 but close.

I read something funny on deadspin.com (which you should check out if you like sarcastic sports commentary and is quickly becoming one of my new favorite websites). Someone posted during the Michigan State - Illinois game that Michigan State was 12:09 away from being kicked out of Division 1. I feel bad for their fans, they let a huge win against Notre Dame slip away last week and then lost to Illinois, the Big 12 doormat, at home. Ouch.

Colorado has lost 9 games in a row dating back to last year. Double ouch. They'll probably still play us tough though. Iowa State needed a 4th quarter comeback to beat Northern Iowa, a I-AA school. In a sign of how far our program has fallen, we haven't won in Ames since 2000. We are going to start emailing AFN today to get that game on as ABC has picked it up for the 7:00 game next week (regional coverage), hopefully as a makeup for getting jobbed this week at the last minute.

Arizona State got crushed for the second week in a row. I wonder if they miss Sam Keller? Rudy Carpenter threw 4 interceptions last week and was 6 of 19 for 33 yards this week with 1 interception. 33 yards!!!! And Keller is running our scout team.

Pictures from Leave - 2

Here are some more pics from my trip home. This is Benjamin at the park. He is getting ready to go down the slide.
This is me and my brother on the deck, drinking a beer. You will probably notice that he has lost like 30 pounds since the last picture I posted from Camp Shelby. I can still kick his butt though. He was able to switch his MOS (military occupation specialty) from Infantryman to Medic, so that is a good thing. Although he won't be in the Cav now which is probably for the best, the medic job will have some more opportunities on the civilian side. We had to retake the picture because I didn't have any shoes on and he had boots on, so in the first one he was about 3 inches taller than me, which is of course not accurate. I simply couldn't have that on film for the record. Here is one that same night of my wife (aka the beautiful girl) and me. We really had a fantastic time on leave. I was lucky enough to be able to spend all of my time with her and Benjamin. Most of the time was spent just hanging out around the house, running errands, pretty much just enjoying out time together. The grandparents were great coming over to babysit as well so that we could have some time for the two of us. I have a new appreciation for what a stay at home mom goes through. Mr. B is pretty demanding as far as his needs and keeps you pretty busy throughout the day. It is really hard to get anything else done because he needs constant attention. I'm pretty sure that the wife has the more difficult job of the two of us on this deployment.

15 Days of Freedom and Fun

This will be my last post for a little while, sometime soon I'll be heading back home for my 15 day leave. Yea! So, I won't be updating the Blog, with the exception of 9/11. As I mentioned before, I am doing a tribute for one of the victims of the attack, so please stop by on the 11th to remember what we all lost on that day. I got a great email this week from a fellow soldier of mine. He is a former Nebraska JAG that now lives down South. He was actually stationed here for a while doing lawyer stuff. The thought of the day he emailed me was:

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM. I was humbled by this thought.

Good stuff. Well, I'll hopefully talk to most of you in person shortly. Have a great labor day.

How I Got the Nickname Sack: A Love Story

Some time ago I was asked how I got the nickname Sack. Well, I think it is about time to tell the story. You may want to grab a Coke and a bag of popcorn, this may take some time. I need to give you a little bit of back story first and I'm sure there will be a few side trips along the way.

So, there I was, a young freshman at the University of Nebraska. In high school I worked at the Don and Millie's in Omaha. Upon moving to Lincoln for school, I was able to transfer to the D&M in Edgewood. At the time, I was kind of a punk and thought I knew everything. Plus the Omaha store I worked at was the busiest in town so I did actually know everything. Brian was the resident cool guy so we had a few run ins at the beginning as he was stuck in his small town ways and I was simply trying to hook him up with some better process flow. Luckily, we moved past our differences quickly after uniting over a few Blue and Chromes. I think that night that sealed our friendship was an after hours party at the apartment I shared with my sister Mindy. Why my sister let me move in with her I still don't know, but it was pretty cool not having to live in the dorms. This particular night, we didn't have any firewood for our fireplace. So, Brian and I went out on a recon mission and "borrowed" some from our neighbors (kids don't try this at home). After running through that, we had an old rocking chair that was in poor repair. We decided to smash that up and use it as firewood. Good stuff there. The rest, as they say, is history. After that time Brian and I were the best of friends.

Now, I'm a little hazy on the actual timeline, but I think we need to fast forward about 6 months. When I first started at Don and Millie's, one of my first shifts I believe, I met the most beautiful girl in the world. At this time I decided that she would be mine, oh yes, she would be mine. By winter time, there was a whole group of us that were hanging out together. We would all (me, B, Criztoval Gunitoa Sanchez, T/D-Huh, Beautiful Girl, and any others that were around) close on Friday nights and then go party. We would fill up a 320z drink cup with frozen strawberry margarita to go and be on our way. Tip of the day: if you own a business that sells alcohol don't ever leave a 19 year old in charge, no matter how mature they may seem. Seriously, don't do it. Often times we went to the beautiful girl's house because she had 3 roommates and people old enough to buy us beer. But, the key is we usually all hung out together. I had to open Saturday morning so I usually got the worst end of the deal, we would stay out until all hours of the night and then I had to be up at 7:00. Everyone else got to sleep in and then laugh at me when they came in somewhat well rested later in the day and could see that I looked like I had slept in a dumpster and then ran 6 miles to work. Jerks.

Now, the group slowly started to disintegrate on Friday nights when B broke up with his high school girlfriend. I may have been partly responsible due to the time that I was driving to work and I saw her and B driving in her car. I honked and waved and got no repsonse. I was a little bit miffed, so when I saw B later that night, I was all like, whats up with the no wave. And he was all like what are you talking about. And I said I saw you and your girl driving on 10th street. He said, I wasn't on 10th street. Uh oh. So of course when he confronted her later I ended up being the bad guy, like it was my fault for being nice. Things were never the same after that. Which worked out good for me because I didn't like her anyway. She was one of B's 16 exs at the hospital the night I stabbed him, I'm sure to this day she is convinced that I did it on purpose. Which I did so she would be right. Hey, I won right? Okay, back to the story. So Brian and T-bone started seeing each other that winter/spring. There was then pressure to hang out at Ts place because it was right across the street from ol' D and M. A lot of nights I had to choose between my plan to continue to woo the beautiful girl and hanging out with B. Some nights we all hung together, some nights we split up. This particular night, the night I was glossed the Sack, was one of the nights we went our seperate ways.

On the night in question, we were doing the usual, playing presidents and assholes, drinking cheap beer, making fun of people from Wyoming, and talking about the freakin' National Champion Husker football team (we won 2 national titles my first 2 years at UNL by the way, coincidence, I think not). The beautiful girl was hungry, and wanted to make the requisite trip to Amigos for a midnight soft taco. I don't remember if I was hungry or not because there was nothing that was going to stop me from driving her there and buying her tacos, in the hopes that she would fall madly in love with me and I could move out of the dreaded friends zone. I think there were others in the car but can't remember who else was there. When we returned from our little trip to our horror Lincoln's finest were at the house handing out MIPs. Well, maybe not MIPs but that sounds better than telling everyone to go home. We of course cruised around for a while until the 5-0 had done their business. So by the time we got back, we had been gone about 2 hours.

Now we get back to the house, and get the run down of what we missed. We heard about the usual, somebody puked, somebody else got in a fight, somebody fell down the stairs, etc, etc. The one thing that was odd was that they kept getting prank phone calls from someone. They went along the lines of, "I want the Sack", "Gimme the Sack", "Where's the Sack?" You get the picture. Nobody had any idea who it was or why they were calling, other than the fact that the person was incredibly inebriated. Keep in mind this was before every infant was issued a cell phone at the hospital along with their shots and birth certificate and I don't remember there being caller ID but I could be wrong on that. I'm a little fuzzy on the actual turn of events, but I think eventually I answered the phone and realized that it was B and that for some reason I was the Sack. This is probably a little bit anti-climatic, but to this day I really don't know where he came up with it. I don't think he does either. I asked a few times and he could never give me an answer. But, the name stuck, and to my college buddies and Lincoln friends I will forever be known as the Sack. So there you have it, in 1500 words or less. You probably feel cheated having read all the way down here for me just to say I don't know but it is my blog so I'll do what I want. Plus I'm guessing most of you just skipped down the end anyway.

Another Kane Joins the Guard

Good news from the homefront. My younger brother Jeff has been working on getting into the Guard for a while now. About a week ago he jumped over his final hurdle and signed his enlistment contract. So, there will now be 2 Kane's in the Guard. Currently he is slotted to join the Cav as well, so we'll be in the same unit. Hopefully nobody will hold him being my brother against him. He doesn't ship for Boot Camp for a couple of months, so he is going to continue to work out and get ready to go. He said he has already been crushing the workouts and is ready to get after it. Hopefully it will work out so that he is graduating from boot camp after I get home so I can attend, and make him do pushups. This is a picture from my going away ceremony down at Camp Shelby. Wish Jeff luck if you see him around.

VTC and Birthday Cake

Yesterday was a neat day. The unit set up a Video Teleconference with the Lincoln Armory for Mother's Day, and I was lucky enough to be one of the soldiers that got to participate. I got 10 minutes to talk with Erika and Benjamin. I could see them great, but they said that they had a little bit of a hard time seeing me. There was a little bit of a delay, but overall it was very, very cool. The 10 minutes went by really fast, but being able to talk and see them was well worth it. Talking on the phone is great but being live is so much better. I really hope that I get another chance to do it again. Benjamin waved goodbye at me and was a good boy the whole time. At one point he tried to crawl off the table but mommy was there to grab him. It definitely made Monday easier to deal with and my spirits have definitely been lifted. Here is a picture from Ben's birthday party of him enjoying some cake.

Holling Heights

Here is one for the small world column. I was helping sort mail today and noticed a return address for Holling Heights. I spent 7 solid years there, Kindergarten - 6 grade. My company commander, Captain Lorenz, happens to teach there, or at least did before he got deployed. So we got to talking and some of the teachers I had are still there, Ms West in 1st grade, Mr. Melichar in 3rd grade, and the music teacher Ms Elliot. Ms. West I think kept me after school for an entire quarter. Mr. Melichar, as I remember it, banished me from ever writing in cursive again because my handwriting was so terrible. To this day I still write in block letters, all caps, and even that is hard to read. The pit is still there, and the train that some of the parents of kids in my class built is still there, although in a little different setup. They still get pizza for the crossing guard detail on Friday's, although it is Pizza Hut now and not Valentinos. Sadly, Mr. Colinino and Ms. O'Hare were not around at the same time as CPT Lorenz. I am little worried what some of the teachers may say, as, believe it or not, I caused a little bit of trouble as a young man. Some would say I had a bit of a smart mouth. If I'm lucky they'll remember what a good student my sister was and forget about my antics.

Hair Cuts and Other Stuff

Good morning. We had a distinguised visitor this week. The General in charge of the theater, General John Abizaid, who is a 4 star. He took over for Tommy Franks in 2003. He was in our building along with a handful of other Generals and some other celebs. He had his own security detail and quite the entourage. I don't think we got any pictures because he was only here for a short time and then was on to bigger things.

Benjamin got his first haircut this week. He is quite the grownup now. Here is the before:


And here is the after:
Quite a handsome fellow in my opinion. His birthday party is today, so he should have a good time with friends and family. I bet he will be handful to get to sleep after all of the excitement.

This may come as a shock, and I hesitated on whether to write it or not, but we skipped Mongolian night on Thursday. SGT Hanseling said the line was too long and he didn't want to wait. We had gotten there a little late, because after working out we went for a dip in the pool to cool off as the temp has been hovering right at a 100 all week. The AC in the gym has a hard time keeping it up, I checked the thermostat and it was 88 inside. It feels a little like a sauna, and the smell is, well, not too fresh if you know what I mean. So, the man who loves Mongolian the best out of our little group made the call to just get a sandwhich. Tomorrow is Fried Rice so hopefully we will be able to redeem ourselves.

Our section is responsible for getting mail for all of our troops, and I went to help out today. We had almost 4 pallets of mail. Luckily, we are no longer doing it by hand, they load it with a forklift and we unload it with a forklift, so we only have to carry it a few feet. We used to do it all by hand, but with the volume that is coming in we would never keep up. We are all curious how much is going to show up around the holdiays, we can barely fit it all in to the mail room as it is now.