New House

Today I had to move from the room I was in to a room closer to where I work. Much closer. It is nice being so close. Maybe my blissters will go away now that I'm not having to walk so much. Anyway getting the room was fun. I was told yesturday at work to go sign for a key from Billiting today before work. So after work last night I packed all my stuff up. Then this morning after instant messaging Jane I took my shower and finished packing the rest of my stuff. I hurried off to the billiting place and signed for my key. After a quick inspecition of my room I was going to run to chow, borrow a truck from the officers at work and move all my stuff. When I poked inside the room was missing one bed and the other was filled with a sleeping guy. So I went back to billiting and told them. The next two hours were fun. I ended up watching the guy move all his stuff over to his half of the room while a bunch of civilian contractors moved a bed in for me. I felt kinda bad for the guy to tell you the truth. But I don't have a choice. If I did I would have stayed back at the other room where I had it all to myself. Atleast he works the night shift from 2000 hrs. to 0800. That is when I spend the most time awake. After getting my bed I went to chow and got the truck. I moved all my stuff into the room but didn't want to unpack as my roommate had gone back to sleep. With nothing better to do I went to work an hour early and worked on my homework. This was a great day at work. I spend most the time working on homework and some time reading. I did do a little though. I had to pick up a bunch of people that flow in on helicoppters and take them to a place to stay for the next couple of days and I answered the phone a couple of times. It was a hard day at work. And diffenently a job they just had to have me for because I was so critical and was the only one that could fill it so they stop lossed me. Oh well its a for sure pay check for the next year.

Sunday

So I have now been here for a couple of days. My schedual has been established. I wake up around 1000 in the morning which is nice because I feel like I have slept in. I shower and shave and then hang in my room working on homework or anything else until about noon. Then I had to breakfast. After breakfast I will hang again. Lately I have been spending my hanging time either fitting in homework or walking to the PX and back getting the few things I need. I have also picked up about five blisters on each foot from my new boots not completely broken in yet. I then have to be to work at 1600. I spend my time in the Division Headquarters answering phones and taking messages. I'm sure later it will entell other jobs but that is the main thing I am doing now. Which translates into working on my homework/finishing my homework or reading a book. I mostely read. I think I read something like two hundred pages at work today. I go to dinner sometime between 1800 and 2000 hours. At 2000 hrs the person pulling shift with me changes out from a captin to a master sergeant. I like the captin just a little better than the master sergeant. I then finish the last four hours, getting off at midnight. I then go to the chow hall again and grab something for dinner. After that I call Ash for about an hour and talk. This is my highlight of the day!!! at about 0100 I go back to my room and try not to fall asleep before 0300. It is really hard but I need to stay up late so I can get plenty of rest before my shift and not wake up so early that i will be tired during my shift. I go to sleep at three and set my alarm for 0500 so I can instant message my wife and video chat. This is the second best highlight of the day. then I go to sleep after and hour talking to her again. and thats my schedual. It is rather nice.

I'm Back!!

Well it has been a couple of days since I last wrote. I'm sorry about that but when I got to Iraq I lost service on the BlackBerry, which sucks. So I will be sending it home to Jane so it can be put to some good use.

I spent about three days in a cold tent and not sleeping good because of the gay cots so I caught a cold. But I'm just about over it. I have now moved into a nice warm, more permanet housing unit. let me discribe it for you. It is about the size of a large walk-in closet, 20 foot square. It has a door in the center of the front wall and a block out window in the back. Its block out in case of indirect fire they don't want glass shattering and neither do I. The walls are covered with a fake 70s style wood covering like on cheap furniture. I have a singel size bed that some how has colleted two matteresses over the years. A wall locker about the size of a coat closet and a small two drawer night stand which is my desk as of the moment. I have white lanolium flooring. and thats about it. Of course it is made for two people so there are two of each but i lucked out and have the room to myself. We will see if it stays the same.

So anyway, this morning I got picked up from my tent and driven to where I'm living. They told me to hurry and throw my bags in and they would bring me back later. Well, I didn't look at the room number and they didn't bring me back later either. So later when I was able to go back to my room I walked for over an hour, back and forth trying to remember which one out of the hundreds it was. But to on avil I succumbed to defeat and walked back to where i work. The guy there then asked someone else that is my neighbor which room it was. I was like 50 or so rooms off. It sucks. So after walking all afternoon I finally made it to my room with five blisters and tired eyes. Goodnight!

Moving to Iraq

Well as you guessed it from the title I have moved into Iraq. It is a long process. We loaded buses at 2100 and drove to an Air Force base an hour from us. Then we hung out in a cold tent, freezing, for about two more hours. At midnight we all got together in a formation so the guys running the show could count us. After words I had to go palletize all the bags. About twenty of us moved bags from the back of a truck and throw them on metal pallets. About a hundred and fifty bags. The part is that I got warm lifting big heavy army bags. Then we senched them down with cargo nets. After that it was back to the cold tent to wait so more. Hurry up and wait is the army's unoffical slogan! We loaded the plane around 0130. So far I hadn't had any sleep but I thought I would be able to sleep on the plane. They sure like to crame soldiers in. We had on all our body army because we were flying into a combat zone and that stuff doesn't make you very skinny. Plus with carry on bags it was a horrible flight. I did manage to sleep a little but it was such wonderful sleep it probably translated into about five minutes of real sleep! The best part was a awoke with a sore thoat and a runny nose from the freezing and lack of sleep. After deboarding our luxury class airliner we moved into another tent at around 0300. It already had people in it so the more we brought in just made the party better. At lease this tent had a heater running. Being cramed into a loud tent like that was condusive of a sleeping enviroment so I sat on the floor waiting. Finally after moving lots of bags and shuffeling around we loaded busses for holding tents with cots and we were able to spread out. This was around 0600. After a much needed shower and a nice hot meal I was able to get some sleep, two wonderful hours.

Happy birthday

So today is my birthday! I am now the big 25. I can't believe it. I always have the problem of thinking I'm the same age as Jane and she just turned 23 so when I think I'm 25 it sound too old. This morning was nice. I woke up around 0500 can was able to lay in bed and text Jane. It was so nice to do that! We talked for a couple of hours! If I'm not able to be at home for my birthday at least I was able to start the day off right, by talking to the best woman on earth! Then I got to take a hot shower! Yesturday I woke up at 0430 and went to the shower thinking it would be empty. Well a group of about five guys walked out just as I walked in. So I had the shower house to myself but they had used all the hot water. My shower was freezing cold. So today I go to the shower just after 0700 and the shower was perfect! So I don't get it, maybe it was just a Sunday thing. We will see what happens tomorrow. Today was another chill day. We don't have any training scheduled until tomorrow morning. So I don't think I have descriped the chow hall yet. It is really nice. We walk in and the first thing we have to do is get our ID cards scanned so a computer can keep a head count. Then you walk into a room filled with some twenty or more individual sinks with hot running water and large mirrors to wash our hands. Then we walk into a caffiteria nicer than any school caffiteria I have ever been it. After walking though the serving line is a fountain taller than myself with running water and lights. Then there is a self serve line. So they serve pretty much school food in the main line but the self serve has fruit and salad bar. Both a pespi and coke dispencer, juice dispenser, milk and coolers with juice boxes and milk cartons. There is a three different capacino machines, several regular coffee makers donuts, pop tarts and more. Then there is a sandwich bar where a guy will make a sandwich for you, and a chillie, potato and nacho bar. Then in the back they have a dessert bar with several different types of cookies, pies and cheesecake plus a basken robbins icecream. Its a feast at every meal. Then there are several large flat wcreen tvs set to CNN and ESPN. This is like the nicer chow hall I have ever seen. Plus army cooks don't even run it. It is all contracted out to civilians. It is so nice. So what is the point of all this, as I was exiting the chow hall some privates were saying how crapy the chow hall was! Well the other staff sergeant I after we walked out were saying how bad we wanted to turn around and effectively remind these new soldiers what life was like a couple of years ago with no chow hall and eating meals-ready-to-eat or MREs and maybe getting a hot meal trucked in from kuwait city two hours out to the base for a luke warm dinner. Boy we both wanted to rip into that joker! We really should of. We just have gotten to nice as we get older.

Day 5

Today we had to wake up early for a formation at 0530 to say we haven't lost our weapons because apparently someone lost their night vission goggles. Its a common accorance. Then after that formation we had another at 0700 so the battalion commander and command sergeant major could welcome us to kuwait and say that next time we will have a full battalion formation will be in some 360 days. Thanks for the reminder. Like anyone had forgotten. Anyway after that we then went to a class about rules of engagment to tell us that we can and can't do when indiffernt situations. Basicly if you feel threaten you can shot back. Then we covered everything we are not allowed to have. Alcohol, canned air, and pornography are the big ones. We are not allowed to drink. A couple of years ago some died from huffing canned air and porn is against iraqi laws though everyone breaks that one. Telling soldiers they can't have porn is like telling some of them they can't breath. It is a very common thing in the army. After that I worked on my book some and hung out. One of the guys I work with just had a baby and the chain of command is mad at his old first sergeant because he made the soldier deployed and now they have to waste money to send him right back after only five days. He is not the only one. I know of two other guys from my old battalion in the same boat. They made them deploy dispite a memo that was put out to keep everyone with due dates before febuary back in the states. I'm sure that is going to create a stir as well.

Day 5

Today we had to wake up early for a formation at 0530 to say we haven't lost our weapons because apparently someone lost their night vission goggles. Its a common accorance. Then after that formation we had another at 0700 so the battalion commander and command sergeant major could welcome us to kuwait and say that next time we will have a full battalion formation will be in some 360 days. Thanks for the reminder. Like anyone had forgotten. Anyway after that we then went to a class about rules of engagment to tell us that we can and can't do when indiffernt situations. Basicly if you feel threaten you can shot back. Then we covered everything we are not allowed to have. Alcohol, canned air, and pornography are the big ones. We are not allowed to drink. A couple of years ago some died from huffing canned air and porn is against iraqi laws though everyone breaks that one. Telling soldiers they can't have porn is like telling some of them they can't breath. It is a very common thing in the army. After that I worked on my book some and hung out. One of the guys I work with just had a baby and the chain of command is mad at his old first sergeant because he made the soldier deployed and now they have to waste money to send him right back after only five days. He is not the only one. I know of two other guys from my old battalion in the same boat. They made them deploy dispite a memo that was put out to keep everyone with due dates before febuary back in the states. I'm sure that is going to create a stir as well.

Day 4

Well the days arer slowly ticking away which is nice. Okay they are really going by slowly. It will be nice when I get to iraq and start working on my job. Eight to 12 hour shifts will make time go by faster. Today I woke up at 0400 party because I was going to the range but mostly because I went to bed at 1900 last night. going to bed so early was really needed. I was out like a rock. Just after I had fallen asleep the guy next to me woke me up to tell me formation wasn't until 0600 when it had been planned for 0500. I didn't remember any of the conversation and after waking up in the morning I had to lay there a couple of minutes deciding if it was a dream or if it jad really happened. My decision was made for me though when another guy woke up and asked if I would go to breakfast with him, I consented. After breakfast we grabbed our gear to go to the range. We went out side for formation at six and waited. And waited some more, then for the hell of it we waited a little longer. At about 0800 I was standing there debating if I could seek away. I was the only guy out there from my section and no one was really accounting for me. So I picked up my gear and walked back into the tent! It was a smart desission! The other three guys I worked with said they felt bad that they all got out of it and was going to be out there all by myself. So instead of going out to stand in a wind/sand storm shoot maybe nine rounds to sight-in a weapon I will never use and getting sweaty and being messerible I got to lay on my cot and read. So I finished my book today! I know I'm a geek but I like the Star Wars books. Anyway I also got to go for hot lunch instead of an MRE. And that was pretty much my day. I is always nice to get out of sweaty crap but working in an office for eight hours will be nice to pass the time. It is funny how much I've changed since I got married. I use to be all for that stuff, now I'm for anything that will make my life better or easiler.

Day 3

Agin I didn't sleep very good last night. I woke up at 05 again chilly and wondering about Jane. Luckily she was logged into yahoo messenger and we talked for a while. She is having a hard time. Well, who wouldn't knowing your spouse is going to be gone for a year! Plus we splurged a littel because I was leaving and now we are broke with pay day not for a week. Life is hard, when it rains it pours! So I had to help her out. I called her before dinner and we came up with a plan to get us to pay day. Hopefuly it works. Other than that it has been unevenful day. I went to a rollover training simulator for about an hour. The instructors put us in a hummer that is missing everything but the cabin and is connected to something that makes it do barrel rolls. It sucked! My seatbelt didn't really work and I ended up smashing my head into the ceilling. The good thing is we did it with all our combat gear on so I was saved from a broken neck.

Day 2 in hell

Well sleeping without jane wasn't an easy task. I went to bed past midnight last night and awoke at 0500. Not able to go back to sleep I got up and took a shower before the early morning rush. We are alotted 14 gallons of water per person per day. You say that's a lot but the problem comes from the water being distriputed thoughout several different shower trailors. Then when several tent each holding at least 70 people wake up at the same time all wanting to shower and shave, let's just say that the water heater can't keep up with the demand. So to take a shower early was nice and warm. Of course I'm the jerk that used up all the hot water! I liked it. So to discribe the shower its a white metal trailor about 20 yards long with 12 showers, a water heater and four sinks for shaving all cramed inside. Even when you are the only one inside there is only standing room. But after a 14 hour flight and a whole day in this dust hole a shower was needed. After the shower I went back to my bed that is in a big white tent with a metal frame. The floor is made up of 2x4s and plywood nailed togther to make a six inch platform. The shelter has wooden doors and is about 50 yards long by 20 yards wide filled with three rows of cots. An army cot is thick green nylon sown around an alunminan frame and sits about two feet off the ground. It gets cold with all the air unden neath. And it drops to about 40 degees at night. It gets cold. With body heat keeping from complete misery it is still hard to get a good nights sleep. I think I will cuddle with my duffel bag tonight, mainly cause I'm missing Jane. After the shower this morning worked on some homework until some of the other guys woke up. We have to go everywhere with a buddy "battel buddy" who is suppose to watch your back. So after a couple other guys woke and got dressed we walked to chow. About 3/4th a mile to the chow hall. They were serving the same breakfast that I have had everyday since joining the army, omlet, bacon, potatos, and cereal. Nothing changes. After that we walked the 3/4th mile back to the tent and chilled. I hadn't heard from Jane for a while so I was starting to get worried as she should have gone to bed. I have been blessed with a blackberry and an international data plan allowing me to one post this blog and two hear from Jane regularly. Not hearing from her was upsetting. I then remembered to check my email. Turns out that she is in ohio and doesn't have signal on her verizon phone. Go figure, I get great signal in kuwait but she doesn't get signal in ohio, that's some bull! But the real problem isw after going to dinner and the phones I still wasn't able to get though to her. When I called her from the phone cafe all I got was one ring and the voice mail meaning her phone is still off. That is really making me sad, to go so long and not hear from her. I really need a hug, iguess I will have to settel for that duffel bag idea.

Day 1 or 791

So this is the end of my first day deployed on my third year! Isn't it so exciting! NOT! Anyway I'm posting from a blackberry so it will have to be short. Today started sunday night when I sat in a small leather seat in the back of an omni air international dc-10 airplane with one guy on either side of me. We were packed like sardeans! Luckily we stopped in maine so I bought a travel pillow and some night quill. Fourteen long misserible hours later I landed in kuwait. Only three more times! I fly to go on leave then back and finally home again and glorius seperation from active military service. Anyway I went to a "welcome to kuwait" breif where they checked us in so we can start getting all the wonderful extra pays. Then we got the rest of the day to climatize (chill), I went to lunch, askedb for two enchiladas but the jerk would only give me one "only one sir" he said in a hinduish accent but on the good side I got two scopes of chocolate basken robbins icecream! After lunch I spent the day working on my final paper for a college class. Dinner was discussting! Some sort of gross pasta mixed with bad tuna and old cream od mushroom soup! At least I was able to call Jane, but it turns out that this blackberry get a better connection than the at-n-t phone both. The only problem is I can get unlimited international internet but phone calls are two bucks a minute so I was stuck using a crapy land line go figure wireless has surpassed landlines in every way now. Hearing her voice was good for my heart though. She is driving back to idaho with her dad so they decided to take a short break and see DC. They were having fun! After the call I watched a movie and now I'm blogging. That is day one in a nutshell. Goodnight and hope you all don't have to slep on a hard uncomfortable green nylon cot like I do.