#1. Some of you have asked for an update on what we'd love to have in a care package, and I am your humble servant. :)
- Tootsie Pops
- Tootsie Rolls
- Kit Kats, Hershey Bars, Reece Cups (It's down to the low 100s, so stuff doesn't melt as fast. :)
- Rice Krispie Treats
- Brownies
- Energy Bars
- Peanuts
- Kleenexes
- Tylenol
- iTunes Cards
Again, thank you to all that have sent wonderful care packages. I hope you all don't mind, but I take great joy and sharing the goodies and treasures you send with the soldiers I work with and work around. Share the love!
#2. My wife Angela sent me a copy of The Shack to read. I highly recommend reading this book.
http://theshackbook.com/
I had no idea what to expect, though I did know this was a book about faith. Wow! I have not been taken on a roller coaster like that from a book in a long long time. The last time I remember being emotionally impacted like this was readying Where the Red Fern Grows as a kid and then A Time to Kill by John Grisham in college. I went from shock to terror to anger to fear and then I was pulled up by my emotional boot straps into this amazing sense of love and reconciliation.
William Young grabbed a hold of me using one of my greatest fears and took me on a ride with my faith that I'll never forget. I could barely read last 3-4 chapters from the tears flowing down my face.
Those of you that know me well know that I'm a intellectual believer. I like to understand things and reason through the "hows" and the "whys". I like to think things through. I like to talk things out. I've grown in my faith over the last few years, because I've had opportunities to do this and I've seen the results. I believe. I believe because I want to and I love how faith makes me feel. This book fits people like me perfectly. It really makes you think. It makes you look inside yourself and helps rationalize why faith and love are important...and useful.
I'd highly recommend picking up a copy of The Shaft or ordering the audiobook. (It's available on iTunes. I looked.) Check it out and feel free to share any thoughts on it here. I'd love to hear what other think.
#3. My deployment reading list. I had a lot more opportunities to read prior to getting to Kuwait. The daily 12 hour shifts have really curtailed by reading time, but I've continued to work through a couple of books. Here's what I've read since I mobilized in March.
Title : Author : Notes
The American Lion
Jon Meacham
Biography of Andrew Jackson
A Man After God's Heart
Thomas Nelson
A great book for Dads!
What Would Google Do?
Jeff Jarvis
Comparison of Business Practices
No Ordinary Time
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Biography of FDR and Eleanor
Mongoose Theatre
R.W. Meredith R
etired NCO and One of My Instructors
The Rum Diary
Hunter S. Thompson
Story of a Reporter in Puerto Rico
The Traveler's Gift
Andy Andrews
Positive Thinking / Self Help
The Cambridge History of Warfare
Geoffrey Parker
Reading for ILE
D-Day: 24 Hrs That Changed the World
Time
Coffee Table Book
Dark Wraith of Shannara
Terry Brooks
Fantasy
The Shack
William Young
Fiction: Story About Faith
Friday, September 11, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Events from July into August in Kuwait
Wow! Where has the time gone? The 1st month took forever. The next month it started to speed up a little, but I was still getting my feet under me. 3 ½ months in and time is starting to fly. I can’t believe I’m already into September now. So…..what happened in July and August after the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th?
BATTLE RHYTHM
Some may have seen my posts on Facebook or just in reading this blog have seen where I refer to Battle Rhythm and are wondering what is Battle Rhythm? Think of starting a new job somewhere. You know how you spend the first month getting to know the office, getting to know co-workers, getting to know the job, etc.? It’s the same only we work here 24 hours a day 7 days a week and we’re in a different country. The assimilation into a job actually moves a little faster because of this.
My experience in the Army is in Armor (my original MOS/Branch), Armor and ROTC training operations, and the Signal Corps (my 2nd Branch). I honestly didn’t even know the Army had Space prior to this deployment. So….I’m not only dealing with being deployed overseas for a year, but I’m learning a whole new job in a whole new area. Needless to say, the learning curve has been incredibly steep.
We found out when we got here that our section put in a request for two reservists augmentees to assist with their mission from either the Signal Corps or Intelligence and with Top Secret clearances. They figured they’d had a better chance of getting a couple of smart soldiers this way. HA! The jury is still out. There is not yet a Branch for Space. It’s a functional area (FA), so Space has to pull in people from other Branches and train them in Space. On the clearance issue, Jim and I had Top Secret clearances, but no longer. They’re good for only 5 years. So, we’ve had to reapply since we’ve been here. It takes 3-6 months for the investigation.
So, we’re trying to establish a battle rhythm in a new place, learning a new job, and a new skill. For me, it all seemed to finally come together the beginning of August. That’s when I started to feel comfortable. I finally have a basic understanding of what I’m doing and what I’m supposed to be looking for. I’m a staff officer, so I don’t manage missions and troops. I do a lot of analytics
WORK –OUT RHYTHM
I thought I was doing pretty good working out 4-5 days a week before I got here. I’d improved my run time from 18 minutes for 2 miles to 16 ½ minutes. Little did I know that I wasn’t even close to what I was capable of. I set two goals when I arrived. I wanted to get down to 180 lbs and be able to max my PT test 2 mile rule. 13min 37 sec. Just to give you an idea of where I was starting from. …. I weight myself at 198 lbs in March right before I deployed. I was 192 lbs when I arrived in Kuwait.
I started first just making myself go to the gym every day, no matter what. (I took off 1 day a week to rest my body, usually Sunday.) If I couldn’t make it during lunch, I went on the evening. I cut my meal times down to 30 minutes or less to give myself more time in the gym. I first wanted to get in the habit of going every day. I wanted to get to where I’d feel bad if I didn’t get to the gym. That took about ½ a month to settle in. I then had to develop my routine.
You’ve seen in previous posts what I did with diet and work-out plan. The first month I saw results in my body hardening, but little weight drop. I weighed in at the end of June at 189 lbs. My run improved, but not a ton. I figured at this time it’d take me 3-4 months to really start seeing results. Wow! Was I off! It was like a switch went off right at the end of July. I started to fly on my run. I could see my body start to change. I kept having to cinch my belt tighter. Now, my rule was that I would only weigh myself once a month. I wanted to develop a routine, a rhythm. I didn’t want to be chasing a weight every day. Good plan! J I stepped on the scale at the end of July and weighed in at 183 lbs. I’d gotten my 2 mile run down to 13.45 for 2 miles. I’m already almost at my max time. I’m ahead of schedule.
August was where I really started to turn. I was settled into my work-out rhythm. I could feel my body changing every day. I could feel myself getting stronger. The MWR folks helped out but introducing a new short term program. They challenged us to Swim the English Channel. The shortest distance across the English Channel is from near Dover, England to Calais, France, a distance of 21.06 miles. That translates into 808 laps in the Camp Arifjan pool. The program started on August 12th. The incentive was a nice blue t-shirt and pride. Now, I thought I was a pretty good swimmer. At the beginning of August, I was swimming 18 laps a couple of times a week. HA! A mile was 38 laps! I had no idea what I was getting into. I was determined to keep up my regular work-out routine, so I’d do my normal work-out 4 days a week and swim the other 3 days or in the evenings.
Talk about watching the fat bleed off of your body. I’m wearing myself out, but I’m watching the change happen weekly. By the end of August, I could run 2 miles in less than 12.30. I can swim just short of 50 laps in an hour. The last week of August, 1st week of September, I was working out 1+ hour a day during lunch and swimming a mile every evening, so I could get done. My Space compadre, MAJ Corey Gerving, finished his swim on August 30th. I finished my on Labor Day (how appropriate right). I stepped on the scale at the end of the month last week, as is my rule, and weighed in at 178 pounds in my clothes.
REFEREE
Many of you know I referee basketball. For those of you that didn’t, I’ve worked up to high school men’s state tournament level and men’s junior college. I love basketball. I love the release I get out on the court. I was just starting to really start moving up the ranks when I got the call to deploy. I was really disappointed to have to take the year off. “Not so fast my friends”…. Camp Arifjan has a pretty robust recreation program, similar to that of a small college. I noticed the flyer one day and went to the Recreation Director to introduce myself. I found out there was a basketball tournament on the 4th of July weekend and I signed right up. I had Angela quickly ship me my gear. It was great to get back on the court! I found this also to be a great way to network on post and get to know more people. I followed up right after than into volleyball. I hadn’t done that since the University of Kentucky, but it was like riding a bike. I was lucky enough to get the championship game. I’m doing another basketball tournament through Labor Day, then flag football, and then back to the regular season for basketball during the winter. It all takes up some of the small amount of personal time I have each day, but it’s what I love. I won’t be as far behind as I’d thought for the 2010-11 season.
G31 SPACE SECTION
Now that I’ve been here 3+ months, I can talk more about the folks in my section. I’ve gotten to know them a lot better.
COL Henderson: He’s the Chief of Space and our top dog. He works in Atlanta, but has been forward for one exercise in June and now another exercise in August. He’s really tall and loves to tell jokes and stories. He keeps us going. He’s a big time horse enthusiast.
LTC Zellmann: He’s the Deputy Chief of Space and my direct supervisor. He worked as a physics instructor at West Point. He’s super sharp and tireless. He’s an absolute machine at work. He works out of Atlanta. He’s also been through for both exercises. He’s easy to talk to and doesn’t miss a thing.
MAJ Speth: Phil’s the Space officer Jim and I replaced. He’s gone back to Atlanta and he’s the lead for Space training. Phil’s one of those real attention to detail kind of officers. His work is tight. I got to know him pretty well when he was here with all the trips to Ali Al Saleem. He knows Army doctrine inside and out having worked in TRADOC.
MAJ Gerving: Corey’s been here since May, but I didn’t really start to get to know him until after the LW exercise at the beginning of June. He’s our Senior Space Officer forward. He’s here until November. He also taught physics at West Point. Super sharp, and he uses that brain power to remember everything, to include quotes from every movie he’s ever seen. Work-out partner and movie watching partner.
MAJ Kimbrell: Larry I probably know the least about. He’s been here a couple of times for the first exercise and the first week of July to fill in for Corey who went back to Atlanta for a short while for a conference. He came to Army Space from the Air Force’s missile program. He’s coming in October to replace Corey. Looking forward to getting to know him better.
SSG Holscher: The one and only NCO in our section. He’s a Signal guy (like Jim and I) specializing in SATCOM. Another super smart guy. He’s getting out of the Army in November. He’s at his 8 years. He’s already got multiple job offers. (Really good job offers) He works in Atlanta, but has been forward a couple of times now.
MAJ Jim Schultz: He’s my partner in current operations. I work the day shift right now and Jim works the night shift. We’ve been in the same place since the very first day. We mobilized at Camp McCrady on the same day and we’ve been together ever since. He’s an Arizona police officer in the “real world”. He’s married with two children.
That’s the crew! (We have a contractor in our section named Crawford Brown who I’ve only met once. I don’t know him, so I’ve got no info.) If you’d like to get to know Phil Speth, Corey Gerving, Jim Schultz, or Daniel Holscher better, they’ve got Facebook accounts. Go bug them there.
Basically a bunch of really, really smart guys. I mostly just keep my mouth shut and ears open. I’m absorbing from them everything I can as quick as I can.
COLD/H1N1
This is a big deal in the states and a really big deal in the military. Soldiers with flu symptoms are isolated, just like we do with the kids keeping them home from school. This is a major impact to operations, so as you can imagine, the top brass are really concentrating on it. I picked up what felt like a sinus infection at the beginning of August. It was concerning only because it weakened me and I did not want to pick up the flu virus. My partner Jim when down with what he originally thought was th flu for a week, but it ended up only being a sinus infection. I was concern with what was dragging on me, so I went to the TMC (medical center). I had not fever so flu got ruled out up front. So…I thought I had a regular bacterial sinus infection. The Doc said no that is was viral. Basically a cold. He prescribed Sudafed and rest. (Not much of a chance of rest. I can’t miss work or my work-out!) I wanted anti-biotic, but he wouldn’t give them to me. He said let it run its course and come back if it didn’t go away. I did not miss a day of work or a work-out, but it didn’t go away. I was still concerned because it continued to weaken me, especially at the end of the week. Two weeks later, I went back to the TMC. I got a different Doctor. He took one look at me and said….allergies. I hadn’t even thought about that. I had really bad allergy problems in Atlanta, but most of the problems went away when I moved to Florida. Good salt air! His first thing he said after examining me was that he wanted to treat this aggressively. Yeehaah! He gave me Flonase and Allegra for two months and said to come see him after that. Do you know that it started working after just 48 hours! Amazing! Apparently all the crap blowing out of Iraq through the desert into Kuwait was what was kicking my behind. I’m feeling great and I’m picking it up at work and at the gym!
TRIP TO KCIA
We don’t leave Camp Arifjan very often. We just don’t have the need to. However, every now and then we take a trip to Ali Al Saleem AFB or Kuwait International Airport (KCIA) when someone coming in needs a pick-up. I’d not had an opportunity to go to KCIA until this August. I’d only made the trip to Ali Al Saleem and Camp Buehring. I got my chance with the guys coming into Kuwait for the Lucky Strike exercise. SSG Holscher had come in with the lead element and he and I went to pick up LTC Zellmenn at KCIA. We had to change into civilian clothes, and due to a new policy that had just come out that week.
This trip was my first experience into Kuwaiti culture. First, I took a wrong turn and we ended up in a Kuwaiti neighborhood. It was what I would classify as a middle class neighborhood. Townhomes in a cul-de-sac community. They had swing sets. They had picnic tables. The cars were like any you’d see in a middle class American neighborhood. Really, the only difference was the architecture. All concrete with this sand colored stucco like finish. The second experience was in the airport itself. We didn’t want to go through a search upon running to Camp Arifjan, so I stayed with the vehicle while SSG Holscher went in to pick-up LTC Z. It was like any other bustling airport I’d ever been at only half the people coming and going wore the traditional white Arabic robes (men & boys) or the head to toe black burqa (women). Kids were still kids. They were excited and full of energy. Dads and Moms were just like us trying to keep them in tow while trying to get wherever they were going. There were the sprinklings of Europeans, American, or Middle Easterners not dressed in traditional Arabic outfits. It’s the first time I’d been in this country and actually felt like I was in a country with normal people rather than the isolated world that is a military post overseas.
LTC Z’s flight was late coming in and I had to take a leak so we switched. I got to check out the terminal. Everything was in Arabic…and English! Very interesting. The terminal was actually much cleaner and better organized than the ones I’d been to in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Turks & Caicos. We were both hungry, so we took advantage and grabbed some KFC. First KFC I’d had since early spring! (We just had to figure out how much change we’d gotten because it was all in Kuwaiti Dinars.
KIDS START SCHOOL
Audrey and Trey started 1st Grade on August 24th. I was so excited for them, but sad that I couldn’t be there to see them off. They’d had a great summer, but I know they were excited to. They love school. They love meeting people and making friends. They’re so not like me when I was a kid. J They got Ms. Patridge as their teacher. Angela sent me a picture from her camera phone right in front of school. I of course posted it right to Facebook. I’m so proud of them. Hard to believe that by the time I make it home for good they’ll be 7 years old and almost finished with 1st Grade.
LEAVE IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
OK, that brings me to here. It’s Monday, September 7th – Labor Day. I’m 191 days into the deployment (9 days short of halfway) and I’ve had 111 days “Boots on the Ground”. I’m scheduled for 15 days of leave at the end of this month. I cannot wait! I’m planning on resting, going camping with the kids, and going with my sweetie on a cruise. Man, I’m ready. I’m settled in here and in a rhythm, but no rhythm can get you over missing your loved ones. I can’t wait to take them into my arms!
BATTLE RHYTHM
Some may have seen my posts on Facebook or just in reading this blog have seen where I refer to Battle Rhythm and are wondering what is Battle Rhythm? Think of starting a new job somewhere. You know how you spend the first month getting to know the office, getting to know co-workers, getting to know the job, etc.? It’s the same only we work here 24 hours a day 7 days a week and we’re in a different country. The assimilation into a job actually moves a little faster because of this.
My experience in the Army is in Armor (my original MOS/Branch), Armor and ROTC training operations, and the Signal Corps (my 2nd Branch). I honestly didn’t even know the Army had Space prior to this deployment. So….I’m not only dealing with being deployed overseas for a year, but I’m learning a whole new job in a whole new area. Needless to say, the learning curve has been incredibly steep.
We found out when we got here that our section put in a request for two reservists augmentees to assist with their mission from either the Signal Corps or Intelligence and with Top Secret clearances. They figured they’d had a better chance of getting a couple of smart soldiers this way. HA! The jury is still out. There is not yet a Branch for Space. It’s a functional area (FA), so Space has to pull in people from other Branches and train them in Space. On the clearance issue, Jim and I had Top Secret clearances, but no longer. They’re good for only 5 years. So, we’ve had to reapply since we’ve been here. It takes 3-6 months for the investigation.
So, we’re trying to establish a battle rhythm in a new place, learning a new job, and a new skill. For me, it all seemed to finally come together the beginning of August. That’s when I started to feel comfortable. I finally have a basic understanding of what I’m doing and what I’m supposed to be looking for. I’m a staff officer, so I don’t manage missions and troops. I do a lot of analytics
WORK –OUT RHYTHM
I thought I was doing pretty good working out 4-5 days a week before I got here. I’d improved my run time from 18 minutes for 2 miles to 16 ½ minutes. Little did I know that I wasn’t even close to what I was capable of. I set two goals when I arrived. I wanted to get down to 180 lbs and be able to max my PT test 2 mile rule. 13min 37 sec. Just to give you an idea of where I was starting from. …. I weight myself at 198 lbs in March right before I deployed. I was 192 lbs when I arrived in Kuwait.
I started first just making myself go to the gym every day, no matter what. (I took off 1 day a week to rest my body, usually Sunday.) If I couldn’t make it during lunch, I went on the evening. I cut my meal times down to 30 minutes or less to give myself more time in the gym. I first wanted to get in the habit of going every day. I wanted to get to where I’d feel bad if I didn’t get to the gym. That took about ½ a month to settle in. I then had to develop my routine.
You’ve seen in previous posts what I did with diet and work-out plan. The first month I saw results in my body hardening, but little weight drop. I weighed in at the end of June at 189 lbs. My run improved, but not a ton. I figured at this time it’d take me 3-4 months to really start seeing results. Wow! Was I off! It was like a switch went off right at the end of July. I started to fly on my run. I could see my body start to change. I kept having to cinch my belt tighter. Now, my rule was that I would only weigh myself once a month. I wanted to develop a routine, a rhythm. I didn’t want to be chasing a weight every day. Good plan! J I stepped on the scale at the end of July and weighed in at 183 lbs. I’d gotten my 2 mile run down to 13.45 for 2 miles. I’m already almost at my max time. I’m ahead of schedule.
August was where I really started to turn. I was settled into my work-out rhythm. I could feel my body changing every day. I could feel myself getting stronger. The MWR folks helped out but introducing a new short term program. They challenged us to Swim the English Channel. The shortest distance across the English Channel is from near Dover, England to Calais, France, a distance of 21.06 miles. That translates into 808 laps in the Camp Arifjan pool. The program started on August 12th. The incentive was a nice blue t-shirt and pride. Now, I thought I was a pretty good swimmer. At the beginning of August, I was swimming 18 laps a couple of times a week. HA! A mile was 38 laps! I had no idea what I was getting into. I was determined to keep up my regular work-out routine, so I’d do my normal work-out 4 days a week and swim the other 3 days or in the evenings.
Talk about watching the fat bleed off of your body. I’m wearing myself out, but I’m watching the change happen weekly. By the end of August, I could run 2 miles in less than 12.30. I can swim just short of 50 laps in an hour. The last week of August, 1st week of September, I was working out 1+ hour a day during lunch and swimming a mile every evening, so I could get done. My Space compadre, MAJ Corey Gerving, finished his swim on August 30th. I finished my on Labor Day (how appropriate right). I stepped on the scale at the end of the month last week, as is my rule, and weighed in at 178 pounds in my clothes.
REFEREE
Many of you know I referee basketball. For those of you that didn’t, I’ve worked up to high school men’s state tournament level and men’s junior college. I love basketball. I love the release I get out on the court. I was just starting to really start moving up the ranks when I got the call to deploy. I was really disappointed to have to take the year off. “Not so fast my friends”…. Camp Arifjan has a pretty robust recreation program, similar to that of a small college. I noticed the flyer one day and went to the Recreation Director to introduce myself. I found out there was a basketball tournament on the 4th of July weekend and I signed right up. I had Angela quickly ship me my gear. It was great to get back on the court! I found this also to be a great way to network on post and get to know more people. I followed up right after than into volleyball. I hadn’t done that since the University of Kentucky, but it was like riding a bike. I was lucky enough to get the championship game. I’m doing another basketball tournament through Labor Day, then flag football, and then back to the regular season for basketball during the winter. It all takes up some of the small amount of personal time I have each day, but it’s what I love. I won’t be as far behind as I’d thought for the 2010-11 season.
G31 SPACE SECTION
Now that I’ve been here 3+ months, I can talk more about the folks in my section. I’ve gotten to know them a lot better.
COL Henderson: He’s the Chief of Space and our top dog. He works in Atlanta, but has been forward for one exercise in June and now another exercise in August. He’s really tall and loves to tell jokes and stories. He keeps us going. He’s a big time horse enthusiast.
LTC Zellmann: He’s the Deputy Chief of Space and my direct supervisor. He worked as a physics instructor at West Point. He’s super sharp and tireless. He’s an absolute machine at work. He works out of Atlanta. He’s also been through for both exercises. He’s easy to talk to and doesn’t miss a thing.
MAJ Speth: Phil’s the Space officer Jim and I replaced. He’s gone back to Atlanta and he’s the lead for Space training. Phil’s one of those real attention to detail kind of officers. His work is tight. I got to know him pretty well when he was here with all the trips to Ali Al Saleem. He knows Army doctrine inside and out having worked in TRADOC.
MAJ Gerving: Corey’s been here since May, but I didn’t really start to get to know him until after the LW exercise at the beginning of June. He’s our Senior Space Officer forward. He’s here until November. He also taught physics at West Point. Super sharp, and he uses that brain power to remember everything, to include quotes from every movie he’s ever seen. Work-out partner and movie watching partner.
MAJ Kimbrell: Larry I probably know the least about. He’s been here a couple of times for the first exercise and the first week of July to fill in for Corey who went back to Atlanta for a short while for a conference. He came to Army Space from the Air Force’s missile program. He’s coming in October to replace Corey. Looking forward to getting to know him better.
SSG Holscher: The one and only NCO in our section. He’s a Signal guy (like Jim and I) specializing in SATCOM. Another super smart guy. He’s getting out of the Army in November. He’s at his 8 years. He’s already got multiple job offers. (Really good job offers) He works in Atlanta, but has been forward a couple of times now.
MAJ Jim Schultz: He’s my partner in current operations. I work the day shift right now and Jim works the night shift. We’ve been in the same place since the very first day. We mobilized at Camp McCrady on the same day and we’ve been together ever since. He’s an Arizona police officer in the “real world”. He’s married with two children.
That’s the crew! (We have a contractor in our section named Crawford Brown who I’ve only met once. I don’t know him, so I’ve got no info.) If you’d like to get to know Phil Speth, Corey Gerving, Jim Schultz, or Daniel Holscher better, they’ve got Facebook accounts. Go bug them there.
Basically a bunch of really, really smart guys. I mostly just keep my mouth shut and ears open. I’m absorbing from them everything I can as quick as I can.
COLD/H1N1
This is a big deal in the states and a really big deal in the military. Soldiers with flu symptoms are isolated, just like we do with the kids keeping them home from school. This is a major impact to operations, so as you can imagine, the top brass are really concentrating on it. I picked up what felt like a sinus infection at the beginning of August. It was concerning only because it weakened me and I did not want to pick up the flu virus. My partner Jim when down with what he originally thought was th flu for a week, but it ended up only being a sinus infection. I was concern with what was dragging on me, so I went to the TMC (medical center). I had not fever so flu got ruled out up front. So…I thought I had a regular bacterial sinus infection. The Doc said no that is was viral. Basically a cold. He prescribed Sudafed and rest. (Not much of a chance of rest. I can’t miss work or my work-out!) I wanted anti-biotic, but he wouldn’t give them to me. He said let it run its course and come back if it didn’t go away. I did not miss a day of work or a work-out, but it didn’t go away. I was still concerned because it continued to weaken me, especially at the end of the week. Two weeks later, I went back to the TMC. I got a different Doctor. He took one look at me and said….allergies. I hadn’t even thought about that. I had really bad allergy problems in Atlanta, but most of the problems went away when I moved to Florida. Good salt air! His first thing he said after examining me was that he wanted to treat this aggressively. Yeehaah! He gave me Flonase and Allegra for two months and said to come see him after that. Do you know that it started working after just 48 hours! Amazing! Apparently all the crap blowing out of Iraq through the desert into Kuwait was what was kicking my behind. I’m feeling great and I’m picking it up at work and at the gym!
TRIP TO KCIA
We don’t leave Camp Arifjan very often. We just don’t have the need to. However, every now and then we take a trip to Ali Al Saleem AFB or Kuwait International Airport (KCIA) when someone coming in needs a pick-up. I’d not had an opportunity to go to KCIA until this August. I’d only made the trip to Ali Al Saleem and Camp Buehring. I got my chance with the guys coming into Kuwait for the Lucky Strike exercise. SSG Holscher had come in with the lead element and he and I went to pick up LTC Zellmenn at KCIA. We had to change into civilian clothes, and due to a new policy that had just come out that week.
This trip was my first experience into Kuwaiti culture. First, I took a wrong turn and we ended up in a Kuwaiti neighborhood. It was what I would classify as a middle class neighborhood. Townhomes in a cul-de-sac community. They had swing sets. They had picnic tables. The cars were like any you’d see in a middle class American neighborhood. Really, the only difference was the architecture. All concrete with this sand colored stucco like finish. The second experience was in the airport itself. We didn’t want to go through a search upon running to Camp Arifjan, so I stayed with the vehicle while SSG Holscher went in to pick-up LTC Z. It was like any other bustling airport I’d ever been at only half the people coming and going wore the traditional white Arabic robes (men & boys) or the head to toe black burqa (women). Kids were still kids. They were excited and full of energy. Dads and Moms were just like us trying to keep them in tow while trying to get wherever they were going. There were the sprinklings of Europeans, American, or Middle Easterners not dressed in traditional Arabic outfits. It’s the first time I’d been in this country and actually felt like I was in a country with normal people rather than the isolated world that is a military post overseas.
LTC Z’s flight was late coming in and I had to take a leak so we switched. I got to check out the terminal. Everything was in Arabic…and English! Very interesting. The terminal was actually much cleaner and better organized than the ones I’d been to in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Turks & Caicos. We were both hungry, so we took advantage and grabbed some KFC. First KFC I’d had since early spring! (We just had to figure out how much change we’d gotten because it was all in Kuwaiti Dinars.
KIDS START SCHOOL
Audrey and Trey started 1st Grade on August 24th. I was so excited for them, but sad that I couldn’t be there to see them off. They’d had a great summer, but I know they were excited to. They love school. They love meeting people and making friends. They’re so not like me when I was a kid. J They got Ms. Patridge as their teacher. Angela sent me a picture from her camera phone right in front of school. I of course posted it right to Facebook. I’m so proud of them. Hard to believe that by the time I make it home for good they’ll be 7 years old and almost finished with 1st Grade.
LEAVE IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
OK, that brings me to here. It’s Monday, September 7th – Labor Day. I’m 191 days into the deployment (9 days short of halfway) and I’ve had 111 days “Boots on the Ground”. I’m scheduled for 15 days of leave at the end of this month. I cannot wait! I’m planning on resting, going camping with the kids, and going with my sweetie on a cruise. Man, I’m ready. I’m settled in here and in a rhythm, but no rhythm can get you over missing your loved ones. I can’t wait to take them into my arms!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
