Close but so far away

I’m finally on my way home. It took over a week for my paperwork to get approved for me to leave the country. I can’t imagine what took it so long, because all but one of the signatures was ready within 24 hours. Then I waited another week for one last signature. Another soldier in the same company was sent home for a different reason and everything she had was approved within 2 days.

Once I finally had everything ready, I was lucky enough to get a seat on the first helicopter leaving the FOB. It was a strange feeling, and it had never really sunk in that I was going home until I left the helipad. Even then, it wasn’t emotional as I had thought it would be, merely an acknowledgement in my mind that I really was starting the long trip home. Part of me was sad to go, because of the closeness that had developed in my section in the past weeks and months. As we left, I realized that I had no phone card with which to call my wife when I got the US, so she would know when to pick me up. I shrugged it off, and decided I’d have to buy one somewhere.

The first half of the helicopter ride was beautiful. Iraq is much brighter at night than I thought it would be. The Blackhawk had no windows, so I felt the cool night breeze as we watched the scenery below us from a hundred feet off the ground. It reminded of driving to the top of Mt. Olive when I was a child to look down at the “jewel box”. As we approached the next stop, I saw the Tigris River and felt glad to see the familiar surroundings where I had driven so many times.

When we landed, all but one other passenger got off but more came back, and I was forced to switch to the back corner seat in the Blackhawk. I had wanted that seat for the better view, but learned that for some reason the seat catches all the rotor wash through the open window. I spent the next leg of the trip trying in vain to hide from the 100+mph winds that were blowing in my face. Someone lent me some glasses, but they only helped a little.

Upon landing in Balad, I went to the pax terminal as fast I could to sign up for the next flight going south. I was told to come back in a few hours at 0530 for the showtime. When I came back I was told that I had been put on the manifest and to wait to be called. Near the entrance there was a TV with a slide show of flight information. One slide had a Daily trivia question that asked “What was the first book printing using a movable type press?” After waiting a few hours (They said there was a prize, and I was concerned it would be big) I went to the counter and told them the answer was a Gutenburg Bible. Since I was the first one to get it right, I was given a 300 minute phone card. An hour later my flight was ready and I rode a C-17 down to Kuwait. I slept the whole way.

My luck ran out when I got to Kuwait. I was told that they might be able to get my on a Space Available flight in the morning, and to come back at 0830. So I made myself comfortable and got a good night’s sleep. At 0700 I packed up everything I had and got the desk at 0800. I was told I was too early and to come back. At 0830 on the dot I came back and the person I had been told to see was nowhere to be found. He came back for a few minutes half an hour later, but completely ignored me and everyone else that was waiting to see him. Then at 0930 he came back to stay, but still ignored everyone that was waiting to see him. Instead, he sent someone else to tell us that we wouldn’t fly today and to come back tomorrow. Maybe we’d get to fly, or maybe not. If not, we could try again every day until Saturday. I understand that aircraft only have so many seats, but the complete lack of concern and customer service was frustrating, to say the least.

I came back in the afternoon with some questions, and found the same people to be much more friendly, but still no seats on aircraft.

5 More Years

I, J, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

At a normal reenlistment ceremony, the reenlisting officer will say a few kind words about the soldier, then the soldier takes the Oath and then is given a chance to say a few words. I didn't have much to say because I don't say much to begin with. Nothing would be complete without a few words to thank my wife and kids for all of their love and support, and I wouldn't be here without them. This and everything else that I do is for them.

No More Mail

I will be changing my address soon, so please do not send me anything. Anything received by the Post Office after the 1st will be sent back to my new address.

Army Physical Fitness Badge

Spring Cleaning

I decided this morning that it would be a good time to start packing and going through my stuff in preparation for the end of my vacation. It was not a good idea, because I had to get up 8 hours from when I started, but I got something done. The time frame wasn't the only dumb decision involved, but the only that was mine. So, everything must go, which would have been a lot easier if I hadn't been forced to take twice as much stuff as I needed to begin with. Who ever needed fleece bib pants and a balaclava in the desert? Perhaps in Nepal, but not here.

Maybe more later. Not much happens here, so there's really nothing to write about.

Five Years

I can’t believe that it’s been five years already. It seems like only a few months ago we were vacationing in Montana to celebrate our third anniversary. Now it’s been five years, and unfortunately, we’ve been apart for half of that. Unlike many couples I know, I think that the time apart has brought us closer together and formed a relationship that is stronger that it would be if we’d lived together the whole time.

God has blessed us in so many ways in the last five years. We now have twin 3 year olds that couldn’t have been more perfect for us. We have a hound that is still healthy despite his old age. We are completely debt free and starting to save for retirement. We’ve had a happy and blessed five years and looking forward to many more.

Another anniversary that takes place today is one year since I arrived in the Middle East. That also doesn't seem like a year, but I'm looking forward to leaving soon.

Irony

For most of my government sponsored vacation, my favorite job was to be a gun truck commander. The gun trucks are usually small vehicles with a crew served weapon whose purpose is to protect the unarmed cargo trucks. Because of my position in the Co, I rarely got to do this job, and almost always ended up as the cargo or fuel truck commander. I transfered to another section a few months ago and will no longer be on the road. Last week I signed for my own gun truck. I have the truck, but no crew, weapon or mission.

When we got here last year, it seems that we missed the flies. Not so this year. April must be the month for them. There are only a few of them so far, but I'm sure that they are just scouts for the coming plague. They are much more fearless and persistent than American flies.

Tatoosh

My mother recently wrote to me asking about the Tatoosh range in Washington. It is a few miles to the south of Mt. Rainier, separated by a valley with waterfalls, lakes and the headwaters of the Nisqually and Paradise Rivers. The range has over a half dozen peaks, all around 6000ft. Pinnacle, Denman, Plummer, Lane, Eagle and Chutla peaks are the more prominent ones, and The Castle. All these pictures were taken looking south from Paradise. Mt Adams can be seen on the horizon in a few of the pictures.

I have seen it many times, but have only been there once. I hope to change that in the future. The Tatoosh range is in the background of many of the pictures, but should be easy to identify.

The next three pictures were taken on a training trip to the Nisqually Glacier in June 06.

This picture was taken on a Snowshoeing trip in December 05. It was a perfectly clear day, with crisp temperatures and nothing but a light breeze all day.

This picture was taken the next day on an attempt at reaching Camp Muir. It was still clear, but we had to face strong winds with a nasty wind chill before turning back. Mt Adams is on the horizon on the left, and Mt. St. Helens on the right.

These two were taken on the Muir Snowfield on my third attempt at Camp Muir, when I finally made it in June 06.

This is the only trip that I've actually made to the Tatoosh. The picture is of Me and Josh at the crest of the ridge near Chutla Peak. We thought it was Chutla peak, but we couldn't see much at the time.

R&R Olympics Hike

My wife thought that I needed a new post here. So she posted these pictures for me, practically forcing me to write something new. It will have to be all about the pictures, because i hardly even do anything at work and have spent 99% of the last 3 weeks in a 1 square mile area, and the 1% hasn't been much further. It's quite boring and I'd like to do something else soon. Like this...

The first weekend in February I was still on leave and realized the Super Bowl was coming up soon. So I called Daniel and we both agreed that spending an afternoon and evening hiking through the rain, sleet and snow in the woods near a lake would be a wonderful way to spend Super Bowl Sunday. After some discussion, we decided to drive in the direction of the Olympics and see what happened.

I decided we should visit the Lake Cushman area, because I'd never been there before. The weather was great for hiking. It snowed some, rained a bit and did nothing for a while. We saw some very pretty cloud formations at dusk. The lake was very peaceful and very gray. If I'd had more time, it would have been a great weekend to go camping.

Mud and Music

It has rained for the past two nights, and most of the area is covered in think, sticky, gluey mud. Whenever I walk in it, it gets stuck in the tread and around the edges of my boots. Small rocks will often stick to the mud on my boots until I scrape them off on something, or if I’m walking in gravel, every step will fling rocks behind me. This is perfect mud for flinging and driving my Xterra through, but it’s horrible for living in. The drainage is so bad that it takes 3-4 days without rain for the mud to dry up. It the mean time it’s everywhere. I have to take my boots off as soon as I get in my room to keep it clean, and I try to avoid leaving my room so I don’t have to deal with mud. At work, it’s unavoidable. My job takes me to all the muddiest places on the base. My HMMV is filthy because I’ve had to get inside it many times with half an inch (no joke) of mud caked on my boots.

When it first started to rain, I had a great time driving through the dirt areas of the base in my HMMV. It was part of my job, and I thought I was immune to the mud and rain. It would drift a bit, but I was in an open area and had plenty of room. As it rained more, the mud got worse and the turret started to leak on me. At about midnight, I parked the truck a few feet from a ditch to wait, and I put it in park, I felt the vehicle shift. I decided that wasn’t the place to be, and put the truck in drive and tried to get away, but the weight of the vehicle sunk down into the ditch until I was stuck, passenger side down at a 30-40 degree angle. The door on an armored HMMV weights several hundred pounds so if I wanted out my only option was to crawl out through the turret hatch. I had two radios, but my only contact on one was unavailable, and I was trying to avoid calling my own unit on the other and telling them I’d gotten stuck in a HMMV. A few people stopped by to see how I was, but it was 20 minutes before someone came that could help. They had an armored vehicle with a winch and were able to pull it out. I looked in the ditch and saw that my front right tire had been 8 inches deep in the bottom of the ditch. The right side of the truck also took a thorn bush out with it, and I left it there for more of the night. In the morning I had to get rid of the evidence so no one would ask me how it got there. The right side of the vehicle was dirtier than the left, but I could just blame that on the mud. I had friends that could have gotten me out, but it would have taken some more time.

Since I’ve been back from leave and developing a routine, I’ve started to work out more. Normally I like to run outside, but I do my workouts at the end of my shift at night, so I’d need a light to run at night, which I didn’t have for a while. When I went to the gym, I found that treadmills can be pretty boring. There’s just nothing to but stay there and tread and count the time until my programmed exertion is over. At least running outside there is the change of scenery and it actually seems like I am moving. To solve this problem I decided to do what everyone else was doing and buy an armband for my ipod. Yesterday I went to the gym with my ipod proudly strapped to my bicep, turned up the Relient K and found out that ipods have much in common with alcohol. Not only did it lower my inhibitions and ability to make wise decisions, I just couldn’t stop. I spent about 20 minutes more in the gym than I had planned, and that’s a lot for me.

I’ve never had too much to drink in a public place, but I imagine if I did someone might come up to me and want to hang out or something. Having lost the ability to make good decisions, I’d say “Sure, that a great idea”

So this yesterday I was just there in the gym, minding my own business when the cross country skiing machine caught my attention and asked me to come run with her at her pace. Normally I would have declined but me and my ipod said, “Sure, that’s a great idea, we’ll run at your pace, and then even faster” Or something like that.

The end result was the same. I woke up in the afternoon sore, and asked myself “What was I thinking?” At least I’ll get something out of this though. I’m taking the morning off today, but tomorrow I’ll be back, and maybe the Stairmaster will be there too.