My 18 Month Vacation to the Beach

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T04:40:00.000+03:00

Well I was hoping to spend Christmas some where else than Iraq but it just didnt happen. Hope everyone has a great holiday and eats plenty of good food. Theres no plans for myself here really. Its really boring. We are gonna go try to catch the Bears game tonight it starts a 1am here. See you all soon.

Conex Packed

2005-12-09T11:39:00.000+03:00

We had our customs inspection this morning. It went pretty quick. I packed half of things up to go home but probably wont see them for a year. Now i just have what I need to get by with until we get out of here. Our replacements made it here a few days ago. That made it feel even a little closer to coming home.

Happy Holidays From the Ballard Cats

2005-12-09T11:35:00.000+03:00

Look how thrilled Kirby and Otis are to be wearing their reindeer antlers.

4 Weeks Left In Iraq

2005-11-26T01:05:00.000+03:00

I just realized its been almost a month since I updated. Nothing new has really happened though. Just another month down. We are 4 weeks out now from leaving this place. our replacements are scheduled to arrive in under 2 weeks. That will feel nice once they arrive. We will be packing up a lot of our things in 2 weeks. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. The food was a bit better than I expected it to be. CBS was here asking us what the 10 best things about being in Iraq for Thanksgiving. They asked me right before i got my food but couldn't think of anything good or funny to say. There really isnt anything good about spending the Holidays here except for the weather.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2005-10-31T16:01:00.000+03:00

I really do love mullets.

I Can’t Believe I Even Had To Write This

2005-10-16T23:19:00.000+03:00

I just wanted to put this out real quick. To 99% of the people who read my blog this doesn’t concern you. This is to the other 1% who probably don’t read it but still leave comments. If you’re going to leave a comment have a point, and don’t leave comments trying to get me to buy life insurance. Your wasting my time and yours and every one else’s who reads the comments. This blog is for me to talk about whats going on in Iraq and what I have to deal with here. I don’t even write as much as I want to because I don’t have time. Stop wasting more of my time to delete your stupid comments. To that 99% I was saying this doesn’t concern thank you for not wasting my time leaving stupid comments. I appreciate your support.

Constitution Vote

2005-10-16T13:43:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was the day for voting on the constitution. Things are calm so far. There have been talks of civil war to break out because of the constitution. I haven’t heard any other news regarding the situation yet. Other than that things are still going good here. Hopefully our replacements will be here in a month. Once they arrive we will start training them to do our jobs. It feels real good to know we are coming home soon. I’ll be happy enough when I actually get to see that US soil again.

OL'ROY Dog Snacks

2005-10-05T22:14:00.000+03:00

I got McDaniel to eat a dog treat today.

New Mission?

2005-09-17T11:37:00.000+04:00

Not that things aren’t busy enough for us, we just picked up another mission. Right now we have our primary mission to do which we are running missions everyday. On top of that we have FOB duties with right now is just chow hall duty and we supply two teams for QRF. Once we start this new mission we will have to borrow a few teams from other platoons here. And the days the other platoons are running the new mission we will have to give up some of our guys to help them. We are already lucky to see a day off, this just makes those days off even more out of reach. So hopefully the mission will get cancelled from us having to do it. And technically if you ask anyone in the military they will probably say there are no days off in the military. If you look at the pay we get and figure the dollar amount per hour, for the hours we work, we don’t make jack.

On a different note, my light bulb in my lamp just exploded on me the other day. Glass landed all over my things. And if I was sitting in my chair glass would have landed on me along with the glowing orange piece that fell out. Things are going just fine other than taking on the new mission. The three month mark is here I think. Can’t wait to get out of here.

Temporary Job

2005-09-15T17:57:00.000+04:00

I started my QRF(quick reaction force) shifts a few days ago. QRF is if our platoons get attacked when they are out doing our missions, they call us and we go out to protect them and eliminate the threat. Our shifts go for a week and last 12 hours. We are on 3pm to 3am. The QRF has yet to be used since we have been here. Other than QRF we have still been very busy running missions. We have been a few new places in the past few weeks we haven’t been before. Leaves are almost all finished, just a few more of our guys need to go still. We are right around the 3 month mark, and I really cant wait to get out of here. The bonuses have gone up a little more for resigning. 3 year is now $10,000 and 6 year is at $20,000. Before we leave here it will probably be $15,000 for 3 and $30,000 for 6. Its awfully tempting but I’m still going to have to pass. The crap that I have seen and what I have gone through here is just not worth it to me.

Busy Month

2005-08-22T14:22:00.000+04:00

I’ve been pretty bust the past month and haven’t had a lot of time to update. There hasn’t really been a lot of new news to report on. Just the same old mission stuff. Just wanted to say Im doing ok and looking forward to getting out of here in less than 4 months. Everyone else here is doing good also. I will try to have more updates soon.

Just Another Day In Iraq

2005-07-20T15:44:00.000+04:00

I have been trying to come up with something good to write about the past few days. I came up with a few things just now. The newest thing to happen is another dumb rule that will hopefully get straightened out quickly. I think it’s up there with the dumbest rules I have heard so far. Basically they want to take weapons away from soldiers that didn’t qualify (by qualify I mean fire the weapon at the range and hit the required amount of targets) with them before we left to come over here. They have carried them for the past 6 months and fired them at the range in Kuwait and Iraq. We have a few guys who were gone the day we went to the 9mm pistol range, because they were at a combat lifesavers course, training on saving lives practicing sticking people with needles while they also get stuck with needles. So they want to take their pistols from them. They will still have their M16 or their M249 but when we are here on our fob (forward operating base) do they want to carry the big weapon around with them or a pistol. The chance of us actually using the 9mm is pretty slim, but you never know when we might need it to save our own life or some one else’s. Anyway on a different note I was in the gym a few days ago when out of no where this little kitten came charging through the gym. Normally it wouldn’t have been that funny but for some reason it was, he was just a little guy. But from me laughing so hard when other people jumped at first because they thought it was a rat, I almost dropped the weights on myself. Well that’s all I got for now really. Everyone here is doing really good, trying to stay cool as much as we can. Just one last thought, why take away a soldiers 9mm away because he didnt qualify with it but knows how to use the weapon, but let the guy who shot an Iraqi in the foot with his M16 keep it? There was a safety on a M16 last time I checked. Hmmm, sounds kind of stupid to me!

Just An Update

2005-07-11T20:04:00.000+04:00

I just wanted to post an update. Not a whole lot to talk about really. We have just been really busy lately with long days in the heat. I just looked at the weather for the rest of the week, it looks like its going to be in the 120’s. I’m really looking forward to that. Surprisingly I made it from the chow hall back to my room earlier with a bowl of ice cream not totally melted. We have been getting a lot of people sent home for their leave lately. Strange but we haven’t had any stupid new rules come up in the past week. There are just stupid people doing stupid things. I’m proud to say none of them are from my unit once again. I really just am amazed at some of the stupid things I have seen in the past few months here. The most recent event that took place is rather funny in a way to a lot of people except for the Iraqi who go shot in the foot. I will just leave it at that. I have been keeping pretty busy lately. The past month and a half has flown by. I can’t believe that we are already almost half way through July. In just five more months we will be ready to get the heck out if here if all goes well. I’m looking forward to that more than anything.

The Worst Holiday to Celebrate While In Iraq

2005-07-04T00:45:00.000+04:00

Happy 4^th of July. I hope everyone has a great holiday. I was thinking about having some fireworks shipped to me or getting into our pyro box here to find something fun to play with. But on second thoughts, fireworks in a war zone probably aren’t a good idea, and the grenade rounds for the 203 are all accounted for. So I guess I will just play it safe and hold out until next year when I’m home. I will try to come up with something worth while to do so I can enjoy the holiday. I hope I can find something to entertain myself with that won’t get me into to much trouble. Everyone enjoy your cook outs and parties I wish I was there celebrating with you! Oh and someone please blow something up for me! Just not yourself.

2005-07-04T00:42:00.000+04:00

Happy 4th From Iraq

What Grass?

2005-07-01T18:16:00.000+04:00

Whats the Point?

Day At The Pool

2005-06-30T13:21:00.000+04:00

We made it to the pool yesterday. It was nice to get out and do something different for a change. I didn’t get rid of my white stomach. Oh well. It was a pretty nice pool, decent size and not to crowded. When we got to the pool we picked out the people who do nothing all day and just go lay out by the pool and the ones who actually do things here. Like us we are all white with no tans and most of the other people there had there nice dark tans. We were there for a few hours and then went back. It really wore me out.

2005-06-30T13:20:00.000+04:00

The Pool

I Got Nothin

2005-06-27T23:19:00.000+04:00

Nothing cool to write about lately. Wish i had something cool to talk about. Hopefully i will have something good in the next few days to write about. Check back soon.

Game of the Week

2005-06-20T21:28:00.000+04:00

The battle of the titans is among us. Its time for the fight for number one. As some of you may know in our free time here we play video games. Some of us have all gotten in of a Madden 2005 franchise league. It’s great there are about 8 of us I think, and we occasionally get to play each other. We are going into week 9 of our season. Right now there are two teams that are undefeated so far. One team is the San Diego Chargers (8-0) who is SSG Kave’s team and the other is the New Orleans Saints (7-0) who are my team. SSG Kave is very experienced in this game, which will probably show the predicted outcome of the game will be the Chargers as the winners. But I have come a long way since I started playing the game. Hopefully it will be a good game and not a total blow-out……….

Well the game didn’t turn out the way I hoped. Unfortunately there has to be a loser in every game and unfortunately that loser was me this time. The final score of the game, as much as I don’t want to say it, was 49-10 Chargers. I still have the best record in the NFC right now. I will defiantly make it to the playoffs and a good chance to the Super Bowl. Where I will have to play the Chargers again.

Its Like An Oven Here

2005-06-18T18:06:00.000+04:00

Well it has been pretty hot here the past few days. The other day the temperature on Cnn weather was 120 here. To give you an idea of what it feels like here is what i compared it to. The other day I was walking when it felt extremelly hot out. Every time the wind blew in my face it felt like when you open the oven and the heat all rushes toward your face. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. If you are interested in checking out what the temp here is here is a link for Cnn weather. CNN Iraq Weather

Quote of the Day

2005-06-15T14:09:00.000+04:00

“You can tell we shouldn't be in a country any longer fighting for their protection when your own guys are out there trying to write you tickets for speeding.”
SGT Luke Port

Just so everyone knows what is going on, the United States Air Force has police troops out driving around. We don’t quite understand it but they go around with a radar gun trying to catch us speeding. Does this really make any sense at all? There are ton of Iraqi civilians and US civilian and private contractors driving way over the speed limit. But they actually waste there time trying to bust us for driving to fast so they can give us a ticket. Its good to know a part of the military’s budget is being wasted on our nations own trying to bust us for speeding. It was funny to drive by them today and see them pop out with their radar gun. I was hoping to snap a picture of it but I wasn’t able to. I have been told from an incident that happened while I was home, the Air Force could probably work on professionalism and wearing the military uniform correctly before they start writing us tickets.

SGT Port added a new post to his blog, its kind of humorous http://sgtport.blogspot.com/

Oh Oh!! Can I Make Some Stupid Rules Too!!!!

2005-06-13T17:16:00.000+04:00

I really wish I new what rank you have to become in the military to be able to just sit back and think up stupid rules all day long. Things seem to get more ridiculous as we go. The other day I went to go eat. They informed me at the door that we can’t wear our PT uniform in the D-Fac unless we are just getting a to-go meal. As soon as I walk in the building I was immediately told by the guy who has nothing to do with the military who runs the D-Fac that I can only get a to-go meal. Now today the rule is you can’t even go in there with a PT uniform at all. It wasn’t the KBR (d-fac personnel) staff that made the rule, so I can’t blame them. We are trying to figure out why the rule was made in the first place. Is it because they think our PT uniforms are not sanitary to have in there because of being sweaty? Maybe, Or are they concerned about us bringing dirt or dust into the building from that uniform? Who knows? But if it’s the sweat issue that is just plan retarded, because half the time I go to eat right after a mission my DCU uniform is more soaked with sweat than my PT uniform ever has been. You should see the civilian contractors that come in sometimes, their clothes are covered in dirt. Most of us are already not real happy just for the fact we are stuck here for a year without the thing we enjoy most in life, like family and friends, nothing like trying to bring our moral down a little more. This is why I’m not resigning. At least I can say these rules aren’t coming from my unit.

Done? I Wish.

2005-06-11T13:04:00.000+04:00

Well today would be a great day if I wasn't in Iraq. Today is my actual ETS (end of time in service) date. It was 6 years ago today I signed the papers for the guard. I would be done today and have 2 years of the IRR (inactive readiness reserve). If I really wanted to I could resign for 3 or 6 years. A bonus is offered for both of these times. 3 year is $7,500 and 6 year is $15,000. If I sign while I'm here I would get the bonus tax free, yes the whole thing. The extra money would be nice but it's just not worth it to me. I have seen enough of the military I think and will be happy to end my military career where it's at. I am glad I'm here serving my country and can say I was a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom but being away from home, not seeing family and friends for a year is a long time and don't want to have to go through this again. There is also a lot we have to put up with here that is totally ridiculous and thats another reason I'm not going to resign. I will look forward to enjoying every weekend not every 3 out of 4, and most of all not having to shave every day. I can't wait to get home.

Dodgeball Anyone?

2005-06-10T23:18:00.000+04:00

We had a dodgeball tournament here today in the afternoon. It looked like a lot of fun. I wish i had gotten on a team. Our unit had three teams in the double elimination tournament. There was a lot of good action and awesome plays. Like when SGT Port got nailed in the face by a ball then still managed to catch the ball getting out a player from the other team and getting one of his teammates back in the game. One game one of our other teams managed to win the game in 30 seconds knocking out all 6 of the other teams members. This guy here sets up these tournaments every now and then and anyone is welcome to sign up. The day before I returned from leave there was a sand volleyball tournament. One of our teams won the tournament. Its nice to get to do something different here every now and then.

2005-06-10T23:13:00.000+04:00

SGT Port gives it all to knock out his opponents

2005-06-10T23:10:00.000+04:00

SSG Kave and SSG Speaker in the dodgeball tournament.

Sad News

2005-06-09T10:55:00.000+04:00

As most of you have already heard on the news our unit had its first loss. I'm not sure what was said on the news but SPC Romines from Southern Illinois died a few days ago. He was with 3/123rd FA. Some of the 3/123rd were deployed with us the 2/123rd FA in November. Please pray for his family and friends in this sad time for everyone. It really hits you hard when this happens to some one from your own unit. If you want more updates check SGT Ports blog he has a few links for sites covering the story. http://sgtport.blogspot.com/

Not For Those With A Weak Stomach

2005-06-07T22:57:00.000+04:00

Well one thing that i would have to say I miss the most from the United States is real milk. We get this milk here that can be stored warm, so I guess you cant even call it real milk. Well I went to go eat with SGT Port yesterday. I usually drink this skimmed milk from the D-FAC, and normally its pretty good, sometimes a little warm from it not being restocked quickly enough but its ok. Well I started drinking my milk yesterday and got about halfway finished with it and i wasnt getting any more milk. I thought my straw was broken. I pulled my straw out and put it back in and tried drinking again. Then it happened. I got chunks of milk instead of liquid milk. I really almost got sick right there. I cut open the box and found the most disgusting thing i have seen in a while. Bad Milk. So be thankful for those real cows back home that provide us with great tasting milk. There is a picture below of what I found. I think I'm going to stay away from the milk for a little while If you dont want to see it scroll past it.

2005-06-07T22:55:00.000+04:00

No Thats Not Ice Cream.

Gotta Love Dust and Sand

2005-06-06T07:51:00.000+04:00

We had a dust storm last night. it was probably one of the worst ones we have seen yet as far as visibility. The hallways in our building were filled with dust. When we walked out in the hall last night it just looked cloudy our there. We normally have decent visibility when these storms roll through but we couldnt see anything last night. I did what i could to try to take some pictures last night. As much as I would love to see snow right now thats not it in the picture below. I think the storm messed up our air conditioner because im usually freezing in here and right now I almost feel to warm. I could just smell the dust coming in the room last night. I will probably end up getting sick from all the dust I inhaled last night.

2005-06-06T07:50:00.000+04:00

Spc Coons About 10ft Out From Me. No Thats Not Snow.

2005-06-06T07:47:00.000+04:00

Our Dusty Hallway

A Few More Things

2005-06-04T21:45:00.000+04:00

Well I just realized I needed to add a few more things. Congratulations to Hayley my step-daughter who just passed 3rd grade. Good job Hayley! I also just found out that June 4th is hug your cat day according to the MSN homepage. So I wanted to say hi to my furry boys Kirby and Otis back home. So if you got a cat give'em a big hug today.

2005-06-04T21:30:00.000+04:00

Hayley at the Girl Scout Powder Puff Derby races

2005-06-04T21:27:00.000+04:00

My boys Kirby and Otis

Back From Two Weeks Of Leave

2005-06-03T20:11:00.000+04:00

I got back on Monday from an enjoyable two weeks at home. Unfortunantly it went by way to fast. It really would be nice if it lasted a another week. I enjoyed my time home getting to see my family and friends. Naomi and I got up to Chicago for a few days for our 2nd Anniversary (May 24). We saw the Cubs play the Astros (W 4-1) and went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. I got to be home for my niece Katie's Baptism and spent a lot of time just relaxing. I also got to drive my dads new 2005 Mustang GT. Wow that is a nice, fast, and fun car to drive. We also stayed at the Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque, IA one night. We took Hayley and one of her friends and Naomi's sister Ivy and her friend. There is an indoor waterpark there also, we all had a really good time. We spent a lot of time eating out at resturants that I miss eating at while I'm here. It was a much needed two weeks home for me. I hope the next 7 months goes by faster than any 7 months has ever gone by ever for me so I get to come home and see everyone. The past few days I've just been trying to get back into the swing of things. I have spent much of the past few days resting and sleeping trying to adjust back to the time difference.

2005-06-03T18:36:00.000+04:00

Naomi and me at the Cubs game May 23

2005-06-03T18:23:00.000+04:00

My dads 2005 Mustang GT

I Couldn't Resist

2005-05-05T14:28:00.000+04:00

iI couldnt help but put this on my blog. This is written by SGT Luke Port. I took it from his blog because i thought it was so funny. Sad that its true though. Here is a link to his blog if you are interested in checking it out http://sgtport.blogspot.com/ Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Someone bring me an ID10T form
Okay, just in case I start to sound harsh when I talk about the idiot that got his weapon stolen yesterday. Here is some backup for my opinion.First of all, from what I hear, this guy lost his pistol on 3 different occasions. Once in Ft. Dix, Once in Kuwait, and yesterday here in Iraq. This last time he left it in the gym where someone obviously stole it. Just last week while he was at the PX he had a negligent discharge in the clearing barrel and that is a major screw up.Now our higher ups are making all sorts of rules like. You have to take your weapon to the bathroom that is 10 feet from the door of our building. Yet you are not allowed to take it all the way across the FOB to the GYM. That's rediculous... Get this you don't have to bring your weapon to the shower trailer that is right next to the bathroom one that you do have to take your weapon to. One E6 joked around by saying lets just bring towels with us everywhere and leave out 9's in our rooms. Then we can just say we are going to the shower or the gym at any point when someone stops you and asks you where your weapon is... You know I really haven't signed the paperwork for re-enlistment and this kind of BS is definitely making me rethink signing back up.

Just Under Two Weeks Untill Leave

2005-04-29T15:10:00.000+04:00

well just under two weeks untill im home on leave. i cant wait to get away from here for my two weeks. its hot now. it has been over 100 degrees lately. today seens really hot. i have to take a PT test tomorrow evening. i hope the temperature is cooled down by then. i am one of the guys giving the pt test to everyone else on May 7th. i have been getting prtty bored in our off time lately. we dont have much but when we do im running out of things to keep me entertained. lately the past two weeks i have been going to the gym everyday working out. last night about eight of us went and played vollyball for a little while, it turned out to be a good time. we finally got our internet hooked up in our rooms. it is really slow though. the guy needs to come back and fine tune the satillite and the system. we have been so busy though we havent had time to bring him here to fix everything. we lose our signal quite a bit and have no service at all. we got stuck with guard at the front gate last week. we had it from 11pm to 7am. there were four of us at a time and we split the shift so it would be from 11 to 3 or 3 to 7. but with long missions during the day and gate guard at night we didnt get much sleep. i guess its been a while since i updated my blog. i had a good birthday and even got to drink a beer. it was non-alcoholic of course. one guy made me a cat pinata out of paper and duct tape. it was a good time i have a great video of it. well i wish i had more exciting things to tell about. i will try to keep up better on updating this site.

2005-04-29T15:07:00.000+04:00

me on gate Guard

2005-04-29T15:04:00.000+04:00

the cat pinata

Iraq update

2005-03-22T09:34:00.000+03:00

Hello, nothing new to update about from Iraq. We have been doing the same mission which I can’t talk about. We have been staying pretty busy. The temperature has been slowly increasing. The past few weeks it has been in the 70’s. It seems a lot warmer when you have on pants, long sleeves, and body armor on. We got a lot of rain the past few days and got down pretty cool. I could see my breath the other day. I am staying pretty occupied in off hours with email, playstation, and movies. Trying to take as many pictures as I can when ever possible. I have some pretty interesting ones so far that I wish I could post. We are trying to get set up with our own internet server. Its to much of a pain to have to deal with the internet computer labs here. Some charge money, the speed is terrible, and they are only open certain hours. When we get our own server we will have access 24/7 from our own rooms. Our dining facility has greatly improved since we got here. The food is now edible and they don’t run out. Other than that there is not anything else to update on that I can tell you about right now.

Made it to Iraq

2005-02-07T22:49:00.000+03:00

Well I made it to Iraq on the 6th. We got here around noon. We could have watched the Super Bowl last night but it was on from 1 to 5 on the morning here and i didnt feel like staying up. Nothing else really going on right now. We start training with the unit we are replacing in a few days. It gets pretty cold here at night right now, and about 60s or 70s during the day. The area im in is pretty secure so i feel pretty safe here. Nothing to worry about here we were told mortars dont normaly come in to our area. I will post some pictures soon. computers here are kind of slow.

18 months is finally starting

2005-01-12T05:36:00.000+03:00

Well, I leave for Kuwait on Friday. It turned out to be a few days earlier than we were supposed to leave. Originally we were leaving on the 17th. A few days earlier is fine with me though. Please dont send anything to my Fort Dix address because I probably wont get it. It has been a exciting yet frustrating last two months here. The training has been good for the most part, but we have had to put up with alot of stupid decisions out of our units hands. We lived out in a tent city for 16 days, then after christmas they told us we had to spend another 7 days in the field. It was basically so the tent city could get numbers for meals so they dont lose their contract because people dont go to breakfast in the morning (long story). But anyway, I'm glad thats all over with now. I will try to keep this updated as much as possible so you all can be updated on whats going on.

2005-01-12T01:39:00.001+03:00

Inside our Packed tent with 18 people.

2005-01-12T01:39:00.000+03:00

Our tents we lived in at Camp Tiger.

2005-01-12T01:38:00.000+03:00

Me with the M2 - 50 cal. machine gun.

2004-12-03T07:09:00.000+03:00

my beautiful wife Naomi and me leaving the armory November 11 2004

Updates for everyone

2004-12-03T06:50:00.000+03:00

This is a website where anyone can check up on me and see what i have been up to. I will post updates from my journey from Fort Dix, NJ to Iraq, and back to the Quad-Cities. i will try to update as often as i can.

2004-11-16T01:27:00.000+03:00

Cowboys

2004-11-16T00:25:00.000+03:00