Pictures

Camels in Kuwait
In the Sea-Tac airport
These are on Camp Liberty. Look like Haiti, don't they?

Our tent at Liberty.

Hey finally huh? I got internet in my room now and it's much better. I am very tired so this will be short. It's 0506 and I've been up for 18 hours because we're changing to reverse cycle. It will probably be about 3.5 more before I can crash.
Today we were at the range so my weapon is now zeroed and the bullets will go to the little red dot. Tomorrow? More tactics training.

?

Mortar repellant? Sporty? You people have issues and should contact a psychiatrist immediately. Good to hear from you though. Puff, I can't wait to come down there and see you and that other nutcase brother of mine. I'll have to give you both a good pounding just for old times' sake =)
Today was struggling to stay awake through several classes and sweating my you-know-what off practicing mounting/dismounting the Blackhawk. Oh, I got to sit in the gunner's seat of an Apache! If I stay in the Army, I'm going to put in for warrant officer and fly choppers. That's got to be the coolest job in the Army.
Tomorrow we have two more practice missions. One during the day and one at night. This time we'll be using the Blackhawks for the first time so it should be a little less boring than usual.

Yo

Well, it's definitely gotten more interesting. The last few days, we've been going out on practice missions here on the fob, including one at night. I want to try to take some pictures through the night vision goggles. We also had some mortars hit on the fob yesterday and the day before. I think there were a couple injuries but nothing serious. I'm perfectly all right. I tried to post a couple days ago but it the internet burped and I lost it and I didn't have enough time to rewrite it. We've been very busy with all the training and I haven't been able to write like I want to. I'm going to look into getting internet in my room. I gotta get up early tomorrow so I'm going. Toodles.

Blah

Hi. Nothing new here. It's hot, we're training. Eat, sleep and do it all over again. When something cool or significant happens I'll tell you about it, but for now I'm drawing a blank.

same sh**.......

......different day. You guys haven't missed much the last couple days. Just more classes and training. We're going to be training for the next two weeks. Plans have changed and we'll be doing something new and completely different from what I've been telling you. It's much cooler and we won't be gone 10 days at a time like the former plan but I can't tell you what it is. It's not any more dangerous, just new and when the Army does something new, they do all sorts of redudant training to get ready. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun but we'll see once we get started. There will be a fair amount of night training and lots of weapons training (yay!). I love the weapons. I think they're the coolest part of being in the Army (along with the vehicles).

Taji

I'm finally here and I'm settling into my room which I share with the other two guys who came with me. We're all in different sections so we won't be always around each other. Not necessarily a bad thing. They're ok, it's just nice to change company now and then.
Do you remember me saying that our flight was to leave at 0130? Well it didn't leave til 0250. We got here at 0315 and to bed at 0400. We slept til 0830 and then had a full day of inprocessing and briefings we've already gotten at least two dozen times. I swear, the army is all about brainwashing. Today there was a battalion bbq which took up most of the day and then they let us off. I have to go back to the room soon and start cleaning my weapon for tomorrow though. So far it's great here. I'll let you know if that changes at all. Buh-bye.

About Time

Good news, amazing, astounding news. We have a flight and it leaves at 0130. The no-so-good news. We leave the tent at 2200. Sound like typical army procedure yet? I'm going to keep this short so I can get a couple hours of sleep before we leave. Didn't do much today. Bought some cheap bootleg movies and games to occupy my time in case I don't have internet access at some point. I'll let you know what it'll be like there as soon as possible. Ta-ta for now.

HIIIiiiiyyyeah whatever

This is me very tired so it's gonna be short. Once again we went nowhere. The infantry guys in our group have a flight tomorrow evening and us artillery guys have a slim chance of going too. Whatever. Chances are, I'll still be here tomorrow night. It was much nicer today and I sat out in the sun by our tent for a while trying to get started on a tan. The guys thought I was nuts. I'm doing fine and so is the cold. Adios.

Bald and dusty

Windy would be the understatement that describes today best I think. The tent has been creaking and flapping like a crazy thing and the walls keep billowing in and knocking over the flimsy lockers they have in here. Such fun. The air outside is full of dust so it's not a good day for eyes. So, we're not going anywhere today either. Tomorrow they try again to get us on our way to where we belong. We shall wait and see how that goes. This is starting to seem very familiar...
I went and got a haircut yesterday so I'm back to the skinhead look. All the barbers here are hired nationals (how do you like my political correctness?) and they do a pretty good job. However, I thought the guy was trying to skin my head instead of simply shaving it. None to gentle. Guess I won't be getting dandruff any time soon.

Nuts

Sorry people, I just can't upload pictures with this network. It always brings up some stupid error about needing the blog id. I've been working on it for over an hour and still no luck. You guys may have to wait til I get back to see everything.
I found out yesterday that I'm definitely going to Taji. It's at a little village north of Baghdad itself and we'll be working the areas around the edges of Baghdad. The sergeant said that we might be spending some time at outposts if we have extended patrols. Outposts tend to be pretty spare on the comfortable side of things so that might be interesting. I'll try to let everybody know ahead of time if I'm going to be doing that in case I can't write while I'm there. Oh by the way, don't wory if I can't write for a while sometimes. The internet could go down here and sometimes things just get busy and I can't find time for a while. They say that Taji has the biggest px in Iraq so I shouldn't have any trouble getting what supplies I need. Hopefully they also have decent internet so I can stay in touch. Today we're just sitting around waiting. At 1500 we have to go over to brigade to find out our flight times. They could possibly be tonight sometime. I'll be glad to finally get to where Ive been going for the past 10 days.

Looks like Taji

Hey again. The last couple days have been typical classes in the morning and lazy afternoons. Today will probably be the same. I think today is our last required day here and they'll start shipping us to our units. It looks like us artillery guys are going a little further north to a place called camp Taji. It's only about a 10 minute chopper ride from here and on the map it looks like it's just on the north edge of Baghdad.
I've got wireless connection here and I bought a temporary pass but it's really slow like dial-up and I can't get it to let me upload pictures. Patience is a virtue people. I'll keep trying. Maybe at the other camp I can work something out. I'm just happy I can communicate as much as I've been able to. The emails and comments from you guys really help offset the parts of being here that suck. I miss you all. See you at Christmas.

Iraq

So Iraq pretty much sucks as bad as Kuwait. At least so far. The plane ride up here was the worst of my life. Not only did my butt start killing me from the seats before takeoff but my cold has invaded my sinuses and I though my head would explode on the way down. As a side effect, my ears still haven't returned to normal so I'm half deaf. Not a good thing when NCOs are telling you what to do or telling everyone what's going on. I'm constantly asking my buddies what was said so I don't get completely "lost in the sauce." It's not really that bad so far. The tent we're in now has beds instead of cots so I slept better last night. The food has remained good (I think it's a morale thing) but everything is farther away so more walking in the sun is required. For you Haiti people I would compare walking here to midday on the trip into Port on the truck. The rest of you will probably never understand. I'm at the MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) center right now and have free internet but it's not my computer so I can't post pictures. A buddy and I are going to split the cost of a week-long wireless pass so maybe I can get through that way. We're supposed to be here for at least 4 days and then we'll go to our respective units, be they here or some other camp. I'm looking forward to that. I hate being in transition. I just want to unpack my bags and know I'll be in one spot for a while. The nights are relatively comfortable here (freezing in the ac) and the shower facilities are actually not bad. They're separate and require a short walk but that's bearable. With a little luck when we get to our units, we'll be in little prefab buildings instead of tents, though I really don't mind the tents myself. So far I still haven't heard anything about blogs being watched or prohibited but thanks for the warnings. Thanks everybody for the all the comments. Its good to hear from you all and know you're out there praying for me. News from you guys is what keeps me going. I read everyone else's blogs whenever I get a chance. That's all I've got for now. With luck, pictures will come later.

Hi.
I called Kim’s and Tim’s yesterday and like I told them, there’s not really any news. I’m here, I’m fine, it’s hot and dusty. So far the only strange thing is everything being prefabricated. The chow is good so far, even better than Ft Lewis. We’ll see if it stays that way when I get up north. So far it reminds me a lot of living in Haiti. We’ll be here in Kuwait at least a couple more days as we get a little mandatory training before they can send us on. Today we’re supposed to have some ied class and then hopefully we’ll have the rest of the day off and I can post this. I’m writing this after breakfast on Word Processor so as to make as much use of my internet time as possible. It tends to be a little slow here and I don’t write fast at all so it helps to do it ahead of time and just send it when I get a chance.

Kuwait

Hello again. Just a quick note to let everyone know where I am, which is Kuwait. Tomorrow we go up to some camp and the rest of the day is free. Then we have about three training days before heading to Iraq. I'm feeling fine even after so many hours flying. It's midnight here and I still have to shave and shower. I'll post tomorrow if I can find an internet cafe. Love you all. Mike

So hi again everybody. Sorry there still aren't any pictures. The wireless connection has been giving me problems lately so I can't get here with my computer.
Anyway, I'm safely back on Ft Lewis after my little spur-of-the-moment weekend getaway. I got to my room at 0200 and just took my boots off and went to sleep. I don't feel too bad today. We're off until 1630 when we have our moving-out inspection. They still haven't told us a flight time but we're definitely leaving today. It's a relief to be done waiting. I've got the whole excited/nervous butterflies that I always get right before a change. I can't wait to be on my way. I'll get ahold of you all when I hit Kuwait. Pray but don't worry.