Lt. Dan, ice cream

http://www.nwherald.com/columnists/columns/2009/05/01/r_oibnqw_8sv64lcq5db3oba/index.xml

good ole basra

well, obviously I made it to Iraq. iT was pretty uneventful. One stop in germany then right to Basra. It was strange getting off the plane because at night, all you can see is the glow of the oil well fires in the distance. It stinks a little and is very dusty. It's not too bad though. Internet and phone both are difficult to come by at this point, but I think it will get better.

I will get some photos hopefully by next week. Hope everyone is doing well back home.

for another idea of how things are going, visit nwherald.com and look under the blogs for the real lt dan. I'm writing for my local newspaper. I think it will start to appear today.

Hugs and kisses from the crappiest place on earth (just kidding - 2nd crappiest).
Dan

address

To answer inquiries about my future mailing address:

Send a Care Package
To your Soldier at Camp Basra, Iraq:

Marchik, Daniel, MCP, 34th ID - CMD, Unit# 117
APO, AE 09374

Do not include your Soldier's rank.

At this point I really don't need anything, but mail is always nice. Please do not send chocolate.
Thanks
I'll let everyone know as soon as I have something to update.

Dan

status

Before you ask, yes we're stillllll here at Ft. Lewis. We are in the process of wrapping things up though. I was able to go back to Crystal Lake and see Julie and the kids for a couple days, which was awesome. The dogs remembered me and Cabo didn't try to rip my face off. It was tough to leave though. Julie was crying, kids were crying, dogs were crying. It sucked. But, I am ready to start this. It's been about a year since I set off on this adventure and I'm pretty excited that it's kicking off soon.

I have been without reliable internet lately and this will probably continue until we get to Iraq. What's ironic is that we'll probably have better internet in Iraq than at Ft. Lewis. Anyway, I'll keep this updated as best I can. If nothing else, check out my twitter page (see past posts).

Just another day

Well, my birthday came and went in the Army, and it was pretty much just another day. Not a big deal, since most or all of the important birthdays are over anyway. I did have pizza with everyone though and that was pretty cool. It was Pizza Hut, and they suck, but it still beat the chow hall.

I got a bunch of email birthday wishes from my coworkers at my civilian job, and that was cool. At least they still remember me. Hell, at least they still have jobs. It'll be interesting to see if my coworkers and I have jobs next year.

AP story

This is part of a series that the AP did on a previous deployment of the 34th ID.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/THE_LONG_HAUL_VI?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Just read it.

gotta love this weather

I was really looking forward to coming to Washington because the month before I left, it was in the 40s and 50s everyday. Not tropical, but much better than Chicago this time of year. I must say I have be very disappointed with Mother Nature. Two days ago, we had sun, snow, rain, and sleet. Temps ranged from 20s to 50s. Yesterday and today just snow. I am not diggin this. Plus it's a terrible way to acclimate to the desert.

Training continues. Again nothing too exciting, but at least it's hands on training versus sitting in a classroom watching power point slides. Work also continues. There are a lot of real public affairs missions we're working on while we train, so we're keeping busy.

Julie and the kids are doing well so far. I think Cabo still remembers me; Julie said that he was going crazy over a package that I sent home that had extra uniforms in it. I think he was a little disappointed when I didn't jump out of the box.

I also wanted to share a little video our unit put together showing how life is around here:
http://theredbulls.org/Video+list
It should be the first video on the page, with a Soldier standing in front of a Red Bulls sign.

That's it for now.