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.

Still in WA

Yes, I'm still here in Washington, without a lot of internet access needless to say. We're keeping busy with training, work, and meetings. Things are going well. I think it will help me when I get back to the civilian world. I figure if I can deal with some generals at a meeting, I can deal with anyone in the corp world.

Our unit continues to gel. I really like the people in my unit and am impressed at their skills.
Nothing too exciting though, I'm just really eager to get things started in country.

Red Bulls

Ok, after many inquiries as to what my group will be doing in Iraq, I finally have a good answer.

Check out theredbulls.org

This is run by the many talented people in my group. There's a lot more than just text articles, although the rss feeds and video stuff is not quite fully implemeted.

Anyway, check it out after April.

Yummy.

In an effort to further demoralize Soldiers, they have closed the cafeteria for lunch. Now, we're left to MRE's. It's not that bad... we could be eating them for every meal.

I've been wondering how the MRE's stay preserved for so long. For instance, what kind of chemicals are used to give mayo and tuna a shelf life of 10 years? Also, how come the M&Ms don't melt after sitting on a pallet in the desert for weeks or months.

Let the fun begin!

Well, we made it to Ft. Lewis without a lot of trouble.  Weather is nicer than the midwest, and by that I just mean warmer.  Cool and rainy but I would rather have that than cold and snowy.  We've been busy getting MORE equipment, doing paperwork and getting shots.  So far the hardest thing has been getting up at 3:30 am to do the above things.  Hopefully when we start training for real, at least we'll get to sleep later.

We've gotten a lot of new stuff.  Improved body armor, and fire resistant uniforms are just part of it.  Although I will say that if I actually have to use fire resistant anything, there's a serious problem, unless it's my computer that catches on fire  (or my typewiter - right Steve?).

Anyway, nothing too exciting yet.  Internet access is on a sporadic basis.  I can get it in the barracks, but my computer doesn't have a decent enough antenna to pick up a good signal.  Hopefully in another week, I'll have access to post to this and check emails everyday.

Stay tuned!