Another Day At The Beach

Leave

2005-09-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

I just got back to Iraq a couple of days ago. I was on leave from this sand box for 2 weeks and it was great. I would have to say the best part was seeing my wife and family. Just sitting and relaxing was what I did and wanted to do for the most of the time. I got to eat all the Chinese food that I could get my hands on. There were also a couple of parties that were thrown for me. Quite a few people came to them and it was great to see everybody! Time seemed to fly by faster than I would have liked it to. It was really hard to leave again but the only thing that made it better was knowing that I will be coming home for good soon.

Iraq vs Mexico

2005-08-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned how much Iraq and Mexico have in common. Either they have no sense of time or they just don’t care. We have spent count less hours waiting to move. Not waiting because there is some important business at hand, just waiting for them to figure out what time they want to go. I really think they need to work on their time management skills. Coming from a country that considers being on time one of there most important qualities of a employee, it is hard to handle.
The base keeps improving even if the rules are not. We have a small PX now. They sell mostly American items that you wouldn’t normally be able to get from one of the Iraqi shops. It is a little pricy there but it is nice to have it here. Some new Iraqi stores opened up today. Most of the old store owners were kicked off when we had a command change. The new command brought there own people with them. I am hoping that they have new items that are more original than the last group.

Back in Basic

2005-07-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

We have a new Sgt. Major here. He seems to be running the place like it is basic training. The rules he makes remind me of basic and some contradict each other. For example, we have a bathroom trailer about 15 feet from our building and the gym is about 150 meters from our building. We are supposed to have our weapon with us if we go to the bathroom but are not allowed to take it to the gym. Try and figure that one out! There is another rule that makes me laugh, no smoking within 50 meters of the buildings. Now I don’t have a yard stick to measure how far these building are from each other but I guarantee that there is no area on this FOB (base) that you can be 50 meters away from. I see people who are much higher ranking than me breaking this rule all the time. I don’t smoke so it doesn’t bother me any but what kind of message are we sending to the soldiers. The message to me is, break the rules that you don’t agree with and follow the one’s that don’t affect you.
Another thing that bothers me is the fact that they keep getting more and more strict here. When we first got here we could go to the chow hall wearing our pt’s (physical training uniform) and sit down and eat. That lasted a little while until they decided we could not eat in the chow hall with pt’s but we can get “to go meals”. Now we can not go to the chow hall at all with pt’s. When we are not on mission (which is rare) that day it is nice to relax and not have to wear boots, pants, long selves in the 120 degree weather here. Are they trying to make us more uncomfortable here? The thing that makes me even angrier is that U.S. civilian contractors making 3 times the pay can go in there wearing anything they want. And they wonder why the Army #’s are dwindling! They are trying to get people to join by increasing the signing bonus......here is an idea, stop treating us like jerks and you won’t have to flash money in our faces to join because we will stay!!!!

2005-07-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Here is all the guys in my squad. Try and control yourselves ladies! Ha-ha. We have taken better pictures. I am counting down the days until I come home. I should be home in almost a month. Even if it is for only 2 weeks I am ready for a break. There is a lot of travel time and I hear that it is a big pain in the butt. It will be worth it though so I don�t mind.
There isn�t much new going on here lately. I hurt my shoulder and need to give it a rest for a week or so. I think my dodge ball career is over with. It started hurting from throwing the dodge balls and I never gave it a rest in the weight room. Now I am paying for it! I think it will be fine, I just need to take it easy.

Meow

2005-07-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of stray cats here, and dogs for that matter. The other day a few of us was in the gym. We were doing shoulder press and little kitten sprinted by us. Ballard started laughing so hard that he almost dropped the weights on himself. Don’t really know why it was so funny, I guess you just don’t usually see kittens hauling ass though the gym very often. Only in Iraq!
For some reason we no longer have fuel inside the FOB. They have decided (who I don’t know) to keep the fuel on the outside. The other day we were in a hurry to go out on our mission and were not allowed to leave because there was a car bomb that was sitting next to the fuel point. They had found it sitting there and did a controlled detonation. The fuel is surrounded by concrete walls so everything was okay but I just thought it would be a better idea to keep the fuel on the inside.

2005-07-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

This is the squad leaders and a guy with a uni-brow. In the background is the worlds largest chandelier or so our tour guide says. (It was freeking big though)

Another Smelly Day

2005-07-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if I have ever mentioned how bad it smells here. There are certain places, times of the day and bad wind gusts here that could make a maggot gag! Of course, one of the places where this happens every days is the exit door of the chow hall. Still hungry? I am not really sure what the smell is all the time. I am guessing it is sewage.
Today was a pretty uneventful day. Which is just the way I like it. I like the laid back days most of the time. It does get methodical sometimes though. It is funny, you get so board on missions when you have to wait for long periods of time. You get so board that you wish that something would happen. Weather it be getting shot at or something get blown up. Just anything! Mainly we deal with traffic and that comes with some action, mostly bad drivers and people not paying attention. We rarely have to use force to do our job, mainly we just show force and that is good enough. I don’t know why we wish for some action to happen. I guess part of us wants to say that we did something over here and have a good story to tell.

2005-07-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is me and Nate(left) on top of a building near where we live. I guarantee you won't see too many pictures here. We were lucky enough to get a tour here.

Catching Up

2005-07-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I am trying to think of where I left off last. I think it was with the entertainment around here. It isn’t bad for a war zone I guess. We could move on to the stupid rules portion of this but I don’t think there is enough time for that. I will mention that the air force gives out speeding tickets to army in the International Zone (which is where we live). I would rather not go on because you never know who will be reading this. Enough said on that subject.
Time goes by fast here at least. I don’t know what I would do if the days drug on here. I tend to sleep more here than I did back home. I like to call it "time travel". Also, video games help pass the time. For the most part everyone here is handling this deployment good. Their has been a few problems with family at home but to my knowledge they have been solved. I am lucky to have a family that supports me. It is nice to know people haven’t forgotten about you.
The weather here is insane. The best way to describe how it feels here was said by Sgt. Ballard, when he said "It feels like when you open the oven door and that rush of hot air blows by you". I think we are averaging around 110 - 120. Dry heat or not that is hot and we haven’t hit the hottest month yet! The sand storms here can get pretty bad too. I reminds me of fog, but the sky is yellow not grey. Some of the sand storms can get pretty bad. We have a huge building that is about 50 meters away from our building and you can’t see it at times. I have had more nose bleeds here than I have in my entire life. I guess it is from the hot air?

It's been a while

2005-07-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
It’s been a long time since I wrote last and I don’t really have an excuse. I have plenty of internet access here and time. I think once our command said they want to read our blogs that the idea of writing lessened. O well, I decided to try to catch you up with what is going on with me here. We are still doing the same mission that we started with and I am happy for that. I really don’t feel like moving! Living conditions here seem to keep improving. We have new shower trailers but that was quite a while ago. We live in a building and have pretty good room size. Honestly other than being away from everyone back home it isn’t bad here. For entertainment, we have people here that set up tournaments for us to compete in. So far there has been a volleyball, horse shoe, basketball, dodge ball, frisbee football, and ping pong tournaments. They have a lifting competition coming up and I plan on winning that one! They show movies at a little theater here. For the most part they are older movies but occasionally they show an new one (one that is still in the theater). Many of the times they sell pirated copies of movies that are still in the theater and they are really bad. Their will some guy in the theater with a camera recording the movie and you can here people in the crowed and people getting up. It is actually kinda funny. The chow hall food has leveled off. That is definitely not getting any better! It is actually hard to find something that isn’t covered with grease sometimes. I am hoping to get leave here in August. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see everyone! There is no exact date for me yet but I know it will be soon. I don’t want to say everything all in one shot. I will continue in the next entry.

2005-03-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

Just sitting here watching another movie. As soon as I get a few more dodge balls we are going to have some fun. I will video tape and send a couple home. I made a pinata for a guys birthday today. It was pretty funny. We brought a bunch of nonalcoholic beers from the chow hall and drank them as we watched him swing blind at the pinata. The pinata was made out of duct tape and it somewhat resembled a cat. The GYM keeps getting more equipment. A new company has moved in and decided to beef it up a little. I have been spending some time there...go figure. It is nice to have the free time that we have here. We are finding ways to entertain ourselves. On the 3rd of April, I have to move to a different building. I am pretty excited to move because we will have more space, but on the other hand I am not looking forward to moving all of our stuff. I wish I had more exciting new for you but that is all for now.

Same old stuff

2005-03-11T01:57:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, it is me again. There is not much new happening here. We are in a routine here and it is getting pretty dull. I really can’t complain though because we are at least safer than most people. I have an addition the list of stuff to send me...DVD-R’s. They come in handy for copying movies. The hodji here can’t seem to get them. They keep saying “tomorrow” or “I will talk to my brother tonight” or “soon”. They have no sense of time at all. Tomorrow my mean next week in hodji. It seems like I will be taking leave to come home on October 28 till November 15 or so. I am pretty excited although it is pretty far away. By the time I get to come home for leave I will be almost done here. We are thinking the we will only be here for a year, because after 12 months the government has to pay us an additional $1000 per month. Cheap ass! I hope my picture makes it on because I am using the military crappy computers here and they are really slow. I will write again soon.

The List

2005-02-27T23:49:00.000-08:00

I have been keeping busy here. I am on call 24 hours a day so that keeps me on my toes. Having a schedule like that also makes it harder to relax. I can't complain about what we are doing though. The mission we have is kinda cool. I wish I could tell you about it but am unable to. There are a few people who have asked what to send me and here are a few things: Snacks(healthy and junk), hand held games, dodgeballs(don't ask), sweet and salty kettle corn(I think that is what it is called), duck tape, scotch tape, and a couple microscreens for a remington MS2 200 electric razor. Some of those thing are needed and some are just to make life easier or more fun here. Not much else new going on here. I will try to send a picture next time.

Starting To Warm Up

2005-02-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

The tempature is starting to rise around here. I actually don't mind. I am running around in shorts and a T-shirt when ever I can. You must be jealous, too bad I have to be here to get warm weather. We have been off for the last couple of days. Before that we were really busy running several missions a day. We are getting more comfortable with what we are doing and the other unit that was training us is gone. So far we have not had to fire our weapons and have not seen much action. We have seen a couple explosions from a distance and heard a couple big ones. The food was awful when I first got here but now a different food service has come in and the food is much improved. I have a new address here. If anyone feels like writing or sending anything my address is:

SSG Colin Kave
Alpha 2/123 FA/42nd MPBDE
APO AE 09348

I Finally Made It

2005-02-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

I am now in Iraq. Everyone made it fine and is doing well. We are learning a lot and are getting a feel for the area. The soldiers we are replacing are very helpful. They are showing us the job that they have been doing and what works for them and what dosn't. We are busy buying things from the other unit. Things like microwaves, refrigerators, T.V., and little things that will make life better for the next year. Iraq is crazy. The way of life, driving, buildings, in nothing like I have ever seen before. It is really hard to explain, but I have pictures to help. For now I everything is exciting and new but I think that will get old fast. I have not seen much action yet. My FOB is in the green zone and that is pretty safe. We have only been on a couple of missions with the other unit. We went out in the red zone only a couple of times. Once in a while we here gun fire in the distance but that is all so far. We have only been here for a little while. I have been busy lately so I have not been writing. I will try to keep up with my blog more now. Gotta go.

2005-01-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

This is an example of a small pox shot. We are leaving friday so I may not be able to write for a while.

Blowing Stuff Up

2005-01-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

Today surprisingly was not too bad. We had a chance to shoot some gernades. We did some practice rounds first...thank god. There were a few that would have landed a little too close for comfort, if they were real deal. Then we shot 3 live rounds which was fun. You can shoot those things up to 350-400 meters. There were a few junk vehicles that we shot at. Not much else today.

Something New

2005-01-10T23:01:00.000-08:00

I figured out how to put pictures on this thing. It took me long enough though. We have been busy around here training everyday and I think I am ready for a break. We leave for Kuwait on the 14th and it would be nice to have a day to our selves. I would actually rather be in Kuwait than here. The stupidity that goes on here is becoming a little to much. We will finally get a chance to use our gernade launchers. When we were supposed to train on them, they didn't have any rounds for us. For a change I was a trainer today. The trainers trained a few of us the day before so we could help with the rest today. It was kind of nice helping out, plus I did not have to carry my weapon.

2005-01-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Me and my posse at Fort Dix, NJ. Freezing our butts off!

2005-01-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

Alyssa's family

2005-01-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

The family

2005-01-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

Brent having a great time after the wedding

2005-01-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

My wife Alyssa and I

Just Another Day

2005-01-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

We did some land navigation classes today. We did both mounted (in a vehicle) and dismounted (on foot). The classes lasted about 6 hours total and were good. It was mainly a refresher course because I have already did plenty of map reading. The soldiers are amazing in the military. It seems like no matter what the situation we still find a way to have fun. For example, last night I had guard duty along a fence line in a tower. It was cold and late at night but we laughed the whole time. There was 3 of us and we had radios. We told jokes, made funny noises, and yelled at the roaming guards that would walk by. It does not sound like much but it made time fly by.

More Needles

2005-01-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Today we got our Small Pox vaccine. They jabbed me with a needle 3 times instead of sticking the needle all the way in. I actually liked that a lot better. I tend to get light headed when I get stuck. I guess it is pretty contagious for the first couple days. After that it blisters up and eventually scabs. I forgot to mention once again we had to get up at 0330 to come back here and get our shot and then later we will go back to sleep. Not much else is going on. Till next time!

Dumb & Dumber

2005-01-04T14:47:00.000-08:00

I am writing to complain about the Army today. We get back from leave expecting to be done going out to the field and are told that we are going back out for 7 days. Now this is understandable because we are in the military and I assumed that we would have something to do once we got out there. Nope, we just go out there to sleep and then come back in to do what we had planed. For example, today I woke up out in the field just to get on a bus with the other 149 soldiers and drive back here. Then in a few hours we will be going back to the field and sleep. It just does not make any sence. Well, just had to bitch a little.

Christmas Vacation

2004-12-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

I have not been able to keep up with my blog because I have been out in the field for about 16 days. Then, once we came out of the field we went on leave for Christmas. My leave started on the 24 of Dec and ends on the morning of the 2nd. We came in from the field a couple times but it was only to shower and do laundry. You appreciate what you have a lot more once you do not have it for a while. Just being in a heated building is great. I got a chance to see my wife for the second time since I have been married and that was wonderful. I also spent Christmas with the family and that was great too.
Training at Fort Dix has been challanging. The weather has been our biggest adversary. It is hard to train when you are out in the cold all of the time and don't get a chance to warm up. We have covered so much information in such a short period of time it is hard to become proficent at it. Our trainers said that we were one of the best groups to come through and had many good things to say about us. The only way to get better is to practice and we should get plenty of that once we get to Iraq. I should be able to keep up with my blog now that I am out of the field.

Great day to be in the Army

2004-12-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

I almost feel bad for taking that goverments money for days like today. Then I remembered that they made me come here so they can kiss my.... Well today I really didn't do much. I helped load some of our equipment to go to Iraq. It was just some stuff that we didn't need here but want in Iraq. I also went to check on some pay issues, which are still unresolved. I was issued a 9mm hand gun today. I bet my brother is getting jealous about all the weapons I am getting to shoot. I bet he could blow the crap out of a deer with a 50 cal or a gernade launcher. Probably wouldn't be much left to eat. I went to the GYM for about an hour and that was just about the whole day. The army wouldn't be so bad if this was my typical day. Monday things will pick up when we go to the field. It will be cold and we will be very busy.

Slowing Down

2004-12-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

Monday we qualified with our M16's. Qualifing consisted of a day time pop up range, NBC (with our masks on), and night fire. Mostly everybody qualified that went. I froze my butt off at the night fire. The night fire was just like shooting into the dark. The pop up targets had a very dull red light that flashed everyonce in a while. So we were basically shooting into the dark. The only thing that saved me was that every 3rd round was a tracer. The last couple days have been really slow for the team leaders. We have 203's and don't have to qualify with the same weapon systems as the rest of the team. The guys and I have been goofing off and making videos with our cameras. Just finding things to pass the time. I am looking forward to Christmas time, we should get a couple of days off. I just don't know what days yet. There are too many roomers around here to say. Well not much exciting to talk about.

Stage one...Fort Dix

2004-11-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty good day at Fort Dix, NJ. It was a free day for some of us, depending on what kind of weapon you are assigned to. I had the chance to go to the PX, take a nap, kick some ones butt in John Madden Football, and go the GYM. Monday we start qualifying with our weapon. For me this is a 203. Basically it is a M16 with a gernade launcher on it. I most likly will be carring a M9 also which is a 9mm hand gun. Tomorrow should be a more exciting day than today.