More Holiday Pic's

If you notice Doc is staring at my boobs.
The LT in his elf hat.
Hannibal didn't have a Santa hat so he wore his stalking. Yes I know its stocking but you would have to know hannibal to understand the joke...
Youngness, jingle this....
AHHHH Sherranno you make sucha cute lil Reindeer.

MERRY CHRISTmas

2nd Platoon on Christmas day in front of the C-RAP's
PULL MY C-RAP YOU DAMN REINDEER!!!!
Me and my roomie!
Ahhhh shit Garrison 4 more!
You make daddy very proud young padawan!



Well Merry CHRISTmas!!! Ya the post is a little late going up but we were experiencing Internet difficulties for a little bit.
Christmas Eve, we found ourselves on gate guard. It wasn't to bad we took our new C-RAPs (MRAP) down and spent guard duty in comfort and style. It didn't start out as interesting as our last time guarding the gas station. When we were at the gas station one early morning, we happened to notice two dogs going at it (humping). Everyone started to cheer and root the dogs on. Then something happened where the dogs fell over each other and it looked like the male dog had mounted the female dog in the missionary position. That was great, I wonder if dogs would call it 'people style'. Well they finished and tried to part ways except they were stuck together. They were both butt to butt and trying to go different ways but they were stuck. Usually you would have to pay for entertainment like this but not on this dreary morning. One of the Iraqi's that worked at the gas station sees this going on and goes over and points and laughs and tries to shoo the dogs away. Well it really wasn't like they were going anywhere, so he walks away and comes back with a mop handle and starts beating them. That seemed to do the trick though it looked to be quite painful. Are you laughing hysterically yet? NO?!? Well maybe you had to be there........ What were we talking about again...... Hey maybe dogs humping doesn't interest you but you try sitting one place for hours on end, then you would get a kick out of something as trivial as a dog shitting. One of the guys will see a dog shitting then he'll point it out to everyone, "Hey look that dogs taking a shit!!" then we get all excited and we are like "Oh hell ya!!" So you could possibly imagine how thrilled we were to see these dogs in such calamity.... Oh yeah any way.....
.....So ya there we were at the gate the lonely gate. Our relief came out and told us Merry CHRISTmas. I looked at my watch and realized that we had just spent CHRISTmas eve together in the C-RAP. It sure didn't feel like CHRISTmas. In a way I was glad to spend it with my extended family. The next morning we woke up and got the whole platoon together. One of my guys was re-enlisting on Christmas day. We got the Platoon outside and dawned our Christmas hats, snapped a few pics, and other soldiers walking by decided to stop and snap pics of our little spectacle.
Myself and Baum held the flag for Garrison as he once again swore his oath to defend his country from all enemies foreign and domestic. It was another very proud moment for me. Both Setz and Gar, I've watched them from when they were just shithead cherries, and they have come up and really molded into outstanding Soldiers, all the men from 2nd Squad have. Then being there to watch them voluntarily continue their careers in the Army is really a humbling experience. Where ever they go I know that they will do great and be successful, and I wish them all of the best.
After the ceremony I went and called my wife, I figured that the kids would've woke her up way early and all of the presents would have been opened seeing that it was about 8am stateside. I called and she let me know that she had just gotten up and the kids did see what Santa brought them but they hadn't opened any presents yet. I could hear the kids in the back round freaking out so I told her I'd let them get down to business and I would call later.
I screwed around for a bit and Setz and I went and had Christmas dinner at the chow hall. The chow hall was all decked out for the holiday. I was hungry as hell since earlier in the day I went to have breakfast but the chow hall was closed for the preparation of the Christmas meal. The grab n go line was open so I thought I could get a egg mcmuffin, but all they had was cereal and sandwiches. No problem. I told the little Indian, or Pak guy that I wanted a tuna fish sandwich with mayonnaise. I guess what he thought I said was I wanted 2 sandwich's. No no just one sammich guy, with tuna fish and mayo. Ya so he slaps a shit ton of mayo on the bread and closes it and hands it to me..... No, for fuck sake t-u-n-a-f-i-s-h. Who the fuck orders a mayo sammich? Needless to say I was starving all day.
After some turkey and stuffing we went down to the phone center where the line wasn't really that bad about a 30 minute wait. I got a chance to talk to all the kids and find out what they had gotten for Christmas, they were a little more interested in the toys than to talk and I can understand that so my wife and I chatted, exchanged I love yous, and holiday greetings, I went back to my trailer and went to bed.
We awoke the next day to a busy schedule. None of us were to happy about the plan of events for the day since they were all to much like the events that happened on SEPT 04. Everyone was a little on edge but we were able to make it through our list of tasks without incident. We went out to give business grants to local businesses and we went to a school to see if there was anything that we could help them out with. We then went to a Christian church which looked like they building an addition to. I know it sounds odd to you but you would probably be surprised as to how many Christian Church's there are, not a lot but more than you would expect. We returned to the FOB and showered up and got ready for bed.
Later that night I get a knock on my door and told that we need to be ready in 45 minutes to go get a bad guy. I tell my team leaders and they have the men and equipment ready in 20. We have done this so much now that its almost a second nature to us. We rolled out, and our platoon was the supporting effort. It was probably one of the fastest snatch and grabs we've done in a while. That was it, got the guy came back and went to bed. Those are good days!
About 3 or 4 months left to go which equals out to just about an eternity. Time feels like its slowing down considerably. Thank you for your continued support. Merry belated CHRISTmas to all!
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!!

Filling in the Blanks

Kum, Me, Setz, and Sartor
My driver, me and my gunner they don't call our truck Optimus Prime for nothin!
It gone what?


Ok so here it is 3am and I'm sick from a summer sausage binge, and inspired by another blog I just read. I'm gonna try to cover time from right before I went on leave to the time I got back and now............. Cue dream sequence...

Going back to right before I went on leave we were looking for a real dick... A real dirty dickhead. Not only was this guy a dick but he was a smart dick. Our schedule was in tattered ruins from trying to get this guy. We would be up at all hours of the night waiting to go, but no then we turn around and do something else in the morning. Nobody gets a sleep schedule locked down and we were tired fucking dawgs. I was biting my nails and didn't want to fall into the 6 day curse. More than one Soldier that we knew had met his end 6 days prior to RnR. I'm very superstitious out here. I can't help it. I was so tired and finally on the day I was supposed to catch my bird outta here I was at all of wits end. I flew from here to BIAP where I tried my best to stay awake in hopes that the rest of the trip I would spend in deep slumber. I actually ran into 3 guys that I knew from the General's PSD from my last trip to this summer vacation package.
Well the whole time I was gone they tried to get this dick, and like I said he was a slippery fuck. They actually picked up someone close to the guy and Mr. Dick was pissed and made all sorts of threats to us. Well I returned from leave not rested but sick as a dog. I was thinking something like bronchitis or pneumonia or something I still haven't stopped hacking. I wasn't able to do shit for like 2 or 3 weeks. Nothing was really going on, then one morning I was awaken by the sound of alarm to rush my ass to the bunker while some bastards outside the fence launched 9 fucking rockets in. You could here them screaming through the air. SSKRRREEEEEEETCH KABOOM! The alarm would go silent we would funnel out a little then the siren wales again, and just stayed on continuous. We were all so pissed off it sucks to feel helpless like that. Then in the distance we heard the bark of a M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle letting loose hell from its 30mm cannon. Then the Apaches came in launching rockets. We are all a bit excited but at the same time disappointed cuz this took like 20 fucking minutes of wondering which rocket might land a little to close for comfort. Ahhhh it felt so good to be back to Rocketmiyah.
I can't remember all the missions that we went on because everyday is like groundhogs day here. We did go out on a couple to get ol' dick. To no avail. But to get a dick you have to think like one. One night we went out and, SURPRISE! It wasn't us that grabbed him but it was our plan, and he had no where to run. He eventually tried hiding under a carpet. Seriously his fat ass crawled under a rug and tried to lay flat. No really! It was a good time though. Nothing more than I like watching my men use a 12gauge like a master key and flow into a room with the grace of ballerina's dance recital. Its a beautiful think I tell ya.
Not all of our missions thus far have been barrels of fun. It almost felt like for a while they were picking on poor old 2nd Platoon. We did rise to the occasion though performing duties for certain training teams........ Then getting stabbed in the back by certain training teams..... I won't go any further with that. Your welcome anyway. Then the best ones we get picked for are these barrier missions. Where we go out and play Combat Engimaqueer. Imagine if you will grunts such as us, out there in the midst of darkness, with a group of Iraqi contractors. Now imagine if you will the large Texas (or T) barriers and jersey barriers that are loaded on the Iraqis trucks. Well what we do is get out and place these behemoths, while they are suspended below a crane, driven by an Iraqi, with two Iraqi's on the ground, we are telling them where to put them through the interpreter or through hand signs, then they tell the crane operator, up, or down, or left, or right. These things are absolutely fucking huge and if one fell on you, well that's it. You could easily crush your foot also, or in my case a very large piece of concrete chipped off the top and thank Jesus I was wearing a helmet, that thing rattled my bones. Ahhh but fuck it, its like playing with big ol' blocks in a neighborhood where people want to kill you. Shit how would you feel if you woke up to T barriers in front of your house as you try to maneuver around them just getting out of your drive way, and the normal way you take to work has been blocked off???? It all serves a purpose though......... 2nd Platoon is up to the task. Why were probably the best Infantry barrier putter uppers there are in these parts...... Don't quote me on that. Seriously some of the neighborhoods that are doing this, I guess its what some would call a gated community and some folks like it. I don't know how many or if that's even true but if I knew even half of something I probably wouldn't be here.
But for now we are just kinda sittin idle, waitin for our boys to get back. We did just get some of the new MRAP's. I know that isn't a secret cuz a lot of the Iraqi's out in sector know this due to them not having any power because they don't want to raise their power lines to accommodate the size of the vehicles. Those stupid bastards! They'll learn by golly. You would think they don't realize that we done been here for more den a couple o years, and they need to adjust to what were doin. Hell, it ain't our problem no how them dere Irrrocky's go with no power in da middle of winter. Ya so that truck you've all heard so much about in the press and everything, and in the words of Caroline from Poltergeist "They're heeeeeerrrrree". Thats all I'm going to say about that to avoid crucifixion.
Were hangin in there with CHRISTmas right around the corner. The trees, and the lights are up, the stockings are hung by hundred mile an hour tape with care, in hopes that St. Nick soon will be here. Once again thank you for all of your support.
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Christmas Wish

My wife found this video on YOU TUBE. She posted it on her MySpace, and she wrote that this is how her and the kids feel. I do always try to take in to consideration, the things going on back at home. Then when I stop and I think I do realize how much I have actually missed out in the last 3 years. How much sacrificing they have to do back home. My wife took my girls to a dance competition in Pennsylvania, the other dance moms were civilian moms. They all got a room togther and in the morning were at odds as to why my wife and my 2 girls weren't ready to go. My wife does everything by herself she has no help. She essentially leads the life of a single mother, the one added stress to that is hoping that uniformed men don't show up to her home to deliver a message that would shatter the family.
My daughter broke her arm earlier in the year and I spoke to her about it, and she brought up the fact that everytime she gets hurt real bad that I'm never there. My son is three years old now and I've only been to one of his birthday parties, my daughters have gone to Regional Dance Finals competitions, and I've not been able to see them perform. Everytime I call home my son's vocabulary has jumped leaps and bounds.
My wife makes, the cupcakes, plans the parties, builds the school projects, cooks the meals, goes to to Dance, she does everything by herself, and she has a husband. I'm not complaining this is the life we chose.
As it gets closer to the end of the deployment I don't see really anything different from when we started. I felt that way the last time we were here, nothing changed. Then a new unit gets here and does the same thing, at the end tries to sum up all of its accomplishments into one big adda boy, but the fact remains it's the same as it was when you got here, and the unit before you did the same things we did, and the unit before them and so on and so forth. We should feel as though we captalize off of the success of the unit before us, but we don't, we make small accomplishments and call them our own.
I definitely don't have the answers, and I don't know what they are. I'm neither politician or a college educated commander. I'm just a high school educated Infantry Squad leader boots on the ground, trying my best to keep those around me alive. We are a tool of policy and democracy. I'm a father to 3 children and a husband to a busy wife. We are a career military family. I watch my kids grow up through slide shows on MySpace. My kids score winning goals at the Soccer game to look back and see their mother cheering for them. They perform their hearts out on stage and look out into the ground to see their mother cheering for them. My sons concept of a father is that he is always 'at work'. My wife will hang stockings and put up the Christmas tree, and on Christmas eve go to bed alone, and be woken up at the crack of dawn to eager children trying to get down stairs and see what Santa brought them, and they will wait for me to call so that they can tell me what they got for Christmas. I will wait in a long line behind other dads, and moms eager to hear what Santa left for their children. Afterwards, we will probably go to chow then go back to our rooms and await the next mission in an effort to "Get violence down to a maintable level for Iraqi Security Forces."
At this point I'll end my sesnseless rambling and leave you as confused as I am.
I hope that all of you have happy holidays. Maybe Santa will drop by and pick me up.......

2-1 Memorial Slide Show

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what happend on Sept 04. When we talk the names of the fallen come up in conversation associated with warm, or funny memories. Shortly after that happend on the Sept 04, a couple soldiers, from the platoon and company got together and made a couple of songs that conveyed the loss and the pain that we all felt on that day. We instantly put together a slide show of all the pictures that we had of them so that there faces would never fade from memory. A few of us were chosen to deliver the Eulogies for the fallen at the memorial service held for them here. I was chosen to talk about SGT Joel Murray. I don't think that any words, or my feeble command of the english language could do any justice to the caliber of man that Joel was. Soldiering is different from any other profession in the world, especially being the Infantry and deployed to the combat zone. You live and eat with the same people day in and day out for months on end. Your down time is spent talking about everything from home, and family, to how many times you've masturbated in the last ten minutes. Nothing is taboo, and you know everything about that man to your left and your right. You know that he would die for you and you for him. When tragedy strikes its like losing a family member. You wonder how their family is doing and how that persons children are going to grow up not knowing their parent. I just want everyone to know how extraordinary these men were, and how great they are, brave, bold, fearless, are only a couple of adjectives used to describe them because I could honestly sit at this computer and go on for hours.
On that very day 2 soldiers in that truck lives were also changed forever. Joseph Mixson a strapping 6 foot man lost both of his legs. Some of the guys have talked to him and I try to see whats going on with him through his myspace, he sent us a video and he sounds very up beat, but thats him, when he was here with us he is so uplifting to be around, full of life and energy, and truly an honor to know him.
Duncan Crookston, suffered burns over 80% of his body and was a triple amputee. Some of the guys have had an opportunity to talk to his wife, and she had said that he was doing better than expected. From the get go they told us that he wasn't going to make it, but he is strong and he is still with us. He is a very smart young man, who god has a plan for. We are all pulling for you Duncan and we can't wait for the opportunity to be able to talk to you.
We miss you both so much but, we thank god that you guys are alive and safe at home with your families.
The events that happened on that day are very surreal. The sights, the sounds, the smell. Not a Soldier that got out of their vehicle that day had as much regard for his own life as he did for those who were still trapped in the truck, which was on fire. SSG Ume was the first to the scene with SPC Serrano hot on as heels pulling security for him, Ume ran around frantically pulling the men he could get to out of the truck which was burning wildly and had gotten hot enough to 'cook off' rounds. My truck arrived on the scene and I didn't even have to tell my team leaders what to do, they immidiatly tried to fight the fire with fire extinguishers, and fire blankets. We set up a casualtie collection point using the safe side of my vehicle and began to move the guys away from the burning truck to that safe side. Bullets were going off do to the extreme heat of the blaze and you could hear them bouncing off the concrete, and my truck and zipping by. No one stopped to think of their own safety but more so to get those that needed us, out of harms way. Our medic was cool and collected and did what he could for who he could. We then put the casualties in the trucks and sped them to the nearest FOB. Elements from our 1st Platoon, the BC's PSD, and Bravo Company had been near by and came to assist us.
One day I might go more in depth with details, but for now its for only us and the families to know.
Hughes our FO put together a slide show for me along with the song he and his guys wrote. If you would like to check out more of his music check out http://www.myspace.com/jkansas43.

Heres a little slide show Memorial Tribute. We love U All!

Veterans Tribute Videos

I found these videos on the Fort Riley website, the first video is a Veterans day tribute and the other is a Big Red One Strong video.

The Veterans Tribute





Big Red One Strong
my roomate is the guy doing the tug o war.



Enjoy!! Deuce Deuce OUT!!!!

RNR

Its Deuce Deuce, HouseHold 6 and our little fire team in the Magic Kingdom, watch out Mickey!
Me HouseHold6 and my little machine gunner!
Taaaadaaaaa we are about to ride Pirates of the Caribean, I said we were riding it I didn't claim that I could spell it!
Nothing like overpriced face painting at Disney World. The Pirate cracks me the hell up though.
Dedicated to my fallen brothers RIP.
Well RnR was a blast. It felt so good to go home and see my kids, they got so big from the time I was away and my son was talking so much more than when I had left. Once again it was strange to enter the big gates of Atlanta’s International Airport, so many people carrying on with life, it is just weird seeing Americans, dressed casually or in business attire. Atlanta is a giant hub for military travel so a lot of people don’t pay you any mind. A few people came up and thanked me and shook my hand and that was pretty cool. It was a long ass ride from Kuwait to Germany, then from Germany to Atlanta. We got to ATL early in the morning which had me pretty excited that meant I was going to be home sooner than I thought. I boarded my plane in ATL to take me to my connecting hub in Philly, the folks on that flight were really great they let the guys going on RnR off first then I boarded my flight in Philly to my final destination of Binghamton. I sat watched and waited for the plane to get there, I listened to a guy all dressed up business man style talk to “Marty” on the other end telling him how the big boss was going to be pissed that not a lot of vendors turned up for the “show”. I wondered if I could ever be a business man like that, a life where I’m not carrying a rifle or leading Soldiers on the battle field. His whole gig seemed very unmanly to me.

My flight touched down early in Binghamton and I deplaned and noticed my wife had not yet made it to the Airport. Minutes later I see her running with balloons, signs, and kids in tow. She was so upset that she hadn’t been there to see me get off of the plane. The poor woman, my son decided to shit his pants, and then she got stuck in construction on the way to the Airport. I didn’t mind one bit I was home and in her arms where I belonged. We drove back down through the construction where she pointed out the different construction workers that she had swore at and flipped off. The first order of business for me was some new shoes considering I didn’t have any civilian shoes.

While at home I got to do so many things the first was watch my girls perform in a dance recital, and it was amazing they both have accomplished so much and there skills have improved a lot since I saw them dance last. My youngest daughter had her very first solo in front of people and we were pretty nervous but she came out like a star with enough energy to power a county. My oldest daughter did a solo performance which was a dance dedicated to me. I was amazed and damn near broke into tears. It was so good to be home.

We then packed up the car and headed south to Florida, (I forgot to mention all the painting and stuff on my wife’s car, like welcome home and such things) we got a lot of honks and waves and whenever we stopped everybody welcomed me home. We got to Florida after I drove straight through; rested one day then went and hit up Sea World. Sea World is really cool and owned by Anheuser Busch and Anheuser loves the military, and the military loves them. It was Halloween and the park was prepped for ghouls and ghosts of different shapes and sizes, we did our time there headed home and got our costumes on for a long awaited trick or treat session. You see in the last 4 years I have not been trick or treating with my kids because of deployments, so this one was extra special. We hit up a really fantastic neighbor hood in Florida, nothing less than million dollar homes, my kids had filled their buckets twice. We went as characters from Grease, my son and I were T-Birds, and my Wife and youngest daughter were pink ladies and my oldest daughter was Bad Sandy.

A day or so after that we went to the best most magical place ever, Disney World. I love Disney there is so much to do and see there that you can’t do it all in a day it’s impossible. I’ve been to Disney a dozen times since Kara and I have been married and I have a great time every time we go. We also had a great opportunity to go back to Vero Beach. I love this place I love Vero, it’s nice quite and on the ocean. Kara’s aunt hooked us up with accommodations at the Disney Resort there. We were definitely living the high life. Its then that I realized that I could be that business guy as long as it involved me making lots of money so one day I can have a condo on Vero and enjoy the ocean. I woke up early one morning and just walked down the beach, and I could’ve gone forever. Everyone loved the resort you had beach access and pool activities it was a blast. We also hit up MGM, Animal Kingdom, and did another day at the Magic Kingdom. MGM was really cool my kids are huge fans of High School musical and they got to dance with some of the people that were promoting HSM2. They were pretty excited.

I love Florida and that’s where I hope to end up one day. There is so much to do and it’s just beautiful down there. With my having to go back looming closer we packed up and headed back to New York, so that I could participate in a Veterans Day assembly at my kids school. The school always does a tremendous job when it puts this on and recognizes veterans from the community, the students put in names of those that they know who serve and they are recognized and given a certificate and a flower. It really teaches the kids to respect the men and women who fight for their country.

To top it all off Kara’s father had a Thanksgiving dinner for me before I left. It was great Kara’s family came over and we had turkey and ham and everything. I read my kids one last bedtime storey, tucked them in and kissed them goodbye. At 4am my wife drove me to the airport and kissed me good bye. No matter how many times you do it, it never gets any easier.

The whole time I was home the men from Charlie Company where never far from my thoughts and the events that happened on Sept 4th were at the forefront. When I’m here my thoughts and my heart are always with my family wondering what they are doing and thinking about them and the good times we have had together. I just happened to be headed home on Veterans Day, so every line I hit I was ferried to the front, which was all great except that I really was in no hurry to get back here. Before we boarded the plane in Atlanta that would eventually take us back to the Middle East they paraded us around the airport and everyone stood and clapped for us.

Everyone that I talked to that had gone on RnR before me said it had gone to fast. I didn’t think so at all. I did so much with my family and spent so much time with them it felt like a good while that I was at home. 10 months away from your wife and kids is a long ass time. They learn and grow so much its unbelievable. My son was talking so much and he is so smart, at the same time he is a bad little dude, he reminds me of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. My daughters are so smart it blows me away with the things that they learn in school wow. Well only 3 months left respectively and we will be home, god willing. I’m going to try and go be a Drill Sergeant when we get back so hopefully I can keep my ass in the states for a bit.
To my mother in-law thank you for letting us stay at your house and watching the kids for me and Kara, and to my Aunt Jen and Uncle Pete thank you for letting us into the parks and putting us up at the Resort, and watching the kids for us, thanks to my father in-law for everything that you do, your generosity never goes unappreciated and I will do my best to make it up to you thank you for all you do for our family. Thank you to everybody that made this RNR one of the great ones we love you so much.

I love you Kara and I can’t wait to come home for awhile and maybe take a trip just for us. Thank you for all you do raising our kids at home, most people don’t recognize the sacrifices that you make as a military wife. You are truly the best!
Deuce Deuce OUT!