25 September 2011

It's been a busy month, we have had several key people take their leave this month which allows the rest of us to pick up the slack. With that, I've managed to get to travel quite a bit throughout Laghman Province and back to Bagram, all of course business, hehe. I made my first venture through Jalalabad by convoy last week, it was amazing. By air you can see that it is one of the most advanced cities in Afghanistan. It is good to still see small children wave and smile as you go by. I remember traveling through the city and hearing one of the soldiers over the headset say he saw a person taking a picture as we drove by. Yes, in one sense this could be a tense moment as you don't know why he's taking a picture, but then again, since both the soldier in front of me and I were both taking pictures of them as we drove by I tend to think it's just curiosity. Heck, we took pictures of our vehicles when we got them, they're huge! This one is one of my favorites, it's a MATV.

I like it because I know that it happens to come in black with a light bar on top as a law enforcement package.

Well, better get going for now, be safe and have a great day.

9/11/2011
It was ten years ago today. I had just gotten off work from the night shift as a police officer, taken my daughter to school and was just going to bed when my wife called me and told me to turn on the news. Within minutes I had guardsmen, my soldiers, calling me and asking what we needed to do. I told them then, get ready. I too went out to my garage and pulled together all of my military gear, pulled out my clothes and packed. I did not expect a call to come on that day, but I wanted to make the gesture, to show my commitment that I was ready. That call came two years later, the 45th Infantry BDE was training at Ft. Carson heading to Afghanistan in the largest deployment for the Thunderbirds since Korea.
In 2006, for the 5 year anniversary I again was in Afghanistan serving on my second tour, The 1-180th Infantry Battalion from the 45th was called up to deploy with the 41st IBCT from Oregon.
And now, 10 years later, on this day, I write to you from a forward operating base, FOB Gamberi, Afghanistan. This war has had a toll on all of us. We have had too many losses just in this deployment so far. I will say to you now, I am proud of my commitment to the Oklahoma National Guard, the State of Oklahoma and the United States of America. I wear this uniform to pay tribute to those who died on that morning ten years ago, their families, to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who have sacrificed their lives for our safety and to their families who feel the void in their lives now. I WILL NEVER FORGET.