07 July 2007, Well, I've been home for three weeks now. And it's rained the entire time. We got a break yesterday but are expecting more today and the rest of this week. It's so soggy out here right now that we have postponed our 4th of July party out here because I can't get a dock built for the front yard. I've seen firework shows cancelled because it was too dry but never because it was too wet, till this year. But you know what, I'm home and everything is great.

We started on Miss Dub's bathroom this weekend.
We are going to replace just about everything and give it a spruce up along with a fresh coat of paint for the bedroom.

This door opens into my home office, so it goes away and I can use the wall space.

We are pulling up this vinyl flooring and will replace with 6" x 6" sage green tiles.

Mrs. Dub is ready for me to finish this project up so I can start on the kitchen, we have big plans for it, just haven't figured out how we are going to pay for it. I'll keep you posted.

Miss Dub has agreed to allow the public to name the soon to be born goats. Now the possibility of having two kids exists, so she will pick the top two boy and girl names to be used, so go over to her site and cast your vote.

Be safe and have a great day.

28 June 2007, Two days in a row! I woke up this morning at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep, so at 5am I figured I would check the computer. It does run a little faster at this time in the morning, and I was able to post a comment.
Yesterday was an exciting day, as Wade from Life Song blog and his wife, TC, were in OKC after dropping off a shipment in Tulsa. They are putting in the mileage across the country. Wade and TC are the first bloggers I have been able to meet. They live in North Carolina when not on the road. They are the first in a long line of bloggers I hope to meet.


For my little 5 acres, we managed to avoid rain all day yesterday. I meet Mrs. Dub in the city after dropping Miss Dub off at church and we had dinner with her parents. I have a great set of in-laws.
I don't have to return to the police department till July 10th, but I think we are all ready for me to start back up. I have to catch up on all the training I have missed in the last 15 months as well as go to the gun range.

Miss Dub is excited about the baby goat coming soon, and I'll see if she's interested in a naming contest. Well, I'll end this for now. Be safe and have a great day.

27 June 2007, Wednesday morning. I was excited Monday night when we retired for the evening. The place had finally dried out and I was looking forward to working outside Tuesday. Well, we woke up Tuesday morning to having about 2 inches of rain over night and it continued to rain all day. Our neighbors on the block to our east have to cross a low spot which crosses over a break in the pond. The water was rushing over it and several people just parked their cars until the water receded.
Sunday morning I had 2100 feet of 3" pipe delivered to the house. I'm hope to get started on the pipe and cable fence soon. We are still shopping around for a barn and tractor. I've decided on the barn, but we are waiting until I get back to work full-time and see how our expenses look before buying anything.
In other news our female goat, Bella, is expecting to deliver a kid any day now. yeah.
Being home with the family has been wonderful. Things are almost normal again, with the exception of I haven't returned to work yet. That will start on July 10th. Today was my last day of paid leave by the military.
If you get the chance, go by and cheer up Mrs. Dub, she would rather be home than at work.
Be safe and have a great day.

21 June 2007, Well, I haven't been updating like I should be. Most of you understand, and I appreciate that. So far the one thing I am not ready for is grocery shopping. I enter the store and am like a kid in a candy shop. Can I have that? What about this? Way to many choices for me at the moment. Everything else is going really well. Miss Dub is at camp this week so Mrs. Dub and I have been having a couple of date nights. hehe.
Being back home has been wonderful. The weather is certainly unusual for this time of year in Oklahoma and it's amazing how parts of the country are in floods and other parts are in droughts. We need to spread this out.
My dial up connection at home is certainly an issue for me. I have tried to read several of my regular blogs but can't get the comment section to work for me. I'm looking at some options that will hopefully pan out soon.
Well, be safe and have a great day.

15 June 2007, Happy Dance Friday! And a great day for dancing it is. I've been home now since Sunday. I'll go over the highlights for the last week.
Sunday, of course, we arrived here back in Oklahoma City, but 45 minutes earlier than we were expected so most of the families hadn't arrived yet. This did give us time to find our bags and get them situated before the great reunions began. As I had now been up for the last 24 hours, we went to breakfast and then I crashed in bed for 3-4 hours.
Monday. I took it easy until we headed out to Cattlemen's for dinner. I had around 20 friends and families there and it was good to see everyone.
Tuesday. We took Miss Dub to her piano lessons and then headed to Durant in Southern Oklahoma. We were given a two day pass before we had to be back at the armory to finish turning in equipment and final paperwork. We stayed at our cousin's house, had dinner and then stopped off at the Choctaw Nation Casino. After an hour there, I walked out breaking even, though at one point I was ahead by $60. I also missed Wade and TC who were driving through OKC at some point that day.
Wednesday. I spent most of it at drill and then loaded up the family and came home.
Thursday. Just drove around OKC, looking at tractors and having lunch. I haven't started on any projects yet, but the plans are in motion.
Friday. I am the only one out of bed so far, but it's time to feed the horses. As soon as I locate my camera, I'll post some pictures from this week.
Be safe and have a great day.

10 June 2007, I'm home! And in the usual Army standard, 45 minutes early. You would think that would be a good thing, except for the 65 soldiers arriving, maybe 6 families had shown up by the time we got there, so as the families finally started making it there, they realized they were late, but all is good.
We had a great reunion at the airport and then went for breakfast. We have been up for the last 24 hours, the Army planned stuff for us for each hour of the night before so we couldn't go to sleep. After breakfast we came home were I took a nap of about 3-4 hours. Miss Dub and I are planning on seeing a play tonight at the Civic Center called "Wicked" Originally, I wasn't going to be home and the two tickets we have were for Mrs and Miss. We haven't been able to secure a third ticket so Mrs. Dub is going to let us go.
I have a headache from hades from lack of sleep, but all is wonderful. I'll post more and start putting up pictures as soon as I get myself a little more organized back home.
Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. Be safe and have a great day.

08 June 2007, ALMOST THERE!!
Well, I made it to Ft. Carson, Colorado on the 5th. As I last mentioned it took 55 hours to make it out of Afghanistan to Kuwait where we spent two days. Then flew out of Kuwait to Frankfurt-Hahn Germany where we stayed long enough to fuel up. Couldn't find Sanni anywhere. Next, we flew to Iceland, refueled, blew over Greenland, stopped in Indiana. Here we were met by Veterans and had our first chance of calling our families upon arriving in the beautiful United States. We finished up when we arrived in Colorado.
For the last three days we have been out-processing, briefings, medical, anything and everything. We are staying in the new barracks which resemble a prison compound to include a fence all the way around it. They have us out far enough that we have to take buses to come into the main base. (Sounds more like we might have something and are in quarantine)
I finally finished up all of our out-processing a couple of hours ago and found a cyber cafe.
The final flight will occur on Sunday and I should arrive at the Will Rogers Airport around noon. Yipee!
At one point yesterday, we almost turned on a Active Duty soldier as he was giving a briefing and told us we would be returning to our "weekend warrior" mode. The whole auditorium erupted as this guy hadn't seen a tour in a combat zone yet and many like myself have already had over 800 days of it since 911. This is still the mentality of some of the active components and from what I've seen we could go head to head with just about any active unit out there and shine well above what they could do. We bring so much more to the table(battlefield) with our civilian lives since we are more diversified in our backgrounds than just being trained in one job.
Anyway, it's wonderful being back and in less than 48 hours I will be home. I want to thank everyone of you for your prayers, blessings and friendships. You do mean a lot to me and my family.
Be safe and have a great day.

02 June 2007, if it can go wrong, it is.
Examples:
I buy a coke, have it in my sack, I swing my rifle to take it off and puncture my coke.
I've traveled 45 kilometers in 55 hours, and am still stuck in Afghanistan.
I have been without my baggage for three days now, it's in Kuwait.

I've adjusted the countdown, hopefully I won't have to do that too many more times, but with the government as my travel agent, who knows. Other than that, I'm doing really good, and will keep you in the loop as much as possible.
Be safe and have a great weekend.

01 June 2007, I'm in transit now, heading back to the U.S. I'm not able to give any more details than that, but will keep you informed as best I can. The only other thing I really need to do is change my countdown counter, as my seat for my school could not be confirmed and I'm not in the mood to mess with it any more. There's another school in August and I'll try to get a seat in that one.
Everything else is going well for the moment, minus any involvement by the U.S. Military. We are headed in the right direction and really, that's all that matters anyway. I could use Sanni or Sarge Charlie right now, as everything on this computer is in German.
Be safe and have a great day.

31 May 2007, Ah, where to start? I had to give up my luxurious accommodations this morning and leave my connex. By 1300 hrs (1pm) I had moved into a very nice b-hut made out of plywood. This is a story I will expound on later, but not today. Things going the way they did, I decided to take a nap this afternoon. We watched Denzel Washington in 'DeJa Vu' this evening in the conference room. A really good movie. My only problem with Denzel is his absolute refusal to make a movie that doesn't require you to think. Why can't he make something like (at least once) like "Elf " or "Hot Fuzz". But it was certainly a good movie.
My internet did expire last night, so I'm in the office after hours using one of the other computers, so don't tell the government. Not much else to report from my end.
Be safe and have a great day.

30 May 2007, Well, another day down. I was awake by 0530, up by 0600. Went to the gym at 0900, worked out for a bit and then went back to my room. One of the interpreters brought lunch so we ate in the conference room.

I'm pretty sure that my internet will be up today or tomorrow, so I'm trying to knock this post out quickly. I won't be renewing my service, but I should be able to go to the office to update any other days. Here is a picture of my room as of 1600 hrs, (4pm).

Here's a group picture of my section and Lt R. Lt R is the Navy officer kneeling, SSgt G, SrA W & W and LT M.

Be safe and have a great day.

29 May 2007, My apologies for being so late with today's post. You don't want the truth, you can't handle the truth as to why I'm late. Ok, fine, I'm trying to finish up the fifth season of 24. Since I don't have a personal computer thanks to the Military transport system, and I certainly will be doing other things once I make it home, I want to finish it up here. Remember, each season is '24' hours long. As for packing, would you believe I'm almost finished? Well, try to, will ya.
We had a sand storm roll through this afternoon followed by a small rain storm, it made things more comfortable as we've had blazing sun and warm temps for the last week. Things went pretty good today, still working on some paperwork for soldiers.
Good news to report. That computer that was missing made it's way back to camp and into the supply sergeant's hands yesterday. It seems my dear friends and fellow soldiers, SFC J and MAJ G had also signed for it and took it with them when they went on the training mission of the border police in the Herat area. Dirty dogs, but everything is straightened out on that matter.
Not much else to report on my end for today, please stop shaking your head at my watching that show.
Be safe and have a great day.

28 May 2007, Memorial Day

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. - Charles M. Province



In memory of those of Task Force Phoenix V, Afghanistan, who gave the ultimate sacrifice:

SGM McLoughlin

SFC Fuga

SSG Lindsey

MSG Deghand

2LT Lundell

SGT Nguyen

SGT Hughie

Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?'...If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. - Samuel Adams



Before I went to Iraq, I looked at Memorial Day as a 3 day weekend, now I see it as a day that will honor these men who gave the ultimate sacrifice' - CSM Brunk Conley, 41 BCT, Task Force Phoenix V

27 May 2007, Well, I'm getting to sleep in till 0700 for the last couple of days, but that's the extent of my enjoying my time off. We are doing a lot of briefings for out-processing the country and they can't seem to be able to come up with a schedule and stick to it. I told my guys the first day to expect changes and not get wrapped up around any one plan of action put out. In this environment, you have to stay fluid. The packing is coming along ok. Not a whole lot else going on at the moment. I'll be more irregular in my posting in the coming weeks as things get closer to time.
Be safe and have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

25 May 2007, some people thought I might want to climb the Ghar again, hahahha. I was more polite than that, but not much. I decided today would be the day I would sleep in. Yep, I set my alarm for 0650. I was so excited last night going to bed. Sleep in by anywhere from an extra 45 minutes to an hour. Yippee. Then I wake at 0530 and stay awake, finally getting up at 0550. That stinks! Oh well, they call this war and everyone knows war is hell.
Today was spent finishing the LOE's for my Air Force personnel, going to an formation this afternoon, discovering that the Army has decided it was in their best interest to write off that projector from last week, and then turning around and wanting to know where a computer was. Yep, it's possible now that they might want to charge me for a computer that I have no idea of it's whereabouts and never have. It's amazing that I'm able to keep up with everything I was originally signed for, but after "taking over" for the 1SG in an unofficial capacity, I'm now being haunted by things that were never under my control. I'll try not to rant on this anymore.....today.
I gave a helping hand to Chaplin W this afternoon, and looking into his room, I asked when he was going to get started packing......hahahahahha. He looked at me and said he was in better shape than I was in that department, then I took him to my room, he admitted he was behind me at this point. Just a little gloating on my part, I'm sorry.
Well, I've got two more meetings to go to at the moment.
Be safe and have a great day.

You Are The Fool

You are a fascinating person who is way beyond the concerns of this world.Young at heart, you are blissfully unaware of any dangers ahead.You are a true wanderer - it has be difficult finding your place in this world.Full of confidence, you are likely to take a leap of faith. Your fortune: You are about to embark on a new phase in your life.This may mean changing locations, jobs, friends, or love status.You are open about what the future will bring, and free of worry.You have made your peace with fate, and you're ready to start down your new path.

What Tarot Card Are You?

I preferred the title "Court Jester" or "Joker", but they seem to be on the right track.

24 May 2007. Finally! As I mentioned yesterday, I have this last week mailed 200 lbs of stuff back home and everyone who stopped by my room kept asking when I was going to get busy. Well, I decided I needed to work on the room a little more. Now, I knew where I was in the scheme of things, but to the uneducated eye, it still looked a mess. rounded up all that was going to be thrown away and did so, then gathered everything being given away and boxed it up. Today, no less than 5 people have walked by and looked in while I was there and said it was a dramatic change and actually looked like I was moving in the right direction. Here it is now.Today I spent several hours working on Letters of Evaluation for my Air Force personnel. SSGT G helped me out quite a bit as Air Force forms are different from those of the Army. I have done two other LOE's when my other two where here but still required some help.
The weather has been beautiful the last 5 days with a small cold front coming in. The highs have been upper 70's, lower 80's with the evenings being just perfect.
There was an IED attack yesterday here in Kabul, killing one Afghan National Police Officer. I haven't heard very much else about the situation. This was about 3 km away from our camp, but I'm staying inside the wire.
Be safe and have a great day.

23 May 2007, Ok, so now I've mailed (4) 50lb boxes home. Now, Mrs. Dub isn't going to be excited by that at all. What I want to know is why does everyone who stops by my room ask me when I'm going to start packing? That doesn't sound good does it. Now, the M4 you saw on the box doesn't get shipped home, I just used it to show the size comparison of how big the boxes are.
However, Mrs. Dub did buy me one just like it, hehe.
After watching seasons 2,3 and on 4 now of "24" with Kiefer Sutherland, I've decided Mrs. Dub's Ford Expedition needs one of those cool slide out weapons tray in the back. Think I can talk her into it?
(LT M just stopped by my room as I was typing this, "you really need to start packing")
I got an email from one of my readers. Her brother is here in Afghanistan on his second tour too. He is working at helping collect school supplies, toys, shoes and clothing articles for the children in his area. I'm working on finding out where in Afghanistan he is working but if you want to purchase basic school supplies and ship them here, you can send them to:

Mervyn Roberts
A Co. 13th PSYOP BN
APO, AE 09354

I've mentioned it before, but education is the most powerful tool we can give the people here, that is true all over the world.
I just got back from dinner, and for dessert I had a Peanut Buster Parfait from Dairy Queen. Well, I better be off now.
Be safe and have a great day.

22 May 2007, Wow, only 9 more days in this month, where has it gone? I spent most of the day in the office, SGM T, the new OPS SGM had a few more questions for me and I don't mind helping out where I can. I did manage to get another black box mailed home today. Wondering what a black box is? Here's a picture.

The goal for tomorrow is to just take it as easy as possible. Now, I mentioned "tomorrow", I'm still in the Army, so every day stands on it's own, after tomorrow, I will see what happens the next day.

Be safe and have a great day.

21 May 2007, Happy Monkey Monday/Funday! I managed to get two black boxes mailed today. I kept them around 50 lbs each as Mrs. Dub is getting practice with carrying all those feed bags for the horses. It looks like I'll have one more to finish things off, I hope. The lines in the post office were short as a lot of people have left already and had already taken care of this. Sometimes it pays off to procrastinate.
With that said, I didn't make it the gym today, and I'm not really motivated to go this evening. I will make an effort tomorrow though.
It's been a easy day all in all, and not really much to report.
Be safe and have a great day.

20 May 2007, Why didn't someone tell me it's already the 20th of the month, I better get busy packing! Actually, I'm doing.......ok....with my packing......I think. For some reason, people keep coming by and making the comment that they thought they were behind in packing till they saw my room. How should I take that?
The day has been good and I did make it to the gym today. LTC Y still wants us in the office to assist with any questions, training and such for the new Battalion that has come in to replace us. This is good to some degree, but it also puts more reliance on us instead of them making decisions for themselves. Now, I don't have a problem with going in the office. I am there every morning at 0630 and stay for several hours, then take off for a couple of hours, then return to the office for a couple more hours to see how they are doing. This gives them the opportunity to work out some issues, make notes, formulate questions and then I can work with them in solving the issues at hand. Plus it keeps me busy.
I haven't heard any more on my school yet, but at last word, it was back on. With the school in place my end date on the counter is accurate....today. I am always amused at people in the military that act "surprised" when something changes. I'm surprised when it doesn't.
Well, let me see if I can tackle something in my room. Be safe and have a great day.

19 May 2007. I stopped by Anndi's Luggage yesterday. Her post for Friday did me in. I have been blogging for 11 months now, and have read many posts that have brought a tear or two to my eyes. Anndi, bless her, made me full out cry, blubbering in my room. It was a beautiful poem that she found dedicated to the love between a father and daughter. I can see Miss Dub being of the same character as the daughter in the poem, as she has made me swell with pride many times, such as her open letter to a soldier that ended up in my hands by divine intervention. You can read it here.
I slept really good last night. First, I had to take a nap at 5pm and slept for two hours, then went to bed at 10pm and slept good till 6am this morning. I've been in the office a couple of times, answering questions, finishing up on small projects, paperwork. I'm still working on season 3 of "24" when I just decide to stop doing anything else.
It has been a beautiful day here, with small showers sweeping through the city every couple of hours, with blue skies following each storm.
Be safe and have a great day.

18 May 2007, Happy Dance Friday! Although, at this minute I don't feel like dancing. I began my day at 0400 this morning. By 0445 we were rolling out the front gate. Yes, I know, stay inside the wire. Well, I didn't. In my 20 months (both deployments) there was something I hadn't done till this morning. The Ghar. Yes, the dreaded mountain that people just feel they need to climb, for entertainment purposes. I didn't understand why until today. Now, I know I was right to start with and I have the blisters to prove it. It really wasn't that bad. I did actually enjoy most of it. I have very little fear of climbing anything, (with the exceptions of ladders). I've scaled the outside of buildings before, some minor cliff climbing, daylight and nighttime, those sort of things. I have never really liked coming down from heights with gravity as my sole means of control. I love rappelling down the side of cliffs and zip lining, but not today, not with this mountain. So enough rambling and on with the pictures.

The Ghar.

Those are our vehicles in the background, keep a look out for them in the following pictures.

Our goal is just past that point up there.

Still moving, now I didn't try any land speed records either.

About 3/4 of the way up, I'm tired, but still going.

The top is in sight.

Now, all I have to do is cross this and we have reached our destination. What would you do?
I found out why my assault pack was so heavy. I had a stow-away. Mr. Build-A-Bear wanted to climb the Ghar too.

The Oklahomans and their Centennial Flag.

And now with the State of Oklahoma Flag.

Ok, that was enough fun, let's get outta here.I'm back at camp and other than being completely worn out, I'm fine. Be safe and have a great day.

17 May 2007, 39 days and a wake up. Since my countdown decided to go on the blink, I guess I can do this manually. Today was a little more down time. I just made the final payment for the road we built and completed last week. The U.S. Government really does pay way to much for almost everything they touch, but the road and walk path are much nicer than anything they had before. While we were out yesterday, I noticed that the Jalalabad Road construction is moving along at a fast pace and is helping considerably. At some point Kabul needs to start looking at adding more roads and streets here.
Yesterday's Stars and Stripes paper did an article about the comparison of events in Ramadi, Iraq. Here are what they printed.
April 2006 April 2007
Bomb Explosions 334 28
Indirect Fire 129 12
Uncovered Weapons 11 136

I'm not sure if main stream media reported this or not, but sad news for people like Senator Reid, it's working. The story goes on to state that the tribal leaders, Iraqi police and coalition forces are working together and things are improving.
Not much else to report for now. Be safe and have a great day.

16 May 2007. This was my first official short day. Yep, I went in at 0630 this morning and just finished for the day at 1600. That's only 9 1/2 hours. I even had three minutes for a burger at lunch.

Now besides being inside a Humvee convoying on Jalalabad Highway while my vehicle was on fire, nothing else really happened. Did I catch your attention with that one? Not to worry, this was the driver's first trip outside the wire since getting here and he forgot to disengage the emergency brake and the brakes got hot enough to start a fire, we simply pulled over, (in the typical IED zone of that highway) grabbed a couple of fire extinguishers, put it out, waited a bit and pulled the vehicle back to the base. I had just enough time to grab a burger and eat it on the hood of the next Humvee so we could go back out. The second attempt was much more successful and we completed the mission without any more incidents.

I have a couple of wood projects lined up for tomorrow, some certificates to print up, and then get caught up on reading my favorite blogs, the latest chapters Miss Dub has written on her stories, and just relax. Somewhere in there, I do need to hit the gym too.

Well, be safe and have a great day.

15 May 2007, I'm having a better day, as I have completed the packing for the office and as of tomorrow will be working mainly out of my satellite office (my connex). I will have a few small things to finish up, but for the most part, the new guys have taken the controls and we are just watching over them. I picked up the box set of "24" seasons 1-5 last Friday and will see how many hours in a row I can watch before I collapse. I did manage to get 1 1/2 boxes of stuff out of my room, so I am making some progress there. Mrs. Dub is encouraging me to downsize my stuff coming home and I will make every effort to do so. I am reminded of Steve Martin in "The Jerk" when he finally moves out of his mansion. All I need is.....and.....and....that's all....except this....and.....














Everything else is going pretty good here. Be safe and have a great day.

14 May 2007, RANT ALERT! IT AIN'T PRETTY!
I'm having a bad day. Now before you worry, everything is fine here. I'm just pissed-off with our government at the moment. I'm taking it from two separate fronts from our own people. Some of you may know that last May we had to send much of our personal belonging by shipping containers by sea to Pakistan then by local contracted drivers to our base. Well, I realize that on "paper" Pakistan is our ally, I realize that "local" contractors from Pakistan to Kabul is the way to ship, but really, I don't trust either one any more than anyone else does. So, my personal items were stolen in transit. Did the contractor get his contract taken away? I doubt it. What did arrive finally got here in September while I was on leave. Then I have to wait this last 8 months for more government people to finalize all the paperwork. Now, I try to be as honest as possible and I gave fair assessments for the laptop and flat screen monitor as well as the other big ticket items the government allowed to be stolen while in their transportation mode. I finally get a letter stating that they have determined that my property is substantially worth much less than what I research to replace said items. This got my blood pressure up just a bit. On to today.
I have been working as the OPS NCO for about three weeks out of the last 15 months of this deployment. The OPS 1SG left in the last week of April to redeploy back home. I signed for all the equipment in the office. Well, going through the receipts I discover there are suppose to be "3" projectors, which for the last 12 months in country I have only ever seen 2. Now, they want me to pay for it. HA! Bring it on! They slapped me in the face with me having to wait 8months and then tell me you are only going to pay me a fraction of the cost due to wear and tear my computer might have suffered, and the monitor was 3 months old when I entrusted it to you. Now you think you are going to charge me "full price" for a projector that I've never seen. B.S. My suggestion would be you write it off, since it's supposedly been in the country for the last two years, it's not worth anything, but since we deal in fractions, I'll give you $50 for it. Where do I need to send the check?

My apologies to those reading today, I just needed to write this down, as I plan to send something similar to the powers that be. I hope to be my more pleasant self tomorrow.
Be safe and have a great day.

13 May 2007

Happy Mother's Day

to my mother in law, Nita and to my step mother Voneitta. I hope the day is wonderful for both of you.

12 May 2007, I have been tagged with several memes and two interviews. I must have angered the internet god, known as algore, he is also god of weather and earth. Forgive me for I am about to cheat at this.
10 Interesting, shocking or little known facts about myself. This meme tag came from Rock Solid. I was also tagged by Ron Simpson at The Cluttered Eclectic Mind for 8 things about me, 7 things about me by Ms. Fierce Shoes. As I am a self proclaimed rebel of sorts, I combine all of these and go with the highest number, which is 10.

1. I live by simple rules and philosophies. One is, "If you can't laugh at me, who can you laugh at?"
2. I didn't join the National Guard until I was 28, I attempted to join active duty during Desert Storm but was rejected due to my knee.
3. I actually do like having a neat and tidy area to be in, I just don't like doing the work to keep it that way.
4. Since the age of 5, all I ever wanted out of life was some land and horses, I achieved this in 2005. Now I want more of both.
5. I am a mad shopper when on orders as a soldier.
6. I was laughing the moment I hit the ground on this accident.

7. My signature in remodeling is to leave the project unfinished in some small way. 8. This drives Mrs. Dub crazy.
9. I like to wear shorts on the first heavy snow day of the year.
10.This is a picture of me, my 10 year old sister, 13 year old daughter and 38 year old brother.Now, I still owe the two interviews and will hopefully accomplish both of them tomorrow. If you remember Vadon coming to visit us a little while ago, and that he works for Build-A-Bear, well, he sent us some more bears this week, and had a few speical ones for LT. M, MAJ M, and myself. Looks like Sgt Dub back home may have an officer moving in.

I must get back to packing away the office so I can start on my stuff. Be safe this weekend and have a great day.

11 May 2007, It's Happy Dance Friday all over the world! Ok, maybe not everywhere, but today is going good for me so far. We worked last night from 9pm to 3am "remodeling" the office for the new guys to make it more suitable for them. Typically this doesn't happen until the old crew leaves, but why wait, if they are wanting to take over now, who am I to interfere with that plan. I was back at the office at 0815 this morning tidying up some. I told them I was going to stay out of the office for the most part during the next three days as I worked on packing 1-180th equipment and memorabilia and then working on my room. Now, since I'm only about 75 yards from the office, this isn't really a problem for anybody and if anything happens, I can be reached and in the office in just a matter of minutes. And, I have only been called once all day.

And what about me and my sign? It says, "Omar Khan Road" in English and Pashtu. At least, that's what it suppose to say. Sarge Charlie mentioned something about me being mean to the local children, I'm wondering if he heard something about that day, or is just grasping at straws? Hmmmm.

Be safe and have a great day.

10 May 2007, The week is almost over, yeah. Today was more of just plain running around, doing odds and ends, mainly because with all the new people in the office, some additional training going on in there too, there just isn't anywhere for me to sit and do my work. The new OPS Sergeant Major has been here for a week and has been picking my brain for some construction and demolition projects in the office and it's been decided we would start tonight around 2100 hrs. It will be a late night for me, but I've told the office I didn't plan on being around in the office much for the weekend as I prepare office equipment and my room for going home. This of course means I will attempt to sleep in, in the morning.

It's starting to look like my posts are getting a day behind. Today I will share pictures of our trip yesterday, just a couple, and so tomorrow I will share pictures of today. Yesterday, we went out on a foot patrol to a road construction project we had done for the village just outside our camp. Earlier this week I was given the assignment of making a sign to put up. Now, I can't take credit for the engraving as we have a nice laser engraver at BDE level and SPC B is in charge of all that. I cut out the sign, painted it, and carried it to the scene.

Follow Me!

A little to the left.

All dressed up.

The ribbon is cut.

09 May 2007, I'm running a little late today. I got back inside the wire at about 1830 hrs. Yes, I know that was a couple of hours ago. Mrs. Dub and Miss Dub got their Sgt Dub t-shirts in the mail. Mrs. Dub says I ordered the wrong size for her. Well, duh, I'm a guy. Anyway, after telling me the selection still wasn't big enough, I've just finished adding some more shirts to it. I'm hoping to expand the product line in the near future. I've also been told by some of my readers, that the link to find the store was hard to find, and after much prodding by you, I've added it's own link on the sidebar, it should be easier to find, look under "Go shopping".
So what have I been up to today? Well, I got the two signs finished and went to LTC Y and tried to give him the road sign for the dedication and opening ceremony for this afternoon. He asked me how it was going to get installed. I told him I didn't know since I had no idea where it was going to be placed. I was then sent to fix the problem and came to the conclusion that I had to go "outside the wire" with the patrol and put it up myself. I'll have pictures tomorrow of the trip and results. All went well, I got my mileage in for the day with that trip.
Mrs. Dub sent me pictures of our little homestead and it has been raining. I'm just glad we are at the top of the hill and not the bottom where the ponds are. Yikes! Looks like a few more things just got added to the honey-do list. French drains, leveling the yard, replacing our driveway.
Everything else is going well, be safe and have a great day.

08 May 2007, Let's do a comparison sample of two posts I could have done.
Number 1: I write this in the morning instead of evening like normal.

08 May 2007, I slept last night. Be safe and have a great day.

Number 2: Normal afternoon writings.

08 May 2007, Wish I had slept all day. Be safe and have a great day.

Which do you like?
Actually, it wasn't that bad. I'm rushing to get several things finished at once and when you rely on "others" to do their part, it gets hectic. The new guys that are here are doing a pretty good job so far. I'm impressed with the ones we received in the SECFOR. I'm coming close to taking a whole day off and get things organized, both in my room and the final bit of equipment that I need to get packed away for shipping home. My leaving here is still a little ways down the road, but will be here sooner than I can get ready, so as we say, "plan early, plan often"
In case you were not aware, the Taliban have kidnapped a french aid worker and 3 Afghans helping and have been holding them, demanding that the French 1,100 soldiers leave Afghanistan or they will be executed by beheading. The time frame was set for Monday, the day after French elections. The demand was to see a change in France's President and then an immediate pull-out of troops. Now, let me start off by saying that once again the insurgent supporting liberal media has not balked at this action one bit, an innocent person who is actually over here to help people, not involved in conflict at the slightest. Now, they do bark a little if it was a journalist, but really not that much, since that would be the ultimate story for a reporter anyway. But, I do have to laugh at all this too. The deadline came and went. Now, there was a change in the Presidency, duh! Chirac wasn't running, that was a given. However, Sarkozy is being described as an unapologetic pro-American supporter and conservative. Hurray for France!! Today on Al-Jazeera the Taliban announced they would allow France more time to get their country back in order and civilized before demanding the French troops leave. It seems France is in a state of riots right now and doesn't have time to worry about what the Taliban wants. I just laugh to myself. And what is one of the reasons France is up in arms at this moment? Apparently there was a reform bill going around attempting to lower the number of hours in a workweek from the already demanding 35 hours. ( I put in 17 just on Sunday, what was I thinking?) At the bottom of the report, the Taliban are claiming responsibility for the attack at Pol-e-Charki, but we expected that. As Sarge Charlie pointed out, another report is stating that the ANA soldier was mentally unstable and had received treatment a couple of times during the last year.
Be safe and have a great day.

07 May 2007, Well, today is better, although still busy. Yesterday Kabul had an incident where 4 U.S. military personnel were shot intentionally by an Afghan National Army soldier out at the Pol-e-Charki Prison. This happened around 4 p.m. and although the event itself lasted only a few minutes at most, the investigation and scene lasted much longer. TF Phoenix elements responded and I was in the office till about 11:30 p.m. at which point there was nothing else for me to do. I did have a couple of breaks during the evening, but the events are enough to drain you for certain. None of the soldiers were from Phoenix. Here are two of the reports from the news. Report 1, report 2.
We are getting a bit of rain at the moment and I'm fine with that. The clouds started rolling in as I did my 3 miles today on the track.
Oops, I'm late for another meeting, and I have one more project after that, I better be going for now.
Be safe and have a great day.

06 May 2007, It's been a long day. Be safe.

05 May 2007. Happy Cinco De Mayo! Of course, I guess with all the troubles back home with the border issue, it might not be that happy. I saw a celebration going on at the track today while I was walking. A bunch of Caucasians, grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and playing rap music. I'm not sure how this was linked to the Cinco De Mayo but that was the excuse they used. Of course, one person was wearing a sombrero, so I guess that made it official.
I read the official bulletin concerning blogging that was recently put out. I don't foresee any changes to my site. As you know, I don't give out anything in violation to the OPSEC rules. These are good rules if used with common sense and should not require any further actions on anybodies part. Like I wouldn't mention that at sunrise tomorrow we will actually have that one insurgent camp completely surrounded and will be going in with more soldiers and guns than the insurgents have ever seen and that the only way to stop this from happening would be that insurgent commander to surrender to the nearest Coalition base he can find tonight. We all know that the insurgents get 80% of their information about us from us, so this is why I wouldn't mention such a mission, and that that commander should really hurry.
Well, a pretty slow day for me, be safe and have a great day.

04 May 2007, It's Happy Dance Friday, but I want to fall asleep in my chair while sitting in my connex. I spent 30 minutes straightening my room up after my shift. I've been asked if they do inspections. We do health and welfare inspections for the lower enlisted but it is more in of making sure they don't have anything they aren't suppose to, drugs, porn, or alcohol, and then to make sure they are living in conditions that would allow rats, mice or other creatures to want to live there. I've had my room checked once since being here. Being a Senior Enlisted, we have a little more lee-way in this and they expect us to be at a level that would not need such continued observation. I'm a pack rat by nature, wanting to make sure I have what I need or what someone else might need, I'm also not the tidy-type, I'm just waiting for the comments Mrs. Dub is going to make on this post.

This is what my room looks like at the moment, this is "livable" for me, and since I'm all to myself, that's good enough. I do have the breaking point when I will go through and just do a major cleaning, but today wasn't it.
I did 3 miles on the track this afternoon, but was cautious the entire way. An email came out last night that since they mowed and have been doing work in the track area they found and killed 4 poisonous vipers yesterday. Just another reason why exercise can be unhealthy, but I did it anyway.
To answer the Empress Bee, my changing clothes will be the only bedroom talk you will get out of me, the rest is for Mrs. Dub. I also got a copy of the Stars and Stripes that explains more about the new blogging clamp-down, I hope it will cover some more information that I found over at The Cluttered Eclectic Mind

Be safe and have a great day.

03 May 2007, Well, it's been a good day. We had a remote controlled IED downtown hitting an Afghan Army bus and it killed the driver. Yahoo and MSN both had coverage about two hours afterwards. The day was then normal and this evening I went to the French Transfer of Authority. The old French unit has completed their tour here training the ANA and the new unit accepted the mission in a very nice ceremony. Major Chevlet was the LNO I saw every day when he would stop by the office to get any new updates.
We exchanged unit patches, broke bread (fresh french bread) and had some little pizza squares. He and his predecessor, Major Timon were both exceptionally good officers and I always enjoyed talking with them.
A little while back, CSM B and I went up to see Rambo. LTC Y and CSM B had managed to get an autographed photo of Sylvester Stallone as Rambo and had it shipped here. CSM B presented it to Rambo, he was pleased.

I really need to get better at answering questions, I'm trying to be better about emails, but I do owe the 911 dispatchers back home a picture.
I was asked if the Military clamping down on blogs and emails will affect me much. Not really. I attempt with every post to use OPSEC, (Operational Security) if you haven't noticed. At the end of this deployment, I will let you know more about me that I have kept guarded thus far, Area 51, Elvis and a few other "classified" tidbits. One such thing that you look at each day now is my count down timer. This is set for the expected day I will be home, throwing my uniform on the bedroom floor and putting on a pair of wranglers and boots. And yes Papa Phil, we will be eating at Cattlemen's that first night back.

Also asked was how can someone buy a Sgt Dub t-shirt? Well, that one is easy. On my Links section is a site called "Sgt Dub's Store", just click on there, scroll through the very small selection I have right now, if you like something, pick a size, and order. If you think I'm the next best thing to a fried bologna sandwich, order today. Now, if you have someone else in your life as Army Mom of Three does, Dari does, Dixie will have, and a few more of you, then feel free to send me an email and I can fix up a t-shirt for you just as easy, if you have any great ideas for me, let me know that too.
Be safe and have a great day.

02 May 2007, Well, two of my officer replacements made it in today, after a couple days of in processing and acclimation to Afghanistan we will start the task of training them up for the mission. The day was nice and the weather warm. To avoid jinxing anything, I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
E and J, Two Angry Brits made up this picture and sent it to me. Of course, I loved it.

Sgt Dub's Oval Office

They have a good blog but not sure if they are angry all the time or just when stupidity seems to rule, they do make a good deal of sense in the posts I have read.
I now have backing from Canada, Germany and the U.K. for my run for President. Should I start an exploratory committee? I'll probably wait a little longer as we will get tired of this current group of candidates quickly, since they are attempting to get as much air time as Brittney Spears and ANS. But if I ran for Congress, well, then I'd still have time for all those honey-do's on my list, remember, they don't work all year. Congress, the only job in America since you attended 6th grade where you get a recess.

Be safe and have a great day.

01 May 2007, I was thinking about another day of silence, this time just for me. Of course, I can't get away from blogging. I believe many of you suffer from the same ailments. Today was a good day. All went well.

I am coming close to another rant but it hasn't built up enough steam yet for me to jump up on the soap box. I will however, go over several things that are on my mind and have happened in the last few days.

1. Since President Bush was "blamed" for the 500 point drop in the stock market in February, does he also get credit for the all time highs?

2. We in Afghanistan need to know if we lost the war here too, and who do we surrender too?

3. Does anyone else think Tenet is full of crap and is just trying to sell his book?

4. Is anyone upset R*o*s*i*e is leaving the V*i*e*w? 5. Is Nevada ready to do a recall on Senator Harry Reid? 6. Mrs. Dub is letting Miss Dub practice driving on our back roads and they haven't wrecked yet, of course, from the picture of Mrs. Dub clinching her teeth, I'm wondering how close they've came.

7. Army Mom of Three bought a Sgt. Dub t-shirt.

That's about it on my end, be safe and have great day.