Have I said thank you?

As usual, I’ve had a team of great people sending me care packages and they are being welcomed with open arms. Thank you, specially Soldiers Angels!

Sorry with the slackness of my blogging, the other half of my team has a rather high tempo look on life and likes that in the work environment. Believe me, my time spent here has been more productive then most periods in my life and I’m known for working my butt off for a project. I’m a little worn out but it’s a good worn out.

Hopefully the end product is as good as the work I’m putting into it. I’m actually doing something that takes advantage of my 4 trips out here at all levels with the typing of this SOP. With each page I type, I open up another can of worms and questions that I have to answer. Hard questions are becoming routine and impossible just take a bit of patience. I’m probably the best candidate for doing this out of anyone I know.

On the war front there isn’t much to say, other then training my guys haven’t seen a single live round, just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the hostiles don’t start jumping out of a sand dunes.

Everybody is getting into their training routine, the martial arts classes are starting and I’ve taken loads of pictures and videos. My own training is 3 abdominal classes per week and some cardio mixed in. As usual with PT, I’m a late bloomer but I’m sure that won’t stick once I finish this project.

I’m missing home but in some respects, this war has become my other home. Thank you for the support everyone.

PS have I mentioned that I totally love the new Foo Fighters album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace? It rocks!

Milblogging is tough..

..on electronic gear. Over the years, this has turned out to be quite an expensive hobby but then again, I'm a techno geek and would have probably bought most of the gear anyways. Not that I would trade blogging for anything but since 2004, I have gone though 5 digital cameras, 4 laptops (shopping around for number 5), 2 8mm camcorders and 2 external hard drives and an assortment of thumb drives.

I can tell you how most of them went down, the first digital camera died in the middle of trip number one in 2004, the dust had made its mark so I ordered a digital Rebel which lasted till my Thailand trip in January of 2006, then the autofocus went out and my old eyes couldn’t get it to focus right so I passed it on to my photo taking niece. I got a second pocket Panasonic pocket camera in the middle of trip #2 and it lasted till the middle of trip number 3.

Trip number 3 was expensive. I lost an external hard drive which spontaneously combusted with a couple thousand pictures in the midst of all of that I had another HP snap and shoot that the zoom went out of, then a Panasonic lasted till it fell apart a year later for no apparent reason, the hundred dollar camera I got over last Christmas break? It took such horrible pictures that I was embarrassed to show them.

My old 98 desktop was replaced by a laptop prior to my trip in 2004 (thanks, know who you are), when coming back to the states from that trip, the heat from the desert fried the video card. The replacement laptop’s power cord got tripped on at a party and broke up the inside, then my wife’s computer had a problem with it’s power supply and battery. Now the HP 5000dv that I'm currently using is in it’s last days, the battery won't hold a charge and the fan sounds like there are little screaming banshees living inside of it, well when it turns on that is. So I’m pricing out a new one to handle the heavy video editing that I foresee in my near future because I’ve been tapped for being the squadron photographer.

Believe me, I take care of my gear but I also probably utilize it more then the average bear, if I'm covering an event (like the basketball game), I'll take 4 or 5 hundred pictures which eventually get turned into videos and posts. I'm just doing the first month of deployment complaining and no, I don't expect any sort of help in getting a new one (unless you are Bill Gates then help away!). I can handle buying it on my own.

It's my hobby and my world would be a much lesser place if I wasn’t doing it.

So far my out of pocket is reaching into the 5000 range easily but it's hard to produce the product without the gear. Well in actually, I could just type up blog posts and put them up at the internet café, my photography life is something I raised my hand and volunteered to do but was it expected of me? No and do I care about the cost? Not really, just noting it as I take a financial management class. The positives outweigh the negative and I wouldn’t ask for it to be any other way.

Milblogging is tough..

..on electronic gear. Over the years, this has turned out to be quite an expensive hobby but then again, I'm a techno geek and would have probably bought most of the gear anyways. Not that I would trade blogging for anything but since 2004, I have gone though 5 digital cameras, 4 laptops (shopping around for number 5), 2 8mm camcorders and 2 external hard drives and an assortment of thumb drives.

I can tell you how most of them went down, the first digital camera died in the middle of trip number one in 2004, the dust had made its mark so I ordered a digital Rebel which lasted till my Thailand trip in January of 2006, then the autofocus went out and my old eyes couldn’t get it to focus right so I passed it on to my photo taking niece. I got a second pocket Panasonic pocket camera in the middle of trip #2 and it lasted till the middle of trip number 3.

Trip number 3 was expensive. I lost an external hard drive which spontaneously combusted with a couple thousand pictures in the midst of all of that I had another HP snap and shoot that the zoom went out of, then a Panasonic lasted till it fell apart a year later for no apparent reason, the hundred dollar camera I got over last Christmas break? It took such horrible pictures that I was embarrassed to show them.

My old 98 desktop was replaced by a laptop prior to my trip in 2004 (thanks, know who you are), when coming back to the states from that trip, the heat from the desert fried the video card. The replacement laptop’s power cord got tripped on at a party and broke up the inside, then my wife’s computer had a problem with it’s power supply and battery. Now the HP 5000dv that I'm currently using is in it’s last days, the battery won't hold a charge and the fan sounds like there are little screaming banshees living inside of it, well when it turns on that is. So I’m pricing out a new one to handle the heavy video editing that I foresee in my near future because I’ve been tapped for being the squadron photographer.

Believe me, I take care of my gear but I also probably utilize it more then the average bear, if I'm covering an event (like the basketball game), I'll take 4 or 5 hundred pictures which eventually get turned into videos and posts. I'm just doing the first month of deployment complaining and no, I don't expect any sort of help in getting a new one (unless you are Bill Gates then help away!). I can handle buying it on my own.

It's my hobby and my world would be a much lesser place if I wasn’t doing it.

So far my out of pocket is reaching into the 5000 range easily but it's hard to produce the product without the gear. Well in actually, I could just type up blog posts and put them up at the internet café, my photography life is something I raised my hand and volunteered to do but was it expected of me? No and do I care about the cost? Not really, just noting it as I take a financial management class. The positives outweigh the negative and I wouldn’t ask for it to be any other way.

Laughing Dogs

One of our in jokes is that we’re going to be eaten by laughing dogs (hyenas) on the way home and I’m not even sure there’s even hyenas in Iraq but there is some sort of canine in the waddie that gathers in packs and makes howls though out the night. Some of the howls sound remarkably like laughter so we imagine that there are hyenas out there. No I haven’t actually searched the internet yet on what it could be, I prefer the mystery and thrill of hyenas in the darkness.

I’m watching Stephen King’s Mist right now, its funny the opening scene is the main character is painting a poster from the Gunslinger series. Everything ties in.

News in the world that has caught my eye? A 6.3 earthquake in Nevada, Castro has stepped down, we shot down a satellite and Kosovo is breaking away. The battle for who will be our next president is going on full swing and a bunch of Kennedy paperwork has been found in Texas, I knew someone was hiding something.

Out here, we notice, we watch but it’s like we’re on another world. Days flow into one another and we form our separate groups, together but split by the customs of military courtesy. We’re together but still alone in our own journey. Each of us handling this trip his or her own way.

Our fears aren’t much different from the fears in the rear, the separation from everything strikes some of us more then others and wondering what the future will hold. Each time I came home from one of my trips overseas, the world has changed. People you knew had a half of a years worth of growth and new experiences that you don’t. Babies are now toddlers who can walk, friends have fallen in and out of love, tragedies and wonders happen that you have no clue about or weren’t there to help experience.

Even though we are making more money out here, what we’re getting paid for is missing out on the lives of people we care about. Two years of time in country is a percentage of my life which will never come back, here’s to hoping it was all worth it in the end, I’m off to work. It’s light out and there are no ghostly laughing dogs to bother me.

Daily Grind

Mornings start out with a shower and shave and I try to make it out to breakfast with Gunny A and my RP1 (religious programs specialist). My normal breakfast consists of a freshly made hotdog and cheese hot pocket, maybe biscuits and gravy, some fruit, dark coffee (they have a choice between normal and mud, I’m in the Navy, we do the mud) and two grapefruit juices.

Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?

I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.

Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.

Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.

The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.

I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.

Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.

By the way, I've published some of the Combat Basketball pictures over at my fotopage.

Daily Grind

Mornings start out with a shower and shave and I try to make it out to breakfast with Gunny A and my RP1 (religious programs specialist). My normal breakfast consists of a freshly made hotdog and cheese hot pocket, some fruit, dark coffee (they have a choice between normal and mud, I’m in the Navy, we do the mud) and two grapefruit juices.

Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?

I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.

Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.

Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.

The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.

I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.

Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.

Combat Basketball

Every time there is an event that someone could get hurt, Marines ask for a Corpsman to provide medical coverage. In the civilian side of life, you worry about medical bills, how long it would take an ambulance to get there or just plain getting hurt. Overall most civilians I know are fairly careful about getting injured. Not so in my line of work.

I think with Marines, having their “doc” there adds a mental safety blanket. They don’t seem to worry about girly things like bruises, twisted ankles or hitting like football linebackers but without pads. Since my ball game is sadly lacking, I usually get out of it by taking pictures.

Last Sunday, two of my shops challenged each other and an afternoon of it with a bar-b-q grill and hotdogs and hamburgers. I took a lot of pictures, in fact I took over 400 pictures with the new camera (Canon S3), a full gig on a 4 gig card. It was a perfect day to take the new camera though its paces, seeing what it could do and it held its own, taking some amazing shots. Even with the digital Rebel, it was hit and miss with sports shots, people getting out of focus because they’re moving towards or away from you. Catching the action just right, usually I had to delete 1 out of every three picture, not that it was a big deal but it was still productive time lost.

Sunday was different, 4 pictures out of 400 were actual bad shots. Two were of a guy who jumped 6 inches away from the camera with his mouth open and the other 2 were lighting issues.

Marines don’t play things halfheartedly, it was full bore in your face street ball, rank got left at the sidelines, the girls that played were just as rough as the guys, when someone got tired, another body jumped in. No quarter given, none asked.

Corpsman doing standbys for such events mostly just sit around and watch and if they’re good at the sport, take part in it. Usually I tend to watch though a lens of a camera and on Sunday, my last picture of the day was a snapshot of an ankle turning in a direction its definitely not suppose to turn. My camera went back in its bag and we made a trip with some ice on the ankle to the ER down the street.

Know how rare it is to catch the mechanism of injury on a photo? I’ll be posting some of the photos later, tonight I’m way too tired. Plus my upload speed is super slow.

The ankle guy was able to walk out of the hospital that night, nothing was broken but he’ll be sore for a while. He’ll also have a picture for the rest of his life to go with the story. In a couple of weeks, he’ll be as good as new. The next day, most of the people playing stopped me in the hallways or at my office for some vitamin M (Motrin) and being the thoughtful corpsman that am, had little baggies ready in my pocket.

Valentines Day in Iraq

Care Packages have started to arrived and the Soldiers Angels have taken care of me, in the picture below is maybe a quarter of the Valentines Day cards that I’ve received for my unit. It’s a lonely time of year to be away from the family but these folk let us out here know that people still care. Thanks everyone!

Here’s a picture of me and the doc.

I got tapped for being the squadron photographer and spent most of today following my guys around doing training. Took some great shots that I’ll be posting once I get a thumbs up from the PAO.

Right now, real work wise, I’m in the process of inventorying everything and painting the shelves in the office. Haven’t tackled the book shelves in the library yet but it’s sure to happen sometime in the near future.

A side note on the painting, we found another can of the paint that we used on our room with an English sticker on it that said automotive/heavy industrial paint. Hopefully, my future kids don’t look funny.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Unloaded my 9

4 times.

For all of my readers who think that I’m a battle hardened war hero who has seen many battles on his 4 trips to Iraq. Let me take a moment to change your minds. While I have dealt with my share of blood and death and horror, the three trips prior to this, my weapon as never went off in the war zone. I’ve drawn a time or 3 but not a single round has ever left the chamber and for the most part, I’m totally happy with that.

I’ve never had to take a life, in fact I’ve probably saved the lives of people who would have happily have shot me in the head and cheered about it afterwards. It didn’t matter to me, I was there to make sure that they made it to the next level of care after whether they wanted to or not.

I’m a corpsman with the Marine Air Wing, my first time out here I spent a lot of time flying around in a tin can with propellers on top of it picking up injured folks and the next 2 times, I was just been a squadron corpsman taking care of the Marines in my unit unless there was a mass casualty (there were a few).

That all changed last week when I went out on a familiarization fire at the range. I missed going to the range in December because I was out doing other training and the powers that be offered it out here to the junior Marines who stand duty. While getting a chance to fire the gun and actually make sure it worked was great, I don’t think I could have picked a worse day.

As soon as we started driving, raining began to pour out of the sky and our bus driver drove us to the wrong range. We asked the friendly army guys there were we should go (a Marine officer did) and we arrived a the right range about 2 minutes away from were we started half an hour late.

We went though a couple of relays in the rain then it started sleeting and that sleet turned into snow. Snow flakes started falling and I was with a bunch of junior Marines who had never handled a 9mm before. It’s bad juju when the corpsman starts coaching folks on pistol technique.

While it wasn’t the prettiest evolution that I’ve been involved with but over all other then being at the edge of frost bite, we all had a good time. I couldn’t really blame the guy who put it together. When the gods of chance want to toss a few gremlins in the works, you just have to take what you have and make the best of it. I’m glad I went.

Other news, I got my Canon S3, yay!!

PS thank you Sherri for the Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos, my wife for the Valentines Day Hedgehog, Carla for the great pictures of home, Linda from Helmet Liners for the huge box of hand made head warmers and all of the other Solders Angels who have sent me packages and letters. I truly have one of the best support networks in existence.

I've posted some pictures here too.