Holidays in the land of dirt

I hope everyone had a great holiday this year. I was frigid here, in the upper teens to low 20s at night. Fortunately the heat works inside the trailer and the shop. We had a good holiday dinner/lunch with turkey, ham, roast beef, potatoes and all kinds of other stuff I can't remember. It was very tasty and they allowed us to wear civilian clothes for the day. Normally we have to where our uniforms all the time except when we're at the gym and during other circumstances as you may have noticed from some of my photos. :) Nothing special planned for New Years except working my normal shift. Yippee!

Other than that, nothing new to talk about. Same old crap around here, a few mortars to keep us on our toes. We lost another trooper in the town to an IED on xmas day. http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11589

Thanks to everyone who have sent so many care packages. It has been really appreciated. Now for the good news, if you have more stuff to send and haven't sent it yet, please hang onto it. We will be coming home soon so there is no need to send it to us and have it get forwarded all the way back to my home in the states. :)
If you would still like to send packages to soldiers over here I can get you another name and you can continue to supports those who are still here. Just let me know if you're interested and I'll pass it along but I won't be posting that information on here for security reasons so don't ask please.

And now it's shameless plug time :P
And if you're looking for another way to support the troops, Skyline Prints (http://www.skylineprints.com/supportourtroops.php)is selling Support The Troops shirts and hats from which a portion of the proceeds go to organizations that help and support our warriors at home and abroad. Organizations like the Desert Warriors Supporters Inc. We don't have a website yet but I'm sure that somebody in the org is working on that right now.

Thanks again for all the support and hope to see y'all soon.

Oh yeah, 6 new videos posted and a bunch of photos. Thanks to my Mom for the awesome helmet-cam.

Video
http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff?user=104005082634063070264&output=html
Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/drjones2005

D

Robin Williams, LtCol North, My Uncle Steve...

The last couple of weeks have been eventful. Fortunately not necessarily in a bad way but not all good either. We still have the occasional booms, a few mortars here and there. In the past week it was reported that we had a couple IEDs just outside the gate and a suicide bomber in the town. A few of our soldiers have been lost as a result. I don't have their names and details as they weren't part of our group but their loss is felt just the same.
And speaking of loss, I was notified last week that my Uncle Steve Carroll has passed on. I don't know the exact details but what's important is that he was one of 2 uncles that influenced my decision to join the Air Force. The first time I met him when I was a kid he was just getting out of the Air Force and I remember him telling his stories from the Signal intercept work he did and it all sounded so cool. A few years later when my family was having a hard time, My aunt and he took me in to live with them as one of their own.
I heard that he was buried with full military honors and I'm very proud to have known him. I wish I could have been there but I know he would understand.
Go Easy Legless, you don't need legs where you are now.... You will be missed.

About 3 days ago we had a visit from 2 Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and a country singer. Sorry, don't remember his name but he seemed to be a nice guy. I didn't get any photos but you aren't missing much. If you need to see them that bad you can go to the NFL website and get better photos. It's been very cold here and they were all bundled up so it wasn't really a big deal.
As you've read previously, we had a surprise visit from LtCol North. Well, a couple of days ago, I'm walking back from the latrine and there's a group of folks behind me in the dark. As I open the door for them to enter my building, I see to my surprise that it's the LtCol again with his FoxNews camera dude and they are coming in to use one of our TVs to preview some of their footage. Very cool stuff. Then the next day he came by and visited our day-shift and took a group photo with them. Helluva nice guy.
Then yesterday morning, we went to the USO show here and saw Adm Mullen (CJCS), Miss USA Rachel Smith, Lance Armstrong, Lewis Black, Kid Rock, and Robin Williams. It was an awesome show and brought a brighter time to a dim couple of weeks. This show was taped and parts are being shown on Access Hollywood but by the time I've posted this it's too late for you all to see it. Oh well. It was a good time.
Immediately following the show, we are in our DFAC (Dining FACility) and in walks General Casey, the Army Chief of Staff. Now you say, yippee, big deal... yeah well, it's not everyday that a 4 star General walks in and say hello to everyone like he's just one of the guys and sits at a table with your comm chief. The boss was a little shocked and but had a pleasant meal from his telling of the story. :)

For those of you looking for ways to support the troops, you really should look into helping out with the USO. They are always looking for volunteers and donations. They take care of us while we're travelling in the airports and they take care of our moral when we're abroad. Please visit their website when you get a chance and see what all they do for us. http://www.uso.org/


Well, that's all I can think of for now.

New pictures and videos at
Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/drjones2005
Videos
http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff?user=104005082634063070264&output=html

Those of you with FaceBook, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592634360

This blog is dedicated to the memory of my uncle Steve "Legless" Carroll.

Videos Link

I have a good single location for viewing my videos for those interested.

http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff?user=104005082634063070264&output=html

Uniforms and LtCol North!

Well, another week gone by and we're all still kickin and happy. We've got our new ABUs (Air Battle Uniform) and I personally really like them. Especially since it's cold as crap outside and these are heavier material than our DCUs (Desert Combat Uniform) were. Only thing that confuses me is the inside pocket on the jacket. We button these things up and you can't run around with them unbuttoned. However, the only way to get to the pocket is to partially unbutton the stupid thing. But I do like them better than the Army ACU (Army Combat Uniform) that we had been wearing on occasion. The Velcro on the ACU gets hung on everything including parts of itself.
I also now have a flight suit for when I do convoys. We get those because they are made out of Nomex and protect you from burning much better than a standard uniform much like the drivers suit in a race car. I don't have any photos of me in the flight suit yet as I don't have my name tag made yet. I should be getting that tomorrow.

Ok, enough about uniforms. I just got to meet in person LtCol Ollie North! Got to shake his hand and get my picture taken. It was awesome. He is a true American Patriot and hero. If you think otherwise, I don't care and don't want to hear about it.

The picture is posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/drjones2005/LtColNorth/photo#5141699535289255650



Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Things needed / wanted

A number of folks have been asking about things we need or don't need here.
A couple of things we have plenty of now are drink mixes, hot chocolate, candy and books. No need to send any more of these things. We appreciate all of them but the last couple of boxes we've received had a ton of these items and we're really covered up. Most of the other groups here have plenty of these items as well since we can't find anybody willing to take the extra lol.

However, a couple things we'd really like to have are some regular Folgers coffee, any dried meat or fruits, microwavable meals.
We also have a couple folks who need some contact solution - Opti-Free Replenish to be specific.
I can't think of anything else right now but I'll post it if I do.

Thanks all for your support. We really appreciate everything you all do to help. :)

2 months down

Well, I've been out on another "field trip". All back safe and sound. Spent Thanksgiving Day training at a really cool location. I hope everyone had as awesome a time as I did. We repaired some communications circuits and removed some old equipment. All in all a very succesful trip.

On a different note, one of ours at a different location got the crap knocked out of him when a rocket landed 25 feet from him. He's ok with a scratch and a nice ringing in his ear but still just as nutty as ever. Noone else was hurt in the making of that attack.. :)

So, I've posted some new photos and a couple new videos. Hope y'all enjoy.

Thanksgiving Day
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5565970052665936317&hl=en

Riding in the front seat of a UH-60
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7341807800418882227&hl=en

Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/drjones2005

Good times :)

So, the new photos have been a big hit. I'm really glad you all like them and that you get the impression that I'm on a "field trip". lol. Sometimes it feels that way only in the wild west with everybody armed to the teeth. Sometimes I wish we could go on vacation at home dressed out the same way. haha.
The upside is things are better here. Flying over the cities and villages you see the "normalness" of folks going to work, kids going to school, and people shopping like it was any other day in any other country. People are working hard everyday to clean the battle damage and restore buildings to their formal usefulness. Folks I've been in contact with seem upbeat and friendly. Happy to be working with us. The attacks really have slackened off as the news has been reporting.
That's not to say that there aren't still crazies every where over here. But it seems they are expending more effort killing each other. Not sure if that makes our job any easier but at the risk of sounding selfish, I'm glad it's not being directed at us like before. But that's just my opinion. :) We still get the almost daily mortar attacks and there's IEDs still on the roads but overall things are much better.

Well, that's really all I've got for now. Thanks again to you all for the support and comments. I'll be writing again in a week or so.

D

Out in the "weeds"

My apologies for the delay in talking to most of you. I've been out in the weeds for the past week. I thank you all who sent me b'day wishes and for those that didn't, I thank you too. :)
I wish I could say I had a great birthday, but the truth is, this is really one I'd rather forget. While waiting for a convoy to pick us up and take us to another location, it got hit and we lost another of our awesome warriors. Now that was shocking enough, then a couple of days later we had to haul off the smashed humvee. Very surreal stripping the equipment off the damaged hummer to install in the new hummer.
Please take a moment to say a prayer or whatever it is that you do for the hero who gave his all, his family and his comrades that have to keep on without him.
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11472

Ok, now, I'm ok and in one piece. I have some really awesome video and photos from this trip. (No, none of the hummer or anything to do with the attack.) We spent a week tramping around meeting new folks and doing various "commo" (communications) stuff. I went on 5 different convoys, was involved in one vehicle crash with no injuries, had a fuel truck break down in a convoy.... twice, and went on 3 helicopter (UH60 BlackHawk) rides to get around. All that and only got shot at once. It's been a wild week of many ups and downs but we're pulling through and moving on with the job. Thank you all for your never-ending support. I miss you all.


Also, for those of you who would like to get to my blog, photos, and videos easily from one site, you can sign up for an Orkut account and access my Orkut similar to Myspace only different.

I think this is the link.... http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=17928885096965930540&pcy=3&t=0

If not, you can search for Drjones
Enjoy
D

1 month down, 3 to go....

It's been a month and all is well. No Indirect Fire (IDF) attacks in a while. The weather is cooler here. It gets down to about 65 or so at night and about 85 - 90 during the day. Some days a little warmer than others depending on the cloud cover. My hooch is right next to a firing range which isn't so bad except when they fire the .50 cal. Those are just a tad loud. :)
We also just happen to be under a helicopter flight path during certain times and they like to come in really low. Fortunately that doesn't last long and so far I've been able to sleep right through them. BTW, if I didn't mention it before, I work night shift.
Once I go off shift we'll either go to the range, go to the gym, or go run errands to other parts of the base and to other camps adjacent to here. We are actually at Camp Syverson and not directly on Balad AB but we use Balad as most folks have heard of that one and can relate to it.
A lot of these camps change names as new groups take over for their rotation. They also rename them for fallen heros who were assigned to the camp. Such is the case for our camp. Here you can read about him. http://www.militarycity.com/valor/263061.html



Well, I've tried to go though my emails and answer a lot of questions that have come up a lot. Hope this covers some of them.

Also, new short video of us driving around at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6654236872298349126&hl=en

If any of you have any other questions please email me and I'll answer if I can.

D

Another week or so down

Most of y'all know that it was a tough week last week. It's pretty quiet over all here but we did lose one of our own. Please say a prayer for his family and the others carrying on without him.

http://www.militarycity.com/valor/3113632.html

RIP Warrior..

videos uploaded

I've uploaded 2 videos for you all at:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4104460402040970615

and

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5605756219778044948

Enjoy

pictures link

I've divided my photos into albums that can be seen at this link

http://picasaweb.google.com/drjones2005

Enjoy :-)

It's been a while....

I know. But to be honest, since I got back from B'dad to here (Balad), there just hasn't been much going on. Which is a good thing..... except for the boredom. We have an awesome gym, a firing range that's open all day, and lots of movies and music. Can't take a lot of pictures here for security reasons but I've put some generic stuff from the base online. I've been working nightshift, 9pm to 9am local time. We're just monitoring our commo equipment and trying to stay sane just sitting here.

Well, life is good. Enjoy the new photos, they're in the same location as the last ones.

D

Photos posted

Ok folks, I've posted photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/drjones2005/PhotosFromOIF?authkey=gdJxlUX2VMo

Enjoy.

trying to get there.... and then here finally

So, we got almost a week off the last week to see our families and stuff. That was a good time. Came back and spent Monday and Tuesday getting some last minute training. Now we've tried to leave on Wednesday, made it to Maryland and got stuck here. At around 1:30 am they informed us that the plane was broken and we got put up in hotels.
We finally got on the plane, stopped off in Germany for a couple of hours, a 2 hours stop in Cypress where we couldn't get off the plane. Then finally landed at Al Udeid. Once on the ground there, we were told that we had a flight right away to our final destination. We made it to our camp with no major layovers once we left Baltimore. Life is good!

Now that we're here, I had to get some quick local training then I boarded a plane and flew down to B'dad. From there I travelled to several different locations by convoy and blackhawk to do all my equipment inventories. It was a really cool trip and I have some awesome photos of B'dad from it that's I'll get uploaded soon. I am now back safe at my home base and will be here trying not to get bored for the next month or so. Woohoo!

PT Test, final results

Woohoo!! I passed. When I arrived 4 weeks ago I weighed in at 238 lbs. I now weigh 208 lbs and have lost 4 inches on my waist. According to the sheet my fitness age is 25. That rocks! And I can tell you the secret, eating high protein, healthy foods, running every day, good stretching before and after the run, and a week of wearing 60 lb body armour and 60+ lb ruck sack. It's an awesome workout/diet plan. Everyone should try it at least once..... lol

And it's only beginning.... good times.

End of week 4

Ok, it's essentially the end of week 4. We spent 3 days at different ranges firing a variety of weapons. I went to Tampa overnight to pick up equipment. It's been a busy week. Tomorrow we clean our weapons, do our final PT test, and get issued our chemical warfare suits and such. Saturday and Sunday we will be evaluated by folks from Tampa to make sure we're ready to complete our tasks overseas. Good times. Good video and photos freshly loaded to my myspace at myspace.com/samuraisworld. But you will have to have an account to view them.

Enjoy.

Week 3 weapons training

This has been the longest, short week of my life. The labor day weekend was awesome. I got to go home and see the family. Everyone except Dad. :( Good times.
Wednesday, after PT we loaded up to drive up to Savannah to spend the day at the firing range. I've posted photos on my myspace. We didn't get back to our rooms until almost 1am. Then we were up again and back on duty at 0650 and headed to a different range to practice and qualify with our M9s. We had a pretty good time with that but were still pretty tired from the night before. Friday we did classroom training on the M204B and 249 machine guns that we'll be using. Like a said, it's been a whirlwind week of training. Oh yeah, I'm running my 1.5 mile in 13:30 now and that with a sprained ankle. Woohoo!! We're off to do some fishing this Saturday afternoon and relax a little. We have a ruck march on Monday and Tuesday so that should be all kinds of fun.

Oh yeah, another good thing, I will be able to keep this blog up to date while I'm away with an email option. That means i won't be able to edit it but I'll be able to keep y'all more up to date as a group.

Thanks for the support.

D

test email blog post

This is a test blog post

Day... don't know lol

Ok, 1st, I apologize for not posting anything lately. It's been the same thing every day, PT in the am and then equipment training in the afternoon. Last Friday we did do PT on the beach which was different and pushups in the water sucks!
However, today was distinctly different. We went to a local Army post and used their confidence course. It was fun but we had a couple folks get injured and we're all a bit bruised and beaten.

I haven't posted photos yet as my laptop had crashed. I'm having to reload software in my spare time so I haven't been able to resize the photos and videos yet but will have some posted soon.

I'll try to keep more postings here when I can.

D

day 3

Another morning that started with pt and more aching and soreness. Wasn't as tired at the end of this one though. Now we have to work the next 2 days as well but no pt till monday. Gives us a couple of days to heal.

After work, went for a tour of Brunswick. Ended up on Jekyl island. Nice place but a long way out. It hass lots of bike trails so I think I'm going to take my bike out there next weekend and cruise around.

That's all for now. ltr y'all

Day 1 and 2

Hello folks, welcome to my blog space. Hopefully I'll be able to update it once I get overseas. but for now, this is where I am.

Day one of my trip was a little long. We spent most of the day at Robins AFB outprocessing and getting vaccinations. My arms a little sore but I'll get over it. Then travel to Brunswick area. Checked in and then unpacked.

Day 2, showed up at 630 for our 1st PT (Physical Training). We started off with a test to give us a basseline of where we are so we now know what to shoot for. BTW, I can't feel my legs right now lol. Oh yeah, pushups are murder after 3 shots. The rest of the day was taken up with briefings about where and wat we're doing for the next 6 or so weeks.

That's all for now, I'm pretty tired so I think I'll call it a nite after I finish uploading the video of my room here. It's on my myspace - samurai.myspace.com

Anyway, thanks for stopping by

D