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
Friday, November 30, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
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
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
Saturday, November 10, 2007
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
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
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