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. :)