OIF

Hey guys. Today's just another day. Still no big attacks so that makes me feel better. Things are pretty normal, guard duty in the mornings and at nights and working and sleeping, that's it. I wish I actually had something to say this time, but I there's nothing to report. Sorry. Well, I hope all is well. I hope you're all having fun. I miss you all and I'll talk to you all later. God bless.

Hey everyone. Another day. I just finished my first day in the motorpool and I can already tell I'm going to like it a lot more than the post office. I'm still pulling guard duty very early in the morning and very late at night but so far so good. No incomings that I know of. We seem to be having outgoing every night though. Things here are good I guess. I'm messing with my laptop and putting all of my music on it so I'm not getting any sleep anymore. Plus the 0400 to 1200 hours at the motorpool prevent me from getting a lot of sleep at night. Guess I'll have to learn how to sleep during the day. Other than that, things are normal. I have all my pictures ready to burn and send so expect some more pictures in about 3 weeks. That should be it. Hope all of you are doing well, I miss you all and I thank you for supporting me and the rest of the troops. God bless.

Hey everyone. Last night was cool. My first night in my guard position. I got to use my night vision scope on my rifle to check out the scenery. It's a pretty cool system but much too heavy for the weapon. It's alright if you have a fixed position and you can lay your rifle on some sandbags or something and just pivot, but for carrying around it's completely inefficient. But I'm in a fixed position so it won't be that bad. Last night we had some outgoing rounds that scared everyone. It was kind of funny because for a while only a couple of us knew that they were outgoing, everyone else thought they were incoming. They really do sound the same if you're like me and you don't know what to listen for. But our lieutenant is Field Artillery so he is always on top of it. I got some good news today. Since we switched up here to the post office, there are too many people here. So they are going to let me go work at the motorpool with my fellow mechanics until we switch back to distribution. So I finally get to learn some more stuff about what I actually joined the Army for, hang out with my friends, and get my hands dirty for the next 3 months. The hours are horrible (0400 - 1200) but at least I'll have the day to sleep. Alright, well that's it. I hope all is well, I love you guys and thank you so much for your support and prayers. God bless.

Hey guys. So I guess you all know now about the changeover in power. We haven't seen any serious attacks. Supposedly there were a couple mortars that came in last night, but I never heard them, none of us heard them. I do have a story for you all though. One of our guys just got back from Baghdad where he visited for a day. They flew down there and back. On their way back someone shot a rocket at their helicopter and it got so close that the sparks from the back of the rocket got all in the helicopter. They had to land really quick and grab a fire extinguisher so that nothing would catch on fire. Close call, but thank God no one was hurt. Most of you know that I play guitar. Well me and another guy got together and started playing. Then a girl down here started singing with us and we've been goofing off with new songs and playing around ever since. Well our Batallion Commander found out that we did this so she decided to sign us up for a talent show being held in Anaconda (Balad, Iraq). The show is in a couple weeks, I won't tell you when until it's over, but we're going to be flown up there to play for this thing. I'm pretty excited, I've never been flown anywhere to play before, so it'll be fun. But I'll let you guys know how it goes. Well, that's it for now. Thank you so much for your support and prayers. God bless.

EDIT: I just wanted to add a couple more things. 1st of all. The changeover before schedule seems to have been a good idea. You know when you get ready to run and you're about to take off sprinting at the starting line and someone shouts go before you expected it so you take that one step that's all messed up and then the rest of the run is messed up? Well hopefully that's what this thing did to the Iraqi attacks. That's what we're hoping at least. Second, I got my laptop, so I'm going to start playing around with my video camera so hopefully I can get some better footage. Well that's it for now. Love you guys. Later.

Hey everyone. I was looking at my archives over at the right of the screen and I realized that I've been doing this blog for over 6 months now. I don't think I've ever stuck with anything for over 6 months except little league baseball and school. Well, and my girlfriend Amy, we've been together for over 2 and a half years now. :) But it just made me happy knowing I've been able to stick with it this far like I wanted to. I hope you all are enjoying it. Anyway, I have a new guard position now in the event of a massive attack. I can't say where any of our guard positions are for obvious reasons, but I'll just say that I have high ground. I really hope that nothing happens and that they don't try anything, they're not going to win. But in the event that they do get brave/stupid, we are prepared. Also in worst case scenario I'm going to try to take my video camera with me and set it up quickly so I can get some decent footage. The camera won't be moving of course because no one will be manning it, but I figure anything will work. Nothing is ever as bad as the military says it's going to be, but we plan for the worst and hope for the best. I hope all is well. God bless you all and thank you for your support and prayers. Keep 'em up. Love you all. Peace.