OIF

Hey everyone. So I woke up this morning to extremely loud explosions that seemed to be right outside my door. I jumped up, put on my gear and ran outside to get into the bunker. As I got outside, I saw that everyone else was acting normal, and that’s when they informed me that they were merely controlled blasts. The smoke from it was huge, so I guess they were blowing up something big. Needless to say, I was wide awake after that. On my day off too. Oh well.

I also neglected to mention the explosion that I'm sure you all heard about on the news a couple days ago. It was an IED explosion right outside the gate. One of our soldiers was in the guard tower right in front of the explosion. He didn't get injured at all except the blast kind of threw him to the ground and rained his tower post with schrapnel. But he was guarded by sand bags etc. So that was a positive note. Unfortunately two (I think it was two) soldiers were killed in the blast. So please keep their families in your prayers.

On a better note, a random reader wrote me and offered to send me and my friends some coffee. He runs a coffee shop and offer to send us some of his selection. So I would like to publically thank this individual for his generosity.

We lost another softball game. Frankly, we're not very good. But I'll stick to my "I don't care 'cause I'm having fun" story.

We had a couple more people go to the range today and qualify. I was jealous of these guys because they got to shoot M-60's and AK 47's. They also had MP 5's out there, but they didn't start shooting them until our guys were leaving. So no one got to shoot those. But it sounded very cool anyway, and I'm mad that I didn't get to shoot anything like that.

Oh well. I got the last two days off of guard duty because my workers had to drive to Najaf to see their families. But I have to go back tomorrow. Fun Fun.

SSG Byrd sent us an update a little while back and said he was doing fine. And we lost another one of our soldiers, SPC Wright had to go to Germany for some surgery also, but then was sent home to have the surgery. So keep him in your prayers also. Neither surgery was an injury due to fighting or anything.

Well, I guess that's it. I love you guys and hope you're all doing well. E-mail me sometime and I'll get back to you when I can. God bless and thank you so much for your prayers and support. Peace.

Hey guys. Not much new. Still on guard duty, still working in the motorpool, still playing softball. We lost again, so that's not new either. We have another game tomorrow, so I'll let you know you how that goes. I wish I had more to write about, but this is going to be another one of those really boring blogs that get 1 comment. :) But it's ok. Alright, well, if anything happens in the next day or so I'll go ahead and write it. Other than that, have a good one everybody and thank you so much for your support. God bless.

Hey everyone. So another couple days gone and I'm feeling good. I'm still on daily guard duty, not much new there. I got the internet in my trailer for the first time last night. It was great because I was able to use Instant Messenger to talk to some people, so that was nice.

I have another softball game tonight so I'll let you all know how that goes whenever I post again. Hopefully we can pull a win out tonight and make us feel better after last game's loss. We'll see.

Not much else is new. We have a couple guys in Anaconda right now for various reasons, but for the most part, we're all here doing the job that needs to be done and waiting on our replacements to come so we can start packing. I don't mean waiting on them like they're supposed to show up any day, they're supposed to be here in a couple months, but it's exciting to think that it's all winding down for us anyway.

We have an NCO and officer dedicated solely to getting us ready to leave, so we've started the process again. It's basically the same process we went through at Ft. Stewart, only this time we're starting it in Iraq and moving to Stewart.

I guess that's it. Spirits are still pretty high from getting to come home, and knowing I could be home pretty soon. Thanks everyone who reads for taking time to show you care. I miss you all and can't wait to see you all again. God bless and thank you so much for your prayers and support. Peace.