home sweet home

so i've been home for a little over a week now but despite my lack of work, i've been too lazy to write a blog. i still have some paid leave left, which i'm using up right now to help chill out a bit and readjust to the "real" world. i hope to start military orders soon so to not disturb my active duty time and keep the paychecks coming. plus i know myself well enough to know i'd get bored if i had no job, even if i have money coming in. otherwise, i'm just getting settled back into the flow of things and remembering how great oregon is and how wonderful my wife, family and friends are here back home.



oh yeah, andrea had a big surprise for me when i got home. we are now the proud parents of a samsung.


thanks sweetheart.

limbo land

so our replacements have arrived... but while that represents good times and the transition from sandy-angry iraq to green-awesome oregon, it's also a time of awkwardness. i know i am normally the king of awkwardness, but in this case i'm super stir-crazy. during my "sabbatical" in iraq, i've developed somewhat of a routine. now that routine is changing, and while taking it easy before heading home may be good for me, it doesn't make slowing down easy. i've grown accustomed to working 12+ hours a day / 6 1/2 days a week. i look forward in many ways to working a 40 hour week and having real weekends. i've also gotten used to working out fairly regularly (i'm pretty much swoll) and having a pretty active lifestyle. i hope i can keep it up when i get home.

the new people are a hodge podge group of soldiers. i'm sure our predecessors thought the same of us though. two of the new videographers seem very interested in learning and i'm sure they'll do great.

regardless, i look forward to heading home and seeing everyone in a more relaxed environment than a two week r&r leave allows.

sidenote:
the latest rambo movie is surprisingly not worth watching. it's about 75 minutes of action-packed non-plot chaos with some kind of moral (like killing thousands of people with a 50 caliber machine gun is okay). basically it's half the length of most action movies but twice the carnage.

round two

i've been away for awhile, and with some prompting from mr. grubs, i'm back. since my last post i've gone home on leave, had a wonderful time reuniting with andrea, the family and my friends... returned to sandy iraq to a somewhat mess with the pentagon channel... and am now just handing off responsibilities and tasks to the folks who will be taking over for us. otherwise, i'm just copying secret files to sell for millions to uraguay (the only country interested in my limited knowledge of video editing). i'll probably get arrested and sentenced to life at guantanamo bay. but that's alright... who wouldn't want to live out their days on a tropical island? i hear the accommodations and company are grand. i also have heard they have the best mai thais and coconut drinks with little umbrellas in them down there.

i guess we'll see how that pans out.

oh and the other newscast is posted so if you want to view it... see the links below:

http://dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=37696

http://dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=37697

http://dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=37698


ps if you are the web guys checking blogs please don't actually arrest me, i really want to go home. thanks web guys.

i have a very important message... cannonball!!!

so i just completed my latest project. the new division that pays my rent wanted a newscast. and since the other one i did when i got here was for a different division, that meant developing everything from the ground up. it took some time... but i'm pretty satisfied with the end product. it will be a monthly program to air on the pentagon channel and their 5 viewers i believe will love it.


anyway, here is the link.

enjoy.

http://dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=35780



p.s. i'll be home in just days for leave. i'd love to see everyone... but there's one person in particular out there who i can't wait to be with... my beautiful wife Andrea. i love you and i'll be home soon!

sacrifice

john 15:13 - "greater lover has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

i was thinking recently about this war i'm apart of... and how few people in the u.s. are feeling any of the impacts or sacrificing anything in their life for it. 1% of the u.s. population serves in the military. i'm not saying we all have to come over here and run around in the desert... i'll gladly do this if it means someone else doesn't have to. i just feel many americans are disconnected from what's going on over here. i include myself prior to deploying.

what made me think of this was reflecting on the memorials i've covered since being here. i've only done a few while many of my troops have done more than their share... but each time really hits home. i don't get angry at the insurgents or this war, i get angry at humanity and our seemingly need to kill each other. i also feel for the soldier and his/her family. to put yourself knowingly in harms way to cover your battle buddy's back i believe takes a certain caliber of person. the first memorial i did was for a 20 year old named dwayne covert. he was married with one child and another on the way. i hope to never forget his name... and that's where i'm going with all of this. i think even if we can't or won't all serve, we should all do something... even if it's as simple as looking up a fallen soldier and remembering his or her name.

here's a site if you feel compelled to do so.
http://icasualties.org/oif/BY_DOD.aspx

if you're religious... pray for their families and as odd as it may seem... my soldiers who have to attend these ceremonies and bottle their emotions more than anyone should have to.

i'm not trying to win anyone over on whether or not we should be in iraq... i'm just hoping you will remember those who answered the call regardless of their political views and layed down their lives for their friends.

3:10 to kirkuk pt.2

if this were an episode of my life... i'd have a "previously on kevin" bit at the beginning of this blog. but instead... just read the blog below.

so after my first jog through northern iraq... i took about two days off and then if was on the road again. the mission this time: to document the opening of a substation in my favorite province, sulaymaniyah. then it would be back to kirkuk for the progress on the provincial construction center (oooo exciting kevin please go on) and the pipeline exclusion zone.



for those of you wondering where all these strange far off lands are... here's a map.




back to my story...

i'm in sulaymaniyah for this grand opening with a ribbon cutting, speeches, doves released and the sacrifice of a sheep. if you just raised an eye brow and read that last piece out loud... you're in the same boat i was in. unfortunately we missed that part but i was interested to see this whole sacrifice thing, plus i was curious how many more volts the substation would deliver with spilt sheep's blood on there. it must help conduct electricity or something. what do i know... i rely on eweb to overcharge me to turn on my lights.

anyway, i get there and there had to be a dozen video cameras and twice as many still cameras. this was some event. since we were on time... we were late. which meant no time for micing the podium and i had to elbow my way into the pyrana pool of journalists. they were all crowded in and one guy, who even had a bodyguard, had free reign to walk wherever he wanted, which usually ended up in front of all of the rest of us. it's a good thing i have some patience because i was ready to throw some elbows. after the chaos was over and the dust had settled i took a tour of the site. it's set to power more than 40-thousand homes. impressive... most impressive.

later, we went out to lunch with some of the mucky mucks of sulaymaniyah at a four star restaurant. it was great. lamp kabobs, hummus galore, dill cucumber sauce and my favorite... flat bread! i was in heaven. i almost forgot where i was when they started pouring wine... but then the hooah soldier voice in my bowels sprang to life and reminded me that we can fight over here... but there sure won't be any drinking going on. it was a great time.

the provincial construction center was the next stop... but i won't bore you with that. it's almost done... and it will help things. enough said.

the pipeline exclusion zone is actually pretty cool in concept... but trying to get video of people working or doing anything was near impossible. iraqis along there work a 10am to 3:30pm schedule with a lunch. not bad for a day's "work." once it's done it should help prevent theft and attacks on the oil here. one of the engineers said the project cost about $30 million dollars... but once complete, they're be able to make more than that in one day of uninterrupted oil flow.

so there's part two. as with most sequels it was probably a let down and relied more on it's graphics than on actual story. i'll try to write a prequel at some point that will have me as a hyper little kid with unfathomable powers. i'll annoy you and have a random jamaican dude ruin the whole thing.

3:10 to kirkuk

so it's been yet again another span of time since my last post... so here's the latest scoop on my travels/adventures abroad.

my most recent excursion involved... just that a ford excursion. for the last couple of weeks i've gone to almost every region of northern iraq with the corps of engineers. the corps of engineers is still an enigma to me as far as how it operates. it's army driven but funded through the da, not dod. i'd like to say that after my trips that i understand their structure more... but that's not the case. i do have a new appreciation for the work they do. 99% of the corps are civilians. so they truly volunteer to come over here. and unlike many of the contractors... these folks aren't doing it for the money.

anyway... i've digressed from my trip report.

journey #1: we headed to logistics support area anaconda (lsa anaconda or mortaritaville as the locals call it.) flights were hard to come by so we drove. not in your standard military vehicle mind you. as i said... they're da not dod... so we took up-armored ford excursions as well as a contracted security force. i felt like a v.i.p. for sure. lsa anaconda is plush... as it is one of the largest bases here located just north of baghdad. other than that... nothing too spectacular. we met up with a lt. gen. who's in charge of both the corps of engineers and all the other engineer units in the army. after touring the construction projects on the post and speaking to the troops... we (my group and the general's) headed to sulaymaniyah.

sulaymaniyah is a province that borders iran and is north of baghdad and east of kirkuk. it's kurdish run so i was in for quite the treat. you see the kurds pride themselves on being a progressive culture... the airport was just like a small town private airport back in the states. very impressive. it was here that i visited an old russian castle, that sadam used to torture kurds and is now being renovated into a prison. due to all the bad memories it will double as an incentive to not break the law. i also ate the best meals i've had here. the corps of engineers office in sulaymaniyah is inside a kurdish post and their cook is a local. he was trained and worked in germany but moved back to iraq to marry and because he felt it was safer. his food was awesome. red wine beef... do i need to say any more?

after checking out the old castle... we headed to kirkuk on our way back to speicher. nothing eventful happened other than the coolest car ride through town of my life. when we got to kirkuk... we decided to go through the city instead of around. remember i'm travelling in an excursion. we zipped through the city really fast and more direct than the roads were designed to allow. we jumped medians and forced traffic to make a hole for us to fly through. it was like being in a bourne identity car chase. awesome... simply awesome.

needless to say... i made it home safe and sound... but i have new experiences that have helped shape my view of how the country as a whole is doing rather than just what's on the news. none of the news agencies go to the iraqi controlled provinces and report on the successes. that's not sexy enough. they just stay in baghdad where the main government drags its feet constantly, and in mosul or the diyala province where the insurgency still has a foothold.

this was only journey#1... i saw how long this blog was so i'm going to split them up.

to be continued...

mr wright; i'm calling you out

i said i'd do it so here i am a doing it.
jeremy, you need to update your blog and/or website my man. and this is coming from someone who blogs maybe once a month and most of the time on boring subjects. your funny stories as only you can tell them are dearly missed. please return to our virtual storytelling forum and bless us once again with your words of wisdom.

water fight?

have you ever sleep walked? i don't think i've ever done that... but i've certainly done other things in my sleep. as long as i can remember i've done weird things in my sleep. things you'd think you'd need to be fully awake to do. i've changed the alarm clock to a later time before it ever goes off. this has at times proven to be disasterous, which is why i usually try to keep the alarm clock well out of arms reach. i've had conversations with people that i don't recall, most of the time though i just didn't want to get up yet and have the ability to say anything to make the person trying to wake me go away. you can ask andrea or my parents about that. none of that seemed all too impressive but recently i added a new skill to my list.

the other night i was dreaming that i was incredibley thirsty and really needed something to drink. in the dream i went to a store and bought a 7up, a gatorade and a bottle of water. but all three were warm and only made me thirstier. i was getting frustrated when i finally woke up. i was still pretty drowsy but i remembered there was a bottle of water on my side table that i'd had a couple drinks out of before bed. so i roll over to reach out for it and that's when i felt a rush of water hit my chest and run down onto the bed... along with my blanket and all my sheets. now i'm pretty sleepy still so i just sat there trying to figure out where water was coming from and didn't really try to stop it from continuing to pour out onto me. finally i realized i had the bottle of water from the side table tipped over on my chest. i pulled it off and went into cleanup mode. i hung the blanket in front of the heater, changed my shirt, used some extra towels to soak up the water on the floor and on my mattress and then tried to figure out what happened. the best i can tell, i managed to get the bottle of water from the side table and unscrewed the cap in my sleep before setting it down in the nook between my left arm and my torso. my hand wasn't gripping it when i woke up so who knows how long it had been there.
long story short... hydrate hydrate hydrate - oh and water bottles are the devil.


on a sidenote: i was looking for an interesting picture of a water bottle online and found this.













how cool is it to be able to go running and drink water off your wrists?!?

normandy: the beaches are stormed with soldiers, but where oh where is the water?

i was out of the "office" for most of january due to a big operation they had me at in the northern diyala river valley (you can google that). it was an operation designed to clear out al-aqaeda fighters from a major stronghold called the bread basket. they expected quite the fight and a lot of resistance but in the end... the battle went easier than anticipated. i think the bad guys over here know better than to take us on head to head. i can't go into real details of the operation but i will say from what i saw firsthand... many areas are much better off now. i realize there are many people out there that want to see the u.s. leave iraq, but i've seen how we are making a difference. the problem is that most people don't have patience and don't look at the bigger picture. i don't agree with when we invaded iraq... but now that we're here i do see us making strides (or more likely small steps forward). this bread basket area had been an al-aqaeda controlled region for some time. they were torturing and killing people based on their beliefs and their relationships with either us or the iraqi government. at the risk of sounding cheesy or cliche'... this is why we should be here. we have the power and ability to help someone out... and i think it's our responsibility to do so. i don't necessarily believe that's really why we're here, as politicians rarely go to war to help others... but i am seeing some possitive side effects of our being here. i was in a town called muqdadiyah where people had been afraid to go outside. but when we went there... markets were opening up and i even had the chance to play with some children. that's when you see what this country could be like... when you see children smiling and playing. i know... you're probably all saying "man, kevin sure go brainwashed over there." but i'm just telling you what i've experienced since being over here. ever soldier who returns from here will have had a different deployment and different stories and opinions from this war. i'm just one voice saying what i've seen.

now to a much less serious topic... what i'll miss about my time in diyala.

1-moondust that you sink up to your knees in.
2-sleeping in a tent with broken heaters and waking up seizuring like a mad man.
3-learning to sleep through artillery fire and strykers driving by.
4-eating hamburgers for every meal because it's the healthiest thing to eat.
5-convoying with a fuel truck and wondering how safe that is.
6-working in an office that was once a bathroom. that smelled nice!
7-riding in the back of a bradley tank.
8-eating iraqi cuisine at the mayor of muqdadiyah's office. everything was so good, just don't watch them prepare it!
9-watching an infantry soldier hand a stuffed bear to a shy little girl and seeing both of them smile.
10-seeing snow for the first and only time in iraq.