thoughts, ponders & randomness

home sweet home

2008-06-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-19T05:29:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T00:20:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

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.

back in the uso

2007-12-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

the uso tour came through "town" this past week. robin williams, lewis black, kid rock, lance armstrong and miss u.s.a. all came out to support the troops. it was really interesting to see what they're like in real life rather than through a television or movie screen.

i got a photo taken with robin williams and lance armstrong during kid rock's performance. they were both exhausted from their flight but pretty cool nonetheless.

i was most excited to meet robin williams. i was hoping to videotape him sending a "nanu nanu" out to my mom since she was such a mork and mindy fan. but i chickened out last minute.

oh and paul... lance says hi.

bridge over the river tigris

2007-12-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

and he's back!

a lot has actually happened during my blogging hiatus. i've gone out of the wire on a few missions, i got my hair cut twice and i'm pregnant. don't worry it's andrea's.

while i'm sure you're all on pins and needles about how good my haircuts were... can you say pure sex appeal?... i feel this blog should be on my latest mission, documenting the construction of an assault float bridge over the tigris.

basically the insurgents felt compelled to mess with transportation in the qayyarah region and blew up a section of the bridge. it forced the locals to have to use row boats to ferry across the river to go to work or shop ect. so i went up there with the 74th engineer company. at first i was a bit nervous since i don't get out much and you never know how a unit will respond to having a camera guy tag along. they were really cool though. they picked me up just after 6am and we were off. here's what the bridge looked like when we got there.

that's a temporary bridge across the gap put in by some other engineers right after the bombing so military vehicles could still cross the river.

anyway... they got right to work taking boats out and building a new bridge. they slide these pieces off the beds of heavy moving equipment trucks and once they hit the water, they unfold into sections of the bridge. it was pretty cool to watch and videotape.

at one point i got onto one of their boats and realized what my biggest fear is in iraq. it's not being shot or blown up... while either of those would really suck i probably wouldn't see them coming or feel them happen. no, my biggest fear is drowning in the tigris river. you see when you get on a boat in the military... you have to wear a life preserver. while this might sound like a good idea... imagine wearing 85 pounds of armor, weapons, ammo for said weapons, and your camera gear. now imagine putting a life jacket on over all of that. these life jackets might keep you afloat normally... but with the added weight i'm sure it would only slow my sinking to the bottom of the river. i asked one of the guys whether they'd battle tested the things and he said "not officially, but we did have a guy go in on the last job." to which i said "and did he float?" "no, we had to send in divers. but he's okay." "do you have divers today." i ask as i'm stepping from the boat over water and onto a floating section of the bridge. "no." he said so reassuringly. so now i'm thinking about how much fun it would be to fall into the river and try to not only get out of my normal gear but unclasp the life preserver first.
i could just see the letter sent home...

dear hartman family,
we regret to inform you that your son has drowned in the middle of a desert. no one saw this coming as it was a desert and mostly filled with sand. don't worry, for ssg hartman died a hero, saving the iraqi people and allowing a free and safe iraq for the citizens to form a democracy and have a super-walmart in every village and a mcdonalds and starbucks on every corner. if only you'd invested in more swimming lessons when he was a child.

luckily though, i survived my outing and the bridge was a success. here's a shot just before it was completed.

i also stretched my reporting skills back into some form of shape. if you want to see my package... that's news package of course... check it out. anyway... fun times.

ketchup!

2007-11-09T03:47:00.000-08:00

sorry for not writing for some time... but perhaps this is just how often i'll be able to post on the blog.
since my last posting some big things have changed. we have a new division in charge. they're the 1st armored division out of germany. the actual transfer of authority ceremony was interesting/frustrating. first off... one thing i've noticed about nearly every public affairs unit i've ever worked with (not excluding myself even) seems to work at a reactive level rather than a proactive one. we were doing so much last minute work it was ridiculous. we even ended up cutting and gluing posters for the event. the most frustrating part was watching some of my troops get yelled at to take trash out by one first sergeant only to have another one standing by the door yelling at soldiers for taking the trash out. it was like being at boot camp again. the icing to the whole event was how non-newsy it all was. it barely made the news even after all our hype. all the media cared about was what we had planned if turkey crossed the border to attack the kurds.
the possitive piece to it all though is that our new division staff is really cool. regardless of rank they are all very approachable and actually listen to you. in our field it's important to not always flex your ego through rank and listen to your subordinate. some of the best ideas i've ever heard were from privates. our new general is as best i can tell awesome. major general hertling is really nice and very saavy with the media.
in other "news," i've really enjoyed the care packages i've received so far. i have lots of movies to entertain myself with... beef jerky, nuts, carmen's donated chips, pictures of home, music cds and homemade cookies. it all makes my stay in this sandy prison much more bearable.
in yet even other news... i just had my first bout with the crud. everyone gets it atleast once while in country... one nasty cold or flu. mine started out as just your average cold but quickly decided to hit me full on. from gooey phlem dribbling out of every pore to fever and chills that gave me some pretty cool hallucinations. cool but still safe since i didn't grab my weapon and charge outside after some tuscan raiders and their banthas.
i didn't eat much and i'm thinking based on this photo of me taken last night that i might want to start packing on the pounds through copious amounts of ice cream. the one bonus to the whole ordeal was that i got a day and a half off from work... something that's rare around here since we only get sunday mornings off to go to church.
so other than that and this really sexy picture of me i really don't have anything left to write about.
thank you to those of you watching out over my wife and actively hanging out with her. it's not easy being away from home but time is flying by so far and i'm sure it will just pick up even more.
peace

15 seconds later

2007-10-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

man, this blogging thing can be kind of hard when every day is monday and there's little to report. but then i just have to realize that what i find boring may be of some interest to you all back home.

i completed a second newscast and this one will actually get aired. the first one was supposed to air in september but since all of the stories i had to work with were from june and the division public affairs office is not known for a quick turn around... it got scrapped after i had put in several weeks of work due to the fact that it wasn't timely. this second one i didn't want to do because i figured it would get poop pooed on too and all my work would be for "experience." but alas, it was approved after one revision and will be aired on the pentagon channel. or if you are not one of the 5-million people who supposedly get and watch the pentagon channel and want to see it you can check it out on a low resolution version at the links below.

http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=30101

http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=30102

you now know why i was a producer at kval and not an anchor or reporter.

sidenote: i have officially been married to my best friend for 7 months. unfortunately only 2 of those were with her... but that just means the honeymoon phase lasts longer. andrea, you are the best thing i never saw coming and i never could've dreamed of a more wonderful, kind-hearted and beautiful wife. i am so blessed to have you in my life and i love you with all of my heart.

the sand here is dirt cheap

2007-09-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

so it's been 10 days since my last post and you're probably wondering... why is tom brokaw eyeballing me like he wants to punch me in the teeth or that he ate too much indian food for dinner.

well, they say no news is good news... so really i have some great news. nothing has been going on over here. but since i mostly write this for myself and andrea, i'm going to go ahead & post something with tom brokaw's mug on it and a random topic.

dust: the sand over here is insanely fine. it saturates every ounce of your body and infiltrates every crack and space of your living and working area. i've gotten used to most of it. it actually surprises me sometimes how okay i am with having a thin layer of dust on everything from my desk... my uniform... and even the cup i'm drinking out of.
everytime i take a step powder puffs out from my boot. my hands constantly feel like i just wrote an essay on the chalkboard. and let's not leave out the ongoing battle i'm having with sand boogers. it would be interesting to do an autopsy on an iraqi (dead of course) and see just how much sand is in their lungs from breathing in this stuff their whole life.
i used to try dusting every once in a while, but in just a day or so it would look like i was walking into an office that hadn't been used since the first time we were here under bush sr.
what really amazes me is how people have lived here for so long and yet the swiffer sweeper things only came out in the last 20 years or so. if the government would spend the money their spending on this war to develop a large swiffer sweeper to run along the whole country... i think our work here would be done. i think the sand and dust is what really drives this insurgency. they're mad and they're jealous of the american homes with little to no dust in them.
or it could just be a clash of cultures that don't understand each other and hopefully one day... when the "dust" has settled... we'll all just get along.

well with that said... i've caught another mouse and must go deal with that problem.
peace for now.

boom!!!

2007-09-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

i emailed this photo out to most of you but figured it was decent enough to put in a blog. i don't get out much as i'm the ncoic (non-commissioned officer in charge) at my base and i am supposed to be focused on putting a newscast together and helping out with the satellite interviews with the general and all the other miscellaneous tasks i have going on(like designing a news studio). so since i'm usually desk bound... getting out for a missile launch is pretty cool.

the launch was real so i can't talk about it other than that it was awesome to watch and with all the badly aimed dummy rockets and mortars the enemy sends our way with no effect... seeing our ability to "return fire" is pretty amazing. anyway... now that i realize just how easy it is to pull photos out of my video with my mac... i'll be trying to put more of these up. i hope you enjoy.

picture on dvids (digital video and information distribution system)

http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=images/images_gallery.php&action=viewimage&fid=58125

or check out the video at:

http://www.dvidshub.net/vjump.php?vid=29064

creepy crawlers

2007-09-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

so we have a slight mouse/lizard problem. nothing we can't handle with a little sticky paper, some easy cheese and a bit of patience. below is a poor critter we caught the first night of trapping. number 5 of 6.i don't mind killing things, especially pests that could be carrying diseases... but killing something completely immobilized seems a bit borderline serial killer (at least that's where they usually start out).

during the past few weeks we found mice digging in our care packages and the wall lockers that hold our mres. so to solve the problem we got these sticky traps... which if you want to kill something in our building you go to the life support office... irony!
anyway... within no time we had a mouse and while i tried to figure out how to dispose of it (usually a plan you come up with prior to setting a trap... and most people suggested we take it outside and "stomp" it then remove the body... can you say yuck?) another smart rodent found itself stuck to the same trap. rutherford and i thought we should document the incident so we videotaped ourselves "releasing" the mice back into the wild. it was pretty funny. we threw sand on the trap to nullify the stickiness and then shook it until the mice fell off. before they were fully free though the larger of the two started to attack the small one. it was pretty hilarious especially on tape because i started yelling at it to knock it off and stop eating his buddy.

when we returned from our sand safari we caught another one, which we released in a similar manner. and then we found yet another one right away on another trap. not the smartest creatures.

in total we caught 6 but we've heard at least one more. but it has thus far been able to resist the temptation of easy cheese. i can also say that to this date, i can return from iraq having killed zero mice. i may have trained to defend our country from foreign and domestic enemies... but i still won't kill indiscriminately.

to my 2 readers

2007-09-03T06:40:00.001-07:00

happy labor day!

it's not really any different than any other day for me... but it's nice to know people somewhere in the world have the day off.

so... i did get to cover a visit by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general peter pace today. here's some info if you would like it... http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/biographydetail.aspx?biographyid=85

basically, as my commander put it, i was two handshakes away from the president. general pace was really cool and didn't come in to talk at us but with us. he took questions from soldiers and answered them the best he could. from the looks of him, it's hard to tell he's been in the military for 40 years. the stress of war and politics seem to have had the opposite effect they usually do on officers of his calliber. all in all it was cool and i got a 4-star coin out of the deal. (those of you with military experience know what that's about)

otherwise... just another laborOUS day in paradise.

have a great day off!

also:andrea has fixed the picasa picture link so you should be able to view pictures now.

ummm yeah

2007-08-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

the food around here is pretty great... as i've stated before. we have more baskin robbins than we know what to do with... a pizza bar, salad bar, burgers, fires, onion rings, sandwich corner, pasta bar, whatever they're serving at the main line that night (sundays are steak, crab and shrimp nights), and a full wok.

which brings me to why there's a photo of an orungatan on here.

i recently had stirfry at the dfac. it was pretty good going down... but its exit strategy was similar to a retarded orungatan with rabies trying to remove chinese fingercuffs while in a tub of pudding.

don't let his cuddly fun looking face fool you. he is a cruel cruel psychopath.

otherwise the chow's been pretty good and after my insane runathon i've decided to try and put the 10 pounds -- lost training and running the Hood to Coast -- back on. lieutenant bomar has me on a fun/painful weight workout and i'm actually consuming protein shake stuff. i still plan to keep up my cardio since i really like running, but i also hope to go from two dimensional to three dimensional. it may be hard for me with my metabolism... but i believe in 9+ months i should be able to have some effect. if not, i'll use bicep implants and shoulder pads to fill out.

wish me luck!

running "away from home"

2007-08-26T02:58:00.000-07:00

so this is my second post today... but perhaps a bit more up to date. as some of you know, i signed up to do the hood to coast relay last fall. but, due to my deployment it didn't look like that was very feasible. that's when through discussion with the team captain we decided to try and have me do it anyway, but on a treadmill over here. after some organization and the green light from my command... i set up the run of my life... so far.

the hood to coast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_to_Coast) begins at mount hood and ends in seaside... hence the hood to coast title. i was on the team "truth sneakers" a christian based team. i've yet to meet any of my teammates except for paul who is the one that got me interested in doing the event. as i developed my plan... i thought it would be really cool to have my brother scott run my legs of the relay at the same time i'm running them in iraq. he's been trying to get me to do a marathon or at least a half marathon for some time now.

now that all the pieces were in place all i had to do was go running. sounds simple right? negativo! i've run 6 miles before... but i've never run six miles 3 times in less than 18 hours. and training for this was difficult since i'm still required to work 7 days a week for a minimum of 12 hours a day. so i didn't want to overdo it before the actual event. and let's not leave out the fact that until a week prior to the race, i'd never really ran on a treadmill. i like feeling the outdoors and experiencing the full run outside. on the treadmill my biggest hurdle for the race wasn't the muscle fatigue or the overworking my heart or lungs... it was the insane boredom of running on the conveyor belt. it faces a window... but to keep the place cool they put tin foil on all the windows... so no view. the army has a saying "going nowhere fast" and that's what it was. also... i get motion sick when i get/fall off the contraption. my body still wants to move forward even though my legs aren't moving. i basically look like a uo senior trying to make it home after a "fun" friday night.

to time the event with the folks in oregon... i had to call them from the land line (as cell phones are few and far between here) at the front desk of the rec center and when the runner before me/scott was about 10-20 seconds away i'd run into the exercise room and start running. my goal for times on the run was to not have any of them be more than 45 minutes total. and in the words of our president... mission accomplished!

leg -- distance -- time
1 5.67 miles 40 minutes 27 seconds
2 6.06 miles 44 minutes 56 seconds
3 5.77 miles 44 minutes 26 seconds

my assessment of the run: i'm crazy and shouldn't be allowed to go through with crazy plans like this. but, it was an awesome experience and i'm really glad i was able to do it with my brother. i'm a big bundle of exhausted skin and bones today. but surprisingly i'm not too sore. it probably helps hauling my 50-60 lbs of armor and gear everywhere to help build up the endurance i needed to do this.

several oregon tv stations and the oregonian covered the story. hopefully they got some tight shots of my nike shoes and nike will send me some new/free ones. below are some of the links to the stories.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/118810957256780.xml&coll=7

http://www.kval.com/news/local/9368251.html

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/08/30/c1.cr.welch.0830.p1.php?section=cityregion

"after" i arrived

2007-08-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

i just wanted let you all know that i arrived safely in iraq.
i've been here for about two weeks now and am settling in just fine. i sent out an email to a few people about getting here but thought i should post a blog on it... so here's a quick synopsis of the last month or so:

"after" i'd finished my last bit of training, andrea flew out for a few days and we toured new york. it was a perfect send off and a much needed reuniting. there was a fun experience getting some handbags, but i'll save that story for another day.

"after" new jersey, my unit headed to kuwait and after many hours of flight and only 1/2 an hour of sleep we arrived at the hottest place on earth. i'm pretty sure even the devil summers somewhere nicer. kuwait is a million and one degrees and it's about 15 degrees cooler here, so 999,986 degrees. it really puts things into perspective when you stop and wonder why we fought over such an unbearable place (there's sarcasm in there somewhere).

"after" several days of no sleep and lots of foosball, we flew via military aircraft to iraq. there really isn't anything like flying in a plane while strapped in like a piece of luggage.

"after" experiencing ft.dix new jersey and kuwait... so far i love iraq. our office is in a building that has a free coffee shop plus a gym. the food continues to get better with each location i get to, as well as the mwr (morale welfare & recreation)facilities. i have internet, phone access and there's also a chapel just down the hallway. so far i've been bound to my desk here at cob (contingency operating base) speicher. they have me putting a newscast together and redesigning a news set. it's not the front lines nor is it all that dangerous... but it is highly stressful at times (i.e. micing up the commanding general northern iraq to do live interviews with cnn, c-span, abc etc.).

"after" reading this you're probably wondering why i titled this post the way i did.
oh well, until next time... in the words of corporal hicks... stay frosty!

all about food

2007-07-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

i thought it might be interesting to let everyone back home know how things are going by sharing what we have to eat here.

**disclaimer** regardless of my commentary below... i am getting the right amount and type of nutrients i need... just not in the form i'd every voluntarily eat.

there are basically three sources of food here... dfac (dining facility), mres (meals ready to eat), and off the economy.

1-dfac food: this food is the "hot" chow we can get in the cafeteria. it's a lot like dorm food in that it doesn't seem so bad the first week... until you realize week two is just like week one. in fact day two is just like day one. we already joke about our deployment being like groundhog's day the movie... but with no "pizza" days to look forward to... it really does seem like everyday is the same day.
-our menu for breakfast is always powdered eggs (or omelet if you have a half hour to wait for it), ham slice, bacon, sausage (all of which are rubbery and suspicious), grits (yuck), or a trip to the fruit and cereal bar. the cereal isn't bad but the melons usually are pure rine. i generally eat a bowl of granola and a half a grapefruit for my breakfast.
-lunch & dinner consists of your choice of protein-baked fish (type unknown), some form of chicken and some form of beef... rice or mashed potatoes followed by steamed veggies... then a fairly decent salad bar. this may not sound so bad... but after one week of this... you'll be looking for alternative sources of food.

2-mres: these are pre-made/cooked meals that are fully self contained including thousands of calories. they have a chemically powered heating pouch so you can warm up your meal if you so desire (i usually just eat them cold). when we were in the fob, the food was so bad i actually opted to eat mres instead if i had the choice. they aren't too bad but again here... the selection is limited so it's easy to burn out. look online for different types and how many calories are in them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRE

3-economy eats: if we have the time or transportation there are several options for eating off the local economy. first there's the pizza place, sandwich shop and bagel boutique at the px (post exchange) - plus a burger king just outside. connected to the px is a commissary (grocery store) for those who are ambitious (i go there for fresh fruit when i'm craving it) -there's also plenty of pizza, chinese and other restaurants just off post who deliver... but... that's a sure way to see your pay evaporate and have your wife calling you as to why there's no money in the bank. the other side effects are love handles and an extra set of chins.

what it all boils down to is this... the food sucks, but is sustaining my existence long enough to write this blog. you can see if you think i've lost weight or not by going to my picture page linked at the top of my main blog page or by clicking here. http://picasaweb.google.com/home

shoot move communicate

2007-06-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

so here's my next entry 14 days later. i find the longer i put this off the less i want to do it because it gets harder and harder to summarize what's going on. but here i go...

the last two weeks have had their share of ups and downs. we're still doing a lot of training and my body has completely switched to a 5 hours a night pattern. if i for whatever reason have the opportunity to sleep longer, my body wakes up anyway. that's not to say i would be opposed to a siesta style of day. some of our classes are long and lack any resemblance of excitement.
since my last post... we've gone through quite a few lanes of training. the height of last week was learning how to identify i.e.ds (improvised explosive devices) and going through an urban/sandy obstacle course with simulated artillery and 50cal rounds going off. we were huffing and puffing and all kinds of sweaty, but it was awesome nonetheless. my executive officer was on my four man assault team but they made me the team leader. it was a total blast running up behind barriers and firing off blank rounds while your teammates blitzed up to the next point of cover. being the tallest, i had the honor of holding the barb wire up for everyone to crawl under. the exercise probably only went for 10 minutes, but by the end i was one sweaty nasty thing fully taking on the look of a real soldier with dirt in my teeth and everywhere else i thought should be safe from the grime. it probably didn't help that i shoot lefty and the rounds were dirty so every time i fired a puff of dust would blast my face. luckily we wear eye protection though.

after a three days of this high speed training we had quite the surprise waiting for us. we were supposed to have last sunday off to recover from the hard days but when we got in saturday night we found out our unit had been picked to guard the fob (forward operating base). okay, that's cool, we can pull our weight. the fun news was still to come. we had to guard the base for 24 hours by ourselves. the minimum number of soldiers it takes to guard this thing is 8... and we had 11. so for 24 hours we rotating 3 people in and out of the guard duty to get sleep here and there. when my turns came up... all three... i couldn't sleep. so by the time the monday night rolled around i'd slept about 3.5 hours in 48 hours. i don't think awesome quite covers how great this opportunity was. but we embraced the suck and drove on. when we finally finished at 5 am... we were told part of the duty was to clean all the showers in the base (there's 5) and the mwr tent and the computer lab. this was about the point where most of the soldiers were acting drunk due to the lack of sleep. that actually helped because they were too goofy to get upset. long story short... it was an interesting 2-3 days. the best part of it though was being able to call andrea so much. i worried that when i get overseas it will get harder to stay in touch. but we'll see.

as for what i'm up to now... we've moved into our mos (military occupation specialty) specific training. i was a bit nervous about it since it requires me to be a reporter again. but so far it's pretty fun. i'm still not a fan of our computers/editing software (they'd make better boat anchors than they do functioning laptops), but that's why i brought my mac. we're writing stories, shooting video and then editing it all together. the best part is our instructors aren't set on teaching us the "army" way of doing things. this is especially good news since i find most army publications/broadcasts to be incredibly boring. i've also gotten the chance to help create press releases and briefings for high brass officers since i'm now a staff sergeant. fun stuff.

i'm still wearing the supply sergeant hat but the more i sign out the less i have to worry about.
also, i believe i know when my 4 day pass is going to be so i'm really looking forward to hitting the streets of new york with andrea. hopefully we'll get on letterman, have a picnic in central park (minus the side of mugging), and just have a great time remembering what it's like to be *with* your spouse.

hearing from all of you (all 6-7) really does make my day. and those of you looking in on my beautiful bride, thank you... especially my family, who are just completely awesome. i pray everyday thanking God for all of you and for how you bless my life.

well that's it for now... until next time, nomeste

p.s. oh yeah, i'm hoping to run the hood to coast *in* iraq. kind of like that astronaut who ran the boston marathon on a treadmill in space. but i'll do it for reals. any support/prayers you can give me to get ready is appreciated.

aim breath squeeze

2007-06-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

i'm sorry i'm not getting more of these posts put in... our internet is shotty and my time to write these is limited. so since my last post we've since moved to the fob (forward operating base). it's about 100 degrees hotter out here. we generally work about 18 hour days and drink just as many gallons of water to stay cool. with all 50 lbs or so of gear it gets really warm really fast. i was beginning to think i was beefing up my shoulder muscles but now i'm wondering if they're not just swollen from carrying so much weight.
our training so far has been pretty good. alot of it so far has been power-point presentations a.k.a. power-nap presentations. we're learning about the iraqi culture, islam and how to speak basic arabic. we also have done some cool medical exercises and hopefully we'll all get combat life-saver trained, which unfortunately for me means giving and receiving an i-v. we also took three nights of combatives training. cool stuff on how to choke someone out or get out of certain holds. look out paul! the only thing they didn't go into that i wish they had was take-downs. all our training started on the ground. i found being tall comes in handy even if the other guy is stronger. one guy had me in a pretty good head lock but i just twisted my head sideways and stood up inverting him upside down. he was infantry so that made it even funnier. we've been to several ranges to qualify on our weapons. last thursday we took our rifles to the range and fired at popups... getting down to a proper firing position with an extra 4 inches of plating between you and the ground isn't all that easy. after we qualified on the popups... we had to shoot at close range targets with our gas masks on. if it wasn't hot before... it sure was then. then we waited until dusk to do a night fire. i somehow got put on ammo detail and had to go last. so while the soldiers who went first and still had some light got 30 out of 30... the rest of us had to guess on most of our shots. you could hear the target go up but i had to wait until the chest section glowed red. i couldn't even see the front sight post. i just centered my rifle and fired away. the target would go up for 8 seconds and the chest would glow for a split second after four of those seconds. i felt like i was shooting e.t. i somehow ray charlesed (that's a verb now) 14 targets... passing is 7. not bad for completely guessing on where the stinking thing was. another day we also got to fire while moving. that had me pretty nervous. all it takes is some idiot tripping or pointing their weapon in the wrong direction and bam... someone gets a purple heart before leaving the country. luckily everyone shot smart. and today... four of us got to fire the m2 50 cal gun. it's the one that you see mounted on top of humvees. pretty cool weapon. everyone but me qualified because i had the worst luck. i was in the last firing order, again due to ammo detail... and the weapons were starting to really heat up and get gummy. so the first gun i tried would only fire twice before jamming... then i'd have to pull the bolt back and try again. after 50 rounds and a really sore arm, they moved me to another gun that promptly went dead. finally on my 3rd gun i started to get some rounds down range but ran out of bullets before i could even come close to qualifying. luckily we didn't have to qualify.
so that's some of what i've been up to... otherwise i've been trying to get more than 4 hours of sleep. for the first week and a half i was squad leader... broadcast section leader... and supply sergeant. our unit is pretty small so few people have to take on multiple positions. the supply sergeant role is the one that really takes its toll. i'm driving all over post and walking across the fob constantly to fill last minute supply issues. i'm hoping things will slow down once we get to iraq.
for those worried about my sanity... i'm doing pretty well. there are some pretty funny people in my unit that help keep morale up. i'm trying to stay in touch with the family & friends. i try to call andrea daily, which helps keep me happy and motivated to keep plugging away. if it weren't for her and my daily prayers i'd probably feel more down. one of the best things i've found already from this deployment away from home is that no matter where i go... God is there for me. that may sound dumb or obvious... but i've never had to rely on it so much. i've taken Him for granted more than i realize. my prayer time has gone up quite a bit... and i even attended a church service at the fob. only 8 people showed and it was fairly interesting. it felt more like a conversion service than a reaffirmation service. but it was good nonetheless.
anyway... this is pretty long already so i'll go ahead and sign off. hopefully i'll have some funny stuff to share soon instead of a laundry list of my daily events.

peace out!

kevin

here i go...

2007-05-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

disclaimer: i wrote this on the 25th but our internet sucks and i had to republish it tonight. i'm staying busy and have a hard time getting sleep so hitting the bed is taking priority over trying to find an internet connection. enjoy the short blog below.

so i've made it to good ole ft. dix. after nearly a week of briefings and last checks on our deployment packets, not to mention plenty of overkill on power-point presentations (zzz), we held our mobilization ceremony. the whole buildup toward deployment had me feeling pretty down, and i'm sure i was in denial until the last minute. the idea that i won't be home nor will i see my family and friends for a year still hasn't fully sunk in. it's crazy. but the ceremony helped alleviate most of my dread and worries. going to iraq still isn't at the top of my vacation "to see" list, but hearing the army band and seeing everyone send us off helped seal the deal in my mind. i must roll with the punches and make the best of what i have to do. the hardest part was trying to keep it together while i said goodbye to my family & friends. the real emotional hit was delayed until the next morning when i had to kiss my wife/best friend one last time before boarding the plane. emotions were high and i'm sure the mere two hours of sleep didn't help.

pics

2007-05-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

so i hope to take lots of pictures while overseas... especially since that will be my job. in addition to writing these blogs and updating you about what's going on, i hope to show you.
to see pictures check this sight:
http://picasaweb.google.com/riskitall
not all of them are mine so far, i'm still just testing out this picture sharing thing from google.

and for video i'll probably use youtube.com and just copy the link and post it in my blog.

enjoy,
kevin

Why?

2007-05-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I can keep in touch with family and friends about how I'm doing in Iraq & what's going on in my head. I consider myself fairly big on communication and love staying in contact with those close to me. If nothing else... this will be a great place (Myspace free) to post my random thoughts and unusual humor to help me relay what's going on in my head. This will hopefully be useful while I'm in Iraq and will most likely see/experience things foreign if not life-changing. Writing about such things will, I hope, help keep me sane in getting it out. Too many Veterans (mostly men) keep their thoughts/emotions inside and years down the line still have PTSD. My goal is to return from overseas to my wife and life as close to the care-free person I left as.