A Sad Week

Since I returned from my little trip to Afghanistan and Kuwait it has been a slow week.  I luckily got to spend 3 days at home, see the Bride, take a few hot baths and even get a massage to help my poor aching back.  And those that know me know that I don’t enjoy massages.  They are completely therapeutic and not done from enjoyment. 

Since I returned to Fort Dix on Wednesday it has been days of organization and small decision making.  It has been rather boring.  Today we are starting to get in the rest of our people.  The formal part of the mobilization is starting this week.  It will be interesting to see how this compares to the rest of the training we have completed. 

This was taken on our first day of training in early October.  We were learning combatives, which is more or less Army sanctioned “Tap Out”.  The idea is to be more prepared to take down an opponent if you are attacked.    As you can see here see here the instructor did a fine job of taking me down.  What you can’t see is that my left hand is tapping him so that I can be allowed to breathe. 

 

This photo was taken as I was waiting in line to shoot the 50 cal.  I love to shoot that gun.  It makes the best sound as you fire it. 

Finally, lets keep the soldiers and their families who were injured or killed at Fort Hood in our prayers.  It is shameful that an anti-American piece of crap was serving in uniform.  He ended or changed the lives of all these people and their families.  There will be no 72 virgins for him. 

Catching Up

I really am still around.  I just have not been training or blogging.  I finished up my civilian work the end of August and spent the month of September starting Army work and cleaning out my mother’s house in Georgia.  I have a great house for a great price if any one in the North GA area is looking. 

The first three weeks of training we did at Fort Dix, NJ were some of the best I received as an Army reservist.  It was all very professional and of the highest quality.  I was much impressed.   One of my soldiers has taken a lot of pictures and once I get copies of them I will post them and go into more detail of the type training we conducted. 

After we completed this first phase of training the leadership left for Afghanistan and Iraq.  I just completed a whirlwind tour of Kabul with stops in Bagram and Kuwait.  This was my first time back in Afghanistan since 2002 and it has really changed.  Bagram has about three times as many people as it did then and the streets of Kabul have much better cars than before.  The most amazing thing was that I only saw three burqas on women.  Based on the media reports and the Taliban violence I expected many more. 

Here is a photo of Bagram from the air.  As you can see it is pretty good sized. 

 

 

 

This is a sad little tree we decided reminded us of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. 

 

 

 

 

Finally just a quick photo of me in front of the Pat Tillman USO in Bagram. 

I will work to get a new post out every couple of days.  I think we have the connectivity issue fixed.