Useful Links

Here are some links that I have found to be useful for finding information about the war in Iraq and the country of Iraq in general.


The Oregonian Iraq Blog

Idaho National Guard (116th BCT) Snakebite Newsletter

Task Force Liberty / 42nd Infantry Division website

Stars and Stripes

Weather Underground – Kirkuk, Iraq weather information

Climatology information for Kirkuk, Iraq

About Kirkuk

Some new news

I see it’s been a while since I posted…so much for making my posts a regular occurrence. I guess a lot has happened since my last post, although I don’t really feel that way. I can think of a few updates so here goes…

I have been taking an online course through the University of Maryland. One of the benefits of being on active duty is free tuition for college and the University of Maryland has a great online distance education program. Fortunately, my college is letting me transfer the credit I earned from Maryland so that I can apply it towards my degree. This means that I won’t have to take this course when I get home, plus I’ll have a lighter course load for my final semester.

Continuing with more new news… Liz moved into our new apartment on August 1st. She says it’s pretty nice and she’s working real hard to make it our home. I can’t wait to live there when I get home. We did a lot of scouting for apartments online before I went home on leave back in May, so we were pretty much set on 2 or 3. Towards the end of my leave we decided to go and check out the complex we are in now. We ultimately liked it and started the lease application the same day. The apartment is in the White Marsh / Perry Hall area so it’s pretty centrally located as far as school and work go. Plus it’s nearby some really nice malls, shops, and restaurants.

Next…We have been getting a lot of news from the company about leaving here for good. A lot of the sites back at Warrior have already closed down as well as some of the other remote sites. However, the remote site where I work is still open for business. We’ve been told to start cleaning our equipment and turn in any extra equipment we no longer need. We’ve also each turned in a footlocker to be loaded in our Connex which will be headed for New Jersey. My best guess would be that we have no longer than 2 months left in country. Most of the people in my unit have gone on their leave so everyone is now in the mood to finish up our deployment and get the hell out of here.

One of my roommates, Greg, is one of the son’s of Tammy Pruett who has been on the news quite a bit concerning Bush’s mention of her at his speech in Idaho. Greg has 3 other brothers here in Iraq and his Dad and another brother were here a few years ago. I had the privilege of meeting and having lunch with 2 of his brothers last week. I think it’s pretty amazing to know someone whose family is becoming fairly visible in the media.

More importantly, college football will be starting this week. Go Maryland, beat Navy!

Update

We had the 4th of July BBQ a few days ago and the food was actually pretty tasty. They had these bratwursts that were really good, so SFC Auriemma and me are going to try and get some more so that we can have them for ourselves. He is leaving today to go on leave and I think SGT Campbell and myself might be going on a convoy tomorrow.

 

Nothing new has really happened. The days continue to moving by quickly which is always good. Its hard to believe that I only have about 4 more months left. Some of the sites throughout my company's area of operation are starting to close down, although I think we will stay here where we are until the end. We're better off staying here that way we dont have to deal with all the crap that plagues FOB Warrior.

 

I guess thats all I have to say for right now, maybe I'll have more to post next time.

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Hello everyone and welcome to my new weblog (blog). I'm sure a lot of you have been wondering how I've been doing. I'm great, but unfortunately I don't get to tell you all that. I thought that by creating this blog, it will be easier to keep in touch with everyone and to record the events of my tour here in Iraq for all of you to see.

So I guess I'll get this thing started. Last night the FOB mayor and some of the How Battery people were out back preparing for today's deck party. I was on my way back from the aid station after being diagnosed with prickly heat and I noticed a big black plume of smoke coming from behind the house. After talking with some people, I decided to go out back to check it out. When I got there, what started as a small brush fire had turned into a raging inferno (maybe not that bad), that had engulfed a good portion of the grass and trees behind the house. I helped some other people control the fire eventhough I had just taken a shower 20 minutes before. I now smelled like a campfire and my feet were all muddy from spraying water on the fire. After the fire was under control, we realized that one of the telephone lines had been singed by the fire, causing it to short out and not work. So me being the responsible person I am, decided to fix it. I got everything patched up and working in about an hour, and finally went to bed, smelling like a campfire.

Here's a pic of me during my latest convoy to Kirkuk Airbase: