Blogs

No, I'm not Ed. I'm his friendly, neighborhood webmaster. All the same, I wanted everyone who reads his blog to know that Ed is back, safely in the US. I'm sure he'll give us a nice update here when he's un-jet-lagged and had some time to catch his breath.

While you're waiting for a blog post, be sure and send Ed a nice email (via the "Contact" link above) to let him know how happy we are to have him back home!

Sometimes it felt like I'd never get to write this but I am so excited to finally do so...

Any mail sent after now may not get here before we depart for HOME!!!! Wahooo!!!! After one of the most amazing trips (and very much needed escapes) of my life, I am SO ready to get out and get back to real people and real friends and real life.

I only have like 3 minutes to write here so a better update will have to wait. I wanted to take the opportunity to let you know now not to send any more mail. Of course, any mail that doesn't make it to me while I'm here will eventually find me at home. In case anyone was in the process of putting something together and still wanting to send it, you can send it to my home address which is:

1619 S. 108th E Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74128

I'll be there to receive in about a month from now.

Right now I'm in Kuwait making my way back into the the sandbox (Iraq) from the most wonderful R&R I could have ever imagined for myself.

For now there's still a bit of work to do and duty calls so until next time, I love you and am too excited for the chance to be getting back soon.

Sorry it's been a while. There's so much I've wanted to write about but I'm very short on time and just want to post this update...

Well. You haven't felt loneliness until you've been the only single person on an entire resort! I think even couples could feel lonely here. If you're not a family of at least 3 or more, you're kind of out of your league here. It's so overwhelming all there is to do and see and experience and share. My room has two beds each big enough for two people and an all glass wall that opens out to a balcony with a direct view of the breathtaking Bavarian Alps! The mountain peak Zugspitze is the highest in Germany and is right outside my back door! The first thing I see each morning!

So far I'm on day 6 I think of this 15 day vacation. I've been all over the place in Germany (including the oldest town in the country and another city three different times!), driven through Luxembourg, a small village and two cities including Brussels (very beautiful at night) in Belgium. Didn't make Amsterdam. Also I've been in the Alps of Bavaria, Switzerland (super duper WOW!), and Austria and had meals in each of those places. Finally I did a walking tour of the 27 mile long country (or principality) of Leichtenstein, the last absolute monarchy in Europe. I missed the chance to hit the club in Germany. Very disappointed about that.

Still so much more to do. I've only been to one of the 6 countries that I've made mandatory for myself on this trip. A couple more things to do in Germany and then I'm Italy-bound. From there I'll still have Spain, France, England, and Scotland. I've got to get a move on.

From this point on the trip gets a bit more complicated with no resorts or friends' places to stay until Scotland. Oughtta be great fun and ripe for stories!!!

It was another typical day at work as part of the quick reaction force (QRF). I’m the truck commander (TC) of a three-person truck team (including the gunner and the driver). My truck ventured off solo on a routine check of an overwatch point some ways from our main camp. So there we were pretty relaxed, just another 120 degree day in the 'hood heading back toward our base camp when my driver noticed something. There were two passenger vehicles parked parallel to one another just off the roadside as we passed. She (my driver) tells me that she saw a local man squatting between the two vehicles with a fuel can and a scarf. You could tell she was trying to cope with what she just saw. My gunner immediately spins in the gun turret to the rear to check it out. Meanwhile she repeats more confidently what she’d just seen.

As soon as what she’s telling me registers, it was like my vision was suddenly coated with a dark tint and the world went bleak before my eyes. Reflexively my mind went into denial and began scrambling for ways to rationalize what it was they were seeing that was surely perfectly normal and non-threatening and how it could be perceived wrong. I asked my gunner to verify what he saw and he assured that indeed there was a man crouched between two vehicles on the side of the road with a fuel can pouring fuel onto a scarf. (For the record, the presumption here is that the scarf is will be used as a fuse for what appears to be a car bomb or worse- two car bombs.) My heart sank.

There we were, a single gun truck away from any immediate support and just outside of communication range of our short-range hand radio. I grabbed the long-range radio (the phone type one that you see me using in two of the photos published here) and tried to make contact with my supervisor but couldn’t reach him. At this point I really started becoming anxious. “Should we turn around and go back[to the scene]?” my driver asked me. My goodness the last thing I wanted to do was order these soldiers to drive us back into the nucleus of a potential major blast area of one or even two car bombs. Those are very slim odds for us any way we approach it and without the ability to contact our people at the camp we won’t even have help on the way. Whatever was going to happen was going to rest completely with us three and us alone. No one would even know anything had happened with us for a long time if things went bad. They wouldn’t be missing us for at the very least another half hour and possibly another few hours.

‘No no no.’ Everything in me said that we were just going to assume my soldiers were just being overly cautious. ‘Yeah that’s it.’ We are only blocks away from the camp. We’ll just continue on with what we were doing and everything will be fine. Besides, I don’t want to make the decision to take these two soldiers with me into a bleak situation. That’s a VERY hard call to make.

But then I had a visualization. What if I’m wrong? What if just moments from now we feel the concussion of a massive explosion only blocks away from our main camp? How many lives will be lost? Could I have prevented it? ------- AW SHOOT!!

“Turn around” I solemnly ordered, careful not to display my great reservation and bleak outlook on what we were about to do. I pulled out my pistol and chambered a round. My gunner heard the action of my nine mil, and I heard the sound of his guns echo the same. ‘What are the infinitely minimal odds that I’d find myself in this position?’ I was asking myself. With my rank, I lead a team in combat operations. Once in a while I will have to fill in for my direct-line supervisor and lead the whole squad. But it would take some dire circumstances for me to find myself leading an entire operation. Heaven knows I absolutely HATED having to take those soldiers into that situation with me.
In reality, even had the other trucks and higher command been with us it is likely that a single truck would have been assigned to do the same thing. So there’d be little difference had I wound up being the one chosen. I guess it’s just psychologically comforting having that safety net of other trucks on standby and higher command calling the shots.

The severity of it all was heightened by the fact that only hours before, when we started the shift, it was put out during our daily brief that just two days prior a convoy had been ambushed only three miles from our location. Fortunately the assailants were killed or captured and the weapons cache they’d used was discovered only one mile from our location. This is a very significant event because the area we are in is pretty heavily guarded so the combatants are managing to breach some of this security.

As we approached the scene again my gunner instructed my driver to pass the two cars, whip around and pull up behind them. Once in place, I saw about three men at the cars stop what they were doing abruptly and face us with “uh oh” expressions on their faces. I opened my door and motioned for the one closest to me to come towards me. He looked at his comrades then looked at me as if to say “who, me?” I repeated the motion more deliberately but careful to maintain as much cover behind my opened armored door as I could.

You could tell he was nervously afraid. He started slowly toward me as I continued gesturing. He would take a few steps then hesitate and look back at his comrades as if second guessing whether he should continue and hoping to be rescued. As he got closer and closer he’d repeat this process. His comrades at first started to join him when they saw his fear but my gunner ordered them to stay back. Once he was within range I asked him if he could speak English. He said no. Typical. So I asked him what was going on using simple words and a lot of body language. In similar fashion, he started explaining something unintelligible to me, as I regrettably expected. I’d hoped to heaven that we could resolve the situation from the limited protection of my armored hummer. But to get to the bottom of this all, I was going to have to expose myself. I instructed my gunner to keep his eyes on the other men and to be ready and vigilant, as I would have to approach the two vehicles and the other men.

As soon as I got up to the cars, the man I was speaking to began trying to explain what I was asking to his comrades and simultaneously one of them put his hand out to shake mine. I certainly was in no mood for hand shaking. But at the same time, I didn’t want to give reason for any more alarm and unease than there already was. So not taking my attention at all off of who I was speaking with and not changing my facial expression at all, I briefly grabbed his hand. They each knew very few words in English and once everyone understood what I wanted to know, they made collective effort to explain. I noticed a spill between the two cars and pointed toward it asking what the liquid was. Beginning to sense what my concern was, they scrambled to put me at ease. Finally one of them remembered the English word they were all looking for. “Water! Water!” “Where is the container?” I asked and illustrated with my hands. They looked puzzled. “Open the trunk,” I demanded as I pointed. The man that had approached me at my truck summoned another man who was sitting at the wheel of the vehicle. That man produced the car keys and passed them back. As the man unlocked the trunk I stepped back and off to the side not sure what to expect to see.

Slowly the lid rose as I braced myself. To my surprise, and delightfully so, it was empty save a ratty empty old container lying on its side in the far corner. “Okay,” I said, “Is that all?” The man replied eagerly “Yes yes.” I moved forward just a bit and caught a glimpse of something else just as the man was shutting the trunk lid looking fearfully relieved. “Wait a minute. Open it back up!” The fear immediately returned to all of the men. By this time I’d noticed in my peripheral vision that my gunner had dismounted the truck and approached halfway between me and the truck on my flank. That was a relieving sight since I’d found myself in such close quarters and significantly outnumbered by the men. The man with the keys re-opened the trunk and watched me carefully. I stepped closer and a second container was revealed. It was sitting upright against the rear wall of the car so that I could only see the nozzle before from my angle. “What is that?” I exclaimed feeling nearly tricked. The man pulled out a blue fuel can labeled “diesel” on its front. I took it from him and gestured back to my gunner asking if this was what he’d seen as we rolled by the first time. He affirmed.

The men erupted in foreign explanation and I overrode their clamor asking defiantly “What is this?” Finally the man recalled the English word that had seemed to quell tensions once already. “Water! Water!” Another man grabbed the container and brought the nozzle to his nose in attempt to illustrate “yes water!” I took the container and put the nozzle to my nose. It reeked of fuel. “This is NOT water!!” I exclaimed defiantly. Whether for communication barrier or intentional deceit, I did not like being lied to and was just about done with diplomacy. One of the men must have sensed the level of my disdain because in a risky move he suddenly stepped forward, grabbed the container from my hand, put the nozzle to his mouth and drank from the container right there. As soon as he did that all the hubbub ceased. I think the men were just as shocked as I was with his desperate attempt.

I can’t remember for sure but I think the shock of seeing the man suddenly drink from a fuel container along with the stunned silence that ensued in such a tense situation forced a quick smile from my face. All I could think was ‘oh my goodness What The Heck…??? This man is crazy.’ It was such a relieving and shocking moment at the same time that I think I actually laughed aloud just quickly. Considering that the guys could be suicide bombers, and therefore willing to drink gasoline, I took the can and smelled it one more time. It still smelled like gas. So I poured some onto the ground and smelled it. It was transparent and had no smell.

An Iraqi man at a short distance had noticed the commotion and joined in the crowd by this time. He was well dressed and probably a teacher, which would mean he probably had some level of English ability. He got the story from the other men and commenced to explain to me in better, though not fluent, English that one of the vehicles had broken down and they were pushing it. The water in the container was for the radiator. He had poured some of the water onto a scarf because it was so hot and they were using it to cool themselves.

We got a good laugh out of that as we headed back into camp. When we were overheard on the radio confirming “no threat” people wanted to know what they’d missed and they got a kick out of the deal too. I think part of the humor was the sheer relief factor. One thing I’m very sure about, as I have always been, I do not like bombs. Give me a small arms firefight any day where I stand a skilled chance, just leave the bombs to the explosive ordinance guys that get the big bucks for it.

Hey everybody. I just wanted to say Happy 4th of July. I suppose it's ironic that I was clueless about what holiday it was. I overheard a news television station mention something about "going into the holiday weekend" and I thought to myself, "is there a holiday coming up? I wonder which one?"
Can you believe that? That's just the way it is here. Everyday's the same. No weekends, holidays, sick days, or anything different. Always a work day. Pretty dull I know. But then again, dull around here is a very good thing.
They did decorate the chow hall in red, white, and blue though so I guess not everything's the same.
Well pop off some fireworks for me while you're out celebrating. Much love from Baghdad!

Oh by the way, I don't think I formally introduced you to this new version of my page. Pretty cool huh? I like it a lot. Once again my man B-Dubs comes through with his cyber skills. Thanks Diddy. I wanted to be able to add pics for visual effect but I still have not managed to be able to upload any photos on this internet connection. The few that are available to you now were uploaded before arriving here in country. I'm still working on it though. I especially like how the banner photo at the top of this page toggles between two photos when you log on. Those pics by the way are of my squad conducting building clearing operations. I'm not in the pic because I was ill that day and unable to participate so I took pictures while supervising my boys.

Stay tuned. I've got a story coming...

One early morning last week I went to my truck to begin the day’s work and relieve the overnight shift guys when I saw them all gathered in a huddle ogling over something. Normally, I’d not have thought twice about that type of boyish giddiness that usually means whatever is going on, I’ll wind up being responsible for or having to answer if I get involved. But this excitement was unusually energetic and eventually I caved and went over to see what the fuss was about. So I enter the circle and look in the middle at the object that has captured the full attention of each and ever soldier. It’s a signed photograph of one of the soldiers in that circle holding a Seattle Super Sonic NBA Cheerleader in a carrying position posing for the camera.

I quickly learned what it seems everyone else had long been privy to; the fact that the Super Sonic Cheerleaders were HERE in our very own camp the night before. That day happened to be a rare and very much needed day off for me so I had locked myself away in my barracks and refused to answer the door the several times someone knocked on it throughout the day. Consequently, I never got the news. I didn’t even leave my barracks to eat that day.
The question I keep wondering is what kind of a twisted person gets the great idea to send a group of beautiful young provocatively clad women into a herd of overstressed, overworked, sexually deprived and frustrated soldiers to strut and dance and tease? Though I may well have gone to see them myself had I known, if only for the sheer fact of the rare entertainment opportunity, I’m glad I didn’t. I must admit it was quite frustrating for the next three days to listen to everyone’s stories about getting to hold one for the camera and getting to dance with them and such and being completely out of the loop. Sheesh.