Night Vision

As I said in an earlier post, was going to be doing night vision operations. I managed to get my phone just right to take this. What's weird is after looking through it, everything has a red tint to it.
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Lanes Training

This morning we went out to do a dry run for a task testing certain skills, between selected individuals, drivers and mounted weapons systems. Tonight we are going again to do a dry run testing the same skill sets, but using night optics. At a later date we will be do live fire drills for actual qualification. Its takes skill of shooting for the gunner, total communication between the whole crew, where each soldIer plays a specific and equally important part. I know my explanation is rather vague, but I'd rather play safe then sorry where operational security is concerned. This picture is before heading out for the night dry run.
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Night Driving

Tonight we are going out and getting some training using night vision glasses. It should be fun and interesting. I think all those times I had to go without a contact lens in one eye might have prepared me for this. When a person can use only one eye predominantly, it messes up depth perception. Things sometimes seem closer then they are. So I'll find out. Hopefully without banging up my vehicle.
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Small Pox Report

It actually looks worse then it is. The big red area around the scab is from the fresh bandages that I have to apply everyday. So far our company is doing ok and no outbreaks. Our sister Puerto Rican company hasn't met with the same success. As it stands right now that whole company is under quarantine. Apparently they didn't heed the medics warnings and were popping each others blisters. And so it spread. Six Barracks have red quarantine tags on the doors. As we were going to supper they were unloading boxes of bleach into each Barracks, as well as MRE's. It made the DFAC nicer as it wasn't crowded. :)
On a positive note, in another couple of days my scab will fall of and I won't have to worry about it anymore. :)
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New Glasses

It seems the military noticed people aren't fans of the old glasses. So they've moved forward and get soldiers these. I have a brown plastic pair that are for the field, but they re just as small as these.
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After the Range

The driver wasn't too willing to give an explanation as to why he was in the ditch, but about 2 minutes pushing and 10 soldiers later, he was on his way, amid a bunch of laughter at his expense.
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On the Range

I tried to catch it as the gunner was firing, all I got was smoke. Its unbelievable how quickly the 50-cal will throw 7-10 bullets down range. I was very glad they make us wear earplugs too. I could feel the compression waves hit me every time he fired. I can only imagine how bad my ears would still be ringing right now.
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The Big Toys

I'm on the range again today. These soldiers are getting the big boys set and ready to qualify. The temp is higher then it has been the last week or so, so I'm not bundled up like the little boy on A Christmas Story. The downside is that its snowing again...big white fluffy flakes. Its going to make visibility tough on the gunners. They range isn't even open for fire yet, so hopefully the snow will dissipate by the time it gets online. So we'll see. If I can I'll make another post.
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It was quite chilly on the rifle range today. I was selected as a safety official. Being all bundled up like that you wouldn't know it was me if I didn't have a name tape. Makes sense why the military does it :)
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Last week Thursday I had the privilege of getting inoculated for small pox. This is the result as of tonight. Its the big red bump on my shoulder. It doesn't really hurt, but man it itches. The Medic that administered it to me said it wouldn't really affect me much because she noticed the scar from the exact same inoculation given to me as a child. Seeing some of the other guys and theirs, I am thanking Betsie Valley School District for requiring me to have it way back then :)
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Happen to be outside and noticed the sun was not as bight. I looked up and thought the cloud covering it looked like an angel. What do you think?
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This morning we had the wonderful experience of doing PMCS, which stand for 'Preventative, Maintenance, Checks and Services'. Fun!
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Sometimes Directions make things a little easier

I don't have a picture for this post, just a funny story. But first a little background.

I took a beginners computer programing course about 3 years ago when I had aspirations of becoming a college graduate. Involved in that course was basic web page design, learning all the code etc. etc. Anyway I have already used some on this blog, notice the background?

The funny story, well I had to laugh at myself anyway. I wanted to add a new widget. Blogger didn't have the one I wanted so I did some searching to find what I was looking for. I did rather quickly...Gotta say I like Google...and since it wasn't a Blogger widget, I copied the necessary code to add the widget. Being the ahem, suave web page designer I am, I opened up the html tab under the design tab, and proceeded to try and add my widget. It took a little bit but I found where I wanted to insert my widget. But I was perplexed because the widget code was in basic HTML and the Blogger uses XML. XML is actually easier to use then HTML, but it was only starting to become popular around the same time I took the earlier mentioned class. If you guessed that it threw me for a loop, you were right. But the same way I have learned alot of things (good or bad) I jumped right in to attempt to insert the code. After about five tries, Blogger was nice enough to accept it, well it didn't give me any errors anyway, but it didn't show the widget on the preview either. This meant that it just ignored what I inserted. So I went back to the original site to see if they had code in XML format. Nope sure didn't. Bummer. This meant back to my blog for another couple of attempts. This time I noticed there was a little check box sitting above the big box that held all the code, that said "Expand Widgets", Ah Ha! In my mind this meant I could open up the widget code, see what it all entailed and make the necessary tweaks to my widget code. Upon checking the box, it erased all my previous work....bummer again, it meant scanning through all the code again to find the necessary spot to insert my code. After scrolling up and down I finally found it. Long story short, after many tries, and lots of the editor hollering at me, I went back to the original site to see if I missed something. And I did. In small letters it had a link to get directions on HOW to add the widget. Needless to say thirty seconds later my widget was successfully added, by a simple copy and past into the right area on the DESIGN tab, not the tab that allowed me access to totally destroy my blog. As aggravating as it was trying to do it on my own, it was kinda fun. The challenge was there, its just my knowledge of the needed code wasn't.

Just for Alex

The other night I was talking to my youngest daughter, Alex, on the phone. She was kind of sad because I don't have any recent pictures of her posted. So I went through my phone and uploaded some to my laptop of her and her older siblings. I hadn't done it sooner as I always have my phone to look at them, but don't always have the time to pull out the laptop. Its a matter of convenience. Even when I am over seas, just because I won't be able to make calls on the phone, I'll still have the pictures and associated memories. Love you guys. Miss you.



One of the things Alex loves is Polly Pockets!! I had the opportunity to play them with her one day. This is DJ Polly that I had fun making up.



Trying to be a fun Dad, on my monthly visit I would take the kids to McDonalds for icecream. Alex was the Icecream Queem, because usually she had hers inhaled before the other kids were barely down to the cone. I figured out why rather quickly. She eats her cone, as you can see Breanne in her creative genius tries to make sculptures, see the Princess?


I had the opportunity over the summer to go with Michael to Boy Scout Camp at Camp Wilderness in Minnesota. Michael overcame his fear of heights and I had to immortalize the moment at the top of the fire-tower. I told him it was about half the height of the wind towers that I climb for work. He said he wasn't quite ready for that yet. It was a great time and I treasure the memories.

Leaving Iowa

I was pretty awed today at the public support the community showed t0 our company. It couldn't have been much warmer then 15 degrees and yet there were a ton of people lining the streets to wave flags and hold up signs. We even had a police escort! It was a tearful goodbye for many this morning, and it kind of made me glad I did mine a couple of days ago. I'm a fairly private person when it comes to my emotions. I miss my children and I know as time goes on I will miss them more, but I take consolation in the fact that I am one day closer to being back home with them. I have been seriously reconsidering my profession, and may look into a non-traveling job so as to stay closer. If its possible without shorting them and their quality of life I may very well do just that. Anyway, below are a couple of pictures I had the presence of mind to take before we left the town. Its pretty cool :)

Interesting First day.

After a teary goodbye to my children on the 13th, of course I had to catch my flight. It was very eventful, and really cast a shadow on this deployment, but I won't get into that.

I was trying to sleep on the plane, after only about an hours sleep the night before, I wasn't having the easiest time of it as my ears kept popping and popping. I regretted putting the gum my children gave me as part of a going away present in my carry-on bag instead of my pocket, because everyone knows chewing gum helps to alleviate ear pops on a plane. Anyway, I was dozing in and out when a very non-ear related pop startled me awake. I open my eyes to see the oxygen masks had all dropped down. Fortunately no one panicked, but I'm sure it was probably comical to an outsider, as everyone was looking around at everyone else, very wide-eyed. After several minutes of silence the flight attendant asked us all to don the masks. I realized, as several other passengers did, that we don't pay as much attention to the safety briefings as we should, as many of us had difficulty in getting the dumb thing to stay put. Shortly after putting the mask on, the plane did a fairly sharp nose dive! As you can imagine more wide-eyed looks, and still nothing from the cockpit as to what the problem was. Eventually the plane leveled out and the pilot finally announced we could remove the masks and explained that there was a malfunction with the pressurization system. He dropped the plane to a lower altitude the equalize the pressure. The picture is what it looks like on a plane with those silly yellow cups. Oh and I did note, my bag did in fact, inflate with the air flowing through it.