Here's Your Sign...

I thought I'd throw in a few signs you don't see in your average Mall parking lot. These remind me that I'm on an Army Post, just in case I might forget.

This thing below is a 'Clearing Barrel'. The idea is that every time you enter a building, you go through the steps to make sure your weapon is cleared and safed. The barrels are filled with concrete and sand to absorb small arms impacts from within. You stick the barrel of your weapon in the hole as you clear it. As we are not carrying live ammunition here at Ft Sill, this barrel has tape over the opening to keep the critters (and cigarette butts and candy wrappers) out. Seems like Accidental Discharges (some might say, Negligent Discharges) were accounting for enough injuries to make this a good idea overseas. After all, most average Americans aren't used to carrying loaded machine guns around all the time.....

Just in case you need instructions on clearing your weapons:

Lois has her first day of motorcycle riding at the local Harley shop's beginners riding course today. I'm excited for her - and just a little worried, but not too much. If all goes well, she'll have her bike license by Monday and we can go shopping when I'm home on leave. At least ONE of us will have a bike.

I sure do miss the music at Overman Park in downtown Cedar Falls this year. From what I hear, it's as much fun as ever. Save me a spot or two on next years' calendar - most likely later in the season, but I'll be there!

Getting down to the last couple of weeks here. Everyone is getting antsy and ready to go. Most of us are looking forward to some leave the first week of August. I can hardly wait. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

If you can, drop in on the Medevac sendoff on Aug 5th. I believe it's at 6:00 PM at Hawkeye Community College. All my BlackHawk med guys from Waterloo are going to Iraq, too. They're coming here to Ft Sill just as we leave, so they'll be 'in country' just a couple of months after we are. I don't know if we'll cross paths down here or not, but I'm sure I'll see some of them over there.

Well, as always, write when you find the time.

Here's a piece of advice from a fairly wealthy man I know. When asked the secret of his success, he replied:

"Get what you can, Can what you get, and sit on the cans."

Later, Dave

One Day At A Time.....

Here's our Task Force 34 Logo. The blue is Aviation Blue, the odd shaped outline in the background represents Iraq, the snorting bull stands for the 34th Inf Division "Red Bull Division", and the stars represent all the states who have soldiers in the Brigade. OIF 08-10 stands for Operation Iraqi Freedom, 08 for 2008, and the 10 stands for this being the 10th OIF cycle since 2003, when the war in Iraq began.

TF 34 is actually the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, augmented with some other National Guard elements. We are the second all National Guard Combat Aviation Brigade to take over this mission. The first was the 36th, which returned last September, and included units from around 34 states, including the Iowa National Guard Assault Helicopter Company from Boone.

The top pic is the full color version of the division shoulder patch. The Red Bull insignia of the 34th Infantry Division was based on a design by Marvin Cone of Cedar Rapids, Ia., who drew it for a contest while training with the Division at Camp Cody in 1917. A steer skull imposed on the shape of a Mexican water jar (called an "olla") recalled the Division's desert home not far from the Mexican border. During WW II, German soldiers in Italy referred to the American soldiers who wore the familiar patch as "Red Devils" or "Red Bulls". The latter name stuck, and the Division soon adopted it officially.

OK, enough of the boring history lesson..... We are mired in that looooong, sloooow period of waiting for deployment overseas. The aircraft are going to be enroute soon, so my maintenance business is very slow. A few later arriving soldiers are still doing some required training, but the rest of us are pretty much in the wait mode. There's no point in us going overseas until just before the aircraft arrive, so we might as well stay here out of harm's way for the time being. Most of us are taking a few days' leave in the next few weeks - getting home for those last minute hugs and honey-do's - but we're mostly ready to just get on with it.

The overall mood is OK, but it kind of goes up and down. The troops are bored, and chafing at the 'groundhog day' atmosphere. Our platoon went out for dinner last night to the Outback Steakhouse. It's amazing what a little change of pace can do for your attitude. We shopped at WalMart after dinner. Usually, Lois has to drag me in there, but it was actually pretty OK. I bought a couple of old movies to put on my external hard drive. I'm up to about 600GB worth at this point, so I should be properly entertained in the desert.

Let's see, did I tell you about Humvee rollover training? That was interesting. We climbed into a mockup Humvee trainer which flipped over. We had to figure out how to get out of our restraints and get out of the vehicle upside down - not an easy trick while wearing all the protective stuff and carrying your gas mask and weapon. At first, we treated it like a carnival ride, but with 40 extra pounds of crap on, it was an awful lot like grass drills the first week of highschool football practice. Oh, by the way, the doors on an up-armored hummer weigh about 450 pounds, so you don't just kick them open and roll out......

Well, I'd better go for now. Remember, comments and emails are always welcome.

Later,

Rollover Dave

Hydromaniacs

Ya gotta follow this link to watch our "Hydromaniacs" on their YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWSE4Pitr9M

These two guys are just two of our Pneudraulics mechanics - the guys who deal with fixing the hydraulic and pneumatic systems on our aircraft. It might be hard to follow some of the 'lingo', but it makes sense to us....

The Spam they sing about is an expandable maintenance shelter - kind of a portable shop, with its own generator, AC unit, lights, special tools and so forth.

Shot on the veranda outside the second floor of the barracks we all live in. Enjoy....

Later, Dave

Big Windy on the move

"Big Windy" is just one of our fond nicknames for the CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The first four launched from the airfield this morning for the 3 hour flight to port. We'll be moving some every day until all have safely arrived there. If I can, I'll try and get a picture or two of the aircraft being loaded into the hold. The Chinook carries a crew of four - Pilot, CoPilot, Crew Chief and Flight Engineer - and can carry about 35 troops with all their stuff. A Humvee will fit inside the cargo bay and it can lift a huge amount externally. Quite a flying machine...

One of my favorite young soldiers, Derrick Larson, was promoted to SGT tonight. It's quite a step for a young man to become a Non Commissioned Officer. Real responsibility and leadership - all that good stuff. Derrick and his brother, Braden, have been members of the Iowa National Guard for several years, and are just another example of a family commitment to defending America.

Lois and the kids are doing pretty well at home, all things considered. Ranger the newest of the Wonder Dog line, is recovering nicely from ACL surgery earlier this year, and has resumed his perch on the back of the couch growling at squirrels and rabbits out the window. Laura is interning for a groomer in Hudson as part of her course at Hawkeye Community College, and Carrie and Mikey are living the high small town life in Readlyn, about 30 miles north of Cedar Falls.

I just finished Oliver North's book, "American Heroes in the fight against radical Islam". If you haven't seen the war from other than the mainstream media side, give it a look. There are many inspiring individual stories of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and National Guardsmen and women included, as well as his perspective on the progress made in Iraq over the last five years. It may give you pause - it cleared up some things for me.

God Bless America,

Dave

Of Bikes and Men....

Ah, yes... When the sun is shining and the weather is warm, a young man's heart turns to motorcycles! OK, so I'm not a young man, but I still dig a good bike. I spotted this 2004 V-Star 1100 El Dorado in the PX parking lot and found it to be extremely photogenic.
These two geeky looking guys are my two cohorts, SFC "Jammer" Edwards and CPT Andy Nordseth from way up dere in da Nord country (St Paul). I made them pose by the bike because I'm always accused of not taking pictures of people....

Our 'training' exercise is over - the good guys won, by the way - so now we can go about the business of getting the aircraft to port and finish up some individual stuff. They tell me I'm going to learn some Iraqi phrases, shoot my bullet launcher some more and so forth.

I'd tell you more, but I'd have to kill you..... I could give you a hint and just beat you up, I guess...

I've enjoyed the comments and emails. Keep 'em coming.

Later, Dave

Independence Day at Sill

Here's our Company First Sergeant trying out the Taylor - it's the perfect guitar for this little trip.

We had a chance to celebrate the 4th of July - no beer of course, but the rec area was pretty nice. There was a water slide, paddle boats and canoes, a decent beach - all the necessities. A good time was had by all. I spent a couple hours playing my guitar in a nice, shady spot, so I had a fine time. Missed all of you, of course. We've been here a month now, but it seems like much longer...... We all just want to get on with it and get going overseas. The time here has been a good opportunity to get to know each other and build our teamwork. Whenever you throw this many people together from several states it takes a while for the communication to flow.

Write if you find the time!

Battle Rattle

This is the Army's latest version of helmet, ballistic eyewear and protective ballistic vest and stuff modeled by yours truly. There is actually a really decent first aid kit, with a C.A.T. Tourniquet, a nasal pharangeal airway, fixin's to start an IV or do needle chest decompression and some really good bandages and so forth attached on my right side. There's a belt cutter and a Gerber multi-tool, ammo pouches and more that I have attached to it. The black thing is the case for the cool eyewear (comes with prescription dark lenses, too), which isn't really supposed to be worn on the outside like that.

The whole ensemble weighs in at about 40 pounds with all the ballistic plates installed (Yes dear, I have all my armor protection in), but it feels pretty well balanced - for the first 10 minutes or so - then, it's just damned heavy.......

My compatriots here were looking at my blog and told me I should have at least one picture of myself in here once in awhile so y'all don' forget what I look like.

Tomorrow's the 4th of July.... A training holiday, but nowhere much to go... There are going to be fireworks, but no beer - been a long time since I watched fireworks sober....

Happy Independence Day and God Bless America!

Loading Out

Tough Boxes and duffle bags - as far as the eye can see. This is just a VERY small part of the gear the Brigade loaded today. We're still a few weeks out from deploying overseas, but all this stuff has to get sealed and weighed and through customs enroute to the POE (Port of Embarkation) now. We'll run into it somewhere, sometime.... I hope......

Some soldiers who are going on advance parties are starting to take their leave later this week. Most of us will wait until August....

Big doin's at Ft Sill. Lynyrd Skynyrd is in concert on the 4th of July - with fireworks to follow. There are rumors of civilian clothes and a two beer opportunity at the concert, but nothing's for sure at this point.

I think I'll stay home with the (other) old folks, play my guitar and enjoy some peace and quiet for a change.....