Ground Hogs Day Again.

Hello all,

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. This past month has really flown by, which has been really nice since January took so long. It has been so mundane lately that the highlight of my week was that the movie Days of Thunder was on tonight. (I love that movie!) Ground Hogs Day has certainly set in again, we are just searching for new ways to keep busy. Fortunately, Sarah has come to my rescue (again) and I have some new toys on the way. Not much else is new at this point, just thought I'd let you all know I'm doing fine... That has become a popular phrase for Sarah and I over these last 15 months. "I'm fine", When we say this to each other it is usually followed by a sarcastic laugh. I'm adding one of my favorite sunrise pics that I've taken so far for you all to enjoy. Thank you for your continued support.

The bugs and me

Just so everyone gets the part of the poem in my last post, I thought I would share my experience with the bugs here in Iraq. We haven't gotten along very well to tell you the truth. I had one minor bug bite on the back of my neck, which I took some pills for and everything was fine. About a month after that I was bitten again, on the leg and foot this time. When my foot started to swell and I couldn't fit my shoe on it, I decided it was time to get it checked out. (I just have to say my wife was telling me to do this the whole time.) So the medics were pretty impressed, they had been having an upsurge of personnel coming in with this, but mine was one of the worst. (Being that I had waited so long.) They said I was about a day away from being sent to Germany. (Should have waited!) So they started me on three types of anti-biotics; Two different pills and I had to go in for an IV with anti-biotics every 8 hours. After a few of these treatments, a doctor nicknamed "Captain America" (Former navy corpsman, ex special forces medic... seen a lot of things) decided it would be good to dig in and clean out the infection. Yeah, this is as painful as it sounds, especially since they couldn't use any Novocaine due to the risk of spreading the infection. It turns out he was also a very funny guy who had me laughing hysterically in between my winces of pain. Of course a buddy of mine was there for moral support (okay, his own enjoyment.) One of the funnier moments included the good captain stepping away for a second, leaving the long sterile Q-tip sticking out of my leg. That's right, it was about a quarter inch into my leg sticking straight up, and it had me in stitches! (I don't recommend it.) After that, everyone wanted to go with me to the IV treatments, in case I needed some additional "moral support". So after about a week I was walking normally and I have been bite free for a few months now... knock on wood. So that is the story about the bugs biting me. Below is one of the pictures I sent Sarah, she wanted them for show and tell at school. It is my foot after they were finished digging. The yellow coloring is because my foot was soaking in iodine, not from the infection.

Happy Valentine's Day

Well, my wife has continued to surprise me. Today I received a poem she had written for me, it was so funny, I had to share it with you all.

My dear, sweet Charlie.
You mean the world to me.
If I were a flower,
you'd be my pollinating bee.

You are so hot and sexy.
You're as sexy as can be.
Especially when the lights are off,
and I can not see.

They call you one hot bastard.
You know that name rings true.
You're just so sweet and tasty,
even the bugs want a piece of you.

But when the bugs are done,
and leave you swollen and sore,
just remember when you come back,
with me you're gonna score.

Compliments of Robby Alison... thanks man.

So that was the first part of my surprise, I'm a little afraid of what else is coming. Sarah has a habit of trying to embarrass me at times like this. Being that the mail has not been good to me lately (everything getting delayed), I will just have to wait and see.

I would just like to say I love you to my adoring wife who is so great to me, thank you for loving me so well. To the rest of you, I hope this day finds you well no matter where you are.

This was one of the soldiers from my brigade, I thought some of you back home may be interested.

What are we entitled to know... and when?

I feel compelled to bring up something that has really bothered me since the very beginning of this war. Something that, I believe, has put lives in danger and has hampered a lot of our ability to fight this insurgency. It is operational security, keeping information from the wrong people. We get lectured on it daily, and as a scout, the operations I usually do depend heavily on it. So why do we broadcast what we are doing on CNN, and publish it in our newspapers?

During the initial invasion I was able to track what my old unit, the 4th Infantry Division was doing. The fact that they were delayed access to Iraq through Turkey, and were eventually rerouted through Kuwait. I knew all of this while it was going on. Also, embedded reporters saying things like we were at this location X amount of hours ago. It really isn't that hard to figure out where you might be now. More recently, it is published what units are going where, sometimes even what they will be doing. The new strategy, the troop surge, we are telling them exactly what is coming at them, and where they are going. Finally, what spurred this rant, this morning I saw a headline on CNN. "Baghdad offensive set to begin"... why do we need to let the people we are trying find know this?

In World War II we took extreme measure to hide the identity of units deploying, and went out of our way to mislead our enemy so that our troops on the ground had the greatest chance for success. Any military commander will tell you that the element of surprise is priceless. I understand with today's technology and the type of war we are fighting the possibility of a surprise attack is quite small. We should still make them do the work to find out, instead of telling them in a month you are going to have an additional 4,000 soldiers and marines in this province, and 16,000 more over here. Oh, and by the way, they are deploying early or being extended. So their morale is going to be lower. This is all information I have been trained to find out about our enemies on the battlefield, so why are we giving it away?

My point is our media feels they are entitled to all sorts of information, because the citizens of our county deserve to know. I agree with that too a point, does the American public need to know that we are sending more troops to Iraq? Maybe... Does that need to include exact numbers and where they are going? Do they need to know when the offensive is supposed to begin? These are all questions that I wish our leaders and today's media would ask themselves before they go putting out possibly sensitive information. People ask me what I know about certain subjects and events, being that I am over here. Well, let me tell you, we get most of our updates from CNN, just like you! Heck, we even found out about our extension from the Star Tribune! There are so many things wrong with this, I can't begin to list them.

With the world the way it is now days, I don't think there will be any change to any of this. I just felt compelled to say something about the way it is supposed to be. Thank you all for listening to me rant, I will now step off my soap box. :)

No pain, no gain.

Well, I'm getting back to the grindstone. I took a bit of a break from working out for the last month or so, and starting this week I am back at it. Ouch, is it painful! It's amazing how fast you can get out of shape, when it takes so much time and effort to get into it. Even though it hurts, it feels good at the same time. It is one of my favorite ways to relieve stress, it really helps to clear my head. It's really nice now, Sarah spoiled me a little (I know, big surprise) . She got me a GPS watch, now I can see how far I run. It is very nice since I run out on the roads on base and was never quite sure how far I had gone. She is so good to me. I hope you all are doing well, take care.