The End

No, he didn't have a training related casualty -- he's got his ETS orders and will be home on the 18th of October.

End of blog. Glad to have him home. Maybe he'll take it up as a platform for his photography. Regardless, thanks for taking the time to read, keep him in thoughts and prayers and wishing him well.

As US forces withdraw....

Thank you to all who have served.
Credit to Michael Ramirez, Editorial Cartoonist for Investor's Business Daily

Bling, blang, pimped out

The dude is sporting some serious stuff. He's done well during his time in service. I am proud of the man he's become, although he could clean up his language a little :D

Memorial Day

A moment in memory of the 2nd Cav heroes who fell in Iraq during Daniel's time there, with special remembrances of Spc. Orlando Perez and Sgt. 1st Class Randy Johnson.

Rest in peace gentlemen. Those you left behind miss you and will never forget what you did.

Mom chiming in

Daniel isn't blogging and as he's out of the sandbox, I don't write for him much anymore, but I wanted to link to my blog for his accomplishment today. If you get the RSS, enjoy!

EIB Accomplishment

Cell Phone

I talked with Daniel today! He doesn't have Internet or VoIP access while at WLC, but they were allowed to buy cell phones. If you want to talk with him, hit me with an email (if you don't know me and don't know my email, I'm not likely to give you the number -smile-) and I'll pass it on.

Caveat - while it doesn't cost *him* anything, calls to mobile phones in Europe incur extra costs to the initiator of the call. My phone plan costs 4 cents/minute if I call a land line in Germany, but 21 cents to a cell. Plan your talk time accordingly :D.

WLT or some such collection of letters

Daniel will be out of contact for the month of April as he is shipped off to Warrior Leaders Training. Any mail sent will be held for him - same address.

Christmas in Germany

Well sadly no snow has fallen, although the forecast for the day is snow, maybe I will be surprised. I'm happy just to be safe and with (some of) those I love, after coming home from deployment. Life has returned to some sensibleness here in the army, but I'm still looking forward to the day when I will be home at last and getting on with my future.

Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!

Oh, slight recommendation, for those of you who are caught in a good snow and have time to read a good book; "A Haunted Bookstore" is a must for all book lovers.

Snow and Stripes

Daniel bought a couple of new lenses and took this picture of snow on a branch. He was quite proud of it!

Also to be proud of, he got his promotion yesterday and now wears sergeant stripes!

Wilkommen aus Deutschland!!

He's back "home!" On IM with him right now. They got into Germany about 7 hours ago. Flight out of Baghdad, 18 hours in Kuwait, and a plane ride home.

From my other computer when I got home (obviously before we chatted):
Daniel says:
I guess you are already gone, so I will just say, we are back in Germany. Internet is hooked up, but I have to get a router tomorrow. I probobly won't be on tonight, but tomorrow, I should have a full connection.
I'm happily, and safely home from a 15 month endangerment to life. Glad it's done; learned alot from it and hope never to do it again.
Talk to you later

How I met your mother

Apparently their workload is going down. Daniel said he had a lot of time in the past few days and had watched several episodes of "How I Met Your Mother." I think they are all just hoping that they'll line up and get on a plane any day now, but tempering that with the reality of Army Wait Training (no, it's not misspelled).

So off to Netflix I go to check out the series in order to have something to talk with my son about. :)

Daniel hates politics

I haven't heard from him in a couple of days, so in retribution for his silence, I'm posting political stuff on his blog :)

Mr. Chucklebritches

I caught Daniel online today. What a treat. He was apparently also on with Cap because Daniel would inject snippets of Cap's IM's into mine. Not sure what sort of bunking arrangements they have on the FOB, but possibly Daniel and Cap are in different buildings.

Anyway, between the 3 of us, they seemed in really good spirits, joking (sometimes inappropriately) and in general much more lighthearted than he's been for some time. He said they have been busy cleaning anything and everything, but I think the realization that in a little over a month they will not have sand between their toes is making the busy work tolerable.

It'll be a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas

I was looking at the weather indicator and realized when they finally leave, they will take a 40-50 degree F drop in temperature between Iraq and Germany. They are going to be soldier-sicles!

I am robot

I talked to Daniel this morning for a bit on his squad leader's cell phone. A good deal of the conversation sounded like metallic robot talk and was hard to decipher, but he said they're working hard, dressing, undressing, knitting exciting underwear. Oh wait, that was Monty Python's Holy Grail. I always get that and Army life mixed up.

Whistle while you work

Their replacements have arrived. Daniel et al have been doing "transition" work, which means they are washing walls, fixing mechanicals, laundering bedding and in general getting the place tidied up for the new guys. Daniel says they will be moving back to the FOB soon, but still do not have a departure from Iraq date. He's ready to go - the horse wants to get back to the barn, even if the barn is in Bavaria.

15 months is a long time. I'm glad for all the soldiers and families that they have changed it to no more than a year at a time.

Woohoo!

Lost in translation says:
just passed
now I am promotable
going to sleep

A slight delay

The SGM (sergeant major) had to attend a memorial service so Daniel's board appearance is put off till tomorrow.

Anticipation

It's Saturday and I slept late after a long week of a variety of interesting occurrences. I missed Daniel's call - dang. It's now 6:30pm in Ba'qubah and his boards exam is tomorrow. He said he's more than a little nervous because the Sgt. Major has been pretty rough on the candidates, it's been reported, but they are still having a high pass rate. I'll post as soon as I have results

Boards

Daniel has been told he has to take the Boards for a promotion to sergeant. Great. Now I have to learn how to spell that well too. I can do Baghdad, I can do Ba'qubah, so I can do sergeant.

I don't know that he's excited about it - maybe when he realizes he can go to the non-comm officer's club?