We had just finished pressure washing our vehicles.  Yet, there was still some work to be done, though we had accomplished the larger part of our mission by the smallest of margins.  So I sent my Soldiers out to eat and rest.  Unfortunately, I still had a little more work to do.  Now that the stock had been pressure washed, I had to put shipping labels on all the stock.  But by this time it was getting dark and I didn’t have a flashlight on me.  Still, it had to be done and I’d already sent everyone else away.  It took time, but I fumbled through the papers and squinted at the serial numbers until I had everything properly labelled… except for a couple Bobcats I’d switched.  One of the Customs guys had come by about 3/4 of the way through to check on me.  He was kind enough to loan me the flashlight he had.  Wasn’t soon enough to get me some dinner though.

So that’s the other part of being an officer.  You have to take responsibility and be accountable.  Thankfully, we had everything in place, secure, and ready to go to the port.  It was time to finish up any last minute errands for the night, like laundry.  I knew enough to do the final load on my own time.  My guys used the KBR point and could only pick up their laundry during business hours.  Of course, that delayed our departure the next morning. Continue reading »

So it’s been busy the past few weeks since our brigade has redeployed from Iraq back to home.  However, the bigger news is that my sister now has a new name.  My sister was married on the Ides of March (the 15th)!  I would have most liked to see my sister being given away by my father.  All the accumulated family would have been nice to see and hear how they are doing.  Plus it wouldn’t have hurt to have had a chance to show off some spiffy new Dress Blues.  It’s the modern version of a knight in shining armor.

But it has been busy.  Our unit is redeploying back home and I’ve got a few more stories to share now.  I actually left Taji back around 04 March.  I was going down to Kuwait Naval Base to be the Officer In Charge at the Wash rack.  All of our equipment has to be thoroughly washed to ensure no foreign particulates or animals are introduced back home.  The trip down got delayed a couple times though.  First we couldn’t leave Taji because of low visibility and spent the night in the bay they had arranged for such an event.  So we lived out of our bags for a day, which isn’t bad.

We got out the next day, but one Soldier was just placed in the worst way.  The rotary wing’s prop wash took out his bags and blew them into the ditch surrounding the helicopter pad.  So all his gear got wet… I didn’t envy him.  I actually was lucky the same didn’t happen to me since I’d packed my duffle bag light.  It just got braced by the right gear at the right angle.  So we arrived at BIAP and had to bunk down at nearby Stryker.  It just took a little while for the bus to get there to transport us. Continue reading »