Another Deployment

So, here we go again. another deployment. this time to afganatan. I am not really nervous just not wanting to deal with the day in and day out of a deployment. I am currently in Rota, Spain though. Which is way awesome. So this first month I can't complain at all. I am guessing our deployment will be a lot like it was in Iraq. long hours of work and listen to a lot of people whine about sicknesses. haha Oh well i do get paid a little bit more. This past year has easily solitifed that my army life has an expiration date. I am currently looking for what I can do after the Army. It is interesting to see their are a lot of options. I am still nervous about it but I am sure something will open up before I get out of the Army. I know the Army is not a career choice for me. I still wonder why I joined somedays. I will say that it has taught me a lot and helped me to grow. So, I can't say that it is all bad. Thats about all I have to say about the Army today.

Al Asad

Wow, so craziness ensues. First though let’s see got promoted in December to Specialist, which was exciting. I have been learning a lot of medical things and seeing a lot of things, nothing really traumatic though. Just mostly sick call things. I went on leave at the end of January, which was fabulous and great to get away from all this useless drama here. I think anyone looking to be a leader needs to realize that this is the complete opposite anyone should lead. They are all about themselves and kissing up to their bosses so much that they forget or purposely try to make things harder than they need to be. I will say though that SFC Fuller who used to be over us, is a tremendous leader and that is someone we should strive to be like. He has a quote on his email that reads, "Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." Colin Powell. And the thing is he lives that. When I saw him last it was all about what can he do for me, and building me up telling me all the good things I have done. Don’t get me wrong of course a leader is going to have to reprimand at times, and be unpopular. I realize that. Trust me; SFC Fuller would be the first to get after someone if they needed it. The fact is that we have good medics that strive to work hard and do the right thing, and it goes unnoticed by leadership. The only thing that gets noticed is the small mistakes, which quite frankly have no bearing on a successful mission or not. Small things are important when it comes to a lot of things, but going out of your way to find a mistake I may have made is a complete waste of time and energy. Plus it makes me very angry. When I get put in a greater leadership position I am going to strive to be like SFC Fuller. Other news, I have moved bases. I am know on the largest Air Base in Iraq, Al Asad. There is like 100-200 Air Cav soldiers here and after 3 previous medics all left for different reasons, I was next in line to finish the job. I am ecstatic to be here. It is much more laid back; I don’t have anyone over me. I do what I need to do; I see way less people here, and most of them I Do see aren’t coming in just to get out of something. I am actually in an NCO position here. Since I am the Senior Medic I run the clinic, which is pretty exciting I can use that with great benefits in the future. So, here I sit the last month of my first tour in Iraq. I hope I can get into PT school with Baylor before the unit gets deployed again. That is my next goal on the table. I just completed my Bachelors Degree with Excelsior College and need to finish up 3-4 science classes before I can apply, so hoping by the end of the year I will be good to go. There are a lot of decisions to be made in the near future and I am not sure where my life will end up. I can only hope that I make the best decision for whatever is going to happen in the future. Being deployed has taught me a lot, some things I would rather not have cared to learn. I hope though that in the long run this deployment becomes a blip in the map, and I never have to go through another one. I still question why I joined in the first place. If it wasn’t for the kids I don’t think I would be in this situation.

Iraq

It has been an interesting few months here in Iraq, that is for sure. A lot has happened. We work long hours and don't really have much time off. The people around are fine, not too happy with our leadership here. I have, however, learned a lot about the medical field. We get to see a lot of patients but nothing traumatic, we work in an aide station so we see people for day to day sicknesses. Its good to know but sometimes people annoy me with why they are coming in. There has been no real threat to us here, as things are extremely quiet on the war front. Hence why we haven't seen anything traumatic. I am currently at Freedom Rest in Baghdad. Its pretty relaxed here, so I am enjoying that. There not really a lot to talk about. I often feel like this year is a waste of a year of my life. I can't really do anything about it. I guess there has to be some reason why I am here. I just don't know why at this point.

Iraq here comes the summer

Well I have been here for a few weeks now. It really isn't to bad here. I mean its not the funnest thing I have ever done. I work at the TMC with the doctors and PA's. I am definitely learning a lot too. Really its like just having a job away from family and friends. I go to work way to much though. There not much else to do here anyway. There not a lot of extra stuff going on. You work, eat, sleep, go to the gym, do homework, watch movies, and not much else. You hear big booms every once in a while, but as far as I know they have all been out going. I would say though as compared its not too bad. I do, however, have no desire to come back. Or for that matter, re-enlist. I sure hope I can find something else in 2012. There a number of things that I just can not stand in the Army. I figure it was a good experience, and hoping that in 20 years I am not talking about retiring from the Army. If I do, I definitely will become an officer though, none of this enlisted stuff. I got a great roommate though that has been here and will listen to me whine a bit about different things. It definitely helps a lot. I am sure I would go crazy without him listening.
The temperature is warming up nicely. Honestly, I could be in Texas or Arizona though. Its hot and dry. So, I like that compared to cold. I just don't enjoy walking everywhere in a long sleeve shirt and pants. I get over it though cause all the stuff I need to do is pretty close. I also do a lot at night which makes it pretty cool outside. Hopefully though at the end of this deployment I will have a good chunk of loans, debts and other bills gone. I think that will be great and have a good chunk of change in the bank will be good as well. That financial stability will take a lot of stress out of my life. Anyway, all and all I guess I got lucky being in an aviation unit. It's pretty sweet to see Blackhawks, and all the other helicopters that are around. That is way exciting.

Kuwait- week one

We left from Ft. Hood, TX and flew up to St. Paul, MN than to Amsterdam, then finally over to Kuwait City. Then we were bussed over to Camp Buerhing, where I am now. Now I am getting used to the temperature, climate, and time change. It is not going that badly. It?s actually a lot like Texas here, so not much change.
We live in tents but its not that bad. They are HUGE tents. We have like 75 people in them. They also have tremendous a/c which is awesome. Then if it?s winding outside I wouldn't even know, which is sweet. We do sleep in cots, which isn?t the best thing in the world, but better than the ground.
We have internet hence how I am posting this. But it is pretty unreliable here. I paid $28 to have access in my tent and it will work at like 2 am no problem. In fact today it wasn't to slow even. Don?t worry people are waking up and it has slowed back down. There a few things to do here, not much they do call it camp boring. Yesterday I played Guitar Hero for the first time ever, it wasn't too bad. Since my roommate in Iraq will have it, we may spend a lot of time playing it during the next year.
Had a little problem with my sergeant, and hoping for my sanity we get our old NCO back. Not sure it will happen, but I can pray and wish right. I will try to keep this up to date as much as I can.

Here I go

The last month has been a blast. A lot of stuff has happened, I haven't had to do a lot of work. Which has been great. I had a great time in Arizona, seeing some great people. I have tremendous friends. I hope you guys all are doing great. I have a lot of mixed feelings of what is about to happen. I am sure it will be a good experience though. I am not sure what to expect right now. My plane leaves at about 8 or so on Saturday the 25th. I will try to keep this updated, and my facebook updated. Otherwise feel free to e-mail me whenever you can. Just a hi I am sure would be great. Also, the birth of my third little girl happened this month. Kimber was born on April 16th. A day before her grandpa' s birthday. Which I know he was hoping we would have waited a day. She is adorable and looks identical to her sister, Alyssa when she was a newborn. The girls have loved having daddy around a lot more. They have had a lot of fun. I also enjoyed seeing them. Hailey has become quite the funny little girl, who knows how to talk. (gets that from her mommy for sure) She loves telling knock-knock jokes and stories about monsters and telling me that she cracks me up. Anyway, off to Iraq I go. It will definitely be different.

2009

This year has gone by so fast this year. I have been in my unit for about 4 months now. It has been a crazy 4 months. The worse part ws when we were getting our unit and our stuff packed. That month we spent many late nights and was so worn out. It was not that much fun. We did all kinds of things like take blood for HIV test, give out shots, make sure people were medically ready to deploy. We also went out and helped pull medical coverage for our companies training. It was quite boring we did not do much. There was one swollen ankle to wrap, and handed out a few over the counter drugs. Nothing to exciting. I can't bielive that the time to deploy is less than a month away now. This past weekend I took Alyssa with me to Arizona to see family and freinds one last time before I leave. It was a lot of fun to see everyone, and the next week I am going to catch up on homework and relax. I am pretty sure the next few weeks will fly by, just like the rest of the year. Anyway thought I put a few pics of my kids and myself up here. To make my Blog look a whole lot better.