One Small Town...

Just a few more hours and the countdown officially begins.  As I’ve told my Soldiers from the beginning - this should be an interesting year…

It was great talking to a bunch of my friends and family over the weekend while they enjoyed celebrating their wins and losses.  Maybe next year I’ll make it back to participate in the alumni tourney.  From what I’ve been hearing the class of ‘04 is missing some much needed height but with Boda on the team I figured they’d be unstoppable.

Thanks for the support from everyone back home and I’ll certainly do my best to keep you updated on what’s new and how things are going.  I’m still not sure when I’ll get a decent internet connection so the next post might be a few days (or even weeks).  Until then, take care and enjoy what I’m sure will be one hell of a summer!

So it’s been a hot minute since I wrote anything in the ol’ blog, but I’m back with a few updates.  Last week my company had our deployment ceremony which wasn’t too bad.  Lots of standing around and practicing for the “real deal” but overall it was a success.  Due to current security restrictions I’m not able to post any of those pictures but as soon as they’re lifted I’ll put a few up.

As for the Edelweiss trip…it was amazing.  The weather was beautiful, the scenery was awesome, and best of all I got my own room due to overbooking.  Nice!  The only thing this resort could improve on is their slot machines.  I’m more of a nickel slot kind of guy and I managed to win around 50 bucks but then things went bad.  I mean really bad.  I left nearly $800 in the hole…

The catch to this trip being 100% free was we had to attend a few classes about religion and how to take care of ourselves while we’re deployed.  I’m not really a fan but the classes weren’t bad and they were usually only an hour or so.  Hell, for a free trip to the mountains I would have sat in on any class the Army wanted to give me.  However, once the classes were done the resort was ours.  A bunch of the Soldiers went mountain biking, climbed the mountains, toured the city, and did a bunch of other things.  I bet you’d never guess what the most important and popular activity was over the weekend.  Yep, you guessed it, boozing.  Surprisingly there wasn’t one single incident the entire weekend so to that I tip my hat to not only my Soldiers but to my fellow officers who needless to say had a very good time as well. (Those pictures will not be posted…unless you really want to see them)

Finally, these past few days we’ve been finishing up our sensitive item pack outs.  This is pretty much the final step we needed to take to be ready for our year long vacation.  I somehow got thrown into this one as the officer in charge but so far so good.  Well, this has been an extra long post due to my neglect over the past week so hope you enjoyed it.

Oh, and I was kidding about the gambling debt.  I managed to break even despite me luck early on.  Peace!

In an effort to share my future experiences with my friends and family regarding my upcoming deployment, I figured I’d start up a new blog to help ease the “worries” that some might have. So with any luck this blog will be a success and I’ll help keep everyone updated on my life and my platoon’s accomplishments over the next year.

With that, here’s where I stand:

Right now the entire company is finishing up the hours upon hours of paperwork involved in sending a company down range.  I’ve had just about every shot you can imagine, filled out just about every medical / legal form you can think of, and completed my last APFT before we hop on the plane.  If I was back in school I’d be enjoying a delicious pint of B & J but alas we have no such thing in Germany.  So I settled for several wintergreen pouches to ease my suffering.  Don’t judge …

We have a four day weekend coming up and I can only pray that none of my soldiers find themselves at the PMO for who knows what.  That’s wishful thinking considering three of them were picked up by polizei for tearing out road markers on the autobahn last weekend.  Smart choice on their behalf and I’m sure alcohol had nothing to do with that decision.  Other than that I’ll be enjoying a nice getaway with some fellow LTs this Saturday to celebrate our last weekend together before some major movement begins.  Should be an enjoyable evening if my guitar hero skills and drinking ability are what they used to be.

Well, I think I’ll end this with a quote from one of my SGTs who provided me with the question of the day: “Is it still illegal to hook up with a lady of the night in Amsterdam if they give you a military discount?”

This is what the Army gave me to work with …