Lots of news ...

(The pics are from Kyle's trip home for my 50th Bday in March ... yes, boys will be boys)

Okay, after several months away from this, I am excited to be doing it again. I just got off the phone with Kyle and have LOTS of information to share. When I talked with him it was 5am his time and it was already 85 degrees. The good news is that he is on QRF guard duty and that means that he only has to wear ACU's, not his full Battle Rattle.

First, we learned a valuable lesson about sending food supplies to the desert. In the last care package Mom sent, Kyle had requested a pack of Flinstone Vitamins. So off to Costco we go. Mom decided that the "gummi" vitamins would be a nice change from those old chalky things. You can already see this coming can't you ...

The Vitamins spent two weeks in a shipping container in Iraq and the entire bottle turned into gone solid vitamin blob. He said, "It's okay Mom, I just get up every morning and take a bite and hope that is about the right amount. No problem!"

I found out that their outpost which is just outside Basra is kind of an important place. While I won't share the name of it, or the exact location (for security reasons), I think it would be okay to say that lots of important brass come in and out of his location. That is probably a good incentive to stay on his toes.

He also shared that they will be going back to the main base in Basra on Sunday. They are in the process of turning their outpost over to a unit of MP's. Over the last few days they have been meeting with their replacements to share logistics.

It sounds like sleep is at a premium for him. He yawned several times early in our conversation so I asked him, how much sleep he had gotten. He said, "About 3 hours and that's a GOOD night." That prompted the follow up question, "What does a typical day look like?" He decided that the best way to describe it would be to share his schedule yesterday. Hang on ...

4-6am guard duty
Shower and clean up
Breakfast
Police the area
Promotion ceremony

E.I.B. training - This stands for "Expert Infantry Badge". It is a test that the entire Battalion will take in the next few weeks. It will involve 35 tasks to be chose randomly (I think). Just to qualify to test you must first get a 280 or better of an Army Physical Fitness test, take a 13 mi ruck under 4 hours (I think - that is a really rapid pace for a very long distance), shoot expert on weapons test. If you nail all these, then you can test for the medal. He is very motivated to get it.

Then there was ...
A 3 hour nap in middle of day
Another 2 hours of guard duty
Dinner
A 1 hour meeting with a Sgt. to discuss on reintegration training (coming back home well).
Two hours in the gym and off to bed (that was the 3 hour nights sleep that he talked about).

He is looking forward to the E.I.B. test. He told me that his last APFT test in Diwanijah (sp?) he scored 60 push=ups, 60 sit-ups, and scored 15:30 on his 2 mile run. Two days ago he took a new test and scored 85 push-ups, 89 sit-ups and did a 13:50 2 mile0 seconds run. He said that he needs to shave another 5o seconds in order to get his perfect 300 on a APFT. He is sure he will make it (and in 120 heat no less).

He received unofficial word that his waver paperwork for early promotion has been approved. within a few days we will need to call him "Specialist" ... E-4 rank and a raise.

Finally (and I will end with this) he has tentative dates for redeployment to US. The last of their Battalion will be out if Iraq before Aug. 20th. The window for is unit to fly out is between 8/7 & 8/20. Yahoo!!!!

Shower Scandals ...

This week we heard from Kyle. It is great fun when we are all together (Mom, Sis and me) when the phone rings with a "private number" designation. The news of the day was that all computers had been confiscated and that, as a result, we would not be seeing much more from Kyle by way of Facebook posts.

In days of old it may fall under the category "boys will be boys." But in today's military (thankfully so) the activities of late on Kyles outpost were met with swift consequences. Allow me to be a bit less cryptic.

Kyle's unit is infantry, which means "no women." This has always been the Army's practice for the infantry. Other branches of military service, however, include women within the ranks. Such is the case with the National Guard. Recently a detachment of Guardsmen, male and female were assigned to Kyle's company. This presented some significant logistical challenges. As it turns out, the shower facilities proved to be one of the most snarly. The adaptation was that the two shower facilities would be divided up as follows:
- One unit would remain men only.
- The other would be divided in half. Therein lies the problem.

As it turns out, some of the men from the National Guard decided to surreptitiously video tape the women from their team while they showered. When news of this activity made its way right up the administrative gossip chain, the decision was made to confiscate all computers and video taping equipment ... at least until the National Guard group is redeployed, or Kyles team is moved.

So goes the "war on terror ..."

So Much Has Happened ...

I can't believe that the last post to this blog was dated February 24, 2009. This has been a whirlwind three months. In our world stateside we have been through a great 50th birthday (mine), our annual meetings with ministerial licensees (about 200 plus hours of my time beyond the normal load of ministry responsibilities), an AMAZING Easter that included a record attendance for our church, a really rewarding District Assembly and a teriffic time with my Dad and Sister on the occassion of Dad's 80th birthday. There has scarcely been time to breath, let alone update this blog.

Allow me, however, to try to update you on the events that have transpired in our favorite soldier's life. After being home for my 50th birthday, Kyle headed back to his deployment in Iraq. The trip back was nearly as long as the trip home. Some of his "facebook" status reports on the journey back were hilarious. An example would be his post form the holding station in Kiwaitt. "Kyle is looking forward to a day at the beach - without the water." Despite rather difficult circumstances, he maintains a refreshing sense of humor.

Now that he has been reassigned, I guess it is okay to go ahead and record for posterity Kyle's location for the first five months of his deployment. He was located at FOB Echo, just outside the city of Diwanjah. From there he and his team conducted countless patrols, maintaining the fragile peace that exists in Iraq. He is proud of his work, as well he should be ... and so are we. So now he presses on to the next assignment.

His new digs are in a region that supported some of the earliest civilization known to history. He is near (not in )Bausra. This region was initially a VERY secure area. Its proximity to Kuwaitt and its absence of significant ethnic/religious diversity made for a relatively safe setting. for that reason, the security was turned over to the British. In the last 6 plus years of minimal engagement with the inhabitants by the Brits has bread a significant level of mistrust and even hostility on the part of the Iraqi people toward the armies regarded as "occupiers. Therefore, the environment has grown increasing unsafe for US soldiers. As his partens this causes us concern. For Kyle, however, its all part of the adventure.

I'll try to do better!

What a Surprise!

Last Wednesday was shaping up to be a colision of familial love that includes the unintended potential for hurt feelings. Our daughter and I had been missing each other for several days on the phone. She had "Skyped" (a new verbal form of a technology noun - like "Googled" or it participle form "Googling") her mother a couple times and I was missing. So she had set a "Skype" appointment with me for 9pm Wednesday night.





Later the same day, my wife called to say that Kyle had called and wanted to talk with me later. This made sense since he had been telling us for weeks that he had some big news for us, but that it was confidential. I assumed that he had promoted or something like that. It seemed likely that Kyle would want to tell me the news directly. He would be calling at ... you guessed it ... 9pm Wednesday.





Now we have always tried to not play favorites - letting each of our kids know that they were, in fact, our favorite (only a parent understands how that works). But now I was being forced to make a decision on which of the two I was going to talk with at 9pm. But as the hour approached, the situation was complicated even further. About 8:45pm I received a call from the third of our kids (actually the first born) who stated with great enthusiasm that he had something he wanted me to see. I told him about my pending phone appointments and he said he was in the neighborhood; it would only take a minute.





As he bolted through the door he said, "I got something from Iraq in the trunk and I want you to see it. I think you are going to get something from Iraq too." This made perfect sense for two reasons: 1) Kyle loves to spend money on people that he loves, and 2) He had sent flowers to his mother, sister and sister-in-law a week earlier. So I followed to the trunk of the car to see the gift from Iraq. As our oldest son popped open the trunk he motioned to indicate into which part of the trunk I should be looking. I dove headlong into the trunk and started rummaging about for something Iraqi looking. The voice over my shoulder said, "Look a little deeper." I went further, moving aside the camofloge backpack that was impeding my progress. "Its under that blanket." I worked harder on my quest, thinking that it must be a small item and that I had overlooked it.





It was only then that some pieces started to tumble into place - or more accurately - the pieces were not fitting. The voice behind me, though very similar, had changed tamber slightly. And the backpack that had been in my way looked for all the world like Kyle's and it had his last name on it. Slowly I backed out of the trunk to further investigate the confusion in my head, only to see that the voice over my shoulder was dressed in ACU and looked remarkably like Kyle. YAHOO! Kyle's home for 2 weeks leave.





More to come ... (like the details of his 7 day trip home - without a shower)

Not a Word ...

It is hard to sit at home knowing that loved ones are thousands of miles away standing "in harms way" (I'm not even sure what that phrase means, but I know it always applies to those in military service). This is the life of the parents of soldiers. And it is just a little harder when it has been nearly two weeks since last we received word. If you are still faithfully checking this blog, then you know that my entries have declined significantly. Please know that this is owing not to the lack of desire to keep you informed. Instead, it is the direct result of having heard "not a word" (title).

I've grown so desperate for information that I even logged onto "Facebook" to get some info and I don't even know how to use "Facebook". I just know that "Momma" sometimes hears from Kyle there. Alas ... no Kyle there either. It was 4:30am when I hit FB - hoping that, since it would be 3:30pm in Iraq, he might be up and logged on. Nope.

So here is what has come to mind in this dearth of contact:

1) I wonder how parents of soldiers in past conflicts dealt with the separation? In Viet Nam, Korea, WW1 & WW2, Civil War, Revolutionary War, parents were dependant on a mail system that could be at times entirely unreliable. We are so spoiled with satellite phones and Internet connections. Shoot, if Kyle still had his computer we could actually conference via web cam and actually see his face. How cool is that? We have grown accustom to calls at least weekly.

2) I wonder how our heavenly Father feels when we fail to check in, close the "chat window" and generally ignore his daily, hourly messages of love written in the creation? That reminds me, I've got a "call" (read that as "prayer") I need to make ... I need to check in ... I know HE misses me.

More to come ...

Long Days and Sleepless Nights ...

We heard from the lad yesterday. He seemed to be in good spirits, but tired. That seems to be the name of the game these days. He said that they are doing up to 15 hour patrols on a regular basis. Since he is on the night side and starts his shift at 1800 hrs, sleep (at least at night) has been at a premium. The lack of sleep means that staying awake behind the wheel in the "wee hours" is tough. More than once he has been awakened by a team member while on patrol. That would be bad if Kyle was just one of the guys in the Humvee. It is significantly worse as he is the driver. He mentioned that some truck teams, not his of course, have been known to find a quiet place out of the view of Choppers and F-16's to catch a few Z-z-z-z-z-z's.

He mentioned that the nights are REALLY cold - in the 30's. Trundling about at night means that he is spending lots of his work hours in the "freezer." As a hedge against the cold, he said that he had heard of truck teams using an incendiary grenade as fire starter for a palm tree. Whatever it takes ;-)

There has been a change in eating policy as well. It used to be that they were allowed to put in for "meals to go" when they took these extended patrols. That was THEN. NOW they are not allowed to receive the "meals to go" (probably because the motor pool got tired of cleaning up the messes in the Humvee's). Fifteen hours without food means that everyone on his team is losing weight. Lets see now ... sleep deprivation ... food deprivation ... don't we have a name for that?

He now has a new roommate. His former roommate was not his favorite person in the platoon. But that individual took leave stateside and when he came back, he found Josh M. sleeping in his bunk. H-m-m-m-m-m ... Kyle is loving it. Josh has been Kyle's close friend since Kyle was stationed in Colorado.

A little sad news ... Kyle had received several AT&T phone cards (like a couple thousand minutes worth). He was set! Then he went to the phone bank the other day only to discover that the AT&T phones had been removed. Can you believe it? He did mention how grateful he is to his church family and extended family for remembering him as he serves in Iraq. He has been showered with love!

A Few of My Favorite Things ...

Given the fac that this is just post Christmas, the song mentioned in the title of this blog just seems appropriate. These are two aspects of Kyle's deployment that mean a lot to him. The Left is his truck ... that's what keeps his safe. Can you say, "Pimp my ride"?

The cutie on the right is a little puppy Kyle found and took back to his CHU. I don't know how long he had the dog, but I know that his Facebook status today said that "Kyle is missing his Duece." Duece is the puppies name.