Christmas in a War Zone

"How was your Christmas?" The question is on the lips of everyone you meet. Ours was great! Thank you for asking. We had 3 of our 4 kids at home with us and had the joy of talking to the 4th. But then that's the reason you logged into this blog ... to hear about the 4th. Well, before I give you the update, let me just say that I am blessed beyond description to have immediate family, extended family and a family of faith who are wonderful in every way. My cup is full and I give God praise!

Christmas Eve was awesome to say the least. Nearly 170 people, native Spanish and English speakers, gathered at 11pm to quietly consider a God who wrapped Himself in humanity and came to live among us. It was truly spectacular to listen in song and watch in dance as the story of Incarnation was told by the gifted musician and "creatives" of our church. After that we (Momma, me, our daughter, our son and his wife) headed to our house to open ONE gift before retiring. All of us headed for bed about 1:30am and asleep by 2am.

That was why it came as a bit of an abrupt shock when the phone rang at 6:45. It took about 2 rings for me to realize that the only person who would be calling at that hour on Christmas morning was Kyle. I blurted out to Mom, "It's Kyle!" She nearly flew out of bed as she dove for the phone before the answering machine could kick in. From my vantage point on the other side of her head, I could hear his voice. What a great sound on Christmas morning. We went to the other bedrooms and got the other kids up. Soon all 5 of us were curled up on our bed talking to our favorite man in ACU's ... laughing ... swapping jabs ... enjoying each others morning breath as we huddled around the phone. How could life get any better?

The ranking soldiers at Kyle's FOB gave a wonderful gift to their junior companions. As we talked with Kyle he was just finishing up dinner at the D-Fac where they had put on a great feast complete with suitable decorations. But the topper for the day was that all the E5's through E7's had taken guard and patrol duties in order to give the lower ranking soldiers the day off. Kyle said it came as a real surprise and a great gift. He said that, apart from being half a globe away, it had been a pretty good Christmas. I haven't heard the story from the photo above, but it is clear that Christmas joy happens wherever people are willing to give, receive and share a little love with each other.

Just so you notice, I wanted to let you know that I have added a couple photos to the blog in previous entries. There is a photo of the "Ark". Kyle's not in it, but it is clearly the Ark ;-) . Then I put a shot of the row of CAN's - the sleeping/living quarters that Kyle is living in("Mr. Attitude" post). If you look between the two soldiers in the foreground, I think you can see half of Kyle's face. I got these shots from the facebook account of Kyle's Sgt.

Yesterday Momma managed to catch Kyle on facebook. A brief chat revealed the fact that he had nearly rolled the Humvee today. Don't know a lot more than that as it was difficult to gather details in chat. More to come ...

Playin' Chicken ...

It has been a while since I have updated Kyle’s blog. He has called twice in the lapsed time, but we have just been busy. I believe, from what he shared with us, that he was able to view this blog for the first time. When he is able to get on, he will be able to read any comments that you make. I opened the access to comments so that you are able to leave comments for him. Just know that everyone on the web is able to read those remarks. For that reason, please be careful not to use last names or reference person identification information for yourself, for our family, or for Kyle.

Iraq continues to be a venue for creativity. Most recently Kyle and his truck company were instructed to perform an “infrastructure assessment” on a village near his FOB. This involves going from door to door in the community inquiring of the residents concerning their access to services. They are determining what Iraqi villages are still lacking water, electricity, etc.

These infrastructure assessments are performed by the “dismounted” guys from the truck.
What that means for the mounted guys is too much time on their hands. For the gunner it means sitting in the turret, trying to stay alert. For the driver (that would be Kyle), it means staying with the vehicle. It does, however, afford him the opportunity to get out and walk a bit near the vehicle.

He was talking with the other drivers (they travel in groups of 3 or 4 trucks at all times) and commented on how uneventful their time had been (that term "uneventful" could be translated “boring”). That was when Kyle noticed a fellow selling live chickens not far from the truck. He bought one of the man’s chickens for $5 and proceeded to take it back to the Humvee. Suddenly the gunner began to jump and flap his wings in equally frantic fashion to the chicken that was now occupying the turret with him. Same chicken as the one Kyle had just procured? Oh yeah!!!! Kyle said that it was almost as much fun as a barrel of monkeys (read “Mr. Attitude” blog post). I can only imagine the frantic attempt on the part of both the soldier and the fowl to free themselves of one another.

The latest call from Kyle finds him cooling his heels for a week. His Platoon Sergeant asked the platoon if anyone was tired. Kyle thought he was joking so he raised his hand. The Sgt. proceeded to launch into a bit of a rant at which point Kyle realized that he had misinterpreted the moment. The follow-up to the discussion was that his Team Leader decided to rub it in a bit. He placed Kyle on light duty for a week, turning him into a FOBBIT (someone confined to the FOB). This is usually reserved for discipline or for soldiers who aren’t cutting the mustard. Neither is true of Kyle – and all parties afore mentioned know that to be true.

Kyle was given a week of tower guard duty. When this is given as discipline it results in a rotation of 6hrs on, 6 hrs off around the clock. Since this was not a disciplinary action for Kyle, he was actually given simply 6 hrs duty in each 24 hr day. In actuality, that was worse for Kyle than the 6 on 6 off rotation. He hates sitting around. It did, however, give him some time to catch up on facebook and make some calls.

As often happens, the joke was on the Team Leader. Since Kyle was on light duty, they had to have another driver take his place. The replacement driver has a bit of a problem with sleeping while he drives. He nearly rolled the truck with the entire team inside. Needless to say, both Kyle and his team are looking forward to being reunited. In the mean time, Kyle has learned a valuable lesson about when to cut-up and when to shut-up. More to come ...

The Full Armor ...

We heard from Kyle yesterday. It was the best connection we have ever had. He was talking on an AT&T phone which costs quite a bit more, but it actually works. He said that he has about 40 hours worth of phone time on the other phones. The other phones are Internet based phones, I'm sure, as they have a lengthy delay and spotty transmission. We decided that it would be okay to share those 40 hours worth of phone time with someone who didn't have enough frustration in their life. We will stick to the more expensive AT&T. There is much to be said for "building a better mouse trap" ... the bedrock of capitalism.

It's football season (and when I say football I am referring to the "pig skin - grid iron" variety, not the round, black and white ball variety) in Iraq. Apparently soldiers who have no one around to say, "shouldn't you be working, doing homework, mowing the lawn", take much pride in their flag football. Kyle said the "P.O.G.s" (pronounced "poegs" - Professions Other than Grunt - a derogatory term for anyone other than an infantrymen) live for this stuff. They have professionally made uniforms with team colors and everything. As Kyle described the scene to me it was with a definite sense of, "these guys really need to get a real job." I asked, "Have you played much?" He admitted that he had played a little, but that he preferred the more adult game of sand volleyball. "Beside that", he said, "we are WAY too busy working to spend much time playing” (another implied dig at POGs). I have a high school friend who is now serving in Iraq as a much senior officer in another branch of the service. Hope she is not reading this ;-)

He mentioned that they have a PT (Physical Training test - not something one does into a cup) coming up. These are more important than you might think, at least for Infantry - POGs not so much. He was telling me about a guy in his platoon who has not successfully passed a PT test since BCT and was just demoted because of it. So this soldier is now a buck private after over a year of service. Kyle is on a slightly different track.

His call came in about 11pm their time. He was supposed to be out on patrol, but the power steering broke on their up-armored Humvee. Kyle said, "Dad, can you imagine trying to steer a 12,000 pound vehicle without power steering? It's a bit of a chore." I agreed. For that reason, their vehicle was in the shop and he was off early. Their patrol was intended to last until 4am.

I want to explain the two photos at the top of this blog. These are very poor pics of a really cool challenge coin (go to Wikipedia if you don't know the history of "challenge coins") that Kyle carries with him. This was a gift to Kyle from our daughter-in-law's brother-in-law (wow, that was a lot of hyphens in one sentence ... dare you to keep track of that). We well call him "J" for simplicity. "J" gave this beautiful memento to Kyle before his deployment. It depicts the "full armor of God" which is described in Ephesians chapter 6. I was given an identical challenge coin for by a police officer as a token of appreciation for my service to the police department. I told Kyle that I would carry it with me the entire time of his deployment and would pray for him specifically every time I touched it in my pocket. I believe "J" is doing the same. I tell you about this as a reminder of the way in which you can support Kyle, and all of our armed forces personnel, as they serve in harms way. As you scan past this blog entry in the future, please remember to pray for Kyle and others when you see these photos. More to come ...

Mr. Attitude ...

I missed him again. Don't know how I manage to be away every time Kyle calls, but I do. He does, however, really enjoy talking with Mom and she takes great notes on their conversations. I probably have more information to share with you because he talked with her. I forget just about everything.

The sad news is that he will not be coming home for a mid-tour leave. He "went into the hole" for his leave between BCT/AIT and his assignment in Colorado. For that reason, he doesn't have a lot of leave accrued. He could go into the hole again, but that would only borrow against his time home after his deployment. He decided he would rather have some considerable time with us at the end of his time in Iraq. As much as we would love to have him home sometime this winter, even more we want to spend some serious time with him next fall. For that reason, and because there was a shortage of leave time for his platoon, he voluntarily gave up his leave. He said that nearly everyone in his platoon has a wife and kids to come back and see. He felt that it was more imperative that they get home than it was for him. I appreciate that kind of attitude. This call has a lot to say about his attitude.

Mom is really good to send "fun" stuff to Kyle. Kyle said that he takes and hides the stuff he really wants to keep, and then the rest of it he makes available for other soldiers to use/have. I think he feels like he stands a better chance of keeping the stuff he really wants if he is generous with the other stuff. One of the "fun" items that has become community property is "A Barrel of Monkeys" (the old kids game from my childhood). Kyle says that whenever someone is having a bad day Kyle says to them, "Go play with the barrel of monkeys, cause nothings more fun than a barrel of monkeys." The recipient of these witty words always laugh, and begin immediately to have a better day. And sometimes they even go play with the monkeys.

Another care package items is a crossword puzzle book. Kyle never worked crosswords at home, but he works them often in Iraq. He will take a seat outside his CAN (pictured above) and work the puzzles. Whenever another soldier walks buy and laughs at Kyle he responds, "I just keepin' my mind sharp. What are you doing to keep sharp." At that point he flashes that winsome smile and the other soldier can't help but laugh.

He was telling his mother that he loves going out on patrol. He said, "Mom, its like being at the zoo. You never know when you are going to come across wild goats, wild dogs, donkeys or camels. I love it." It takes a great deal of mental strength to maintain a positive attitude in a setting like his. We couldn't be more proud.

Almost forgot the best news of all. His deployment has been shortened. It looks like he may be coming home a couple months early. More to come ...