tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-159295182011-04-21T20:53:58.140-05:00The journal of an Army National Guard soldier and current law student, mobilized for deployment to Afghanistan. This is not pro-war, pro-military, or political, it is pro-my opinion and nothing more. This site does not represent the views of the US Government, Military, or any Organization. It does not represent the views of my military commanders either. If you are new - it may behoove you to read the stories chronolically from the first one to the most recent.LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-33158030738452348562008-04-09T20:49:00.005-05:002008-04-09T21:50:31.358-05:00

Ok, brace yourselves...here's another wonderful "comment from anonymous." (Keep 'em coming people, gotta love open dialogue between two total strangers...)It's VIETRAQISTAN. Let's see some more little girls (and boys, for that matter) going to school HERE! I wonder why the US never sent the military in to destroy Apartheid in South Africa. If you're gonna be the world policeman, you've got to go

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-64039933853346173312008-04-03T08:32:00.004-05:002008-04-03T12:52:24.932-05:00

Wow. I just have to say that I'm actually surprised every time someone leaves a comment on this page. This is for a few reasons.First, I rarely post here anymore...my deployment is over and I'm back to my civilian life. In that life, I enjoy spending time with my husband, my family, my friends and colleagues. I'm nearing the end of school, finally. After being educated for nearly 19 years of

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-73837264902040903012007-09-24T12:13:00.000-05:002007-09-24T12:23:37.130-05:00

Yo, it's been quite some time since I wrote anything for this blog. To be honest with you, I sort of forgot I even had the site until some "kind soul" posted a comment a couple weeks ago stating, "I hope you're still alive, and hope you don't lose your mind down the road w/PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] or wind up with cancer due to DU [Depleted Uranium] exposure."Wow, what kind words

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1144187247789093382006-04-04T16:31:00.000-05:002006-04-04T16:47:27.823-05:00

That's what I heard someone say tonight at work. "There's a war out there somewhere." It's true, there is, it's just not where I am per se, but sometimes it's close enough. We've had our rocket attacks and our mine accidents and IED's, but not my unit, just my base. And really, we haven't had a lot of those and sometimes it's pretty easy to forget we're in a war zone.Until we're at work and

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1141513725077000572006-03-04T16:58:00.000-06:002006-03-04T17:08:45.096-06:00

This will be a quick one. Everytime I see this lady on the news or I read about her in the Stars and Stripes at dinner, I can't help but be disgusted by her. Seriously - I just have a few questions for her.Were you anti-war before your son joined the service and went to Iraq? If you were, was your son aware of your opinion about the war and his service? Was your son anti-war?Because seriously,

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1141162919411048522006-02-28T15:07:00.000-06:002006-02-28T15:41:59.446-06:00

Well, what can I say, it's been a while since my last post and i really have no good reason why. I have been in country for almost a month now and we are still trying to get settled into a routine. The days are long with our shifts plus my extra admin and computer duties in the orderly room, but really, it's not like I have anything else to do or another place to be right now, so the extra work

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1138387816422084272006-01-27T12:39:00.000-06:002006-01-27T12:50:16.576-06:00

Well, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth yet. We're still at our mobilization station preparing to leave for lovely Afghanistan.I don't have a lot to say right now. The trianing has been hectic at times, slow at others. Some of it has been really good and we have learned a lot, other parts of it have been seemingly worthless and have left me feeling like the Army has done nothing but

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1134963854146642582005-12-18T21:14:00.000-06:002005-12-18T21:44:18.396-06:00

Training, training, training. That's what we do in the Army. We train for war, while in the back of our mind we hope we will never go there. But it's what we do. We train to prepare for the worst hoping that our reactions will be so engrained in our heads we'll do the right thing without even thinking about it. The ultimate goal is to minimize casualties and increase our chances of success

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1134087358094562872005-12-08T18:12:00.000-06:002005-12-08T18:15:58.123-06:00

So here we are, hanging out at our mobilization station for pre-deployment training. Things are actually pretty ok so far. I am sure that most people would think things are pretty jacked up at times, but for the most part, judging from experience, the process here is pretty much what I expected, but it can be frustrating. The basic concept here to get us all trained up to be high speed, hooah

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1131268288528118002005-11-06T02:18:00.000-06:002005-11-06T13:08:52.866-06:00

This is not an easy one for me to write. Partly because I seriously am intoxicated right now, but mostly because it's just not easy to say goodbye to people when it comes to this.You see, I said once before that my biggest fear in this whole deployment is that some of the people who are my friends today won't be my friends when I return. And, in part, I guess that's ok, but the part of it hurts

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1129688280739485612005-10-18T20:15:00.000-05:002005-11-06T13:05:48.110-06:00

It would probably be equally as easy to title this post, "What Goes Around, Comes Around," but I think "Open Mouth, Insert Foot" is just as appropriate.I should have learned my lesson on this earlier this summer, and I kind of thought I did, but apparently that is not the case.In order for this to make sense, let me take you back to mid-July 2005. It was a beautiful, perfect afternoon; perfect

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1128021149503929722005-09-29T13:28:00.000-05:002005-09-29T16:02:28.536-05:00

You wanna know what really grinds my gears?Ok, I stole that from Family Guy, but it seemed the most fitting for this post so I don't feel bad about stealing it, especially since I outright give credit to where I stole it from.But seriously, do you want to know what really grinds my gears? Anti-war people grind my gears. I will forewarn you that this post might display a little more of the harsh

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1126464410216379472005-09-11T12:56:00.000-05:002005-09-11T13:46:50.760-05:00

This deployment has been on my mind twenty-four/seven since I first posted. It is impossible to talk about everything that goes through a person's head when faced with this situation, so I won't even attempt it. I spent the weekend with my unit again and we started out official processing for deployment. Some may know that the unofficial motto of the Army is "hurry up and wait" and it was once

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15929518.post-1125337188682109742005-08-28T02:35:00.000-05:002005-09-23T11:31:01.236-05:00

I always believed that when I got the deployment call I would welcome the challenge and accept it with no reservations. After ten years in the Army Guard, the last few spent watching my family and friends leave for war, one would think that the call couldn’t have been a surprise. But, it was and it was not welcomed as I thought it would be. I was angry. I was angry to have to leave law

LBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474490087439771746noreply@blogger.com4