When the Smoke Clears

Do a buddy a favor. Vote for SGT Hook here at the VA Mortgage Center. He could win some money which would make the trip to the Milblogger’s conference affordable. Matty O’ Blackfive is also worthwhile as are a number of the milbloggers listed, good people, all, but let’s face it, Matt makes $220,000 a [...]

So there I was, minding my own business when I was kidnapped, kidnapped against my will and whisked away for the weekend. Indeed, 24 or so young ones gathered together and plotted my destruction, bundling me into my own Jeep which I was then forced to drive, laden down with gear and cold-weather clothing as [...]

Oops… and a little of my politics shining through…
Does anyone else find it incredibly pathetic (on our part) that our troops are sitting over there in a war zone probably more worried about our morale than we are about theirs?
From Transcended, who also links to Boggs.

…and I have plenty of my own to do, but a good friend, and an extremely good man, asked me to look over something of his. One of my favorite Majors is going through Command and General Staff College right now. He had a situational report paper due and asked me to read through it [...]

Did you notice the Project Valour-IT numbers? Well beyond our goal. Can we keep it going to $200K? Amazing. The blogosphere is an incredible subset of our culture, but a culture unto its own right. Were it not for this internet community so many of us would wonder if we stood alone in the world, [...]

And no, not Valentine’s day.
Most likely if you are reading this you are part of my group of friends out there who have known me for years and are checking in on occasion, or you are some of the great people I have met through this blog and a few others. I take it [...]

I’ve not written about it yet, figuring most people reading me are also reading the others in our little blogcircle, so I thought I’d wait a few days to keep the momentum running.
Project Valour-IT. It’s under way again. It means a lot to me. If you need the story go to the home page. [...]

Tonight I was whisked off to a semi-secret event. I was the only civilian present. I wish I could describe more about it, but to do so would give away a lot of things I’m not ready to. Let’s just say that the honor of being there was immense. I recognize the significance of the [...]

Back from the weekend with the mountaineering unit (again.)
The Rock-face: slippery. Rains over the last week have left bubbling flows at the top of the mountain, meaning lots of little sometimes waterfalls coming down the side.
The View: beautiful with the changing of the leaves. It’s one thing to drive through it. Quite another to [...]

Waterdrops are striking the roof of the cabin randomly tonight, with the occasional violent acorn landing and rolling down the steel surface. The last several days have been blankets of rain. I’ve not been here enough recently. I’ve been chasing social butterflies elsewhere when the real color of the days can be found in my [...]

Written on the back of a scrap of paper a few days ago…
Friday – Sunset – Somewhere on base – It’s not a moment of perfect peace with the occasional fly buzzing around my head, but right now all I can really hear is the wind in the pines like a distant ocean wave never [...]

It appears the cabin is fine, the dogs are fed, but still no one stained and sealed the deck. Oh well.
The weekend is done and I wrote a couple of posts from the field, which I’ll key in later. I staggered into the house this afternoon, stumbling, loaded down with my gear, still in [...]

I’ll be out for a bit. Field Training Exercise. Back on Sunday. Anyone with keys, feel free to drop in and check on the cabin.

- Two glowing eyes darting up and down in the pitch black woods: a deer. Two eyes moving side to side in the woods: probably a bear.
- When someone starts yelling, you can try to listen for the underlying message behind the voice, or shut them the f- out if they can’t figure out how [...]

Saw this on BlackFive. It’s a public service spot to air on MSNBC detailing the sacrifice made by one of our finest during this war, proclaiming his name without shame and explaining how he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Posthumously, however.

I haven’t had regular TV or cable hooked up in my home in [...]