Marriage and Army life?

This deployment is starting to take its toll. Lately there has been quite a few soldiers upset about their wife or girlfriend back at home. Just a FYI, Fort Stewart(The post where I'm stationed at back in the States) has the highest divorce rate IN THE ARMY. Out of ALL the Army posts, we have the highest. That might be in direct result of another fact, 3rd Infantry Division is one of the most rapid deployed units in the Army. In fact there are quite a number of divorce lawyers just a stone throw away off post.
Anyway back to what I was saying, there as been quite a few soldiers that are going through some rough times with their wife or girlfriend back home. Army life and family life or girlfriends don't mix. It's just that simple. Some people try to do and end up getting burned down the road or they end up hating their wives or girlfriends later on. The "career" Army guys, the senior NCOs and Officers that have been in for 15+ years that are married, I doubt many of them can say they have a great marriage. It's just too hard to be away from your loved one for so long, its only a matter of time. Since this whole war on terrorism kicked off, the U.S. has stretched their armed forces thin. Deployments are long and frequent. They will continue to do so for at least 20 years.
If you joined the Army in 2002 and stay in till 2022, you are likely to be deployed for almost half of that time. Not to mention all the different Army schools you attend and field exercises in between those deployments. That is a lot of missed birthdays, holidays and anniversaries.
When a soldier returns home after a year long deployment and becomes reunited with their wife and kids, its never the same as before they left. They might say it is, but its not.
Bottom line, If you want to be a family man, don't stay in the Army. I Love the Army, I love my job and I love my Country, but I'm out of here after this deployment.

On to the next topic:

It's starting to get hot over here. The breeze is no relief for the heat, it's just hot air. We haven't felt the worst of it yet, it should get at least another 40 degrees hotter later this year. That I am not looking forward to. We do have A/C in our rooms and my office, but my Hummvee does not.

Leave it at the door

There is an individual that I share an office with. This guy has been testing my nerves the last 2 weeks. Apparently his girlfriend back home dump his ass or something of that nature and he's been pretty bummed out about it. He's been giving everyone an attitude and his performance in the work place has suffered from his lack of attention to detail. To sum it up, he is at that point where he doesn't give a fuck.

Now for a few days I bit my lip when he gave me an attitude more then once. I know how it feels for ol girl to aggravate you when you are soo far away. My buddies know my ol girl hasn't been a very nice person to me since I been over here in Iraq. I was bummed out for a bit but I sucked it up. We're in a fuckin war zone. You better get over it quick and leave that shit at the door before you come to work because when people fail to pay attention to detail people will die. It's that simple. Mission comes first so SUCK IT UP and DRIVE ON!

I hate girly men. I really do. We don't have time to whining and crying.

Ha, sorry for that but I just had to get that out.

check out my photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/ob1

Flickr.com has extended my membership for an extra year and upped my monthly transfer limit to 2 gigs! I'm psyched, only wish I had highspeed internet. Don't get me wrong, at least I have internet yes and I'm very grateful. Anyway, for you shutterbugs, Make yourself an account on flickr.com they rock!

Born in a fuckin barn

My team shares an office with the commo shop and one other person that just moved in. Everyone that is not on my team has a problem with shutting the door. After countless times reminding them to shut it, they can't learn a simple task like shutting the door. Really pisses me off.

Parents, please teach your children how to shut the door behind them. It's very rude and rather annoying.

I was featured in a German news article last week. The article spoke about American soldiers' weblogs and photos on flickr. They displayed a photo of me with my machine gun referring to me as a child with a cannon. Also mentioned how my photos aren't too pleasant. Apparently the German media, as many other people aren't too fond of the Coalition presence in Iraq. Oh well, they'll get over it. But to say that my photos aren't pleasant, I'll let you be the judge of that. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ob1

My hits on my photostream skyrocketed since the article. Your photostream has been viewed 13401 times.
Here is a link to the German news article http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19837/1.html

Sad day

The man in the passenger seat lay slumped against the dashboard, a massive wound to his head. John pulled the body upright and cut his pockets open looking for ID. When he was done and let the body fall back against the dashboard, he said what was left of the man's brain fell out of the opening in the back of his head and onto the ground. He could handle the guy with the brain and both the dead women, but it was the three-year-old-girl, he said, that got to him.

Little while before that took place there was a small convoy made up of a security team that came to a halt as someone spotted an IED (improvised explosive device). They called in the EOD (explosive ordnance disposal team, guys who blow up bombs on purpose left by bad guys) As they were pulling up to the site of the spotted IED they were taking fire from multiple directions. With the enemy fire there was a rain of multiple mortars. Fortunately they suck at aiming for mortars are the primary means of attack, but can’t hit the side of a barn if they tried. They laid down suppressive fire as much as they could which seemed to be a little difficult, even though it was daytime, it was still hard to pinpoint where it was coming from.

Within the area they spotted a vehicle on the move that they identified as one of the attackers. From what I was hearing on the radio the gunships attacked this vehicle with a shitload of machine gunfire. The truck contained 6 people, 2 men, 2 women and 2 children. The two men were sitting in the front as it is accustomed in Iraq, were dead, 2 women were dead and 1 three year old girl. The only one left was an 8 year old girl lying in the back.

I try to fathom what it must feel like to be an 8 year old girl of Arabic decent to watch your family die so suddenly and violently in front of you. Thank god none of this carnage has been carried out by anyone in my platoon or even my battalion for that matter.

Sad day

Medal of Honor

It has been a little over a week since I last posted. I have been very busy with Army stuff. Yes Army stuff…I am in Iraq you know.. Let’s see if I can bring you guys up to speed on what I have been doing…..

For two weeks I was on escort detail. The U.S. Army employs the Local Iraqi Nations here on post to help rebuild the camp; my job was to watch them. It wasn’t bad, just extremely boring. I did manage to kill some time and learned some Arabic from the translator that was with the group of Iraqi Nationals. We also had long discussions of how life was like with Saddam in power and stuff. Quite interesting.

My roommate noticed that there was a mouse running around our room the other day. We have no clue how it got there but we have been trying to kill it. He’s a fast little critter. My roommate set some traps today in attempt to catch that SOB. Hopefully we are successful. The though of having a little rodent running around my room gives me the quivers. I’ll take photos for all to see of the mouse smashed in the trap.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention. One of our very own soldiers from 3rd ID was awarded the Medal of Honor. For those of you who don’t know much about the Medal of Honor, it is the most prestigious award a soldier can receive. The last was awarded to someone over 12 years ago from that conflict we had in Somalia.(If you saw the movie Black Hawk Down, that was based on a true story) The awardee is Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith of B Company, 11th Engineer Battalion 3rd ID. He is credited for killing about 50 enemy soldiers from an Armored Passenger Carrier. SFC. Smith held his position just outside Saddam International Airport on a .50 Cal. Machine gun expending 3 boxes of ammunition before he was fatally wounded. In his efforts to hold off the enemy he saved about 100 of his fellow troops.

Sergeant First Class Smith is the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor during the War on Terror. With people like SFC. Smith I am proud to be apart of the 3rd Infantry Division and U.S. Army. I don’t plan on dying out here but If I do, I hope I can give my life to saving my fellow soldiers.

The son of Sergeant First Class Paul Smith, David accepted the award that his father gave his life to earn. http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/

On a different note, the weather here is starting to get warmer by the day, highs reach about 80+. The wind is also picking up. The dust here sucks. We walk around most of the day with eye protection from the sun and also to keep the dust out of our eyes.

If you haven’t already, check out my photos on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ob1