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To The Love Of My Life

In honor of Lori's birthday, we threw her a little party here in the middle of the desert. There were decorations and even punch balloons as party favors. It was a fun time! I just wish I could have wished her a happy birthday in person. Lori, I hope you had a great birthday! 10/5/03

Another Re-Up

I had the honor of conducting another reenlistment of an outstanding soldier and leader. Sergeant (SGT) Taracus "Rock" Jones reenlisted on Sunday for another stint with the Army. During his speech afterwards, he looked at our Battalion Command Sergeant Major (the highest ranking enlisted soldier in the battalion) and told him he hopes to be doing his job one of these days. Attitude, attitude, attitude. Attitude takes you a long way and I personally know that SGT Jones has it and the abilities and leadership qualities to someday become a command sergeant major. 10/6/03

River Valley

This picture was taken by one of my platoon leaders back in April when we were flying to Baghdad. The funniest thing about it is the palm trees. Why? Right before we flew out of Kuwait, we were told to AVOID all palm tree grooves as they make excellent hiding spots for enemy forces to take shots at aircraft flying overhead. As you can see, grooves are hard to avoid when there are palm trees as far as the eye can see! 10/7/3

Sheep Shepard

Another shot from the ground convoy as they rolled North back in April. The sheep herders are amazing around here. This picture shows some vegetation, which of course means water is nearby, but around our location, there is no water and no vegetation. Yet the shepards tend to their flocks and move them around to what sparse vegetation there is. Cattle are the only other animals I have seen being raised and they are few and far between. 10/8/03

Aircraft Maintenance

On a daily basis, our battalion's maintenance company (D Company) does a fantastic job of working on and keeping our helicopters in excellent running condition. Here they work on a phase aircraft. Every 250 flight hours, each helicopter goes into phase during which it is taken apart and inspected/serviced. They have been working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since we hit the ground back in April. Motivated and dedicated! 10/9/03

Sleeping Death

Contrary to popular belief, this is not an Apache Longbow showroom floor. This was taken at another airfield and is of a sister battalion out of Germany. One of our battalion's companies is co-located with them as they are supporting a different ground brigade. Note that not all of the Longbow helicopters have the Fire Control Radar (FCR) on top (only 50% come with them). Each helicopter does have a modem in it, so the aircraft with the FCR can transmit (like e-mail) any targets it detects to all of the other aircraft. 10/10/03

A Boxer And His Corner

Last week our battalion along with our aviation support battalion began co-sponsoring Friday Night Fights, boxing matches pitting novice boxers against each other. Last night, one of the radio operators I work with fought in his first ever boxing match. I am proud to say he is now 1 - 0 with his win being a technical knockout. The boxer is Private First Class (PFC) Paul Tran-Reno who hails from Houston, Texas. His corner man, coach and manager is none other than Sergeant (SGT) Taracus "Rock" Jones. 10/11/03