Highway to Hell....

If I could put theme music to this, then AC/DC would be a good choice. I write this at 1 Am on april fool's....how appropriate! Just trying to get caught up, cuz what a week it has been!

25 March – Some people call it fate, others speak of destiny. I get the feeling from time to time that there is a galactic network in which we are all connected and/or ensnared. When things are going bad, you feel trapped and caught, and Mr. Murphy tends to have his way with you. When things are going well however, we see the nets. Like grouper, or schools of fish, we learn to live with the great nets, and sometimes even to ride them for a while. It is amazing that I am at 32,000 feet above the Atlantic ocean, on my way to Iraq, via Kuwait, via a 28 hour layover at Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily. I am listening to Jimmy Buffet sing about Changes in Latitude, while reading his book, “A Salty Piece of Land”, which happens to be about a displaced cowboy from Heartache, Wyoming who has fled to the Gulf of Mexico in search of adventure, in love with the sea from the first sight, and is not really sure of where he is being led on a big adventure.
Leaving never gets easy. As a matter of fact, it gets harder because as time goes by we only become more aware of the ravages of time and how short our time on this ball of mud may be, or more importantly, the time left for our loved ones. I can’t imagine how hard this must have been for my Great Uncle Jeff. For those reading this who aren’t familiar with the story, he was my Grandma’s little brother. They had a big family – six or eight kids I think. Anyway, he left to go fight the Japanese in the South Pacific, while everyone else stayed back to manage the ranch. He would write with stories and scant details, but when he put the date in the upper right corner of the letter, if he closed the top of the number four in the date (i.e. 1943) then they were to go to every tenth word and write down the first letter to spell out secret codes as to where they were. By the end of his hitch, he had become quite the codemaster, I am sure. He always claimed that McArthur was an idiot. “Every time we landed on an island, there were two ways to attack – up the smooth beach, or up a cliff, and that bastard always had us go up the cliff”. In this age of cell phones, computers, MP3 players and the like, I wonder how they ever got by being away from family. Hopefully, Uncle Jeff has had the opportunity to make amends with the General, and is now enjoying his ranch in a better place… (albeit with unlimited water rights, huh?)
We landed for about an hour in St. John’s Newfoundland – the easternmost point in North America. I got a brief chance to talk with Shannon before we took off – not sure how much I will be charged for roaming, but it was worth it. Although now she says that Derek’s job will be to make sure that she is never out of arm’s reach of her cell phone for the next year!!! There were snow drifts on the tarmac, and a very light snow dusting was falling as we got back on the plane. It is an interesting way to travel – 64 of us all in the same uniform. To a limited extent, we loaded our own bags. There are two MP dog handlers with us, so while we waited in the terminal, the dogs were out exploring their surroundings. Get this – they took up a collection while in flight, and had the pilots call ahead for pizza delivery. It wasn’t dominoes, (and that is probably a good thing) but it reinforces that network concept – while we may all be different and run to our own set of internal songs, some things like pizza are universal.
I was going to say that we all run on our own internal clocks, but in Jimmy’s book, Tully Mars (the cowboy) speaks of a conch shell that his dad gave him when he was eight years old. His dad and a war buddy (a medicine man from Montana) taught him that if he held it to his ear, he would hear the songs of the ocean. It wasn’t that the music was in the conch shell however, that it was that the music was already inside of him – the shell just brought it out. I first heard that song riding a laser sailboat in the Arabian Sea, while staying with a Brit family on a band trip back in 1984 or so. On and off again, I have heard it, and its unmistakable call. Maybe that is what this is all about. On the surface it has to do with saving lives, and fighting terrorists. What it really is about however is the networks, wanderlust, the call of the ocean, and the occasional conch shell. Whatever it may be, the journey of a thousand miles has begun.

26 March – Oh what an adventure. Once again on the plane, winging our way past Mt. Aetna away from Sicily to uncertain adventure in Kuwait. By way of note, we “misplaced” two of our fellow adventurers – four were late, unshaven, and slightly under the weather, two were MIA, one of which was Raj. I sure hope that he is OK… or that it was worth it!
Sigonella was a good reprieve. We left the BOQ tired, but determined to fight jet lag at about 1130. The bus service was poor to non existent, but there is an interesting trick to the area – we were on NAS Sigonella, Base #2. The newer and better equipped base is Base#1. So you walk out to the front gate, and hold up one finger to the string of cars, and a fellow shipmate offers a ride! NAS #1 was nice, but like any base, a little boring. 50 euros later (split amongst the seven of us) and we found ourselves in the old city of Catania. An ancient roman costal outpost, a newer Italian port of call, it is a mixture of old an new. We spent about six hours, walked at least five miles and took a ton of pictures from the old town square with it’s brown gothic stone reliefs to the ancient roman ampitheater in the center of town, to the old opera house where Maria Callas once performed. We visited a Greek Orthodox church, the Catania Catholic cathedral where the composer Bellini is laying in state, ate sinful chocolate filled treats, drank real espresso, and took in the atmosphere of Italian culture. I took pictures like a Japanese tourist on crack, but if this were to be my last cultural experience for the next year, I wanted to make it count. My only regret was that thanks to timing, commutes back to base, and the fact that we were all dog tired, I never got my authentic Italian dinner – instead a fair calzone, and two beers back on base. Ah well, maybe while on my next visit.
So here I sit once again, winging my way towards an uncertain future. What Iraq holds for me, and how much my immediate and for that matter long term future will be affected by these next few months should be significant. Once again, Jimmy Buffet seems to be guiding my thoughts and playing the soundtrack to my life. From his book “A Salty Piece of Land” – “there will always be those who feel more comfortable not venturing from the warmth of the hearth, but there are those who prefer to look out the window and wonder what is beyond the horizon. There is no beauty like that which overtakes us by accident.” Or more succinctly put, “Just remember that contentment is a quality best suited for cows – not cowboys.” This cowboy’s pony is headed east, for better or worse. Strangely enough, my MP3 player on shuffle just started playing Toby Keith and Willie Nelson’s “Beer for my Horses”. Funny how the galactic fishing nets just seem to move you along….

27 March - Arrival in Kuwait, or Adventures in Army Bureacracy!!! They have a "grid" of tents here ordered by letter and number, neatly assigned to rows. We show up, and have all our bags loaded into a truck, where we smartly proceed to the air base. As we pass concrete bunkers that look like (and later confirmed) that they had been punched clean through by Tomahawks from 15 years ago (my god, has it been that long???) and never fixed. Not sure what to be more impressed with, the accuracy of the weapons, their penetrating capability, or the steadfast and determined Kuwaiti spirit to never have them repaired!!!! Once in the compound, we offload and claim our bags into nice neat little piles until we are told that we can wait around for an hour until the Gator trucks can come pick them up and take them to our tents, or we can hump them there ourselves....45 minutes later, drenched in sweat, I finally assemble my bags in a tent with eight others.

28 - 31 March - Change.....whatever..to the schedule. Today, we were told that we would be processing pay data, and turning in our travel claims.....only to be told that we have four hours to pack our campout gear for three days, because we are training in the desert!!! Can you say Fun? Last time I checked, I was a submariner for a reason - hot coffee, hot showers, and Air condamnditioning!!!!. Yeah, I know I whine, but if I didn't then this blog would be pretty boring. So we pack up and head out to the desert, where a company made of ex Army types are teaching us everything we ever wanted to know about convoy operations, but were afraid to ask. We get classroom training on types of IED's (improvised Explosive Devices), convoy tactics, close quarter marksmanship (shooting, while walking, running, and all sorts of interesting stuff), and communications. All in all, pretty good training. It was all the MRE's, living in a tent with fourty of my closest buddies, not showering, not shaving, and having the constant river of sweat run down my back that I can do without. On a serious note, God Bless the Army for taking that off of our hands - there are actually those that enjoy this crap and want to do it. It is because they like to sweat and stink, that the rest of us can shower and remain cool in peace!

1 April - 0139 hours. Lots of stuff going on, and I am just wrapping this week up. I would love to post pictures, but for some reason, the website (or my computer) is slow today. I am still looking into a means of sharing pictures, and I might have found it, I just need time to work out the bugs. When I do, you should enjoy the pictures of Sigonella, etc. In the meantime, I may be winging it to Baghdad tomorrow or Sunday. More to follow of course, but until further news, I will be seeing you!

Safe in Kuwait

Sorry this is slow in coming, it has been a crazy week here. Vince made it safely into Kuwait, and is currently somewhere out in the middle of the desert camping out and getting some advanced training for the next few days. On Monday we were actually both able to get our webcams up and working for the first time, it was so wonderful to actually see Vince's face. It made all the difference in the world, especially to Aleks. Aleks and Vince spent alot of time making funny faces back and forth at each other, while Derek typed messages for both of them.

Vince had a wonderful time seeing the sites in Sicily, but I will save that update for him to tell you about. They had one whole day at Sigonella and he said he took a ton of pictures to share with us of ancient Roman ruins and all sorts of cool stuff. Hopefully with a little luck Vince will be able to get on here and update by sometime this weekend. Thanks for the continuing support!

Shannon for Vince

On his way....

I got a call from Vince about 7 tonight. Just a real quick 3 minute call to tell me they had made it as far as Newfoundland and were refueling. Next stop is the Azores for another refuel, then on in to Sigonella, Sicily by early Sunday. Vince was in good spirits, the flight was going well, and he was happy to finally be on his way to do something important. I will keep everyone updated as the week progresses, I anticipate at least 1 or 2 weeks until he is fully up and capable of posting here again himself. I can't thank all of you enough for your wonderful phone calls, e-mails, and other support. Because of all of you I have faith will get through this together!

Shannon for Vince

Last few hours stateside

Sorry folks, no pictures today, but I will try and document the trip. We leave tomorrow for Iraq at 1100. probably 16 hours on the plane to Sigonella, Sicily, a day layover, then on to Kuwait. I got a couple of days training there, followed by some admin, then on to the sandbox.
Crazy last few hours packing, along with the worlds Longest After Action Report and feedback....funny when you give everyone a voice to provide input, they ALL tend to use it!!!!
But I am packed now, and getting ready to box up the puter. Hopefully it won't be too long till I get to use it again, as I hope to get caught up the second week in April. Not to worry, I should be back on line in no time. Fair winds and following seas to all, and here's to a successful journey!

Four days and counting!

Here we go again - another crazy couple of days. Yesterday, we had what I consider the first real, quality training of the course - Medical and Land navigation. The medical was taught from a real world input, but once again, the army tends to issue gear, then have you add on. It's nice to know that the kits are high quality, but the corpsmen had many things that they thought we should add - facemasks, non latex gloves, and tampons..... yes, tampons. Apparently these things can be used to stop blood, and are great for bullet holes. So the next time you see a big, hulking mean looking Army Ranger buying a box, either he is going to war, or running his wife's errands!!!! The map exercise was good. We go out into the woods and get lost here soon - a half day nature hike with 65 pounds of our favorite gear. Hopefully it won't be raining. Hey, at least now I know how to call in gunfire support. Hmmm.... that could be useful with a couple of former CO's...... lol

Today was a good day - we got to fire the big guns! Ma Deuce - M2 - 50 Cal automatic machine gun, the Mk 19 grenade launcher, and the M240 Machine gun, and Squad Automatic Weapon. A solid couple of hours of lead downrange. This would be the kewl part of being a grunt - but not the hikes, carrying the equipment, cleaning, maintenace....... just get me in there for the shooting part!!!! Other than that, and a typhoid shot (yaaaaayyyyyy) that is all the news that is fit to print. Tomorrow, and Thursday are training days, and Friday is admin. I'm told that we take off on Saturday morning via chartered flight, grab a layover on the way, and by Monday, I should be in Kuwait. From there, it is a 2 and a half day class involving camping out in the desert, then get in line and wait for a flight into baghdad. Something tells me, that won't take long. With the President's speech last week, and the indiciations I am getting, this tour won't be just a small desk job pushing papers, and hiding in a bunker. With any luck, I will be coming home next year along with A LOT more kids that otherwise would have been blown up, twisted, or mangled. One can only hope!

Well, that is all for now - I will try and get one last post off before going in country. Hopefully the internet is wide open and plentiful!

The week in Review

Ok folks, it has been a crazy week, but here is what has been going on to date -
Sunday - BWI airport and the jet engines roar (up up up little plane!) Put my phone list in order and trying to remember everyone. It is kind've funny, I have ridden on a million plane flights, but only now am I realizing how very isolated we all are - so many travellers going on business, vacation, and normal life. I am off to war. Do they even realize what is in the balance? In the meantime, my carryon got scanned twice, but my slim knife / multi tool still made it through. So much for the TSA! Jimmy Buffett and us pirates looking at forty are off to a big adventure. Changes in Latitude and all that stuff.
I arrive at Glorious Ft. Jackson, SC late in the day and get hustled into a room of about 120 men and women waiting for drips of information to be scattered upon us. In typical Army (in)efficiency, I am left strangely wanting of more data.....

Monday the 13th... Somewhat reminiscent of "Biloxi Blues" this place gives meaning to the term "milling about smartly". The schedule is unclear, and most of the evolutions have been slapped together, but with great seriousness and urgency. To a bubblehead, there is a meaning behind getting issued a flak Jacket with Ballistic Armor....but it is thrown into the rucksack they gave me and on to the next station. Issue first, train later I guess. Another 90 minutes of issue, another 100 lbs of gear. I will leave here with 500 pounds if I am not careful! We got two pairs of boots, thermal underwear (Under Armor none the less!), two sets of goggles, sunglasses, Army Camouflage uniforms, and all the NBC / Protection gear you could ever imagine....

Wednesday - "Intro to PT". No, not 'Hi, how are you'... Welcome to the army way of doing business. I will announce the exercise we will commence. You will respond with hooahh (which I steadfastly refuse to do - "Yarch" if anything, just to mess with them...) Then we will assume the position, and commence. The Drill Sergeant actually felt he needed to demonstrate to us the change in the inflection of his voice to indicate the final repetition......god help us if this is how every boot is welcomed to the Army..... Briefings today, classes in how to carry your weapons (yes we got weapons today). I got a 9MM which is relatively new (reconditioned at the factory), but I also get to carry a beat up Reserve issue M16 which looks like it hadn't been cleaned since the Carter Administration. It is an interesting dialogue - the Army/Air force tends to focus on the job - kill people. We get a lot of instruction on how to clear weapons jams WHEN they occur. (frequently apparently!). The Navy / Marines tend to focus on how to do the job, and the efficiency with which we carry it out. Less weapons jamming with more weapon cleaning.

Thursday - the folks getting shots got back so late, that they cancelled PT the next morning. Unfortunately, those of us not getting shots failed to get that word.....More weapons familiarization today. Classes in how to assume the prone position, sight alignment, trigger control. All in all a good refresher, but you would be shocked at some of the folks who have NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER with a weapon in their hands. During chow, after hours, and anytime that all the weapons aren't checked out, we have to guard them. Seems inocuous enough, but compared to some of the watches I have stood in my life, it is interesting that they would have a collection of LCDR's, CDR's and assorted officers watching weapons racks on a secure installation. This must be the one or two times the Drill Sergeants get to have fun with us....

Friday - Qualification day ! 40 out of 40 on the 9mm, 27 out of 40 on the M16, 5,287 out of 1,000,000 in picking up spent brass!!!!! Not as good as I would have liked on the Combat M16 Qualification course, but good enough to qualify and get liberty. Shannon of course had to let me know that she did better on it when she took the course.......

This weekend has been pretty good. A nice steak, a big hotel bed, and plenty of time on the computer. Frantically trying to download some stuff to my MP3 player, but I am still learning the ropes. Sorry if I didn't get in touch with everyone I needed too. I promise that I will call this week. LOTS more to fill in - found out all sorts of stuff about my new job. More to come......Dive Dive......

Editorial comments

Hey all!
Well, I finally got a chance to get on a computer here, and wanted to say Hi! I will have a chance to fully update things with a blow by blow on Sunday, but until then, I just wanted to make a quick Mia Culpa.
I have a bad habit of running off of the mouth without engaging brain, and it showed last Sunday, and was highlighted by Michelle (THANKS!) In all my haste to get the hell out of dodge and get to the airport, I forgot to acknowledge my lovely, talented, perservering, and ever supportive wife. Honey, there is no way I could do this without you and I am officially, publicly and immensely sorry I didn't include you in my "goodbye" post. You mean the world to me.

Love to all - I will be back on here on Sunday!

Vince's God Daughter is Here!!!!!

Vince's sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl today, and Vince has been asked to be her Godfather!!! Geneva Louise arrived at 2:40 this afternoon weighing in at 5 lbs. 8 oz. Both Tam and Geneva are doing wonderful and I will try to figure out how to get pictures on here as soon as I get them. Congrats Jon and Tam and welcome to the world little Geneva we can't wait to meet you!!!

Vince made it to Ft. Jackson

Well, Vince has made it to Ft. Jackson in South Carolina. His spirits seem to be ok, and he met up with the Chief he will be heading over there with. He says he is a nice guy and he looks forward to getting to know him better. From the sounds of it he will be leaving for Kuwait around the 25-26th, and his date for entering Iraq still seems set at April 9th. He is getting settled in, it is an open squad bay so it is a bit different than what he has experienced in the past. They will be issuing him both a pistol and an M-16, lord help us! lol

The boys are doing ok, each is coping in their own way. Aleks just wants to be near me, and Derek is being quiet and alone except for the occasional hug. I think the tears have stopped until at least bedtime though. There are periods when everything seems normal around here and I expect Vince to pop around the corner. I feel sorry for Vince's dog Bella, she is looking all over for him and just doesn't understand. Of all of us I think this will be most difficult for her, she worships the ground he walks on.

Sorry to sound so depressing folks, but tomorrow is another day. It also means we are one step closer to Vinces homecoming, and our lives getting back to normal. Thank you all so much for the support, right now I just really want to talk and keep my mind off things. I will continue to update until Vince is able to get back on here himself.

Shannon for Vince

Last minute thoughts

Well, this is it - not sure when I will be back up. In the meantime, I will have Shannon on here filling in for the last few hours. What a wild crazy adventure this is. To all those worried, don't. Whether our time comes up driving to work in a stupid early morning pile up, or a million miles away at the hands of a mortar shell, what I have learned this past week (!) is that every minute with family is precious and not to be taken for granted. As well, is that your life must have a purpose. I have found mine as coach, Scout leader, Naval Officer, but most importantly as dad.
Not to worry all - the journey of a thousand miles, or in this case of 392 days starts with a single step. I will try and keep this up to date until I am a little more stable and adjusted in the desert. Thanks to all for your support.

Whooooaaah Nelly!

Well, we went from planning on a transit to my next duty station on the 20th, to scrambling to get all my crap together by Sunday, the 12th. I have been soooo lucky to be chosen as part of the "advance team". Sometimes I wonder why I always get such a short straw! Oh well, means I will be the first back stateside!
The tears and sad moments seem to be piling up rapidly - hugs turn in to clutching, a frown becomes bone wracking tears, and my mood is steadily changing from happy - go -lucky dad / coach /community member to steely eyed killer. (insert your jokes here about a pasty overweight submariner being a killer!!!) It is the familiar detachment of mission focus and transformation of the civilian to professional. In some ways it is welcome - we shed ourselves of the mundane, the meaningless, the extraneous BS that everyone deals with. In a lot of ways it is sad - it reminds us that war and military life is meant for the young and young at heart. Thank god for our volunteer force because this couldn't be done by the conscripted.
In other news, I am continuing to figure out this blog thing - I have allowed for anonymous comments, so feel free to tell me what a pansy I am (all hail the pansies! - to quote Madagascar) without having to log in.
By the way Katie, thanks for your comment, and I look forward to reading your blog as well - you will soon find the world of opportunity that will open for you as you continue in school, and in life - you only have one thing in the entire world that they can never take away from you, but that you can debase and freely give away, and that is your integrity. You have more of it than most adults. You will make a fine, beautiful woman one day, and I am looking forward to watching you continue to mature and grow.

Rolling of the great stone

Remember that scene at the beginning of the FIRST Indiana Jones movie, where he is trying to escape from the south american tomb with the small statue, and he screws up, sending the giant rolling stone after him? (that was cool - quoting the late great Chris farley!) The stone is rolling. It will arrive on the 20th of this month. My comfortable world of worrying about home remodeling, cutting the grass, and how much of my paycheck we are blowing on eating out will be traded for bulletproof (?) vests, thigh holsters, and what level of my mental energy should be allocated to personal defense, instead of other important things.
Winston Churchill once said that there is no greater thrill than to be shot at without incident. I am hoping that the shot never takes place to start with. In the meantime, all concerned are calling, writing, visiting, and generally trying to show support without getting too teary about it. While this is touching, I am also finding the best sources of inspiration and help are those with the ten-thousand yard stare. Those that have been there already, have their demons tightly locked away - who know that there is no way to guarantee safety, to tell anybody that it will be ok, and to pass on that no matter what, the timing of our number coming up is largely due to luck. While not as comforting, there gets to be a comfort in routine - packing the seabag, trying on the holster, checking the gear....twice.
Visited the academy today - went to chapel. Before you go anywhere, it is necessary to know where you have been. Chick and Ruth's, and a healthy dose of staring at the statues at the top of the Cathedral dome. And the stone keeps on rolling....closer, and closer, and closer.