The day has finally come

It is a mere few hours till I leave for the airport. I can hardly believe that this day has finally come. If all goes well, I should be in Texas in less than a week. I have already made contact with the gaining unit and all the paper work is in place. The process is going more smoothly than I ever could have imagined. It is just so hard to comprehend that I am just days away from sleeping in my own bed, driving my own car and seeing my family. This is a great day for me. I am not sure how, exactly, the process will work for all of the surgeries and the recovery process, but, from what I have gathered I am going to be getting E-mails sent to me telling me where to go and who to see for all the pre-surgery stuff. And when I am not scheduled to be at one of those appointments, I am supposed to report to one of the armories to do filing and other tasks that need doing. I was also informed that I am going to assist the recruiter with his duties on the days that I am available. Sounds like I am going to be kept busy, so that is a good thing. These last few months I have not done much except sit around and gain a ton of weight. That 39 pounds I lost during my deployment is now almost all back. I got down to 168 in country and since returning stateside I have regained 24 of those pounds.

I received great news today

I received some really good news today. I am getting transferred to Community Based Warrior Transition Unit (CB WTU). It looks like I have a report date of 28 February 2010. I will be going to Little Rock, Arkansas to in-process the unit and then going home to my dearly missed house in Dallas. I am looking forward to the trip.

To the best of my understanding of how it works, and I want to preface this with, "I am not 100% sure of this." But, here is how I understand the process to be:
1 I sign in to the Unit in Little Rock Arkansas.
2 I in-process all of the different Departments. (medical section, S-1 through S-4, ...)
3 I go home to Dallas and wait for all the appointments to be set up.
4 On non-appointment days, I report to the Armory near my house to do work (regular duty days)
5 on days of appointment, those are my duties for that day.

And this is supposed to happen until I am medically cleared and am ready to return to regular duty. At that point, I will have to decide if I am going to retire or stay in the Guard for another tour. This is where it gets difficult. 3 months ago, I was hell bent on getting out. I have done some thinking and I kind of like the military comradeship. I like the adventures that come with it. I like the people, for the most part. Even the ones that I do not agree with, are good people, just have different opinions or methods of getting things done.

I will admit, though, that I am leaning towards retirement, but, only because I do not want it to interfere if my business. I have had to shut down my business 3 times now for deployments and it takes around 4-6 months to get back up to speed and make a living. From what I have gathered, that is going to be a bit longer this time due to the economy.

Anyway, I am happy to finally get out of here. This is a really nice place and would be a great place to live if the sun would shine a little more. I have been here since 20 November 2009 and I have seen less sunshine since then, than any 7 day period in Texas. Here, we measure sunshine in Hours per month not weeks per month. It is just so depressing. But, when the sun finally does come out, it is absolutely incredible.

Sorry I have not written in a long time

I am home and have been for a while now. Well, actually not home, just stateside. It seems that I have messed up my knee and my right shoulder in the fall I took while evacuating our hide site back in April, after it was compromised. I have been just dealing with the pain and figured it would heal on its own. I was wrong. It looks like I have shredded my cartilage and have a torn meniscus in my right knee and have torn my rotator cuff and partially torn some tendons in my right shoulder. I did not even mention to the doctors anything about my back. I refuse to let the military touch my back in any way. Well any way. I am currently at Fort Lewis, Washington. It is located just south of Tacoma. I am hoping to be able to transfer to Texas for surgery. If all goes well, I will be leaving here in early February and going to Texas. It is all up in the air right now. If I have to stay here at Fort Lewis to have my surgeries and all my physical therapies, I will have to take leave and go home to get my vehicles. I do not think I can go without a vehicle for 7 months without going crazy.

Most of the Battalion left here in time to make it home for Thank Giving. There were a few of us that were held up by medical conditions. I think that there are only 2 or 3 of us left that have not been sent home yet. I think that I might be the only one from our battalion left here in a few days.

On a sadder note, we lost a great NCO this month. SGT Travi died in a car accident on the 5th of January. He is going to be greatly missed. I have not heard the details as to what happened. I was just informed that he has passed away from injuries he sustained in an accident.

The day has finally come.

It looks like that day is finally here. I was just given word that we are on our way home. We are about to have our awards ceremony and after thatm, we are getting our bags loaded on the trucks to go to the flight line. I just hope that we get to Ft Lewis in time to do the De-mobilization before the Holiday weekend starts. Otherwise, we have to wait there for the post to open back up on the 30th. It was a great year over all. I am, however, looking forward to getting home.

The first order of business will be to get my vehicles from up north and then drive home to Texas. I am especially looking forward to getting behind the wheel of my little MX-5. I only wish that it could have been a month sooner. I would be able to go to the track while up in Michigan, before heading home. Unfortunately, the racing season is over and the tracks up there are closed for the winter. Well there is always next year.
At least I will be home in time for Christmas this year. I am really looking forward to spending the holidays with the family. Not to mention being in my own house for Christmas. This is also my last deployment with the military. I plan on putting in my papers for retirement as soon as we get home. That will put me at 22 years of service. I figure that it is enough. I can hardly wait to be a retiree. Of course there are no real benefits for several years, but, it will come when I will need it most, once I actually hit retirement age.
Well, any way, this is probably going to be my last post on this blog. Like I said, over all this was a great deployment. We accomplished out mission and although some people did get injured over the last year, no one in our battalion was killed and thus we accomplished out mission and survived to tell about it. There are well over a thousand bad guys that cannot say the same thing. They neither accomplished their mission, nor lived to tell about it.

Went on leave.

I am sorry that I have not posted in a long time. I did not want to post on here that I was going home on leave because I wanted to surprise my Mom. And surprise her I did. It was not for sure I was going to be able to take leave. So, I did not tell anyone about it back home. I had been scheduled to take leave several times since April and for one reason or another, it was either cancelled, delayed, or rescheduled. I was tired of putting the family through the roller coaster affect. It was downright frustrating. So, this time, I was told I would be going home sometime in September. I told them that if they cannot get me home by the end of the first week, to not even bother. I would just wait till we were done and go home at that time. It would only be a few more weeks any way.
So, I landed in Dallas on Saturday morning on September 6th. I had a long day planned out, getting to a dealership to buy a new car. It took me till almost 7 PM to get it done and then started to head for the house. I went by my mom's house, but, she was not home. I tried to call her with the caller ID blocked so she would not know that I was home, but, she was out with some friends and so I left a message. She did not get the message till really late that night and E-mailed me to tell me she was sorry that she missed my call and to call her back on Sunday morning. Which is exactly what I did.
I called her from my cell phone. Again, I had the caller I D blocked. She answered her phone and we talked a few minutes. I then knocked on her door. I was on her porch the entire time. She did not hear me knocking on the door so I said over the phone, "I think I heard someone knocking on the door. Who was it?" She said that there was no one at the door. It must have been the cup she put on the table. So I rang the door bell. To which she said "you have really good ears, I did not hear the door, but, someone just rang the bell. hold on I will see who it is." as she pulled the curtain aside from the front window, I just said "Hi mom" as I waived. It took her a second or two to realize that I was not in Afghanistan but on her front porch. I wish I would have had a camera. That would have been a picture worth taking.
I was home for 15 days. It was probably the worst two weeks of the year for me. The weather really sucked. Every time I wanted to go to the lake to do some fishing and or skiing, it would rain. Then, the last time we tried, we discovered that some ASS WIPES stole all the fishing tackle out of the boat. Over $2000.00 worth of poles and tackle gone. I hope the thief dies a miserable death. I hate thieves. And I believe that there is a special place in hell for them.
So, with the fishing trip now officially taken off the table, and the weather not cooperating at all, there was not much to do. I went and visited a few of my friends who happened to have a day off here and there. I spent some of my time catching up on the shows that I had recording while I was gone. That only took a day or two. Then, not wanting to spend too much money, too late, I only went out to dinner a few times.
I did get invited to some friends houses for dinner and so I did have some good food while I was home. If I had to rely on myself for good food, it would never happen. I can barely boil eggs. LOL I also went to my favorite restaurant. I ate at Osaka's Japanese Sushi and Stake. It was everything I remember it and some. A little on the expensive side, but, worth every penny. Great food, great service, and really nice ambiance.
The trip back to Afghanistan was not what I would call quick. We were stuck in Kuwait for 5 days because of maintenance issue from the week prior. They were 4 days behind schedule and were focusing their flight on people going to the states for leave and the resupply runs. They put us on planes as space would permit, with the cargo for the resupply runs. It was, to say the least, a long trip. As you can all see I am back here safe and sound.

The prank of the year

I guess I can talk about it now since it is done with. One of the other E-7's went on leave last month and his guys wanted to pull a prank on him. And what a prank it was. I was asked to build him a new door for his room as part of the deal. We have been saving the water bottles after drinking them. Everyone was chipping in under the guise that we are going to recycle them. As it turned out, all those tens of thousands of empty bottles were used to fill his room to the top of the wall. That is where the door came into play. His original door opened inward and thus it would not work for the gag. I had to make a new door and make sure that it was set to open out into the hallway.
After he left to go on leave, we started filling the room with the bottles. It was a huge surprise to find out that even thought we had several big black trash bags full of bottles, once we had emptied all the bags into the room it was less than half way up the door. We had been saving these bottles for 3 months and now we had only 2 weeks to get twice as much to accomplish the mission. It was obvious that is going to have to do something. Failure is not an option.
I called in some favors from some of my contacts. I went to the Gym and talk to the guys there and had them save all the bottles from the people that were working out. I called a few other offices that asked them to do the same thing. Within a week we were filling the room to its peak. I do not have the video of him going into his room yet, but, I will get it and try to post it once I do.

Today was yet another rather pleasant day.

The weather here has been pretty nice the last few days. It has not gotten over the 110 mark in a while. Since the "mandatory uniform", when in, ACU's, is full dress, (Another words, I have to have the ACU coat on at all times) I was told that I could work in my PT (Physical Training) uniform.

It was great in the beginning, I had two sets of PT uniforms, so while one was in the laundry, I wore the other. Well, that was until Murphy came to visit. The Laundry service lost my bag with all my clothes in it. So now I have only one outfit to wear. Makes it kind of difficult to wash it while I am working in it. I have ordered 7 sets of PT uniforms, but, they are on back order. Luckily, I know the lady that runs the facility here on Camp Dragon. She has been taking my laundry directly into the facility and getting it done overnight. She brings it in with her in the morning at 0730 and I pick it up on the way back to the hut from the showers. She is optimistic that they will find my bag before too long. I, on the other hand, am not so sure of that. But, I will be waiting, none the less, for it to show up someday.


It seems that someone has noticed all the things that have been accomplished since I became "Bob the Builder" or "Bob Villa" as I am sometimes called. I was told to report to a 1600 (4 PM) formation today for an award ceremony. There were three of us that received AAM’s (Army Achievement Medals). It was an Impact Award. That means that it was based on a specific event, as opposed to a time range.


We received it for the work we did back in April, the wall and the tables we built for one of the sections that was relocating to the Battalion area. I was told of the task at around 1400 hrs (2 PM) and once I said that I could do it, they dropped the bomb on me. It needed to be ready by 0800 hrs (8 AM) the next day. I was not so sure I could get it done that quickly,but, I started anyway. It looked like a 2 day job, at least.

I asked them to provide me with one or two people for some assistance and they did. We finished the job at 0530 hrs. We worked through the night without a break because they team that we were building it for was to move in immediately. The two guys kind of complained at first, but, they continued to work, so it was all good. It was nice to get some sort of recognition for all the work that has been done here in the last few months.


Well, it looks like I am going down range after all. In fact, I am going down a little sooner than even I thought I would. I am, however, not going to where I was originally supposed to go. It seems that I am wanted by one of the other 1SG’s that needs some office space set up. This time the plan is to get me to Solerno and convert an open bay hardened structure into individual offices. I am not sure of what all is available there. As it is right now, there is not even any electricity for me to use. I am going to be using a generator to power my tools.

Not sure when my next post will be, but, I will take my laptop with me in case there is a USO there. If there is, it might have Wi-Fi that I can get on the web with. I like the USO, they are very good to us. If ever there was an organization that took care of the troops, it is the USO. Well any way, I will write again when I can.

LIfe is good.

I finally finished most of the projects here at Bagram and I am ready to get down range and start construction on some new projects. The only project left here is to build a rack for the server computers to sit on so they not taking up as much space in the office. I was just informed that I am going to be going down range to start construction on 4 buildings. Two of the buildings for living space and the other two for office space.

Today's project was to build a loft storage over the S-6 (COMMO) shop. The old Russian buildings have 12-14 foot ceilings and so they wanted to be able to store the boxes and cases of things out of the way. Well what better way than to be able to put it up over your head. So I built a loft 7 feet off the ground and that left 6 foot 5 inches of space on the lower level. And 5 foot of storage on the top level. I was told that it would probably take me 6 days. When I said one and a half to two days is all I needed, they laughed. I guess I too was misestimating, it took me less than one day. I also, since I had time, reset a door that was not plumb and thus rubbed the tile floor after it was opened half way.

It is amazing how fast things get done when I am not micro managed and supervised into submission. It looks like the talk with the Colonel paid off. I have noticed that things are going much smoother now that I am left to do things at my pace as long as I meet the dead lines given.

I am looking forward to constructing these buildings that need to be built. It is a good way to pass the time and leave something for the next unit once they get here to replace us. I am also looking forward to going home for a few weeks in September. It is the end of racing season and it would be great if I could get a few races in before the season ends. I want to drive my MX-5 and see if I still have what it takes to kick some butt on the track. My friend Adam has the car and he has placed 1st in every race he entered with my car. I can only hope to do as well once I get to race my car again.

Having dinner with the Governor

We were visited by five Governors from the home, Governor Rick Perry from Texas and Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota were among them. I was able to shake hands with both of them and thank them for coming. It was a great experience to say the least. I will admit I was taken aback by an article I was handed yesterday by one of the CPT’s that I work with. The article was about Governor Pawlenty. It wrote about how he had out smarted his Democrat controlled state House and Senate, and cut the budget despite the fact that the bills that were sent him to sign were the typical Liberal “Tax the small business and spend on the lazy.” He did not just reduce the rate of growth, but, actually decrease the spending in relation to the previous budget. I have gained a new found respect for at least one politician.

Anyway, it seems that the Alamo Forward was a big hit. I was approached by my Colonel and he said he has received hundreds of compliments on the building and how nicely it turned out. I have been asked by a few other Commanders to build some projects for them as well. It looks like I am going to be busy for a long time to come.

It was nice to see and hear our governor. He gave a short speech and then had dinner with us. Of course the dinner was a Texas Style gathering. We had steak and chicken with all kinds of sides to go along. It turned out really nice. The event was only supposed to last about 2 hours but it ran close to 4 before it was finally over. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

The Alamo (Fwd) is almost finished

It is now the final day of the project. I will have to have it done by tomorrow morning. It is starting to look GREAT and I am happy and sad at the same time. It is kind of like seeing your kid go off to college. You are glad he is gone but you miss him. I finally got the electrical part of it set up. It is not up to code as of yet, but, it will be once my breaker panel arrives. I had a friend of mine pick me up an outdoor panel from home and mail it to me. For now, the entire system is running on an extension cord or two. I still have to hook up the wall outlets and the light in the storage room. Once that is done, I am going to put in the insulation and put on the outside walls and that will be the end of the project.

The Facade is done. The "T" patch, which is what we ware on our shoulder to identify what unit we are with, is made of 3/4 inch ply wood with the actually "T" being cut out of 1/2 inch ply wood and secured to the background. And the letters are cut out of 1/2 inch ply wood and individually secured to the silhouette with finishing nails.


I am looking forward to starting the next project. It appears that I am going to be going down range to build an office for one of the teams that is currently living in tents and have no place to do their work. It is a newly established Forward Operating Base (FOB).

Of course, this one will not be anything more than an office building so it is going to be pretty straight forward. 4 outer walls, a few inner walls and a hallway. Hope fully it is not going to interfere with my leave dates. I hope to be done with it before I get to go home on leave. I would hate to leave it half finished and have to return to it a month later. But, sometimes that is just how it has to be.

The sad thing is, that once I get back from leave, I will have only a few weeks to go, before the deployment ends all together. I still have not decided if I want to stay and help the next unit with their transition or if I am just going to go home with my unit and retire. It is another tough choice, since I have been in the military for almost 22 years now and have grown to like it. Retired, WOW, damn, I am getting old. Never thought that would happen. Honestly never really thought I would live long enough to say, "I am retired." Kind of scary.

Well, another day down

Today was an interesting day, to say the least. I have been having some issues with the BN XO. He treats us all like little children. He likes to micro manage every second of every ones day. I finally got fed up with it and blew up. I managed to control myself enough to not say anything wrong or disrespectful, but, I did later go to the Colonel and told him I was no longer enjoying my time here and am losing my motivation to work hard. I explained to him how I was feeling and why and he said he would take care of it. I also explained to him that I function best when left alone to my own devices. I explained to him that if he wants things done, just let me know what he wants done and step back so as to not get hurt as the tornado around me starts to form. He laughed and agreed with what I was saying. He has seen me in action and he did mention that I seemed to be losing a step here and there lately. Now he understands why. It seems that I am not the only one that has complained to him about the XO and his condescending attitude.

I was tasked with another project yesterday and I just finished it. I was tasked with building some picnic tables. I built 8 new picnic tables and fixed the 4 that were already there. The ones that were already there, are in bad shape, but, will do for now. Unfortunately, the wood is not treated and there is no way of getting any sealant for the wood so the sun and the rain just destroy white pine rather quickly. I am going to have to try to get some sort of wood sealant here from home before long. I was told that since it is considered hazardous material, it cannot be mailed and the military does not ship it either. I will think of something. Maybe I can bring it with me in checked baggage or something. Not sure yet.

The tables turned out great. I have received may complements from people that have seen them. Now everyone wants one for their area as well. I was just talking to some people and was wondering if I could maybe build some for sale and take the money and put it into the units MWR fund for when we get home. I have not yet gotten an answer as to whether or not it is legal. I do not want to go to jail or anything like that. I know I can get over $200 a table since it costs around $650 to get one built by the local contractor. I think we have spoiled the locals here with all the money that is being spread around, mostly because lumber is not cheap here. It is rather difficult to come by. Even on post it is now difficult to get. The lumber yard here is not empty. They have not received a lumber shipment in a long time. Usually they get a few truck loads a day.

I am really looking forward to getting to the states. If all goes well I will get to participate in a couple of Autocross events while I am home. That would really be great. It seems that my buddy has been kicking some butt with my car. He has consistantly placed 1st in his category every time he races. So I am looking forward to doing the same.

A new life joins the fray

While I was working on the Alamo Forward. I was surprised to see a little bird at my feet. It looked too tired to fly and so it tried to hop away. I can only figure that it was worn out from the flight it just took and did not know what to do, when I tried to pick it up. I finally managed to catch it and proceeded to the picnic table to let it rest and calm down. After a few minutes it started to calm down and I tried to give it some water. I would dip my pinky into the water and hold it over the little birds head. It, at first, did not move. I then put the dangling drop of water directly onto its beak and it gobbled it right up. So I did it again and again. After a few times, it started to reach up and get the drop of water right off of my pinky, as I was holding it over its little head. Then, out of nowhere, the mother bird came and sat on a branch directly over my arm. She was making a heck of a racket chirping and fluttering her wings and then PLOP. A large drop of POOP landed right on the back of my hand, in which I was holding the baby bird. I poured some water on it to clean it off and just kept feeding the baby more water, so the mother kept screaming at me. Then out of the blue, the baby started to chirp. The mother quit and moved up a few branches and just watched. It was the coolest thing. I was surrounded by a group of birds, just watching and on occasion chirping and getting a chirp in return from the little baby. After the baby was done drinking water, it just flew up onto one of the lower branches of the tree next to us and moved up the tree a few branches at a time and rejoined the rest of the birds that were up there. It made my day. I was really surprised how the rest of the birds interacted with what was going on. It was a real eye opener. Then I went back to the project I was working on, to complete the Alamo Forward. I will have it done by the 20th of the month. Or, at least, that is what I was told. Only time will tell.

As though there was not enough to do already

I decided to start school while I still had a chance. I know, you are saying, "Hell Sandor, when are you going to have time to do all this homework with your busy schedule and write to the blog and still get all the projects on the list, done?" Well, the only answer I can think of is that there are at least 3 hours left at night that are not really spoken for. I have been sleeping around 5 1/2 hours a night when I truly only need 2 to 2 1/2 hours to be functional so that is how it is going to fit into my routine. I only have school on Tuesday and Thursday nights for now. I am thinking of starting a second class that is on Monday and Wednesday nights too. I am not sure if I can handle that one right now. I will say this though. I am having a blast and the time is flying by like a jet at full throttle with the after burners.

I have now been cut off by the Class IV yard. Well, actually, truth be told, we all were cut off. It seems that they are having problems getting the supplies in fast enough to keep up with the demand. It looks like my building projects have motivated a few other units to start building and now there are new things popping up all over the post and the class IV yard was not able to keep up with the demand. They are now limiting the materials to outlying posts that are being formed to make room for the "Surge" that is not a "Surge." I did talk to my contact at the Class IV yard and he gave me a list of things that I can order and not have too many hurdles to go through to get. Those are things that they have plenty of on hand. Luckily, it includes most of the things that I need to finish the next 3 projects before I go down range to build an office for the unit that requested my assistance.

Things are slowly getting back to normal

Well it has been almost a week since it happened. So I guess it is OK to talk about it since it has been in the news. We were rocketed last Sunday morning. They got lucky and hit right between two B-huts. The blast was way too close for comfort; it hit around 85 meters from my B-hut.

At first I thought it was a Controlled Detonation. That is something that we do whenever the Mine detection team finds a land mine here on Bagram. There are still miles of land here that are not yet cleared of land mines form when the Russians pulled out. I heard that they have found several hundred this year alone. Anyway, as I was saying, I thought it was a controlled detonation. I heard 2 big booms and did not think much of it until a second later when I heard shrapnel and debris falling on my roof. I ran out to make sure my soldiers were OK when I saw where it hit. It was right where some of our guys were staying. And as the news said we lost 2 people and had 6 injured. I will not go into any more detail than that out of respect for the soldiers and their families.

On a more uplifting note, I have finished yet another project. I was asked to build a storage building for the incentives that we pass out to the villagers. Things like Rice, Beans, Cooking Oil, Blankets, and Toys for the kids. I ended up building a 4 compartment structure that is 4 feet deep by 12 feet wide, with each compartment being 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep. That way each team can secure their things without getting them mixed up with any of the other teams. I will post some pictures next time. I have not yet taken any pictures of the finished project.

Every time I do a project, someone else sees what I have done and a new project is born. I was just asked by a supporting unit’s Commander who saw the doors I built and now wants me to build her a door for her room in her B-hut. All I said was “too easy,” especially since I just finished building that exact thing for one of the Sergeant’s Major from the 82nd, just last week. At this pace, I might never be done here. I might not get to go down range and help out the guys there.

It was Christmas in JUNE

I woke up rather sick this morning. I was nauseous, with a headache and could not stop sniffling and sneezing. I was sure that the rest of the day was going to be a complete mess. I went to sick call just to find out that sick call was only a half hour each morning and again in the afternoon. The rest of the day is for appointments only. I had missed the morning's half hour window. I was just about to come back to my room and lay down when I was told, by the mail clerk, that I had some packages come in. He said, "Some tools and stuff" and I suddenly felt like a million bucks. The fever was no longer and issue, the sniffles dried up and I was no longer feeling sick. The nausea was the only thing that did not fully go away. I can live with that.

I had asked Adam, a friend of mine, to purchase some tools and supplies for me. I 10" RIGID compound miter saw, a Milwaukee circular saw and an assortment of Deck Mate screws and an assortment of Paslode nails for my DeWalt Nail Gun. I received it all today. Adam, you are "THE MAN." thanks a million.

One more project in the history books

Last week the Battalion got some new furniture to replace the stuff that was falling apart. The furniture is made here in Afghanistan by the locals. The commanders office received a new wall locker. It s about 4 feet wide and feet tall and has two doors tha swing out with three shelves inside. It looks really nice, but, the stain that was used to stain and seal it has a really strong odor to it. It was causing the commmander to have headaches is was so strong. He asked me if I knew of a way to get rid of the smell and so we put it outside in the sun for a few days to bake it. Well, that did not work, it was still too strong. I then suggested that I could build him one if he wanted. He did not hesitate on second. Thus, a new project was born.


I finished it today. I did add a bit of a personal touch to it. The colonel asked if I could put some shelves on the outside of the wall locker to fill the space on either side of the cabinet, where it is going to be sitting. It worked out better than I imagined. I think I am going to start building things at home once I get there. I think I can refurnish my entire house with some really cool stuff. LOL

My inspiration comes from a friend of mine back home, Don. He lives across the alley from me. He is constantly building things in his garage. His entire house is full of furniture that he has built. I go across the alley regularly to visit him and watch him work. It has paid off. I have accomplish something that even I was not sure I could do. Thanks Don. I learned a lot from watching you do your magic.

It is the Army's bithday this weekend

It looks like we are going to have a cookout this weekend. I am really close to finishing the Alamo Forward. I am still waiting for the lights to arrive so that I can set the wires in the correct places.

Being the Battalion R&U is a great job. I am rather happy with what all I have on my plate now. The only problem is the new mayor. He is on a real power trip. The first thing he did was change the combo on the front door of the mayor cell. Now he is parking the John Deere Gator where I was parking my truck, just to be a pain in my A$$. I think he hates the fact that I got a job that I enjoy and he just sits behind the desk. He hated the fact that I worked while I was the Mayor. It meant that he had to work too.

I can not count the number of times he complained about my projects. He constantly said "That is not the Mayor's job. Turn in a work order and let KBR do it." I saw all the pending work orders and some of them had been pending since we got here. I just went and did the work and cancelled the work orders. That made him mad, but, he has no spine, though. He never tells people anything to their face. He always just talks crap about them to others behind their backs. And when I confronted him about throwing me under the bus a few times, he pretended that he did not know what I was talking about.

Any way, these are the pictures of the latest updates to the project.

We have an interesting predicament.

Today, I was shocked to find out that all of the lumber that I have worked for was gone. I built the Marines a gazebo so that I could have the left over lumber that they ordered. That was the deal I worked out with the Major that was in charge. Imagine my surprise when I went back there to see how much lumber I had to work with for the next project and I found that there was not even one of the 2x10x16s left in the stack. I promptly went on a search mission and found that the lumber had been used to build a deck in between a row of B-huts. And it was not even a deck that is worthy of being called a deck. He nailed the 2x10’s to some pallets and called it good. What a waste of quality lumber.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the person who had taken all that lumber, without even so much as a please may I, was a soldier in my own unit. I had a talk with the man and he seemed to have no remorse what so ever. He will be surprised to learn, tomorrow, that the lumber will be returned to me one way or another. Especially since that lumber has been planned for this other project for more than a month. The IEW shop has been waiting patiently for their outdoor work platform and I am not about to let them down.

It appears that this person has been known to do things like this in the past. He has no regard for other people’s property. If he wants something and he finds it, he takes it, as though it was put there just for him to take it. Not much I can do about that at this point. I blame it on a poor upbringing. He is too old to retrain now. LOL Not to mention that he, too, is an NCO.

I finally picked up the last of the materials for the completion of the Alamo Forward. I hope to have it done in a few days so I can move on to that project for the IEW Shop. After that one is done, I will probably end up going down range to fill an order for some construction on a few of the FOBs that we are manning. I am kind of looking forward to getting out of BAF for while. I really want to see the country side. It is really beautiful here in the valleys where the water keeps things green this time of year.

Another project complete

While I am waiting for a resupply of materials for the completion of the Alamo Forward, I decided to take care of some of the other projects that were put on the back burner. I make a weapons rack in the arms room to store the 240 Bravo machine guns on. Up till now, they have been just stacked on the floor and constantly in the way. It seemed that every time we needed something out the arms room, it happens to be just where the 240B's are setting. Well that is no more. I made a rack that can hold 26 of them and not be in the way of anything else.

Once I was finished with that, I started on a "shore board" I am not sure how to describe it except that it is a device that is used to measure babies' and young children's height. It is a board onto which you place the baby in the correct position and once you lower the top, the medics can determine the correct height of the child. I do not have any pictures of it yet, but, I will get some and post them at a later date. I will say this. I just saved the Government over $1000.00. As it turns out, the boards that I made cost around $425.00 EACH and it costs $150 a pair to ship.

The only reason this even happened was because it was going to take too long to get the company to ship it out here. I was approached by one of the medical company NCO's and asked if I knew any one that could possibly build a couple of these. I figured I would try. I turned out to be a real success. Just so you know, I love saving tax payer money. There is nothing more frustrating, to me, than to see how much we are charged for the simplest little thing once the seller discovers that it is the "government" that is footing the bill. The sad thing is that we are teaching this to the locals as well.

We have a new Commander

We had a change of command ceremony today. The Battalion Commander (BC) has been called to a new mission and has been replaced by the Executive Officer (XO). We did the formal ceremony this morning. It was not too bad. The speeches were held to a minimum by all the people involved. Of course they all started with the obligatory “I will keep this short" statement and then they all went into a monologue that lasted a little longer than they said it would, but, it was not too bad. And in most cases, the speeches were actually relevant to the ceremony. I have some pictures, but, not with me. I will down load them from my camera later and post them.

I also have some update about what is going on with me here at BAF. I am still the Project Guy here, but, I am also the Mayor again, just not officially. I still do all the Mayor Cell things that I did before, except for the stuff that involves dealing with the Billeting office. That is being handled by my assistant. I am, however, not in my office much lately because of the Alamo Forward. This makes things easier.

The Alamo Forward is coming right along. I have hit a stopping point due to supply issues. It seems that we have a thief on post. I was hit for 35 sheets of plywood and then I found out that the same night some other units also were hit and lost plywood and other things like 2x4's and 2x6's. I now have to wait for a resupply of materials to finish the Gazebo. I will get some pictures of that as well, once I am finished, and post them on here.

It also looks like I am going to be getting leave after all. This in not for sure yet, but, I was told that it is looking like some leave slots are going to open up either in August or September. I do not know if I even want to look forward to that right now with the way things are going. I hate to get my hopes up because things are so fluid here that nothing is for sure until it is actually happening.