Well, here it is closing in on Election '08 and I have decided to re-open this blog.

Alot has happened since the last post back in Mar '07:

Retired in Aug '08 with 20 years service. Nice small ceremony the way I wanted. Lots of friends/relatives made their way into town. Good time all around.

Sat around on my arse for awhile and landed a job as a Navy Contractor supporting Commander Naval Expeditionary Combat Command N6 Directorate (Tactical Communications), which is where I am to this day.

Anyway, more to come.

/ Chris

Hi all.

Well a lot has happened since the last post. I am currently writing this on my way down I-95 just north of Baltimore. I did not want to leak out any information until I was sure I was on my way home, not just for R&R but for good for this deployment.

Our replacements showed up last week and we started turnover right away (sorry for not answering any emails lately). We were scheduled to fly at a later date but runour had it helo flights were going to be shutdown for awhile so I cleared it with the CO to leave a little early. We left Speicher a little before midnight on Thursday the 22nd to Balad and then manifested for a 2:30 flight out on the 23rd. We landed in Ramstein, Germany that night about 8 PM. We continued out on the 24th about noon to terminate our flight at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. After some negotiating a shuttle to the Philadelphia airpot to get a rental brings me up to date.

I will be taking some vacation as Robyn and I head to Florida with the kids for spring break.

Robyn, if you read this I love you and will see soon. Don't tell the kids.

Vr/

Chris
AKA the "FORMER" Squid in the desert.

Hi all, I must say it was a very nice day today. It hit the low 80's with partially cloudy skies. I will be returning to the states for some R&R for early April so wait on sending any packages specifically for me. If you have a package you want to ship out for the rest of the command just replace my name with Command Master Chief in the address line.

Today we had an awards ceremony which I was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. We then followed that with a cookout with some great grub.


















More to come later,

Chris

Holy no post Batman!!!!

Yes I am still here. This place is the epitome of groundhog day. Anyway the rain is finally gone and we have been enjoying temps in the high 70's this week.

So instead of this:





We now have this:















And this:

















His name is Squeker V3 since the other 2 models have "disappeared".

Today is also my Birthday, 38th to be exact (yikes). So tonight I am going to Pizza Hut for some Pepperoni and extra cheese pizza and some cinnaparts to celebrate since I am not at home. Thank you to those who sent cards, they as all the others are a breath of fresh air.

Well like I said, groundhog day. Pretty quite today in comparison to most of the last few weeks.

Post at you later,

Chris a.k.a. "the Squid"

Hey all, nothing much going on here but wetness and baby poo mud everywhere.

I received the following in my e-mail and got a good chuckle out of it and yes I expect to catch a lot of grief over this one:

The Guys' Rules

At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down

Finally , the guys' side of the story.
( I must admit, it's pretty good.)
We always hear " the rules "
From the female side.

Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are our rules!
Please note.. these are all numbered "1"
ON PURPOSE!

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon
or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport.
And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 6 months is a Problem.

See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't Expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you're fat, You probably are.
Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine. Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as CARS, the shotgun formation,
or BASKETBALL.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;


But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Hi all, not much to report since my last post. It has rained rather hard around here and I swear it looks like the Katrina aftermath out here. There is mud EVRYWHERE. Anyway I ran across a couple Military minded "Motivational " pictures for your enjoyment:

Early Christmas present for me!

Robyn and the kids

Here is the Sailor's version of "Merry Christmas, My Friend" written by Lance Corporal Schmidt (USMC) and printed in Leatherneck back in 1991

Enjoy:

A Sailor's Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, the ship was out steaming,
Sailors stood watch while others were dreaming.

They lived in a crowd with racks tight and small,
In a 80-man berthing, cramped one and all.

I had come down the stack with presents to give,
And to see inside just who might perhaps live.

I looked all about, a strange sight did I see,
No tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.

No stockings were hung, shined boots close at hand,
On the bulkhead hung pictures of a far distant land.

They had medals and badges and awards of all kind,
And a sober thought came into my mind.

For this place was different, so dark and so dreary,
I had found the house of a Sailor, once I saw clearly.

A Sailor lay sleeping, silent and alone,
Curled up in a rack and dreaming of home.

The face was so gentle, the room squared away,
This was the United States Sailor today.

This was the hero I saw on TV,
Defending our country so we could be free.

I realized the families that I would visit this night,
Owed their lives to these Sailors lay willing to fight.

Soon round the world, the children would play,
And grownups would celebrate on Christmas Day.

They all enjoyed freedom each day of the year,
Because of the Sailor, like the one lying here.

I couldn't help wonder how many lay alone,
On a cold Christmas Eve on a sea, far from home.

The very thought brought a tear to my eye,
I dropped to my knees and started to cry.

The Sailor awakened and I heard a calm voice,
"Santa, don't cry, this life is my choice."

"Defending the seas all days of the year,
So others may live and be free with no fear."

I thought for a moment, what a difficult road,
To live a life guided by honor and code.

After all it's Christmas Eve and the ship's underway!
But freedom isn't free and it's sailors who pay.

The Sailor say's to our country "be free and sleep tight,
No harm will come, not on my watch and not on this night.

The Sailor rolled over and drifted to sleep,
I couldn't control it, I continued to weep.

I kept watch for hours, so silent, so still,
I watched as the Sailor shivered from the night's cold chill.

I didn't want to leave on that cold dark night,
This guardian of honor so willing to fight.

The Sailor rolled over and with a voice strong and sure,
Commanded, "Carry on Santa, It's Christmas, and All is Secure!"

In case you've forgotten where I am

Christmas Carols for the disturbed


1. Schizophrenia -- Do I Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder - We Three Kings Disoriented Are.

3. Dementia - I Think I'll Be Home For Christmas

4. Narcissistic - Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic - Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and....

6. Paranoid - Santa Claus is Coming To Town To Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder - Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder - You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder - Silent Night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.....

Merry Christmas everyone. Here is our Command Christmas Photo for you all to enjoy. Well it dipped down to about 35 last night and has been drizzling since yesterday. Not quite the weather to get into the Christmas mood but hey, everyone's Christmas packages have been showing up and there has been goodies galore going around. Robyn had sent me some Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD's from the concert she and Ashley went to. I love their twist on the classics.

Robyn and the kids will be spending Christmas with her parents in Burlington, N.C. this year. It's funny how many little things go into the Christmas "feeling" from family and friends to all the smells and moods. Its hard to get in the "feeling" when you smell wet dirt all the time and you work 7 days a week but hey a little Tran-Siberian and my headphones go aloooong way LOL. Maybe we'll have Turkey for Christmas dinner? We'll see!

I hope everybody as a great holiday!

Chris

Hi everyone. Another interesting couple of weeks here in Iraq. I traveled down to Baghdad last week for four days visiting our Task Force Command Center and also stopped in to see one of my guys I have doing some temporay duty down there. I went to Camp Victory which is located right next to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). Apparently the base used to be a hunting and fishing preserve under Saddam. The center piece is Al Faw Palace which is where Multi National Corps - Iraq (MNC-I) is located. The big boss is Multi National Forces - Iraq (MNF-I) located in the center of Baghdad in the Green Zone. There are a number of lake houses ringing the main lake that the palace is located in the center of. If you where one of the inside group of the Hussein's you would be invited to the lake for some hunting and fishing.






















After alot of troubleshooting we finally have our satellite voice system up and running. Using this we can talk almost anywhere with a unit that has the same equipment.

I hope everyone has a good Turkey Day tomorrow, I hope we get turkey at the DFAC.........


Jolly Roger 14 out

Salutations all. We'll I left Norfolk three months ago, normally this would be the halfway mark for a normal underway deployment. We will see what the next few weeks brings in regards to a return date (crossed fingers).



It is still the same ole stuff, different day around
here. i have been pursueing some side projects to help fill my days. One is getting a SATCOM (Satelitte Communications) voice circuit setup for our EOD teams that are WAAAAY out in the boonies. Another is trying to establish a standard for EOD response vehicle communications. I was able to order some goodies to install in a cougar which is an awesome vehicle considering the
IED rich environment we are in here in Iraq.


Here I am setting up a SATCOM antenna.













I am down to four personnel including myself here in the N6 shop. I have one TDY to Baghdad and I had to send one home on emergency leave (mother in-law died). So we are now down to the are minimum to support the Battalions Communications and Computer needs on a 24/7 basis. We have some more generator mainitenance coming up so hopefully we will not have any problems when we bring our system back up this time (MORE crossed fingers).

I have finally climatized to the latest temperature drops here, it is about 42 degrees in the morning and gets into the low 60's in the afternoon's. Currently it is 49 degrees at midnight and I laughed when Robyn offered to send me some longjohns after I had first got here............

Thank you all again for the packages/cards/emails (especially the funnies).

Squidly out (that Chris guy)

Salutations all. Busy, busy, busy.... Things have really been hustling around here. Last weekend my Commodore was here for a visit to see how his EOD teams are doing. He is my direct boss back in the states, so I had dinner with him and the Command Master Chief. Also this weekend the Master Cheif Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) was here on Speicher as part of his Middle East tour of the Sailors that are serving as the Boots on Ground force, we had luch with him at the dining facility.

As soon as the visits were over I was awakened early by my over night watch telling me our generator for my system I maintain was faulting out. It kept idling lower and lower until it turned itself off. Come to find out it was dirty fuel filters. Well during all this we had shutdown our networks but when we brought the generator back up our unclassified email server would not come back up. Well 12 hours later I finally got it repaired, I literally danced a jig (luckily only one person witnessed it).

Yesterday we receivd the gravel for our compound to cover all the dirt up and in a nick of time because last night we had one heck of a rain/hail, yes, hail storm. About 1:30 AM it woke me up and I found water slowly coming in under my door because it was driving in under the overhang. The water only came in a few inches by the time the storm passed. So now that we have gravel almost everywhere we will not be tracking mud all over the place.

Aunt Gwen had sent me a card with a typical New England fall day pictured on it. Here the only thing to gauge the seasonal change is bang, one morning you wake up and it in the 50's and it has rained overnight and by lunch it is in the high 80's and dry.

Well that's about it for now. Until the next post.....

See ya.

Chris

Well, another week down. After two days of light sprinkles it actually rained here to day, all told it was a 5 minute downpoar and 45 minutes later it was dry, reminds me of when I lived in Charleston, SC.

We had two big wigs in the camp this week: RADM Macy and MG Hahn, both concerning the fight against the IED threat out here. Both visits went well.

I Wish I had more to report but that is the bane of our shops existence out here: The Maytag repair men...... except we work in systems administration and are presumed to know everything about everything computer and communications....

Well with the weather changecomes the cooler temperatures, it is 85 as I write this and the sun is setting. So now the only major pain is all the dust, not much can be done about that though.

Left to right: Me, RADM Macy, CDR McKinney (EODMU2 CO) and CAPT Brakke

Me on a JERRV (primary EOD response vehicle) after checking out some of the comm gear.









Well that is about all for what is turning out to be my weekly edition of the ole blog.

Hugs and kisses for those that want them and a big bear hug for the rest.

Jolly Roger 14 out.

Hi all, I hope everyone is well. It has been another busy week so far over here, one project after another in the IT world. It's funny how the military brags about jointness yet it is so dis-jointed it almost hurts...... I guess that is one of the growing pains of having NAVY in the desert working with the ARMY & AIR FORCE.

Anyway, I had the below emailed to me annd I thought I would share this great read:

Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:14
Subject: FW: A Marine Intel Officer in Al Anbar Shares Some Thoughts

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
All: I haven’t written very much from Iraq. There’s really not much to write about. More exactly, there’s not much I can write about because practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military information or is depressing to the point that I’d rather just forget about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that are filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So it’s a bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter that’s worth reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days, every day. The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents are up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than solutions. Every challenge demands a response. It’s like this every day. Before I know it, I can’t see straight, because it’s 0400 and I’ve been at work for twenty hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process. And once again I haven’t written to anyone. It starts all over again four hours later. It’s not really like Ground Hog Day, it’s more like a level from Dante’s Inferno. Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I’d just hit the record setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are among the events and experiences I’ll remember best.
Worst Case of Déjà Vu - I thought I was familiar with the feeling of déjà vu until I arrived back here in Fallujah in February. The moment I stepped off of the helicopter, just as dawn broke, and saw the camp just as I had left it ten months before - that was déjà vu. Kind of unnerving. It was as if I had never left. Same work area, same busted desk, same chair, same computer, same room, same creaky rack, same . . . everything. Same everything for the next year. It was like entering a parallel universe. Home wasn’t 10,000 miles away, it was a different lifetime.
Most Surreal Moment - Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. I had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.
Most Profound Man in Iraq - an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines (searching for Syrians) if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”
Worst City in al-Anbar Province - Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Killed over 1,000 insurgents in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.
Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province - Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD Tech). How’d you like a job that required you to defuse bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who’s just waiting for you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every day. Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys. Talk about courage and commitment.
Second Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province - It’s a 20,000 way tie among all the Marines and Soldiers who venture out on the highways and through the towns of al-Anbar every day, not knowing if it will be their last - and for a couple of them, it will be.
Best Piece of U.S. Gear - new, bullet-proof flak jackets. O.K., they weigh 40 lbs and aren’t exactly comfortable in 120 degree heat, but they’ve saved countless lives out here.Best Piece of Bad Guy Gear - Armor Piercing ammunition that goes right through the new flak jackets and the Marines inside them.
Worst E-Mail Message - “The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need blood type A+ stat.” I always head down to the surgical unit as soon as I get these messages, but I never give blood - there’s always about 80 Marines in line, night or day.
Biggest Surprise - Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we’d get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won’t give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are. - and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp . . .
Greatest Vindication - Stocking up on outrageous quantities of Diet Coke from the chow hall in spite of the derision from my men on such hoarding, then having a 122mm rocket blast apart the giant shipping container that held all of the soda for the chow hall. Yep, you can’t buy experience.
Biggest Mystery - How some people can gain weight out here. I’m down to 165 lbs. Who has time to eat?Second Biggest Mystery - if there’s no atheists in foxholes, then why aren’t there more people at Mass every Sunday? Favorite Iraqi TV Show - Oprah. I have no idea. They all have satellite TV.
Coolest Insurgent Act - Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank in Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.
Most Memorable Scene - In the middle of the night, on a dusty airfield, watching the better part of a battalion of Marines packed up and ready to go home after six months in al-Anbar, the relief etched in their young faces even in the moonlight. Then watching these same Marines exchange glances with a similar number of grunts loaded down with gear file past - their replacements. Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said.
Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate - Any outfit that has been in Iraq recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from home, all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here - all are outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a 'Band of Brothers' who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for when they enlisted out of high school. Man for man, they now have more combat experience than any Marines in the history of our Corps.
Most Surprising Thing I Don’t Miss - Beer. Perhaps being half-stunned by lack of sleep makes up for it.
Worst Smell - Porta-johns in 120 degree heat - and that’s 120 degrees outside of the porta-john.
Highest Temperature - I don’t know exactly, but it was in the porta-johns. Needed to re-hydrate after each trip to the loo.
Biggest Hassle - High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and “battlefield” tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no affect on their preconceived notions of what’s going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they’ve been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.
Biggest Outrage - Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest offender - Bill O’Reilly - what a buffoon.
Best Intel Work - Finding Jill Carroll’s kidnappers - all of them. I was mighty proud of my guys that day. I figured we’d all get the Christian Science Monitor for free after this, but none have showed up yet. Talk about ingratitude.
Saddest Moment - Having the battalion commander from 1st Battalion, 1st Marines hand me the dog tags of one of my Marines who had just been killed while on a mission with his unit. Hit by a 60mm mortar. Cpl Bachar was a great Marine. I felt crushed for a long time afterward. His picture now hangs at the entrance to the Intelligence Section. We’ll carry it home with us when we leave in February.
Biggest Ass-Chewing - 10 July immediately following a visit by the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Zobai. The Deputy Prime Minister brought along an American security contractor (read mercenary), who told my Commanding General that he was there to act as a mediator between us and the Bad Guys. I immediately told him what I thought of him and his asinine ideas in terms that made clear my disgust and which, unfortunately, are unrepeatable here. I thought my boss was going to have a heart attack. Fortunately, the translator couldn’t figure out the best Arabic words to convey my meaning for the Deputy Prime Minister. Later, the boss had no difficulty in conveying his meaning to me in English regarding my Irish temper, even though he agreed with me. At least the guy from the State Department thought it was hilarious. We never saw the mercenary again.
Best Chuck Norris Moment - 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in the small town of Kubaysah to kidnap the town mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the bad Guys put down his machinegun so that he could tie the mayor’s hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machinegun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you can’t fight City Hall.
Worst Sound - That crack-boom off in the distance that means an IED or mine just went off. You just wonder who got it, hoping that it was a near miss rather than a direct hit. Hear it every day.Second Worst Sound - Our artillery firing without warning. The howitzers are pretty close to where I work. Believe me, outgoing sounds a lot like incoming when our guns are firing right over our heads. They’d about knock the fillings out of your teeth.Only Thing Better in Iraq Than in the U.S. - Sunsets. Spectacular. It’s from all the dust in the air.
Proudest Moment - It’s a tie every day, watching my Marines produce phenomenal intelligence products that go pretty far in teasing apart Bad Guy operations in al-Anbar. Every night Marines and Soldiers are kicking in doors and grabbing Bad Guys based on intelligence developed by my guys. We rarely lose a Marine during these raids, they are so well-informed of the objective. A bunch of kids right out of high school shouldn’t be able to work so well, but they do.
Happiest Moment - Well, it wasn’t in Iraq. There are no truly happy moments here. It was back in California when I was able to hold my family again while home on leave during July. Most Common Thought - Home. Always thinking of home, of Kathleen and the kids. Wondering how everyone else is getting along. Regretting that I don’t write more. Yep, always thinking of home.
I hope you all are doing well. If you want to do something for me, kiss a cop, flush a toilet, and drink a beer. I’ll try to write again before too long - I promise.

Semper Fi

Jim/Miriam, I received your package and thank you. Saint Christopher now has a friend and they go with me everywhere now.

Thank you all for the cards and emails, they help pull me back out of the "work void", there's nothing like sitting in front of my three computers for 12 - 14 hours a day...............

Take care,

Chris Da' Squid

Hi all, well it's been 6 days since my last post.... sorry for leaving you with baited breathe on my next installment.... LOL.

It has been a busy week around here. Tuesday I had spent the whole day in a meeting (joy) and ended up not eating which led to me getting under the weather on Wednesday. Thursday was spent making up for those two lost days. Friday we had a scheduled outage so we did alot of re-arranging of our power/enviromental systems for our satellite system which led to an extended outage when we tried to come back on-line (hello Mr. Murphy (if it ain't broke don't fix it)). That afternoon we finally had our command photo's taken (below). I don't know why, but some of you want more pictures of me so I have included some more.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Two Battalion HeadQuarters. I'm in the back, the antenna almost points right to me.

The N-6 crew (my guys)

Front row (left to right)

IT1 Ginicie Rushing (with the big gun), EODMU2 CO CDR Bradley McKinney

Back row (left to right)

ET1 Bryce Bills, ET2 Kevin Mills, IT1 Jason Schouweiler, It1 Vasquez Upshaw and me!

Taking down the flag after the photos. We are not allowed to fly the flag over non-sovereign soil(embassy) in Iraq, it is part of the politcal nonsense that has been wrapped up in this war.

Hanging out watching other pictures being taken.

Well, that it for another short chapter of my life in Iraq (work, eat sleep repeat 7 days a week).

Jolly Roger 14 (my callsign) Out

aka that Chris guy.

Hello everyone. Not much to report, just another busy week in Iraq.... Our users have been giving us a run for our money this week but I guess that is to be expected. I got a chance to site in my weapon this week, that's always good for blowing off some steam.

Me all goobered up in my gear


























I received this movie in my email and I could not stop laughing: http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n142/chris_dudas/?action=view&current=catfan.flv&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

Another good one: http://ebaumsworld.com/2006/07/pugbowling.html

We had a couple of Generals in today for a brief on the current Counter - IED (Improvised Explosice Device) operations. These are currently the number one cause of death for servicemembers. That is why we are here with such strong numbers for EOD.

Well enough of that. If you like something you see feel free to leave a comment at the end of the post, there is an icon to do so.

Oh, one more for the road (me being my usual self....)











Chris

Greetings, I hope this finds everyone OK. It has been pretty somber around here due to anohter death of a shipmate from Mobile Unit Two, Story: http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=111206&ran=84484&tref=po . Western Iraq is still a pretty dangerous place to be "on the job". We usually find out right away and go into a communications blackout to give the CACO folks back home time to notify the next of kin. I could not think of a worst way to findout a spouse/child had died than thru the news or tearful freinds calling to mourn your loss that you did not know about.

Well enough of that. I would like to thank all of the E-cards I recieved for our wedding anniversary. Yes, I wish I was back home wife my beautiful family but hey, Miriam has volunteered to take the children for two days so Robyn and I can celebrate twice next year! Sometimes you just have really dig to find the silver lining.

Anyway here are some more photos:

CPO's in the desert, from left to right:
CMC Scott Faison, YNCS Anthony Williams,
EODCS Douglas "Rock" Phillips and
ISC Matthew Fenner.





















Another Sunset in the desert
















I hope everyone has a good day,

Chris

Well we have a new mailing address:

EODMU 2 BATTALION HQ
COB SPEICHER
ATTN: ETC (SW/AW) Chris Dudas
APO AE 09393

With that being said if you already have things on the way from the states with the previous address on it that’s fine it will still get here but the Mail room recommends we use the new one from now on. Also the USPS offers a $7 flat rate box that seems to make over here a little bit quicker.

When it come on to getting things FED EX over here that’s a different address and the FED EX person comes right to our compound so you wouldn’t have to wait until it gets to the mail room and tossed around. The FED EX mailing address is:

EODMU 2 BATTALION HQ
COB SPEICHER
ATTN: YOUR NAME
EOD COMPOUND, BUILDING B-3
TIKRIT, IRAQ