DEPLOYMENT COMES TO AN END WITH JOYOUS AIRPORT REUNION WITH FAMILY.

After five days of processing at Fort Benning and another day of delay due to the snow I returned home on February 03, 2011. I had been on active duty a total of 112 day.  This was a very long time to be away from family and my practice but I couldn't help think of the soldiers who have had deployments that lasted over a year and many of them had several deployments.  The war in Afghanistan & Iraq has been going on for so many years it was all starting to feel like it was  yesterdays news.  I found the very thought of tuning out of a war was particularly frightening and especially unfair to the many thousands of...

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I'M BACK IN THE USA

Last Wednesday, 01/26/2010 I flew from Tallil Air Force Base, Iraq to Ali Al Salem Air Force Base, in Kuwait.  I'm assigned a bunk in a tent where I will sleep while waiting for my flight home that departs Saturday night. I can't believe that after working for almost 100 days in Iraq without a day off I now have two days with nothing to do except get ready for this flight.  Working endlessly with very little rest and then having nothing to do for days has always been standard operating procedure (SOP) in the military. The flight home is on a real commercial jet chartered by the military which leaves from the Kuwaiti International...

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MISCELLANEOUS STORIES

"THE HOUSE OF PAIN" The only sanctioned after hours establishment at COB Adder is our gym which stays open 24/7 and does a good job of meeting the needs of a garrison in a combat zone.  Before I arrived, the gym held a contest for the best name for the gym and some creative soldier came up with the brilliant and winning suggestion:  "The House of Pain" which described it perfectly.  Soldiers have to continuously meet physical training standards so one of the first semi-permanent structures that gets built at a base, even in a combat zone, is a gym.  Although aerobic training is also emphasized at a military gym, weight...

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Shabbat at COB Adder & Miscellaneous Pictures

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I'VE DEPARTED IRAQ AND I'M IN KUWAIT WAITING FOR MY FREEDOM FLIGHT TO THE UNITED STATES

After 98 days in Iraq I left Wednesday, 26 and flew by military transport to Ali Al Salem Airfield in Kuwait where I'm waiting for the weekly flight to the United States, also know as the Freedom Plane.  I flew by military transport which is always an adventure. Although officially Kuwait is still considered  a war zone it's much more relaxed than Iraq and I believe there haven't been any hostile fire incidents recently.  We're actually not even required to carry our weapons with us.  Ali Al Salem Airfield is not only a military base it's the gateway to  Iraq and Afghanistan.  On my way to Iraq...

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THESE ARE THE LAST DAYS OF MY DEPLOYMENT!!

All good things have to come to an end and it looks like the end iscoming. I'm supposed to to be on active duty not longer than 120 days with 90 days "in theater" (don't you love this term).  Actually, I arrived in theater 10/23 so I'm already over 90 days and it will be about 100 days by the time I leave although I've been assured that I won't go over 120 days by the time I get home.  It's useless to argue with them anyway. I'm not allowed to say when I'm leaving because troop flights are considered classified. Unit begins to assemble for the ceremony Colonel pins medal My replacement, Major Andrew Altman,  arrived this...

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Mission to Ur, The Biblical Home of Abraham & The Ziggurat

Unless you are on an assigned mission soldiers are never allowed at any times to go "outside the wire" of the base. Today we were taken to one of the most well known archeological sites in all of Iraq "The Ziggurat of Ur". (Ur is the ancient name for this area.) This trip was actually the only bit of sightseeing I ever even had a chance of doing and since I'll be leaving soon I was quite relieved that I was able to go. The area of Iraq know as Mesopitamia, which means "the land between two rivers" and it is called the "cradle of civilization" because ancient people were able to use the availability...

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