Monday, April 12, 2010

Thunder Run on My Blog

For those who have not checked out Thunder Run--follow the links below to the daily news from Iraq, Afghanistan and military bloggers.

In today's http://www.thunderrun.us/2010/04/from-front-04122010.html ">From the Front: (Click on link to read stories highlighted below) This post is courtesy of http://www.thunderrun.us/"> The Thunder Run

http://www.thunderrun.us/">The Thunder Run's From the Front is a daily series that highlights news and personal dispatched from the front and the home front.

Celebrity (Author) in the House--Dr. Charles W. Hoge


On Saturday while I was waiting for one of the sessions to start I met Dr. Charles Hoge.  He wrote the book Once a Warrior--Always a Warrior.  I reviewed the book on March 14 and found it more useful than I would have thought for me.  I would have thought it only applied to soldiers in direct combat, but there are things everyone in Iraq goes through that Dr. Hoge gives good advice on. 
(I can hear some of my friends saying "Going to Iraq for a year can be stressful--this is news to you?!)
Anyway, Dr. Hoge saw my name on my backpack and introduced himself.  We talked for several minutes about the book, Iraq, and reading and then I had to run off to move my car which was parked in a 2-hour meter zone. 
On the way down to the meeting, I talked to a friend who served was in Iraq last year and is having trouble getting back to the old routine.  He has two kids (age 9 and 11) and is having trouble with managing work, family, and all the details.  He wants to go back to fixing Chinooks 14 hours a day.  If he would read the book I would buy it for him, but reading would just stress him out more.  He seems ready to ask for help.  That's good news.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Celebrity in the House--WW2 Combat Cameraman

One really riveting presentation was a 20-minute film from the battle of Tarawa atoll in World War 2.  The narrator was 91-year-old Norman Hatch, a Staff Sergeant and combat movie photographer who went ashore during this very bloody battle.   He was the person of the week on ABC news and has made many other appearances on TV and radio recently.  Hatch talked about how he got some of the shots and the advantages of filming in the Pacific compared with the war in Europe.

Hatch shot the only footage in the war in which American soldiers and the enemy are in the same frame.  He spoke in a very matter of fact way through most of the presentation, but got noticeably more animated in talking about this particular shot.  He should have.  He was between two Marines firing from behind a couple of splintered logs.  The Japanese soldiers were maybe 20 feet away, bayonets fixed, charging Hatch's position.  Which brought up one of the great advantages of shooting in the Pacific.  He said in Europe you had to use a long lens because the battles were typically fought at longer ranges.  Of course, it is an advantage to be close enough to see the Japanese soldiers clamber out of a bunker to charge your position, but there are disadvantages to being inside grenade range of an attack by a determined enemy!

Hatch got two standing ovations from the packed room. 

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Celebrities in the House--Gina Elise

Gina Elise operates and is the Star of Pin-Ups for Vets, a non-profit support group for hospitalized veterans.  She visits hospitals and sells posters and calendars.

For more information, Gina has a web site and a Facebook page. 

We talked a little bit about visiting Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.  I had a chance to visit in 2008 and was briefly there in 2010.  Gina visited in 2009.  She happily agreed to getting her picture taken with me--as long as I held the calendar for product placement!!

Celebrities in the House--Garry Trudeau

Today, just after lunch, I met Garry Trudeau, the creator of Doonesbury.  We got to talk for a minute and I told him I had his Creationist/Tuberculosis cartoon from December 18, 2005, was on my office door during the time I had an office in Iraq and on my wall at work for two years before deployment.  Trudeau also has a cartoon series on Chickenhawks that I have saved on my hard drive.  Too long to post here but, the Dec. 18 cartoon will fit.
Trudeau did not choose tuberculosis at random.  He is the great-grandson of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, who created the world-famous Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York State. Edward was succeeded by his son Francis and grandson Francis Jr. The latter founded the Trudeau Institute at Saranac Lake, with which his son Garry retains a connection.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Milblogging Conference Opening Reception

Tonight I met several military bloggers I follow and have heard about and follow:
David Marron of Thunder Run
Commander Salamander
Greyhawk and Mrs. Greyhawk
Troy Bouhammer
Major Chuck Zeigenfuss
Mary Ripley who is putting Navy History on line at the US Naval Institute

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Friendship and the Army

Tonight I was at an awards dinner at work.  I sat with three investment managers who sponsored a table at the event.  We talked about Iraq and the good and bad of serving in the Army.  When I mentioned friendship, they knew right away at least one reason why men join and stay in the military. 

Most modern men, unless they have a dangerous hobby or join the Army, have no friends.  At least no friends in any sense that does not beggar the definition of friendship.  One of the men said right away, "In my business I have to know my clients well to advise them."  He said he meets many of his clients when they are middle-aged and have enough wealth to need management advice.  "I ask how many friends they have made in the last year then tell them not to bother answering.  I know already.  The number is zero."

Because soldiers share hardship they get to know each other in a way that mechanics, cooks and office managers will never know each other.  Cops and firefighters have friends.  Soldiers have friends. 

None of these men had served in the military, but they understood why soldiers volunteer for multiple deployments.  Usually the conversations at awards dinners are light and funny.  People who see each other only occasionally or who never met sit together for a couple of hours.  They exchange stories and jokes--the jokes improve with each glass of wine. 

Tonight's conversation was the most intense dinner conversation I can remember in a very long time.  It reminded me yet again how much fun it can be to meet and talk with curious, bright people who can ask thoughtful questions.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Voting Over--4th Place

Thanks to everyone who voted for me.  I had nearly 100 votes and am very happy to finish fourth--happy just to be in the final five.  I will be at the Milblogging conference on Friday evening and Saturday.  I will be blogging from the conference.  It should be interesting.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Voting Underway--I am Fourth of Five. . .

. . .Which I am very happy about.  The other Army finalists are two majors and two E-8s, a master sergeant and a first sergeant.  While I am definitely the oldest member of the group, the other bloggers are much my senior in rank and (current) military experience (Although I was a sergeant before they were housebroken.)  If you have not voted and would like to, go to www.milblogging.com and register.  If you have any trouble, email JP at milblogging@gmail.com and he will get you registered.  Voting ends in 40 hours!!!

In other news I was just interviewed for a Florida-based show called Growing Bolder.  I talked with the very enthusiastic hosts about the Army, breaking my neck, adoption and racing.

Monday, April 5, 2010

My Dad on Political Violence

My Dad's stories about World War 2 were a big part of my childhood.  They were not the stories I saw on Combat! on TV or read in comics like Sgt. Rock or Sgt. Nick fury and His Howling Commandos.  My Dad enlisted two years before World War 2 actually started and would have gotten out in December of 1941, but no one was discharged from the Army after December 7, 1941.  My father barely made the enlistment cut-off age of 35 at the time he enlisted.  Since he was so old (35 when the war started) and had experience working in a warehouse, the Army sent him to Officer's Candidate School.  My Dad was 15 years older than the average 2nd lieutenant, so he never went overseas.  His first assignment was as a platoon leader in a Black maintenance company in the segregated Army of World War.

Shortly after he was assigned to Camp Shenango in PA, he was the officer on duty on a weekend.  That weekend there was a race riot.  My Dad went out of the headquarters and found himself in front of an armed mob.  He said the young soldier in front had "a 30 Ought 6 aimed right at my belly button."  My father told the soldier with the rifle to "take it easy."  Then he heard someone in the back say "shoot the white . . . "  The words in the rest of the description got coarser as I got older.  I'll assume Motherf##cker was the used at some point.  

Hearing the cowards in the back egging the man in front on, my Dad spoke to the shaking young man in front with the rifle.  "If you pull that trigger the MPs are going to shoot you.  If they don't shoot you they'll hang you.  Nothing will happen to the son of a bitch in the back telling you what to do."  The soldier put down his rifle.  My Dad ordered the men back to their barracks and as far as I know never said anything further about the incident.  He commanded a black company before being reassigned to Fort Indiantown Gap and a German Prisoner of War Camp in Reading.  He kept in touch with some of his sergeants after the war.

Lately I have heard several people say that the Liberty Tree is watered with the blood of Patriots.  When someone on the radio says this to his audience, you can bet he means their blood, not his.  My Dad was a Massachusetts Republican as long as I can remember and would still be one if he were alive now (He would be 104).  But he was a man who never backed down from a fight and had no use for "rabble rousers" the kind of people who start trouble and let others take the risks. 

I must have heard that story 50 times growing up.  I don't know why, but I did not think of that particular story until a few days ago, but it does help me understand why I dislike the current Patriot movement.  Talk Radio hosts by definition "lead" from the back, not from the front.  I just returned from serving in Iraq with an aviation task force in which all of the seniors officers including the commander flew missions--they led from the cockpit, not just from their desks.   

Sunday, April 4, 2010

I'm In the Final Five--Thanks to Friends and Kappa Alpha Theta

My daughter Lisa (far right, first standing row) is a freshman at the University of Richmond--Go Spiders!--and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, Epsilon Psi Chapter.  This afternoon, I had ten nominations in the Milbloggie Award contest and was barely in third place.  At the close of voting tonight I had 30 nominations putting me solidly in 2nd place with voting beginning now.  Part of the reason I jumped so fast in the standings was Lisa asked her sisters in Theta to vote for her Dad's blog.  A dozen responded.

 Thank You to Kappa Alpha Theta, Epsilon Psi Chapter, University of Richmond.



My daughter Lauren (middle of middle row, black shirt) sent text messages to her soccer teammates at Juniata College and I got more votes.

Thanks to Juniata Women's Soccer.

Thanks also to Jack, Meredith, Akinoluna, Kristine, Brigitte, Sarah, David and everyone else who nominated me.

Now I need you to go back vote!  Winners announced Wednesday, prizes awarded at the Milblogging conference on Saturday of this week.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Milbloggie Update

Currently I am in third place in the nominations with 10.  The top two blogs have 39 and 22 nominations.  Fourth place is right behind me with 9 nominations, fifth place  has six.  Only the top five move to the final voting round.  If you have not nominated my blog, please help me out in a very close race.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Need a Job? These Folks Want to Help

I got this email today and thought the info worth passing on.  I am definitely one of the lucky people who returned to a job, but not everyone does.  If you need a job, check them out:

I am a follower of your blog and am working with the Call of Duty 
Endowment (CODE) to raise awareness about employment issues for 
veterans.  CODE is a non-profit organization that helps solders 
transition to civilian careers after their military service. It 
focuses its resources on assisting organizations that provide job 
placement and training to veterans, as well as engaging the media and 
public forums to raise awareness of the issue.

I encourage you to take a look at this video and explore CODE's  website for information about finding good jobs for our vets after 
they finish their military service:

Additionally, here is an article that came out a few weeks ago with 
some scary statistics about the current state of employment for 
veterans:


Although unemployment among veterans is a major problem, it is not 
front and center in the public debate.  We would be grateful if you 
considered blogging on the issues or linking your blog to the CODE 
video or articles pertaining to the subject.  If you would like me to 
provide you with more information, I would be happy to do so.

Please help us bring this issue into public conversation.  I look 
forward to hearing from you, either personally or through the 
blogosphere.


Best,

Emily
http://www.callofdutyendowment.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Call-Of-Duty-Endowment/199346440490?ref=ts

Thursday, April 1, 2010

MAKE ME FAMOUS

This post is a shameless plea for nominations for my blog in the military blog awards--The Milbloggies.  Nominations begin tonight and continue through April 3.  The blogs with the most nominations will be open for votes.  So if I am nominated, I will be posting again asking for votes.

To nominate my blog you have to register here.  The registration is just six lines and the nice people at milblogging.com promise you will not get SPAM from them.  Once you register, put my last name, Gussman, in the search bar on the upper left side of the page.  One search result will come up.  Click on the title of my blog, then when you get to the page, click the big green NOMINATE button.

If i get enough nominations, I am a finalist for a Milbloggie!!!

Nominations close Saturday.  Thanks in advance.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Real Life After Travel and Deployment

On Monday night I got back from San Antonio after midnight.  I started to unpack, did a load of laundry, took out the trash and watched TV before the buzz in my ears stopped and I could go to sleep around 230 am.  For eight days I stayed in hotels, ate in restaurants, went to banquets, rode a rental bike when I wasn't working and generally was either working or exercising from morning till late at night. 

I have not seen "The Hurt Locker" but I am told the hero of the film goes back to Iraq after being bored and bewildered by life back home.  It is different to ride in the back of a commuter plane next to someone nervous about a routine flight on a sunny day after riding behind the door gunner in a Black Hawk in a sand storm so thick that the helicopter we were flying with was all but invisible.

Business travel has some of the unreality of deployment, although different.  Business travelers escape the routine of daily life with long days, too much food and housekeeping done by hotel maids.  Soldiers don't have maids, but work long hours and are reasonably well fed.  My business travel is over for a while except day trips to DC and NYC and staying over in Philadelphia during events.  I think my transition to normal life is a little smoother because of the travel.  

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Fox News Looking Like (At) Boobs

Stare at The Sun: breast bombs

A news source (Fox News) famed for its reliability, reprinting news from another news source (The Sun) famed for its reliability, applies this headline:
Terrorists Could Use Explosives in Breast Implants to Crash Planes, Experts Warn
The Sun accompanies its report with the image reproduced here.
Thus does vital knowledge get spread to the general public.
 ===

In the interest of full disclosure you can go direct to the source of this report at Improbable.com

I wonder if the Fox News commentator, in a patriotic fervor, said, "I can't wait to get my hands on these terrorists!"

Monday, March 29, 2010

Who Got Drafted for the Iraq War?

Several of the soldiers I served with could be considered draftees. At least, they were serving very much against their will and were surprised to receive a FEDEX package telling them to report for pre-deployment training within two weeks.  Most of the soldiers I knew who got called back adapted well after the initial shock.  One did not.

One of the Battle Captains in our aviation unit was Jay Hoffman.  He received a FEDEX telling him to report for duty in two weeks for deployment in Iraq.  His home is in London where he works for an oil exploration firm.  Jay was a Black Hawk pilot and had left the service several years ago, but did not resign his commission, so he got the FEDEX and went to Iraq with us.  A couple of days ago,
he wrote me from the Congo to ask me how things were going.  Jay applied for the MBA program at the London School of Economics while we were in Iraq and was accepted for the fall 2010 class so he will be changing his career again.  He also is completing all the courses he needs to be a reserve major so he can be in a reserve unit instead of getting a FEDEX with no warning next time.

Chief Warrant Officer Suzy Danielson left the military in 1994 after serving as a Black Hawk pilot during the Gulf War and in Somalia.  She did not resign her warrant commission, and did not really give the Army a second thought from 1994 until 2008 when she got a FEDEX package telling her to report for duty.  She had not flown a Black Hawk since 1994, but worked as a flight instructor for fixed wing aircraft since she left the Army.  She had to brush up on the Black Hawk, but flight was very much second nature.  When I met her she was flying the chase bird on MEDEVAC mission--the Black Hawk with door guns that follows the MEDEVAC bird.

One of the stranger recalled soldiers was an extremely unhappy female sergeant major who was activated out of retirement to go to Iraq.  She had retired several years before and never expected to be at Tallil Ali Air Base, but the condition on the military retirement is "return to duty" when requested or forfeit all pay and benefits for the rest of your life.  The sergeant major did not want to lose her retirement so there she was running the chapel coffee shop called "God's Grounds."  She was assigned to a support battalion, but was unhappy enough that they sent her to the chapel.  I heard her explain her circumstances several times--losing no vehemence no matter how many times she repeated her story.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Riding in San Antonio

While temperatures dropped to near freezing in the northeastern US, I rode 65 miles in San Antonio today at a high temperature of 82 degrees.  My official work began late in the day with a dinner and ceremony lasting till late evening.  The dinner was a meeting of a group of petrochemical executives who have worked in the industry for 25 years or more.

I have ridden in San Antonio before, but did not realize that all of the several major highways that go through and around San Antonio have frontage roads.  Some pasts of these roads are as crowded as the frontage road on Route 30 in Lancaster, but others are empty, one-way, two-lane strips of asphalt or concrete that are excellent places to ride.

My route was due north out of the city to the outer ring route North Loop 1604.  I rode west then followed I-10 east back into the city.  I ate lunch at a local coffee shop on the ring route about 35 miles into the ride.  It seemed like the kind of place that would serve sandwiches with sprouts and have about 10 veggie sandwiches.  I ordered chicken salad and expected light fare.  I got about a half pound of chicken salad in a sandwich that could have been sold in a New York deli.  Instead of sprouts and leaf lettuce, I got iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and bacon.  I also ordered a side of cole slaw.  It also had bacon in it.  I knew I was in Texas.

A couple of miles before I stopped, I rode by a large very rectangular Church.  It actually looked more like a security firm, almost no windows, set back more than a 1/4 mile from the road.  Then I saw it was the church of Pastor John Hagee, the pastor John McCain had to disown during the 2008 Presidential campaign.  

At the end of the ride I went to the gym at Fort Sam Houston.  Military bases have much better gyms than hotels--at least better than Holiday Inns.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Saved a Little Too Much Money

There are several Holiday Inns within the downtown area of San Antonio.  I usually stay at Holiday Inns which are cheaper than the conference hotels at the meetings I go to.  On this trip the conference hotel is the new Grand Hyatt right next to the San Antonio River Walk.  I stayed just a half mile away for less than half the price.  But sometimes a short distance can make a huge difference.  From the Grand Hyatt to the Holiday Inn Express, you walk under a highway, past a few bars and a Ruth's Chris Steak House, then across the railroad tracks and into a warehouse area.  The hotel is just three blocks away.  But across the street from the very sad looking Magott's Grocery Store.

 
Actually, Magott's Grocery, was established by Theodore Maggot in 1881.

And the whole area around Magott's including my hotel, definitely looked like industrial decay.  Very different from the River Walk and the surrounding restaurants.

I walked over and bought a Vitamin Water.  The guys who work there were very friendly but that is one difficult name to put on top of a score advertising Fresh Meat.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Last Day in San Francisco

Today I flew out of San Francisco in the late afternoon.  I had an 4pm flight to LAX followed by a 715pm flight to San Antonio, arriving at 1159pm--actually 1205am, but very close.

In the morning I rode up to the top of the Marin Headlands just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.  This picture is the view from the top looking back at the city.  Although the climb is less than two miles from the north side of the bridge to the top, it was enough for me.  Three climbs up Mt. Tamalpais in the four previous days left my legs like rubber.

Yesterday I rode through one of the temperature shifts that happen between San Francisco and the top of Mt. Tam in Marin.  three years ago I left a fog-shrouded city of San Francisco on a morning ride.  The Golden Gate was also fog covered.  And the for persisted all the way to the 2000-foot line on Mt. Tam, then it was brilliant sun all the way to the top of East Peak.  I could see back to SF, but the only thing I could see was the cloud of fog that blanketed the entire city except for the peaks of the Golden Gate tower support piers and the antennas on top of Mt. Bruno inside the city. 

Yesterday it was clear and cool all the way from the city through Marin up almost 2300 feet then a cloud covered the very top of the mountain.  I rode the last half mile to the crest in increasingly thick fog.  At the top I could not see a thing.  the wisps of fog were so thick they seemed like they would hurt if they hit me.  I went back down into the cloud, but a half-mile later , below and away from the cloud, the sun was shining again. 

Not So Supreme: A Conference about the Constitution, the Courts and Justice

Hannah Arendt At the end of the first week in March, I went to a conference at Bard College titled: Between Power and Authority: Arendt on t...