Veteran of four wars, four enlistments, four branches: Air Force, Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard. I am both an AF (Air Force) veteran and as Veteran AF (As Fuck)
Sunday, November 22, 2009
100k on Sunday, PT Test on Monday
So I got up at 0440 and went to the gym to take the PT Test at 0530. The first event is the pushup. I need to do 56 in two minutes to max--get 100 points for the event. I got 49. Not bad. I was tired. I have done 56 when I felt really good, but after the 100km ride, I did not feel "really good." The situps were next. I needed 66. I got 66 in a minute, 50 seconds. Because I am over 55 I can take an alternative to the run. For the bike I have to ride 10km in 30 minutes. I am not allowed to change gears--which is fine since I have single-speed bikes. I rode the 6.2 mile course with 7 turn arounds in 20:03 on the road bike. For the PT Test, I ode the mountain bike and finished in 22:37.
I expected to have a full day's rest before the PT Test. I didn't. It's nice to know that I can score 288 out of 300 on a day when I am tired and haven't had much sleep. But I was wiped out afterward. I worked in the morning, but felt like I had cotton inside my skull. I took a nap at lunch.
Now I have to just be cool till Thursday morning and the race.
The Kid Who Wanted to Play Army
Being over here made me think more about high school and how life twists and turns. In September, when I started writing stories that got picked up on the Web across the world, my friend Meredith Gould reminded me that "wherever you go, there you are." Taking a year off from public relations had the result of me getting more stories published than in any two-month period in my life. So I go 6,000 miles from my writing job and--here I am.
Steve Thorley, a neighbor on Oak Street who graduated in 1973, wrote to me on Facebook remembering me as the kid who always wanted to play Army--even when the other kids had moved on to stick and ball sports. At six or seven, I was the kid with the toy gun. And here I am, fifty years later, back in the Army and carrying a gun, when every other soldier in my age group has long since left the Army or is retired. I left the Army in 1984 because I wanted to be a writer and thought the commitment the Reserves required would mean I could not both become a writer and be a soldier. Turns out I would have been OK.
My wife Annalisa, following Steven Covey and philosophers all the way back to Aristotle, thinks we are defined by out habits. CS Lewis agrees. He says real virtue must become habit. It must not be simply an act of will, but virtue should train the will to respond correctly.
I have written recently that I had a soldier's reaction in situations where a public relations manager would do something different. My habits right now say I am a writer and a soldier and they do not seem mutually exclusive. So I am both the man who is observing intently to get the right detail for the story or the right picture to go with it. And I have the habits of a man who safely carries a weapon everywhere every day and who reacts to do the right thing for his soldiers first and get the story second.
Friday, November 20, 2009
“Country” Calls Iraq Home Since 2004
One stop on the same mission in the last post Camp Echo. When we landed, the crew told me there would be grilled steaks waiting for them after they got their paperwork and loading/unloading completed. I was skeptical, but when I came back from a visit to the Charlie MEDEVAC TOC (Tactical Operations Center) a smiling man with a big black cowboy hat, an enormous belt buckle and, according to the Alpha crew, an even bigger heart, was grilling steaks outside the blast wall.
That man was James “Country” Curtis, 46, of Olden, Texas. Curtis has been the passenger terminal manager in Diwaniya since June of 2008. Curtis controls the airfield and does what he can to help soldiers passing through Camp Echo “enjoy the time they spend here.” The Alpha crew definitely enjoyed Country’s cooking. It’s a skill he has had a long time to perfect. Except for R&R leaves home, Curtis has worked in Iraq since February 2004. “I was a truck driver at the base in Babylon,” he said. “When that closed we took over the former Spanish base here at Diwaniya. I drove trucks till last year when I started working at the airfield.” Curtis plans to return to Texas next year, maybe to work his farm, maybe to drive trucks, maybe both. “That’s next year. I’ll see what happens when I get back home.”
The fuel crew at Diwaniya is very good at their work according to the air crews. They roll out to fuel the birds as soon as they land. And they dress so brightly only one wears a PT Belt.
Who Flies That Blackhawk? The Whole Story
Last Month I wrote part of the story below--about the Blackhawk pilot who was a pilot for Gov. Blagojevich of Illinois in civilian life. Here is the four-man crew and their four very different backgrounds.
Task Force Diablo is based in Pennsylvania but includes units and soldiers from across the nation. Because National Guard soldiers bring a variety of life and work experiences with them on deployment, even the smallest unit can include soldiers with a surprising array of skills and experience. In September Alaska-based, Charlie 1-52nd MEDEVAC needed a crew for the chase bird for a routine flight to two of their remote sites. Alpha 1-106th from Illinois supplied a crew for a Pennsylvania 1-150th Blackhawk helicopter. The four soldiers who comprised the Illinois crew on a Pennsylvania helicopter following an Alaska MEDEVAC show how different the members of a four-man unit can be.
Flying in Iraq and Flying in the Spotlight
In the left pilot seat is Chief Warrant Officer Four Patrick Schroeder, 38, an Instructor Pilot with 21 years of service. The Sherman, Illinois, native joined the Army in 1988 and served as a UH-1 “Huey” mechanic for four years before attending flight school. He has been a pilot “24/7” ever since. In 2003 he took a job as one of the pilots who fly the Governor of Illinois. Because he deployed in January of 2009, Schroeder served as a pilot for Governor Rod Blagojevich from shortly after the time he took office in 2003 until shortly before the notorious governor was removed from office in 2009.
Schroeder would say nothing about flying the governor except to say that he enjoyed the times he was able to fly Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn and looks forward to flying for Governor Quinn when he returns from deployment. Schroeder was married just a month before his current deployment and took his R&R (Rest and Recreation) leave as a honeymoon in Australia. Schroeder is on his second deployment. He first deployed in Iraq in 2004-5 with Alpha 1-106th for 15 months.
Pilot Engineers a Successful Dual Career
Next to Schroeder in the right pilot seat was Chief Warrant Officer Two Nathan McKean, 31, of Decatur, Illinois. McKean has served 12 years, beginning with four years in the Navy building bombs on the aircraft carrier USS Stennis and in a combat search and rescue unit based in San Diego. McKean came home in 2001, enrolled in college, and joined the Army National Guard. He trained as a crew chief and later deployed to Iraq for the first time with Bravo Company 1-106th in 2004-5. After leaving active duty, McKean decided he needed a good job that would allow him time off for military duty—lots of time off. In 2002, he took a job as an engineer on the Norfolk Southern Railroad. Within a year he was training to go to Iraq, then left for a deployment of 15 months.
Soon after he returned he went to flight school for a year, then had additional training before his current tour in Iraq which began in January. McKean estimates he has worked on the railroad for 2-1/2 years, but has more than seven year’s seniority.
Blackhawk Crew Chief Plans Fixed-Wing Future
Behind McKean on the right side of the Blackhawk was Sgt. Steve Sunzeri, 26, of Naperville, Illinois. Sunzeri has six years in the Illinois Army National Guard. From 2003-7 he served as a scout and infantryman with
Charlie Company 2-106th Cavalry. In 2006 he completed the require-ments for a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. Then in 2007-8 he reclassified to become a flight crew chief, deploying in 2009 with Alpha Company.
After nearly two years of service in helicopters,
Sunzeri will return to college to earn a degree in Aviation Management at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and at the same time train to be a commercial pilot. If everything falls into place, he will start school in the Spring Semester of 2010. “My goal is to fly fixed wing aircraft for a major airline,” Sunzeri said. In the meantime he will be earning the ratings necessary to become a fixed wing pilot while earning a degree that will help him achieve his career goals. He will continue to serve as a crew chief in the Illinois Army National Guard while he attends college and completes flight training.
Door Gunner on Third Deployment at 24
In the left seat behind the pilot is the door gunner, the youngest member of the crew and the one with the most combat deployments. Cpl. Michael Randazzo, 24, of Queens, N.Y., is on his third deployment in six years of Army National Guard service. Randazzo enlisted shortly after graduating high school serving first as an infantryman with the New York based 1-69th Infantry Regiment. In May of 2004 Randazzo deployed with the 1-69th to Baghdad and Taji patrolling and conducting raids. Randazzo also worked route clearance patrolling Route Irish. When he returned from Iraq, Randazzo worked for an executive protection company until June 2008 when he volunteered to return to Iraq as a door gunner with 3-142nd Aviation Regiment. Near the end of that tour, he volunteered for a second consecutive tour as a door gunner with Alpha 1-106th. When this tour is complete Randazzo plans to return to New York City and “squeeze in a semester of college” before going to flight school in the fall of 2010. After flight school he will continue his college education until 2012 when he plans to deploy to Afghanistan as an Army helicopter pilot.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
My "Band of Brothers"
My Band of Brothers. The two guys in the middle, Matt and Dale, run
public affairs for the Brigade (the next higher unit, 2000 soldiers) and
the guy on the right, Andy, works for a 700-soldier unit that is part of
the brigade. Matt and Andy are very good writers. Dale is admin
mostly--but really good with paperwork and politics.
Matt and Dale got me the camera that got me back into photography. They were also very encouraging, meeting with me every week in the summer when I was doubting I could do half of what I was assigned and dealing with all the difficulties in the motor pool. Matt and Dale, more than anyone else here, got me through July and August.
Andy is a good writer who is assigned as a truck driver. He has only a little college, but is an avid reader. He is a good guy. We will be keeping in touch when we are back in America. I am hoping he can get work as a writer.
We hold our weapons down in Iraq, but I thought, as the oldest member of the group by about two decades, I should hold the weapon the way we did back in the 70s.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Eight Minutes and Gone--Revised
Capt. Peter Huggins, executive officer of Charlie 1-52nd MEDEVAC, was
very careful to say that the Army response time standard for a MEDEVAC
call is fifteen minutes. That is fifteen minutes from the time the
9-line MEDEVAC request is received until the mission is in the air.
But in the day room, the hangar, the ready rooms and at the picnic
tables, flight medics, pilots, crew chiefs and chase-crew door gunners
all know the real goal is eight minutes. One day recently, I was at
Charlie MEDEVAC waiting to talk to a medic when the 9-line came in. The
sky was clear and temperature was just over 120 degrees. When I heard
the call on radios all around the area, I looked at my watch, marked the
time, and went straight out to where the Blackhawks sit enclosed by
blast walls waiting to take off. The crew chiefs and right-seat pilots
of both aircraft were already getting their Blackhawks ready for flight.
The flight medic and both left-seat pilots were in the TOC (Tactical
Operations Center) getting a mission brief.
Within three minutes the twin turbine engines were screaming and the
huge rotor blades were starting to turn. I walked along the blast walls
to the front of the aircraft so I could watch the takeoff from directly
under their flight path.
The main rotors turned faster and faster. I moved to a dead air spot
between the shuddering Blackhawks where I was not being buffeted by the
wind from the main rotors. The pilots and the flight medic jumped into
their seats. The tail rotors were spinning crazy fast looking like they
might pick the whole aircraft up from the back. The roaring sound from
the rotors suddenly dropped to a lower pitch.
In that moment of quiet, the medic bird took off. At first slowly
upward, then twisting to the right it banked up into the air,
straightened out and shot into the distance.
The chase bird was seconds behind following the same counterclockwise
curve into the sky. Eighteen seconds short of eight minutes--and gone.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Fright Night
I used to smoke. Most of my life from 13 to 33 I smoked. I estimated something on the order of 100,000 cigarettes. I am well past any current desire to smoke, but I still consider myself a smoker--at least in the sense that a long stretch of my life was limited by that bad habit.
And now I carry a gun. I have been carrying a gun for a year. I ride my bike with a gun. I wonder about using the gun. As my last day on the range showed, I am only accurate with the gun if it is supported by something. Without resting the gun on a sandbag or a wall, I can't fire very well. So I left work tonight in a light rain thinking about the gun on my back. I was distracted. I rode south into the darkest part of the base where the road is smooth as glass, but there are no buildings and no lights. Almost as soon as I turned on this usually lonely road I was between two walls of trucks. Just off both sides of the road were 50 huge flatbed trucks parked end to end with armored vehicles on nearly every one of them. Some of the flatbeds were the huge 4-axle armored tractors towing 5-axle trailers designed to carry armored vehicles. These long trailers have 40 tires.
With MRAPS and ASV Armored Gun Platforms, the twin lines of tall trucks strapped to flatbeds made the ride seem to be in a tunnel. The sky was black with clouds and made a roof. The ride pulled me back to the scariest ride I ever had in Hong Kong. I was flying down the mountain above this unbelievably crowded city and entered the middle lane of a three-lane wide one-way street. I was passing a double decker bus to my right. It was a flat steel wall on the left, they drive on the right. So I was riding next to a 15-foot high steel wall when the double-decker bus in the left lane started to move right. I jumped on the pedals and hoped I could pass the right bus before I became a smear between them.
I made it.
So I snapped myself out of that memory when I passed the long line of trucks. Then I was alone in the desert. Usually a bus or a maintenance truck will go past. Nothing. No one. I rode all the way to the east end of the base and north to main post before I saw another human being or vehicle. That started to get spooky after two miles and it was four miles that I was alone.
I am going to my book group now to talk about book 11 of Aeneid when Camilla gets killed.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
More Range Photos
A Day on the Range
Here are some photos from today.
Spc. Aaron Trimmer, the armorer, fixes weapons at the range
Prone firing position
Staff Sgt. Hummel ran the range from the tower
Friday, November 13, 2009
Updated Stories and a Century Ride
In the next few days I will be updating some of the stories you already read, if you have been reading for the past two months--or they will be new stories if you weren't. I will be posting the full version of the story about the crew that includes Governor Rod Blagojevich's pilot. I am also writing an update to the Jason Guge PT Belt story. I will also post the latest version of Eight Minutes and Gone for those who don't get the Task Force Diablo Newsletter.
And on a completely different note, my main riding buddy convinced me we could do a Century next Sunday--on a single speed! We'll see.
Virgil in the Chow Hall
This led us to the trials of faithful Aeneas as recorded in Virgil's epic. All of us wish we could identify with Aeneas, his troops, and even his enemies. They face danger with no regret. When they die they are brave to the final moment. We don't get a lot of chances to face real danger and we hope we will do it well. But the gods in the epic--we know them. The generals and political leaders above them are the gods in our story. They are powerful, able to move thousands of soldiers at their will, but like the Roman gods, they all have a specific territory they are in charge of. When they step outside that territory another god will fight them, or appeal to Jupiter to settle the dispute.
So a big group of us train together, arrive together, serve together, then at the stroke of a pen, most of the group goes home a month early--including the Christmas holidays--and the rest of us stay here as planned. It all makes sense to someone in Baghdad with a big map, but to us it all looks arbitrary and territorial, like the gods in Virgil's Aeneid.
Before some of the extreme beliefs of the 18th century became the mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century, most well-educated people read "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius. This book, written in the 6th century AD, may be the best ever written on how Destiny or Providence can guide an individual life in a world dominated by chaos. Our world is contingent, chaotic we live by faith daily even when we don't want to, and yet some people follow a destiny laid out by God.
The Greeks and Romans imagined the world as dominated by a chaos, with the gods making the chaos worse in many cases, yet the greatest men were guided by the fates--predestined to greatness. Boethius shows how this works in a Christian believer's life. The main difference is that only those of high birth and merit had a destiny in the Greco-Roman world. In the Christian world, it is quite the reverse. Those who most fully focus on doing the Lord's will, and usually being notable failures in this life, find God's will most fully. Mother Teresa's intent to love and serve lepers in Calcutta eventually led to fame for her, but she began as lowly as possible and was exalted for it. Reading Virgil and Boethius reminds me that a program with great ambition for control and power in this life, even with a designer Christian label, is aiming at the Roman heaven of senators and generals. The Christian Heaven of the Man of Sorrows is in another direction.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
4000 Miles in Iraq, 6000 for the Year, So Far
While my heel feels better, my running is way down from last year. But my shoulder is recovering well and my back is holding up just fine despite wearing body armor on flights. So far this year I have done 10,547 situps, 8365 pushups and 705 pull ups, but who's counting. We have a PT test sometime this month. Because I am over 55, I do not have to run. For my aerobic test, I can either run, walk, swim (if there was water) OR RIDE THE BIKE!!!! No kidding. I'll take the bike. I have to ride 10km (6.2 miles) in 28 minutes to pass. And since the bike is pass fail, the score I get is the average of my other two events. I think there is a chance I will be able max the test. In any case, I should get a good score, I have ridden 10k in 16 minutes in the US, so 28 minutes should be very easy to do.
The Biathlon is two weeks from today on Thanksgiving morning. I have no odea what the attendance will be.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Veteran's Day Ceremony--Emcee Again
After two of these I will be homesick for Army events. To all of my friends for whom some of their job is organizing events: Nancy, Audrey, Sarah, Brigitte, Kristine, Bob and Rick--just try to picture having eight speakers and performers who show up early for each rehearsal, who practice their talks and performances, who speak politely to all of the event staff, who are happy for the opportunity to be part of the performance, an audience that actually shuts off or ignores their phones and Blackberries. I could go on, but you get the idea. With a group like this last-minute changes are a breeze.
And like last time, the event started precisely on the minute, you'll see why in the talk. Everyone performed as we rehearsed. No one went over time.
What a great day.
--------------------------
Welcome to the Celebration of Veteran’s Day on COB Adder. I am Sergeant Neil Gussman of Task Force Diablo.
This ceremony began at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month—exactly 91 years after the Allied Armies accepted the surrender of Germany marking the end of World War One in 1918. This terrible conflict killed and maimed millions of soldiers. France suffered worst. The war was fought almost entirely inside her borders. This beautiful country had a population of 60 million when the war began in 1914. Four years later a million French soldiers were dead, five million were wounded. This global conflict introduced the world to many of the most horrible weapons of modern war. In 1916, the Germans had the infamy of being the first to use chemical warfare, releasing chlorine gas from hundreds of cylinders on a clear morning in Belgium and killing thousands of mostly French troops who did not know that the green cloud rolling toward them meant agonizing death, until it was too late. Using aircraft to bomb troops and civilians began in World War One. Tanks made their terrible debut on the battlefields of this war. When the First World War ended it was called “The War to End All Wars.”
It wasn’t.
But this horrible war with millions dead led our nation and other nations to honor not only those who died for their country, but those who lived to enjoy the freedom that their service gave to all of us. That is why we are here today, to honor all those who have served before us in Iraq and Afghanistan, to honor those who served in the Gulf War, in Panama, in Lebanon, in Somalia, in Viet Nam, in Korea, and in World War Two. We are also here to honor each other. Everyone who wears the uniform in this room is a veteran. We are all members of an exclusive club. If you add together every soldier, airmen, sailor and marine including National Guard and reserve, there are less than two million men and women in uniform. That is less than two-thirds of one percent of the US population. It’s the same number of US citizens who hold PhD degrees in either the arts or sciences.
So enjoy the program. Make this the day you thank the veteran sitting next to you for his or her service. Maybe call that uncle or aunt you haven’t talked to for a while who served in the Gulf War or Viet Nam. Thank them for their service.
From this old soldier who enlisted during Viet Nam, thank you for your service.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
How Do We Fight This War?--What Makes the TOC Tick?
“I really like my job when things go wrong or, better still, when I can prevent things from going wrong in the first place,” said Ballard, 26, of Granby, Conn. She is a battle captain in the Tactical Operations Center of the 2nd Battalion, 104th Aviation Regiment.
“My job is all about contingencies and troubleshooting,” said Ballard. “When things go well, I am just waiting.”
Ballard may say she is just waiting, but the staff of the TOC is busy around the clock tracking every flight in the battalion, monitoring weather, monitoring security, updating higher headquarters and ensuring every mile of every flight is tracked and recorded from pre-flight to after-operations debriefings.
The tracking methods vary from the sophisticated Blue Force Tracker system, to sending updates to every other TOC in theater online through Microsoft Internet Relay Chat, or MIRC, to a large white board on the wall with the status of every mission updated constantly in dry-erase marker.
MIRC is a large chat room that allows TOCs throughout Iraq to keep each other informed of aircraft status and position. This is especially useful for MEDEVAC operations to track lifesaving mission progress which sometimes require transfer from one helicopter to another on a long journey from the point of injury to the best possible care.
The TOC itself is an open room with a row of large, flat-screen monitors on the wall. These monitors allow operations personnel to see weather across the region and the BFT position of active flights. One of the big screens can be tuned to Armed Forces Network TV to get current events.
On the other side of the room are a raised platform and a long desk with several computers, phones and monitors. The operations crew sits at this table facing the row of monitors and at two lower desks in front of the raised platform. The battle captain sits at the long desk near the status white board. Directly in front of the Soldiers are one to three monitors and laptop screens for various computer systems.
Looking from the service counter, the row of video monitors with their colorful displays and the operators at the phones and monitors, make the room look like a plywood, low-ceiling version of a NASA control room. At any hour of the day, the room can range from eerily quiet to buzzing with activity.
Late in October, there was an evening when the buzz of activity hit maximum. That particular evening three mission sets—each one consisting of two CH-47 Chinook helicopters—took off in the dark as usual and started to spread across Iraq with their cargo of troops and supplies. Within 15 minutes two of the flights were returning to COB Adder for maintenance issues.
What began as a routine evening became a full-on maintenance emergency with three pairs of helicopters returning from three directions.
“One of the first pair of Chinooks could not be fixed,” she said. “The crew had to take their weapons and equipment to a spare bird while ground teams moved the cargo.”
The second pair of aircraft came back for a non-emergency repair, but one that would have grounded the mission. The answer to the problem was to switch one of the helicopters from the third mission set with one from the second. Again this meant two five-member crews moving guns, ammo and flight gear while ground crews moved passengers and cargo.
“I was on the phones and the radio non-stop for 90 minutes,” Ballard said.
Within an hour and a half, all three mission sets were back in the air and on their way to their destinations. It would be a longer night than everyone anticipated, but all the missions that night were completed.
“We didn’t get dinner for quite a while that night,” she said. “We were starving.” Like all the battle captains in the TOC, Ballard is a pilot. She flies CH-47 Chinooks as does her husband Seth who serves as a maintenance test pilot and maintenance officer in the battalion. The Ballards met at flight school and have been together ever since.
In addition to Ballard, the other 2nd Bn., 104th AR battle captains are Capt. James Cragg, Capt. John Hoffman and Capt. Paul Ward, UH-60 Blackhawk pilots; Capt. Nathan Smith, CH-47 Chinook pilot, and 1st Lt. Jason Collier, AH-64D Apache Longbow pilot.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Amish Have It Backwards
Then I quit taking pictures. In fact, I don't actually own a camera. I have a camera in my cell phone and that has been enough. Everyone around me seems to have cameras so I let them take pictures. Over the last week I started to remember one of the reasons why I stopped. The camera hurts the soul of the photographer. It doesn't steal your soul--that might be better. But the more pictures I take and the better they are, the more I am "the guy with the camera."
Now when people have events they want me to take the picture. And they want me to take the picture they way they want it--which means the picture is going to suck anyway. It will suck in my $3000 camera (Army Property) instead of sucking in their $100 camera.
Why will it suck. Because inevitably, they envision a photo beginning with the BACKGROUND. Their goal is a tourist photo which includes themselves and all of the Ziggurat of Ur, or a square mile of desert, or an entire Chinook Helicopter. Which means the people disappear. YUCK.
I take photos: eyes first, then face, then enough of the rest of the body to convey attitude. I want to see someone through their work.
So the real problem is that I am becoming more judgmental than I already am. Cameras are harsh. People who look good normally can look bad in pictures. They look worse in my kind of pictures because I get close. I start to look at people through the lens and know before the first shot they will look bad. I know most people around me are happy with the photos they take. I would not have cared before I was shooting pictures four days a week. Now I am looking at them like they drink $3 boxed wine.
So if I am not careful, it will be me who loses his soul, from the back side of the camera.
Flags at Half Staff
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Roomie--5 Time Zones Away
With my new job, I can sleep till 0700 if I want to eat the everything breakfast. I can sleep till 0800 if I want to skip breakfast. We get up 5 hours apart and we both work days--sort of. I work 9 to 6 then come back, eat dinner, work out or go to book groups, then work till midnight or later sometimes. So I can sleep late. Nickey has a fixed schedule. So when I come in the CHU to change at 6 or 7pm Nickey is sometimes already asleep. He is almost always asleep by the time I pickup my pack to go back to work at 9 or 10 at night.
If I work late enough I might be up for his alarm. Nickey is a great roommate. We each do our best to keep the room dark and quiet for the other. Nickey's locker divides the room so we each have low-power lamps we can use while the other one is sleeping. Most days, one of us is asleep between 8pm and 8am.
Right now Nickey and I are on sleep schedules so far apart it is as if one of us was in China and one in Iraq. Or one in Iceland and one Iraq. Five time zones is the difference between the east coast of the US and London, or between Chicago and Hawaii, Paris and Mumbai.
Emotional Roller Coaster
Last week a good friend of mine lost his job because of a stupid remark he made to one of his soldiers and this week the whole issue came to a head. He is not the kind of guy who fights back when he is wrong, so he is just going to accept his punishment. Others who have done worse have skated by without a problem. He seems like an example of how good people get screwed, but in the past week while this drama unfolded, he has seen how many people respect him, stand behind him and support him. So he really is getting virtue's reward, love when you need it--more than you expect.
The day I knew I was a wreck was Wednesday. I was writing a farewell to Charlie MEDEVAC for the newsletter that comes out Monday. I have only known those guys for two months and only know a dozen of them personally, but that company is the most professional, together, and focused unit I have worked with directly since I have been in the Army. Anyway, I was writing the essay and started to cry. At that point I knew I was getting too little sleep, having too much excitement, and needed a rest.
I am going to send the newsletter to the people who I have email addresses for. If you want a copy, send me an email at ngussman@gmail.com and I will add you to the list.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Who Fights This War? Door Gunner and Runner
Sgt. James McKeithan, a door gunner in Company B, Task Force Diablo, checks his equipment before a flight at Camp Adder, Tallil, Iraq. As a door gunner in a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, McKeithan flies the night skies. He said the most exciting mission he would have gone on, a support role in an air assault, actually got canceled.
The runner-up was what he described as a hot unloading of pallets at Basra. This means the pallets are dropped from the cargo ramp while the helicopter is still moving. McKeithan said the most difficult part of his job came when he was required to perform overnight missions on eight consecutive nights.
A resident of Carlisle, Pa., 22-year-old McKeithan is a full-time Army National Guard Soldier. He served on the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's Mobile Event Team before he deployed to Iraq. He plans to serve full-time with the Guard when he returns and attend college at night. He has one year of college left to finish earning his degree as a registered nurse.
After that, he will pursue additional training to become a nurse anesthetist. When he is not working, McKeithan is a competitor. His last Army physical fitness score was 336 (300 is considered a perfect score), with a two-mile run time of 12 minutes and 12 seconds. He said his goal is 350 with a run time of 11 minutes and 30 seconds. He plans to run the Army 10-Miler in Iraq. He said he ran the race in Washington D.C. in 2008 with a time of one hour and six minutes. He also participates in mixed martial arts fighting and is a registered competitor in four states.
The Race is On!!!!! Task Force Diablo Biathlon on Thanksgiving Morning
The course profile is the same as an ironing board--flat. I am hoping to have 100 teams or individuals. I am going to make the race flyer in the morning. Advertising should begin by Saturday. Three weeks today till the start.
When I went to the garrison sergeant major's office to get approval for the race, he said we first had to talk about a Veteran's Day ceremony on Wednesday the 11th. I am going to be the emcee. I contacted the guy who will (I hope) be the featured speaker--one of the chaplains who is a regular at the CS Lewis book group.
This Monday I am going to send the newsletter I do to everyone I sent it too a month ago. This seventh issue really is good. With the help of Sgt. Matt Jones at 28th Combat Aviation Brigade, the simple layout I use is starting to look better. And I got some really good shots that I am using full page so they would not look as dramatic on the blog.
Too many great things happened this week to even write them all down. One sad thing for me I realized this morning is the Charlie MEDEVAC Company is leaving. They have been the source of some of my best stories and are one of the best units it has ever been my pleasure to be associated with. They are going back to Alaska soon and another MEDEVAC will take their place. I re-wrote the Eight Minutes and Gone blog post from two months ago as a tribute/goodbye to them and re-cropped some pictures for the past page of the newsletter.
On Target Meditation
For several years I have been meditating daily. Briefly. Just for five or ten minutes, but regularly. I have a friend who meditates for ho...
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Tasks, Conditions and Standards is how we learn to do everything in the Army. If you are assigned to be the machine gunner in a rifle squad...
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On 10 November 2003 the crew of Chinook helicopter Yankee 2-6 made this landing on a cliff in Afghanistan. Artist Larry Selman i...
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C.S. Lewis , best known for The Chronicles of Narnia served in World War I in the British Army. He was a citizen of Northern Ireland an...