welcome to camp liberty, iraq. we left our tents about 2 am and arrived in iraq around 8. spent the morning getting keys issued for our rooms, trying to move in, explore around our area, and had an inbrief to tell us some of the rules here. our rooms are great, almost everything is super convenient. we live on a t intersection, across the street in one direction is the PX, and local bazaar, and across the other street is the dining facility. within a qtr of a mile we also have the laundry facility and a chapel. we are only far away from the gym and the MWR (which has computers, phones, pool ta ble, pingpong, and some of those kinda morale things.) the only thing that stinks is that my room is kinda far from most of my friends and the bathroom. it really is crazy how nice everything here is. in my room i have 1 roommate and we each have a bed, bedside table, and locker (not like an alluminum one, its wooden and actually looks kinda decent). the bathrooms here have like 8 showers and 5 stalls all in one building (much better than the portapotties were used to. it stinks to get ready for a shower then realize you need to go to the latrine and have to get dressed again to go outside!) and its only about a minute or 2 from our room.
i paid to get wireless in my room.. it really stinks because it is 65 dollars a month. weve heard the connection is really bad but i havent had any trouble with it at all. i think it may have to do with where my room is though. we live in blocks and my room is on the first row. im thinking maybe im close to the tower since im the closest to the road. i dont know, im just hoping it wasnt a fluke and that my computer will be that fast all the time.
its weird being here.like kuwait was sooo barren, it was just sand and here there are trees everywhere ,cannals with weeds growing from them. when we were waiting for our keys we were sittting in a pavilion type thing and with all the trees arund and the landscaping it really seemed more like a resort. my perceptions will change in a couple of days after we run our first missions and actually see the real baghdad but so far its way different than i expected.
we met the 340th mp yesterday ( the guys were replacing). some of them were coming in from a mission and saw us walking. the gunner jumped up in his turret and asked if we were the 81oth. when we said yeah, every one of their trucks started honking at us and all the gunners and guys outside of the truck started screaming that they loved us. it was really cool to see how excited they were, theyve been here since july and really just got to fob liberty in feb. from july until feb they lived basically out in the middle of baghdad with none of the luxuries here. im glad we get to send them home, they def. deserve it. it also makes me look forward to when we can have that reaction. just gotta get through 8 or 9 months first!
rumor on the street is htat my squad did get the PSD mission( driving around important people from our battalion and being their personal security). im praying we did because it would be a great mission. i head today though that it might have changed and im a little nervous.
were doing more driving training today so we can go ahead and get licensed on the mrap and be able to drive on missions. hopefully when i get back there will be more information on psd.
lee loaned me a book the other day, i think its called a table in the presence by lt. cash. he was a marine chaplain on the surge into baghdad. it ws a really good read and has made me very thoughtful. next on my list is Psalm 91 (it was packed in a bag I sent ahead to Iraq). I am really looking forward to reading it, a couple of my friends and i have been talking about different Psalms that mean things to us so I def. want to read this. the chapel here had copies to so lee got a copy also. im hoping we will have the oppertunity to go to chapel services here, all depends on how our schedule is.
one of the things mentioned in a table in the presence is the story of the amalekites form exodus. i need to look into that story but there was a particular part that caught my eye. chapter 17 verse 12: When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
it just made me think of yall, i dont know what youre going through back on that end but i know it isnt easy, probably harder than being here. just know that i appreciate the sacrifices you are making also, youre in my thoughts, and your prayers do help. i love you all
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
For Katie!!
Hey Bug!
I just wanted to send this to you to show you that we are thinking of you --
Love you!!!
I just wanted to send this to you to show you that we are thinking of you --
Love you!!!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
super loooonnnggg
So I apologize for not getting more details out yet. Internet time is limited here. Im going to try and type up a whole bunch of info on word and then next time I go to the internet café just copy and paste and get out some info.
First of all, thank you all for the birthday presents and wishes. I know this is not as good as an actual thank you note, and my mom will be really mad at me for being lazy and not finding some Iraqi stationary and writing a real one. But who am I kidding, we all know Im really bad at that anyway…. Sorry. Please know that all monetary gifts went to the great fund of purchasing my semi-american food to remind me of home haha. When it comes to luxuries Kuwait does have a few. We have 3 nice gyms, 2 dining facilities, a couple of fast food joints ( Burger king, subway, kfc, some pizza joint and then a couple of other random ones), multiple internet cafes, some that are free and some that aren’t, phone centers, a couple of shoppettes (kinda like gas stations), and then some different entertainment centers. MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) has a place with pool and ping pong, the USO has free phones and computers and you can go in and watch movies, or play video games, or just hang out in the air conditioning. MWR and USO combine to set up different kinds of events, last week there was some kinda American idol competition, then there are guitar hero competitions, and different things.
Ive gotten a pretty good workout just trying to get around this place. Its fairly large and my tent, no lie, is the farthest possible tent. We are the last set of tents in the whole complex before the motor pool.
The first couple of days we didn’t really do anything. We did 3 days of training on the MRAP. That truck is a beast, 53,000 pounds. I feel like im going to have problems adjusting to normal vehicles when I get home, haha just ask carrie. I forgot the mustang wasn’t 8.5 ft wide. Today we did training on patrols and clearing rooms. Tomorrow there is medical training and then something I have no clue what is?
The sergeant major of the 91st task force came to talk to us yesterday. He brought 2 guys from the unit we are replacing and the task force chaplain. We got a classified brief on some of what to expect over in Baghdad which was nice to hear. Its always nice to get details. We were able to learn some about the places we will be working. The sergeant major also talked to a couple of us today as we walked to chow about the fact my platoon will be satelited out to work with the 91st. 2 of our squads will be doing psd (private security detail for important people) and then one will be working with a higher level of the Iraqi Police. Still don’t know as many of the details about that as I would like but it was nice to get some info from him. Our squad is hoping to get psd.
Had a couple of small problems with some people over the last few days. Being the only female in the squad leaves me kinda set up for failure. I got in trouble for not spending enough time with my squad (because I was sick for the first 3 days here), but whatever. One of these days ill make it to the mwr to play ping pong with them. I mainly just hang out in our tent unless im going to use the phone/computer. We have adopted squad level pt which stinks because it is set around our squad leaders schedule which is just weird. We have to go work out together for atleast an hour with atleast 30 minutes of that being strength training every other day. Apparently our LT likes it so much that it is going to be more often than every other day and sgt lambert is going to make a workout schedule for us. Kinda stinks to not be trusted enough to work out on our own but whatever. So if I come back looking like a man its because of all the strength training and lack of cardio.
Our company got the new bullet proof vests issued to us the other day. They are awesome, much more comfortable than the current ibas. They close around the waist which allows the weight to sit on your hips instead of all on your shoulders. The only problem…… I wear an extra small…. Which they are currently out of? We are having to order extra smalls for almost every female in the company because they don’t have enough here or at camp liberty. No idea when we will get them so we are stuck with the old vests until then. I would be ok with the small but it is too long so when I set down it kinda chokes me. Ive got great luck.
Today was the first semi-hot day weve had. It probably wasn’t even that hot, 80 or so? But it was our first day moving around in all of our gear and we were outside running around from 0700 to 1400. Gonna take some getting used to. Im very glad we got here in march because it does give us a chance to get acclimated a bit.
Ok sorry I know this is scatterbrained and really long but I know I haven’t given out many details about what were doing. This is probably way more than anyone wants to know but oh well! We will be in the field?? (isn’t Kuwait considered the field???) for a couple of days so I wont have much access to the computers soon. I cant give out the dates we head to liberty for security reasons but once we get there I will try and post as soon as possible to let everyone know. The other unit has already moved into tents so we can move into our rooms when we get there which will be really nice. I found out my rooming situation, it will be me and guerrero which is pretty good. We got along well at fort dix and its nice to just have a 2 man room.
So I wasn’t able to post this like 4 days ago when I typed it. Now I have been to the field and am back. The field wasn’t toooooo bad, it was very sandy and dirty. We spent 3 days out there just hanging out a bit. The first day we got to do some shooting, close quarters marksmanship. It was good, it kinda stunk to do it with the SAW but it was still pretty fun. It was working on shooting when youre close to the target and have to draw quickly and switch from safe to shoot and then drop your weapon back down and into safe. It was good stuff, we had a former infantry special forces guy teaching us.
The 2nd day we had a couple of classes, practiced some stuff for our mission on the 3rd day and then got to drive around in the sand which was a lot of fun. I will try and upload some videos from it because it was pretty sweet. The 3rd day we ran a mission. It was a lot like everything weve done in the states but a much larger range. Actually had vehicles out there, 400 people role playing, and a whole lot of other stuff. It was good stuff.
Were kinda on the downturn here now, will be leaving here sometime soon (obviously cant post when). Im pretty wiped out so I am gonna crash. Sorry I haven’t posted in so long, I know yall have probably given up on checking it but its not for lack of effort! Ive had some technical difficulties, should get much better when I get to Iraq. Love you all
btw its really hard to post on here now, the stupid screen is written in arabic and it makes it very difficult to find the correct button!!! ive been trying for like 10 minutes... grrrr
First of all, thank you all for the birthday presents and wishes. I know this is not as good as an actual thank you note, and my mom will be really mad at me for being lazy and not finding some Iraqi stationary and writing a real one. But who am I kidding, we all know Im really bad at that anyway…. Sorry. Please know that all monetary gifts went to the great fund of purchasing my semi-american food to remind me of home haha. When it comes to luxuries Kuwait does have a few. We have 3 nice gyms, 2 dining facilities, a couple of fast food joints ( Burger king, subway, kfc, some pizza joint and then a couple of other random ones), multiple internet cafes, some that are free and some that aren’t, phone centers, a couple of shoppettes (kinda like gas stations), and then some different entertainment centers. MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) has a place with pool and ping pong, the USO has free phones and computers and you can go in and watch movies, or play video games, or just hang out in the air conditioning. MWR and USO combine to set up different kinds of events, last week there was some kinda American idol competition, then there are guitar hero competitions, and different things.
Ive gotten a pretty good workout just trying to get around this place. Its fairly large and my tent, no lie, is the farthest possible tent. We are the last set of tents in the whole complex before the motor pool.
The first couple of days we didn’t really do anything. We did 3 days of training on the MRAP. That truck is a beast, 53,000 pounds. I feel like im going to have problems adjusting to normal vehicles when I get home, haha just ask carrie. I forgot the mustang wasn’t 8.5 ft wide. Today we did training on patrols and clearing rooms. Tomorrow there is medical training and then something I have no clue what is?
The sergeant major of the 91st task force came to talk to us yesterday. He brought 2 guys from the unit we are replacing and the task force chaplain. We got a classified brief on some of what to expect over in Baghdad which was nice to hear. Its always nice to get details. We were able to learn some about the places we will be working. The sergeant major also talked to a couple of us today as we walked to chow about the fact my platoon will be satelited out to work with the 91st. 2 of our squads will be doing psd (private security detail for important people) and then one will be working with a higher level of the Iraqi Police. Still don’t know as many of the details about that as I would like but it was nice to get some info from him. Our squad is hoping to get psd.
Had a couple of small problems with some people over the last few days. Being the only female in the squad leaves me kinda set up for failure. I got in trouble for not spending enough time with my squad (because I was sick for the first 3 days here), but whatever. One of these days ill make it to the mwr to play ping pong with them. I mainly just hang out in our tent unless im going to use the phone/computer. We have adopted squad level pt which stinks because it is set around our squad leaders schedule which is just weird. We have to go work out together for atleast an hour with atleast 30 minutes of that being strength training every other day. Apparently our LT likes it so much that it is going to be more often than every other day and sgt lambert is going to make a workout schedule for us. Kinda stinks to not be trusted enough to work out on our own but whatever. So if I come back looking like a man its because of all the strength training and lack of cardio.
Our company got the new bullet proof vests issued to us the other day. They are awesome, much more comfortable than the current ibas. They close around the waist which allows the weight to sit on your hips instead of all on your shoulders. The only problem…… I wear an extra small…. Which they are currently out of? We are having to order extra smalls for almost every female in the company because they don’t have enough here or at camp liberty. No idea when we will get them so we are stuck with the old vests until then. I would be ok with the small but it is too long so when I set down it kinda chokes me. Ive got great luck.
Today was the first semi-hot day weve had. It probably wasn’t even that hot, 80 or so? But it was our first day moving around in all of our gear and we were outside running around from 0700 to 1400. Gonna take some getting used to. Im very glad we got here in march because it does give us a chance to get acclimated a bit.
Ok sorry I know this is scatterbrained and really long but I know I haven’t given out many details about what were doing. This is probably way more than anyone wants to know but oh well! We will be in the field?? (isn’t Kuwait considered the field???) for a couple of days so I wont have much access to the computers soon. I cant give out the dates we head to liberty for security reasons but once we get there I will try and post as soon as possible to let everyone know. The other unit has already moved into tents so we can move into our rooms when we get there which will be really nice. I found out my rooming situation, it will be me and guerrero which is pretty good. We got along well at fort dix and its nice to just have a 2 man room.
So I wasn’t able to post this like 4 days ago when I typed it. Now I have been to the field and am back. The field wasn’t toooooo bad, it was very sandy and dirty. We spent 3 days out there just hanging out a bit. The first day we got to do some shooting, close quarters marksmanship. It was good, it kinda stunk to do it with the SAW but it was still pretty fun. It was working on shooting when youre close to the target and have to draw quickly and switch from safe to shoot and then drop your weapon back down and into safe. It was good stuff, we had a former infantry special forces guy teaching us.
The 2nd day we had a couple of classes, practiced some stuff for our mission on the 3rd day and then got to drive around in the sand which was a lot of fun. I will try and upload some videos from it because it was pretty sweet. The 3rd day we ran a mission. It was a lot like everything weve done in the states but a much larger range. Actually had vehicles out there, 400 people role playing, and a whole lot of other stuff. It was good stuff.
Were kinda on the downturn here now, will be leaving here sometime soon (obviously cant post when). Im pretty wiped out so I am gonna crash. Sorry I haven’t posted in so long, I know yall have probably given up on checking it but its not for lack of effort! Ive had some technical difficulties, should get much better when I get to Iraq. Love you all
btw its really hard to post on here now, the stupid screen is written in arabic and it makes it very difficult to find the correct button!!! ive been trying for like 10 minutes... grrrr
Monday, March 16, 2009
kuwait
so were in kuwait now. really exciting... haha. its not too bad here. its not super hot yet which makes it a lot less miserable than it could be. the only major problem is that my tent is like a mile from everything else ( that really isnt an exagerration, its really that far). it makes it very hard to motivate myself to do anything or go anywhere. i did however find out about a shuttle after walking about 5 miles the first day. this place is pretty built up, got fast food joints like burger king, subway, taco bell, and some different things. There was a Camp Beuring american idol last night. So there are people around and a lot of different things going on.
We started doing some more training today. Driving around MRAPs (more up-armored vehicles). well do some training here and get some more gear issued before we head to iraq. Cant really say when we leave but once we get there ill be able to let you know.
its crazy being here, the first day when we walked outside the sun def blinded me. you can see forever out here. i mean, you would expect it but it is still weird. i feel like im still in the states at just another training site, dont really feel like im in another country, continent and all that good stuff.
sorry its not too informative, just a quick update. love you all
We started doing some more training today. Driving around MRAPs (more up-armored vehicles). well do some training here and get some more gear issued before we head to iraq. Cant really say when we leave but once we get there ill be able to let you know.
its crazy being here, the first day when we walked outside the sun def blinded me. you can see forever out here. i mean, you would expect it but it is still weird. i feel like im still in the states at just another training site, dont really feel like im in another country, continent and all that good stuff.
sorry its not too informative, just a quick update. love you all
Friday, March 13, 2009
Katie's status
I received a call from Katie tonight. At 7:00 pm here its 3:00 am where she is. She is there safe and sound and when I wished her a Happy Birthday she told me that was yesterday. She hopes to add info to the blog and make phone calls Saturday, but asked that I let everyone know she had arrived safely. Thanks for visiting her blog, and thanks for the friendships and prayers.
Katie's Mom
Katie's Mom
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
leaving
Hey guys... so I had a great time on pass. it was awesome to be home i loved seeing everyone that I got to see (and sorry for those I missed). Next time I will get a lot more time to make rounds. looks like we should make it home in december which would be awesome.
were gettin ready to head out of here... got a bunch of cleaning and final touches to do. From here on out Operational Security (OPSEC) becomes a factor in everything I say. I won't be able to give out dates of anything in advance or any details of what's going on until it has already happened. So I will try to say what I can without saying anything that could compromise our mission.
Looking forward to a pretty long flight to celebrate my birthday though, cant wait for that! its kinda crazy being so close to leaving. I feel like I was more nervous at home when I went to Ft. Mccoy than I am about actually going to Iraq. I think a lot of that comes with the confidence that I have in my team and squad and everyone else I am going with. I believe we are prepared. We will have a little more training in Kuwait before we move on to Iraq though. Of course, we could always be better but a lot of our learning will come once we actually get our mission. we will get about 2 weeks of training with the company we are replacing before they head home.then its all about us and what we have learned along the way.
Its 1200 at night and im about to lay back and enjoy a movie. figure if i am desperate for sleep I will sleep better on the plane. Hope everyone is well and I will try to post as soon as I get to Kuwait and let you know I made it safely.
were gettin ready to head out of here... got a bunch of cleaning and final touches to do. From here on out Operational Security (OPSEC) becomes a factor in everything I say. I won't be able to give out dates of anything in advance or any details of what's going on until it has already happened. So I will try to say what I can without saying anything that could compromise our mission.
Looking forward to a pretty long flight to celebrate my birthday though, cant wait for that! its kinda crazy being so close to leaving. I feel like I was more nervous at home when I went to Ft. Mccoy than I am about actually going to Iraq. I think a lot of that comes with the confidence that I have in my team and squad and everyone else I am going with. I believe we are prepared. We will have a little more training in Kuwait before we move on to Iraq though. Of course, we could always be better but a lot of our learning will come once we actually get our mission. we will get about 2 weeks of training with the company we are replacing before they head home.then its all about us and what we have learned along the way.
Its 1200 at night and im about to lay back and enjoy a movie. figure if i am desperate for sleep I will sleep better on the plane. Hope everyone is well and I will try to post as soon as I get to Kuwait and let you know I made it safely.
Monday, March 2, 2009
the field...
so we just sspent the last couple of days out in the field. it was actually really good. we ran a bunch of missions that were related to what we will be doing in iraq. we had to go into villages and use interpreters to speak to the chief of police, teach classes to the iraqi police, run joint missions with te iraqis, escort VIPs, and securing routes. a whole bunch of different things but it was really good because doing so many different things really instilled confidence in each other. it is very similiar to softball, the more reps you get the better you are. getting to do so many things really made me feel a lot more confident in my teak and squad. through the last week we proved 2nd squad is the best squad in the platoon, even our platoon leader thought so.
on our last day we had to do a huge mission with the whole company and out of our platoon one ssquad was an assualt element, one squad was security for the assault, and one squad was basically on stanby in case something went wrong. our platoon leader chose our squad to do the assault and we did really well. it was nice to be in that kind of situation becuase even though its not real there is still a bunch of pressure and it shows you how you will react under the pressure. all the training we have done made me very confident in what we were doing and it was second nature to do everything we needed to do.
cant wait to come home in a couple of days!!! its snowing a whole bunch here, we are doing a couple more classes, mainly just make up stuff and issuing our final gear. we are getting our night vision goggles and a couple of other very expensive pieces of equipment tonight ( the nvgs are almost $5,000 by themselves..). then just packing up, cleaning up and getting prepared for the pass and to actually leave here.
sorry this post is extremely random and very unorganized, ive had to leave it to go do things a couple of times and didnt want to take the time to go back, read it, and fix it. i love you all though!
on our last day we had to do a huge mission with the whole company and out of our platoon one ssquad was an assualt element, one squad was security for the assault, and one squad was basically on stanby in case something went wrong. our platoon leader chose our squad to do the assault and we did really well. it was nice to be in that kind of situation becuase even though its not real there is still a bunch of pressure and it shows you how you will react under the pressure. all the training we have done made me very confident in what we were doing and it was second nature to do everything we needed to do.
cant wait to come home in a couple of days!!! its snowing a whole bunch here, we are doing a couple more classes, mainly just make up stuff and issuing our final gear. we are getting our night vision goggles and a couple of other very expensive pieces of equipment tonight ( the nvgs are almost $5,000 by themselves..). then just packing up, cleaning up and getting prepared for the pass and to actually leave here.
sorry this post is extremely random and very unorganized, ive had to leave it to go do things a couple of times and didnt want to take the time to go back, read it, and fix it. i love you all though!
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