The More You Know...

So awhile back I got an email from an awesome friend we will call her, Amelia. In the email she was so kind to ask me some very good questions. So good in fact that I decided to share them you all of you.

1. When you're on 24 hour missions, where do you go to the bathroom?

A- Well, first off out missions are more like 50 hours. So of course nature calls. Depending of what we are doing, we usually just hop out of the truck and pee there. If we are in the city and there are people around, we just open the door to the truck to block the view. If we are in the tanks you always carry an empty Gatorade bottle just in case. As for the other phone call from nature; remember that scene in Forest Gump were they were burning the “Honey Pot” from the latrines their in Vietnam. Well in 2007 with all the advances in technology we still do that. You would think it would smell but you just put a lot of fuel in there and it’s good to go.

2. What's the FUNNIEST thing that has happened with you and the other soldiers? Surely you all do funny stuff.

A- We do a ton of funny stuff. You just have to otherwise this place would stomp you in to depression in no time. One of my favorites so far was when we were doing “TCP’s” on the highway one afternoon. “TCP’s” are Traffic Control Points, which means we shut the whole highway down and start searching cars. You think it would be ineffective, but we have caught some pretty guys doing it. Anyways, there we are searching this really nice Mercedes, and the owner is reluctant to open the trunk. We are getting frustrated with him but finally get him to comply. When he opens the trunk of his clean, mint condition 2000ish model Mercedes a live freaking sheep jumps out and nearly runs off. A live sheep! Not in a million years would I have guessed that was coming out of there. I was thinking a body or weapons or something was in there and that’s why he was giving us trouble. Another classic is one we pulled on my narcoleptic loader, Graves. See he falls asleep extremely quickly in the truck and I always have to wake him up and from time to time he helps me out and makes sure I am awake too. But this one time my driver Denver had the idea that he will scream “IED” and me and the truck commander will scream at the top of our lungs. So that’s what we did, Denver added some jerking of the steering wheel and we gave our best horror movie screams. We scared him good, and as we are all laughing about it he chuckles and says “That’s funny but we aren’t even off the FOB yet…” Well, “sleepy” back there had been out for a while I guess, because once again the joke was on him we were nearly at the bridge over the Tigris which is like a 20 minute drive from the FOB. Good times, good times…

3. Do you dream about what's going on over there, or about the fun times back home?

A- I guess I have a sleeping disorder or something, because even back in the states I didn’t dream. Like maybe once in awhile but I almost never dream. Or maybe I do and don’t remember them or something but yeah, no dreams in the states and no dreams here.

4. How many pounds of gear do you put on before going out on a mission?

A- Well I weigh 165lbs soaking wet. So add boots and a uniform we will round it to 170. Okay first we put on the IBA (Independent Body Armor) and my ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) that’s near 40lbs with the side plates that I have also added to protect my insides. So now we are at 210lbs, next we add my “Mol-E Vest”, it holds my other gear, like 6 fully loaded magazines (30 rounds per mag), first aid kit, binoculars, flashlight and an iPod. That’s about another 10 pounds. Then add my M4 rifle clipped to my vest and my 9mm pistol on my hip it’s a little under another 10lbs. So you crunch the numbers and that’s about ~230lbs minus me soaking wet and you get about ~65 lbs of tactical garbage. Give or take a few pounds that’s what we carry on us all day while we are out on mission and at the end of the day you can feel it in your back and knees.

5. Have there been any climate changes since you first went over there? What's the average temperature in December?

A- From talking to my parents and Holly the weather has really been a lot like Oklahoma. It gets pretty cold here at night. And I have seen it snow and seen the puddles freeze up. So I would really compare it the weather you all have back home. The weather hasn’t been too bad here since I got here. But I have a feeling its going to get really hot really soon.

6. How long until you come home?

A- Well as of January 8th I will have been deployed 100 days. Do the math and that means only 265 more days from there. I will be home for 2 weeks sometime in July but even that may change to June. The plan is to be in Norman for most of it, but Holly and I are planning on visiting New Orleans for a night and then leaving there on a cruise to somewhere awesome for a few more days. Then after my R&R, I will just have to come back here with like only 60 days left. Sounds like a solid plan to me.

So there you go Amelia, hope you and everyone else enjoyed the answers and as always feel free to ask more either on here or email me.