Home from Iraq

France Suspends Combat Operations in Afghanistan

2012-01-22T16:02:00.000-05:00

On Thursday four French soldiers were killed and sixteen were wounded when an Afghan soldier they were training blew himself up. Following the incident, the French President suspended combat operations and all training of Afghan soldiers by the 2000+ French troops serving in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the week I had a moment of sympathy for Mitt Romney when he was criticized by his Republican rivals for speaking French. The same people who criticized Jon Huntsman for speaking Mandarin. The same people who are too self-satisfied and stupid to learn another language themselves--not they have a particular talent for English.

There will certainly be criticism by the chubby commentariat on the Right of the French decision. But since none of the loud-mouths on right-wing radio ever served in the military, they will be talking out of their XXL asses.

France was our first ally and without them we would have lost the Revolutionary War. France remained our ally after their own revolution and it pisses me off every time I hear criticism of France by the Chicken Hawks who are in favor of war as long as they are fought by someone else.

I don't know if or when French troops will return to risking their lives training Afghan soldiers, but in this ten-year-long war, French troops have been on the ground and in the fight since the beginning. French critics in the US have been on their fat asses just as long.

Col. Scott Perry Announces Run for US Congress

2012-01-22T10:29:00.000-05:00

My battalion commander in Iraq, Col. Scott Perry said he will run for a US Congressional seat in Central PA. Perry is currently the representative of the 92nd PA state congressional district.

I was hoping he would run sooner rather than later and with the current congressman stepping down, he should have a good shot at getting elected. Perry is a Republican in a very Republican area of the state.

If I lived in the 4th district, I would vote for him. He commanded a big task force with soldiers from a dozen states, aircraft flying around the clock and the worst flying conditions Iraq had to offer. He worked hard all the time. Pennsylvania and our nation will be a better place with Perry in the US Congress.

Col. Perry is a Blackhawk pilot and is currently commanding the 166th training brigade at Fort Indiantown Gap PA.

Training a Blackhawk Crew Chief in Afghanistan

2012-01-17T19:38:00.002-05:00

Great Article about Training a Blackhawk Crew Chief in Afghanistan.
It really gets at the huge responsibility and complex job every crew chief takes on.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48746

Next Adventure--Rwanda

2012-01-17T16:19:00.000-05:00

During the January drill weekend I got a lot of help from getting together the paperwork I need to extend my enlistment for another year or maybe two. At the end of the weekend the sergeant in charge of admin for our battalion had most of the papers so in February we should be able to get them signed on on the way up the chain of command to the Adjutant General of the state.

If it goes through I serve until May of 2014 or maybe 2015. If not, I am out in May of 2013. Either way my long term plan includes most of a year in Rwanda. That would be the academic year 2015-16. That year my wife would be eligible for a sabbatical. She is a math professor so her research is very portable. The plan is to take the whole family to Rwanda for a year.

Our three (maybe four) sons will have the opportunity to live in a black-majority culture. Of course, Xavier has spent his entire life in a black-majority culture, but he will experience it partly through the eyes of his brothers.

So why Rwanda? Bicycle racing. There are dozens of terribly poor countries to choose from in the world, but not many where I have something valuable to contribute. In Rwanda, a former Belgian colony, the country is recovering from the 1994 genocide. Part of that recovery is a shared love of bicycle racing. An American, Jonathan Boyer, who raced in the Tour de France in the 80s went to Rwanda after the genocide and organized a national team and a national race--The Tour of Rwanda. The story was in the New Yorker this summer.

In Rwanda I can teach English to French-speaking kids who need to be literate to be bike racers. I can teach English with a full bike vocabulary--and then go riding with my students. My sons can help with the English also. They will be 16 and 17 and able to teach very current English.

Once the boys are in college, I want to spend more of my time in Haiti, Rwanda, and other poor countries. A lot of people my age and older talk about traveling. Some actually do it. The Army reminded me that travel without a purpose can be dreary. I loved going to Haiti. I can't wait to go to Rwanda. I know I would love going to Paris and Perth again, but I want to go places where it matters that I went. Even if I can't much directly to help while I am there, I can write back home to tell other people what it's like to live in Rwanda.

Numbers Update

2012-01-08T10:42:00.002-05:00

This week Site Meter says my blog passed 100,000 visits and 130,000 page views since June of 2008. Blogger also tracks page views and says I have had 90,000 since June of 2009. The webmaster at my day job says every method of tracking traffic gets a different result. But the fact that the two are close makes me think they are pretty accurate.

Blogger also tells me which posts are the most popular. By far the top of the list is "Home Sweet Trailer Home" with more than 2,100 page views followed by "Flying to Camp Garry Owen" with just over 500.

I know that my all time visits equal about one Lady Gaga minute, but a soldier stopped me in the hallway to say he reads my blog. So I will keep posting till I get out. Today's post is # 1,037. Writing over 1,000 posts is like gaining weight--it doesn't happen all at once, but if you eat a little too much every day for a few years, suddenly you can't see your feet standing up!

And on a different note, the paperwork is coming together for my request to stay in another year or two. So I may get to 1,500 posts if I stay in long enough!

Looks like a Happy New Year!

Hearing Test--Army Style

2012-01-07T16:12:00.000-05:00

Today we had the annual cattle call for medical evaluations. Medical teams come in and set up in the armory to check our teeth. Others set up in the parking lot to check our hearing. Today at Noon I got in line for the hearing check. The line moves at the rate of two people every ten minutes. I joined the line with eight people in front of me.

And for the next 40 minutes I listened to the diesel generator that ran all the equipment in the hearing test truck.

Huh?

Exactly. Everyone in the line listened to a diesel at high idle for for the best part of an hour before the hearing test.

We all passed anyway, but sometimes the Army is too funny!

Another Old Soldier

2012-01-05T07:46:00.002-05:00

Another good friend who I served with in Germany in the 70s was Sgt. Abel Lopez. He and I were assigned to Bravo Company 1-70th Armor in Fort Carson Colorado in late 1975. In September of the following year, Abe and I and 4,000 other soldiers flew to Germany becoming Brigade 76. We were supposed to reinforce the East-West German border. Our alert area was Fulda, right where Tom Clancy said World War III would begin.

At one point Abe and I were tank commanders of tanks parked next to each other in our motor pool in Wiesbaden.

The picture above was taken in that motor pool during the two hours each week we had to work in our gas masks. Abel is in the middle flanked by Gene Pierce and Don Spears.

After the Army, Abe went back to San Diego and became a fire fighter--retiring a few years ago as a Captain. For most of the years since he left Germany in 1979 we have talked a half-dozen times each year. Most of those conversations are about our faith mixed with the Army, family work and bad jokes.

Once in 2008 I called Abe and said I read that Gen. Petraeus went to West Point about ten months before I enlisted which meant we were the same age. Abe said, "The only difference between you is he is a big success and you aren't."

Which is just the kind of jokes we have been making since Gen. Petraeus was a Lieutenant.

Old Soldiers Don't Fade Away

2012-01-03T19:38:00.000-05:00

To begin the new year, let me introduce you to a soldier--actually an airman--who was my roommate at Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden, West Germany, in in 1978. Airman 1st Class Cliff Almes shared a room with me during the year I worked for the base newspaper at the Wiesbaden Military Community Headquarters.

You'll notice in the pictures below that Cliff is still in uniform and is serving on temporary assignment in the Middle East.

He is no longeer in the US military.

When his enlistment was up, Cliff went home to Arizona for a couple of months then came back to join a Lutheran Monastery in Darmstadt Germany with a name so long I will direct you to the web site if you want it in German. Land of Kanaan is the short version.

We became friends during the time we roomed together. And after Cliff began his time as a novice I was able to visit him in Darmstadt.

Cliff became Brother (Bruder) Timotheus.

Here he is on a recent trip to Israel. He is the second from the left with three other Brothers and a local pastor.

In this photo Cliff is back in Germany with some of the young men who have come to Kanaan for short-term ministries and sometimes to see if they have a vocation for a life of service.

On the Eve of 2012

2011-12-31T10:27:00.001-05:00

My big Army projects at the beginning of 2012 are:

Write a newsletter summing up the last half of 2012 and all the things we did.
Send a message to everyone in the unit who has a facebook page to "Like" to the 2104GASB page.
Fill out the packet of information I need to extend my enlistment after I turn 60 in 2013.

Life gets more crowded every week. If I had any sense I would just let my enlistment run out so my life would be less complicated. But it is so much fun to fire machine guns and ride in helicopters that it is hard to give up.

Happy New Year.

In Haiti: Bare Chests, Bad; Bare Breasts, No Problem!

2011-12-19T19:12:00.002-05:00

On Sunday morning I went for a run from the mission/orphanage where we are staying. To get to the main road, I ran down a half-mile dirt road past a small beach on the Caribbean Sea. As I was running past a spring that ran to the beach, I saw a young woman who was washing her clothes and herself. It was already over 80 degrees at 9 am so I was running with my shirt off. The woman at the spring was doing the same.

When I got to the road, I turned right with high hills to my left. Another spring ran down the side of the mountain and in the spring was another young woman ten feet from the road and dressed the same as I was--naked from the waist up.

A half-mile down the road a motorcyclist sped toward me gesturing to put my shirt on. A few minutes later another one did the same. I put my shirt on. Clearly I was in violation of some local custom. Or maybe the problem was aesthetic. I could see lots of reasons to tell an old guy to put his shirt on while running.

I suppose bathing by the side of the road is a fact of life here and old guys running with their shirts off is not. But I did think that most every guy I have ever known would like to live in place where shirts were mandatory for men and optional for women.

In Haiti Adopting Our Next Son

2011-12-18T13:21:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have not posted much lately. I will be posting on my other blog about adoption. I just posted about the first day in Haiti. Looks like I may be able to use my national guard service to help with the paperwork. More on that later.

On Radio Smart Talk WITF FM with Col. Perry

2011-12-12T15:00:00.001-05:00

This morning Col. Scott Perry and I were guests on Radio Smart Talk on WITF FM 89.5 in Harrisburg PA. The topic was the end of the war in Iraq. This show airs Monday-Friday from 9 - 10 am and re-airs at 7pm. So you can listen to the radio (if you live in central PA) or on line tonight at WITF.

The producer of the show, Franklin and Marshall grad Megan Lello, sent me a link so you can also listen at some later time. The first 20 minutes of the show is about the world almanac, then Scott Perry and I talk to show host Scott Lamar.

It was a lot of fun to be on the show. Radio Smart Talk is a live call-in show. All but one of the callers wanted to talk about war policy and whether we should have been in Iraq. Col. Perry took the policy calls. I answered the call from the Mom of a Marine who just finished basic training.

Family Pictures from Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T09:21:00.001-05:00

(reposted from my other blog http://adoptivedadusa.blogspot.com)

With three daughters in Virginia, holidays are the only time to take family pictures. At noon on Thanksgiving we were able to take a family photo before Lauren and Lisa sped off to Thanksgiving in New Hope.

The entire family:

From left: Iolanthe, Kiersten, Annalisa, Jacari, me, Lisa, Nigel, Peter and Lauren.
Iolanthe is my step daughter, Kiersten lives at our house and tutors the boys. Her Mom was one of Annalisa's hospice patients a dozen years ago. Kiersten has gone on some of our family vacations since and is now a student at a local college. Peter is Lauren's boyfriend.

The kids:

The boys:

Timmy is our neighbor and is also adopted. He and our boys play together a lot.

State of (Inter)dependence

2011-11-25T09:12:00.001-05:00

For those who follow my wife's blog Miser-Mom, you have already seen today's post on the State of (Inter)dependence.

The military lives by interdependence. Independence gets people hurt.

Enjoy!!

Speaking At the Lititz VFW

2011-11-21T19:25:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, Nov. 6, I spoke to more than 80 members and guests of the VFW Post in Lititz PA. The Lititz Record newspaper put the story on its front page--slow news week in Lititz!

Most members of the post were clearly Viet Nam Veterans, plus a few from the Gulf War. It was a lot of fun talking to this group. The talk title was "Who Fights This War?" And many of the stories are in this blog during the time I was in Iraq. The audience laughed when I told them I flew on a Blackhawk piloted by a guy whose day job was flying Gov. Rod Blagoyevich. They laughed again when I said the pilot was not allowed to repeat what he heard on his headset over those eight years.

There were many nods of recognition when I told them about the door gunner on that crew. He rode convoy security on highway one in 2004 long before Humvees were armored and was on his 2nd tour as a door gunner. He had just turned 24.

I talked longer than my allotted 20 minutes and then took maybe 30 questions. The humbling thing for me about the Q&A is that most of the audience was actually asking questions. I know from many public events that a really interesting talk gets short, rapid-fire questions. When an audience is less engaged in the subject they tend to ask question in the form of a five-minute sermonette on what they think about the subject.

Some of the questions were about 100 miles above my pay grade--on war policy and political matters. But many were about Iraq and the young men I had the opportunity to serve with. It was a lot of fun.

Whiplash from Work--Saved by Spandex

2011-11-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

Last month I wrote about meeting a guy on the train who grew up near me and had his first marriage end because of a "Honey-Do" list. He was a king on the road and a chump at home. He finally decided he liked the road life better and left home.

The Army works in reverse, at least as far as opulence. My most popular post ever was "Home Sweet Trailer Home" with more than 2000 page views followed by "Flying to Camp Garry Owen" with more than 500 hits. Living in a small metal trailer in the relatively luxurious CHUs of Camp Adder was way better than the tents at Garry Owen, but both were far worse than home. So there was no doubt I was ready to return to my home and family in Lancaster and leave Iraq.

But last week, I had the biggest hit of travel opulence I have had in quite a while. In one three-day trip to New York City I went to:

Lunch and a seminare at the Gotham Club (Once J.P. Morgan's private club)

Then a black tie banquet at Gotham Hall:

Lunch the next day at the Yale Club:

And in the evening, the Union League of NYC:

So what kept me from being swept away by my surroundings? The best part of my trip to NYC was not inside these buildings but the three rides I took from my hotel at 39th and 9th Avenue to and across the George Washington Bridge and back.

Every morning I was up early and wearing spandex bike clothes to make this 22-mile ride by different routes: on the west side bike path, through Central park and up broadway, along the river drive (not the highway!) and mixes of these. So at each event I was pretty sure to be the only guy in the room wearing spandex from collar to heel.

The last event, at the Union League, was called Socrates in the City. The organizer, Eric Metaxas, said that all who attend these meetings are part of a UFO cult that wears spandex unitards.

Little did he know, I own two spandex unitards--for time trial races.

I bet he doesn't even own one.

And so it is very hard for me to be completely serious about the occasional luxury my jobs affords me. I used to live in CHU and wear spandex pretty much every day.

So Many 1 Percenters

2011-11-11T12:49:00.000-05:00

In the news today I was reminded I am part of the 1% in America.

Not the 1% looking for toilets in lower Manhattan. This morning a commentator on the news said America's military is 1% of our population. That is literally true only if you round up. The two million men and women on active duty and in Guard and Reserve unit are less the 2/3 of 1% and decreasing as budget cuts slice through every branch of the military.

I am one of the few soldiers who knows as many people with PhDs as with Aviators Wings. PhDs are another less-than-one-percent group of Americans.

Of course, working at a non-profit and serving as a sergeant, I am not part of the 1% idolized by Fox News and reviled by the Occupy Wall Street protestors. But compared with 7 billion people in the world right now, I am pretty close to the top 1% of the wealthiest people in the world.

But the real problem right now is not the 1% who are currently serving. As the military shrinks, more and more veterans will join the ranks of the unemployed. Veterans are already have higher unemployment than the population in general. It will soon get worse.

I heard Mitch McConnell this morning say that he is against any sort of Veteran's preference in hiring. Really? Veterans are always behind their peers in education and opportunity. Is there a loss to society when it gives veterans, especially young veterans preference in hiring?

Mission to Canada

2011-11-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

Last month several of the new F Model Chinooks flew to central Canada near Edmonton for a joint training exercise. At the speed Chinooks fly the trip was 15 hours in the air each way.

A photographer with the Canadian Combat Camera unit took pictures and sent them back with our crews.

Here are two of them:

"You Better Puke Down Your Shirt"

2011-11-07T09:31:00.000-05:00

This morning I flew on the firat of three flights set up for recent graduates of Basic Training. The young men and women and their recruiters get a thrill ride in a Blackhawk, and a pitch from us about why they would want to choose Aviation as an Army career path.

Before the flight, the crew chief does a safety briefing.

None of the 26 new soldiers had ever flown on a helicopter at all, let alone a Blackhawk. The crew chief told the trainees how to enter and exit the helicopter, how to buckle the four-point harness in their seats, and what to do in an emergency.

Then he told them what to do if they feel sick. "If you get sick do not puke in my aircraft. You Better Puke Down Your Shirt, because if you get sick in my aircraft you are going to clean my aircraft."

I rode with the first group. Everything was fine with the second. But in the third group was a young man who probably ate way too much Army food for breakfast before a helicopter ride.

On these rides we would climb and quickly dive. On two of the flights, the crew chief did the pen in the air trick. He lays the pen on his palm and in the moment of zero gravity pulls his hand away. The pen floats in the air for the two seconds of zero gravity then falls in the crew chief's hand.

Right after that roller coaster moment, the soldier looked ill then, as instructed, puked down his shirt. The temperature was slightly below freezing at dawn and was no higher than 40 when the last flight touched down--so the soldier had to be more than a little uncomfortable until he could leave a field on the west end of the base and get a shower.

But he can follow instructions!

2nd Group of Trainees Boards Blackhawk

Back to Arguing Politics

2011-11-05T11:20:00.000-04:00

After formation this morning one of pilots who is also a big TEA Party supporter came at me smiling with winner's glee talking about the Occupy movement.

"The TEA Party cleaned up after themselves and supported local businesses, your guys in the Occupy Oakland movement looted local business," he said.

And it went on from there. I mentioned that this week I gave the Conservative Commentariat its monthly listen. I chose Rush Limbaugh. On Thursday as I was driving back from New York, I heard Rush say that Herman Cain's current troubles are "a Democrat program at the highest level (the White House) to discredit Republican candidates." Michael Savage says George Soros funded the attack.

Another ardent Republican here who is pissed off about the attacks on Herman Cain did concede that running for President is the ultimate colonoscopy and if Cain was not prepared for every fact and opinion to come out, he was crazy.

It is fun to have these discussions with people of vastly different opinions who are not shy about expressing them.

On Video Blog in NYC

2011-11-04T14:08:00.001-04:00

Taped in NYC on Wednesday:

Or on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PijjlmU1KDg

Home Boy on the Train

2011-10-30T13:31:00.000-04:00

The last leg of my long trip home from Houston on Thursday began with a 3:45 am wake up call and ended with taking the 10:59 pm Keystone train from Philadelphia to Lancaster.

There is no quiet car on the last train so I sat across from a guy about my age wearing a suit and dozing off listening to music. Since he was my age, he would not be listening to Metal, Rap or Lady Gaga so loud I had to listen to 2nd-hand noise. It turned out he was on the way home from a delayed flight also.

As we talked I learned he works from home advising small companies how to get bigger. He was a father of eight--two groups of four kids from two marriages. Group One are in their late 20s and early thirties. Group two are four kids between eight and twelve. I also learned he grew up in the next town south of Stoneham MA where I grew up. Mike grew up in Medford.

He graduated in 1973, the year the draft ended and was very happy not to go in the Army. As we talked, it was clear that this 56-year-old guy lived for success, moving up from his blue collar background and being rich. He made it. He lives in Lancaster County's best suburb (Lititz) in one of its best neighborhoods. For him risk has to do with money. Mike is pro-military, but was never interested in serving.

Mike was also very candid about his life. He said his first marriage ended because he could not deal with the transition between being a King on the Road and a chump at home. The way he said Chump really made me sure he was a Home Boy. He was a rising star in the business consulting and got handed a "Honey-Do" list at home. "Hero to Zero when I stepped off the plane," he said. So he left.

He travels frequently to Europe and was making his first trip to Asia soon. Another guy across the aisle, Jim, had made several recent trips to Beijing. Mike was happy to hear Jim had no health problems from the trips.

Usually, I read or work on the train, but the shared misery of the midnight train home gave me a chance to talk with another guy from Massachusetts whose live took him to Lancaster County.

Traveling in Class A Uniform

2011-10-29T11:12:00.000-04:00

This week I was in Texas from Monday to Thursday. Rather than travel in our digital camo uniform, I decided to travel in Class A uniform. Actually, it is better for travel than I would have suspected. This heavy weight (compared to a good civilian suit) uniform resists wrinkles very well. The shoes are good to walk in and much lighter than combat boots. The jacket can be folded into an overhead compartment and looks good when unfolded.

On the trip back I was on a delayed flight with a group of women in the Arizona VFW on the way to a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty. One of the ladies gave me the official coin of their VFW post. Like most of the other coins I have received, it was mostly for being in the right place at the right time. As I write this I hope their group had as good a trip as they could. Today's storm set NYC's all-time snow record for October. It was an easy record to set since an inch was the previous record.

The uniform got me free meals on the planes, a quick trip through security, a coin, several people saying a heart-felt thank you for my service and many smiles. But it doesn't make trains and planes run on time. I slept late today trying to help my 58-year-old body recover from that very long day.

Oldest Company Commander Replaced by Youngest

2011-10-21T23:48:00.001-04:00

Today Headquarters Company of the 2-104th Aviation had a change of command ceremony. 1LT Matthew Moyer who will turn 26 on Sunday took command from CPT Paul Ward, age 54. Ward is moving on to a staff job at higher headquarters. Like me, Ward has a break in service. He was a company commander when Moyer was in the 1st grade.

1LT Moyer

CPT Ward

Both men were deployed with 2-104th in Iraq in 2009-10 and were on battalion staff. Ward was a battle captain in operations. Moyer was Unit Movement Officer, the officer in charge of moving the battalion to Iraq and back to America. He organized the movement of almost 50 aircraft and hundreds of containers from Pennsylvania to Fort Sill to Iraq and back to America.

Boys Like Guns

2011-10-15T17:10:00.001-04:00

Today I drove to Mifflintown to pick up Emarion for his first visit to our home. He asked if we could see Army stuff on the way home.

I wrote about some of visit in my other blog, Adoptive Dad.

Of the three boys, Emarion clearly knows the most about weapons. He has gone hunting, loves fishing and says Cabella's is his favorite store.

He is clearly going to like the family days at Fort Indiantown Gap. We watched M16 qualification for several minutes. Emarion liked watching the shooters knock the targets down. He was fascinated walking through the hangar at FT IG and liked just looking at the trucks and tracks in the motor pools around post.

I could also show him the M60A1 tank in front of the headquarters building and tell him I was a tank commander of one of those 35 years ago. Since I don't watch football and baseball, it's good that I am in the Army. Helicopters, camouflaged vehicles and weapons are a great ice breaker with boys.