Finally... moving out!

Ok, now we are cookin' with gas. I have my orders, SRP is over... and we fly out to the MOB site on 13 DEC 08. I thought this day would never come.

Everyone is excited, and I will be traveling to Miami tomorrow, to load our connex with our gear, to send to the MOB site. Stay tuned... more to follow. I plan on posting as often as I can now.

Cheers!

Ball in in motion...

Ok, well... it's been a few days. We now have DIRLAUTH with the unit we are going over with. DIRLAUTH is one of those Army acronyms that means "Direct Liaison Authorized". To further explain... that means that we can now communicate directly to the Chain of Command of our gaining unit.

What does that mean for my blog? Well, nothing for now. Until I mobilize, I won't have much to write about. I am on leave right now, with nothing to really do. Our timeline is fairly clear as mud right at the moment, but the good news is that I will be able to spend Christmas and New Years with my family.

I'm ready for this mission. I have some very good soldiers going with me, and the mission itself will be very rewarding as well as challenging.

Stay tuned!!!

Still waiting...

Ok, I didn't want to clutter up my post about Pete with my useless drivel, so I will add it now. Still no official "orders" yet, but I did get the official tasker sent down from NGB. Looks like the punch out date now is 10 Dec 08 with a move out date of 12 Dec 08 to Camp Shelby, MS.

So, I am cooking off some much needed leave, spending time with friends and family, and just enjoying good food before I get sucked into the black hole of mobilization.

I am sorry that the blog has been slow... but, I warned you all! Just give me a chance, for once I start the deployment process, I will be VERY busy and have lots of information to add.

Until then, stay tuned. Oh, and don't hesitate to add comments... I like that very much. Let's me know that people are reading this stuff.

Cheers!!!

Sad News...

I woke this morning to a text message on my phone. A good man died last night at 1800 hours, in his home, with his family. He went peacefully, and without pain.

His name was Peter (Pete) Neves and was known by most as "Spartan". The man who created www.armyranger.com back in 2002. I stumbled upon AR.com (as we all call it) by accident, while I was in California attending DLI. I immediately signed up for the site, and Pete was one of the first people I exchanged email with, and began my vetting process.

His wit, and sense of humor had me rolling on the floor, and caused me to finally call him. That's when he let me know of his physical condition. He was fighting a very aggressive form of cancer, and it was spread all over his body.

Pete told me that he hid it as long as he could, for he had a young daughter, and that was his biggest regret... not to live to see her grown.

This man fought hard. Through the Brotherhood of the website, and the Ranger community... we all kept up with Pete's progress... and regression... and on several occasions, his death was... well, exaggerated... only to have Ranger Spartan log on and post something to make us all laugh. He was one tough son of a bitch... and he has given strength to us all.

I never got a chance to meet Pete in person. I have very mixed feelings about this... part of me wished I could have, but another part of me has Pete in my memory a certain way, and I am content with that.

This is a small bio of Peter, writen by one of my fellow Rangers on the board... I will use it here, to show a bit about Peter.

"Peter Neves served in 2nd Platoon, B Co, 2/75 from 1984-1987. Pete graduated Ranger School in Class #12/85. While in 2nd Ranger Bn, he served as a rifleman, AG, Machinegunner, went to HHC to work as the Bn Cdrs Driver/RTO (LTC Jefferey J. Ellis and CSM Leon-Geurerro), then returned to be a Team Leader. Pete departed as a SGT to the Q Course, where he graduated as an 18C. He later served in 2nd Bn, 1st SFG in the S-4 Shop.

In December of 2002, Pete founded ArmyRanger.Com. The site started off as a small chatroom type board where a few Rangers and Vets gathered to have fun. Pete also founded the Ranger Quartermaster, where he designed and marketed high quality Ranger items. Over the years, his vision became the cornerstone of the online Ranger community."


How does this effect me? Well... as I type this, I have tears well up in my eyes. Not so much tears of sadness... but of humility, and resolve. Pete was very sick towards the end. I mean, the man wasted away to 90 pounds. He looked like a walking skeleton... but he never lost his humor. He never gave up. He looked death in the eye so many times, and fought back... getting one more breath, one more hug from his little girl... from his wife...

There were times when Pete was out of his mind on pain killers, but his family stood beisde him. His Wife, his Daughter and all of his Brothers and Sisters within the community.

Ranger Spartan... you will be missed. You were liked by most, disliked by some... but were an inspiration to us all.

I can only hope that if I am ever faced with anything remotely close to this in life, I can face it with the honor and dignity that you faced it with my Brother.

Rest easy Pete. You deserve it.

Rangers Lead The Way!!!

The waiting game...

The phone rang, but I didn't get it... due to the fact that I was in a movie. So, the Commander left his voice message for me to listen to later. I paraphrase...

"Sarn't, give me a call as soon as you get this. This is Major XXXXX".

By the sound of his voice, my heart sank. I just knew that one of my joe's had been in a car wreck, or was killed, or something of that nature. So, I dialed his number back.

Somberly, he broke the news that I was slated to deploy back to Iraq. "Cool Sir, when?" I said.

"October 1st" was his reply.

Ok, that annoyed me a bit. That gave me just a bit over 30 days to prepare. I started getting into overdrive. I knew what lay ahead, since I had been down this road three times before. Not alot of time, but hey... Soldiering was never easy.

As the days wore on ahead... the lack of information was amazing. A million questions, but no answers. We had leases to break, jobs to inform, child care to accomodate, lives to put on hold... but nothing in writing.

As the time ticked away, so did the mobilization date. It turned from October 1st, to November 1st. Okay, a little better, but... tick tock, tick tock. Still no orders.

Just yesterday, I was informed that the MOB date is NOW December 12th. WTF???

Still, nothing in writing. Man, this sucks.

Slowly But Surely

Well, this blog has gotten off to a very slow start. I realized it would be like this because I am still over a month away from my Mobilization date. No worries though... I still have not gotten my orders, the waiting game continues.

This past week, I spent five fun filled days on the beach at Lido Beach Resort, down in Sarasota, FL on Siesta key. We had our annual end of the year conference, and what fun it was. It's always good to relax and mingle with coworkers that you don't get to see every day. The bond is pretty intense between those of us on the program.

We had a chance to do a tactical room entry scenario, as well as an undercover agent rescue scenario, along with a Simunition "force on force" demonstration. That went over very well.

The R.A.I.D. team had their new UH-72 Lakota for all to see, and even gave those that have never flown before, some nice rides up and down the beach.

It was relaxing to be able to hang out with friends in a casual setting, all the while getting work done. Wish it was like that ALL the time...

More to follow, stay tuned.

Still no word...

Well, the magic day is approaching, but still no orders, or no word yet. The date is supposed to be November 1st... yeah, right.

It's the not knowing that gets you. But still... I remain strong. It's hard to plan your last month in at home without having a concrete "go-by" that you can model from. Once I get my MOB orders in hand, then I can do all sorts of stuff... like take some much deserved LEAVE!!!

However, all I can do now is sit and wait... and prepare for the suck. I know all too well what I am embarking on. They say, that "ignorance is bliss"... well, I am here to tell you... I believe it.

I remember my fist deployment to Afghanistan. It was so early in the GWOT, in fact, the country was still in shock from the events of 9-11 that I know that I was still numb. Now, it's different. We have been at war for oh so long... and I myself have ventured out into the suck more times than I care to recount.

This one will be different though. This time, on my watch... we will swear in a new Commander in Chief... and this time, Iraq is a bit more "stable"... so they say.

So, I sit and wait... and wait some more. Pull from my inner strength and wrap my mind around the mission at hand, and keep my chin up, shoulders back, and prepare to shoulder my share of the load... 100% and then some.

Rangers Lead The Way!!!

Thoughts

Well, here I sit... 60 miles away from home, on yet another TDY trip. It seems that all I do these days is travel. I love to travel, don't get me wrong. I am fortunate that in my life, I have been all over the world, tasted many different cultures, lived among the people, and still get to come home to the greatest nation on the planet.

I love my country, and what it stands for. But, I don't really care for the partisan politics that have run rampant in the past few years. I try to distance myself from it, but it get's put in my face more and more.

I am proud to be a US Soldier... a Professional... and an American.

The other night, we started watching the series "John Adams" and I must say, I am completely taken by it. As a modern day "defender of freedom" I am first on the front to know that freedom is not free.

Liberty means many things to many people, but it is the basis on which this country was formed. This little mini-series gave me some insight into what our forefathers went through to carve out our independence, and to make sure our brand new government would not self destruct.

If you have not seen it, I would highly recommend it.

Now, as for deployment... it's the waiting game that drives me insane.

Once the call comes down, and you are told you are going, many different emotions well up inside of you. Since this is not my first rodeo, I know what to expect. I have seen the things that need to be changed from my last mission, and it frustrates me when the winds of change do not blow.

I don't have any news to tell now, but I will soon. I plan on taking some MUCH needed vacation before I have to start working those 18-20 hour days.

Also, as the OP Tempo climbs, I may have some lags between entries. I plan on continuing a daily diary, but may have to post several day's worth of entries under one posts, due to internet connections, or lack thereof.

So, I ask you to be patient... this is new to me and there are surely growing pains to be felt.

Until then, good night, and God bless!

RLTW!!!

Howdy

This is the first of many entries that I plan on sharing with you all. I am preparing to deploy to Iraq again, this time things are gonna be a bit different. I hope to share my experiences as I go, as sort of a daily or semi-daily diary.

OPSEC is very important, so if some of my entries are a bit vague, then you can surely understand. I will be featured on www.thehousehold6.blogspot.com and will be posting on there as well.

The speed of my posts will increase as I figure this out. I look forward to hearing from friends and family on here, as well as those of you that support our troops. This is going to be a long deployment, so I should be able to add some interesting stories along the way.

Stay tuned!

RLTW!