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looking forward.....
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I was just recently talking to a buddy about coming home and it really got me thinking about it, about the timing of our homecoming and how much I look forward to it.
My favorite season of the year is fall, I love cool weather, leaves turning color, wearing a sweatshirt because they feel comfy….I have missed 2 Minnesota falls since I have been deployed, I can’t wait to see the next one.
My other favorite time of year is when I will be coming home, this week I have found myself thinking about it more, even though I have 4 to 5ish some months left, it seems just around the corner. I like how my Amanda put it….the snow has started falling in Minnesota, when it starts to melt you’ll come home. That is the other part of the year I love, and it will make coming home at that time so much better.
I love those days when you step outside and you’re having one of those days that is so warm you feel like you could wear a T-shirt instead of the winter jacket you have had on the last few months, One of those days that is sunny, and you can hear water dripping from everywhere around you because the snow is melting, little rivers of water start running in the streets, packed snow on sidewalks melt…leaving dry sidewalks, the air smells different because it isn’t cold and dry…..I just love being outside on those days.
What makes coming home even better is the scenery I used to take for granted. Here in Iraq the main colors are sandy or brown, when I get back home I’ll see the white snow, the green grass peeking out as it melts, the different colored houses in my neighborhood all while surrounded by the wonderful sounds and smells of spring, I think we are going to be coming home at just the perfect time. I will have no schedule, no one telling me what to do, or where to go….I plan on sitting on my front steps on one of those sunny days and just letting it all soak in, out of Iraq, safe, in one of the more beautiful places in the world I like to call home.
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past memories...
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Hello fans of mine!.....(or of someone I’m deployed with(Nygaard says: you get that Ms. Buttwipe? That goes for you too, Mom.)), I am just sitting here monitoring a patient who hasn’t been feeling well, letting them sleep and playing a little Enya as a soothing backdrop to whatever dreams they might be having right now. I’ve got a special folder of music on my laptop of stuff I picked out that I play in my treatment room, the folder is called “music to heal by”. So, Enya playing softly, my Patient is curled up on the bed, blanket tucked around them (I tuck the blanket around them like a cocoon….yes, I’m that good), with I.V. on a slow drip. Since I’m sitting here with my laptop in front of me, I wrote a couple letters and started leafing through the files I keep stored inside my head looking for something I could write about, it’s a little cluttered up there but….I remember a story I wrote about my first car, so I dug it up and am going to share that with you…
My first car was the only car that had a name, we (my friends and I) just called it "the Baja". Even though it was a firebird, it went through gravel pits like a jeep, That is probably why the transmission went out on it, that or the fact I only added oil to it when it was low, but never changed the oil or its filter, just added as needed...I didn't know a whole lot about cars. The Baja ran for 4 years which in retrospect (when my best friend Jared and I look back on that) we find it to be a miracle. Jared was a regular co-pilot of mine I met in high school, I say co-pilot because when airborne the passenger becomes a co-pilot. I was once in another town with 6 dollars left to get home on an empty tank, I was filling it up and Jared says “what is that smell?.....Hey! what the hell are you puttin' diesel in it for?” oops, my bad. Well, I was 3 dollars into it, so I just put 3 dollars unleaded on top of it and we sputtered all the way back home. That car was a trooper; I think what kept it running the last couple months was loyalty. It just didn't want to give up on me, it knew that inside I was a good person and that I didn't mean to do the things I did to it. One day I went to start it up and it wouldn’t run...it had died in its sleep, I like to think it died dreaming of the jumps we took in the gravelpits. I should have wrote a poem in its memory... "Flight of the Firebird". The car had always been a giver, even in death it was an organ donor, though not many organs where salvagable, the sound system and the spare tire if I remember correctly.
I take better care of “Defiance” and “Sparky”, the two vehicles under our care here. “Defiance” you know already as the ambulance that refuses to die, the other day one of the hood latches fell off of it….like me losing my hair, parts just fall off of it. I don’t think I’ve told you about “Sparky”. Sparky got his name for his tendency to shock people in the passenger seat, you see, the battery sits directly under the passenger seat, and the seat was kinda loose…so if you hit a bump just right, the seat would jostle around and touch the battery giving the passenger a little shock in the buttocks, it made rides around Al-Asad a little more exhilarating. A month ago the seat was finally fixed but Sparky’s name is stuck because of his previous Tom-foolery. It’s so easy to remember the negative things and not look at a vehicle for the positive things it’s done recently. I try to keep things in perspective and see that Sparky has been behaving……for now anyway.
Since there is no real subject in today’s blog, just rambling, then today’s words of wis-dumb will be random as well……”people who snore always seem to fall asleep first”…..”The early fish gets hooked for the same thing the early bird gets credit for”….”A perfectionist is someone who takes great pains---and gives them to others”.
That’s all I got for now, I better check my patient. Thanks for stopping by, I hope I put smile on your face. Have a great day. Troy.
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and so returns the hero.....
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Happy days my friends, happy days, how are all of you doing today? I hope things are well back home. On September 21rst I had my one year anniversary of being deployed, that’s the day I flew out of Mpls to Shelby Mississippi. In that year a lot has happened, and I’d like to think I’m a better man for it. I have met some great friends, transferred to different companies, and learned from different peoples’ experiences. At the beginning of my time in Iraq I was super motivated, working out, getting in shape, going on different missions, and then I hit a rut and was mad and unmotivated for awhile. I went on vacation, got recharged and came back determined to get back to my original focus that I was in when I got here. On sept 21rst I started hitting my workouts again more motivated than ever to get in good enough shape I could model underwear for a living, well, maybe not underwear, bathrobes maybe, anyway my attitude has been a lot better for awhile, and work has been a great learning experience. All in all I have been in a great mood, we did have one hit here though that hurt us emotionally. I’m not going to talk about that at this time because I’m not clear on the OPSEC for it and I don’t want Goober bugging me.
So overall this last month I have really been doing great emotionally and physically so I couldn’t have asked for much more, but things get better folks! My ol’ buddy Nygaard showed up today, he’s back with us to help us finish out this tour and I’m so happy to see him. Not that I haven’t made some great friends here, I have, I work with smart, motivated people here, but Nygaard is from my home unit and I’ve known him since I joined the guard. Back when this deployment was coming up we were volunteering together so we could help each other through it, and now he’s back to take the final steps with me ‘til we get outta here. So I want everyone to join me in grabbin’ his ass and welcoming him back to our little corner of the sandbox.
In honor of my buddy coming back My words of wis-dumb will be about friendship….I like these….The best vitamin for developing good friends is B1……A friend is someone who thinks you’re a good egg, even though your slightly cracked…..In prosperity our friends know us; In adversity we know our friends……Anyone can give advice, but a friend will lend a helping hand.
Ok readers, that’s about it for now, I’m doing great, time is flying by and my buddy is back…..just highlighting the positives to keep myself motivated here. Take care all. Troy out.
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history in the making...
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Hello friends, Today I was thinking about our red bull insignia, and how cool it is in comparison to other patches. I personally really like our patch. Then I got to wondering how we got it so here is the info I dug up, maybe you'll find it interesting.....
The RED BULL insignia of the 34th Infantry Division was based on a design by Marvin Cone of Cedar Rapids, IA who drew it for a contest while training with the Division at Camp Cody in 1917. A steer skull imposed on the shape of a Mexican water jar (called an "olla") recalled the Division's desert home not far from the Mexican border.
During WW II, German soldiers in Italy referred to the American soldiers who wore the familiar patch as "Red Devils" or "Red Bulls". The latter name stuck, and the Division soon adopted it officially, replacing its WWI name of the "Sandstorm Division".
The 34th Infantry Division was created from National Guard troops from Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas and Nebraska in the late summer of 1917. It arrived in France in October of 1918 but was too late to see action in World War I as the war ended the following month.
World War II
The 34th Infantry Division was activated during World War (WW) II on February 10, 1941. The Division made a good showing at the Louisiana Maneuvers. As the first U.S. Division to be shipped overseas, Pvt. Henke of Hutchinson, Minnesota was credited as being the 1st American soldier to step off the boat in support of the war effort.
The Division participated in six major Army campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The Division is credited with amassing 517 days of continuous front line combat, more than any other division in the European theater. Portions of the 34th Division are credited with over 600 days of front line combat. The Division suffered 21,362 casualties, of which 3,737 were killed. Members of the Division were awarded 11 Medals of Honor and 98 Distinguished Service Crosses.
Formation of the Rangers
The U.S. Rangers trace their lineage through the 34th Infantry Division. During WW II, the 1st Ranger Battalion was formed under the command of one of the Division's officers, CPT William Darby. Eighty Percent of the 1st Ranger Battalion's volunteers were drawn from the 34th, and they soon became famous as "Darby's Rangers"
I can't forget to put in my little quote of wis-dumb in, so today it's on Service, The army is about self-less service, and todays blog was about the red bull history so a little gem of advice on Service....I like this one because it states that everyone can do thier part, no matter how little you think you can do. "A determined man with a rusty wrench, can do more than a loafer with all the tools in the machine shop" we might not think we have much, or our talent isnt worth anything sometimes, or even that we wont make a difference in the grand scheme of things...I feel that way sometimes, but wouldn't the forest be a quiet place if no birds sang except the best singers?
Sometimes the stuff I write I do to keep myself motivated, it may sound sappy coming from a goof like me, but I need to hear and think about this stuff as much as anybody. I hope you find some inspiration in it. Ok friends I'm out. Take of yourselves and each other. Troy
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different parts of the machine....
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Today was a super busy day at the clinic, I spent all morning counting and inventorying....again, this evening we had a lot patients, everybody is gettin' these cold and flu symptoms lately, runny noses and muscle aches, blah. So amid this busy day we also needed to take our ambulance down to the motor pool and get it dispatched for another week. This ol' ambulance (I call her “defiance” because she will not die) still runs surprisingly. She leaks oil, blinkers work when they want to, bumps and scratches, dirty and dusty, (all properly documented on my dispatch forms) yet she keeps running somehow…..actually, I take that back, I know how, today we took her to the mechanics…. the vehicle medics.
I might complain about my job, how boring it can be sometimes…how busy it is other times…but these guys…the vehicle medics, are some hard workin’ people and they work hard, longer and hours than I do, outside when it gets over 120 degrees or hotter. After visiting them today it put things back into perspective for me…I work in an air-conditioned shed at least, these guys work everyday, under a tent with the flaps open so they can get an occasional breeze. Crawling under vehicles getting completely greasy, sweaty, and dirty…these guys never have a slow day. There is always a vehicle waiting in line to be fixed or checked out. The soldier who looked at “Defiance” today was super nice, took his time, explained what things were to me, like the trans-mi-ssion, and how it needs trans-mi-ssion flu-id, and stuff. I don’t know anything about vehicles, but these guys are pros and work in some awful conditions. They get the job done but we don’t here about them often because they aren’t on convoys takin’ hits from the enemy, yet these guys are as important as anybody else and seeing them first-hand today I felt compelled to say something, they are vehicle medics and they do their part to keep this machine called the army running just like I do at the clinic. I wanted to give that soldier a good ol’ ass-grab when he got done for bein’ so nice. And fixin’ up Defiances’ blinkers on the spot like he did, but he was dirty and sweaty and didn’t look like he woulda takin’ kindly to it. Oh well, his loss.
I’m gonna start something new called T-Dawgs words of wis-dumb. Every blog I post I’m gonna include some insanely witty sentence that has some profound truth in it that will probably change your life when you read it, just a little something from me to you, and so since today I talked about my vehicle I’ll include some driving wis-dumb…….If your wife or girlfriend want to drive, don’t STAND in the way.
Ok people, thanks for taking the time to read, This blog is a way for me to pass time here, and let my friends know I’m still doin’ alright mentally here (which could be interpreted differently by each of them), but I like people stopping in and I hope I’m at least putting a smile on your face occasionally. Sincerely Troy.
P.S. that is spc. Hackett standing with Defiance.
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