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unsung heros...
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Here's to you...latrine cleaner-upper....you ever hear those funny commercials for Budwieser beer on the radio where they are singing praises and recognizing some little known person who does some little known job, like the sweat wiper-upper at basketball games? I haven't, what do they sound like? are they funny? Ok, I've heard them, and today I'm recognizing my own little known helper, someone who works behind the scenes turning out amazing and beautiful pictures while I take all the credit, my camera. A useful tool I have had since I started this journey back in September. My camera has helped me tell my story, and has been through eveything I have been through from the good times in Pensacola, to the low crawling on my belly in Shelby, Mississippi. (my camera was in a grenade pouch, underneath me, supporting my considerable girth, without any complaints, bless its little motorized lens components). Yesterday, it earned a purple heart, as when I turned it on, the automatic opening lens cap, which is permanantly attached, became permanatly unattached. Yet, even though it is working through this new disability, it takes great pictures still. This camera has moxy, and refuses to retire. So I wanted to add this quick little blog with a picture of this stalwart little companion who goes through the shit, everyday with me...
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OPSEC
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OPSEC...a pretty little acronym for operational security....I had to turn in my website address today, because if I didn't, and my leadership found it, I would face UCMJ action. I would have got in a lot of trouble. I'm really pissed of right now because I HAD to give that to them. You know, I try to do the right thing, and I try not to say anything that would give the insurgents information they can use, while at the same time giving you people back home as much info as I can on my life here. Like my last post...it was a mission that was already finished, I wrote in a journal until the mission was over,and then posted it, so readers could get a feel of what was going through my mind and how I was feeling as I experienced it, unless they have a time machine, then the mission is old news, and its too late for them use that info. for all we know they watched us drive by and knew about the mission before you guys did. I never mentioned where our convoy went or our numbers, I never mentioned what supplies we moved, I mentioned KBR contractors, but they have been hiring on the Internet for years along with other companies. I talked about a bomb found in a dead body, but bombs are found in everything they can put them in, I talked about a bomb that went off, and (deleted due to opsec) , I have stated several times I'm at Al-Asad..originally an Iraqi airbase, and one found on any map, there are thousands of troops stationed here, and they know that too, because we took it away from them and Sadaam.
I understand that there may be times I could slip and not realize I said to much, but even if I did wouldn't it be too late by the time my leadership caught it? if I said something horribly sensitive right now, could they stop it in time before someone else read it? probably not, they don't have a guy monitoring my site 24 hrs a day, all they have is a link to check it once and a while, so why does it matter so much that they have this address or they will prosecute me. Are you gonna start reading my mail too? I seem to remember vounteering to come on this deployment, when I heard they needed medics...now they want to take away the last bit of personal space I have, the one place I feel I can complain or vent without worrying about getting in trouble.Well I hope your checking it for the first time tonight because fuck-you (no OPSEC in fuck-you). This was my site I started 3 years ago, you think you have the right to order me to give you this site so you can monitor me, but you don't have the right, you only have the rank, so I did it. By the way readers did you know that if I post something on this site they deem unsafe they will shut it down. I wonder if the phones are tapped. I understand there is privacy lost when joining the military, but I wanted this site for me and my friends to communicate, its mine, I made it before I joined the military. guess I shouldn't have wrote what I wrote yesterday, but I'm not gonna write.."the sun was hot today, and I found sand in my boots again..." every fuckin day. I'm gonna tell people what is going on over here with me and my friends, I am gonna talk about what scares me or excites me about being over here, I'm gonna do it in as much detail as possible without giving the insurgents any info that would hurt my buddies or myself while I am here. If someone thinks I have gone to far, explain what I said that gave away secrets, I want to do the right thing. I just don't like having to give away what was one of the only things I considered all mine....now the army has the address and they will be watching over my shoulder (i hope you can see the middle finger I'm holding up).
I guess thats all for now, good night friends, and fuck-you military screeners if your reading this. |
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a day in the life...
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(the whole blog, deleted due to opsec)
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freelance writing
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Hello fans of mine (smiles lovingly at each of you..nodding occasionally)...I'm just gonna talk for awhile and ramble on about whatever pops into my head, I did some company P.T. (physical training) this morning, we ran up and down stairs at the soccer field here on base, and after supper i still went and ran on my own at the track, I'm pretty serious about wanting to be in the best shape I've ever been in, but now my legs feel like rubber...hairy rubber, and I'm lying on my bunk as I do so many nights when I'm preparing my E-mails to send out and I just feel like talking about nothing.
I'm listening to Korn..Twisted Transistor..
You know, since I started my new get healthy kick, I started taking a supplement called "ripped fuel". The first day I used it I took my daily dose too late in the day, and was up most of the night waking up my bunkmate cause I kept movin around in bed...no I wasn't doing what your dirty minds think I was doing and even if I was I've never lasted more than 5 mins doin' that anyway. I didn't get to bed until 4 in the morning. I felt wired, this stuff is supposed to increase my metabolism, I'm gonna be 35 soon and as human beings get older our metabolism slows down...but my mind is still quick people, don't you let that look on my face fool you...if you look into my brown eyes you'll notice a whirl of activity, you'll see the gears turnin' and the sparks flyin' and that gerbel I rarely feed runnin' his ass off on that excercise wheel. So, now I'm taking supplement as directed, and no matter what P.T. we do every morning my goal is to run at least 2 miles every day..for the rest of the deployment.
I'm listening to white stripes...blue orchid...
Hmm...now Ive decided to introduce some of the regular commenters to each other...yep, thats how quick I make decisions, I think about doing something, and then I decide whether to do them or not...Mind = fast = starving gerbel...First on the list is Dave, he does the website administration, picture fixing (I mess it up alot) and runs errands for me back home like buying me a bike helmet (itll be in pictures later accompanied with the wig I bought) and other various duties too numerous to mention. His brother Jon reads my blog and fixes any misspellings and other gross paragraphicable errors (jon, don't fix that one). Together they both have helped me out quite a bit back home and are my best friends. They laugh at my jokes on cue, and generally help me to feel like I fit in with the rest of the human race. Jared, My best friend I have known for over 20 years and my plutonic life-partner is in the process of filing my taxes and takes care of the money and legal department of T-Dawg Enterprises. "Tab" (It's a nickname folks) Is a huge-mongous supporter of the military, is from Iowa, and has a personal friend in my Battalion. She runs her own website at "Supportmyredbulls.com", and is happily married to a firefighter, to my dismay...my flirts tend to bounce off her like bullets off of Superman, and yet that is the result every time I flirt with girls...coincidence? I think not! Muhahahahah....shit, why am I laughing. Budahn is from my original Company I started out with back in Minnesota, He deployed before me almost a year before I did, which is why he can blog now and give me so much crap, because he's been there and done my job before, thats the only reason I allow it...also he's higher rank than me now but that has nothing to do with it. Damn you Budahn and your sittin on the couch, goin where you wanna go, watchin' t.v...sleepin' in if you want to attitude!
I'm listening to A perfect Circle....counting bodies like sheep to th rhythm of a war drum...
Then there is Sarah.....sweet sarah who got drunk at one of my parties and broke the downstairs towel rack...my dear the rack has been fixed and reinforced...you have been removed from the blacklist and may now get intoxicated at my house again, shes from my first company as well, and still holds the highly coveted title of sweetheart. There are other commenters as well and I appreciate all of you, just because I haven't written you back doesn't mean I didn't note that you took the time to leave words of encouragement, there are people from my job at the hospital, there are people that are from my last company I was with, and then there are the friends of the people I'm deployed with, when you leave a message for King or Nygaard I pass those messages on, we appreciate you all, believe me, and will let you guys buy us all the drinks you want when we get back I promise :)
I'm listening to Enya...Amarantine...
I have not drank any kind of soda pop since I flew out of the united states...the closest I've came to it is gaterade, can you believe that?
well, I guess I'm all done for now, just wanted to do something a little different then the norm.
Sincerely yours, The T-Dawg
P.S. hahaha, A funny memory just unexpectedly ran through my head like a streaker at a football game. I just thought about the times I used to hide in dave and jons basement, and wait until they came down there so i could scare the crap outta them, the way they would shake/jump at the same time, hahaha....Ok I'm done
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army make troy ANGRY!
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Hello people, I'm in a foul mood right now because the Army has messed with my vacation plans. Originally I was going to take a 2 week break at the end of September and spend it in Australia with a couple of my best friends joining me there, we were gonna save our pennies and plan it well to get the most from our experience. I was just told I have to take it in July....which sucks because no-one will be able to save the money up in time with that much short notice, I mean we could still go but we would have to limit what we do there, and if your going to Australia why pay to get there if you don't have the financial freedom to experience everything you can? I'm just upset because someone like me doesn't get opportunities to travel like that very often....I think the round trip ticket from America is 2000 or around there. Also nobody wanted to take thier vacation so early because you have to come back after your break and be here for 9 more months....I would have rather come back from break knowing I was at least half-way done with this tour....blah! (throws a dirty sock at Spc. King).
So, I guess I'm coming home for 2 weeks around my birthday...actually they are saying the 25th...anyone wanna get drunk? My birthday is on the 21 of July so it'll be a little late, but we can start the morning I get there...
As far as what is going on here we are finding ways to entertain ourselves, a couple of us medics have started our own contest of "The biggest Loser". We took photos of ourselves last night and weighed ourselves this morning, at the end of the deployment we will have a neutral person judge us by loss of weight, and the pictures, to see who got the most muscle. Kinda keep us watching what we eat and motivate us to stick to the gym. It's just for fun but overall we all win if we leave here in better shape than we came. On a side note there is a medic here who loves Mt. Dew more than I, and everytime I go to the dining facility I grab a couple mt. dews and leave them on his bed....he's one of the guys in competition with me....:)
There is a 60 minutes reporter riding along on tomorrows convoy, unfortunatly I am not the medic going on that one, but you might keep an eye out for a 60 minutes report on Al-Asad. It might just be a general report on the base here, but it might be focused on our convoy security we provide, if any of you see it get a copy for us here.
What else can I tell ya...the base is really big, we have a pizza hut, burger king, and subway here. There is also a coffee shop next to the subway. There is a car dealership here, so I could by a car here and not have to pay taxes on it, basically I can order it from here and they'd have it waiting at a dealership in Minneapolis for me when I come home. Only American made stuff though...Ford, Cheverolet, Jeep,...ect. and also Harley Davidson motorcycles. I just started cleaning up my credit card debts so if I am debt free by August (thats the plan) I may purchase a new vehicle.....debt free and a new ride to boot, not to bad.
Ok my people, thats about it for now. Take care you all and I guess I'll be seeing some of you in 3 months....until then (insert hug and quick ass grab) I'm out. Troy.
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