Wow, I haven't updated here in way too long.

Considering the fact that I never updated after writing that rant, I'll go ahead and let anyone who may be reading know that B and I were put on night shift for the last two months that we were at War Eagle. I was able to Skype my family much more frequently so that was really nice.

We redeployed back to the States just before Christmas last year. My parent's and my husband's parents came into town to be with us. It was great to get to spend time with family again. :D

We have been home now for almost 10 months to the day. I can hardly believe I've been back that long. Of course we've been crazy busy with training as we're gearing up for our next deployment.

The past 10 months have been sad and exciting. Sad, because almost every single soldier who was in my platoon when we deployed has moved on. Some on to other posts and others have rejoined the civilian world. I miss them all, but it's been exciting to have new soldiers join the platoon. I look forward to seeing how much we can accomplish together.

My Rant

I am feeling very angry and emotional right now.

Right now our platoon is split up into 2 shifts. Day shift and night shift

I am on day shift with 7 others. We tend to do the bulk of the work, because that is when most of work comes in. There are also a lot of things that can't be done during the night shift because it is too dark. So day night shift gets to take it pretty easy most of the time.

Our platoon sergeant wants to switch the shifts around so that it is fair to everyone. The problem is that he wants to leave the 2 females on day shift, PFC B and I.

I do not want to stay on day shift for many reasons:

o I don't have an opportunity to call my family because they are either still asleep or at work when I'm awake. (we are 9 hours ahead of them)

o PFC B and I are called on every day to search female Iraqis coming onto the FOB. This means putting on all our gear and walking to the front gate to do the searches. We are only called upon to do this in the morning. If we are on night shift we won't have to do it. I don't mind doing it too much, but it's not that hot out yet. Also none of the males have to do this, because there are males manning the gate 24 hours a day. As far as I know none of the other females on the FOB are made to do the searches. There are at least 15 other females here.

o It will soon be getting blistering hot here. By not being allowed to be on night shift B and I will always be working during the hottest hours.

o I do not have many friends here. Partially because I don't have a lot in common with most of the people in my platoon. I have become good friends with SGT DV. He will be moving to night shift. I will then be left with people I really don't associate with.

o I am trying to learn how to do jobs other than my own. To me it is a necessary part of furthering my career in the army. I need to be able to help soldiers figure out problems, but if I don't know what they are doing then I can't be any help. SGT DV has been teaching me parts of how to do his job. There is no one who will be coming over to the day shift who will do that.

I talked to the day shift leader and let him know why I wanted to be moved with the rest of the shift. As of right now I'm still staying on the day shift. Perhaps that will change, but I don't think it will.

I just really needed to vent a bit. Who knows maybe it won't be as bad as I'm thinking it will be. :p

Just an update

It was a crazy, but good week last week. On Thursday morning Matt flew in from his FOB. I was able to get the day off too. Matt and I were able to hang out all day together Thursday. It was wonderful! He looked great too :)

Matt and I were then supposed to fly out together to go back to his FOB on Friday morning. We woke up at 0630, geared up and then walked down to the flight line. We waited for over an hour for the Blackhawks. Finally someone came over and said that all the flights had been canceled because the skies were red. They told us to come back at 1800 and we would maybe be able to fly out then. We ended up catching a convoy from here to his FOB. It was my first time to ride in a convoy. I thought I would be a little more afraid than I was, but it actually wasn't too bad.

Saturday I got up and ready for the NCO of the Quarter Board. Matt met me at the barracks and we walked over to get lunch. After we finished eating he went back to work and I left to go to the Battalion building. I was expecting maybe 3 soldiers and 2 to 3 NCOs to be present for the board. There were 5 soldiers and 5 NCOs! The first soldier went in at 1300. By 1500 only 3 soldiers had gone in. I was beginning to get a bit worried, because I had to go pick up Comsec, which was priority over the board. So I left to go do that. It took me 2 hours! I arrived back at the battalion at 1700 and was told that the first NCO had gone in not too long before. After I had been there about 10 minutes I was called in. By this time I was hot, tired and cranky so I wasn't really in the mood to be there. I think this may have helped me a bit, because I really didn't care so I wasn't nervous at all. After about 20 minutes I was finished. So I told the other 3 still waiting good luck and I left.

I met up with Matt and we ate a quick dinner together and then I went over to the flight line. While I was waiting to catch my flight back here, my 1SGT came walking up. He told me that he wanted to congratulate me on winning the board. He also said that he had already emailed the information about the next board to my Platoon SGT. :p I haven't found out when the next board is yet, but I'm sure it's not too far off.

It was tough to say goodbye to Matt after getting to spend 2 1/2 days with him, but it looks like we're going to be able to see each other at least once every other month! :)

7 weeks down 45 more to go?

Happy February everyone!

It’s been mostly quiet around here with bursts of crazy, busy.

I flew on a Blackhawk for the first time on Monday. I loved it! :) It is my new preferred method of travel. ;) I had to go to see the dermatologist for a full body scan. She decided to do a biopsy of one of the moles on my back. It had to be sent to Germany so I won’t get the results for 2 to 4 weeks. I have to have full body scans performed every 3 months. It’s a little uncomfortable because the dermatologist is just looking over every inch of my body to see if there is anything irregular. At least the dermatologist was a female this time. :p

I am going to the NCO of the Quarter Board on the 20th. I really didn’t want to go, but I agreed to it anyway because the board will be held at the FOB where Matt is. :D I will be staying a couple of days so I’ll get to spend some time with him! I have been studying, but I don’t feel like I’m going to be ready in time. There’s just so much to know. This is also the first time I will go to the board in a field environment. I just hope I don’t make a fool out of myself.

My birthday was this past Sunday. My parents called me on Skype and sang happy birthday to me. :) About 5 days before my birthday a cake came in the mail from my Mother-in-Law. We had to eat it early because it was beginning to get a bit old. :p

Another day a new place

I had to say goodbye to Matt today for the last time. I probably won't see him for several months unless we get lucky.

I left Camp Stryker for Camp Taji. We just arrived not too long ago, so of course first things first where's the internet? ;)

We will only be here for tonight or at most two nights. Then on to the next destination which will be for about 3 months.

Tonight's trip was by Chinook. That was an interesting experience. I definitely felt military flying in that, especially with the gunner sitting on the back with his night vision goggles on watching for any threats. Our next trip may be by Chinook or Blackhawk or could be by convoy. Convoy is a whole lot more dangerous, but we'll see.

I hope that everyone had a great New Year!

Happy New Year's from Iraq!

We finally left Kuwait yesterday. We loaded up the buses at about 8pm. It was really hard to say goodbye to Matt. I'm not sure when he's leaving Kuwait. He may have left after us last night or he may be there a few more days.

After we loaded the buses we took about an hour and a half trip to the airfield where we unloaded all our bags from the buses and put them on pallets. We then were bused out to the to the C130. That was an experience I'll never forget. It was crowded and loud, but overall not too terrible. It hit midnight while we were still on the ground. We took off around 1215 or so and landed here in Iraq around 230am.

By the time we got to our tents and showered it was 4am. I was able to sleep for a few hours before the other females in the tent turned on the lights to get ready for the day.

We will be finding out if we're leaving today in an hour or so. I hope we do. I'm ready to be in a more permanent location.

I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve and has a wonderful day today!

In Kuwait

Well, We're here in Kuwait. Got to spend Christmas here and perhaps New Year's as well. It isn't too bad. We were given gifts by the USO and had a little Christmas Program held by our Battalion. I also got to spend the whole day with Matt so that was really nice. Actually we're getting to spend a lot of time together here.

Once we arrive in Iraq though we will be in different areas. If we're lucky we might get to see each other once a month. I'm hoping that my Platoon will move to where he is after about 6 months. Don't know that it will happen though. If we do then Matt and I will be able to live together!

Here's a pic of us on Christmas Day here in Kuwait with our gifts from the USO. :)


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!