Craig is pleased with his purchase of the coveted Desperate Housewives DVD.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Sunday, March 06, 2005
On to FOB Salerno
After arriving in Bagram and being policed up by our unit, we were escorted to the hooches where we would spend the night. It was about 11:30 local time, but kind of hard to tell exactly, the biological clock was still on Central European Time, the local time is 4 1/2 hours later than that, but everything in theater is run off Zulu (Greewich Mean Time, or Dublin Pub Time) which is an hour earlier than Central European. Anyway, it was dark.
Piled into a wooden hooch called a B Hut, a 15' by 20' structure built to house 2-6 people. Over the course of their existence, they have gradually been improved by the transient occupants but as some occupants demonstrated more motivation than others there are varying levels of luxury not only between huts but between occupants. In any event, there was an open bunk in the one that Craig Short led me to along with a small frozen pizza and a microwave. Life was good for at least one night.
After a couple hours of sleep, I headed for the showers and got my first look at Afghanistan in the daylight. If there was any sign of vegetation, it would hold a striking similarity to Phoenix, AZ except that the mountains that tower in the distance in every direction are about 4 times as high as every high point in Arizona stacked together. Although there was a high ceiling of clouds, I couldn't help be impressed that I was looking at the foothills of the Himalayas.
After showering we took a quick walk to breakfast where I got my first experience with Kellog, Brown an Root (KBR) contractors. While they certainly don't put across anything that even resembels a military appearance, they sure put out a spread. aside from the vast array of freshly cooked breakfast foods, there as in never ending supply of power bars, ceral, fruit, gatorade, and juices. It the rest of the meals were like this it's going to take work to stay in shape here.
On the walk back, I took a closer look at Bagram (BAF) and found it is a small, crowded city with huge military presence jammed into a very small area. Built up from an old Soviet airbase, it now sports quite a few small office buildings, a lot of storage yards, warehouses, vast arrays of the B huts, and of AAFES. Where the military goes, the PX/BX quickly follow.
2 hours later, we were on the ramp at the airfield again waiting for our ride to Salerno. Eventually we were led out to a C-130 wearing our body armor and helmets, carrying our weapons and one bag each. We were filed into the aircraft where the seats run in two rows of two stretching half the length of the aircraft so when you are strapped in, you are literally knee-to-knee opposite the passenger across from you. The remainder of our bags were strapped onto a pallet which a forklift carried into the aircraft and was strapped down behind us. Eventually, the doors were closed, the engines were fired, and without incident this time, we were airborne and headed south.
The flight of the C-130 bore no resemblance to the C-17. We were now being pushed along by 4 propellers and rather than flying over mountains, we cruised up and down valleys as we headed south. By looking over the shoulder of LT Mahoney in front of me I saw out the small circular window, that for the first half of the flight we were probably no more than 2,500 feet above the ground (above ground level - AGL). Suddenly as we entered the Khowst Bowl, the valley floor dropped out from under us and we were a good 5,000 feet AGL. I heard the hydraulics lower the flaps at least partially, but the aircraft still kept a decidedly nose-down attitude and if the airspeed diminished as we approached Salerno, I couldn't tell. Suddenly the aircraft leveled, the wheels of the aircraft punded stiffly into the dirt of the runway and as the pilots reversed the props and fully applied the brakes, everyone was leaned sideways towards the front of the aircraft and I could easily visualize the baggae pallet breaking free and squashing 64 people into the cockpit of the aircraft.
Welcome to Salerno.
After arriving in Bagram and being policed up by our unit, we were escorted to the hooches where we would spend the night. It was about 11:30 local time, but kind of hard to tell exactly, the biological clock was still on Central European Time, the local time is 4 1/2 hours later than that, but everything in theater is run off Zulu (Greewich Mean Time, or Dublin Pub Time) which is an hour earlier than Central European. Anyway, it was dark.
Piled into a wooden hooch called a B Hut, a 15' by 20' structure built to house 2-6 people. Over the course of their existence, they have gradually been improved by the transient occupants but as some occupants demonstrated more motivation than others there are varying levels of luxury not only between huts but between occupants. In any event, there was an open bunk in the one that Craig Short led me to along with a small frozen pizza and a microwave. Life was good for at least one night.
After a couple hours of sleep, I headed for the showers and got my first look at Afghanistan in the daylight. If there was any sign of vegetation, it would hold a striking similarity to Phoenix, AZ except that the mountains that tower in the distance in every direction are about 4 times as high as every high point in Arizona stacked together. Although there was a high ceiling of clouds, I couldn't help be impressed that I was looking at the foothills of the Himalayas.
After showering we took a quick walk to breakfast where I got my first experience with Kellog, Brown an Root (KBR) contractors. While they certainly don't put across anything that even resembels a military appearance, they sure put out a spread. aside from the vast array of freshly cooked breakfast foods, there as in never ending supply of power bars, ceral, fruit, gatorade, and juices. It the rest of the meals were like this it's going to take work to stay in shape here.
On the walk back, I took a closer look at Bagram (BAF) and found it is a small, crowded city with huge military presence jammed into a very small area. Built up from an old Soviet airbase, it now sports quite a few small office buildings, a lot of storage yards, warehouses, vast arrays of the B huts, and of AAFES. Where the military goes, the PX/BX quickly follow.
2 hours later, we were on the ramp at the airfield again waiting for our ride to Salerno. Eventually we were led out to a C-130 wearing our body armor and helmets, carrying our weapons and one bag each. We were filed into the aircraft where the seats run in two rows of two stretching half the length of the aircraft so when you are strapped in, you are literally knee-to-knee opposite the passenger across from you. The remainder of our bags were strapped onto a pallet which a forklift carried into the aircraft and was strapped down behind us. Eventually, the doors were closed, the engines were fired, and without incident this time, we were airborne and headed south.
The flight of the C-130 bore no resemblance to the C-17. We were now being pushed along by 4 propellers and rather than flying over mountains, we cruised up and down valleys as we headed south. By looking over the shoulder of LT Mahoney in front of me I saw out the small circular window, that for the first half of the flight we were probably no more than 2,500 feet above the ground (above ground level - AGL). Suddenly as we entered the Khowst Bowl, the valley floor dropped out from under us and we were a good 5,000 feet AGL. I heard the hydraulics lower the flaps at least partially, but the aircraft still kept a decidedly nose-down attitude and if the airspeed diminished as we approached Salerno, I couldn't tell. Suddenly the aircraft leveled, the wheels of the aircraft punded stiffly into the dirt of the runway and as the pilots reversed the props and fully applied the brakes, everyone was leaned sideways towards the front of the aircraft and I could easily visualize the baggae pallet breaking free and squashing 64 people into the cockpit of the aircraft.
Welcome to Salerno.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Welcome to Afghanistan
Wow, what a week!! We received our Call Forward message from our higher headquarters on Thursday the 24th of February. Merging with two other units headed for the theater, we began pulling our people into the Purple Ramp at Ramstein on Saturday morning. As usual, the plan was flawless up until the execution point. Buses were on time at Miesau, baggage was packed, spouses were kissed and the first chalk hit Purple ramp on schedule. They were manifested by the Air Force, loaded onto shuttle buses and disappeared towards the flight line. An hour later, on schedule, we got word that our battalion colors had departed for Operation Enduring Freedom 6....then the plan went to hell in a handbasket.
The Army liason to the Air Force informed us that the 2 remaining flight for us that day had been delayed until Sunday. This is not unusual as there are a myriad of difficulties that can arise when you're loading Army equipment and personnel on Air Force aircraft. So we took the news at face value, held off bringing the 2nd, and 3rd chalks forward, and I went home to finish my last minute preparations.
As I was dumping the last of my trash at the recyclying yard around 4:00 in the afternoon, I received a call telling me that the 2 flights had not been delayed, one had already departed, and the other would be departing in 30 minutes. Angry phone calls ensued followed by a mad dash back home then back to Ramstein. Apparently the Army person had not read the Air Force computer system correctly when he said the flights had been cancelled, but 2 flights had indeed left without our people. After several hours of reworking load plans we found flights our people and equipment. More phone calls followed and by 10:00 P.M. we had our contingency plan in place...It wouldn't last long.
Sunday Morning we found out that the second plane that had departed empty, mission 17, had been forced to return for mechanical diffuculty. 3 more flights departed that day, and I was to bring up the rear with our last 10 people on Mission 17's rescheduled departure at 10:00 P.M.
By 9:00 P.M., we had loaded the bus and departed to the flight line. Maintenance lights still surrounded the C-17, but we were instructed to load our bags. Once thet were loaded and tied down, we boarded the bus again to wait for the order to load passengers and we were promptly notified that the flight had been postponed for another day. We unloaded the bags, put them back on the bus and headed back to Purple Ramp. We called for a bus to take us to the nearby Deployment Processing Center where we could eat, sleep, and shower. then returned to Purple Ramp Monday morning.
We were able to get 4 of our people out first thing Monday and 2 more flights were scheduled which 1 by 1 were cancelled until we were left with Mission 17 again at 9:30 that night. At 8:30, we again loaded the bus and headed for the flightline, we again loaded the plane and as it was being de0iced, we boarded and strapped in. The cavernous cargo hold of the C-17 held an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter along with several pallets of cargo and our bags. The Chinook is about the biggest helicopter the Army owns and can carry a good 20 people on it's own. This gives you a good idea how big a C-17 is if you've never really seen one up close. The passenger seats are along the side of the fuselage and face inward, and we strapped in to them and listened to the enigines motor up. Looking at my watch, I saw that we would be 2 hours in flight before February expired in Germany and we would be on the ground in Afghanistan before midnight on the U.S. East Coast and we would qualify for Combat Zone Tax Exclusion for the month of February. Then we listened to them motor back down, saw the door open and more maintenance personnel boarded shortly before we received word from the flight crew that the mission was cancelled again.
Again we unloaded our bags, put them backon the bus and headed for Purple Ramp. This time we opted just to reamain in the terminal at Purple Ramp. We had taken the box lunched that the Air Force had brought for the flight, and we stretched out on cots and waited for the forst flights of March.
By 6:00 A.M. we received word that Lucky 17 was scheduled to fly again at 10:00 A.M. By 8:00 A.M. the First Sergeant from Miesau had arrived from Miesau with breakfast and a certificate of promotion for Staff Sergeant Haliburton to Sergeant First Class. We held an impromptu formation in the terminal, read the certificate, pinned on the rank. We then boarded the bus and headed back to the flight line.
We were getting really good at loading the bags by now and we had them on in short order, and soon after we found ourselves strapped in staring at the side of the Chinook and listening to the engines motor up again. This time Luck 17 rotated off Ramstein's runway at 12:30 P.M.
Somewhere over the Baltics, I rousted all my people as well as the 4 Chinook crew members that were accompanying their bird, hald a formation in the back of the plane (yes it really is that big) and officially promoted SFC Haliburton.
As we crossed over the Black Sea, the Co-pilot came down from the cockpit and asked me if I wanted to watch the inflight re-fueling. So, I took Sergeant Rogers, the HHD Supply Sergeant and headed to the cockpit where we strapped into the seats behind the flight crew. After tracker the KC-141 tanker on radar for about ten minutes, we saw the contrails and watched in amazement as the pilots manuvered the C-17 2 within a few hundred feet below and behind now mammoth tanker aircraft. It was an amazing operation to watch at 20,000 feet going 250 Knots and far to detailed to describe here.
5 hours into the flight, I pulled my GPS from my bag and placing it in the window of the rear passenger door, I eventually got sattelite reception and saw that we were over Turkmenistan and close enough to see lights of certain Iranian cities. By the time we passed into Afghani airspace, the wingtip position lits were turned off and for the first time I began to feel that we were actually travelling into harm's way.
7 hours after leaving Ramstein, we touched the ground at Bagram Airbase. After unloading the bags, which we are still really good at) SFC Ramerth met us with a vehicle and transported us to the passenger terminal where we were finally reunited with the rest of the unit.
The main body of HHD 191st was now in Afghanistan courtesy of Lucky 17.
Wow, what a week!! We received our Call Forward message from our higher headquarters on Thursday the 24th of February. Merging with two other units headed for the theater, we began pulling our people into the Purple Ramp at Ramstein on Saturday morning. As usual, the plan was flawless up until the execution point. Buses were on time at Miesau, baggage was packed, spouses were kissed and the first chalk hit Purple ramp on schedule. They were manifested by the Air Force, loaded onto shuttle buses and disappeared towards the flight line. An hour later, on schedule, we got word that our battalion colors had departed for Operation Enduring Freedom 6....then the plan went to hell in a handbasket.
The Army liason to the Air Force informed us that the 2 remaining flight for us that day had been delayed until Sunday. This is not unusual as there are a myriad of difficulties that can arise when you're loading Army equipment and personnel on Air Force aircraft. So we took the news at face value, held off bringing the 2nd, and 3rd chalks forward, and I went home to finish my last minute preparations.
As I was dumping the last of my trash at the recyclying yard around 4:00 in the afternoon, I received a call telling me that the 2 flights had not been delayed, one had already departed, and the other would be departing in 30 minutes. Angry phone calls ensued followed by a mad dash back home then back to Ramstein. Apparently the Army person had not read the Air Force computer system correctly when he said the flights had been cancelled, but 2 flights had indeed left without our people. After several hours of reworking load plans we found flights our people and equipment. More phone calls followed and by 10:00 P.M. we had our contingency plan in place...It wouldn't last long.
Sunday Morning we found out that the second plane that had departed empty, mission 17, had been forced to return for mechanical diffuculty. 3 more flights departed that day, and I was to bring up the rear with our last 10 people on Mission 17's rescheduled departure at 10:00 P.M.
By 9:00 P.M., we had loaded the bus and departed to the flight line. Maintenance lights still surrounded the C-17, but we were instructed to load our bags. Once thet were loaded and tied down, we boarded the bus again to wait for the order to load passengers and we were promptly notified that the flight had been postponed for another day. We unloaded the bags, put them back on the bus and headed back to Purple Ramp. We called for a bus to take us to the nearby Deployment Processing Center where we could eat, sleep, and shower. then returned to Purple Ramp Monday morning.
We were able to get 4 of our people out first thing Monday and 2 more flights were scheduled which 1 by 1 were cancelled until we were left with Mission 17 again at 9:30 that night. At 8:30, we again loaded the bus and headed for the flightline, we again loaded the plane and as it was being de0iced, we boarded and strapped in. The cavernous cargo hold of the C-17 held an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter along with several pallets of cargo and our bags. The Chinook is about the biggest helicopter the Army owns and can carry a good 20 people on it's own. This gives you a good idea how big a C-17 is if you've never really seen one up close. The passenger seats are along the side of the fuselage and face inward, and we strapped in to them and listened to the enigines motor up. Looking at my watch, I saw that we would be 2 hours in flight before February expired in Germany and we would be on the ground in Afghanistan before midnight on the U.S. East Coast and we would qualify for Combat Zone Tax Exclusion for the month of February. Then we listened to them motor back down, saw the door open and more maintenance personnel boarded shortly before we received word from the flight crew that the mission was cancelled again.
Again we unloaded our bags, put them backon the bus and headed for Purple Ramp. This time we opted just to reamain in the terminal at Purple Ramp. We had taken the box lunched that the Air Force had brought for the flight, and we stretched out on cots and waited for the forst flights of March.
By 6:00 A.M. we received word that Lucky 17 was scheduled to fly again at 10:00 A.M. By 8:00 A.M. the First Sergeant from Miesau had arrived from Miesau with breakfast and a certificate of promotion for Staff Sergeant Haliburton to Sergeant First Class. We held an impromptu formation in the terminal, read the certificate, pinned on the rank. We then boarded the bus and headed back to the flight line.
We were getting really good at loading the bags by now and we had them on in short order, and soon after we found ourselves strapped in staring at the side of the Chinook and listening to the engines motor up again. This time Luck 17 rotated off Ramstein's runway at 12:30 P.M.
Somewhere over the Baltics, I rousted all my people as well as the 4 Chinook crew members that were accompanying their bird, hald a formation in the back of the plane (yes it really is that big) and officially promoted SFC Haliburton.
As we crossed over the Black Sea, the Co-pilot came down from the cockpit and asked me if I wanted to watch the inflight re-fueling. So, I took Sergeant Rogers, the HHD Supply Sergeant and headed to the cockpit where we strapped into the seats behind the flight crew. After tracker the KC-141 tanker on radar for about ten minutes, we saw the contrails and watched in amazement as the pilots manuvered the C-17 2 within a few hundred feet below and behind now mammoth tanker aircraft. It was an amazing operation to watch at 20,000 feet going 250 Knots and far to detailed to describe here.
5 hours into the flight, I pulled my GPS from my bag and placing it in the window of the rear passenger door, I eventually got sattelite reception and saw that we were over Turkmenistan and close enough to see lights of certain Iranian cities. By the time we passed into Afghani airspace, the wingtip position lits were turned off and for the first time I began to feel that we were actually travelling into harm's way.
7 hours after leaving Ramstein, we touched the ground at Bagram Airbase. After unloading the bags, which we are still really good at) SFC Ramerth met us with a vehicle and transported us to the passenger terminal where we were finally reunited with the rest of the unit.
The main body of HHD 191st was now in Afghanistan courtesy of Lucky 17.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
An article from Die Welt sent to me from my friend Dan Griffiths
EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE (Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG) A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true.
Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.
Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us.
Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement... How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany.
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists.
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".
What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.
Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.
In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China.
On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything.
While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek, or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive".
These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house.
Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE (Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG) A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true.
Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.
Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us.
Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement... How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany.
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists.
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".
What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.
Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.
In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China.
On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything.
While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek, or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive".
These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house.
Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Crunch Time
We're in the final stretch now. It's a matter of days rather than weeks until we are wheels up. As expected, there is a flurry of activity as we take care of all the last minute details, but even as small crises continue to arise and Murphy shows himself at every turn, we are in great shape. Over the past couple of weeks I have watched the soldiers, the leaders and the staff prepare. I have watched them at work in in social settings and I couldn't be more confident. We have exactly the right people in the right place at the right time to execute the task at hand.
Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Joel 3:9-10
We're in the final stretch now. It's a matter of days rather than weeks until we are wheels up. As expected, there is a flurry of activity as we take care of all the last minute details, but even as small crises continue to arise and Murphy shows himself at every turn, we are in great shape. Over the past couple of weeks I have watched the soldiers, the leaders and the staff prepare. I have watched them at work in in social settings and I couldn't be more confident. We have exactly the right people in the right place at the right time to execute the task at hand.
Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Joel 3:9-10
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
NHL Shows their Support for the Troops
OK, So I've been a little derelict in keeping up with this, but something happened today that I just had to write about....apparently all the NHL players association and the NHL Commissioner, Gary Betteman decided kindly decided that playing a full schedule of the Stanley Cup playoffs during a time which I would be unable to watch the Avalanche skate around the rink of Pepsi Center with Lord Staley's grail or attend the victory parade down 17th street would be undue hardship, and graciously agreed to cancel the season until such a time when it will be more practical for me to watch.
What a generous outpouring of support for all our deployed troops. Who says professional athletes are out of touch and don't care about the average fan?
OK, So I've been a little derelict in keeping up with this, but something happened today that I just had to write about....apparently all the NHL players association and the NHL Commissioner, Gary Betteman decided kindly decided that playing a full schedule of the Stanley Cup playoffs during a time which I would be unable to watch the Avalanche skate around the rink of Pepsi Center with Lord Staley's grail or attend the victory parade down 17th street would be undue hardship, and graciously agreed to cancel the season until such a time when it will be more practical for me to watch.
What a generous outpouring of support for all our deployed troops. Who says professional athletes are out of touch and don't care about the average fan?
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Well, I’m back in Germany, and Pam is in Colorado Springs with Mollie and Max. We had a great Christmas vacation although like all others, it went by far too quickly.
We had what we thought was a pretty good deal on tickets back to Denver from Air Canada. The $300 savings made the 3 hour layover in Toronto seem like it would be well worth it….wrong! The itinerary should have read:
“Depart Frankfurt 12:30 P.M.; Arrive Purgatory 3:00 P.M.; Depart 7th Circle of Hell 5:00 P.M. (if you’re extremely fortunate, fluent in French, English, and German, and can sprint the 1500 meter in under 4 minutes), Arrive Denver 7 P.M. (if you are truly blessed)”
If you are making an international connection to the US in Toronto, keep in mind that the plane first lands at the international terminal. When you disembark here you will stand in line to get through Canadian Immigration. When they are convinced that you are not bringing any fruit flies or Mad Cow laden beef into their country you will have the urge to sprint down the long empty corridor in front of you to find your gate. Resist that urge, you will just be burning energy that you will need later. The corridor doesn’t lead anywhere but the bus which will wait for you. In fact, it will wait for so many people that it will be packed beyond the capacity of a Times Square subway on New Years Eve before it begins it’s laborious trek to an undisclosed mystery location at the most distant geographical point that still remains on Toronto airport property across active taxiways (and I think via Ottowa, Montreal, and Vancouver). Once the bus releases you, again resist the temptation to run or even move quickly, it will only lead to another line, this one for cuntoms. Once you're cleared through here, which they are glad to do for Americans once you tell them you’re not staying, you get to go to a luggage carousel and collect your bags which may arrive shortly before you are eligible for social security.
This is a little “3-Stooges-Finger-in-the-Eye” trick. You put all your bags on a cart and push them to another customs point, this one US, where there will conveniently be no one to point you in the proper direction. Irritate enough people here until someone tells you that there is no need to stand in line and you can just place you bags on another luggage belt. This is retribution for irritating people. Normally when you put bags on a belt that disappears into the wall, they are heading for your plane. Not in Toronto. They are headed to the terminal you are departing from. Again resist the urge to sprint down the empty hallway, you are just running to another bus that will wait for you and everyone else in Canada before it departs for your terminal. When you reach your terminal, you follow blue flashing lights to the “7th Circle of Hell” carousel where you wait for you bags that are only coming from the terminal you just left. This is where you sit anxiously waiting for your bags to come down the chute as you watch moods of all the people around you plummet as one-by-one they miss their connecting flights. This is also where they will tell you that if you were in a hurry, you should have just carried your bags onto the overstuffed mini-bus rather than put them on the belt where you were directed by the irritated person in the other terminal.
Now, just for fun, because I’m sure they are watching all of this on security cameras and placing bets, your bags will arrive one-by-one, mere minutes before your boarding time. Pay the $2 for the luggage cart (there won’t be any free ones laying around unless you brought that with you as well from the last terminal on the mini-bus) you’ll need it. You can sprint now if you still feel like it, it will be a good warm up, but you are only going to US customs and security. Customs will be easy enough to get through on the second try because you won’t be told that you need to fill out a form until you are at the front of the line and the forms are at the back of the line. Security looks like a real security point with the exception that the metal detectors aren’t real, they are just little archways that beep whenever someone walks through to let the security guard know there is someone else to be wand searched after their shoes are removed.
When you’re finally clear of this point, feel free to sprint, the odds against you making your flight have been steadily going up with the security camera people, but since you saved you energy, you can just make it with a 3 hour layover.
As it turns out, this was only a warm-up for the return trip
We had what we thought was a pretty good deal on tickets back to Denver from Air Canada. The $300 savings made the 3 hour layover in Toronto seem like it would be well worth it….wrong! The itinerary should have read:
“Depart Frankfurt 12:30 P.M.; Arrive Purgatory 3:00 P.M.; Depart 7th Circle of Hell 5:00 P.M. (if you’re extremely fortunate, fluent in French, English, and German, and can sprint the 1500 meter in under 4 minutes), Arrive Denver 7 P.M. (if you are truly blessed)”
If you are making an international connection to the US in Toronto, keep in mind that the plane first lands at the international terminal. When you disembark here you will stand in line to get through Canadian Immigration. When they are convinced that you are not bringing any fruit flies or Mad Cow laden beef into their country you will have the urge to sprint down the long empty corridor in front of you to find your gate. Resist that urge, you will just be burning energy that you will need later. The corridor doesn’t lead anywhere but the bus which will wait for you. In fact, it will wait for so many people that it will be packed beyond the capacity of a Times Square subway on New Years Eve before it begins it’s laborious trek to an undisclosed mystery location at the most distant geographical point that still remains on Toronto airport property across active taxiways (and I think via Ottowa, Montreal, and Vancouver). Once the bus releases you, again resist the temptation to run or even move quickly, it will only lead to another line, this one for cuntoms. Once you're cleared through here, which they are glad to do for Americans once you tell them you’re not staying, you get to go to a luggage carousel and collect your bags which may arrive shortly before you are eligible for social security.
This is a little “3-Stooges-Finger-in-the-Eye” trick. You put all your bags on a cart and push them to another customs point, this one US, where there will conveniently be no one to point you in the proper direction. Irritate enough people here until someone tells you that there is no need to stand in line and you can just place you bags on another luggage belt. This is retribution for irritating people. Normally when you put bags on a belt that disappears into the wall, they are heading for your plane. Not in Toronto. They are headed to the terminal you are departing from. Again resist the urge to sprint down the empty hallway, you are just running to another bus that will wait for you and everyone else in Canada before it departs for your terminal. When you reach your terminal, you follow blue flashing lights to the “7th Circle of Hell” carousel where you wait for you bags that are only coming from the terminal you just left. This is where you sit anxiously waiting for your bags to come down the chute as you watch moods of all the people around you plummet as one-by-one they miss their connecting flights. This is also where they will tell you that if you were in a hurry, you should have just carried your bags onto the overstuffed mini-bus rather than put them on the belt where you were directed by the irritated person in the other terminal.
Now, just for fun, because I’m sure they are watching all of this on security cameras and placing bets, your bags will arrive one-by-one, mere minutes before your boarding time. Pay the $2 for the luggage cart (there won’t be any free ones laying around unless you brought that with you as well from the last terminal on the mini-bus) you’ll need it. You can sprint now if you still feel like it, it will be a good warm up, but you are only going to US customs and security. Customs will be easy enough to get through on the second try because you won’t be told that you need to fill out a form until you are at the front of the line and the forms are at the back of the line. Security looks like a real security point with the exception that the metal detectors aren’t real, they are just little archways that beep whenever someone walks through to let the security guard know there is someone else to be wand searched after their shoes are removed.
When you’re finally clear of this point, feel free to sprint, the odds against you making your flight have been steadily going up with the security camera people, but since you saved you energy, you can just make it with a 3 hour layover.
As it turns out, this was only a warm-up for the return trip
Friday, November 26, 2004
This Thanksgiving, we celebrated a true multi cultural event with my Friend Jim and his Japanese wife, Yukiko; our German landlords, Doris and Gerd Shultz; our Irish friend Katie, her mother Maeve, brother Stephen and American boyfriend Carey.
My Thanksgiving toast.
We do this every year, it's the price you pay for having Thanksgiving in the Delaplane house. We go around the table and everyone has to say what they are thankful for over the past year. Some years this means more than others, and this is one of those years when it means a great deal. This has been a year during which it's been easier to focus on the things we wish for rather than the things we are thankful for. So, I would like to tell you some of things I am thankful for.
First, I am thankful for this full house. Fourteen months ago when we arrived in Germany, we knew no one, not a soul, and over the last year, each of you has opened not only your homes but your hearts to us. I am thankful to call each of you a friend.
I am thankful for the courage that I have seen my wife demonstrate, not only over this past year, but through some very difficult times over the past several years. I am thankful for the strength that she has shared with me in the face of the difficult times that lay ahead of us. I couldn't do it without her.
Lastly, I am thankful for the hope and faith the I see here at our table. We have four different countries represented here today. Sixty years ago, these four countries were evenly divided in a bitter conflict. The idea of each of us giving thanks and sharing a meal together would have been unthinkable. Sixty years ago our own country was so bitterly divided in it's own prejudice and bigotry that I would never have sat at the same table and shared a meal with Jim, this person that I am thankful today to call one of my very dear friends.
I am thankful for the faith that all of you give me in mankind; faith that good and decent people truly yearn for peace and friendship, regardless of our birthplace, the language we speak, or the color of our skin.
I am thankful for the hope that this gives me that each of our children and grand-children may not have to face the same challenges that we do now.
So, I would like to raise my glass and say to each of you: Prost, Kum Pai, Slainte, and Cheers.
My Thanksgiving toast.
We do this every year, it's the price you pay for having Thanksgiving in the Delaplane house. We go around the table and everyone has to say what they are thankful for over the past year. Some years this means more than others, and this is one of those years when it means a great deal. This has been a year during which it's been easier to focus on the things we wish for rather than the things we are thankful for. So, I would like to tell you some of things I am thankful for.
First, I am thankful for this full house. Fourteen months ago when we arrived in Germany, we knew no one, not a soul, and over the last year, each of you has opened not only your homes but your hearts to us. I am thankful to call each of you a friend.
I am thankful for the courage that I have seen my wife demonstrate, not only over this past year, but through some very difficult times over the past several years. I am thankful for the strength that she has shared with me in the face of the difficult times that lay ahead of us. I couldn't do it without her.
Lastly, I am thankful for the hope and faith the I see here at our table. We have four different countries represented here today. Sixty years ago, these four countries were evenly divided in a bitter conflict. The idea of each of us giving thanks and sharing a meal together would have been unthinkable. Sixty years ago our own country was so bitterly divided in it's own prejudice and bigotry that I would never have sat at the same table and shared a meal with Jim, this person that I am thankful today to call one of my very dear friends.
I am thankful for the faith that all of you give me in mankind; faith that good and decent people truly yearn for peace and friendship, regardless of our birthplace, the language we speak, or the color of our skin.
I am thankful for the hope that this gives me that each of our children and grand-children may not have to face the same challenges that we do now.
So, I would like to raise my glass and say to each of you: Prost, Kum Pai, Slainte, and Cheers.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
The Changing Remains the Same
I guess the only thing we can count on to reamin the same is that everything will keep changing. Looks like the dates are changing for pushing out of here, later rather than sooner, which I guess is better, but it throws a kink in things here. Not sure whether Pam will come back here with me after Christmas, or if she will just stay with Mollie and Max.
On one hand, we don't won't to make a 12 month separation any longer than it has to be, but we also don't want to be spending a lot of money on tickets for a short period of time during which I will probably be working a great deal. So...more to follow.
Got tagged as an Article 32 investigating officer for a an incident that happened in one of our unit's barracks a week ago. Interesting assignment, but it's taking me away from a lot of other things that need to be getting done.
I guess the only thing we can count on to reamin the same is that everything will keep changing. Looks like the dates are changing for pushing out of here, later rather than sooner, which I guess is better, but it throws a kink in things here. Not sure whether Pam will come back here with me after Christmas, or if she will just stay with Mollie and Max.
On one hand, we don't won't to make a 12 month separation any longer than it has to be, but we also don't want to be spending a lot of money on tickets for a short period of time during which I will probably be working a great deal. So...more to follow.
Got tagged as an Article 32 investigating officer for a an incident that happened in one of our unit's barracks a week ago. Interesting assignment, but it's taking me away from a lot of other things that need to be getting done.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Back to the Real World
Well, not that the election is over, I guess we can get back to discussing reality as it exists for us at the lower level of the food chain.
I spent the last week in training exercises at Grafenwoeher, a lovely Bavarian resort area about 50k from the Czech Republic border. Of course that's only if your idea of a resort is an open bay barracks with 30 or 40 snoring soldiers and a common bathroom 150 yards from the front door, heat and eat meals made for a thousand with the consistency of rubber and Elmer's glue. Other than that, very much like any other resort.
I remember growing up in the army and listening to the stories of all the guys that had come from our heavy units in Germany and their training exercises in Graf. I always had this mental image of some cold, desolate, God-forsaken place where it always rained and snowed. Turns out I had that one spot-on.
We did get to spend 12 hours a day in secured buildings working through a command post exercise which gave us a pretty good look at hour our staff works and interacts with the staffs of our sister and higher units.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go through a live fire convoy exercise. This is something that has been mandated recently for all of our troops going downrange. It riding in a convoy down a designated course and firing all of the unit's weapons systems, 50 cal, M249s, M16s, and M9s, at pop upu targets from both the halt and while moving. 16 years in the Army, I've never done something like this, so I know none of the other troops in the unit had either. Aside from the 20 degree weather and constant snow throughout the day, I guess it's as close as we're going to get to the downrange experience without acatually being there.
In any case, i was supposed to be going to Afghanistan today for about a week for an assesment, but that trip was cancelled, so we may go later, or we may just end up going in blind when we deploy.
Well, not that the election is over, I guess we can get back to discussing reality as it exists for us at the lower level of the food chain.
I spent the last week in training exercises at Grafenwoeher, a lovely Bavarian resort area about 50k from the Czech Republic border. Of course that's only if your idea of a resort is an open bay barracks with 30 or 40 snoring soldiers and a common bathroom 150 yards from the front door, heat and eat meals made for a thousand with the consistency of rubber and Elmer's glue. Other than that, very much like any other resort.
I remember growing up in the army and listening to the stories of all the guys that had come from our heavy units in Germany and their training exercises in Graf. I always had this mental image of some cold, desolate, God-forsaken place where it always rained and snowed. Turns out I had that one spot-on.
We did get to spend 12 hours a day in secured buildings working through a command post exercise which gave us a pretty good look at hour our staff works and interacts with the staffs of our sister and higher units.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go through a live fire convoy exercise. This is something that has been mandated recently for all of our troops going downrange. It riding in a convoy down a designated course and firing all of the unit's weapons systems, 50 cal, M249s, M16s, and M9s, at pop upu targets from both the halt and while moving. 16 years in the Army, I've never done something like this, so I know none of the other troops in the unit had either. Aside from the 20 degree weather and constant snow throughout the day, I guess it's as close as we're going to get to the downrange experience without acatually being there.
In any case, i was supposed to be going to Afghanistan today for about a week for an assesment, but that trip was cancelled, so we may go later, or we may just end up going in blind when we deploy.
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