My two cents on the book “No Easy Day”

First, you cannot compare it to Wikileaks, that was done by a disgruntled asshat who grabbed as much secret stuff he could and sent gave it to someone to share with the world which probably caused a lot of people to die and he somehow expected not to get into trouble.  If anything, that guy deserves the Darwin Award just for being a dumbass, he purposely wanted to do as much damage as he could.

No Easy Day on the other hand is a story that I bet a fair percentage of the population dreamed about for the last 11 years.  The boogieman was finally caught, I rejoined the military to see this guy taken out and I, for one wouldn’t mind hearing the story.  This is the tallest of tall tales, what we have spent trillions of dollars to accomplish and as me being Joe Public, would like to hear about the end result, unedited and uncut.  Hopefully the truth as told by a highly motivated decorated warrior. 

Some secrets are too big to keep and I’m glad this one is getting aired to the world and I’m looking forward to drinking a cold beer while reading about it.  I’m just wondering about who got the reward and if someone did, did we set him up nice.  That story and Roswell, then I’ll be a happy camper.

My first feature length film

As my time draws to a close out here, I had one more project to complete. The book form cruise book fell though because we couldn’t get enough people to buy them to make it economically feasible. So, the cruise book staff voted to make another DVD and me, being the DVD guru with a brand spanking new laptop to handle it was put in charge. We had less then a month.

First I needed to gather a game plan, we started brainstorming. All of the brainstorming somehow ended up coming out of my head for some reason, I had them gather up all of their personal pictures and video onto a cruise folder on the share drive, decide on a musical theme for their shop and teach them how to make movies so I could be more of a directing force behind them and focus on the extracurricular activities that I had filmed and taken pictures of, i.e., softball league, martial arts, field meets, etc. I would also go around the different shops and letting everyone from each shop give a greeting and intro.

So I went to work on my works of art. I started off with 30 hours of video and a couple thousand martial arts pictures and cut it down to less then 20 minutes. I knew what I had just had trouble finding the shots, I was overloaded with information, songs I had liked before became earworms with slideshows and video haunting my dreams.

After what seemed like an eternity, the Kung Foolery video was done (to be uploaded to YouTube when I get to the rear) and I turned away to check on the progress of my co-conspirators and found that only one shop had made any progress at all. The Military Intel guys had everything put together for their shop including the interview and it was nicely packaged (not quite as nice as mine) and ready to be added to the final product. One Cpl wanted to do the Kung Fu and her shop, I had to talk her out of it at the beginning because she didn’t know what she was getting into. I think I was a little harsh because she didn’t have anything ready but was willing to work on it.

Just about everybody else said, “we have no clue, please help us doc”. The hardest part of making a video for me is picking the music theme. After that, everything else flows into place, it takes a while but at least you have a rhythm to put a timeline. That gives you objectives on what kind of pictures or videos you want to match to the words or the tempo.

One shop kept turning in inappropriate songs for the family viewing audience and couldn’t agree on anything so I slapped their pictures together with YMCA by the Village People and stuck that on the share drive. They then came up with some music that worked and I redid it even though, YMCA did seem to work pretty well considering how little work I had put into it.

Anyhow, I’m tired and rambling, today, I finished the final product which ended up being 116 minutes. In two weeks, I had produced and published, almost totally by my self, a feature length film (other then the 20 minutes that 3 of the shops did). My last video which up to that point was the longest was 33 minutes.

Ack, it was a true bear but I’m glad it’s done, I’ll just have to see how what the responses are like since I was under a deadline, I didn’t have time for anyone (including myself) to edit any of my work (just like this post).

See ya on the flip side.

Groundhog Day

The rituals are starting to sink in, the little idiosyncrasies, the quarks that each of us do to stay sane with the sameness. Our secret pet peeves are now common knowledge and the people we spend 16 hours a day with are as well known as the back of our hands. One thing about being out here, it wears out the buttons we all have inside of our head because someone is always there pushing them to get a rise.

I have my clique of buddies that I hang out with but at the same time, I stay above the fray. Being the doc, I have to get along with everybody and mostly, I’m pretty good at that but occasionally even I have someone whom I just rub the wrong way and nothing I can do will fix it. That’s where my stellar self control comes in but my invisible armor has a fluctuating power source, there are days where it’s a thin veneer shell, fragile and waiting for that sharp word to make it shatter but usually, it’s so thick and flexible that I can take a mortars falling from sky and not flinch.

It’s a game of give and take, some day you got game and others you don’t. The days are starting to mix into each other and I have to make a conscious choice to look at the calendar to see what day it is. Not much changes, we walk the same mile of property day after day, each of us maintaining in his own way. Got to get to sleep so I can start it all over again, good night.

Combat Basketball

Every time there is an event that someone could get hurt, Marines ask for a Corpsman to provide medical coverage. In the civilian side of life, you worry about medical bills, how long it would take an ambulance to get there or just plain getting hurt. Overall most civilians I know are fairly careful about getting injured. Not so in my line of work.

I think with Marines, having their “doc” there adds a mental safety blanket. They don’t seem to worry about girly things like bruises, twisted ankles or hitting like football linebackers but without pads. Since my ball game is sadly lacking, I usually get out of it by taking pictures.

Last Sunday, two of my shops challenged each other and an afternoon of it with a bar-b-q grill and hotdogs and hamburgers. I took a lot of pictures, in fact I took over 400 pictures with the new camera (Canon S3), a full gig on a 4 gig card. It was a perfect day to take the new camera though its paces, seeing what it could do and it held its own, taking some amazing shots. Even with the digital Rebel, it was hit and miss with sports shots, people getting out of focus because they’re moving towards or away from you. Catching the action just right, usually I had to delete 1 out of every three picture, not that it was a big deal but it was still productive time lost.

Sunday was different, 4 pictures out of 400 were actual bad shots. Two were of a guy who jumped 6 inches away from the camera with his mouth open and the other 2 were lighting issues.

Marines don’t play things halfheartedly, it was full bore in your face street ball, rank got left at the sidelines, the girls that played were just as rough as the guys, when someone got tired, another body jumped in. No quarter given, none asked.

Corpsman doing standbys for such events mostly just sit around and watch and if they’re good at the sport, take part in it. Usually I tend to watch though a lens of a camera and on Sunday, my last picture of the day was a snapshot of an ankle turning in a direction its definitely not suppose to turn. My camera went back in its bag and we made a trip with some ice on the ankle to the ER down the street.

Know how rare it is to catch the mechanism of injury on a photo? I’ll be posting some of the photos later, tonight I’m way too tired. Plus my upload speed is super slow.

The ankle guy was able to walk out of the hospital that night, nothing was broken but he’ll be sore for a while. He’ll also have a picture for the rest of his life to go with the story. In a couple of weeks, he’ll be as good as new. The next day, most of the people playing stopped me in the hallways or at my office for some vitamin M (Motrin) and being the thoughtful corpsman that am, had little baggies ready in my pocket.

Unloaded my 9

4 times.

For all of my readers who think that I’m a battle hardened war hero who has seen many battles on his 4 trips to Iraq. Let me take a moment to change your minds. While I have dealt with my share of blood and death and horror, the three trips prior to this, my weapon as never went off in the war zone. I’ve drawn a time or 3 but not a single round has ever left the chamber and for the most part, I’m totally happy with that.

I’ve never had to take a life, in fact I’ve probably saved the lives of people who would have happily have shot me in the head and cheered about it afterwards. It didn’t matter to me, I was there to make sure that they made it to the next level of care after whether they wanted to or not.

I’m a corpsman with the Marine Air Wing, my first time out here I spent a lot of time flying around in a tin can with propellers on top of it picking up injured folks and the next 2 times, I was just been a squadron corpsman taking care of the Marines in my unit unless there was a mass casualty (there were a few).

That all changed last week when I went out on a familiarization fire at the range. I missed going to the range in December because I was out doing other training and the powers that be offered it out here to the junior Marines who stand duty. While getting a chance to fire the gun and actually make sure it worked was great, I don’t think I could have picked a worse day.

As soon as we started driving, raining began to pour out of the sky and our bus driver drove us to the wrong range. We asked the friendly army guys there were we should go (a Marine officer did) and we arrived a the right range about 2 minutes away from were we started half an hour late.

We went though a couple of relays in the rain then it started sleeting and that sleet turned into snow. Snow flakes started falling and I was with a bunch of junior Marines who had never handled a 9mm before. It’s bad juju when the corpsman starts coaching folks on pistol technique.

While it wasn’t the prettiest evolution that I’ve been involved with but over all other then being at the edge of frost bite, we all had a good time. I couldn’t really blame the guy who put it together. When the gods of chance want to toss a few gremlins in the works, you just have to take what you have and make the best of it. I’m glad I went.

Other news, I got my Canon S3, yay!!

PS thank you Sherri for the Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos, my wife for the Valentines Day Hedgehog, Carla for the great pictures of home, Linda from Helmet Liners for the huge box of hand made head warmers and all of the other Solders Angels who have sent me packages and letters. I truly have one of the best support networks in existence.

I've posted some pictures here too.

Nighttime mayhem

Yesterday, while cleaning our room after KBR spread dust all over the place replacing our heater (thanks!). We fried our power cord, I guess the shop vacuum pulls to much wattage for the Iraqi brand cord that I had purchased from the local hajji mart and all of the smoke came out of the wires and it wouldn't work anymore.

So I wasn't able to plug my super loud alarm clock into the wall and we were forced to use a dinky travel alarm clock that my roommate brought with him. We went to bed and I woke suddenly and glanced out the window and saw light shining through the sandbags. Eek! I grabbed my watch (which I took off to take a shower) and put it on my wrist, it said 8:45, ack, I jumped out of bed, said to my roommate in a panicky voice "It's 8:45!" While trying to buckle my watch, the dumb thing wouldn't buckle right.

He glanced over at his watch and said....

"It's 2:15"

I had put on my watch upside down and the light shinning though the window was from light in the lobby.

No, I’m not a morning person and yes, I am a dork.

Kuwaiting take 7

I'm in the wonderland of Kuwait checking out my first sunrise in the middle east of the year. Just got done hitting breakfast where they had kimche as one of the side dishes! As usual things have changed towards the better with each trip.

I just got off a 23 hour flight and my brain is reeling about with a full tummy so I think I'm going to try finding my way back to my far off tent. Enjoy America everyone for you could be in this sand pit. Yawn!!

The Sandbox, Dispatches from the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

A long time ago in a land far far away, I got an email from a guy named David, he’s the web manager of Doonesbury’s Town Hall and asked me if they could use a post of mine titled “Cranky Old People” in their new multi-milblogger website called the Sandbox. And you know me, my given answer to such requests is “Sure”. I put the words out and if someone wants to use them go ahead, just stick my name somewhere in there and if you feel the need to pay me for my writing, I won’t turn down money offered.

Well a couple of days ago (time flies), my few pages (pages 18-20) were included in a book published under the title “The Sandbox, Dispatches from the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan” and any day now, I’m supposed to be getting 3 copies to do with as I please. Thanks for including me guys and next time I’m forward (this springtime maybe), I’ll make sure to do some more posts for you.

Check it out, there's some great writing in there.

KCET Milblogger Podcast

A couple of months ago, KCET’s Juan Devis, left a comment on my blog, he’s the producer of KCET/PBS Television’s New Media division of Southern California. He does a show called Web Stories “KCET’s multimedia webzine exploring the stories , culture, and attitudes of the people who live here”. This months project was on how new media technologies had changed how the war was being covered. The focus was on the local Southern California Milbloggers and the stories we had to tell.

He was requesting an interview for a podcast, so one afternoon, with approval from the PAO, he and I had a talk that lasted for a half hour or so and the fruits of that conversation can be found here.

Juan also got interviews from Lex, Army Girl and Colby Buzzell.

On that page, Holly Willis writes about Milblogs and compares and contrasts the difference between Michael Herr’s “Dispatches” about the Vietnam war and the phenomenon of Milblogging. One of the clearest essay’s I’ve seen on the subject, definitely a smart lady.

DoD Blocking Access to Some Sites from Official Computers

One of the big stories going out around the net right now is that the DOD is blocking some social networking sites, the sites?

MySpace, Youtube, Live365, 1.fm, BlackPlanet, Hi5, Photobucket, Pandora, MTV, FileCabi, StupidVideos and Metacafe.

So what does this change for a blogger like me who’s been out to Iraq 3 times and uses 3 of the above services regularly?

Absolutely nothing.

I don’t know where these guys who are complaining forward are stationed at but out of my 3 tours, there was a maybe a month of time when we were able to get to these sites from work before it was cut off to our entire base. So we went to the internet café if we wanted to upload pictures and blog posts. I’ve always done it from the internet café, if you’re going to be someone who’s visible like me who blogs under his real name, you have to follow the rules. Another thing no one has mentioned, blogspot.com has been blocked from most of the work computer in Iraq, it’s not a bandwidth hog. That does bother me a bit because I use blogs almost as much as I use the regular news to get a pulse on the world. Know how much blog surfing you can get done in the 30 minute time slots at the internet café? Not much.

Know what happened for that month we could visit those websites? It slowed everything slowed to a crawl, pages wouldn’t load and there were people who wanted to get official work done and it took forever or the .mil sites would time out. So speaking as the geeky guy who loves MySpace, youtube and photobucket, it was a breath of fresh air when the IT guys blocked the heavy bandwidth sites. The internet was moving again and I could get some official work done.

For the guys forward, this rule came about after most of the local networks had blocked these sites anyway, it just puts all of the DOD under the same umbrella. I think it’s a good rule in the war zone unless band width improves but it is sort of silly to do it in the rear where bandwidth is cheap. An even better answer would be to improve the bandwidth, we’re putting enough money into the NMCI, with the amount of money we drop on those guys, we should be able to stream HDTV. Alas that is far from reality.

The Milblog Conference

Andi opened up the milblog conference with this statement, “The next guest speaker was sort of a shot in the dark, let me present The President of the United States”. Laughing and giggling erupted because we all thought she was joking until…

Well it was definitely an eye opener, I took a video of the speech but this one looks better (thanks Gateway Pundit!). It’s surprising who is reading what we put out. Thank you, Sir, for taking time out of your schedule to talk to us.

Other news, I was on the first panel called From the Front along with Matt of Blackfive, Bill Ardolino of INDC Journal, Bill Roggio of the Forth Rail and Jim of Sgt Hook. I was the babe of the bunch and looking around at all of these “famous” people, I felt a little out of my depth. Even so, I think I held my own and according to the crowd, my nervousness wasn’t showing at all.

After leaving that, we all went out and talked to a reporter from CNN (watch tomorrow the 6th between 4 and 6) and a couple of other publications, New York Observer, Time, Pentagon Channel, AOL, Fox, Wired and a couple of others, had another talk with the Washington Post (good luck with the story Nikki).

All of this media caused me to miss much of the “All in the Family” With Andi of Andi’s World (great job Andi!), Rachelle of ArmyWifeToddlerMom (very cool meeting you!), Sarah of Trying To Grok, Becky of Military Families Voices of Victory and Carla of Some Soldier’s Mom (hi Mom!).

More later, check out Mudville, they have a live feed

or talk live to the with the live chat.

America at the Crossroads

It’s series of 11 two hour independently produced documentaries about the War on Terror. The series started last night (I started watching it after Drive with Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame, great show BTW).

Last nights episode was titled “Jihad: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda”, tonight’s first hour is titled “Warriors”; we’re watching it right now. The film crew caught an IED attack during filming and the attack that followed; you could feel the fear and adrenalin through the screen, after the attack and evacuating their casualties, the same guys go back out on patrol. It’s quite a statement.

Most of the stories are told by soldiers, the narrator introduces the people and places, occasionally his voice drops in to give a brief explanation about the next scene but the story tells it self. The soldiers are eloquent in their speech and you can tell, they know what their doing. My favorite quote was from the intel girl who was profiled when she shotguns out in Arabic “You think I’m stupid? I know you are lying you Coward!” without missing a beat. I like the clip from the LtCol who reads Harry Potter for two reasons, one, it gets him away from Iraq and the other is that he can have something to talk about with his kids. “Warriors” was a great snapshot into the lives of these 6 soldiers.

Next up, “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” which goes into my little niche of cyberspace, writings of the military folk on the ground. I know Colby of My War fame is on it, Oh man, you need to watch “Men in Black”.

Five minutes in, this is something I shouldn’t miss a moment of so I’ll post now…