Round # 3, trying to mix up locations. The Military Sealift Command container ship, "MV American Tern" docked at the seaport of Ash Shuaiba in Kuwait. The US Army Vessel "Champagne Marne" named after the "Rock of the Marne" 3rd Infantry Division, April 2010, Kuwait Naval Base. Dismounting MRAP vehicles in preparation for a site survey/patrol of the Afghan/Pakistan Torkham border crossing,...read more

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A view of the "in the works" railway in northern Afghanistan, spring 2010. The railway is scheduled to be complete by the end of this year and run from Hairiton (the Uzbek-Afghan border) all the way to Masar-e-Sharif(Camp Marmal) Getting ready to qualify on the 9mm pistol at Ft. Benning, GA Feb. 2010 prior to deploying. Photo op at the Afghanistan / Uzbekistan border,...read more

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I have been planning to post my best deployment photos on here for a while. I think it will be easiest to post about 10 at a time and caption them. These are in no particular order and bounce around Central Command from Kuwait to Afghanistan to Iraq to Qatar, etc. Early morning pistol qualification at Ft. Benning. Georgia. Our unit represented at Camp Victory, Iraq (Baghdad) near the Logistics Headquarters....read more

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Hello All! I have seen lots of posts to my previous blog post on Camp Marmal. The base camp really is a neat place to be and I hope all the best for your family members and friends serving there. Please comment here if I can help answer any quiestions for you or get information for you. Below are some photos I took while there earlier this year to give you a feel for the camp....read more

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Well, I am back from my deployment now for about one week. It has been so great to see my little boy, (21 months), wife, and rest of my family. Re-integration has been bery smooth and honestly it is getting to the point where I feel normal being back in the States. The first couple of days were awkward with seeing so much green and driving off army base camps without any security details, etc. I just wanted to state that family support during a deployment is...read more

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Made it back to the states yesterday!!! Only the Army would have us arrive 36 hours early for the plane ride back and then locked down in a fenced in area 13 hours prior to takeoff. but, there is a lot of administration to take care off and customs and other things to go through. Exhausted but glad to be back and looking forward to seeing family and friends soon! At Ft.. Benning this week outprocessing.

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In a recent NYT story, the SecDef, Mr. Gates, made some new rules and clarifications in regards to the military dealing with the media. I picked out some of my favorite quotes and insights from the article and pasted below. To read the entire article just click here I think this is one of those cases where it is important for the reader to take their time and read the entire article and quotes. It probably is a good idea to read other articles about this same issue and read the...read more

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This is a great video compiled by the Pentagon Video channel that chronicles the heroics of a 25th Infantry Division unit fighting from a Combat Outpost in Afghanistan, July 4th, 2009 on the Pakistan border. Awards received include a Silver Star and Bronze Star with valor. Combat outposts are much more austere and spartan than Forward Operation Bases or FOB's. This video is one of the best representations of conditions on a combat outpost and actual video of a firefight that I have...read more

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I wanted to re-post a story that I published on DVIDS. The link is here Army Lt Col Dean Huard wrote the article and is our branch chief in charge of the U.S. National Airflow Authority. I work with him over here and the USNAA mission is to synchronize airflow into Afghanistan's airfields. Prior to its inception this year, management of the airfields was done on a more ad-hoc basis and slot times were not prioritized and organized in advance. The...read more

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Great article in the Army News Wire on this topic! I caught some of the testimony on the Pentagon channel. The crux of the issue is how to stop Taliban and other elements from demanding money and bribing contracted convoys that carry supplies into Afghanistan. In addition, how do we protect those convoys? Currently, it is with private armed security contractors much of the time. Although there are many great contracting companies out there, we...read more

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