Only a few more weeks...

Winding Down

Well, our replacements finally arrived two days ago. About 10 days short, but better late than never, right? They have been sitting in classes the last two days experiencing the fun that is PowerPoint presentations. Death by PowerPoint as some would call it. This generations version of a slide projector. Anyway, tomorrow we start what we call left seat/right seat. This is the term used to describe them riding around in the passanger seat observing what we do and asking questions. We'll do that for a few days and then we'll do right seat/left seat, which as I'm sure you can figure out is them driving around while we observe and critique.

10 days is hardly enough time to train these guys. It's kind of like trying to drink from a fire hose. You'll get some of it, but most of it will blow right by. I'm sure these guys are anxious for us to get out of here so they can start doing there own thing. I just hope they use this week to listen to what we have to say and don't act like know-it-alls. If I here one guy say "I know", that will instantly conclude my training session. "You already know?", "Great, here's the keys good luck". Even if they really do know, in my opinion, you just keep your mouth shut and open your ears. That's just how training works. We'll see. I think it will go well from the few conversations I've had with some of the guys so far.

I'll be home soon!

Bored

I was bored tonight, which is a good thing, so I emailed our meteorologist out here and got the weather statistics for my entire deployment here and I figured I would share them with you all. (I know it's not really that interesting, but hey, at least a month didn't go by in between posts)

The average temperature for the deployment was 81 degrees. The hottest month was August with an average temp of 100 degrees. The hottest day that month got up to 124. The coldest it got that month was 89. The coldest month, was January, with the coldest day reaching 28. The hottest it got in January was 68.

So as you can see, although the summer was extremely hot, there are still seasons here and it actually gets pretty damn cold. Personally, I was lucky enough to work the night shift the entire deployment, thus not having to subject my body to most of that extreme heat (although nighttime was no picnic either).

Lastly, back in January I talked about them moving Dave to Philly or Richmond. His family chose Philly, so he is at the Moss Rehab center, which I beleive is part of Albert Einstein. I'll be stopping in there to visit him when I get back home.

I SUCK

I do. Haven't been keeping up on the blog. For a bunch of reasons I guess. None of which are because I'm too busy, so really no excuse. Things have remained pretty much the same since I last checked in. Just grinding these last couple months out. We did get some slightly bad news today. The guys/gals that are relieving us were supposed to be here on the 5th. They're not coming until the 12th now. Apparently something to do with ice storms in the states. I have been told that this will not affect our departure date. Just the amount of time we have to train the new guys. I hope this is true because I made reservation to go to Rehoboth Beach on Mar 12/13th to visit the Dogfish Head brewery. They are unveiling a new beer that weekend.

One of the reasons I haven't blogged as much is because I can never think of anything to write about that I think people would be interested in reading. So I spend some of my downtime trying to come up with ideas, and I came up with this one awhile ago, and wanted to wait a little closer to the end to do it. Here goes:

STATISTICS FROM MY DEPLOYMENT

Total days in Kuwait: 270

Toiletries:
Rolls of toilet paper used: 4
Tubes of toothpaste: 3 (brushed twice a day)
Tubes of toothpaste received in care packages: 78
Toothbrushes: 2
Bottles of Shower Gel: 4 (Once a day)
Bottles of Shampoo: 4 (Once a day)
Loofah: 2
Bars of deodorant: 2 (Once a day)
Laundry Detergent: 4 (Once a week, 2 loads)(50oz containers)

Fast Food:
Taco Bell: 4x
Burger King: 4x
Great Steak: 3x (Their cheesesteaks are the worst, but their burgers are pretty good)
Subway: 3x
Pizza Inn: 7x

All of those places are not good tasting and I visited these simply for a change from the DFAC. The DFAC serves the same food every Monday, every Tuesday, etc..

Work Related:

5k's worked: 44
5K's ran: 1
Calls for suspicious packages: 12
Actual suspicious packages: 2
Times I fired a weapon: 0
Times I drove a Humvee: 0
Celebrities met: 4.5
Men supervised: 13
Amount that are younger than me: 1
# of days I checked Facebook: 270

Thats all I can think of for now. If there is one you'd like to know, let me know. I will cover the weather in the next one.

Go Flyers!

Counting down the Days

Not much new and exciting going on out here. It has gotten a little bit colder, but not much. Temp is in the low to mid 70's during the day, and the 40's at night. I expected a little more rain, but there hasn't been much. I finished my college classes up. They went pretty smoothly overall. Hopefully I will follow up on that when I get home. Last week, I told you about meeting the football players, particularly about the guy behind me having a picture of Brian "The Boz" Bosworth getting trucked by Bo Jackson. I ended up bumping into the guy the other day and asked him how it went, and he said The Boz was really cool about it, and signed the picture "Bo Knows The Boz". Our relief should be getting here in a month to do turnover. It's all down hill from there.

Update on Dave
: The newest on Dave, is they moved him from ICU to a regular room, and are on there way to moving him to a rehabilitation center in either Philly or Richmond. He is still in a coma, but has shown improvements. In the accident he had injured his jaw and had to have it wired shut. Lately, he has been breaking the wires. They think it might be from yawning, but they aren't sure. They also said it appears his eyes are tracking movements, but they aren't sure if he sees people or just a shadow of them. His therapist asked him to kiss a picture of his daughter, and he did. They did an EEG which did show some slight improvements. They are planning to do an MRI which should shed more light. It has been awhile since they have done one. Last time, they were having trouble distinguishing blood from actual damage.

Kuwait Stinks!

Seriously. It smells terrible. Hard to describe other than reporting the need to breathe through the mouth.

Anyway, today we got a visit from some former football players. It was quite the motley crew. The group seemed to be comprised mostly of great college players that somewhat flopped in the NFL. The tour is officially called The Tostitos Salute to the Troops Bowl tour.

They were split of in groups of 2-3. I set out to get some autographs and maybe a couple pictures. I was wearing my Eagles t-shirt.

The first table I came to was Brain "The Boz" Bosworth and Tony Casillas. Tony, from the Cowboys, immediately began to blast on me for the Eagles shirt, and spoke of how Dallas was going to smash the Eagles next weekend. The Boz seemed kind of weird. He was talking about "we" gotta get paybacks for last year. I thought he only played for the Seahawks, but I might be wrong, so I just nodded and smiled. He was pretty intimidating sitting down with a smile, so I can just imagine how he was on the field. The guy behind me in line had 3 pictures of The Boz getting trucked by Bo Jackson, he wanted him to sign. If you know the circumstances of that, you'd know why I didn't hang around to see how it went.

The next table was Tommy Bowden and Bruce Smith. They were both pretty quiet, didn't say a whole lot. Little bit of small talk. Bruce Smith, by far the best NFl'er there, was sure to remind everybody that he was the odd man out in this crew by wearing his Canton Ohio polo shirt.

The third table was Joe Washington and Barry Switzer. Joe Washington played with the Skins, and Switzer coached the Cowboys, so again, I caught a bunch of crap from those two. Coach Switzer just looked at me, and then turned to Joe and said "God I hated the Vet". Joe agreed and talked about how one time he saw the Redskins mascot get beat up by Philly fans. He also asked if it was true about the judge in the basement. Switzer said it was the most intimidating place he ever went. Joe said he was living in Baltimore now and asked where I lived. I told him Delaware, and he asked me if I had ever heard of W.L. Gore. I told him that my Mom worked there. He talked about how impressed he was with the company as he had done some work with them in the past. He also noted that they made him the best pair of football spikes he had ever played in.

The last table was Tee Martin, Rocket Ismail and Ty Detmer. Ty, the lone Eagles fan out of the group welcomed me with open arms. He quarterbacked for the Eagles for a few years, and for the most part did pretty well. I told him about the crap I was catching from the other players, and so he told me to ask coach Switzer about the 1996 game when the Eagles beat the Cowboys, ending a 5 years drought vs. the Cowboys. Switzer was fired the next season. Switzer didn't hear us, but it was fun anyway. Ty said he loves watching the tape of the interception at the end of the game that Troy Vincent ran back for a touchdown. He said he loves when they pan to Jerry Jones. He said the look on his face is priceless.

The Rocket and Tee Martin didn't really say much, but were both pleasant.

Overall it was pretty cool. As I guess most experience when meeting celebrities, I wish I was able to hang around and talk to them a little more, but it was good just to see they were taking the time out to come here for a visit.

The lone rogue post

Yes, this has what the blog has evolved into. Lone rogue posts. Whether it be lack of motivation or excitement, I just haven't had much to write about I guess. Things here are good. We are now considering ourselves on the "home stretch" as we near the last 70-80 days left here. The consensus around here, for the most part, has been "can't wait to get out of here". Believe it or not, there is actually a waiting list of guys who came out here with me, who would like to stay another year. I think the economy plays a part in most of those guys decision to extend another year. Maybe they don't have a job to go back to, or this one pays a little more, either way, to each his own I guess. Not this guy though. Actually, I'm the only guy on this mission that didn't volunteer for it. I guess technically, by joining the Navy I did, but everyone else said, "Please send me on this mission", while I was the recipient of "You are hereby ordered". So yeah, no extensions for me.

The weather continues to be the same over the last month and a half. Low 50's with the occasional shower. It may dip into the 40's before I leaves here, and I'm sure we'll get some more rain as well. I'm sure none of you in the states feel bad considering the snow and what not.

College is going. I have 2 research papers due next week. 5-8 pages each. One is on Learning Environments, and the other on the Tokyo Sarin gas attacks a few years back. I can't procrastinate on those like I have on most of my other assignments. Overall the classes are going great though. Once those papers are in the classes will be done. I haven't looked into next semester yet.

I got to talk to my Mom on Skype the other day. It seemed like she enjoyed it. She happened to stop by my house while I was talking to Christina. You know I snapped a picture right:



I'm pretty sure my Mom wont be as "excited" as Christina was about me posting her picture on the blog, but at least I didn't put it next to some creepy guy like I did Christina's.

Updates!

Once again I find myself apologizing for the sporatic posts. It's just that boring out here, that there isn't much to report. I will take this oppurtunity to update some of my previous posts. More or less answer the questions my Mom asks when I call home.

Dave and Brian
Brian's funeral was last Saturday. There was quite a bit of local news coverage in the Scranton area. Using google you can find articles and newscasts if you wish to read more. He was buried next to his Mother who coincidentally died in auto accident at the same age as Brian, 37.

Dave has been in Bethesda since the Sunday after the accident. His parents have been there since then as well. A few days ago he was finally taken off life support and is now breathing on his own. Family reports he has attempted to squeeze their hands. While these are good signs, he is still unconscious and the nuerologist cautions not to get too excited as full recovery from his type of brain injury will take a miracle. A group on facebook has been started called "Voices of Dave Morgan". The woman who started it is a family friend who has been taking care of Daves 4 year old daughter while he was here. The group is a place for people to leave messages for Dave, and she in turn reads them to him when she visits.

College
The online courses have been moving along. It's more work than I hoped it would be. I have a research paper due this week, and two more 3 weeks later. Hopefully I can find the motivation to crank them out for a decent grade. Other than that, nothing really exciting about school.

Losing weight
Not a whole lot has changed in this category either. I'm down to 185lbs from the 220lbs when I left Delaware. The last month and a half / last 5-10lbs are being quite difficult. I have 3 months left out here, so I guess I need to kick it in to high gear down the home stretch if I want to reach my goal.

That about wraps this installment up. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgivng!

Rough Week

I had been asleep for about an hour last Thursday when one of my guys woke me up and said he heard a rumor that one of our vehicles was in an accident. While I assumed it was minor, I got in uniform and went into work to see what was going on. The office was eerily empty. The only person in the office, our dispatcher, sat in silence. He didn't have to say anything, I knew it wasn't good. I told him if any calls came for this base, Camp Buehring, I would handle them until everyone got back from the accident, so they could concentrate on what was going on there. I then called my supervisor to let him know I was holding things down here. He then gave me the news I was denying. While traveling to Camp Virginia for a routine patrol, a car passing a convoy on the wrong side of the road, came through a blind hill and struck their vehicle head on. MA2 Brian Patton had been killed and MA2 Dave Morgan was in the fight of his life. I rounded up what troops were left here to give them the news. Unfortunately, work still had to be done, I ended up working from 9am that morning until 8am the next. It's been a long week.

U.S. Navy Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian M. Patton called his wife from Kuwait on Wednesday night and told her he missed her. It was their wedding anniversary, and they talked about a trip to Hawaii they planned to take when his deployment was complete.

Within an hour, Petty Officer Patton was dead.

The 37-year-old Nanticoke man was killed just after midnight Thursday in a head-on crash with a civilian vehicle near a military base in Kuwait, his family said Friday.

Petty Officer Patton was traveling in an SUV when a civilian contractor in a pickup truck crashed into his vehicle while trying to pass a military convoy, according to his wife, Amy Hynoski Patton.

She said her husband called about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, their ninth wedding anniversary, and the two spoke about buying plane tickets for an upcoming trip to Hawaii with their son.

"When he was hanging up, he said, 'I miss you.' I said, 'Good, I'm glad," she said. -Times-Tribune


Yesterday a memorial service was held for Brian. It was a great one. Standing room only. Brian was one of those people who always let it be known he was in the room. Loud and boisterous, tell it how it is. Never held back punches, was quick witted, and always made you laugh. Things wont be the same without him here. Quick story, I didn't spend much time with Brian and Dave in Ft. Lewis, but when we came back to Ft. Lewis from our week home before going to Kuwait, I was sitting in the airport by myself, when Brian, Dave and two other shipmates came up to me and invited me to go tour downtown Seattle with them. I was really excited that they asked me. I saw them, and knew they were going. I didn't want to impose, so I played as if I didn't know they were there. I even forced them to rent a larger car. Since I came they needed more space. Not once did they think twice about me joining them, and we ended up having a great time.



As for Dave, the news hasn't been the best either. It took two hours to get Dave out of the vehicle and to a hospital for medical attention. Among a plethora of injuries, Dave had a punctured and a collapsed lung. How he made it this far only God knows. He was flown to Germany later that night, and then to Bethesda on Sunday. There they found Dave suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury, with Mid-Brain damage. His right pupil is dilated and unresponsive. Today they will be putting in a trachea tube and a peg tube. Here is what the doctor told his parents yesterday:

Davids condition with his head injury the recovery doesn't usually happen. He very well could be in a vegetative state but miracles have happened and there is no reason to give up hope. Dave has made some strides toward the positive side. they stopped his meds that keep him in a coma to see what would happen and he started moving his right side. then they put it back on. he has been coughing and his eyelids flicker. he moves his left foot in pain when they pull out his dressing.

I think miracles have gotten Dave this far along, so I have no reason to not believe they wont continue to happen. Please keep Dave, his family, and Brian's family in your thoughts and prayers. Dave is by far, one of the hardest working and generous human beings I have never met. No matter how big or small, Dave put everyone and everything before himself. I don't think he took a day off since we've been here, and not once has he ever complained. Actually, he does it all with the biggest smile you could imagine. Again, please keep him in your prayers.

Dave and his Daughter


Luzerne County News:
 


Brain, Dave and I

Same old

My apologies for not updating this as of late. Really hasn't been much excitement going on to report. Still trying to get back into a groove after my time spent on R&R I guess. The base has been fairly quiet and we haven't been getting many calls (knock on wood). I started taking a few online college classes this week. I'm taking them with the American Military University. My major is in Homeland Security. It seemed like a great idea when I signed up for them, but now that they have started, I'm realizing I forgot how much work is involved. I assumed online classes were easier and required less time, but so far I have been getting a healthy amount of assignments. I'm taking two classes, one is just an introduction to online learning, which I thought was going to be the least work, but is the most, and the other is entitled "Weapons of Mass Destruction Incident Command". Overall, they seem to be interesting classes. The college accepted most of the credits I earned prior to joining the Navy, so I have about two years left to get my degree if I stick to it after I get off deployment.

In other news, my roommate moved out. No, not because I smell funny, because he was able to score his own personal trailer. My roommate is the criminal investigator here, which is an E-7 position and E-7's get their own trailer. Although he is an E-6, since he holds an E-7 position, he gets the room. So I was pretty pumped because this meant I would have my own room, right? Wrong. I had my own room for about 3 days before someone realized I was living by myself. There was another room that had three guys in it, so they moved one of those guys in with me. He is my assistant watch commander, so I know the guy pretty well, and so far he has been a pretty good roommate, so not that bad. My own room would have been sweet though.

Qatar Pics

Few more pics from Qatar I got from the guy I went with.


C-130 Flight on the way back up north.


My battle buddy and I on the C-130 flight back to Camp.


Smoking Sheesha from a Hookah at a restaurant in the Old Souq.


Me sleeping in our 10 man room while on R&R.


Sleeping on the C-130 on our way to Qatar.

Nearly halfway

My time in Kuwait is near halfway complete. I keep this chart to remind me. You can click on it to make it bigger.

Back to the grind

We had to report for an outbrief at 9am. The brief was about 30 minutes. We waited about an hour or so after the brief to take a bus over to the flight terminal. We were placed on a flight according to space available (stand-by) and in Alphabetical order. I missed 4 flights before my name came up. Didn't make it back to my room until 4am. Talk about a long day. They have to come up with a better way to get people places than to have them sit in a room for hours and hours waiting for a flight. Overall the trip was ok. It did the job it was supposed to do, but I thought it could have been better though. Maybe a slight increase on the 3 beer limit. I would recommend it to anyone over here who is interested.

R & R day 5

Last day. Took it easy. Watched movies. Mailed home the watches I bought in the Souq. Watched the Phillies, they lost.

R&R day 4

On day 4 I signed up to go to the Museum of Islamic Art and the Old Souq. I went back to the Old Souq for two reasons 1) It was free and 2) I wanted to see it in the daylight. The day before when I went it was dark. The reason I went on the free trips was not to save money, but because the trips you have to pay for, they only accept this thing called the Eagle Cash Card. The cash card is what it looks like the military is moving to to stop the flow of American Dollars into these other countries. I'm not sure if there is an economic reason or if it's expensive to move the money back and forth or what. Regardless, they were really pushing it in Kuwait, and here in Qatar it is the only way. The problem for me is that it is all done through direct deposit so you need all your bank account info. I didn't bring it with me, so I'm stuck on the free trips.

The museum was pretty interesting. There was pottery, carpets, tiles, paintings, etc., from all over this region, most dating back to the 7th century and up. I was rushed through the exhibits a little bit because the King of Swaziland was there along with members of the Qatari Royal Family. I guess they didn't want anyone outside that group to be in the same rooms as them, so they kept asking me to move to the next room.

After the museum we headed over to the Old Souq. It definitely looked different during the day. Most of it was closed unfotunately. I guess most of the stores don't open until the evening. They were fliming a movie while we were there which was pretty cool to watch. One of the guys on the trip with me got to be an extra.

While in the Old Souq we ate at am Italian restauant called La Dolce Vita. They also had a Gelateria(Homemade Italian Ice Cream) next door. The meal and the gelato was awesome. If I'm ever back here, I will be sure to visit that place.

After we got back from our trip, I checked my email and as usual made my way to the bar area for my 3 beers ;)

R & R day 3

Went to the pool again today. Ordered some Chili's poolside too. I went on a tour of the Gold Souq and the Old Souq. The Gold Souq is blocks and blocks of nothing but jewelry stores. The main things they sell are gold and pearls. Both are a bit cheaper than they would be stateside. I'm not really into jewelry, especially gold and pearls, but I did buy a couple watches. They did deny my debit card there. When I got back, I called my bank. They put a freeze on my account because they saw the out of country purchases. I told them I was going to the middle east before I left so this wouldn't happen, but apparently it wasn't passed on. The Old Souq is something like a flea market I guess. It's as close as you can get to the old traditional market places of the old days in Arabia. They also have a few modern places and restaurants there. We ate at a place called The Fish Market. It was pretty good. A little pricey. We finished the meal by trying Shisha. Shisha is a tobacco soaked in fruit. It is smoked from a Hookah. I didn't particularly care for it. I asked for apple flavored and it tasted like black licorice. I hate black licorice. Not sure if they gave me the wrong flavor, or that's just how it tastes. Either way, don't think I'll be trying it again. I'm glad I did try it though seeing as it is such a cultural icon out here. We got back around 10pm. I made a beeline to the Irish pub for my 3 beers. I enjoyed those while playing the arcade game Golden Tee. Went to bed around midnight.

R&R day 2

After that rough day, I decided to take it easy and lay out by the pool most of the day. The have a Chili's attached to the pool, so I had some lunch delivered to me poolside. After I left the pool and showered, I signed up for a trip to the Vilaggio mall. It was the nicest mall I've ever been too. The parking lot was full of Mercedes, Lexus, Lambo, etc. Every store there was top of the line. D&G, Luis Vuitton, Prada etc. Needless to say, I didn't do any shopping. The also had a car for sale there that was priced at a little over a million dollars. They had a venice like river going throughout the mall which you could get gondola rides on. The cieling was painted like clouds. If you've been to the Venitian in vegas, picture that. I had dinner at the Macaroni Grill. Wasn't anything near as good as the states. Once I got back from the mall trip, I got right into consuming my 3 beers. I was in bed by midnight.

R&R

What a long day! Got to the check in place (Kuwait) at 9am yesterday, didn't get here until 10pm. Thr flight was only an hour and a half, but we had a bunch of briefs, we had to go through immigrations and customs. It pretty much sucked. We did make it in time before the beer place closed at 1130pm. We're allowed 3 beers a day while we're here. Still learning where everything is and what ammenities are available to us. Signed up for a trip to the mall today.

Camp Cupcake

It all happened pretty fast. I put in a request a little over a week ago to take 4 days of Rest and Recuperation (R&R) at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar (I've heard it pronounced like guitar and cutter). I hadn't heard anything, so I had assumed it didn't make it through. Then all of the sudden today I check my email and it's asking if I have my bags packed. I'm pretty excited, but I wish I had more time to prepare for the trip. I leave tomorrow. Since I'm the Watch Commander for the night shift, I had to find a suitable replacement and make sure he was prepared to hold the fort down while I am gone.

Since I am the first one from my unit to go, this is pretty much uncharted waters for me. I'm pretty much getting on a plane, and I'm not really sure what happens from there. I've attempted to do some research on Camp Cupcake, as the Army calls it, but haven't really found any recent, good, solid info. I've heard you are allowed 2 beers a day there which is pretty exciting. I've also read they have a Chili's there, a pool and hot tub, video games, a beach, phone and internet centers. I haven't been able to confirm it, but I have heard rumors that they have some tours out in town there to the mall and stuff like that. The other rumor I heard is that we stay in tents. I hope that isn't true, but even if it is, at least I'm off base and not working. I'll be sure to put my camera on the charger..

10 miles?

A couple of days ago the Army held their annual Army 10-miler. This year was the first I had heard of it, but apparently it takes place every year in DC and gets 20k plus people to turn out for it. In honor of that run, you know the guys here had to do a run. They do runs for Arbor day here. Anyway, the run here utilized nearly every road on the base so setting things up was a nightmare. The guys on the night shift had to stay about 3 hours after their shift, and everyone who was off had to come in.

All in all, I was actually pretty impressed with how things went. I didn't get many complaints from people who were upset they couldn't drive down certain roads. For the most part everyone was pretty accepting of the fact the roads were closed. I wish they were that accepting on the days of the 5k cause I hear all kinds of moaning and groaning for those.