Hello all!
I want start off by saying Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a great thanksgiving with family and friends. Yes, don't worry we got turkey too but not nearly as good as home cooked stuff but it was still pretty good.
Spending the holidays here is kind of bizarre. I was thinking about how big of a deal Thanksgiving and everything is back home and how much you prepared for it but over here it truly is just another day. I mean you could tell once you got to the DFAC that it was Thanksgiving because they decorated it and everything (they even had a little Indian guy standing on a pedestal with no shirt and body painted like a statue holding a bow and arrow dressed like a Native American, I wish I was kidding...seriously the strangest thing I have ever seen). But other than that it was another normal day on KAF. Not complaining just a strange observation.
Things here have being going alright, days are going by relatively quickly which is good, we are definitely winding down here which is very exciting. During our meetings things are brought up like "the 87th will be here on ____ so start preparing to train them up" and "start mailing things home that you wont need so we dont have to ship it back" so its exciting for sure.
I want to take a second before I forget to say thank you to everyone who has sent me any packagaes, letters, facebook messages anything like that. If I didn't say thank you I apologize thigns here were at an insane pace for most of the deployment so I didn't always have time to say thank you but please know that I truly appreciate everything!
We took a PT (physical training) test yesterday and it went pretty well I was happy with the result. For those that don't know, the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) consists of 3 events: 2 minute pushups, 2 minute situps and a 2 mile run. Basically for pushups and situps you just do as many as you can until you cant anymore and during the 2 mile run you have a time that you have to get under or you fail (for my age group its 16:36). Its graded on a scale of 300 (100 points max for each event) and the more you do or faster you run the more points you get which helps with promotions and stuff like that. The one I was most nervous about was the pushup because I am not a big guy, I have been working out a lot so I knew I would pass but for some reason I was still nervous. I ended up getting 67 pushups, 75 sit ups and ran a 14:30 2 mile for a score of 265. I was a little disappointed in my run score because I thought that would be my strongest event but we ran it outside and it was pretty cold and actually raining. Figures, it has rained 3 times since we have been here and it just so happens that our PT test falls on one of those days. Oh well, I was pretty happy over all. Thats the best score I have ever gotten but probably the 2nd highest run time I have ever gotten so that was upsetting. Oh well theres always next year!
I have been looking forward to seeing everyone whenI get back and every day I think about it! I miss everyone a lot and can't wait to see you all! Just know that if I don't see you right away its not because I don't want to, I plan on just relaxing at home for a few days before I do anything; I'll probably sleep a lot and spend time a lot of time with Lindsey and family but rest assured I look forward to seeing ALL OF YOU! Jaime and I have already mentioned a DTW night/maybe a DTC (downtown Cleveland...I just made it up feel free to use it) as well.
Thats it for now, take care!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Take a breath, America.
Alright guys I am going to try really hard to not go on a long rant but I feel as though I need to vent a little bit about election day.
We are a nation of results and "what have you done for me lately". NO ONE CARES who brought the idea up, just help us! There are people legitmately struggling, wondering if they are going to be able to keep their house or even put food on the table for their family. That isn't right, Im only 26 (almost 27..wow) but I can't remember a time like this in my lifetime. It really is scary, take into account what is happening Europe with their financial crisis, Earth is going to have a tough time if American politics keep up like this. I wish that politics would adopt the attitude of most of the people here in Afghanistan which is: "Well that doesn't make any sense but we have to get it done so we will do it." In the end, no one will care how the problem was solved or who came up with it, only that the problem was fixed.
Perhaps the most ridiculous thing I have seen is the reaction from the American public. How obnoxious is everyone? I had no idea everyone worked for CNN as a political analyst and apparently every American went back to school and got a doctorate in political science! Seriously? Relax guys because I can almost guarantee you that only about 15-25% of you even paid attention 5 months ago and in another month everyone can go back to worrying more about American Idol than who is President, enough with the Facebook statuses about how screwed our country is or how insanely excited you are that Obama got re-elected. Think about what this country accomplished that seemed impossible at the time! We beat the greatest military the world has ever known at the time (twice) to gain our independence, we survived a brutal Cival War to end slavery, rebuilt and became the strongest union ever. We slipped into the Great Depression and survived by re-dedicating our lives to making it work no matter what, we freed Europe from what was seen as an unstoppable force of evil by planning the most daring military campaign ever seen by man. Now we are saying "Well the guy we wanted for President had different ideas than who is President so our country is done." Wrong answer, the second we accept that idea we may as well just call it a day and move to Canada because that is the complete OPPOSITE of what Americans have done in the past. My grandfathers and yours didn't fight in World War II to have that kind of mentality, guys here in Afghanistan now don't have that mentality regardless of who are President is, we have a job to do and we will be damned if we quit because things didn't go our way. Suck it up. Drive on.
Just the opinion of a dumb soldier in Afghanistan..go on about your days and don't forget to thank GOD everyday that you live where you do and you actually get the option to choose your leaders, many don't and many have died to keep that a reality.
RANT OVER..
We are a nation of results and "what have you done for me lately". NO ONE CARES who brought the idea up, just help us! There are people legitmately struggling, wondering if they are going to be able to keep their house or even put food on the table for their family. That isn't right, Im only 26 (almost 27..wow) but I can't remember a time like this in my lifetime. It really is scary, take into account what is happening Europe with their financial crisis, Earth is going to have a tough time if American politics keep up like this. I wish that politics would adopt the attitude of most of the people here in Afghanistan which is: "Well that doesn't make any sense but we have to get it done so we will do it." In the end, no one will care how the problem was solved or who came up with it, only that the problem was fixed.
Perhaps the most ridiculous thing I have seen is the reaction from the American public. How obnoxious is everyone? I had no idea everyone worked for CNN as a political analyst and apparently every American went back to school and got a doctorate in political science! Seriously? Relax guys because I can almost guarantee you that only about 15-25% of you even paid attention 5 months ago and in another month everyone can go back to worrying more about American Idol than who is President, enough with the Facebook statuses about how screwed our country is or how insanely excited you are that Obama got re-elected. Think about what this country accomplished that seemed impossible at the time! We beat the greatest military the world has ever known at the time (twice) to gain our independence, we survived a brutal Cival War to end slavery, rebuilt and became the strongest union ever. We slipped into the Great Depression and survived by re-dedicating our lives to making it work no matter what, we freed Europe from what was seen as an unstoppable force of evil by planning the most daring military campaign ever seen by man. Now we are saying "Well the guy we wanted for President had different ideas than who is President so our country is done." Wrong answer, the second we accept that idea we may as well just call it a day and move to Canada because that is the complete OPPOSITE of what Americans have done in the past. My grandfathers and yours didn't fight in World War II to have that kind of mentality, guys here in Afghanistan now don't have that mentality regardless of who are President is, we have a job to do and we will be damned if we quit because things didn't go our way. Suck it up. Drive on.
Just the opinion of a dumb soldier in Afghanistan..go on about your days and don't forget to thank GOD everyday that you live where you do and you actually get the option to choose your leaders, many don't and many have died to keep that a reality.
RANT OVER..
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