Finally…Everybody and everything has arrived here in Germany! Yea! It was quite the transportation movement event. To begin with, we only had about 100 soldiers that had traveled ahead of the masses, only 10 mini-vans and had only 24 hours available to bring in hundreds and hundreds of our KFOR 12 task force soldiers. The doctors were coming, the military police were with them, the street patrolling troops and the many other specialty soldiers would be landing here in Germany in six big planes converging on our little peaceful part Germany. I must tell you that there wasn’t a person who wasn’t excited to have everybody all together again. We came up with the mother of all plans. It was simple. Two of us would be in charge of all activities at the airport, and all ... read more

Even in the worst of circumstances all good soldiers can find fun. We had a birthday! One of our girls in logistics was the recipient of paper flowers and a great treat. The best part was that a couple of the soldiers went shopping and found an ice cream cake! Yummy! See, deployment isn’t so bad. I’m thinking that with nearly 1500 soldiers traveling with us we should be able to find a birthday every day and then we can be guaranteed a fun part of every day! It really hasn’t been that bad here. Well, our housing is still nasty but Germany is beautiful and the days have been nice and warm. The evenings are cooling down so that we wake up to a light frost on the roof tops, which means that it is ... read more

Did you ever have one of those mornings that you just didn’t want to get out of bed? Welcome to my day. My mother always told me…If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it. Hmmn…Pretty good advice. It can’t really be that bad. I felt like I had a hangover I was so tired. My eyes were squinty and my hair was going every which way when I exited the dingy building. I was greeted with a beautiful sunny day, but for some reason I was still stuck in my Hogans Heroes television show. I had escape and evasion on my mind. How would I get out of this mess that I had been so excited for. I knew that it would be uncomfortable, but this by far exceeded my expectations. It was ... read more

It has been nearly two months since I landed here at Camp Atterbury and I am leaving just as suddenly as I arrived. Day before yesterday it was determined that the "Torch Party" would be escaping here and heading to Germany ahead of everyone else again. This is very good because it means that we are slowly inching our way to Kosovo. I must say that the time spent here training has been both rewarded and challenging. I learned more than I believed I would and met a bunch of people. The final morning we were here was cooler and there was a low fog that was just sitting on the fields. Reminded me of the day I left North Da I really did think that it would only take me a couple of hours to ... read more

What a rockin day! This soldiering stuff is the best, I can't believe I didn't try this earlier in my life. Poor Davina is over with her fellow planners writing operations orders and doing powerpoint presentations for the General's approval. Sounds like yucky stuff myself. I am most definately getting the good end of the stick. Today training focus was "Combatives". Basically, how to defend yourself and take down somebody with your bare hands. Today I hooked up Davina's old unit that she went to Iraq with which was just a blast. They were very helpful and super friendly, so I think after we get to Kosovo I will hook up with them again and go out on some missions just for old times sake. The instructors were very directive today. Said that their main goal ... read more