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Blogs from Kosovo, Europe - page 9
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September 28th 2009
Hello again, this is Dobie! Sorry it has taken me so long to send a training update, it has taken me a while to get pictures to Davina. She’s over in Germany now and I stayed back at Camp Atterbury to do some more training. From what I hear its not the best living conditions over there so I am glad I have an extra couple of weeks to get there, anyways, I wanted to keep training hard just in case they need an extra soldier in Kosovo. What a day this was. Soldiers seem to really eat this weapons training stuff up! They put on their flak jacket, their Kevlar and all kinds of fun army gear. I was even allowed to borrow some uniform parts from a fellow soldier since I won’t be issued ... read more
September 21st 2009
That double decker bus just couldn’t have looked any better! We were tired and wanted somewhere to just rest our weary bodies. So we climbed to the top level and got a front seat view of the first taste of Germany we would have. All our cameras at the ready, we snapped pictures of everything we could see. Stop lights, street signs and freeway mostly. The boys slept off and on, but I was determined to get just that perfect shot. Needless to say, the five hour bus ride flew by and I did not accomplish my mission. I saw a few farm animals, lots of traffic and a few farm houses, but nothing that satisfied my shutter. There was only us, a family of four and a young soldier on that bus so everybody could ... read more
September 21st 2009
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
September 21st 2009
Now as always when you travel across the world you want to find all those nice to have and nice to do activities. Here on our journey here we spent just a few hours and found some mighty wonderful things. We found great boot washing stations outside most of the buildings. This way we will never track mud into the house. This is a real bonus because then we won’t ever have to sweep or vacuum! We realized that Germany is really big into recycling. This should be quite a change for most of the soldiers that will be traveling with us. All trash big and small will be separated by color, type, paper or plastic and many other choices. The best part will be, if we don’t get it correct the first time they will ... read more
September 20th 2009
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
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September 18th 2009
The greatest part about deployment is the varied amount of activities that occur on a day to day basis. Dobie has been out training with the soldiers and lately I have been inside assisting with creating the operational plans for the soldiers to execute during their training in the field. So a week or so ago, all the units were preparing for our movement forward to Kosovo. We borrowed all the forklifts we could find and rounded up hundreds of soldiers from all the different units and away we went. The mission: Load all the personal gear, pack all the section equipment and supplies and prepare for the airlift over to Europe. You could smell the diesel in the air and hear the beep...beep...beep of the equipment. It is the best feeling to be in the ... read more
September 16th 2009
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
September 15th 2009
Oh my gosh! I made it through the morning! Yeah! I was nervous and excited at the same time, kind of like when you are at the fair and you look up and watch that giant roller coaster zoom by. You can feel the rush of the air, hear the people screaming and watch their arms flail out of control. Same thing with taser training. The instructors were absolutely clear about what we were about to do. "Now ladies and gentlemen, this is a strictly volunteer training event. We want you to understand on a very small scale exactly the amount of pain you can inflict and how quickly you can immobilize a person." Military training is much like law enforcement training, try out the new techniques on each other so that you always understand the ... read more
September 12th 2009
The spirit of the American soldier is absolutely fascinating at times. A simple promotion in rank created an opportunity for the logistics team to gather and share a few precious minutes together that many of us fought to carve out in our schedules. Our Logistics Deputy was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel and not without a little fanfare to go along. The actual ceremony was done in a lonely room here at Camp Atterbury but the efforts of smart men and technology allowed for the promotion to happen here in Indiana and simultaneously for his family to watch back home in North Dakota. Who'd a thunk ten years ago that this would be possible? But the best part of the entire promotion was the party afterward! A military tradition would be to host a gathering ... read more
September 11th 2009
Today was the day I could sleep in, the first since I have arrived hear at Camp Atterbury in July. But as they say, all good plans must come to an end. The phone rang early to inform me that the sewers were backing up in two of the barracks were we have soldiers living. Ugh. That's gonna be a mess. Then I was notified that there was some problems that were cropping up with our plane transportation to our next location. Believe it or not I chose to try to solve the plane issue before the sewers! It hit me like a ton of bricks as I stared at the paper in the local paper box. It was 9-11... A flood of thoughts came flashing across my memory bank. The day my small world changed ... read more
