Sunday, December 31, 2006




I guess it should be obvious that it's about time to make another entry. As many of you know, Saddam has gone to you-know-where to play games of "Bridge" with Adolf, Joseph, and Mao for all eternity. Needless to say, we here at the 875th aren't exactly sending flowers to the funeral. We're busy dealing with the nuts who give him a run for his evil. Despite the fact that they're many, many terrorists of his ilk that try to harm us every day, each and every time the attacked units go back to work without missing a beat, or, due to the fact that terrorists couldn't hit the side of a battleship with a shotgun, their attack fails entirely. They miss us, and usually, we don't miss them.
...as for the last words of Saddam? He supposedly he told guards reportedly taunting him as he was led to the gallows that they should "go to Hell". Ironic to the last.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006









Since it was Christmas, like most workplaces(even ones in war zones), we decided to have a Christmas party. Everyone hunted down food they could bring and put up got 3 Christmas trees complete with lights and decorations. After the party, we had our first medal award ceremony, when soldiers like SSG Turpin, Supply Sgt. for Alpha Company.
It is less than a month before I go home to the great state of Arkansas. It's seems like it's been forever since I've been home. I'm kind of interested in what has changed since I've been there, and every time I leave for more than a few weeks, some dramatic change happens to my home. For instance, the time I left for basic training, I had came back to see that most of the back yard had turned into a duck pond, my furniture had been changed around completely, and my carpet had been removed in place of tile. Soldiers often can have a case of time-shock. You feel like you've missed a huge chunk of things since you left, like you've blacked out for 2-12 months.
Hopefully, it won't be hard to take in when I do finally get back. Even though I missed Christmas, I will be home days before my birthday, meeting with old friends and new, like Matt Lagrone, who was a commo sgt in Baghdad awhile back and has a military blog himself: matt.lagrone.blogspot.com, as well as my amazing girlfriend, Laura Canady.
I still have no real clue what I'm going to exactly do the two weeks I'm home, other than that I'm not getting up before 10 in the morning any day the whole time.

Friday, December 22, 2006



The Christmas Edition:

I guess that since I haven't posted lately(and that I have even more cool pics), I guess I'll fire away again. The Christmas spirit is everywhere here... even the Muslims(ok...non-practicing ones) are wearing santa hats right now, and the food has gotten better for some reason(the press coming around more often?), and of course, come the Christmas decorations. Recently, one of the guys here had received a 6 foot tall inflatable snowman. His first response of course was to say "What the **** am I going to do with a 6 foot snowman in Iraq?!" The next one was to somehow make due with it.
In the wildly popular tradition of troops deployed to Iraq, we have decided to mix life of both home and our jobs together. As we are combat engineers in Iraq (which has now became sort of a group of "Explosive Ordinace Disposal units' assistants"), we decorated our lovely snowman with IEDs... deactivated and gutted ones of course, and mixed the string pressure fuses with Christas lights... and TA DAAAA! A combat engineer snowman.... boredom brings invention.
Finally, my date for leave is now in stone. I should be home by the afternoon of January 28, making it before my birthday(Feburary 1). I do intend to have a series of "birthday/homecoming" parties throughout this great state, from Paragould to Stuttgart to Fayetteville to Arkadelphia. As most of you are from NEA, most of you will go to the Paragould ones. Until then Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Sunday, December 17, 2006






On a much more than normally interesting note, Carrie Underwood came to visit our FOB a few nights ago. I was able to get one of the tickets, and waited for over two hours in order to get decent seats. I wound up in second row thanks to that. As for the concert itself, Carrie and her band played great, and I even got to be in a picture with her (though it took the Army Captain taking our pic forever to figure out my digital camera). Definately worth the time. With decent luck, Toby will come over here again. as well.

Thursday, December 14, 2006


Now doing the boring part of my job today, entering stock numbers on weapons parts to order them. Good news is that I'm good at it. Bad part is, I'm good at it, so I have to do even more of it. I want to go on more non-supply missions now, but SSG Hatley has given me a strict limit. As boring as that can be, nothing stops boredom like seeing stuff go boom, and being actually near it. It also feels like I'm doing something really good for everyone here. As important as my job can be, it's still hard to get excited about it. Ah yes, I also found Sgt Hatley's box of PS Magazines, that is, the horribly corny magazines that try to be less dry than the Army technical manuals in giving out maintence advice, at the price of having the opposite problem.
I also made up a possible "letter to the editor" to some media outlets back in Arkansas, Called "New Year in Iraq". If you are interested in reading it before I send it on New Years Day, email me at karls_bbq_stand@yahoo.com . When I do send it to my email list, please forward to everyone that may be interested in it.

Sunday, December 10, 2006


Hey folks,

Just got around to making another entry, since it's been awhile. just made some shelving to deal with the massive mess that was our supply room, and now it's much better than when we had moved into it. The amount of stuff we brought with us, along with what was already here(my gosh, who's brilliant idea was it to get THAT many D size batteries!!) was getting out of hand. Also, at one point before this I went on a mission with the line platoons, which, all I can say was interesting and boring at once. It can also be said that the cushioning of humvee seats still are a bit on the spartan side, especially to be on them for a full day at a time. The vehicles here are still much better than the ones we have at home though.
I also got my Christmas gifts as well, which included tons of power bars, toiletries, several bags of assorted coffee, an expresso maker(!), and a copier. Since I have no room for anything else, I asked that any other gifts just be mutual funds or something that I don't have to stuff into my room.
Finally, I believe my R&R leave will be sometime in early Februrary, so if anyone wants to do anything, let me know so I can put it somewhere on the schedule. I'll be going all over Arkansas to visit my friends (ROAD TRIP!), so unless you live in Hope, it shouldn't be hard for me to stop by.
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