Seeing the Finish Line

There's a great feeling every time a pack more of my stuff to be shipped. It also reminds me how much useless stuff I brought: tons of cds I didn't listen to, way too many books, and a PlayStation 3. On that note, I would like to say to anyone going to Iraq DO NOT GET ONE. The outside is glossy and easily scratched, while the controller cords are USB cords that disconnect at both the system and controller, and the dust will make it impossible to use within months.

I'm already having to deal with cleaning several, several M249 S.A.Ws, as well as their extra barrels. I've already spent 3 days on nothing but doing them, but I still have a long way to go.

I've finally found a roommate for my apartment. Sgt Christopher Hicks, who is one of my two roommates in Iraq, has decided to go the deal (which cuts my rent in half, thank goodness). Since I can stand him here(a surprisingly rare thing apparently for me to do), I should be able to stand him back home.

Also, I've working on what work I'll be doing once I get back. I should be going to the Annual Craighead County Republican Committee that is coming up. I plan on talking to some people there on ASU CR's plan to help solidify the ASU Indians and the Indian family as unofficial mascots, which we call our "Indian Pride Project". I'll get into more detail later.

Alot of stuff happened since i last blogged. Two embedded people from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Amy Schlesing, a reporter with the paper, as well as a photographer named Staton Breidenthal both came and stayed with Charlie Company for about a full month before going to the crazy world of the Anbar province.

During their time with us, we had our first casualty. Specialist Erich Smallwood was killed when a large IED exploded near under his humvee. I had only seen him a couple times, but it horrible to know that we have lost our first guy as part our own deployed unit since World War 2 (when we were an artillery unit).

On a more postive note, we have finally dealt with the issue of getting an Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) to Specialist Christopher Centers, who was shot in the head by a sniper, but lived and was even able to come back and continue doing missions. I asked SSG Ewald, one of our radio guys who had simply lost his ACH and who still had a older model helmet as well, to give Centers his helmet. This wasn't much of a problem, as he has stayed inside the base the whole time we have been here, so safety was much less of an issue. So the story pretty much ends for now, although we still haven't heard from our CIF about the ACH they were supposed to get Centers.

It still though should be noted that the fact that the Iraq Funding Bill was over 3 months late due to Congressional squabbling affected one of the avenues of how Specialist Centers was supposed to get a helmet, as there were attempts to get his ACH from a supply sgt's connections back in the US. That route was complicated by the fact that stateside units were in a budget crunch as the Army had to prioritize them lower due to budget problems, and so making it harder to get a helmet to for a guy that just got shot in the head. Just another guy caught in the crossfire of Capitol Hill's political wars I guess, and just another reason why we should all thank our local congressman.

SURPRISE!!! YOU'RE ON HIDDEN CAMERA JIHAD!!!

Giuliani defends his position on abortion, just as soon as he figured out what it was.

Mitt Romney wants to re-tool Washington. Don't we have enough of those already in Washington?

Taliban leader Mullah Dadudallah killed after endless taunts about his name.

Iranian president(2/3 down article): "With each other's help, we can turn the Persian Gulf to the gulf of peace and friendship." And I'm sure if he put aside that whole Holocaust-denial thing and worked with Israel, that would help the Arab-Israeli peace process, but I think either would happen only between the time pigs would fly, and when the Governor of California becomes a "girly man".

Once again a lull in between posts, this time because of me making a powerpoint presentation for a proposal(hows that for illiteration?) to use facebook.com as an official, stablished manner of doing business for the Arkanasas Federation of College Republicans, of which just elected me as state operations director. While I can't really attend meetings till probably late next fall, I can still email reports fairly well, and already I've proven more effective than the last person, but that didn't take much.
On Army matters, we've pretty much have finished dealing with a supply officer who was giving us a hard time with getting a new Advanced Combat Helmet(ACH) to a soldier in our unit that was narrowly escaped death with he had been shot by a sniper in the head from behind during a mission while I was still on leave. The round just scraped along the side of the guy's head instead of penetrating it, and he's still in our unit to this day. He was given an old "kevlar" helmet, essentially 1980s technology, and we've been having trouble with the supply officer to understand that a guy who just got shot in the head might not want something that is obsolete.
Nevermind that when I came up to him recently, he had said we didn't given him any paperwork, which was impossible, because for us to even start the whole process, he'd already have to have the paperwork. Of course, it should be hard for him to know, as he never even bothered to get out of his seat to even check his records. This guy is responsible for issuing replacement equipment to thousands of people, and this guy wont even get up to double check something we know he should have?

Here's some newslinks:

Al Sharpton, proving his tolerance, doubts the belief of God in Mitt Romney's religion.

Taiwan: Yet again proving that US politics isn't as partisan as you would think.

Hillary Clinton wants Congress to to repeal the the authority it gave Bush. For which she voted. For a war that has already happened. In related news, Hillary Clinton apparently has a time machine

Sam Browback apparently wanted to tick off the cheese head vote by telling Wisconsin Republicans that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback of all time. Thou shalt not diss the Farve amongst the cult of the cheese.

UN to nominate Zimbabwe to chair commission on sustainable development. Apparently, sustainable development includes having an inflation rate so high you might as well make your own Zimbabwe cash on your HP Deskjet Printer just to keep from loosing your personal worth.

True Facts About Fred Thompson?

Ah, like "True Facts About Chuck Norris?" They don't quite get to that point of completely irreverent and just plain strange comedy, but they're often nearly as good, and they're more consistently funny than the "Mr T. Vs...." Internet comics that came out in a glut several years ago.

Here are a few facts about Fred Thompson:

* Fred Thompson has on multiple occasions pronounced "nuclear" correctly.
* Fred Thompson has blasted more people in the face with a shotgun than even Dick Cheney.
* The masked executioner of Saddam Hussein: Fred Thompson.
* Not only does Fred Thompson cut taxes, he cuts tax collectors.
* Fred Thompson is the only person to have ever bested Miyamato Mushashi in a duel. The reason Musashi is so vague about the book of the void is because the fifth ring of combat is really Fred Thompson.
* The reason Fred Thompson didn't want to stay in the Senate for long is because all the extra scrutiny kept him from doing his favorite hobby: Prowling the streets at night killing drug dealers.
* Every night before going to sleep, Osama bin Laden checks under his bed for Fred Thompson.
* Fred Thompson took over what was Al Gore's Senate seat, thereby dramatically reducing the Senate's carbon footprint. Fred Thompson then created carbon offset offsets by wastefully burning hippies.

The first Republican presidential debate was last night. It's hard to keep up with everything all 10 candidates said (and that's excluding possibles like Gingrich and Robert Thompson). No one missed up to bad, though it was painfully obvious Mayor Rudy and to a lesser extent, John McCain were walking a very fine line between their positions and the party base. Interestingly enough, Mitt Romney walked it and was really on the ball, and that's review is coming from a guy who it's crazy about the guy.

As for the others:

Huckabee... um... uh... no comment...though he sure has great speech style, right?

Tom Tancredo- you could tell he was WAY out of his comfort zone, stuttering like he was being questioned by a policeman.

Brownback and Hunter- As far as could tell from what little I watched, both did well, but good luck on them breaking out of the pack.

Tommy Thompson and Jim Gilmore- Oh, I'm sorry, were they talking?

Ron Paul- After seeing this guy's Libertarian craziness, I'll state what I had said after watching Arkansas' own, Congressman Marion Berry's suspiciously slow and slurred "howdy-doody-looking-nimrod" speech that was made on the U.S. House floor:

"I think I'll have what the guy on the floor is having."

Often, we have to explain to people what "Route Clearance" means. Of course, most fans of CSAS know what it is, but the title is a bit ambiguous. IED hunting is essentially what it is, and considering IEDs are by far the most common reason for American casualties in Iraq, having your main job as finding them is, needless to say, is having a dangerous one.

Never to worry, as the Army has taken measures. Not only do we have great vehicles, but we enlist the help of bomb disposal robots. They are great to have around, though they apparently don't take a blast well, as it isn't made of several tons of steel and flies like a soccer ball when blown up. I guess you could just say it's just another job hazard really.

Disney is currently working on an internet project for preteens similar to My Space.com , giving you another reason to sell your Disney stock NOW.

Navy patents a new weapon using sound essentially as ammunition. The working title is the "Ashlee Simp-53"

Nancy Pelosi:

"A Friend of Syria"

Turns out that Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria has paid off... if Nancy wants to run for office in Syria.

Another CSAS Blogger?

Specialist Tony Taylor (Sitting on hood) is serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. His first tour was with a Mississippi cavalry unit before deciding to volunteer again as a fellow soldier in his original unit, our own 875th Engineer Battalion. I'm trying to get him, along with one or two others, to be "contributors" to the blog. Wish me luck. Oh, by the way, yet another CR conversion helped by Hunter Shumard.

A recent study shows a growing percentage of immigrant blacks in and less African Americans in the minority makeup of American colleges and universities, and apparently choosing more black immigrants is a threat to black diversity? Come again?

The British Army Chief of Staff says Prince Harry is going to war, and not only that, but they plan to have a special operation in which Harry will stand out in the middle of nowhere with a "kick me" sign on his back, and send in air strikes on any and all terrorists that approach him, which will lead to "the battle of Basra" being started, ended, and won by the Brits in about... 15 minutes.

Hey, you got any better ideas on ending this war faster? Ya, that's what I thought.

In March, Hillary Clinton had a double-digit lead over Barack Obama. Now, he leads her by 2 points. The Hillary machine will deal with the foolish human male soon enough. Resistance is futile.