Moving out

For some reason I keep thinking of the Billy Joel song of the same name. Well, I apologize about the much delayed update here but, it's been crazy trying to get everything in place for the movement OCONUS. Here's a quick run down...

Exercise
...because it's good to, we had a 'big one' that lasted about 2 weeks (1 to setup, 1 week to execute, 2 nights to break it all down). It consisted of my team of 3 donating some equipment for this exercise and the entire thing was a practice run of how we are supposed to conduct business overseas.

For me this consisted of hunting down and nagging at contractors who are doing the real 'communications work' and telling them about our problems. A very frustrating experience for me b/c that type of work should be something I can do.

It's also tough being the sysadmin for the entire battalion and having to negotiate with contractors for administrative passwords for computers (we had to go down to getting a specific list of computers that we required passwords for - talk about a pain - it's not like there are trade secrets on this machine that I'm going to steal!).

The exercise was deemed a success by the superiors so someone got a feather in their cap. And so I smile and move onward.

4 Days Liberation

We were granted a couple days off, I went home and spent the time watching movies and having some fine dining with my parents. I managed to see 3 movies and purchase a couple more games for the deployment. Also nabbed a copy of Crash (great movie). It was good seeing Mom + Dad - this good bye was a lot more challenging than the other 3 we've done so far b/c this is the real deal. (I've only said that 3 times before now. so this was tough despite the practice.)

Packing To Go

So, we had a last minute uniform swap to conduct, which meant most of my gear couldn't fit into the number of bags we were allowed to check. You should see this pile of stuff! (I'll need to remember to get a photo of it all) I've maxed out 2 duffle bags, and my MOLE rucksack - I had to start using a carabiner to get a couple of items secured onto the dang thing! The duffle bags acted as counter weights for the stuff in my rucksack. I look kinda like Atlas... or something.

I also had to hand off a couple knives (Gurber and boot knife) to an NCO at the last minute (he managed to find his rucksack in the trailer we loaded everything into while mine is probably crammed under the entire groups!) b/c knives aren't allowed on the flight but, we can bring firearms...is it safe to say the tail is wagging the dog here?

Anyway, I'll repost when I manage to get over there and settled. Thanks everyone for the emails and I'll try to write (email/snail mail) when I get time!

Take care, it's going to be a long flight.

ct