Thankfully, Time Continues to Fly

I had this bad feeling that as time got closer to leave that it would start creeping along. So far that is not the case. And that is a great thing. Some if it probably has to do with how busy we have been around here lately. I thought things were crazy before, and it has certianly been turned up a notch since then. Annnnd guess what? I love it.

Last week I spent about 5 days up at one of our Observation Posts (OP). It was great to be on top of a mountain and watching all of the operations going on as opposed to being in the Combat Operations Center making all the operations happen. I liked being an observer for a little bit. Actually I am headed back up there tomorrow for another week. Then when I get back I will be turning things over to the new battery! YESSS! While I was on the OP we had our first rain of the season. At least the first rain that I have seen. Supposedly a few days prior is sprinkled a little bit. It was great to have different weather, but at the same time it was not fun being on top of a mountain in a storm. Not only was I on top of a mountain, but I was in a tower on top of the mountain. Then the lightening came. I had just gotten off post and laid down in my stretcher that was suspended about 10 ft off the ground in the tower when BOOOOM. It was like daylight in the tower. Yep, we were struck by lightening. I thought a bomb went off right next to us so I was actually glad for a second that it was just lightening. The three guys on post were luckily not touching metal and since I was suspended off of the metal I was good too. We quickly evacuated the tower though and got rained on in a bunker for about an hour. While sitting in the bunker, it reminded me of the miserable times I had freezing my butt off at TBS and I was instantly happy. It was bad, but it was no where near as bad as it was in Quantico. That's why we train that way.

I had a soldier try and knock the Marines once saying that Marines are such robots that when but in a bad situation, they accept it. While a soldier, for instance, if sitting in a fighting hole is freezing his butt off, will grab a heater and put it next to him. He is somewhat right, but mostly wrong. He is right that he and a lot of his buddies will look for a more comfortable situation, BUT he is wrong about the mentality of the Marines. When we train, we accept the bad situations because we know it is preparing us for the worst case scenario. Not because we are dumb robots. So as I was sitting in the bunker on top of a windy mountain getting rained on, with no electricity around me... I was glad that I had to sit in the snow for hours on end in Quantico with nothing to heat me up but my wet jacket. It made me harder. And it made me appreciate the fact that at least I was not getting snowed on.

Haven't gotten mail in a while but we should be getting some today. I am looking forward to that. In case you have forgotten... its past time when you can send packages, so please, no more. If you do send a package, just mark that it can go to any soldier or troop. Because I am sure after 4 months when it shows up on my door in Hawaii that nothing in it will be good.

I love you guys... and time.... keep on tickin'

Is summer over?

Hello everyone!

This is much easier to do if I keep it updated weekly but oh well! I guess I'm too much of a bum to stay on top of it. Julia got on to me this time and told me I need to get back to updating this more often.

You'll notice one thing different about me. I now double space after periods. It's crazy how quickly I got into the habit. I know its the proper thing to do but I have never done it until now. Not even in college. The reason I now double space and the reason I have not written in a while is because I have spent this whole month writing awards. The last thing I felt like doing after writing awards all day was to come back here and write some more. In total I wrote 21 awards, 12 of which were at least a page of military writing and four of them over two pages. The first few awards I had to go back and fill in a space after each period so I made myself learn quickly. And now I double space without even thinking about it. All the time. No matter who I am writing to or what I am writing about.

I have spent a lot of this month thinking about Hawaii. More than most. I am so excited about being home in November and seeing Julia when I step off the plane. It is going to be so nice to be "home." Which of course lets you know how excited I will be when I actually do get to my real home in December. You guys have no idea how important you are to me. You don't realize how special the people closest to you are until you can't have them around. I appreciate you all very much.

Other than award writing we've been pretty busy. As most of you know, the troops will be starting to pull out soon, but you wouldn't know it up here. We are continuing to roll on like normal. And I love it

September 11th was a great experience up here. It was so neat to fight for our freedom on that day. There was something special about it. Kind of sad that we are still over here 10 years later, but I can see that if we had come here and left quickly, it would not have changed much. These locals need to see stability and they also need a lot of guidance before we just take off. It's been fun taking part in working with the local police force. They are a mess. I had chai tea with them the other night and let me tell you... it was GREAT. They heat up the water by plugging two wires directly into the socket and place the other ends into the water. It works pretty well. Seeing the article of me on the internet on Sept 11 was pretty sweet too. I was excited to see what Julia and my mom said. That will be a neat thing to hold on to for the next few years... or the next forever years.

We celebrated Memorial Day with ribs and steak and then celebrated the Air Force birthday on the 18th with steak, chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. We love celebrating holidays and birthdays because they send us all kinds of good food to celebrate it with. The Marine Corps birthday will be the best. Obviously. Not only because of the food but because we will start leaving Kajaki shortly after. And leaving this place after all the Marines have been through will be a joyous time. I know I'll miss it though. I can already feel a part of me is attached to this place. I'm already thinking about my next deployment and I keep hoping I get to come back here. It's such a unique area.

Really, I think thats about all I can update you on. All the operations are still Secret and on a "need to know basis" only. You guys be safe and I look forward to seeing you in a little over two months. Stay warm! It sure has stayed warm here.

Back to School

Some of you may think that I am in a pretty crummy place... BUT I will take being here over that "back to school" feeling! I always dreaded that. I'm sure Julia would like to get on to me for saying that :)

Sheesh, a lot has happened this past month. I doubt I will be able to remember everything.

First thing first, we got a notification from the Battalion that everyone should be back in Hawaii NLT 27 November. That is, if we don't have any issues with flights. Which is not likely. On the way here you remember we were stuck in Ireland for a couple days because they could not seal the door shut. As much as I would enjoy getting stuck in Ireland again, if it were to happen on the way home I'd be bummed. Now, all the units will not get back on the 27th. The batteries will be heading home in a few waves. Of course, my battery will be the last one to Hawaii since we were the last ones to leave. Being that I thought we wouldn't be back until after the first week of December, I'll take 27 November any day of the week. I asked Julia if I could have pizza for Thanksgiving since she is going to be there to see me... she said yes! I really miss the taste of pizza. Bob's Pizzeria to be exact. I crave it ALMOST as much as Piggys BBQ. I really miss that brisket.

Now, as for the deployment. The marines are still trucking along. I'm impressed with them more and more every day. The strength they have to pull through things out here is remarkable. Its tough, we are working on giving out awards and I think they all deserve something. But, we have a certain amount we can give out. All I can do is write up as many as I can, as well as I can, and hope they will work. Its my number one priority right now. I need to have most of them done in the next two weeks.

The Commanding Officer from the battery that will be replacing us just left. They usually send CO's out a couple of months before they are coming to get an idea of the job they will have when they arrive. I was able to get the name of the guy replacing me, send him an email and give the CO all kind of information I wish I would have had. Its exciting to think about replacements! I never knew whose spot I was taking or what Kajaki was really going to be like but I'm going to help these guys out as much as I can.

I feel like a fatty. I just ate Nilla Wafers (thanks mom) dipped in Nutella (don't remember who sent it). Never had to combination before, but its pretty tasty. Though, a lot is more tasty out here than it is in the states. Another example is Arizona Sweet Tea. The stuff used to be nasty, but now its my go to drink. We have a couple marines travel back to Camp Leatherneck once a month for comm gear and they grab me 6 every time they go. Mmm mmm good.

I've had weird sleeping habits lately. Can't fall asleep until around 0100, wake up at 0500 or 0600, then have to take a nap in the middle of the day. I am not exhausted because of it. I'm actually getting used to it. Just worried about what its going to be like when I get home... how long it will take to get back into a rhythm. Of course it will take a while because the traveling to Hawaii will throw me off... then traveling to Florida a couple weeks later will throw me off... then the wedding and afterward [:)] will throw me off... then traveling back to Hawaii will throw me off. Thats a lot of getting thrown off a schedule. Oh well, its all going to be so exciting that it will be worth it!

My new room is wonderful. I am loving the privacy. I worked on fixing it up the past couple weeks. Painted the walls, build some hangars, fixed my door handles and patched up some holes in the doors.

Mail from June is still trickling in. Its crazy how old and beat up some of these packages are looking. The ones who wrote Kajaki on the boxes get here fast. No later than two weeks after it is sent.

Services are going very well. I'm still not getting a lot of people to come, but the ones that do come are pretty consistent and are enjoying it. I cant believe I have this opportunity, every day it excites me. A marine preaching every week, twice a week. Just last week we got a few combat replacements in and one of them is a young marine who led a couple bible studies back in HQ Battery where he came from. He said he would love to start helping out so I think he may start teaching every other Wednesday. That will help ease my work load quite a bit. Studying what to teach takes a good chunk of my time.

Alright, I am going to try and get some sleep. Hope you are all doing well. Love you guys.

Julia's Life

Ric is apparently on strike.  He refuses to post again until I contribute to the Blog.  I'm not a Miller yet so I don't really see how this applies to me but here goes nothing.  Also, just so you are forewarned, my life is not nearly as exciting as the deployed artillery officer's.

Last night I wrapped up seven years of teaching swim lessons.  I'm still lifeguarding through September and have started back with the Champions program put on by Titus.  I have been cleared to work as a substitute teacher in Leon County and will start pursuing that next week.  These things, plus planning a wedding and sending our spoiled Marine care packages, are what I do to keep time from crawling too slowly.  And a lot of trips to the beach, of course.

I moved home in June to avoid either searching for a month by month lease or breaking a lease.  Living at home, I'm able to save more and will hopefully have my car paid off by the time Ric and I get married allowing us to start off completely debt free - a goal or ours.  Everyone at home is sooooo happy that I moved back and we party all the time!  ...that might not be completely true, but I'm enjoying this time with my family.

Your prayers and continued support for Ric are so appreciated.  He is now more than halfway through his deployment!  December can't come fast enough.

A Good Night

Wow, what a good night. I just had a great talk with a Marine about the Lord. Obviously I will refrain from going into the details, but it all boiled down to stop trying to be strong. When we are weak, His strength is made perfect. So why do we try to beat everything when we can let go and allow the perfect power of God take control? ... a good thought.

People. I am sorry I am have not written lately. But things have been going very well. My job has gone from something that I love doing to something even greater. Along with my job, I have the opportunity to preach the Word of God twice a week. As I said in my past post... Wednesdays I am going through the books of Peter. We are only on 1 Peter 1 and we've only gotten to verse 4. Its been 3 weeks! Haha I love it. God has definitely been giving me good stuff to say that we need to hear... all in 4 verses. My Sunday sermons have been great as well. The first one was on Ezekiel 37, the valley of the dry bones and why hope is essential. Maybe one day I can tell you all about it. The last Sunday I went through the book of 1 Samuel looking at Israel's search for a leader and the principles a leader should have. We did a lot of looking at the faults of Saul and comparing them to David. Tomorrow will be on the Transfiguration. One of my favorite stories in scripture. I'm really looking forward to it. I actually need to write out my jumbled notes into one organized set of thoughts for tomorrow. I will do that before I go to bed.

TO THOSE OF YOU WHO SEND PACKAGES... READ THIS!! From now on, after you have packaged it up and addressed everything properly, take a marker and write "KAJAKI" on every side of the box. I've noticed this is something the mail clerks do when they send stuff to the wrong location. So when they see KAJAKI they will think they've already messed up once and make sure it gets to the correct place. Julia sent me a package on the 21st and I already got it today! Thats the fastest I've gotten anything. 9 DAYS! And she wrote KAJAKI everywhere.

I got to shoot something new a couple weeks ago. EXCALIBUR! Look it up if you'd like. Its basically a round that is GPS guided and can go up to 40k. This is the ultimate indirect fire for artillery. Its a good $100,000 a round too. So... thanks for the tax dollars... know that I used $200,000 of it within minutes. War IS expensive. We got to shoot it with one of our most powerful propellants as well so it gave the FOB a nice shake. This is why I love artillery. We make the ground shake. I have now shot everything I wanted to shoot in combat. Time to come home right?? Hahaha not quite. BUT only 4 more months to go. Hard to believe its been 3 months since I left Hawaii.

Hawaii. Oh how I miss that place. Just last night I looked up photos of it on Google images just to remind myself that I actually live there. Back when Julia and I were just little love birds in high school, we talked about running away to Hawaii together frequently. True story. I even gave her a sugar packet one time because it was made in Hawaii and told her one day we would live there together. She has the proof to this day. I LOVE IT. We will actually be living in Hawaii together. Dreams do come true. However silly they may seem. Just a fair warning... we also talk a lot about living in Nicaragua one day so watch out!

Alright peoples... I need to get going. I have an early morning ahead of me. I've got new pictures up on Facebook so be sure to check them out. Love you all, and you too Maj. Graham ;)

The other night... forgot to post

July 12-

This evening I snuck out of the COC early so I could get some studying done. And by early I mean 2000. 0600-2000 I think is sufficient for a day. I've spent the last two hours studying the word. And wow, it is nice. I have decided to go through the books of 1 and 2 Peter as a bible study on Wednesdays. Also, on Sunday I will do a more traditional type of service. Music and a topical discussion as opposed to going through verse by verse.

After tomorrow I need to start preparing sermons. I have some that I enjoy… One on leadership from samuel, one on John 9, one on the transfiguration Mark 9, another on the parable of the Sower. Thats only 4 weeks. I have 19 more to go!

This is going to be a challenge for me so I know it will be a learning experience for me. I am praying hard that I teach truth and truth alone. That I don't try too hard to water down any message and simply bring TRUTH. I also want God to show me the best way to teach these men, the best way to communicate to them. I am not worried about results. I am simply concerned with teaching truth and giving Him glory. I pray God gives me the opportunity to be His vessel in leading others to him.

Going to be a fun last 4 months!!

July is among us!

I have never been more excited about the first of the months coming! Just means one month closer to Julia, Hawaii, Tallahassee and my wedding! Its a better feeling than the feeling you get in high school when the year is almost over.

The weather here is quite warm. Funny thing about it though is that I usually work out around 14 or 1500 which is the hottest part. Maybe because it makes me feel like I am working out harder because I sweat more. Pathetic, I know. I don't know if you all remember my pact to not drink soda while I am here BUT that has gone out the window. Its really hard to turn down the only cold drink offered to me once or twice a week. Our cooks keep them in the big refrigerators we have.

It stinks to be here when new things are happening back home. For example, Julia is 22, Caleb is walking, Riley is writing and the family vacation is in about a week!! I guess I get to experience my own new things. Maybe one of the best things about being out here is not having to listen to the news every day. I know what is going on first hand. I don't have to rely on a source begging for viewers. It's nice.

If you saw my Facebook status, you heard about my 4th of July. It was a great day. In the morning, we located an abandoned compound housing explosives so we blew that up. I went with our grunt attachment to run a range for the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP) where I shot an AK. We also BZO'ed the SASR (.50 cal sniper rifle) and right before I got to shoot, it malfunctioned. Oh well, maybe next time. I learned some Pashtun so i could talk to the AUP some. Singaye, Judaye, Apayaye is like, hey, how are you, hows your family, hows life in our translation. But instead of answering it with "good" or whatnot, they just say it back. It goes back and forth until they get tired of it I guess. Also, Manana is thank you. I forget what Your Welcome is. I also tried to learn how to count to 10. I had them racing me. They would say it in English and I would say it in Pashtun. yao, duu, dre, ahh I can't remember. Anyway, after that, I came back to the FOB only to have a glorious meal in front of me. Steak, hot dogs, goat, mac n cheese and cake!

Well, looks like they might be needing me in the COC, so much for going to sleep! Love you guys, and thanks so much for the mail Julia, Mom, Chasons, Knipples, Enfingers, Andy, Mama Grandma and Papa, Mopsey, Aunt Sandra, Dick and others that I may have not received yet! I am certainly loved. And overly spoiled!