April 10

I guess the budget is going to get balance after all. Thank god, that was a real wierd deal. Boring night, no flights, I guess maybe from the aftermath of intel we were supposed to be attacked. Never did happen thank god, supposedly another "day of" something. Trying to get motivated to work on my class, I gotta focus and take advantage of this time and do it

April 8

Lots of thoughts today, we'll it is my day off I have time to think. Ya I remember I told you I wouldn't bring up the drama again within the aerial port but this will be brief. Remember I told you about the term "psychological warfare?" Well, this week it has to taken a toll. I have gotten to a point where I get knots in my stomach before shift and dwell on things about work long after the shift is over. I have prayed and tried to read the bible more but I can't help at times being bitter and angry at people. I found out people were talking about me behind my back but when sergeant "vulcan" brought it up, he wouldn't say what it was or who said it, just that there were "rumblings" as he put it last week and "issues" this week. He didn't have to say who it was because I could put two and two together when I saw Sergeants "right" and "jump-to" talking in length for 20 minutes before the shift started. He did say that he felt the things these people were sayng were a non-issue so that is good. He's right, they aren't issues, only to some people that have a neurotic attention to detail, like saying when mixing ingrediants to bake a cake, you should stir clockwise instead of counter clockwise. I sometimes take things very hard, but I have to keep telling myself, "there are no real issues", and that for the circumstances I'm doing a very good job. Those circumstances are, for never being previously deployed, for having a month less time then the original March people that came in December, for being prior service Navy instead of coming from Air Force active duty, and yes for being 43 and on a deployment! haha They should feel fortunate that almost all the the March people here were previously deployed in Bagram in 2009, they will not be so lucky the next deployment because there will be a lot of newbies. But on the flip side I'm really liking these new guys, and shawna and clark have been lights out helping me out. I read a quote in the sports page that sums up these "allegations" for me. It has to do with the NBA, where members of the detroit pistons purposely didn't show up for practice, complaining about the coach. Many of these players have had reputations in the past of being primadonna's. when asked about the allegations from the players, he simply said, "sometimes perception is different then reality." It's a funny quote but true. I long as my superiors know what's reality I'll be ok.
I can't believe the budget isn't going to be balanced, I check my pay and its less then half what it is. i hear they will reimburse us when they get it balanced but it scares me for the future. I 'm scare of the messy world chelsea and Jenna are going to have to live in when they are adults. Who knows, we may just turn into a third world country if we don't drastically change and make sacrifices as a country financially for the next few years. That's why I want the girls to have as much fun now, it's very important. Gina got Jenna and Chelsea into soccor, they are so excited. I wish so much I could have seen their first practice. I just try to imagine how it was like based on what gina is telling me. Her and the girls are sending an easter basket, I can't wait but I really should stay away from the sweets. The DFAC makes the best sweets, pies, cakes, cookies, they're very swet, literally. I've been able to eat great with the exception of the sweets. Still, I got a nice ego boost today. I took out my jeans I wore in virginia and put them on. I started laughing, they barely clung to my waste, they are so flippn loose, oh my gosh that's awsome. "P90X, I hate it.....but I love it!"

April 4th

I have noticed a lot of new people around base the last few days. I didn’t even realize many people had left. Sometimes you do see familiar faces go through the X-ray but then they come back. Funny to think this constant turnover has been never-ending here for the last seven years. There is a security forces sergeant, female. Not trying to be mean but she is very overweight-almost to the point of morbidly obese. I simply cannot believe that she was allowed to deploy being that overweight. I know there must be many other people that think that. Especially with her being security forces, how is she going to move if we get attacked? Things that make you go hmmmmmm? Remember that cheesy song from C&C music factory?
It’s crazy how logistics works over here, it’s not very efficient in term of cost-effectiveness but with our efforts needed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s tricky. For example, our outgoing McGuire guys (the problem child’s) were officially finished with duty on Friday, yet their plane doesn’t leave until this Thursday and they do not leave Al Udeid until Saturday. That’s eight days these guys get paid to basically do nothing. About roughly $600 a guy times 24 you do the math. Can this be prevented, I don’t think so. Our planes are being taxed to the limit, going all over the place. I just think, “a little here, a little there” it all adds up. A lot of taxpayer money. At least Gates said we wouldn’t send troops to Libya “on his watch.” Hope his “watch” has the correct time!
Started my online course, it’s going to keep me pretty busy during my shift which is good, better to knock it out over here so I can relax when I return. I might not be able to write in here much, we’ll see.
I saw a group of Army guys go through the X-ray, they looked dirty, beat up and tired. I wonder what mission they had to endure?

April 2nd

Some thoughts and observations the last few days:
* I'm not sure I'm going to try to sneak pictures on the flightline anymore. I guess we had a C-130 getting ready to take off and a passenger sneaked a picture. amazingly a security forces person saw it, they all rushed the plane right when it was about to take off. They asked who took it, noone fessed up, so they were going to check everyones bags and cameras. Crazy! I don't know what happened but they just said over the radio they had it taken care of. I still can't believe they were able to spot it.

* I met the new guys and we've been training them up, well me Mohr, Clark are. The rest of the outgoing guys, much like I expected, did a half-ass job training them. The Gate even forgot to peek in the DV lounge for the DV until the PAX were on the plane. How pathetic! We have like two three flights in 12 hrs and you can't do your job correctly? Their version of training is to wait for the new guys to ask questions, then answer them. With training your supposed to discuss possible scenarios, stuff like that. The outgoing guys are no longer working for us, I voluntold three of them to a work detail starting Monday to help the Chief out with other sections doing the drawdown. "How coincidental",one of the Freight NCOIC's told me, "that the three biggest troublemakers you volunteered for the detail!" Ya, what a coincidence!! hahaha


So the outgoing guys aren't catching a flight out until April 6th. It's very dissapointing, the uncaring attitude, the minset of settling for "just average." It kindof diminishes my personal feelings for them, which were I liked all of them. It's wierd, I guess it's almost like a divorce, I kindof feel like a failure. I mean, I really thought I could change them, and like a divorce, you do remember the good times, but's it's the recent events that drown out the rest. Some of them will straighten up down the road, some it will be many years, bad choices later.
The new guys average age is higher and we have three NCO's. I sat down with each one of them and went down my list. It was like when I read to the class my syllabus at the beginning of the year. I think they get that there is no messing around over here, even if it is slow. We shall see!


* I am still doing the P90X. I am amazed at how I can do the excersizes very well now. If you have never done these workout you might view this part of the blog as boring, but watching the videos time and time again, you almost feel like the head guy Tony Horton is your best friend. He is pretty hilarious at times with his witty dialogue, ie "towel-boy", "tip of the day: don't smash your face", and of course his Pteradactil imitation. After awhile you know all his quips, he is pretty hilarious. So I google to see how old Tony is today (in the workouts he's 45 looks like 20; now he's 52) and I find this link, a blog of people bagging on all of his funny and sometimes stupid comments. I laughed my butt off, it was killing me, all of the little things he does and says that make you temporarily scratch your head during the videos are on hear. Here is the link,
http://nachosrule.blogspot.com/2008/07/p90x-best-quotes-and-moments.html
If you have never done P90X workouts you won't get it so don't bother, but after reading it, there is definitely a fraternity of people who have done the workouts. It was good to laugh, nothing else here really does.
* I am FINALLy......FINALLY to my half-way point. But at least now I have a tiny sliver of light creaking through the door. I can actually count down now, envision at the top of the hillslowly starting to go down. The rest of the March people have only 30 now, I can only imagined. Jenna cried again for me, poor thing. Very frustrating, but she's an emotional rollercoaster when I am there, so she will be happy a minute later. One deployment per lifetime is enough. I swear I better not hear any ultra-hyped dialogue from the commander when I get back about "we're the best, I'm gonna keep putting our unit to fill these deployments, we gotta be ready." Nope, not happening on my watch, not going to put the family through that again. Plenty of other guys in the unit who have not been on a deployment. sorry if that doesn't sound patriotic to some but it's my life

ughhh......basically.....

I’m so tired! I was actually starting to dream sitting down leaning against the wall. No not day-dream, but sleep dream. I think I’m going to skip my workout and just sleep, plus I have to probably stay late because we got to get the new guys the flightline orientation training. They report tonight for the first time, it’s funny because I’m wondering what they all are going to be like, their personalities, will they be quiet, outgoing, weird quirks? I will be spending 75 hrs a week for the next 10 weeks with them so I’m sure I will know them inside and out. We’ll break them in right from the get-go. Rules, consequences, they’ll all know what to expect and I will enforce it from day zero. I won’t have to worry about building up their morale from the days of “May-hem” for seven weeks like I had to with the last group. I’ll have to do it just like teaching, start out tough then loosen up a bit, the Didomenico method, props to my mentor teacher haha!


I guess we got attacked again, came to shift and I heard, “all clear!” but this time I heard what made me feel a little nauseated, swear to god…ambulances! Heard a few of them, that cannot be good. I need to say a prayer. Just a little reminder that where we are at is still no joke. We had an email yesterday from General Roc, basically saying that things are going to start changing real quick around here, we approach the 6 month window till Department of State turnover. I guess we are down to 50,000 total personnel in all of Iraq, that’s amazing! It was about 150,000 two years ago. We will drop to 1,000 by October. He said something interesting, “try picturing D-Day…In reverse!” So basically,….wait did I just say “basically?” Oh man I had a flashback! Back in the Navy we had a petty officer 2nd class in our section, his name was Bill, can’t remember his last name, oh ya Rice, he was short, old, and fat, with thick glasses and an un-kept mustache. He honestly was a nice guy but every time you would ask him something or do something, he would always stammer with, “ahhhh… well ahhh…basically” and then say whatever he had to say. He always had to say “basically”, it was so annoying!! I gave him the nickname “Basically Bill.” He would smoke like a chimney and drink a lot of coffee, so what, you ask? Well, we manned our radar stations and they were equipped with headsets and mics. He would brief me something to the effect of, “well ugh basically we have contacts out there……ahhh..basically they are headed away from the ship, ya basically that’s the picture here,” and then I would sit down put on the headset and, ugghhh, they mic would smell like cigarettes and coffee! It was so gross, I would have to disinfect the mic! Gotta love the Navy!


Oh ya anyways Roc said to just be ready for thinks to start getting unpredictable. I actually got to salute him two weeks ago walking by, it wasn’t almost like seeing a rock (no pun intended) star, even if he is only a 1 star. I really don’t know what I should wish for, work has been extremely boring for the longest time, but getting busy having a bunch of new guys is scary. Taco Bell and the Pizza joint close in three days. Very sad, I eat from the bell at least three times a week.
I called this guy I know Jeff yesterday. He got me started in a direct marketing company, ACN, a while back. Deals with telecommunications stuff, that’s how I got the videophone. They were featured in the episode of the celebrity apprentice yesterday. Jeff was hosting a party and wanted me to call live, so I did but they were not all there. The plan was to have me talk to everyone at the party before they watched the show, didn’t work out due to me having to be back at the terminal so they just had it where I talked to people on the videophone. Noone I really knew but they all wished me well, saying thank you for what I’m doing there. It felt really good, I did appreciate it, must have talked to about 15 people.

Hey if I helped them sell a few phones great. This sounds weird, but it felt kindof cool seeing them party and having fun, and me being here on the other side of the world not having fun, but them acknowledging that they appreciate the fact I am sacrificing, that all 4,700 of us here at Sather are sacrificing. Like what we are doing is allowing them to have fun and not worry about their safety, I doubt they’re thinking, “are we going to get attacked?” So it was cool, but I really have no desire to work on my ACN business when I get back. If someone is interested out of the blue, fine, but it’s a lot of work to be successful in that area of work. Yes people do make a lot of money doing the business but it takes time, obsession, and lots of connections. I don’t care what anyone says, “oh it’s a warm market, just friends and family,” it’s still selling. And your either good at it or you’re not, and I definitely am not. I’m not saying anything bad about it, just being real

March 24

I just finished my last QTP assessment that I should ever have to do in my Air Force career. A QTP assessment is an online quiz over a specific section of the air transportation career field. You take these before being signed off on a task. The Air Force is pretty ahead of the curve when it comes to computer training. It is both good and bad. Good in that it is easy to forget things, especially being a reservist, and it is fast and easy to access. The bad is that it is just one more thing we have to worry about completing. I am one of only 10% of our crew that have all of them completed. I’m sure they will invent more in the future to complete, but at least it will not be over my specific work section.
I now have about a week to where I can just watch movies when I am not busy, which is most of the time. They have the home portal for our command section of the base online, and there is a link called “morale web.” You click on that and there are links to movies, music, and t.v. shows. They have a lot of movies, more like redbox but not as good as Netflix. It’s pretty cool and sometimes I cannot believe it is approved for military use. But as the name says, it is designed to keep you from going crazy. I wish we had this when I was in the Navy, back then they could only broadcast movies in the mess-hall through the comm-center. I’ll never forgot how I started to cry during “The Fly II” when Eric Stolz has to kill his dog because he got deformed by the teleporter machine. Somebody noticed and said, “Buck are you crying?!” It was so embarrassing, what can I say I love dogs! Wow, that was random, anyway, fast forward to today. I have only watched a few movies on it, the only problem is they have a few very recent movies, would seem too good to be true as they only were out a month ago, but I discovered they are Haji-movies, kind of blurry. I tried to watch “The Eagle” and it was so fuzzy, I stopped. Like I said I have a week, then I start my SEI-45 class online. It’s part of my teacher certification, it has to do with English as a second language type of stuff. $80 that I do not get reimbursed, really stinks. But I have had 4 years to complete it so I need to get it done. It’ll give me something to do, but I heard it is going to get busy here in May so hopefully I will not get overwhelmed.
We’re having a pizza party for the outgoing crew tomorrow, hate to say that only half deserve it. Most of the guys stopped caring, sometimes their immaturity and lapses of mental toughness amaze me. I had sergeant "vulcan" two days ago say he’s absolutely had it with these guys, pretty much ordering me to write anyone up that breaks a rule and cancelling our on-call half days. He said warnings are over, and “if any of those guys mentions the word “morale” to me again, I’m going to go Ape-___!!!” So of course I had to deliver the news and now a few of them are giving me the silent treatment. That’s ok, I’m tired of sounding like a broken record, I can keep it loose as long as you follow the rules. I don’t want to be here either but I have a problem when they complain about their stuff, when I think of the three years of hell I had in the Navy, it’s like, “don’t even go there!” Anyways, the pizza is good for showing the hard working guys you care because you don’t want to break their spirit. They need to know that the Air force will take care of you if you do the right thing.

March 21

I just found out someone in my facebook friends removed me as a friend. I was curious that I hadn’t seen comments from this individual for a long time so I look and his name is gone. Wow. I can look at this several ways. One is that it is true, we really aren’t friends anymore so why pretend to be, there became a point and time where the trust factor was gone, but not as harsh to say we were enemies or anything. I had noticed he avoided eye contact whenever we all had to meet, which at the time I didn’t care because I had lost respect for him. At this point I wouldn’t have been surprised at all by the removed friend action. But what’s interesting is this person went out of his way to talk to me twice in the month before the end of the year, asked me about work, what was going on with Iraq. Then I look and he’s not on my friend list. Why even talk to me, just continue the silent treatment. Facebook can be weird, for the most part it is great, but it has created a whole different set of rules when it comes to interacting with people, I’m sure sociology professors are having field days with facebook.
I cannot wait until the day comes where my situation is ideal in my civilian career profession. It has not been ideal for years, yet I still would go to work every day “bringing it” 110%. I have too much pride not to do that. Hopefully when I get back I can get into a situation where it is ideal.
I’m worried what’s going on in Libya. Could it turn into another Iraq? There are a few basic similarities. Part of me says no, I do not know a whole lot, but from what I do know there is not a situation where there are different ethnic groups or religious sects in place that are uneasy with each other like how Iraq has with the Sunni’s and Shiite’s, along with the Kurds. Libya has definitely been in the history books, having long been an Italian colony subjected to horrible atrocities by the Fascist leader Mussolini before WWII. So far the U.S. says we will not deploy ground troops there. A few people in the section have brought up a possibility that if we do deploy troops, we may have to go. Pure speculation, but who knows. If we land people there, we obviously are going to need an aerial port. It’s either us or Ramstein Germany that are the closest. It is not that difficult to create an aerial port overnight either, we have trained on it a few times, you just need some kind of runway and you can build it. That would be terrible, we would be in tents, MRE’s, no porta-potty’s or showers, pure expeditionary style, plus very hot and dangerous. I’m just praying our fighter planes can wipe Khadafi’s forces out or the rebels can, one of the two.
There just seems to be a lot of suffering in the world going on right now. Sometimes one wonders how God could allow all of these things to happen. God has tested man since the beginning of time, as evidenced in the book of Job where he loses everything, despite being an obedient servant to the lord. I guess when we are all gone to be with the lord all of it will be explained where we will say, “oh ya, I get it now.” But right now I see all these events going on with great human suffering and it is very depressing, makes me not want to even look up at the t.v. screen when I go to the D-fac.
I promise to get more pics on here, my new camera should be coming any day now. I think Mohr will be taking over as the new Safety NCO so she will have a letter granting her permission to take pictures on the flight line. As long as she’s around, I can shoot away!