Still In Kuwait

Hello Everyone,

I have spent about two weeks here in lovely Kuwait. I think my body has adjusted to being off by about 8 hours. The days here continue to be busy (I like busy days). I have been working on misc duties to help process our soldiers thru here to Bashra. It looks like will will be here past the 1st week of May. Things are going well and drinking lots of water. My workout routine kinda took a dump since I got here, because there is no real routine to my day to day operations. I hope to get back in the swing of things when I get to iraq....most days when I get off duty, I am exhausted. For the most part, I am just happy that I am busy doing something, becasue I would go crazy sitting n doing nothing.

Thats all for now.

Sam

hello kuwait

Hello Everyone!

I have made it to my new home in Kuwait. Things have been going pretty well. I have adjusted to the time change pretty well. I have finished up the required training in Kuwait and am ready to start working. The base here is pretty nice....I am sitting in a Starbucks using the wireless service they have on base. There are all sorts of little shops and services for soldiers here. They really treat us nice here, much better than the environment in Washington. Kinda wierd. I still have one more class that I have to take....it is a NTV (non tactical vehicle) drivers training.....basically a class to allow me to drive regular ol cars on base here. The weather here is nice, sunny and hot. The only thing that could make it better is a pool n a corona. (the only thing this base does not have is a pool now that I think of it). The picture I posted is of the PX (post exchange)...there is all sorts of normal stuff inside and outside they have bazaars with misc vendors. Kinda fun to walk n look. (Randy-they had a hooka both there). Well my battery is running low and I dont have much more time.

Will post more later.

Later,

Sam

goodbye FT Lewis?

I just finished up my pass in Seattle....other than the homeless n bad weather it was allright. It was weird to adjust to civilian life and now back to military life. I spent most of the time with Jess and another couple that was on pass too. I had my first beer in 8 weeks. It was fantastic...lots of cool little places to eat n drink at. The top picture is one of my bags that weighs alot. It is 1 out of 4 bags that i have packed up that are ready to go. I was able to draw my M249 saw again today....I was given a brand new one. We will see how this one works....I liked my last one.

another quick week

Hello All,

This has been another week that has flown by. We are getting closer and closer to wrapping up the training phase in the states. A couple pics of interest: The bottom left is from the turn in facility where we inspect vehicles for turn in. The last day I was there, a stryker unit was shipping out vehicles for a training exercise....it was pretty cool to see them all lined up. There are interesting looking vehicles...what is wierd that they are even more quiet than our trucks. The picture of the sticker is pretty much the symbol for the 34th Infanty Division "Red Bulls".....I have put up countless amounts of those stickers on all of our shipping containers (placed on all four sides). The last picture is of my squad leader, Jason, posing next to the air filter from the fork lift we are using from Ft Lewis.....that was the dirtiest air filter I have ever seen, litterally. We are not assigned to maintain the forklift, but needed to troubleshoot why is was running hot.....it turn out when there is little to no air flow it doesnt want to run right. We have most of our vehicles turned in and there is not much work at the shop left other than clean up. We have had a couple half days at work and is nice to be rested up for the pass we will get. I plan on spending some time in Seattle having a fun time. The next hurdle for me is to get all the of the gear that they have issued me packed up....this will be quite a feat. That is all for now...I am sure I will have some more time in the next couple of days to add another post.

'Till next time,

Sam

Last Full Week???

Hello All,

It has been awhile since my last post....because there is really nothing that exciting happening here. I went through another class on the MRAP vehicle....it was basically a repeat of the first one I took, but only worse. The one picture of the trailer tipped is one of vehicle trailers that is not quite balance right. One of the guys went to hook it up to a truck and it tipped up as he was adjusting height to match the hitch. We tried putting 4 guys on the hitch to pull it back down and was unsuccessful (approx 800 lbs). We ended up using a forklift on the back side to get it back level. The other pic is me sitting on the hood of an uparmored humvee. They are pretty nice and even have air conditioning. We are gearing up to start getting all our vehicles turned in and our bags packed up. Nothing else too new other than we will not be able to get mail after April 8th. I will try to get another post this weekend. I have some pics to post, but not enough time tonight. I miss everyone and look forward to the day that I am back again.

Later,

Sam

Mailing Address after April 1st

My new mailing address after April 1st will be:

Holl, Samuel
HHC STB, 34th INF DIV, Maint 1
APO AE, 09374

Please note there is no rank on this address or any reference to Iraq. I do not think I will actually be there until later April, so just email me if you want to mail a package during that time frame.

my last day off was Feb 9th

Hello everyone,

Today i was able to experience my first day off since Feb 9th (w/ restrictions). We were restricted to post and have no means of transportation other than a taxi.....so I woke up for breakfast, went back to bed, went to the gym for a long workout n sauna, and parked my butt in the computer lab. Pretty much what I do on a average day minus working at the motor pool. I have been able to get kinda good at running. I was able to do 1.5 hours of cardio on the treadmill and the eliptical machines. I was surprised to make 5 miles on the treadmill in 45 minutes. I plan on using all the gym time I can get, becuase I do not think we will this nice of a facility in Iraq. Being in shape also helps ur body deal with the heat and I assuming a heavier work load.

The above pictures are some pictures of our packing process. On Sunday and Monday I was one a few lucky people to help with packing one duffle bag for most of our battalion. It was two long days and we were complimented on how well the process went. The other pics are some containers that are packed and getting moved out. Quite a lengthy process to get everything coordinated for movement. I am glad I am just a worker bee in the whole process.

Yesterday, I was able to be one of two people to stencil equipment info on vehicles and trailers....turned out to be another later working day. They wanted it done while there was no rain. It turns out they made a good decision because it was raining when i woke up today (big surprise). It was kinda of interesting, because the stencil kit we were given was incomplete. We were creative on getting it all done.....had to make a "Z" into a "7" and "L" into a "1"...quite a process, but we finished at about 7 pm.

I will try to take more pics, but there is not much variance day to day.....still feels like I am living a the movie "Ground Hog Day". Not much else going on. I was able to have a video conference with my wife n kids tonight....the kids are still goofy, but none the less it was good to see their faces.

Thats all for today,

Sam