New Digs!

We officially took over from 1st Armored Division on Monday, and with every flag change comes reorganization. We moved offices on Monday out of the HQ building. The G4, logistics office, which is supply, transportation, maintenance, and contracts was segmented all over the HQ building. We are all under one roof, so it really makes it easy to staff work between the sections and the Colonel for approval.

This is the HQ building during the transition ceremony.

This is an M1 tank with the kids student of the month sticker on the bumper! "My child was student of the month at Hale Kula Elementary."

Here is the new building, we do have windows but covered with blast panels. We also have 2 concrete bunkers in the front for protection if needed.

Roof patio

These are views from the roof top patio area. The air traffic control tower is for Baghdad International Airport. The lake is "Z" lake due to its shape when looking from the air.

My office name plaque

This is my new office which is very nice. The Colonel let me pick which one I wanted. We completed the move today and got everything working again, phones and computers. The people that moved out tried to hijack my couch but we recovered it from those "thieves" today.

I am doing well and want to thank everyone for the boxes of food and other life support things! I am keeping myself busy with mostly work,  but made the time to run a half marathon on Sunday. I didn't plan on doing it, but it seemed like a good idea until the 11 mile mark.  I did finish it in 1 hour 51 minutes. so not a bad time either!  I really appreciate the wonderful support for myself and my family.

Jeremy

Mid Month December...Wow

Well, time is really cruising by! It doesn't seem like I have been here for over 2 weeks. The unit we replaced is trickling back to their home station in Europe, and we are taking over the mission. When you deploy, there are some mandatory training events that must take place like shooting our weapons and learning how to roll over in an armored vehicle and escape out of it.

Currently, the operator has the vehicle tipped over onto the drivers side, and we learn how to undo our 4 point harness and safely exit the vehicle. If you look at the control panel, there are two cameras inside so they can watch us and ensure we are doing it properly. One of the most dangerous things in any accident is all the stuff we have inside the vehicle that isn't secured.

This is me after the training wearing all of my body armor, less my helmet. The training is a valuable tool to give you an idea of what it feels like to be 30,90, 180 degrees turning inside of a tight space. When you undo the harness, you have to control your fall onto the ceiling or side.

This is the sun rising up over the lake that I run around in the morning. It's been a bit cool for Hawaii standards, but a great run around the lake gets the day off to a good start. I also enjoy running the treadmill so I can watch sports on the TV!  The gyms is pretty decent, though Afghanistan had a better one. The food is great and several options to eat healthy and stay fit. I usually grab enough instant oatmeal and fruit for a week, so I don't have to go over to breakfast. I found a coffee pot today that wasn't in use, so it's going to my room. I was gifted a TV, chair, table, mircowave, and fridge....pretty good stuff that has been passed around through all of the other warrant officers.

Cheers untill next time!

Jeremy

First Week

Well the deployment has gone from being months away to me heading through my first week. The flight over was great. We flew on contracted air from Ryan International. They kept us well fed and watched action movies all the way over. We had two stops the first in Rockford, IL and the second in Lipzeig, Germany. The stop in Germany was great, the little area set aside for us has a small store with hot food. I look forward to another assignment in Germany when I get out of Iraq. Once I landed in Iraq I was on the ground for almost two hours before hopping on a blackhawk and flying down to Baghdad. We quickly unloaded our stuff received room assignments and got settled in. I have know the guy I am replacing for almost ten years so we have an easy transition.

Jessica and the kids are doing fine but the true thought of me being gone for a year hit them yesterday as they settle into a routine. She and the kids will be flying to Texas to spent Christmas with her family.

I have included a few pics of the ride down and the Iraq country side. The area near water is green farm land and the rest is dry and dusty. In my next post I will show my living area and the lake across the street which makes for great sunsets.