Archive for August, 2007

Guess which one won?  This is what happens when you use a Dell Inspiron as target practice during Reflexive fire.  I dug a round out of the hard drive for the owner when we all got done unloading weeks of frustration on the poor thing.  The hard drive is the silver box next to the screen.  It was shot clear out of the laptop.  Interestingly, the Dell casing and parts were so flimsy that the laptop didn’t even fall over for the first several shots.  The rounds just passed right through it with almost no resistance. 

I wonder if the Dell extended warranty covers this?

Yes, I have sold my soul to the US Government.  I re-enlisted.  I got a buttload of cash and a Flight Medic slot (the very last class slot for 2008 it turns out).  We will soon be mostly out of debt, and possibly able to take a real vacation when I get home.  I guess I can officially call this a re-career.

I would like to thank my wife for supporting this.  Without the support of my family, I couldn’t do this.  I mean, when I re-enlist, in effect they re-enlist with me.  It wasn’t an easy decision for any of us, but in the end I think it was the right one.

I managed to get my watch fixed.  Can you believe that our PX actually had the right watch battery in stock?  Such an obscure item, and it was actually on the shelves, unlike such things as USB Sticks or socks.  Had to pay with my new fangled Eagle Cash card since finance won’t actually give you any cash anymore. 

The idea of the Eagle Cash card sounds good on paper.  A secured card you load with funds from your bank account.  You can use it like a debit card throughout Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, etc.  It keeps you from loosing your cash, and supposedly helps keep Joes from being separated from their hard earned cash.  Its also supposed to lighten the load on finance offices, banks, etc and reduce the amount of US currency over here.  When you re-deploy, you just dump the money back in your account.  No transaction fees or anything.

I was attempting to get some rest before our patrol tonight, but I guess that isn’t going to happen at this point.  I was lying in my bunk staring at the ceiling with a lot of different things going through my mind. Our time here in hell is starting to draw down.  We have less than four months left, but that’s still four months of this place.  The days seem to be getting longer and time is slowing to a standstill.  People are on edge, and everyone is worn down to the point of “I don’t give a crap anymore.”  This can be a real dangerous time in a deployment as complacency, routine, and just plain boredom set in.  Anyway, that’s not what was running through my mind.

Does anyone know why my .htaccess file that has been working since June and hasn’t been updated in a week or so would suddenly take a crapper and start blocking my entire site to a 404?  Deleting it solved the problem, so I know that was it, and it only started about 3 hours ago.  I am considering the possibility of a hacker as I had a “Pending” user added to the members list.

If it was a hacker, oooh!  So bad hacking a personal website with off the shelf CMS software and basic htaccess routines!  Go try something harder next time script kiddie!!

Currently changing passwords, et al.

Update:
It happened again today about the same time.  Deleting htaccess fixes it.  I can even copy-paste the htaccess back in and all is well.  Problem with FastCGI caches?

Yesterday I flew out to FOB Anaconda and back here in one long day.  Why did I do this miracle of military transportation?  So I could get a Class 3 flight physical and hopefully get slotted for flight medic school upon re-deployment.  I arrived around 3am and after about 4 hours sleep, I met the LNO and my day started.  We drove over to the Aviation Clinic and they began the long process of poking and prodding me all day.  They had the process pretty streamlined and the only thing they didn’t do in house was the blood work.  That took about two hours (including shuttle transit).

I just got back from the memorial services for a friend of mine and two others that died in an IED earlier this week.  That was harder than I thought.  I was doing good till the end.  They were traveling down one of the many roads through our AO on a regular combat patrol.  I am not sure of their exact mission, but they were hit by a large IED detonated by some insurgents.  He died immediately and I doubt he even knew what happened.  I was there for the recovery.

He was a good soldier and friend.  We had uncannily familiar backgrounds.  Both born in the same city in California (I think the same hospital), both moved to Alabama where we grew up and both call Alabama home.  We both joined the army in the late 80s, got out, and then came back into service as medics about a year apart.  He always had a way with people too.  He could get his point across, offer advice and people would listen.  I wish I had half the gift he had in that regard.

So the other day we are out on some raids.  We were specifically looking for some name brand bad guys, but ended up getting some others too.  We had the IA with us, as usual.  They have full independent authority here, and they use it.  It turns out that recently the President of Iraq decreed that the property of any bad guys apprehended would be destroyed.  I think this made the IA Commander’s day.  After the first set of raids were done, and all the evidence was collected, it was the IA’s turn to get in some target practice.  We heard over the radio that the IA had whipped out some RPGs.  Next thing I know there was an enormous BOOM! and the sound of a rocket hitting its target.  The IA has RPG’ed Bad guys house!  It made quite the racket, especially in the close quarters of an Iraqi town. All the people on the street ducked and started running.  I guess they figured the war had come to their neighborhood, but it was just the IA “denying the enemy safe haven.”

Just a quick note.  The forums are back in place.  I don’t know if the DoD Websense will block my site now or not, but I have the net in my CHU anyway.  I know a handful of people wanted me to bring them back, or do something like a FAQ.  I just hope they are actually used this time.

Have fun.  I’ll get to a custom theme when I get some downtime between patrols.

Later.

We pull into this village under the cover of dark. Its dark, really dark.  So dark that even using night optics, its still hard to see. Everything is quiet as we pick our way through the streets, even the radio.  Under the cover of night, this village seems relatively nice for something in Iraq.  The streets are clean, there is no sewage or trash along the road.  There are a few lights on, even at this late hour, which casts an orange-brown glow on small areas of the neighborhood.  My platoon’s job tonight is to set up cordon for some searches that will be occurring in the town.  I hate cordon security.  It means I sit there and keep everything outside – out, and everything inside – in.  It means we sit in a location for a long time without moving.  That sets us up as easy targets.  The Iraqi Army has several trucks full of dismounts in the town somewhere as well.  Always a wildcard with them.  Will they do the job, leave, or start shooting at anything that moves.