Hi everyone ...
Chris is in Ooooooklahoma, where the wind is sweeping down the plain and his allergies have kicked in. Really? But not in Iraq? Gunner (who knows all about allergies) said, "Well, in Iraq there isn't anything growing." Good point. It's not the dust, it's what's in the dust.
He arrived yesterday after a 16-hour trip, during which he had a lot of trouble sleeping. He's battling jet lag today. They all get to run through their medical evaluations today. We're hoping Chris can get in for his required visit with a neurologist for clearance to come home. Then he can come home with the whole gang, if not, he'll come back later.
We still do not have an official date for the group's return, but certainly next week and maybe closer to mid-week than early in the week. Vague enough for you? Welcome to the Army!
Love to all,
Linda Sophia
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Goodbye, Sandbox
Sorry, only a few moments to write.
Today, we fly out of Kuwait International, on to Leipzig, Germany, followed by Gander International, Newfoundland, finally, Lawton, Oklahoma. Nice looooooong nap.
To borrow a line from a famous song (and a witty friend), "I'm leaving on a jet plane."
Pretty good news.
Miss you all more than you'll ever know.
Love,
C-M/P/3
Today, we fly out of Kuwait International, on to Leipzig, Germany, followed by Gander International, Newfoundland, finally, Lawton, Oklahoma. Nice looooooong nap.
To borrow a line from a famous song (and a witty friend), "I'm leaving on a jet plane."
Pretty good news.
Miss you all more than you'll ever know.
Love,
C-M/P/3
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Camp Virginia!
Dear All my Favorite People,
Yahoo...so far. Yes, I'm in Camp Virgina, Kuwait, which is just a 1/2 hour bus ride to the airport. We arrived late Saturday afternoon, unloaded our bags, received a thrilling briefing on military manners, and promptly I went to McDonalds. Though I'm really not that fond of McDonalds, it was a symbolic way to celebrate Americana. The coke was served in miniature cans with Arabic writing, but the food tasted the same. Especially the overly-salted fries. Mmm, mmm, good. Bet my blood pressure went up 20 pts.
And even better, when I logged into this blog, it was in English! So now I can add my thoughts.
We had an Awards Ceremony in the tent last night. Very informal; my company doesn't like to act military and have formations and all. I received a Safety Award for over 3000 flight hours, and 250 hours for Night Vision Goggles (almost at 500; doesn't include Night Vision Devices - Apache stuff, right Pat?), and an Air Medal for not breaking anything or getting shot down flying combat missions. For a while I was feeling disappointed because I thought being grounded would negate the Air Medal, but my favorite Lieutenant took care of me anyway. I'd hate to be left out of all the chest thumping!
One of our "characters," Badroad who looks like a big, chunky Hawaiian (though he's from Hawaii but has Indian and Norwegian blood), had his birthday yesterday. We all sang Happy Birthday like a bunch of boisterous pirates, someone produced a small bottle of milk with a cake (smuggled out of the chow hall), and a special birthday gift - a pineapple! I'm sure one of the food displays at the chow hall is missing its centerpiece!
Pretty funny picture last night, actually. Everyone curled up on cots, eyes glued to laptops with movies and shooting games going on. People didn't wake up until 10:00 am this morning. Today, which, of course, will be like tomorrow, eat, sleep, read, eat, sleep, read, sleep. Oh,yea. Shower. Still the traditional shower trailers. The bathrooms are litle port-a-johns, usually 4 lashed together to prevent them blowing away during dust storms. Very quaint. Smells great, too.
The excitement is building, but the sand and heat sucks it right back out of me. So, I'll reserve real excitement until I'm on an air conditioned airliner flying back to the States. We've been told, we depart late on the 22nd (Wed), through Germany, Newfoundland, then Oklahoma. Get reindoctrinated to how to act politely in civil society for 4-5 days, then maybe, could be, might be, we'll get to Arizona early the next week. Make a chain, Linda. Just be ready to amend as necessary, courtesy of the U.S. Army.
Love you all very much. (I look forward to hot pizza and cold beer).
C-M/P/3
(Christopher-Michael / Poppy / CW3 Pedersen)
Yahoo...so far. Yes, I'm in Camp Virgina, Kuwait, which is just a 1/2 hour bus ride to the airport. We arrived late Saturday afternoon, unloaded our bags, received a thrilling briefing on military manners, and promptly I went to McDonalds. Though I'm really not that fond of McDonalds, it was a symbolic way to celebrate Americana. The coke was served in miniature cans with Arabic writing, but the food tasted the same. Especially the overly-salted fries. Mmm, mmm, good. Bet my blood pressure went up 20 pts.
And even better, when I logged into this blog, it was in English! So now I can add my thoughts.
We had an Awards Ceremony in the tent last night. Very informal; my company doesn't like to act military and have formations and all. I received a Safety Award for over 3000 flight hours, and 250 hours for Night Vision Goggles (almost at 500; doesn't include Night Vision Devices - Apache stuff, right Pat?), and an Air Medal for not breaking anything or getting shot down flying combat missions. For a while I was feeling disappointed because I thought being grounded would negate the Air Medal, but my favorite Lieutenant took care of me anyway. I'd hate to be left out of all the chest thumping!
One of our "characters," Badroad who looks like a big, chunky Hawaiian (though he's from Hawaii but has Indian and Norwegian blood), had his birthday yesterday. We all sang Happy Birthday like a bunch of boisterous pirates, someone produced a small bottle of milk with a cake (smuggled out of the chow hall), and a special birthday gift - a pineapple! I'm sure one of the food displays at the chow hall is missing its centerpiece!
Pretty funny picture last night, actually. Everyone curled up on cots, eyes glued to laptops with movies and shooting games going on. People didn't wake up until 10:00 am this morning. Today, which, of course, will be like tomorrow, eat, sleep, read, eat, sleep, read, sleep. Oh,yea. Shower. Still the traditional shower trailers. The bathrooms are litle port-a-johns, usually 4 lashed together to prevent them blowing away during dust storms. Very quaint. Smells great, too.
The excitement is building, but the sand and heat sucks it right back out of me. So, I'll reserve real excitement until I'm on an air conditioned airliner flying back to the States. We've been told, we depart late on the 22nd (Wed), through Germany, Newfoundland, then Oklahoma. Get reindoctrinated to how to act politely in civil society for 4-5 days, then maybe, could be, might be, we'll get to Arizona early the next week. Make a chain, Linda. Just be ready to amend as necessary, courtesy of the U.S. Army.
Love you all very much. (I look forward to hot pizza and cold beer).
C-M/P/3
(Christopher-Michael / Poppy / CW3 Pedersen)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
One stop closer to home
Chris called this morning to let us know that his unit is now in Camp Virginia in Kuwait. It's a 20-minute bus ride to Kuwait International Airport. That's all that stands between him and a plane to the U.S. - a bus with the windows covered by curtains, and, I'm guessing, a whole bunch of U.S. military-sized red tape.
He said Camp Virginia is very nice - phones and computers are free there and they have a McDonald's. It certainly sounds better than the last base they were at. They will probably be there until mid-week. He says he won't really feel like he's coming home until he's on the plane, but he sounds pretty happy already.
If we had known an actual return date, we would have hung one of those paper chains we used to count down to Christmas with, but just check back here. I'll let you know when they're on their way. Woo hoo!
love to all,
Linda Sophia
He said Camp Virginia is very nice - phones and computers are free there and they have a McDonald's. It certainly sounds better than the last base they were at. They will probably be there until mid-week. He says he won't really feel like he's coming home until he's on the plane, but he sounds pretty happy already.
If we had known an actual return date, we would have hung one of those paper chains we used to count down to Christmas with, but just check back here. I'll let you know when they're on their way. Woo hoo!
love to all,
Linda Sophia
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Ku-wait!
Chris is in Kuwait now and will be there until the helicopters are clean of dust (about a week). Get out your Qtips everyone. Actually, I don't think this is the kind of detailing he likes.
He's living in a tent that holds about 50 of his closest friends. When they first arrived, he volunteered to watch all the gear while everyone went to a meeting, and since it lasted a long time, he got to claim his space first - corner! Score. It is super hot there, but the tent has good air conditioning.
We will keep you posted as he moves closer to home. His next stop will be another base in Kuwait, then a long flight to Germany, Maine and then finally to Oklahoma. They will hang out there for about four days. So sometime in the last week of September or possibly into the first few days of October, Chris will be home. Finally. Thank God.
love to all,
Linda Sophia
He's living in a tent that holds about 50 of his closest friends. When they first arrived, he volunteered to watch all the gear while everyone went to a meeting, and since it lasted a long time, he got to claim his space first - corner! Score. It is super hot there, but the tent has good air conditioning.
We will keep you posted as he moves closer to home. His next stop will be another base in Kuwait, then a long flight to Germany, Maine and then finally to Oklahoma. They will hang out there for about four days. So sometime in the last week of September or possibly into the first few days of October, Chris will be home. Finally. Thank God.
love to all,
Linda Sophia
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Our freshmen!
Our dear family and friends,
Lauren is all moved into her dorm at ASU - with all the other freshmen in the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts. Her roommate (Roxie) and a friend walked around the floor today and declared that they have the cleanest room on the floor. It's likely to stay that way, too!
She went to her first class today - drawing studio. What a great way to start her college career. She thinks she will really like the instructor and the class. There are only about 19 people in her class. Tomorrow she has her English and math classes. Next week she'll start her color studio class and one other mini-class that ASU requires of all incoming students.
Move in was all it should be in August in Phoenix - miserably hot and humid all day with a giant thunderstorm that night. Her room is situated in the boy's end of the floor, and that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. The floor assistant and the two peer mentors have their rooms right around her so she feels pretty protected from wild animals. We're all adjusting to life without each other but I'm so proud of how well she's taking on all the challenges so far. We'll have some pictures soon.
Our other freshman, Mr. Gunner, started high school at Veritas two weeks ago. We were a little concerned because four of his six teachers were new to Veritas. I met them all at the Dessert Social before school actually started and was pretty impressed. His classes are geometry, Latin III, humane letters (American history and literature), biology, poetry and choral music.
His choral instructor is the same one that took Lauren's choir to New York last spring. She was out all last week for family reasons, so the first day she taught his class was this Tuesday. She had them all singing right away. After a bit, she split the class in two and had only one half sing. Then cut it down to just two rows. Then she pointed her finger at Gunner and said, "It's you, you're the one with the deep voice. I knew it. At least you're in tune." He said he blushed all the way behind his ears. (She's very pretty and Lauren says that all the boys fall in love with her.) Today, she asked him to try to sing a little higher. Maybe there's such a thing as too low?
Chris has moved everything into the shipping containers and is now living sparsely with his two duffle bags (mostly heavy gear) and a backpack. We all know what this means...he really is coming home soon!! We'll keep you posted.
Love you all,
Linda Sophia
Lauren is all moved into her dorm at ASU - with all the other freshmen in the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts. Her roommate (Roxie) and a friend walked around the floor today and declared that they have the cleanest room on the floor. It's likely to stay that way, too!
She went to her first class today - drawing studio. What a great way to start her college career. She thinks she will really like the instructor and the class. There are only about 19 people in her class. Tomorrow she has her English and math classes. Next week she'll start her color studio class and one other mini-class that ASU requires of all incoming students.
Move in was all it should be in August in Phoenix - miserably hot and humid all day with a giant thunderstorm that night. Her room is situated in the boy's end of the floor, and that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. The floor assistant and the two peer mentors have their rooms right around her so she feels pretty protected from wild animals. We're all adjusting to life without each other but I'm so proud of how well she's taking on all the challenges so far. We'll have some pictures soon.
Our other freshman, Mr. Gunner, started high school at Veritas two weeks ago. We were a little concerned because four of his six teachers were new to Veritas. I met them all at the Dessert Social before school actually started and was pretty impressed. His classes are geometry, Latin III, humane letters (American history and literature), biology, poetry and choral music.
His choral instructor is the same one that took Lauren's choir to New York last spring. She was out all last week for family reasons, so the first day she taught his class was this Tuesday. She had them all singing right away. After a bit, she split the class in two and had only one half sing. Then cut it down to just two rows. Then she pointed her finger at Gunner and said, "It's you, you're the one with the deep voice. I knew it. At least you're in tune." He said he blushed all the way behind his ears. (She's very pretty and Lauren says that all the boys fall in love with her.) Today, she asked him to try to sing a little higher. Maybe there's such a thing as too low?
Chris has moved everything into the shipping containers and is now living sparsely with his two duffle bags (mostly heavy gear) and a backpack. We all know what this means...he really is coming home soon!! We'll keep you posted.
Love you all,
Linda Sophia
Friday, July 30, 2010
Visiting the Doctors
Dear Diary...sorry, wrong thing...Dear Blog,
For the last two months I've been grounded, restricted from flight duties. Just because of a little problem with vertigo. Seems my inner ear wasn't agreeing with the rest of my senses. So, my flight surgeon grounded me from flying duties until I got better. But today, there's some resolution. With a referral from my flight surgeon, I flew up to another base, Balad, and visited 2 doctors, an Audiologist and an Ear-Nose-and Throat specialist. Both couldn't find anything going on in my head...uh, make that "anything wrong" going on in my head. So I'm sending the flight surgeon their findings and hoping he'll put me back on flight status. We'll see.
So someone asked me, how did I travel up to visit these doctors in Iraq. Okay, it went like this. Since I now work in the battalion "Future Planning Cell" and know most of the flight times and routes, I scheduled to be on a flight from Taji up to Balad. I got on a helicopter at the flight line in Taji with my company. Simple enough. I know where they work.
Then, they flew me 20 minutes northeast and dropped me off at a terminal, known by the amusing name of "Catfish Hotel."
From there, I went outside, sat at a bus stop with a nice wooden, shaded bench, tried to understand the various route maps stapled on the posts, did a slow bake in the 120-degree heat, and finally a 20-passenger Kia bus pulled up. They're driven by either Indian's, Pakistani's, Fillipino's, etc., all contractors. We only stay on base, unless you count the three times that the drivers at another base tried to hijack the solitary soldier onboard. Each time, the soldier drew their weapon, and in no uncertain terms persuaded the driver that they appeared to be going the wrong way. The drivers became quickly convinced and turned around. Of course, these were native Iraqi drivers. We don't use those anymore. Must be their sense of direction which terminated them. No, the buses are safe, most of the time air conditioned, but the drivers don't speak English very well. No matter how many times I asked, "Are you going by the hospital?", different drivers would only shake their heads, no. Even though according to the maps, their route went right by it. Sheeeeeeeeeesh. That's what wore me out the day of my arrival. Lugging a backpack, body armor, and a helmet bag, standing in the heat, completely draining my 1 liter of bottled water, and riding a bus to no where...just like the Beatles song - "He's a real nowhere man, living in a nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody." Dum, dum, de dum, DUMB.
The weather visibility in our part of Iraq has been so poor that helicopter flights are on "Weather Hold." Thus, I'm on vacation. So for past 3 days, I've been living in a basement room (read that, dungeon) shared with the messiest LTC in Iraq, and 7 other empty bunks. I've got a nice lower bunk in a corner complete with a pink sheet hanging from the end to give me a sense of privacy. Who uses pink sheets in Iraq? Only the Army, I guess. Here at the hospital, I get 3 square meals a day, my own room (not really), free bus rides to the big PX (if you can find the right bus stop and route), a nice exercise room with a big screen TV, and an indoor shower. Who could ask for anything more? ...Don't answer that.
Well, I hope you're enjoying your summer. Mine's been memorable. Take lots of pictures. Sorry, I haven't figured out how to read all the Arabic script my blogsite opens up to. Maybe I can send them to Linda, and she can post them.
Much love to you all,
C-M/P/3
For the last two months I've been grounded, restricted from flight duties. Just because of a little problem with vertigo. Seems my inner ear wasn't agreeing with the rest of my senses. So, my flight surgeon grounded me from flying duties until I got better. But today, there's some resolution. With a referral from my flight surgeon, I flew up to another base, Balad, and visited 2 doctors, an Audiologist and an Ear-Nose-and Throat specialist. Both couldn't find anything going on in my head...uh, make that "anything wrong" going on in my head. So I'm sending the flight surgeon their findings and hoping he'll put me back on flight status. We'll see.
So someone asked me, how did I travel up to visit these doctors in Iraq. Okay, it went like this. Since I now work in the battalion "Future Planning Cell" and know most of the flight times and routes, I scheduled to be on a flight from Taji up to Balad. I got on a helicopter at the flight line in Taji with my company. Simple enough. I know where they work.
Then, they flew me 20 minutes northeast and dropped me off at a terminal, known by the amusing name of "Catfish Hotel."
From there, I went outside, sat at a bus stop with a nice wooden, shaded bench, tried to understand the various route maps stapled on the posts, did a slow bake in the 120-degree heat, and finally a 20-passenger Kia bus pulled up. They're driven by either Indian's, Pakistani's, Fillipino's, etc., all contractors. We only stay on base, unless you count the three times that the drivers at another base tried to hijack the solitary soldier onboard. Each time, the soldier drew their weapon, and in no uncertain terms persuaded the driver that they appeared to be going the wrong way. The drivers became quickly convinced and turned around. Of course, these were native Iraqi drivers. We don't use those anymore. Must be their sense of direction which terminated them. No, the buses are safe, most of the time air conditioned, but the drivers don't speak English very well. No matter how many times I asked, "Are you going by the hospital?", different drivers would only shake their heads, no. Even though according to the maps, their route went right by it. Sheeeeeeeeeesh. That's what wore me out the day of my arrival. Lugging a backpack, body armor, and a helmet bag, standing in the heat, completely draining my 1 liter of bottled water, and riding a bus to no where...just like the Beatles song - "He's a real nowhere man, living in a nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody." Dum, dum, de dum, DUMB.
The weather visibility in our part of Iraq has been so poor that helicopter flights are on "Weather Hold." Thus, I'm on vacation. So for past 3 days, I've been living in a basement room (read that, dungeon) shared with the messiest LTC in Iraq, and 7 other empty bunks. I've got a nice lower bunk in a corner complete with a pink sheet hanging from the end to give me a sense of privacy. Who uses pink sheets in Iraq? Only the Army, I guess. Here at the hospital, I get 3 square meals a day, my own room (not really), free bus rides to the big PX (if you can find the right bus stop and route), a nice exercise room with a big screen TV, and an indoor shower. Who could ask for anything more? ...Don't answer that.
Well, I hope you're enjoying your summer. Mine's been memorable. Take lots of pictures. Sorry, I haven't figured out how to read all the Arabic script my blogsite opens up to. Maybe I can send them to Linda, and she can post them.
Much love to you all,
C-M/P/3
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