Longest Drill Weekend EVER

1000 Words

2008-03-22T10:48:00.001-04:00

Back in the States

2008-03-18T23:42:00.002-04:00

Will has officially arrived back in North Carolina after a long journey!!!! The official "deployment" is now over - now it enters the 'reintegration phase'.

Welcome back to America Will.

:)

2008-03-07T17:39:00.004-05:00

The footlocker has arrived, and welcomed me home today. Just another nice step towards HOME.

The turn over

2008-03-05T02:29:00.002-05:00

The time has come and past for us to turn over our shop. It was a joyous time for all. It was also a bit difficult, we have spent 7 months making the place our own. We put many long hours into getting our mission accomplished. With a change-over the new command always wants to change things, they have their own views of ways to do things "better". One of the hardest parts of the change-over is the last day you are in the shop, you are supposed to sit and observe and just be there for questions only. I didn't realize how engrained in our work habit it was to get up and answer the phone, or help a customer at the counter. To our guys replacing us, good luck! I clearly remember the change-over with my replacement. His advice was to find out what works for me, and go with it.

As I write this blog post I am listening to Circle of Life from the Lion King soundtrack. I feel it is a fitting song.

I have a small request. The guys in the shop and myself would like to write Noah, unfortunately in our mass cleanup I seemed to have lost the address. If someone can email a snailmail address to me, we would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks
Will

"March"ing the Transitions

2008-03-02T07:30:00.004-05:00

Communication and updates here on the blog might be a little sparse for a bit - but this is a decent thing because of why. Here's a bit of an update with some nice news about this deployment.

First up, March marks the 6th month of 7 month orders in Iraq. Seems like it has taken forever to get here, but we've finally arrived to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Will is currently involved with the transition to send their unit home. This entire transition process has quite a few more steps and stages than I would have predicted. Documentation needs to be detailed to define status of everything. Picture looking ahead and knowing you have one week to train someone to be you and they'll never have the opportunity to ask questions after that training.

time marches on

2008-02-21T23:11:00.002-05:00

One of the things that is hard to do here is keep up with the "stateside time" of things. When you do the same thing 6.5 days a week day in and day out, your mind tends to forget that all of a sudden "oh another week has gone by". I can remember how how it was getting off the plane for the first time in Kuwait, but I could not tell you what I did 3 weeks ago Monday, except for it was a monday so it was more than likely busy in the shop. This is the only way I can figure our Army counterparts are able to cope with 15 month deployments. You just get in a routine and go with it.

Children never cease to amaze us. A couple of the care packages we received had valentines made by various aged school children. Though I do enjoy chocolate, some of the pieces of chocolate were held to the cards with so much glue that I am not sure its ok to eat it. (No to what you are thinking only kids are allowed to eat glue and not get sick from it ).

Sgt E

Thank you for the boxes

2008-02-13T02:08:00.002-05:00

I received two boxes from work yesterday. Someone is the devil for putting oatmeal peanut butter cookies in there! I guess it is ok, we have all had our weigh-ins and completed our PFTs for the deployment. Yes, we still ran a PFT in a combat zone, granted it was not a requirement to take our Physical Fitness Test for score we still ran one. Looking forward to the end.

Exciting Step

2008-02-12T06:44:00.000-05:00

At the end of this week, I am going to remove Will's address from this blog. His address at some point will become inactive while he is deployed and packages no longer be able to find him. My suggestion is to get anything out before the end of the week, if you were anxious to get anything out (includes packages or letters - anything through any US postal services). After this week, no more :).

Overall, Will is doing well on supplies and goodies. In addition the guys are currently trying to consume or thin out what they have over there to make packing at some point down the road lighter!

Time to pass along the support to the other deployed folks who need it more. He's grateful for all the support he's received. This is a wonderful milestone in the deployment as well.

*big cheers*
-Carolyn

(This does not impact MotoMail or emails for the time being)

Things I won't miss in Iraq

2008-02-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

As I wind up my last few months in the big desert, I can think of a few things I will not miss. Most recently I will not miss the fact that it does in fact rain here. It has rained here a few times a month. The other night after I got back from chow I walked into my shop and noticed that my rifle was covered with mud! It was raining, but the wind was blowing so strong that the rain turned to mud as it came down.

Everyone back home is getting ready for the superbowl. I can't wait, we have mandatory fun for the superbowl. Mandatory attendance to watch the superbowl. I am really looking forward to being awake at 2 in the morning. I wonder if the commercials will be as funny with the lack of sleep?

Sgt E

Support the Troops

2008-01-21T23:46:00.001-05:00

Snow in Iraq

2008-01-11T23:08:00.000-05:00

As many of you may seen on the news, it snowed in Baghdad the other day. Yes it also snowed where we are stationed as well. Big white fluffy flakes that did not stick as they hit the ground. I think we officially hit our "rainy" season out here with our first measurable amount of rain. If I had to estimate I would say .4 to .5 tenths. Not much by back home standards, but it was enough to wet all the sand and leave mud puddles everywhere. It is also alot of rain for a place that doesn't get over 2 inches a year.

On the lighter side of things, Myrtle "Frank" the Turle was brought into the world yesterday. Carolyn sent a chia pet over for christmas. The long name comes from I wanted to name it Myrtle for obvious reasons (mainly because it rhymed). While a certain Twizzler hoarding Marine wanted to name it Frank. I compromised (he still claims victory due to the fact he has been a Sgt longer than me...I humor him).

Kicking off 2008

2008-01-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Will!!! This year will bring you back home which as I see it as a very happy new year. Here's to a speedy rest of the deployment :)

Thank you

2007-12-20T06:28:00.000-05:00

Thank you for all the goodies I have received in the last few days. We are going to have to go run an extra mile or two just to work off all the cookies and peanut brittle. Hopefully all of you back home are getting ready to enjoy your nice break off from work for the Holidays :)

To be a P38 or not to be a P38

2007-12-18T04:55:00.000-05:00

A question was posted to me in an email and I figured the all the readers would like to know the answer. The P38 is not still issued to American service members anymore due to the fact that MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) are all in bags. You can still buy replicas of them in the PX back in the states for a few dollars. When the question was originally posted to me, I thought the submitter was referring to the Walther P38 pistol that "an old timer" had given them. A nice gift! Then I did a little research and I assume it is the can opener that was the gift. Either that or it was a P-38 lightning (a WWII aircraft). Ahh the military and its acronyms

To read about the P-38 can opener

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_can_opener

to read about the Walther P38

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_P38

to read about the P-38 Lightning

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_Lightning

Thank you

2007-12-17T14:32:00.000-05:00

To the Ladies of Upper Essex Church,

Thank you for all the goodies. I have shared them all with my fellow Marines in my shop. I look forward to heading home in a few months. Have a Merry Christmas.

Sgt Ellis

Winter Changes

2007-12-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

Silly as it may seem, chocolate is a luxury out here. It's getting better now that the winter months are here; they will ship the stuff over without it getting ruined in the transport over. The PX had tons of snickers imported the other day. Do we buy just 1 snickers? No, we bought a whole box!

The weather went from hot during the day and warm at night to warm during the day and cold as soon as the sun thinks it is going to set. This took place in the span of a week it seemed, then again it might actually have been a month. I am not really sure as it doesn't feel like the middle of December.

I appreciate all the Christmas cards I have received in the past week or so. They get hung up inside my little workspace in our shop. We are all missing you guys back home and can't wait to get back. On a positive note, today is our 100th day in country for our band of misfits.

To you, From Iraq

2007-12-07T06:39:00.000-05:00

-Shipping & Receiving

Base PX 101

2007-12-03T10:28:00.001-05:00

I am not sure if it’s a funny story, but it's an odd perspective on the PX system here in Iraq.

I will confirm the story of another entertaining milblogger in the fact that the PX has lacy frilly women’s underwear. I am pretty sure they are not combat/field expedient. Maybe they wear them in their cans to feel like a woman in the desert? I guess I have my rifle to help me feel like a man, so whatever works? I jest, their underwear are not a hot ticket item for some reason.

Another aspect of our PX system here, the prices don’t match. The PX on mainside is much larger than the one we have on lakeside. A 25 pack of DVD-R’s on lake side is 1.50 cheaper than on mainside? I am not sure how this works but whatever, I’ll buy the cheaper ones.

Cheese in a can anyone? I am pretty sure no one in the states has the stuff anymore, because they shipped it all overseas to sell in our PX (or at least all the expired ones).

Black Friday Sale in Iraq

2007-11-29T09:46:00.000-05:00

It cracks me up, Will sent am email to me talking about the Black Friday Sale at the PX over there. You can't get much more of a captive audience than the guys living on the Bases, yet they still offer sales and promotions.

On a completely different topic, the deadline for holiday shipping is coming up. I believe they'd like the packages by Dec 4th, but the 11th is the Priority Flat Rate Shipping deadline. Typically packages sent to him have been arriving in about a week. I expect it to be slower around the holidays. It has gotten cooler there, so things melting are not the same risk they were at the beginning.

Time distortion:

2007-11-16T07:54:00.000-05:00

I was on the phone last night talking about the normal things from back home. Who is stirring up trouble, the weather, sports etc... The comment was made that next Thursday would be Thanksgiving. I was taken aback. Here it is less than a week away from a major American holiday and it had completely snuck up on me. We have a couple of civilian contractors working in our shop and they said Wal-Mart was already putting up Christmas decorations! This shocked me. Christmas is not even a thought on my mind. It's not that I don't care about these things, its just we are not inundated with the commercialism of American culture out here so the holidays sneak up on us. Actually, we still have a Halloween decoration up in one of our vans, a little witch on a broomstick that someone had sent over here from their family. I think it will be here for Valentines Day; perhaps we'll leave it up for the next guys!

Chow hall food on the recycle.

2007-11-15T07:24:00.000-05:00

On a typical night you can always get hamburgers (vegetarian only), hotdogs, onion rings, French fries and grilled cheese (they make really good grilled cheese here). Your typical style American high in fat caloric intake. There is usually a choice of two main dishes. They have about 14 different main dishes they choose to serve here. Mix and match two main dishes with the staple of rice or mashed potatoes, and there are usually two veggie choices.

I am not sure who eats wax beans or why? They look like sickly string beans (green beans to some). Canned corn and cauliflower are staples in the vegetable mix-up. When you run out of enough of one kind to serve the base, you then serve mixed veggies.

Anyone else remember the swan pizzas? I do, and they have them in Iraq. It must be one heck of a delivery fee, but the pizzas are always available for chow. You can also get various types of sandwiches or a meager salad. For a combat zone the chow hall here is actually very well stocked.

what you do while not working?

2007-11-09T10:49:00.000-05:00

When not working, I am usually sleeping, eating, showering. I usually take a few minutes each night to read or play some PSP games. A lot of times after work we'll just sit around joking about the day (or complaining as the case maybe a lot)

reply to previous comments and questions

2007-11-04T12:03:00.000-05:00

As far as chow we usually take a lunch and a dinner break for an hour. It takes about that long to walk there, get food and eat it. Breakfast I usually choose to sleep through! Cleaning my room? I am only in it to sleep, so cleaning usually involves sweeping the floor about every other day. There is a laundry facility here on base, so two times a week we bring our dirty laundry with us to work and then we put it in a big box and the TCN's (third country nationals) will wash it for us. It comes back in the laundry bag all nicely folded! Definitely not our grandfathers war (if you can even claim we are truly at war anymore)!

-W

Marine Hording

2007-11-01T09:58:00.001-04:00

I am sure it comes from our training of having to do without, but what possesses Marines to horde ‎perfectly good items from the chow hall? I really don't know what causes this. I do know that you ‎can get 8 cans of soda in your cargo pockets (not mine per se, but a friend). I also have ‎witnessed 15 cans of "Rip-It" coming out of the chow hall by another Marine. Rip-Its are about ‎the same size as the baby soda cans you can get at Wal-Mart back home. Today I was guilty of ‎this action as well. We needed coffee creamer back at the shop, so I walked out with 12 packets ‎of creamer. 12 packets! That is a weeks worth of dairy creamer for me! Near-beer (or NA beer), ‎is another hot commodity. Non-alcoholic beer seems to go very quickly. Somehow our small ‎section of 7 Marines now has horded close to 18 cans of this stuff. It’s not even that good! I ‎imagine its going to be a tough transition when you go to a place that has "grab your own" sodas ‎with the meal not to just stuff 4 in your pockets and try to walk out when we all get home.‎

didn't plan to do this in Iraq...

2007-10-25T19:27:00.000-04:00

Ugg I have phone watch...it's a stupid post that was invented to punish certain people, now we all have to do it. I sleep next to a phone in the office, if it rings I have to go wake up the Major....but if the phone doesn't wake me up, it will automatically forward to his room anyway, completely pointless.

No fridge in the office?

2007-10-18T13:48:00.000-04:00

Not a problem for us! The air outlet portion of a standard window ac unit (like the 4 we have powering our shop) will hold 2-3 soda sized cans perfectly. Any more than 3 and the A/C will start to ice over on the front.

weather relief

2007-10-06T07:36:00.000-04:00

It is finally cooling off a bit in this place. In the mornings it is a nice 70 degrees and sunny. Although twice in the past week it has clouded over and threatened to rain. I assume they were rain clouds and not just overcast from all the burning in the dump next door. During the day it is getting to the mid 90's to low 100's, which is a big relief from when I arrived and it was 120+. Everymorning I sweep my can (aka my trailer I sleep in), and every evening there is a fine layer of dirt on the floor. Not sure where it all comes from (well outside would be the obvious answer). I want to thank everyone for all the goodies I've received in the past week. It means a lot getting mail and packages.

Sgt Ellis

Promotion

2007-10-02T09:04:00.000-04:00

"When people ask what I do out here the easiest way to explain it is I am the UPS/FEDEX/ and USPS delivery guy for the shop. Actually I don't deliver anything, I organize and sort and then let them know their stuff is ready to pick up :)

-W"

Congrats to Will!! He was promoted to Sergeant on October 1st. This has been something he's been chasing for a bit now, and it is nice to fine earn the title and recognition. His address will change slightly now on the first line. Update your MotoMail accounts and mailing addresses to refer to "Sgt" rather than "Cpl". His mailing address will always be current on the blog.

make mouths happy

2007-09-22T07:11:00.000-04:00

I got the goodie box from work. I love it...yummmmm It made my morning to see all the yummy treats in there. Sgt bowen and I have already eaten half a bag of twizzlers. I was ordered to "hide them". I put them on a shelf and was chastised for not hiding them LOL. I guess I am supposed to save the Sgt from his own will power.

Pass the A1

2007-09-19T13:51:00.000-04:00

The other day we were sitting in the chow hall wondering, "Where is the steak sauce?" Sure we all came to war, but Wednesday night is surf and turf night and here we are eating steak and shrimp in the desert. Of course we were only joking about not having steak sauce on the table. One has to wonder though. I can't say its terribly fun here, I still havn't made it to the MWR center yet or the base movie theater. One good thing about my section's job is the simple fact that all of a sudden someone will go "Wow its 17:00 already" and its then you realize you've worked all day and really havn't noticed the time.

-W

working hours

2007-09-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

"Sorry I have been kinda MIA recently. They have posted us on 16 hour mandatory work days. We really don't have any free time!

-W"

Induction

2007-09-12T07:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we inducted over 100 pieces of gear. A typical day is around 20-30. Inducting gear consists verifying all of their paperwork is correct, and filling out more paperwork, as well as logging the gear into the shop. You have to love grunt units. They turned in 37 pieces of the same type of radio. A little motorola hand radio. Apparently they are not desert proof. When asked "How do you break 37 pieces of the same gear?" The response was "Easy, you line them all up and then run over them with a Humvee.

Tired

2007-09-08T08:53:00.000-04:00

I've heard from Will and things are getting up and running in his new job. Right now he's still getting acclimated to all of these changes.

He's been super busy and worn out. It sounded like his days have been a blur between WORK, meals, and sleep with work taking up a good 12 or more hours a day - 7 days a week. He hasn't had much of a chance to do anything other than those three things.

Evidently a common thing is getting sick when you first arrive. Your body needs to adjust to the foreign country just as if you were traveling. Different things in the food or water than what you are used to. At the moment, it sounds like that is his hurdle he's facing.

MotoMails have been arriving to him at the address, so I'm glad that system is up and working. He says they arrive sorta like bills. You rip off the three sides, and get the letter/email printed for you inside.

He also passed along this URL:
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/90398464FCA173998525734F00454E64?opendocument

Arrived and How to Communicate

2007-09-03T12:51:00.000-04:00

Will is now officially at his 'home' in Iraq for the next 7 or so months. He was able to call on Saturday and say he was there. He says the chow hall had a wide variety and was happy to see things from home like "Coke" were available. He is very grateful for the kindness of CEC for the phone cards. They work perfectly and certainly help as a morale boost.

I have moved forward with trying out a few communication techniques. I want to get a feel of the different types so I could answer or help anyone else with questions. Check out the post early on this blog about "Investigating communication" for specific details about these avenues.

First I called the post office and requested the Military Care package set. That was super easy. About half a week later a big box appeared with great supplies in it. They shipped me 6 boxes (of 3 flat rate sizes), a role of tape, customs forms, address stickers, and the baggies for everything. I have completed my first box which will go out tomorrow morning. From the address link on the side bar, I've linked to an example of how to fill out the customs form. It was VERY helpful to me, since this is all new to me. From what I understand it should be $8 and some change to ship this package. I've read that you should not mix food and hygiene style products in one box. So the box I'm sending has no food, but other goodies that can be useful. I will try my best to send them about once a month, so if you want something to go in one let me know ;).

Next up, I've also tried MotoMail. I think I really like it, and once it is confirmed that all went as planned with it, I think I'd recommend it to anyone fairly computer savvy who would like to send letters or notes to our troops. MotoMail is a hybrid email / letter provider for the troops. We write into the system similar to an email, then it is printed at his base and handed to him like a letter. I've written one and it appears it was printed for delivery 14 hours after I wrote it. Not too bad of a deal. It stepped me through the process for setting up his address in the system. If this first test one went well, I plan to send these on a fairly regular basis. Maybe to tell him what I've been up to that day or any little tidbits from home. They are super easy and hopefully if it all went well a great way of adding a regular taste of home.

Kuwait

2007-08-31T08:57:00.000-04:00

"Hi,
so we are in Kuwait for a few days here. Oh man is it hot. It feels like an oven. When we landed yesterday it was about 125 on the tarmac. Dry heat lol ok, its still hot. Oh did I mention the A/c in our living area went out this morning. Wooo its hot in there. Not bad though I walked to the USO center here when they opened and waited an hour for a computer. Its very slow! I saw the blog comments and the blog picture. The breakfast chow was very good, but this is mainly an army base. I hope everything is going good back in the states :)

- Will"

Also - I edited the last post after it had been emailed. If you haven't seen the great picture that the Maine Troop Greeters took - stop by and check it out. www.WillinIraq.blogspot.com

... and he has left for war

2007-08-29T17:57:00.000-04:00

Well reality finally hit hard today. Today was the day where a new phase begins. Will has boarded the plane and left American soil. Will described it best with "Surreal". It's crazy to think that life can change so much with a flight. The blog will be updated as soon as we know he's safe and settled at his base. It could be a bit of time, so we all will need to sit tight and be patient.

I'm so grateful for the Maine Troop Greeters. Big thanks!!! They are a volunteer based group that makes sure they hug all the troops coming and going. Will was able to drop a quick call from one of their available cell phones. Here's an article about them and the wonderful part they play in the deployments of our troops.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0124/p01s01-usmi.html

Good chance they got a photo which should be posted soon at http://mainetroopgreeters.smugmug.com/Troop%20Pictures%20by%20Month/357893
I'll post the photo if I can find him!

*** Edit - Robin found the best picture ever!!! Here's the URL for it if I doesn't show up. http://mainetroopgreeters.smugmug.com/gallery/3391495#189577122

Iraq Address

2007-08-26T00:47:00.002-04:00

****Removed - Address no longer active ******

Field Day

2007-08-24T11:02:00.001-04:00

Finally a Field Day like most people across the country think of field day! After playing soccer for 2.5 hours we get the rest of the day off to start packing our gear and mailing stuff home. They tell us we leave sometime in the next week! Everyone here is ready to kick this thing off, and get over to Iraq and fix some electronic gear!

Training before war

2007-08-16T15:27:00.000-04:00

Schedule of events leading to a cycle of training:
1630: Training might happen tomorrow, Stand by
1633: Training will happen tomorrow, time to be determined, Stand by
1645: Training will start @ 5:15 tomorrow morning be there
-----------------------------------------------------
0420: Get up shower, find gear needed for training
0450: Meet with rest of platoon for morning accountability
0500: Move off to rally point
0515: Wait at rally point for 7-ton trucks to transport
1030: Trucks finally show up
1045: Arrive at armory, no weapons available, Call important people, they cancel.

Rinse Repeat for tomorrow

6 Flags

2007-08-07T01:11:00.001-04:00

While on pre-deployment block leave Carolyn and I went to 6-Flags in IL. A very cool place. One thing that struck me as humorous was as I was walking in the park I had to pass through a metal detector. What seemed rather twisted in that bizarre kind of way was the person monitoring the metal detector was of Middle Eastern descent. He had a very thick accent and it was obvious he recently had immigrated to the states. How funny, in prolly a month the roles will be reversed. Yet, he is guarding our theme parks, which are capitalism at its finest ($3.50 for a 20 oz. coke out of a machine anyone?), while I will be guarding his country (I'm going with he was Iraqi here for sake of argument) making sure no one blows it up.

I finished reading Colby Buzzell's book "My War Killing Time in Iraq". Colby was a 240 gunner back in 03-04 in Iraq. His mission was to "punish the deserving". We Marines would have called it "go get some". Its a very quick read for those interested in an honest outlook on military life. A lot of the observations are cross-branch for the military. OK, I am not going to shamelessly plug his book anymore because well he's making good money off of it now, and he had a way cooler blog than I do ;)

(Jim, if you read this, I know I have violated about a dozen grammer/punctuation rules but I'm tired )

-W

Home on leave

2007-07-31T13:10:00.000-04:00

I'm home on leave for a few days before we do our final push toward the big desert "over there". *Sigh* someone called me this morning @ 0730 to tell me they were up (present and accounted for). I guess they didn't get the memo I was on leave. I wonder if its too late to relay that message at 1 pm?

Will

Duty part 2

2007-07-19T12:38:00.000-04:00

To answer questions that have been rasied. No they do not provide explicit directions on what to do if the building moved. Fortunately the military is no different than the civilian sector of the work place. I had 3 chain of commands. Typically as a duty you should have 1 chain word gets passed, information flows down the rank structure. Since 3 companies have Marines in the barracks, three OODs(officer of the day) felt the need to check on their building. Most likely because had the building been stolen then there would not have been a telephone to call them to let them know. So for barracks duty,since I was the fourth man from the top or next to last from bottom depending on your current viewpoint, I had 9 different bosses spread amoung 3 different agendas.

-Will

Duty

2007-07-18T15:17:00.000-04:00

Today I landed Barracks duty. Its a 24 hour unarmed post. I am the Cpl who acts as the duty non-commissioned officer (DNCO). I have a faithful companion who is my assistant the ADNCO. Its rather a mundane task of making sure a building stays where it is supposed to be. I have a 12x12 room (luckily with air) that has a telephone and a desk, and about 4 years worth of Maxium magazines (I am not over exaggerating here). We actually have been rather busy today with opening the doors for the various maintenance people that stop by. I feel like a mall security guard, I have a shiney buckle on my duty belt. Picture a big batman style belt but OD green and without a grappling hook. A grappling hook would make duty more interesting though. I wouldn't have to use the stairs to sneak up on people smoking on the 3rd deck.

Whats in an ELMACO

2007-07-17T17:32:00.000-04:00

An ELMACO is short for Electronics Maintenance Company. If it's a radio or a telephone our shop is trained to open it up and fix it. We also will receive other pieces of gear such as telephone switch boards and a nifty little spy plane called a dragon-eye. The dragon-eye is a little styrofoam plane that is designed to fly over an area and survey it without endangering the troops. Many of you have seen it on shows such as modern military marvels etc. The gear is great and is designed to break apart on landing, no big deal. Unfortunately units usually forget about the building or trees in between where they are surveying and where they tell the plane to land, resulting in the plane hitting objects faster than anticipated.

PRC-119 = Personal Radio Communications. Its one of the main radio's the Marine corps is currently using. There are about a million different configurations for this actual radio. Then it is no longer called just a PRC-119. No we make it confusing by sometimes hooking two of them together and sticking them in a humvee, amplifier or no amp. Fixing radios is what I spent 3 months in my secondary school once upon a time in 29 palms.

Then I checked into my unit and they didn't fix radio's, they only fixed telephones! More on that later.

OUCH!

2007-07-10T14:05:00.000-04:00

Will hasn't even left the states yet and they are already taking under-utilized body parts from him! Wednesday he will end the day with 4 fewer wisdom teeth from what he woke up with. Fortunately the Marines are kind enough to allow for a tiny bit of recovery time.

Since I haven't heard too many stories about the wonderful memories of the removal / recovery, I shall keep my fingers crossed for an easy removal and fast recovery.

PS - Any Marine at Camp Lejeune want to do good dead? Will is going to need a Dairy Queen Blizzard or a Steak and Shake milkshake delivered. I'll owe you one! :)

Sunset

2007-07-04T13:23:00.000-04:00

If you pretend it actually is a sunset over the water. No really, there just happens to be a barracks in the way and or a few trees.

Mr. Pox

2007-06-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

Marines will charge a hill toward gun fire because we are told to do so, we will show tremendous courage and self-sacrifice when it comes to doing the impossible. Yet when told to go to medical many of us simply break down. I went to medical last week and was informed I needed 3 shots and some blood drawn. One of these shots being a smallpox shot. A show of hands how many older Americans and or prior service members have the luxury of knowing exactly what I speak of? I read the pamphlet given to me. I then read the symptoms for the shot. I liked my odds of getting smallpox as to putting up with the symptoms for the next 3-4 weeks. Another side effect of my volley of shots is I can snort Anthrax and potentially only get really sick now.

You know what docs need more of? Humor. Doc doesn't really like it when you ask how good he is at drawing blood. It was a simple question, I don't like seeing needles stick in me. I also don't like the thought of you poking around my arm trying to find a vein. To the doc that drew my blood, "Lighten up". It was only a joke when I said you have one shot to draw my blood, then we are using yours! No really a joke Ha Ha Ha (forced laugh).

Thanks to CEC!

2007-06-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

You guys are so awesome. I opened up my box to be amazed by all the goodies in it. My Sgt did complain the box was a bit heavy when he had to carry it from the company office. So I bribed him later with some goodies :)

I miss being around you guys, you truly are an extended family.

Will

Happy Birthday Will - 6-27-07

2007-06-26T09:11:00.000-04:00

I'm writing this on Tuesday, but the emails to the subscribers will come out early Wednesday morning. Hopefully we'll all have a chance to join you here for wishing you well!

Happy 29th Birthday Will!!! With the ever changing face of hallmark, I guess we will make this our own little Hallmark store to celebrate holidays with you! While it would be a blast to go somewhere for dinner or the Taste of Chicago, I have complete faith that you'll go somewhere fun and have a beer or so with your buddies out there!

Take Care!!!

3rd week in Lejeune

2007-06-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning after payday on a Marine Corps base. It is very calm and serene. I am in "boots and utes" (boots-an-youtes)which is a slang term for uniform minus cammie blouse. I am going on a short 2.5 - 3 mile run with one of the guys here. He needs some extra running.

After reorganizing the shop for the 3rd time in as many weeks, apparently I am in the S & R section, Shipping and Recieving. We are the backbone of the shop, gear comes in paper work is tracked. We are inventory control for all the sections.

There was a flak jacket class for a small group of us this week when we were issued the new and improved flak jacket. Flak jacket = armor worn to protect Marines from bursting amunitions such as grenade shrapnel and small arms fire upto 9 mm. They put metal plates in it to protect us from rifle rounds, all complete it's about a 25 lb vest. We received our jackets from supply and after dumping the contents out on the floor, we noticed there was about 15 pieces to this contraption. Yeah not a big fan of lots of little pieces to keep up with. 3 hours later we have a completed flak jacket with all the little pieces attached.

Mailing Address

2007-06-09T08:36:00.000-04:00

While in Lejeune here is my mailing address

Cpl Ellis William F
2nd Supply BN 2nd MLG Maint CO 3rd PLT
PSC 20128 Camp Lejeune NC 28542

Spreadsheet...Database...its all the same

2007-06-06T22:48:00.000-04:00

Apparently in the Marine Corps a spreadsheet is a database. Sometimes even a database is really just a fancy spreadsheet. You really don't correct officers when they tell you they have this wonderful database that someone made for them that tracks all this information and then when you look at the icons on their screen its just a link to an .xls file (for all you in non-geek land that is an excel file). You smile and go "wow sir, I can see where that would help you". All the while you are looking for a quick exit because the project that normally would take 4 days has been promised in 2.

Another common misconception is that just because you task a Private to type the data in your "database". Doesn't mean he/she really cared about what went in it. I kid you not, Alex had a database, errr umm a spreadsheet, where the PFC "guessed" what the social security number that was written on the paper was. We won't go into the correct course of action for the Marine to follow (it includes looking up on the computer what the correct soc # is, in one of the other 300 spreadsheets). At least he highlighted in orange the cell to let us know he "guessed" at the value. OnePurdue would be proud of his color choices!

1st week in Lejeune

2007-06-04T18:12:00.000-04:00

After many days of sitting around and waiting to be told to sit around and wait some more, we finally made it to Lejeune. The chow hall is about a mile away from the barracks (really that is all Marines care about is chow). This means we get a few more dollars a day while I am activated. I think I am now making a whopping 1.64 an hour (Marines care about pay as well). We got a bit of time off this past weekend and went to the beach. Yes there was a small tropical storm, but eh who cares? I'll try to post the pictures later. For those of you waiting on an address, I've been given an address and is has changed twice in just as many days. I think I'll wait till they get it right before I post it

Photos from beach excursion (actually mostly us just getting stuck).

http://picasaweb.google.com/will.purdue/Beach6_2_07

Indy News Coverage

2007-05-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

Here’s the story that Indy news covered about Will’s group going over to Iraq. I'd say they covered the story well with getting the story correct :)

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6584117

Quantico Training

2007-05-16T08:51:00.000-04:00

I am back from my 2 week AT in Quantico. I learned many "useful" things I can take with me to Iraq. Marine Logistics at its best we had 380 Marines, 2 buses (44 persons per), 4 seven tons (16 persons per) and approximately 5-6 Humvees (8 persons per), no matter how you slice that it equals a 2.5 hour travel time to a training site 30 minutes away. The most useful thing I got out of the training was we got a chance to know the Marines we will be going over with. You quickly learn who is competent, and who needs help.

If you are in the Quantico area I highly recommend visiting the USMC national museum.

Here are some photos I took while on AT.
http://picasaweb.google.com/will.purdue/Quantico

New Features to stay current

2007-05-02T14:03:00.000-04:00

In addition to an RSS field into your favorite feed reader, you can now subscribe to get an email that updates have taken place on the Blog. Check out the side bar with subscription options.

Success!

2007-04-26T10:10:00.000-04:00

First of all, A big thanks to Carolyn and her parents for a very successful open house. Secondly thanks for all of you that took time to come. It really means a lot to have friends and coworkers show their support. As soon as I get home and download the pictures off the camera I'll post a few I took :)

Semper Fi
Cpl Ellis

Comments & Purpose of Blog

2007-04-19T14:59:00.000-04:00

This blog will contain the most up-to-date information regarding mailing address, needs, as well as updates to life during deployment and messages to all.

Will may occasionally post to everyone
I will also post items as I learn new information or post to pass along messages
Everyone can post comments or ask questions

To add something if you do not have a blogger or gmail account you can post comments as "Anonymous" and simply sign the comment like a typical email --Carolyn

Investigating Communication Methods

2007-04-12T09:15:00.000-04:00

Without real information or facts, I turn to the internet to provide a bit more information about what's in store. I think I've done quite well learning about what it might be like, how to communicate, what to send, and how to send things.

I'll do my best to gather this together for everyone to have the resources I've found that seem useful.

USPS Mail

Flat rate boxes are about the size of a shoebox, and cost around 8-9 dollars to send to Iraq (they have other sizes as well)
USPS office offers "Military Care Package Kit" which are free boxes, with Customs forms.
Advice about packaging, addressing
Easy ideas to send in a package (commonly requested items)

MotoMail

MotoMail is a email / printed lettter hybrid system that the Marines provide to a fast physical letter to the Marine.
Once you have an account with the Marine's information you can write a letter from home into their system, it will go through their processes, then be printed up and handed to the Marine (often with 24-48 hours)
Link to MotoMail

Open House

2007-03-27T16:33:00.000-04:00

We will be hosting an Open House on April 25th, 2007.

Check out the invite located at [here]

Hope to see you there.

Preliminary Timeline of Events

2007-03-26T14:18:00.000-04:00

Prep Work

Sunday March 4th, 2007 5:30 PM = News was passed while in formation
April 12, 2006 Last Day at Purdue
April 13- 15, 2007 = April Drill Weekend
April 28 - May 15th = Annual Training somewhere
May 19-20 = May Drill Weekend

Deployment

May 22, 2007 = Begin Active status
June = stateside training
July - Feb = Iraq
Feb -? = stateside wrap up

Please attend an Open House on Wednesday April 25, 2007 after work. (details to follow)