Back at Salerno

Just wanted to let everyone know Allen got back fine and is busy as ever! He sent me this email today which I found amusing!
I finished going through the xxx's tents and a lot of them were in pretty good shape. A few things to be tossed out or left outside for someone to appropriate and that's it. But there were 2 tents that were just a mess! The worst was the one the commander, XO, and first sergeant used. I couldn't beleive the ammount of stuff left behind! Boxes of stuff, a lot of it still good but destined for either the 'flea market' outside the tent or the dumpster not much farther. I found at least 3 irons and ironing boards, a refridgerator, a microwave, a hard hat shaped like a cowboy hat, movies both pirate and factory, books, a footlocker full of empty ammo magazines, and a 6 ft stepladder. And there was more! At least I got all the extra stuff consolidated into one tent and got the rest turned in. As I understand it, Base Ops is hurting for tents to put people in. So they got 8 more of them today. I hope it helps. It's a little crazy here right now with people coming in before others leave. The lines for everything are insane! I went to the chow hall for dinner, but the line was as long as it was for Thanksgiving. The line for Subway was at least 30 people long and the line in the PX was all the way to the back wall! I went back to the tent and had some Pop Tarts because I had stuff do and no time to wait in line. I'll be glad when this settles down. Hopefully that wont be too long.

A few pictures....

As you can see, our community 'stuff' table overfloweth. We got A LOT of Chritmas cheer from A LOT of you back home. Thank you!

There was a lot of Christmas cheer in more than just our tent. These were great!

Speaking of our tent, here's LT O'Connor hard at work. At least that's wht he called it....

This is our tent. Looks cozy, doesn't it?

This is not from Christmas. This is the Uparmored Excavator I built at Bagram last
June. I had A LOT of help, thankfully. This thing just keeps taking mine hits and keeps going! I realized I hadn't out any photos of this thing on here and wanted to rectify that.

Been a while

Hey Folks!
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything here. I've got some bad news to post. My father died and I had to come home for the services and to help Mom get through it. He'd been sick for a few years and took a dramatic turn for the worse. I knew I'd be coming home soon to be there before he passed, but that wasn't the call I got. Once I got out of Salerno, things went pretty well. And pretty quick, too! I went from Salerno to Bagram on a chinook. Then I got a late night flight on a C17 to Qatar. I then had to change into civvies and fly airliner from Doha to Dubai, Dubai to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Detroit, Detroit to Charlotte. I think I had an hour or so between flights, but that was at the most. I head back today, unfortunately. Thankfully, mid April isn't as far away as it used to be! I should be back to civilian life by early May. Not long now!