Moving on...

As I mentioned yesterday, many of us, from the original crew will be moving to other projects, some have yet to be announces. As is the norm around here, everybody has unconfirmed stories about how bad things are at other bases. If someone starts a story with "I heard..." it is usually BS and if it ends with "...they said" you can bet that someone is stretching the facts a bit. But still, the not knowing is what gets to just about everyone. The bad side to all of this is that some of the folks that do not deal with change very well decide to taking it on the rest of us. Again, this is part of the game that we are all playing right now. Needless to say, tension is high and for good reason. We, NMCB 18 are represented in every corner of this country but thanks to the power of the web and sat phones rumors and in some cases bad news, are only a click away. And not just on our end, oh no...

Stateside, our immediate family members were invited to sign up for an on line open forum. This should be a great way for folks to keep informed and do the whole support group thing. From what I have read, it is being used to spread some viscious rumors about what we are doing out here. According to the forum we are all sleeping around, partying and just raising all kinds of hell. (not necessarily in that order either) Is this happening in some places, at some bases. Yup. But not everyone is doing it. All it takes is a couple of bad apples to turn this morale thing on its head.

Some of our counterparts have headed home on emergency leave, family emergencies, loss of loved ones etc. In some cases the strain of the deployment was too great and so the decision was made to step out of the relationship now. And the command will not, in most cases, allow for these folks to head home to deal with these types of situations. So for the next two months or so we are forced to move forward with all of this excess weight. It bites.

But back to this internet thing...

Obviously, I am taking advantage of it. I'm keeping my gente up to date with what is going on and this is making it easier for me to keep my journal on track and up to date and it has allowed for me to post some cool pics too.

Pic 1: Alfa Company, Road Crew. L to R. Woody, Bulldog, Shawn, Marty, Johnny and Z.
Pic 2: Our base chapel and the medical department. Notice the terrain. It takes it's toll on knees, toes etc. Especially with the average age of our unit being 37. Bunch of old farts out here...ha!