Chris' Updates

Happy New Year, everyone! It's been an exciting one for me, with many big events. I got married, got called to active duty and deployed, and was received into the Catholic church. (I finally have pictures up in the Iraq gallery .) I've made new friends, learned new points of view, and loved every God-given day! Not to say I wouldn't rather be home; I miss everything about home, and I'm looking forward to being there again. However, there are so many opportunities here, if one opens their eyes. As for New Year's resolutions... Well, I resolve to make it back home, for starters. I don't think that one should be hard to fulfill! As much as the army likes having me here, they don't want to keep paying us silly Reservists full time. Also, I want to spend more time with my wife and my family. Once again, shouldn't be hard, as I'm spending no time with them currently. There goes the C-RAM , sounding off for the new year! Let's hope it's a good one, ...

Hello again folks! We've had so many exciting events, it's hard to know where to begin. To start, we have a new soldier working with us, Spc. Bonita. She is a transplant from one of our subordinate units who had some personality conflicts with her own people. So far, she is a little fiery at moments, but overall very friendly and easy to work with. Also, one of our section was promoted; Sgt. Antonio is a brand new NCO, and filling his new role well, taking on a lot of new responsibilities. Beyond that, I've completed all of my RCIA classes for the church, and Fr. Hotel is going to welcome me into the church tomorrow at the Christmas Eve mass. I will be receiving my baptism, first communion, and confirmation in the Catholic church. While I wish my friends and family could be with me for this huge event, I've found that being out here in Iraq has given me an incredible opportunity to forget about most of my daily routine and focus on self-improvement. I'm trying to do...

Another milestone has been passed during my time here in Iraq. I was here last month for Halloween as well, but this holiday brought a more acute feeling of being apart from home. I've grown accustomed to having to choose a family to spend the holidays with, but this year I'm away from everyone. I'm still feeling okay. I'm surrounded by my brothers in arms, and that's good enough. In the morning, I attended a special mass for Thanksgiving, and spent a few minutes afterward talking with Fr. Hotel and a few of the other church-goers. I'm really starting to feel friendships building there. It's great to have another group of people out here to have for company. After church, I worked for a couple of hours, and then Sgt. Rhino sent us home and closed up the shop early. There were few people in the offices anyway. The dining facilities (DFACs) put on a royal feast, as they usually do. It's one of two days that the military cooks put on their white chef's ...

I've updated my Kuwait photo gallery with pics from Pros vs Joes. Check 'em out!

I've got tons of exciting news (exciting to me at least), and I'm sorry I haven't written sooner. You have to believe I've been busy! To begin with, I finally passed my physical fitness test a couple of weeks ago. It has been about three years since I've passed one, and my career has been in a holding pattern because of it. But after two months of steady work, I finally managed to earn a pass, and actually scored well! A couple of days later, I was elated to learn about the good consequences of passing. My commander decided that I had shown good job performance and was an outstanding soldier all around, and since my PT was finally in order, he decided it was time for a promotion! So now, I'm earning a little more money and have a little more rank on my chest. Not only that, but as a reward for my hard work, I was selected to accompany SGT Yankee for a mini-pass to Kuwait. Normal passes are 4 days in Qatar, but this time we were sent for a special MWR mission: a ...

We have liftoff. The satellite has been working for a few days, and the wireless network has been set up. However, we still have some kinks to work out. The wireless network has potentially saved us many hours of digging trenches and laying wire... that is, if it works. We've been having issues getting it to reach all the way into the chu's, which are big tin cans and don't allow the signal through very well. As I type, I'm sitting outside, and getting a few weird looks from people passing by. But it's a small sacrifice for internet. I realized that the internet is a little like a drug for me. I never realized how much I relied upon it, but when I'm home, school, or work I have a high-quality connections with very few restrictions. But when we first got here, we had the office internet, which is very restrictive and in a public setting, or the internet cafe, which is a little bit more open but still very public. When I'm posting personal pictures in the caf...

Things have been going well, considering. The rainy season started about a week ago, and we saw more rain in 24 hours than fell all of last season, according to some of the guys who have been here the longest. This left huge puddles and lakes in the housing areas, the parking lots, everywhere. And very few places except the main roads are paved, so the ever-present dust has turned into very nice mud. I'm sure the local farmers are thrilled. We just received the last of our gear that we shipped from the states, so I finally have my raincoat and cold weather jacket. Work has been relatively slow. I did get to work on the radios of a couple of HEMTT trucks (pronounced Hemmit), which I've never worked on before. Beyond that, there's really not much going on. Church and RCIA have been going well. I asked if there was anything I could do to help during the mass. I was thinking I could be a lector, one who reads the scripture, but instead they pointed me toward a different functi...