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04:48 EST
Ramblings of a Deployed Mind
From the confines of Camp Leatherneck
ALMAR/ALFAM/ALFRDS,
Another week in the books and I couldn’t be happier at the moment. This week fly by because of another round of inspections, this time NATO decided to visit us all the way from Belgium. After prepping, very little, and allowing NATO to get settled in, we started our inspection at roughly 1400. By 1800, we were done. We have prepared so well and had every ready to go, that the three day inspection lasted 4 hours. If I must say, that’s pretty damn good. We received glowing remarks as the best Regional Command in theater…I wouldn’t expect anything less and Brian and I are pretty good at what we do. I’ll give most of the credit to him since he is the Manager and I just supervise. Either way, we sent them on their merry way the next day with RC(SW) Coins for their troubles. We are still trying to get to the NATO Schools in Italy though, so we are keeping in close contact with them. Right now I am scheduled for the end of the month and Brian in December, we don’t think we’ll go due to commitments, so we’re gonna try and get our replacements to take the slots…we are good guys. The rest of the work week has been just as busy as day one. Trying to figure out plans of what goes home and to whom and how has been quite a process. We brought Chris out from DC to take a look at all the work out here and do his inspections and we’ve kept him 2 weeks longer than what we were supposed to. If he’s nice, we’ll let him go next week sometime… after all the work and processes are complete. Again, it’s been a productive deployment from our side; we’ve accomplished way more than we set out to and it’s going to benefit the Marine Corps and Afghanistan as a whole when we leave…so we have the right to feel good sometimes, regardless of what people think we do.
I’m a little late in sending this out again this weekend, but I participated in the DANCON MARCH AFGHANISTAN 2011. It’s supposed to be a 25k march or run with a 20lb to 55lb pack. The march ended up being 16.5 miles long and I ended up weighing my pack at 51 pounds. I walked with MGySgt Kirby and we finished in 4 hours and 17 minutes…not to bad to two of the oldest guys in the section.
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| MSgt Weber & MGySgt Kirby |
The short, but hot shower was nice. Especially after last Sunday’s marathon and me losing a toe nail this week, I was glad and fortunate to do this one with the Danish. We are preparing for the December Danish Marathon on Dec 4th, but I believe I’ll only be doing the half Marathon and not the full…my body needs to relax a minute before it rebels. I know it’s going to be extremely sore tomorrow morning and rightfully so. We did receive nice medals and certificates for our troubles though.
Kirstin and Kara had pretty good weeks from what I gathered. I’m able to talk to Kara after she gets off of school and before her parental units get home. They are at the Great Wolf Lodge this weekend for Kirstin’s birthday. I can’t believe my little bird turns 9 on Monday…OMG!!! SHE TURNS NINE!!! She is such an awesome little girl and for every one’s information, she seems to be doing great since being put on Remicade. So far, so good, so that is awesome! I hope she has. I’ll say thank you now to those who sent gifts and cards.
A few other important dates this week…our official 8th Month Mark!! Woot, woot…what more can I say about that!?!?!?! Probably the holiday most important to me (minus Jesus’ birthday) is the Marine Corps Birthday! November 10th means a lot to me and it’s more important than my own birthday. We will be celebrating out here, that’s all I can say. Us Marines are fanatical about our birthday and that goes out here as well. Yet another important day is that of Veteran’s Day…enough said with that one.
Well all, another week down and another week starts. I’m heading to dinner soon, then back to work to watch my Buffalo Bills defeat the NY Jets on the TV. My Bills have been voted “AFN Game of the Week” 7 of the 9 weeks they’ve been playing…tells ya how many die hard Bills fans are in the service. Have a good week all! Happy Birthday to Kirstin and the United States Marine Corps.
MSGT JOEL WEBER
II MEF FWD C6
UNIT 73920
FPO AE 09510-3920
