Jason's Influence

In the book New Moon, Bella is so distraught over her one true love, Edward, leaving her that she begins doing really risky and dangerous activities because she hears his voice in her head telling her to be careful, to stop doing those things, to take care of herself. One time she goes to the top of a cliff overhanging the ocean.

She's so desperate to hear Edward's voice, to be close to Edward, to pretend that some little part of him is still with her that she jumps.

The problem with me partaking in high risk behaviors in an effort to stay close to Jason is...



His voice in my head doesn't tell me not to do it...it tells me to do it twice.

Never in a million years would I have ever made this leap before...Jason has had a very interesting influence on my life.

More stories and lot's of pictures will be coming soon of all the weekend fun at the lake house...Stay Tuned!

What do Iraqi goats look like?

Well apparently like the thing in my hands here...



This was the conversation I had with Sgt Hubby a couple days ago.

Me: I hope you remember our anniversary is coming up in a couple days

Sgt Hubby: What? Oh is it...that's nice.

Me: I hope you're just playing, because if you're serious...*shakes fist in angry way*

Sgt Hubby: I have no idea what you're talking about

Me: No really, please tell me you're sending me flowers or something because you're thousands of miles away and we don't get to celebrate any special day together and our wedding anniversary is totally a special day, and I remembered and I sent you a card at least, I mean I can't send you flowers you're in the desert, and what manly soldier wants flowers from his wife anyway, and if you don't send me something I think my head is going to explode *puts head between knees to avoid the exploding scenario*

Sgt Hubby: Well it has to be a surprise, so I'm not going to send you flowers. Maybe I'll see if there are any goats for sale and send you those. You can keep them in the backyard and they can eat the grass so you don't have to mow anymore. (Cross my heart, that is what he actually said to me)

Me: Naw, you're not serious. Stop joking around...this is serious business!

Fast forward two days and I'm still not sure if he's serious or not. I mean he's not going to send me goats, surely. But will there be flowers, a card, a freaking stuffed goat name Ackmed, anything!?

I have such a wonderful husband.



Happy anniversary honey. These last four years have been great.

PUNKED!!

Birthdays aren’t really the same when you’re deployed – for many reasons. The obvious reasons are that you’re in a combat zone, in a barren wasteland …just for starters. The not so obvious reason is – what do you get someone for their birthday? Especially when, like in our group, you have been together for really only a handful of months and it’s not like it’s a person you have known all your life. Top that off with the fact that possessions don’t really mean much here, and what you do get you have to either pay to mail home or throw away at the end of the deployment.

Cue Tech. Sergeant Justin **enters desert, stage right**

Tech Sergeant Justin is one of the Air Force folks that you met in the previous blog. I must also say that he is one of those Sergeants that you go your whole career hoping to work with. I’ve worked with some great folks, don’t get me wrong, but he’s definitely in that top one percentile to be sure. Well Monday was his birthday. And he has been going on since we got here that he wanted to get his photo taken with an AH-64D Apache helicopter. Or even a UH-60 Blackhawk if that’s all he can get. Apparently in the Air Force they don’t have cool toys or something. Or maybe it’s just the toys are always shinier on the other side of the fence. Either way…it’s been his darn near obsession.

So, a couple weeks ago I organized a hands-on “tour” of the aircraft for his birthday…but didn’t tell him. Honestly, the pilots are a really cool group of folks just about anywhere you go and will gladly show off their toys, so that was easy. The hard part was – keeping it a secret from him. This was especially true over this past weekend. Over the weekend he kept pressing me with stuff like “you think you can get me over there for a photo for my birthday or something” and stuff like that. It was really a pain to keep our game faces on. No less than 3 times he brought it up between Friday and Monday and each time I had to play dumb (“oh, I thought your birthday was Tuesday not Monday”) or lazy (“Oh, I haven’t seen one of the pilots at chow yet”). In keeping it a secret and making it a true surprise, everyone else was in on the joke.

Back story – there is an old collapsed blast protection bunker outside our sleep area. It’s made of a LOT of sandbags. It’s useless since we live in a concrete building so it’s safer there than inside the bunker.

Cue Sergeant Hoyt **enters desert, stage left**

“Ok guys, I tried arguing the stupidity of it – but none the less apparently the Colonel wants us to shore up the blast bunker outside the sleep area. He says it has to be in good condition in case someone is walking outside our area when the sirens go off. Yeah, I know it’s stupid but he wants us to do it now and says he talked to someone where there are a lot of pre-filled sandbags for us to take. So hey guys, look on the bright side, I know it’s 120 degrees outside but at least we don’t have to FILL the sand bags.”

So I pulled this about an hour before the trip to the air field and boy was Justin PISSED!!! He knows a B.S. detail when he hears it and I just ordered the biggest B.S. detail he’d probably ever heard in his life. So at almost 3pm we all loaded up in our vehicle and I took a pick-up truck “to load the sandbags in back”. On the trip there he even mentioned going to the sleep area to grab his work gloves and I gladly obliged just to keep him thinking. He was so fuming pissed at the whole detail plan when we got to the airfield he hadn’t even put it together yet. He figured we were getting the bags from that area. Once the Lieutenant (Blackhawk pilot) and Chief Warrant Officer (Apache Pilot) walked out one asked “So where’s the birthday boy” and we started singing “Happy Birthday”. I think it wasn’t until about halfway through that he figured out what was really going on. This is one of the most even keeled guys I know and he was so pissed he wasn’t even thinking straight!!! Yeah, PUNKED ain’t got nothing on us!

So – enough story for now – how bout some photos.

Here you have Justin and C.J. in the most feared helicopter in the world…the AH-64D Apache Attack (and Anti-Armor) Helicopter It’s over 20 years old now and still just absolutely amazes me with its combination of relative stealth (for a helicopter) and lethality.



And here’s a photo of the whole team in front of the beast.



Here we are at the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter. This is really the workhorse of the Army’s air movement inventory. The thing is highly reliable (as far as military equipment goes) and can be configured for various different missions.

This here is La’Sheema getting into the fun playing on the toys as well.




And here’s another group photo in front of the Blackhawk. Most feared military in the world I say. I think this should be on a multi-service recruiting poster or something.

It’s pretty darn rare for either Air Force or Navy to get to play around Army stuff (I’ve never played on non-museum Navy gear), and it was the first time for the LT Jennifer and C.J. to get the guided tour and crawl around on them as well. So pretty much everyone was living it up and it was a great time. And I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a small sense of accomplishment and pride while watching everyone have such a good time. Again, it’s one of those things you can really only do in the military.



At the end, we finally got our photo at one of the signs we keep saying we should get a group photo at.




Even before we got here we heard of the boasting that Delta had been deemed “The FOB of Choice”. It was probably someone’s idea of sarcasm at one point, but really I and our team are quite happy here – and the visitors like hanging around as well. The chow is good, the rooms are “nice”, the work is serious, and we don’t have the stress of being near a major headquarters with all the accompanying headaches like picking weeds in a land where nothing grows. It’s still austere in plenty of ways – but I still have yet to have someone tell me a place I’d rather be in this country. I consider myself quite lucky.

Well – that’s enough blog for now. Maybe in my next blog I can tell you how I am helping two Iraqis get their visa to the U.S. and how that means trying to find a phone number for the Russian Air-Force Engineering School in Kiev.

Think about it – where is Kiev?

Not Quite a Hollywood War

Hello all – and quit yelling about how I promised another blog sooner than now. It happens, live with it, I’ll trade you places if you want. OK – had to yell at someone because the options for targets here are limited. Consider yourself as having helped me out.

Well, this issue will be devoted to the office. Yeah, it’s a war zone; but we’ve evolved as both a species and a fighting force. It’s amazing the amount of office time that goes into any operation really. When done right it insures that copious amounts of planning go into the execution of an operation thereby virtually guaranteeing swift and efficient operations. When done wrong it just means that a bunch of jackasses are getting paid to suck up air conditioning while accomplishing virtually nothing. Hopefully our organization is one of those mentioned in the former and not the latter, and I truly believe that it is. And those who know me know I wouldn’t mind saying so if it was otherwise.

First and foremost, I keep promising a photo of the team. Well here you go. One of our local employees wanted a picture of him with the team so we obliged and I got a few with my camera as well. The three non-Americans that you see in the photo are some of our local translators. They have to be darn good to get on our team; in terms of language skills, education, and people skills these guys are all tops. When your business is helping U.S. professional businessmen, lawyers, politicians, education officials, and the like interact with their Iraqi counterparts, you had better be good. The military side of our team is pretty decent as well if I do say so myself. In this photo you will find:
Bottom row, left to right – Lieutenant Jennifer, Mr. Ali, and Petty Officer Juan P (Navy).
I’m in the middle of it all – as is appropriate I guess as the Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC).
Top Row L to R – Sergeant Mashell (Air Force), Mr. Firas, Sergeant Justin (Air Force), Petty Officer La’Sheema (Navy), Mr. Arkan, and Sergreant Christopher “C.J.”



And again, sorry about the white out over the eyes of our Iraqi’s, but as I said before, the only thing they really fear is other Iraqis. Mr. Arkan even quit work for a year and a half because of the threats he and his family received. And Mr. Ali has been doing this since May of 2003 despite all the threats. I guard them like I guard my own soldiers, sometimes even more because they are unarmed and have to go back to home in town at the end of the day.

Here’s another photo of most of our team. This photo is from our “Combat Patch” ceremony for the first-time deployers. An Army tradition started in WWII is that if you serve overseas in a area designated as a hostile area by the Sec. Def. then you wear the patch of the unit you were assigned to on your right sleeve (current unit is always on your left sleeve). Being multi-service however means something a little different for each person. The Navy wears our uniform when attached to Army forces and therefore is authorized the patch while wearing our uniform. The Air Force isn’t authorized to wear the Army uniform and don’t wear unit patches anymore anyway. Even still, we included them in the ceremony and gave them a patch as a symbol of belonging to the team and in keeping with a common motto over here with all the different forces on the ground, “One Team, One Fight”. The Velcro stuck to their rank long enough for us to take the photo.



Now I always make it sound like so much fun over here, but sometimes you do need a little stress relief. Sergeant May here bought this $7 alarm clock at the PX only to realize that the alarm didn’t work (makes me wonder what she was using this past 2 months). Instead of taking it back to trade it out or a refund, she took the opportunity to release a little stress…to it’s demise. Quite a show seeing someone out in 115 degree weather smashing away at an alarm clock with a hammer – but hey, whatever works for you I say.



Last but not least, you have to appreciate the food. Some might think that Iraqi food would be disgusting or revolting. On the contrary, the food is one of the things I was actually looking forward as I was preparing to come back here. Two of the main dishes here are a simple baked chicken on rice or “Kabobs” which is basically lamb prepared like hamburger. It’s cooked in strips and you put it inside pita bread with toppings and chow down. The bread is quite good really. And the meats are usually outstanding in and of themselves (I love the kabob seasonings). But what really makes it memorable are the vegetables. I’m telling you I have never had such fresh produce in my life other than when we grew our own in Arkansas. This stuff can’t be more than a couple days old. And to top off some good meat and bread with scrumptious cucumber, tomato, and fresh onion – YUM!!! Oh, and the baklava (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baklava) desert is some of the best ever as well. All hand made and extremely fresh.



This particular spread here was a “small” party for our outgoing Deputy Team Leader who is a Lt. Colonel who has been with the PRT for the past 11 months.

There’s another dish I remember that had meat and veggies wrapped in something like a large grape leaf. That and large fish are for extremely special occasions – but hopefully I’ll get some before we’re done.

Well, that’s about it for now. I think it’s time to go and get some chow…I’ve made myself hungry. Take care all and hopefully a new post sooner rather than later.

OUT

I feel like crap

So I wake up yesterday with what felt like a golf ball stuck in my throat. I'm assuming it was my allergies acting up since I spent most of the evening out in the yard destroying invisible fleas.



But it never fails when I wake up with a sore throat it turns into an all out sinus infection. Which of course is what I woke up to this morning. Needless to say I feel like crap today. Scratchy throat, itchy eyes, stuffy nose, insane headache...yay!



My boss had pity on me today and let me leave work early. Was it because he didn't want the germs spread around the office, because he knew I wasn't accomplishing a darn thing, or because he really felt some sort of sympathy? Either way that little bit of kindness and the extra thirty minutes of freedom had me crying the entire drive home.




Usually when I feel this crappy there's a husband waiting for me at home to help me put my PJ's on, make me chicken soup, give me drugs, and tuck me into bed.




And I don't have to worry about taking out the trash, playing with and feeding the dogs, cooking and then cleaning, or doing anything at all for that matter.




Will someone please come and make me some chicken soup?



And yes Gus was really sleeping with his face in my shoe. It was the oddest darn thing I've ever seen. And sorry if the graphic Sammy pictures offend...he is a dog though so get over it, he was being so silly rolling around on his back that I had to snap some pictures.

Lizards and Scorpions and Snakes - Oh My!!

Hello all. For those of you who are still tuned in this is the post you’ve been waiting for. Allow me to introduce you to some of the wonderful wildlife that I get to share my world with around here in the great wide open spaces of Iraq. Now bear in mind that I still have at least one other animal to get a pictures of eventually. But really, the Jackals only come out at night and don’t care for humans so they won’t stay still long enough really or be in a well enough lit place, so I won’t make you wait until I accomplish that feat.

Without further ado – the animal that you all should know for sure I get to have visit our abode is the wonderful scorpion. And in this case, the Death Stalker scorpion seems to be the most popular around here and this is the 3rd one to find in our office in a month. It shouldn’t kill a healthy Soldier really, but that’s no guarantee and doesn’t mean that getting stung wouldn’t suck big-time enough to make you wish you weren’t dead.

This next guy most folks have heard of. Welcome to the wonder and beauty that is the Camel Spider. While not really a spider (it’s actually part of the tick family) that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t look like some demonic alien species hell bent on sucking the brains out off all civilization. Read the hyperlink – there is a lot of rumor and exaggerated stories about these guys. But I can promise that they will eat a dime to half-dollar size hole in your skin while you’re asleep if they get the chance. Happened to one of our guys last tour. These freak-a-zoids are mostly nocturnal as well but can sometimes be found in the shadows. We’ve found one before in the office and this beauty in the barracks area.

This guy’s torso is about as long as a standard cigarette lighter and with the legs fully spread probably measured about 6” across. I’ve only seen one bigger but it got away before I could catch it. They are fast enough.

This area of the world also has its share of snakes. And of course, if you want to be anywhere near the top of the food chain in this land you have to be poisonous – so pretty much all the snakes here are. This guy got caught on a sticky pad that we use all over the place to catch mainly mice, but also anything else that wanders around too much (we usually put them across the doorway into our rooms as well). The sticky pad is about 6”x3” so I have to guess this guy at about 2 feet at full length. Oh, and the huge freaking flying cockroach looking thing on the pad as well – yeah, we have those too.

Well that’s enough horror show time for most of you so I figured I’d give you a slightly lighter side of the wildlife here. This little lizard guy is one of plenty that we have here around the FOB. Pretty much any night you can find a few running around the barracks area, and that’s a good thing. Not only are these guys harmless and somewhat cute, they also eat a lot of smaller bugs throughout the night – so these guys are my heroes. This little dude in-particular I found hiding behind the water bottles in my room. It was a heck of a task to run him out of the room, and I learned that they can actually scream. I kid you not as I was trying to usher him out each time he was scurry from point A to point B I could hear a very quiet and very high pitched whining sound. I though I was delusional the first time I heard it. But sure enough that guy was cursing me out for sending him out of the nice air-conditioned room all the way out the door into the summer sun, and I could hear it.

Last but not least – this cool looking bug here landed on some paperwork at my office. There are plenty of small gnat – fly sized bugs and most are plain desert colors. But this guy I thought was pretty cool with his neat little red markings across his back. Just for size reference – the “Y” you see on the paper is in 10pt font. So yeah, hommie was pretty small.

And NO, I didn’t kill it! Everything I catch I try and set free. The scorpion died accidentally as I was trying to trap it under a cup. And the snake was screwed before I got to him. But I did put him out of his misery just after the photo. I just couldn’t bear to see him like that especially knowing how long snakes can survive without sustenance and knowing the trap poison most likely wouldn’t get through the scales. Call me goofy – call me crazy (many who know me do) but I have a soft spot for strange, deadly, and/or poisonous creatures. Besides…they all serve a purpose. As far as I know, Mr. Camel Spider is happily freaking someone else out elsewhere on the FOB at this point.

Well, that’s the way of the wild here in good ol’ Al Kut, Iraq. I hope I’ve brightened your day and helped you can an appreciation of those innocuous ants and flies that we all complain about back home.

Before I leave I will say that if you know of anyone looking to send a care package to some troops, I have 8 more here and a ton of civilians who could all use some random tastes of back home. Standard junk food is always appreciated, just avoid the chocolates and other melt-able foods at this time of year. Regular personal hygiene items (body soap, GOOD razors, shaving cream, Q-tips), baby wipes, AA and AAA batteries, games (travel size or regular), books (used are 100% fine and even encouraged), and if you’re trying to be creative and think of stuff I haven’t mentioned here, just think - “other items that you might get someone who is living in a dorm type setting”.

Items can be sent to me and I promise they will be opened up and the contents available for all to benefit from.

SFC Jason Hoyt (8974)
Wasit – PRT
FOB Delta
APO AE 09317

That’s it for me for now. Time to get back to whatever it was this war needed me to do next. I already have some photos for the next blog, so hopefully you won’t have to wait as long till the next one. For now, of course, have a great rest of your weekend.

For Those Who Pray

Hello there all and sorry that I didn't get around to a post this past weekend. The days have been pretty busy but really nothing exciting for the most part. Largely it was getting the old team out of here and dealing with a million and one tasks that we now all have to ourselves. But the good news is that the time away from the blog gave me the opportunity - just this evening as a matter of fact - to photo the one last creature we share our world with so I can post it when I show you all the wonderful wildlife here. So all is not lost my friends. I promise the next post will have photos.

The purpose of this quick post will be a little on the heavier side than what you're used to seeing here. Basically, I wanted to remind those who pray to please do so for our men and women here. I have learned this past week in talking to several folks that there are a few here who are really home-sick and really somewhat hurting from the time and distance away from family. Of the 40+ "employees" here only 8 are military. About another dozen or so are full blooded American citizens who happen to hold high level degrees and/or positions back in the states which make them uniquely suited to help in our efforts here to teach this country how to run itself. Well, they get recruited in various ways and sign up for a 1 year tour here out of either curiosity, looking for a change of pace, looking to serve America, or usually a combination of "all the above".

The thing is - the term culture shock can not be understood by those who have never suffered from it...but they use the word "shock" for a reason. And the isolation that you feel at times from being so far away from home can be pretty great as well. Me, I hate it. But I'm not going to lie, I'm OK with it because I understand it, it's what I need to do for this one year, and at least I have done it before sans the wife and dogs - kind of like a "dry run" we'll say. I won't say that I wasn't quite surly and somewhat pissed at everything and nothing when I was getting on the plane to leave the States. But now that I'm here I'm in something of a routine and the time is passing faster than I expected so far...so I'm doing quite alright. But unfortunately, that's not the same for all of us here. I have already talked to two civilians and one Soldier who isn't taking it all in stride and they are really hurting inside. I can honestly say that I've never seen a 50+ year old man cry in front of me before and hope to never have to see it again...unless of course he's crying for joy because he's going home that is.

I and others continue to offer a sympathetic ear and all the support we can. For those of us in the military we treat the civilians pretty much the same as we do other members of the military. After all, as we say, it's "one team - one fight" no matter who you are. And when one is hurting the rest do feel it. But hopefully as with most things "this too will pass" and I really think it's just a rough patch for these guys and in the long run they'll be quite fine.

But in the mean time I do ask all those who pray to please remember not just me but those other folks on my team, military and civililan alike, and all those serving so far away from their family, friends, and a home and in a culture that we understand because we're used to it. God gives us his strength when our own isn't great enough - and it rarely is.

For now, I'm signing off and heading home for the night. And praying myself that nothing in my photo collection for the next blog is waiting for me in my room.