Few views are quiet as beautiful as a landscape of fresh, powdery snowfall. Particularly the first of the season can evoke memories of burning fireplaces, hot cocoa and Christmas carols.
Waking up to a fresh layer of sand, though amazing, does not have quite the same effect, aside eliciting the memory of dry mouth. Read more »
In these early summer days, the average day's high temperature is usally 115 degrees with the low just dipping into the 80s. But today, our truck had the experience of riding with no air conditioning. Read more »
Today, I met an Iraqi major and had a familiar first conversation with him. I took notes in order to share. Mostly, I am surprised by how often I discuss the same topics with Iraqis, such as American movies, families, and banks. Read more »
This column is the fifth and final in a series focusing on Army Wives and their sacrifices. Devon Connaroe coauthors the series, drawing on conversations with five Army Wives: Robyn Mroszczyk, Melissa Salmon, Sheena Jorgensen, Erin Wackerhagen and Rasheedah Stewart.
Throughout a deployment, the spouse of a Soldier endures a great sacrifice. A script on how to converse with the spouse of a deployed Soldier does not exist. The right things to say are not lines stored on a pocket-sized notebook, which can be pulled out in the necessary moment. Read more »
Today, we dropped off Mister Z and picked up his replacement, Chris. Also, I stumbled over an Iraqi past time: taawalee. Read more »
Readers might remember that a short while ago one of our interpreters suddenly quit, as in he wanted to go home that minute. Now, a few weeks later, we have a new terp, and he is not at all what we were expecting.
Mister Z is 76 years young. Read more »
In the past week or so, the team has passed several milestones of our deployment. The US unit based out of Germany that was living at our base with us redeployed, and the North Carolina National Guard officially replaced them. Also, Lieutenant Jay Alaniz promoted to Captain. Read more »
Rich Connaroe graduated from Northside High School in 2000 and VMI in 2004. Now a Captain in the U.S. Army, Connaroe begins a one-year deployment to Iraq in August. During that time, he plans to make regular blog posts that he hopes will connect readers of the The Roanoke Times to U.S. soldiers who are deployed in Iraq.
