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The other day, the "Comics Ready to Entertain" tour put on a show at the base that team lives over lunch.  Soldiers came together, ate, and shared some laughs. Read more »

With an audience of 35,369 in Johannesburg, South Africa and millions watching around the world, the U.S. toppled the heavily favored Spain yesterday.  Spain was previously the world's top-ranked team and was on a 15-game winning streak. Read more »

Today, my Iraqi counterpart wanted to talk futbol.  After all, the U.S. just pulled off a surprising victory and help to advance to the semifinals round of the Confederations Cup.  "Did you see the game on Sunday?"

Like most Americans, I do not get overly excited about watching soccer, and that fact does not do me any favors in the realm of small talk.  Thinking about it, the U.S. would do well to pay more attention to the sport that is loved worldwide. Read more »

Today, my team received a stack of letters of appreciation from children of a Texas elementary school.  Some were funny, because kids say the darnest things.  Most were touching.  I am posting just a few. Read more »

On 22SEP07, the Roanoke Times printed one of my articles, "Care Packages Connect Soldiers To Home" (http://blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/iraq/2008/09/22/care-packages-connect-soldiers-to-home/).  The article explained the value of care packages, suggested ideas for contents, and urged readers to adopt Soldiers on any one of several websites.  At the time, I did not have names and addresses of single Soldiers readily available to distribute. Read more »

Last night, I stopped at the door of Lieutenant Jeremy “Jay” Alaniz of San Antonio, Texas on the way back to my room from calling my wife. I knocked on the door firmly and heard him say, “Just a second.” I had no idea what I had coming to me.

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The days in Iraq are long and sweaty. Of course, the worse part is that the days never really end. We do not go home and come back the next day. A cot and some time to yourself can be relaxing, but nothing brings a smile on a deployed Soldier’s face like a getting mail, especially a care package.

Lately, folks have asked me what to send troops who are deployed. While the Army provides for all of a Soldier’s needs, there are four general categories of items that Soldiers value highly in care packages: hygiene products, snacks, entertainment, and a feeling of home.

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Around the world, the humvee, or HMMWV (M998, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle), has been the standard for U.S. Armed Services’ ground transportation since 1985. However, even the up-armored version of the HMMWV has proven less than effective in the case of an improvised explosive device (IEDs) attack. Though the HMMWV was a good solution to the threat of small arms fire during WWII, when mines accounted for five percent of casualties, today’s Servicemen serve on a battlefield where IEDs account for 42 percent of the 4,141 American causalities. Therefore, beginning now, the summer of 2008, America’s sons and daughters are kept safe with the IED solution—the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected).

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If you’ve ever seen a humvee with a flat screen monitor on the driver’s side dash, it is not a DVD player. The display is part of a system called blue force tracker (U.S. forces are blue forces). My team just finished training on blue force tracker (BFT). Not that the system is new, but it is much more prevalent and updated than just a few years ago.

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