Thank you all!

Thank you to everyone. I might not mention you all here but thank you. To the classes that send gifts and coffee and letters, to the friends of the family that sent ornaments and snacks, to the folks at Ugive.org, I want to say thank you. I have such a wonderful support network. Dad thank you for the tortillas, and jelly. Everyone thanks for the tuna, we eat about 4 cans a day. The tree is full of ornaments. They are wonderful. Thank you to the Castellini's. Yes i said that right, thank you for all of the Reds gear. Im super pumped for the next season. Cant wait to get back to the ball park.

Thank you to Planes. I always knew i worked for an amazing company but i would have never expected the outpouring of support they sent. SFC Matt Withrow and I both work at Planes Moving and Storage, and we recieved two huge packages or items that will come in handy for the rest of the tour. What we didnt need we shared with our soldiers. You at Planes have helped not only Matt and I but the whole 353rd. Thank you to all those who organized, planned, and donated. We cant wait to come back and see everyone.

Thank you to everyone who sent cards and pictures. You were all in my thoughts and prayer on Christmas. The post cards are great, its something new and fun each day. I have at last count 127. So we are on our way to the goal 4192.

Thank you to all those who have supported me so far, everything is working wonderfully. The tree, the saddle blankets, the ornaments, the coffee, the snacks.

Thank you to everyone. I love the ornaments, they will hang every Christmas on my family tree. Each ornament will remind me of those who sent it, and the support and encouragement you all gave me in this time of hardship. Thank you, I cant say it enough.

I gotta vent, read carefully!

So its been awhile since i vented about how things really are. If things about the transportation company im in make you mad, stop reading. See im working through things and the Combat stress people say people like me should focus on the the stuff we can control and not the stuff we cant. SO.... I follow this advice and I pretty much stopped focusing on everything that happens here. YUP..... since the GOAL here is to set a record. See the company's goal.... and by that I mean not the company's goal since not one fucking soldier voted on this goal. Well the goal is to beat the numbers set by the unit we replaced. Now lets hear some backstory on the unit we replaced. Well they were active duty and they were in country for 15 months. So we would have to beat total miles driven and amount of ARMY shit hauled in 10 months.
Yes you got that right we are expected to get behind a goal that requires us to put OUR...not their....our lifes in danger more than is required. Im not asking not to peform our mission, but to have a chance to perform our mission safely. Yes, SAFE, the word everyone uses around here but none adhere to. I have seen drivers come in from one mission at midnight or later only to get 4 hours of sleep and then get up at 4am, 5am, 6am or the like and go back out on another mission. Ask those in charge questions about it "they got cat naps." Now no matter what, someone has to accept these missions, someone has to make the choice to keep our people on the road everyday for over 6 days straight. I have soldiers that have been on mission for a week straight. What i dont understand is why when these issues are brought "up the chain" (big crock of shit) nothing is done about them. I have a theory, well im gonna catch hell for this theory, those charged with keeping soldiers safe, those who pride themselves on trying to keep soldiers from harm, and bringing everyone home, those are the ones accepting missions that consistantly pushs soldiers on missions without suffiecent rest time. If a soldiers gets up a 3:30am and is on the road driving or loading his truck or whatever and doesnt get back to his CHU till midnight well i would consider that person not safe to put back on the road for at least 8 hours. Oh wait you need to know the ARMY's idea of rest. Well basically any time you are not driving, thats considered rest time. SO the second you step out of the truck, your resting. WHAT CRAP! I know the ARMY is tough and we love doing the tough stuff, but those "tough" times normally have a widely agreeded upon goal. Like defeating the Nazi's or defending south Korea. What makes it even better is that every 10 days or so we have 2 days of nothing going on. Now we as dilligent soldiers use these "down""off" days to maintain our equipment. This can take easily a whole day. If we dont take the time to fix as many problems as we can find, and that little problem causes a truck to be swapped or heaven forbid a "MECHANIC" to have to fix a problem outside of their normaly duty time, look out! Yes we get yelled at if we ask a maint. person to fix a truck that is going on mission. If we bother the mechanics after 4:30pm, yes you read that correctly, truck drivers .... work all day. Mechanics, 6-4:30 and they get one complete day off a week, well if we bother them our truckmaster yells at us. I guess the truck master, the guy who is supposed to help us complete the missions, i guess he is no in charge of Maintenance section also. I guess he has all reaching power.
Oh yeah HQ people get a day off a week too. The people who never leave the wire, the people who work inside all day from 8-5, they get to take a day off a week.

Now you may ask how are all of these missions getting done? Well soldiers are getting it done. My soldiers are doing an amazing job. Yes its what they signed up to do, but none of them want to set a record. None of them will gain anything by driving more miles and hauling more shit than any other unit. No some people in our unit may reap rewards from setting such high numbers but PVT. Joe Snuffy doesnt get anything to show for his hard work. Now they may get a medal for their work, but is one medal enough if someone gets hurt? Is it enough if a soldier dies? I have medals and i would gladly trade my purple heart to have never been hurt in combat. I would give up all of my medals if it kept my soldiers out of harms way. Now im not saying we should come to Iraq to do nothing, but i feel we do a lot more than our share. I have heard we are the only true transportation company around. I think thats a way to show off plumage. We have other units that are trans companies. If Trans units can drive gun trucks why cant gun truck units drive some 915's. I mean our security has three times the time off as we do. Does that make sense. Thats like the mail room guy getting more paid vacation than the CEO.

Okay so lets sum up here I have to focus on the stuff i can control which is not much. My soldiers are on mission a ton so the chances i get to see them i try to give them as much free time as i can so they can unwind. Our company is running missions like crazy and though i agree being on mission is better than weeks of nothing to do, we ned to make better choices about how many missions we send our soldiers on, about how many TEAMS, we actually plan our missions with.
Oh yeah i wont even go into the team idea. We plan on the basis that every person will be good to go and every truck will run forever. If you have 100 people ready to help you move and your trying to make sure your going to maximize each one, you dont have all 100 start moving everything at once. You go in shifts and work each group only so much before you give them a break so they dont break anything. See I work in the transportation buisness everyday. I think i might be the only one here who actually knows how a trucking company should run. YEAH this isnt how it should run. The civilian company i work for is amazing, they perform more missions, over more terrain everyday with fewer people. How, they plan and prepare for problems, they realize things breakdown, people breakdown, and they understand how to adapt to new ideas and other peoples views.

Yup i guess i have rambled on here for a while, what i am really saying is that things here are running, and i think running smoother than they might, but it is all because of the soldiers. While the leadership wont listen, the leadership must believe that they are infallible, while all of this is happening our soldiers, the amazing men and women of the ARMY are getting the job done and they will continue to do so. I pray that all of these decisions that make no sense, that all of these missions that dont have to be taken, that all of these choices are worth it, when that first soldier gets hurt or dies. I know its morbid but now i think that is the only way we will see a change. I have stopped trying to make a change here, I am over qualified for this TRANSPORTATION unit. I may have never run a company like this in Iraq, but i have day in and day out been knee deep in two great transportation companies. One ARMY one civilian. I have spoken with people from both of these companies and they all laugh at how things are done here. I have spoken with officers in the ARMY that are Trans. officers and they cant believe what i tell them.
Now i may catch hell for this, wait im sure too but understand this is one of the ways i was told to vent my frustrations. I do as im told, i go to combat stress, i do the group classes, the hour sessions and i give 100%. I try to be a good NCO and I do what i can to take care of my soldiers. If i have offended you ..... sorry...no............ tough shit.

Please have a great Christmas!

Dont forget

Dont forget Jessica has a blog too, i know she doesnt post as often but when she needs something or has some important info she does post it.
http://armystrongwifeandmom.blogspot.com/

She posted about holding off on the sweets a while ago. Thanks again to all willing to help.

Item update

Well as Christmas draws near, i want to thank everyone who has helped my family and I during this crazy 2008 year. Thank you to everyone who has sent packages and cards. All of the items you have sent have reached myself or my fellow soldiers. From cookies to cameras everything has helped. I love it all.
Many people have asked for an update on what they can send in future care packages. Well, let me say the things we dont need. Candy, gum, cookies, sweets and the like. We love them, we have eaten them and getting in shape is hard to do with so much of them still on the shelves. We love them dont get me wrong but we have plenty for the rest of the year.
Yes Soap and I are trying to eat healthy. The tuna everyone has sent is awesome, trust us we love it, I try to eat it for lunch everyday. So things a person could send if they are in the mood to send a care package. Cereal, healthy stuff, not coco puffs. Now we are very partial to Lucky Charms but it might just be the Irish in me. If anyone has ideas of healthy snacks that would help. since veggies dont travel well, i cant put those on the list.The jerky is great, one thing we find ourselves drinking is energy drinks. Now we know these are not the best but the one i love is the Sugar free ROCKSTAR. Its in the white can, my wife knows. we have powdered drinks and those are great but our shelves are stocked. If someone knew of a good powered tea, a healthy green or white tea that we could make, that would be great.
Christmas was good to me this year, and its actually not even here yet. I hope Xmas is good to my kids, Marissa, Roman and Shamus ... I love you all. Jessica i miss you, I love you.
I love the post cards, i need to recount them. I know im close to one hundred. I have a couple of doubles and thats pretty amazing considering how far away some cards have come from.

ANyway thanks so much, I hope everyone has a good Christmas and a happy new year. I got a rosary and holy water from Lourdes. I got some cool soldier type nut crackers. The ornaments are awesome. The books are cool, the christmas cards and pictures are very sweet. I hope to see everyone next year. The COFFEE is the best. Soap and i will be reviewing some of the interesting blends that we have received. I make a pot everyday and each pot is because of one of you. A person that cares and supports their soldiers. Thank you.

Oh Christmas tree!

"Its the best tree we've ever had!"

Well, its tradition in the Buckley family and i am not one to break tradition.

Turn what you love into what you do!

Well, with ample amounts of time to think about the future, i have decided to try my hand at homebrewing. Yes when i come home it's brew time. I first started this thinking a year or two ago when i happened to be in Grandma Katie's bathroom and I picked up a booklet about the family history. It turns out a great great grandpa of mine used to own a brew company in Covington. Yes i know making one batch of the sweet nectar of the gods isnt the same as mass producing the drink that makes grilling out so much fun.

I will take this slow, but i am for sure gonna find my own perfect beer and brew it all I can. I recently purchased a book about home brewing. It seems to be pretty easy. Just like making dinner, with just two weeks in between. So if anyone out there has brewed their own beer before, and you have tips, shoot some my way. I was thinking of names..... I was thinking BUCK beer. Or it could be called "nine fingered ale." Who knows lots of choices.

Anyway i still have quite a long time before i can make my first batch so for now i will be reading all i can, and who knows maybe one day you can walk to a bartender and ask for a BUCK light.

Ground Hog day

Well yesterday was kinda like ground hog day, pretty much the same as most of them. Not horrible, not fun. Just living in Iraq. Same basic stuff, Soldiers not making smart choices and it getting them into ...not hot... but warm water. People being lazy, people being pissed off about something and take it out on someone else. People being hard to find. I went to Maint. today to try and find a truck, i had to drop off one that needed fixed. Well thats about it. Been listening to my ipod on my tv. I am a lucky person, i brought a cord that allows me to play my ipod through my tv so i dont even need speakers. Its awesome. Well, with Sopczak gone for two weeks.. he relocated to another post for a short time, mission dictates, things are pretty boring. I dont have someone to talk to all the time that understand my background. No big deal, just means i try and read more and listen to music a little louder. So its frickin cold here. We grilled out a few nights ago. It was nice but cold, just a small weber grill a few burgers and dogs, nice.

Thanks

So quick thanks for the few Xmas packages i have recieved as of yet. Thanks to my Little Bro Neal, Love the poster, love the ornaments and the football.

Shearer Family- awesome package, love the Elvis ornament, the king lives! Love the jerky, I love Grandma Jeans Raindeer.

Mom- the magazines were great, love the Cincinnati one. The ornaments are great and the game is spot on! Thanks

Jessica, you did amazing, best gift i could have gotten. i love the Xbox360 and games, it will help pass the hours without you. the magazines are great and i love the pciture frames. It must have been one major project. Now i need pictures to fill them.

A few thoughts

So, things are picking up here mission wise, and while im not on the road, I am seeing certain things that bother me. Many are being addressed by our higher ranking officers and NCO's but it still bothers me. I do want to say that this deployment from the living conditions aspect is bar none the best. I coudnt have imagined any better conditions.... wait, we have a water shortage, which doesnt make sense because when i do the math we should have more than enough water to do anything we want. We have no flushing toilets at our pad. Now im not complaining but merely commenting on how the ARMY manages its resources. It would seem that in 6 years of being in Iraq, we could have solved the water problem. Relying on Iraqis to fix everything is retarded. These people are king of rigging shit. Just look at their cars, everything is rigged.
Now also, the bus system here on the COB. Well who ever is in charge of it must have a GED because any educated person would see the need for more buses. Why does one base have a great efficent system and one have such an unreliable system. I mean we wait for over 30 min for a bus and when it gets there its more than half full so some people are forced to wait. Now i know we can walk to chow, its truly only about a mile or so, but thats besides the point, they offer buses and they claim to have done the math and have accounted for everyone. Well bullshit. I like my walk to chow, but the air is much colder now and with rain setting in more often, the mud is impossible to get away from, so this walk is much more of a hassle than a stress reliever. I guess i expected more from the ARMY.
Now i will say the ARMY is doing good things, i mean they are taking away reenlistment bonuses for my MOS. Oh thats a good idea when the ARMY is losing people left and right, lets decrease their incentive to stay. Bright idea.
I guess i needed to put my thoughts on paper...... well on something that reminds me of paper. So if you dont like what im saying ... tough.... if you agree, thanks

Thank you everyone for the post cards keep it up, i think im at 70.

Charlie Hustle

Yes, PETER EDWARD ROSE has sent me, little old me, a postcard. Postcard number 59 is from the all time hit king. The only post card i got this morning is from the only player to be voted to the all star game for 5 different positions. My 59th postcard has the real signature of the best baseball player to ever swing a bat, to ever run out of his helmet, to ever head first slide into first base.

I dont know how it happened but I think I need to thank Joe Hansbauer. Thank you.

Thanks to everyone who has sent postcards. Now i have found that there is one other person getting postcards in the same numbers as I. Now she is getting mostly Minnesota postcards, I still want to crush her numbers so if you have a second, drop me a postcard from any gas station, state capital, theme park, or even a national park. I love them all, I will keep them all, trust me, each postcard is special. I read each one and my CHU mate Sgt. Sopczak and I talk about each one. He cant believe i got a post card with a Cow's butt on it that says Dairy Aire. I love the ones from the different places people visit. Aim Small Miss Small. I love the Cincinnati postcards, it makes home seem that much closer.

If asked though to choose a favorite card, I would say the handmade postcards from my sister. I even saved and put on the wall the envelope she deocrated when sending a postcard she thought might not make it. The cards she creates show such effort that emotions are hard to hold back when i see them. Everyday when things are down i can look to my wall and see the love people send but seeing those cards can lift any horrible day. Thank you to Mel and Joe you have embraced what the SUPPORT THE TROOPS truly means. Thank you to UGIVE.ORG, Thank you to the Indian Hill class of Kerry Daus, Thank you to the religion class Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Thank you to WEBELOSI den of Pack 106, Thank you to the Rumbaugh's, Thank you to Dad, Thank you to Mom, Thank you to Dustin and Chelle, Thank you to all those who i have not named, I love the cards. Just hearing what you happened to be doing the day you send the card out is more than enough to transport me away from this place, if only for a minute.