From Dan Williams

Howdy Folks!
As some of you are already aware, I am now in Iraq. Shortly after mylast update a small group of us departed Ft. Lewis for Kuwait. Wewere ready to pop smoke and get out of Ft. Lewis and away from thecraziness. There were three of us from Wisconsin in the group and wewere seen off by the three highest National Guard folks in Wisconsin.The Adjutant General (TAG), the Deputy Adjutant General (DAG), and theState Command Sergeant Major (CSM) met up with us at the Airbase andsaw us off. Some of the Minnesota folks were quite impressed thatthey came all the way to Washington to see off three of theirsoldiers. I'd like to believe that as well, however they were goingto meet up with the rest of the WI folks at Ft. Lewis and wish themall good training and safe travels that evening, catching us was justa bonus.

The flight overseas was long and uneventful. It was a civilian planethat was contracted by the military. Luckily there were ample emptyseats so we only had to occupy the aisle and window seats- plenty ofroom! I slept the majority of the time only waking for refuelingstops and the occasional in flight meal. For those that are curiouswe flewwith our weapons under the seat, but still had to check our knives andmulti-tools...

Our first stop on the trip was Kuwait, which is the gateway for allTroops going into theater. We had a few certifications / trainings wehad to complete there, but once we got that out of the way, we werejust waiting for a flight. Kuwait is fairly sweet, especially sincewe had nothing to do and there is a ton of MWR activities (fun stufflike computer labs, movie theater, pool, table tennis, etc.)Experienced my first sandstorm, which was pretty cool.

I have a few pictures of Kuwait up at:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2134970&id=69201841&l=5354b52a99

We left Kuwait on a C130. I was kind of disappointed since I had aC17 in my mind. The flights I took on a C17 when in Afghanistan wereawesome compared to this one. Lets just say it was fairly tightquarters and the seats weren't the most comfortable. I understand whypeople jump out of them...

So I now find myself in Iraq, not yet at my final destination but astep closer. We are currently working with our counterparts from goodole' 10th Mountain. We will be conducting on the job training (OJT)for a while and hopefully some day making it to our final destination. Then the rest of the 34th should show up and we'll take charge andwin this Global War on Terror (oops... I mean this OverseasContingency Operation!)

So far it hasn't been too shabby. Our counterparts have been veryreceptive to us being here and I'm learning a lot. Still trying tofigure out this base and everything it offers. I've made it to the Pxand the Green Beans Coffee Shop (man I forgot how much I enjoyed theirSpice Chai Lattes!). So far I have resisted the temptations of theBurger King, Subway, Popeyes, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. They evenhave Baskin Robbins in the chow hall next to the desert bar with awide selection of cheesecake, cookies, pies, etc. This is nothinglike M.A.S.H.... and no Korean snack bar though (loved that place whenI was in Afghanistan).

I will hopefully have a few pictures of my stay here at VBC up at thisaddress shortly. I still need to take them, but I plan on doing thaton Sunday. (we will see)http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136698&id=69201841&l=2f65bdc38aI'm telling you the link now, because I probably won't send outanother email for about a month, unless something exciting happens...

For those that want my address, sorry but I don't have one yet. Dueto the fact we will be moving they don't want us to have mail arrivejust to discover we are already gone. As soon as I have an address Iwill let folks know what it is, I promise!Thanks for the support!
Dan

P.S. For anyone associated with Scouting... I'm amazed at the amountof Trail's End Popcron and Girl Scout Cookies around here. Almostevery office has some. Those send popcorn to the Troops programactually work! Thanks!

If by chance you don't want to receive my updates by email anymore,just let me know and I will take you off of my list. Don't worry Iwon't be hurt...

Update from Kevin Miller

Greetings All, I really wish I was sending a good thorough update, but that's not likely to happen for quite some time. We're super busy doing a lot of great stuff with the Afghan Police, but that doesn't leave time for much else. I will tell you that I was able to go home on leave in February and it was truly wonderful to see my family and at least a few friends. While home I was reminded that my job in Afghanistan is incredibly easy compared to what my wife is dealing with back in Wisconsin. Please continue to keep her, Samuel and Matthew in your prayers. The good news is that I spent very little time (relatively speaking) in transit compared to most (see the Vampire 6 Blog Posts at http://www.afghanistanshrugged.com/ to get an idea of the norm for travel to and from leave). I actually made the trip from Wisconsin to Asadabad in three days, which I think might be a record, so was able to get right back to work. Of course, I expected to have some layovers in Kuwait or at Bagram Air Field and would have maybe gotten an update done if that had happened. Since I don't have time for a real update, I thought I would let you enjoy these pictures that I managed to get uploaded while home on leave. Kevin

From Dan Williams

Howdy Folks,As promised I'm going to be trying to provide some semi frequent updatesthroughout my journey to Iraq. So here we go with the first one...

Its been almost three weeks since a small group of us left Wisconsin to joinup with the 34th Infantry Division Headquarters (Minnesota National Guard)out here in Washington. We had a small send off ceremony before flying outof the Dane County Regional Airport. I didn't see any news stories aboutthe sendoff, we were kind of overshadowed by the deployment of the rest ofthe 32nd Brigade in Wisconsin a week later. Our flights went very smoothlyeven though we flew out on Friday the 13th. Arriving at Ft. Lewis was alittle more chaotic with our bus driver getting lost and a little confusionabout what we were supposed to try to knock out before the start of a threeday weekend.

Ft. Lewis has been entertaining, chaotic, and frustrating... all at once.We've knocked out a bunch of individual training tasks and certifications.Zeroing and qualifying on our M4s, throwing grenades, sitting through funbriefings, and other random tasks. I was able to catch up with 1SG (RET)Gaikowski, who was the First Sergeant of 232nd MICO when I went toAfghanistan, and with 1SG Harris one of the other company First Sergeantsfrom my Afghanistan Deployment. Even ran into one of my Instructors fromUtah who was returning from Afghanistan himself. It was great catching upwith some familiar folks. Unfortunatly I wasn't able to catch up with morefolks or experience Seattle or other areas of Washington. We were onlockdown and had limited free time. The group that I am with was given asix hour (really only 5 hour) pass, however due to some confusion in whatcertifications were transfering from WI I had to try to get everythingsquared away instead of going out for a bit.

I haven't been taking too many pictures but I busted out my camera coupleof times. I posted some pictures here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2134493&id=69201841&l=b4a5eYou shouldn't have to be a member of FaceBook to view them, let me know ifit doesn't work for you and I'll try to find a different medium.Well thats about it for now, if you have any questions feel free to askaway. It sounds like I'll be having internet access however I won't knowfor sure until I get there. Once I get over there I'll be suspending mycell phone account so you probably won't be able to leave me messages soemail is the prefered method. I currently don't have an address foroverseas. There is a little bit of controlled chaos since the unit we arereplacing is currently moving to a different Foward Operating Base (FOB).Once I have an address I will get it out to folks.
Keep it Real,
Dan