Over Seas

Everyone I made it safely over. I am doing great. The food and water are very plentiful. My buddy Rockers is staying at one camp and I am going to a different one. I will still be able to read you comments and emails. As soon as I get an mailing address I will give that to Veronica. I have several people here looking out for my behalf, so do not worry about me I will be safe and be able to come home when ever my replacement shows up in about 6 to 12 months. Until then take care and please take some time to write me so I can keep up with what is going on back home. Thanks Kevin

Friday, 11MAY07

Everyone, I just want to thank you all for keeping intouch with me through my blog here. I have to let you know that I am doing great and learning lot of new things here at Fort Bragg. I will from now on will only be able to let you know only how I am doing. From now and into the future after I get back I will not be able to release anything about my tour. I thank you very much in helping me keep it this way. I will put my address that you can send any letters or mailings. I can let you know that I will be in Iraq. I hope you can send comments to me to keep up with what is going on back home. I can talk all I want about what is going on back home. The last month has gone by quickly, but it has been hard, hot work.

More photos from Friday 04MAY07

Just finishing up for the day and then it is time to do laundry and get packed for the morning. Bus leaves at 8 am for Ft. Bragg, NC. It will be nice to have a different scene to look at for a while. Next notes will be of Ft. Bragg if they have a computer lab available for my use. I have made it through 3 weeks of training so far on my way to Iraq. Please keep sending those comments love to read them.

Friday 04MAY07

Here are a few shots from the big gun shoot Thursday and our barracks.

Thursday 03MAY07

Thursday has come and gone now. We had fun today shooting all the big guns off at trucks and tanks. It was cool to shoot the guns that Mail Call show always shows being shot off. My favorite was the gernade launcher. The shells are about the size of the Rambo fireworks single mortar shells. You can see them even in the daylight as they head towards their target and then explode on the target with a big bang. It is like a fireworks display on the ground level. Today was the winding down day for the training and the 1st Srgt said we did a great job with our training the past 2 weeks. Friday will be our last day of training. I plan on doing my laundry and finish packing all my gear and try to get it into 3 sea bags or less. I am going to need lots of luck in doing this task. I have a lot of gear to pack away and they are not small items at all. Plus several of the items do not bend at all or very little. I will have to be very clever when packing, but I think I should come close to 2 1/2 sea bags if it works as I plan. In total I will have my gun case which holds both my M16 and 9MM hand gun. It is similar to the case my Dad has for the 22 rifle. My backpack and the 3 sea bags to lug around to Ft. Bragg. Do not know if we keep all of this gear or get more yet. Working with the Special Operations there may be a need to change some of the items or add or subtract items too. I just want to let everyone know that I am feeling great and in very good spirits and ready for this assignment. I feel with the training I have so far will be helpful incase I get into a BlackHawk down situation and come out with all my shipmates in one piece. Since that time our training has prepared us better for those type of times that go not as planned and be able to stay safe and get back all together. I plan on trying to let you all know that I am doing good and where you can send any care packages and what is needed for me and the troups over there. This is not a walk in the park, but with the training we have obtained it makes it closer to a walk in the park. I will give an update Friday and then hope to pick back up when I arrive in Ft. Bragg. I do not know what access I will have to a computer there, but hope there is a computer lap like this one. I did not bring my laptop with me, but now wish I had. Love to hear how everyone else is doing. It is fun to read things everyone writes on here. I will try and write something back when time allows. I hope to get a few more photos put on tomorrow. It is hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day already. It has been a heavy load for everyone here to carry and after this afternoon you could feel it being let drop off everyones' shoulders. Everyone has a smile back on their faces and feeling more like their old self for the time being until it is time to go on to the next training. Food has been good and I am not sure if I lost much weight, but with the heat I have not gained, so I am happy about that part. I did have my teeth looked at the other day and the Dentist said I was healing faster than the average person and should have no problems with my teeth or lack off my three wisdom teeth that was taken out just a couple weeks ago at San Diego. I have to say I really never had any true pain, just some discomfort and no trouble with them being pulled at all. I am glad God has been by my side through all of this. I also feel my Grandparents have been near and helping me over come any hard times. We have both the active side of the Navy and the Reserve side. Age is from around early twentys to close to sixty, so no I am not the old one here. I am above the average age. Thanks for supporting me again and hope to hear from everyone some more.

Wednesday 02MAY07

Just to let you know. In the case I do get captured, please do not tell the media anything about what I do for the Navy. Just tell them you do not know specifics and that I do my weekend a month and 2 weeks a year annual training thats all you know. I am only over seas to help be a body to rebuild the cities with the Army. This is to protect not only me, but you too. The media are like hounds when it comes to the families and the insurgents watch what gets put on tv. Just want to help protect my family, too. I will be fine as long as you do this for me. I do not look to be captured, but you never know what could go on for sure. Just taking precautions to help make any action(s) to be kept to a minium. Thanks everyone for understanding the importance of this request. I plan on coming home safely and soon.

Wednesday 02MAY07 #3

These were the vehicles we used for the convoy course. We had to travel down roads and take over a town. It was fun, but with lots of true to life situations that our group took control and accomplished with little errors. We ended up with noone getting hurt or killed, but took out several of the bad guys and took captives from the town scene. We may never use this information that is given to us, but if we do end up in a situation it good to know what to do. Things are going good for me here. Only a couple more days left. We leave McCrady Training Center for Ft. Bragg on Saturday morning by bus at 8 am. Hope to know more at Ft. Bragg, but not sure how much will be able to release to you all. Most of my training and travel from Ft. Bragg will be at the top secret level, so do not ask for more than what I release to you all. Thanks for checking out my life here and hope you enjoy the photos.

Wednesday 02MAY07 #2

Some more shots of the convoy training and getting ready to do the land navigation course. It was 93 F today so it got very hot today.

Wednesday 02MAY07

Getting ready for the daily training. It all starts on the grinder and then goes from there to the different ranges or classrooms for our instructions. When on the ranges we have hands on experiences. We have been hit with lots of information in the little time we have been here. They are getting ready to extend this training into a 3 week course instead of the 2 week. Everytime you get called up you have to go through this training center even if you have had the training before. The reason for that is the training is changed as things change over seas.

Tuesday 01MAY07 #2

Nice hot day of training, but we all made it through ok. I am ready to secure the area.

Tuesday, 01MAY07

Today we went marching with a tatical march to our training site. There we learned several things about culture, IED's, convoys and then urban assault. The top photo is still from Monday's training.

Monday 30APR07

Today we had some map reading training, radio operations training, and hand to hand combat maneuvering. Everything was at a basic form to give us a general idea of what to do if we come across that type of situation where it would be needed.

Tuesday 01MAY07

Here are a few scenes from Monday's training. Most of them were inbetween training sessions or during our 10 minute break times.

Just shortly before we came into Columbia, SC

I am not sure which race track this is, but it has to be one of the big ones used for NASCAR type racing. Hope you liked some of the photos from my flight from San Diego that I took.

More photos of flight from San Diego part 2.

More photos of flight from San Diego.

The second photo towards the top center is one of our subs coming into port at San Diego. The bottom photo has several dishes set up.