The Armed Geek

Day 1

2009-09-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on these as I have been setting up a lot of things, but this is my account of the first day, September 30th, 2009.

The phone rang this morning at 5:21 am. It was SFC Samuels, my immediate supervisor. I fumbled through the dark for it, but was too late to catch the call. When the chime came in for a new voicemail, I let it go as I stared at the celing of my room one last time. T didn't bother to check the voicemail as I normally would have. I knew what it said, so I replied with a text message reading only "I'm up." I got dressed, threw my bags in the van, said goodbye to my Sister-in-law, and loaded the wive and kids up in the van.
It was about 6:15 when we got to the airfield. It's a place in which I've become comfortable working, but would now say the last face-to-face goodbye to my family. at 6:30 a brief formation was held to ensure that everyone was there, and they let us go back to our loved ones to await the buses. Abby, Alex, and Ash all played as the sun slowly rose to the east. They would not be going to school today. It's Wednesday, a short day for all of them anyhow, and they had something else to do. The retention NCO came by with flags and boxes which contained a t-shirt and a nylon enclosed binder full of army promotional items. I grabbed one up before even knowing the contents, as there were plenty available. I stuffed the binder into what little space remained in my backpack, and Rachel made her claim on the t-shirt.
Everything was pretty easy and simple until I saw the first bus preparing to turn towards us. Then it all hit me pretty hard. I did my best to hold it together, but could not help letting a few tears fall. I still had to struggle though to keep from overwhelming the kids. Few have ever seen me cry, and I'm not sure how they would handle it. Abby seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, and Alex was at least playing along. Ash was the one who really got to me though. He rarely speaks, but he said good bye as if he knew exactly what it meant this time. As Rachel started to cry, Abby hugged her and said
"It's okay Mommy, I'll take care of you."
What more could a father ask for?
As it all got to be too much, I sent them off. They could have stayed longer, or even followed the buses to the airport as some families did, but we like to have as much control over our goodbyes as we can, even if it means doing it a little earlier. SSG MacNamee, newly promoted and a fellow commo guy, came up and gave me an understanding pat on the back. He said to me
"It'll only be 30 days." referring to the possible leave scheduled for the end of our mobilization.
"I won't be taking the leave." I told him. "I can't do this again any time soon."
I bummed a cigarette from PFC Rose to calm my nerves, loaded my bag on the bus, and got on.
The American legion had a team of motorcyclists bearing flags escort our buses to the airport, and by 9:00 am, we were there loading it up. I volunteered for the detail to load bags into the cargo spaces of the 737 we would take to Oklahoma. Didn't take long, and despite about a dozen weapons racks, we had plenty of space left over. Finally getting on the plane, I saw why. In a column of 3 on each side of the aircraft, there was no more then 1 person per row on board. It's nice to have a little extra space. As we flew away, I watched the city I grew up in and have always considered home disappear behind us. At one point I could see all the way across it to the Chesapeake Bay, and as we passed through the clouds I knew it was going to be obscured from my sight for at least the next 6 months. Half the people on board eventually sprawled out across 3 seats to sleep. The staff was courteous and generous with food and drinks, and I finally got a cup of coffee. It was a little weak, but enough to keep me going.
I spent a fair amount of the in flight time writing, and as we approached the airport, I realized that Oklahoma from the air looks pretty much exactly as I had imagined it. Rural and rustic.
We took more buses, this time much more like the ones you might expect soldiers to ride in, the rest of the way to Fort Sill. We checked in with our ID cards, had some food at the “Mob Cafe” (pronounced like MObe) and went on to where we would stay. I got a 4 person room with Specialist Hardy, my communications partner in crime, Sergeant Coley, one of our operations counterparts, and Specialist McGill, our supply support. We got all set up in our room, and await another day. The first on our way to war can end.

How to prepare

2009-09-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

Preperation is something that you get better at with experience, but all the experience in the world is sort of useless if you are uncertain what conditions you are preparing for. I know that I'm going to need a personal computer of some kind, and I'd like to have a laptop for the sake of convience and mobility. I even ordered a pair of netbooks off the internet, but today I am making my last ditch effort to put software onto them that will make them reasonably functional. I have been at this since they came in a week ago, and I think I simply have to accept that I made a mistake in buying them. I have never sent anything back before, so I'm a little unsure how to go about it, and I of course have to justify the return at least in my own mind. They may ask for an explination where I purchased them, they may not, but I think I have a reasonable excuse either way.

For those of you who know a little about computers, you might do well to know that I am a proud Linux guy. This means that I don't use Windows for my computers. Mac people likely understand this at least a little, and it's always been in my nature to be a little countercultural and defiant. I like that it's free, and that I can try new things at will, but some Linux perple can be a little preachy about freedom and whatnot. Me, I just like that I can fix it when it, as all things do, breaks. If you're interested in Linux, I have some really great sources for you to check out, but moving onward.

I bought these 2 machines because knowing that if I had an example with me would make it more likely that
I could replicate any problems the wife had with hers and that I could instruct her on what to do over the phone should something be amiss. I think it was a good plan, but I skimped on hardware, and I think I'm paying for it. I've found that if you buy a computer that has either Linux or, nothing, pre-installed, you can save a pretty penny. If you really must pad the pockets of the Microsoft corporation, you can do that later, and being a menber of the Army, I'm pretty sure I can get it at a discount if I really need it.

I'm going to have to get hopping on this. I'm short on time. I've got just 2 and a half weeks to get ready, and there is a lot of unrelated things to get done. More on that later... for now, I am ready to make my last attempt. Wish me luck.

Let's begin

2009-09-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hi. My name is Ken. I am a reservist in the United States Army. I am a computer technician, and I am about to go to Iraq for a year. I hope to make this an outlet for myself, and a way to stay connected to the rest of the world. Thanks for joining me on this trip. Here's where we are now.

My task force, an Aviation unit based out of Virginia, is in final preparations to mobilize. We are heading to Oklahoma for our last step, which could take as much as 2 months, but I'm not certain how long it will be, and not sure if I could say if I did know. Once we are done there, we go straight to "The Sandbox". I'm in the process now of saying goodbye to my family and my regular job. I have already been on a trip to California with my unit to get equipped and trained for the conditions. Now, it's mostly just waiting for the big day.

As I said, I'm a computer technician, and that gives me a particular skill set and set of "tools" to do things like this with. I have been officially trained to do the job for a year now, but playing with computers my whole life up until then. I am quite knowledgeable, but I know I can stand to learn a lot more, and am always ready to. I tend to be a sort of "Jack of all trades" when it comes to computers. I know how to do a lot of different things, and in my civilian job, I'm sort of an on-hand expert, even though it's not in my job description.

My home life is great. I have a wife named Rachel and 3 wonderful kids. I'm going to miss them all, and since the kids are quite young, I know this will have a major impact on them, so doing this will also give me a chance to share something that they can grow up and see when they want to better understand their father. I still live very close to my parents, and even work just down the street from my mother. On the road of life leading up to where I am now, I had already served 4 years on active duty in the Army in the 82d Airborne Division, and have even been to Iraq once before, but a lot has changed in the 6 years that have passed since then.

Well, I think this is a suitable introduction. Posts from here may be a little sporadic, as getting into a rhythm will be difficult in a time of so much transition, but these first posts are surely more for the sake of introductions then to start a following. Looking forward to the future.

Ken