The Wheel-O-Pain is no longer accurate.  As of now we have approx two weeks till we fly our asses out of here.  The Iraqis are still trying to put this constitution together and this trial with Saddam is causing a bit of havoc here, so I'm glad the days are winding down.  15 Days!

 

Check it out everybody.  This is the projected date for our homecoming, but it's already change twice, so this is only a ball park.  Anyways, things here have slowed down a bit and everyone's spirits are rising as the wheel-o-pain turns.  Almost home! 

So after Heidelburg, I made my way to Rothenburg, not too far away.  Rothenburg is an old town surrounded by a protective wall.  Sorry I can't tell you much about it, I ignored the nitty gritty details about the places I've visited, not that there was anyone to explain it to me nor were there an abundance of literature available in my language.  My trip was really fast paced; get there, take pics, back on the train to the next place.  A whole lot of traveling.

 

So here is a panoramic of the town right outside the walls in the park area.  It's really nice.  O and I pieced three pictures together in photoshop to make that panoramic shot, can you tell?

 

 

 

And to the left is me in the Market Place in the middle of Rothenburg.  It's still pretty early in the morning, it got really busy with tourists towards the afternoon.

 

And to the right is me at the backyard of Hitler's hangout, the Eagle's Nest.  I wanted to see this ever since watchin "Band of Brothers."  It was one of my "to do " things in my life; that's a check off of that list.

 

And finally, the following three pics is taken in Paris, as if you can't tell.  The first is the Eiffle Tower, big piece of good for nothing iron.  There's a nice restaurant on the second level, but it's for special people only, not for us commoners.  The French are rude by the way, so I left and had me a good o' American hot dog, and it was GOOD.  The second is of a frontal of Notre Dame.  The back is also pretty awsome too.  The third is the Arch de Triomphe or something like that.  The street in front of it is Elysee and it's really popular for shopping.  A new LV building was in construction when I walked through, very tacky, building looking like a huge purse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Paris, I made my way to Amsterdam, pics aren't too intersting, and after two nights at a hostle's, which was new to me, I went back to Frankfurt to meet up with Steve and company.  It was their turn to go on leave as mine was about to end.  We hung out for two days and they moved on.  I ended up watching two movies on my last day.  Kingdom of Heaven and Unleashed.  That's about the most relaxing time I had thus far.  Back to the shit hole!

 

   Hey people, it's finally my
turn for R&R!  I flew into Germany on the morning of the 16th,
and my days don't start counting until the 17th.  It's sort of
like getting a free day, but not really.  I'm in Heidelburg,
Germany right now, and I'll be heading over to Rothenburg later on.

 

This is a model of Heidelburg Castle.  This is how it's supposed to look if the French hadn't destroyed most of it.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a model of the Castle now. 
The ruins are preserved and many areas are still open to tours. 
Wish I had more time to just walk around a bit and explore.  Maybe
next time.

 

 

 

 

 

And that's me standing in one of the
ruined towers.  You can still see the big chunck that just slid
off.  This is one of the better pictures, after I fixed it up in
photoshop so you don't see fingers in the shot.  The people here
can't take pictures for shit.  It's like they've never seen a
digital camera before.  Next time I'll show you pics of the garden
of Schwetzingen Castle.  It's awesome!

   Going on leave tomorrow!  It's either going to be really exciting or really lonely, either way, it'll be an awesome experience.  When I get back, the next thing to look forward to is home.  It'll 18 months that I was away from home, and I've seen, learned and grew a great deal.  Some of you might notice some changes.  So here's a question:  What are some changes in me that you would like to see?  You know, if I were to come back as a brand new Derek, how would you like him to be?  Like a new years resolution thing, a self improvement attempt.  Be honest.  I'll try to post some pics of my Euro trip, but hopefully I won't be spending all my time in internet cafes. 

Hi all, sorry for the lack of entries.  I've been a bit busy.  A few of the guys here went on leave at the same time (leave it to the genius leadership to schedule so many people on the same shift to go away at the same time), so it fell on me to do everyone's job.  I call it multi-tasking.  I get all the jobs, from my own responsibilities of ensuring comunications equipment work properly to tracking information to making coffee (mostly for myself) to the more glamorous jobs like sweeping and cleaning to getting food and back to command and control of the battle field.  This job sucks.  But hey everyone, EIGHT MORE DAYS TILL I GO ON LEAVE.  EUROPE HERE I COME!!! 

Here's a pretty amazing story.  Three soldiers who survived an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade, bazooka in other words) attack, one of which is in our own Battalion.  One got hit square on the chest, it didn't explode.  Luck SOB.  One got hit on the FACE and now looks like Chucky, not as lucky but still fortunate SOB.  I don't know how true the stories of these two are, but judging by the third incident which happened to our own A co. guys last week, I'm a believer.  Our guy's a gunner on a humvee, and got hit on the head by an RPG and bounced off exploding nearby.  It cracked his helmut in half and took a piece of his ear with it.  This guy insists the next day he's ok and wants to go back out, but we think he's just pissed, not about his ear but the loss of his new CD player and collection of CD's that got burnt up, crazy SOB!  If I was an insurgent and see these guys get back up after hits like that, I'd just give up then and there, but not before I get a refund for the RPG's.

About a month ago, Senator Clinton requested to meet some soldiers from New York.  So to fit us into her busy schedule, a lucky few were slotted to meet her at the helipad.  So somewhere between landing and getting to the vehicle that awaited her, we were able to fulfill her request.  John McCain was also with her, and a post meeting consensus reveals that everyone thought McCain was much cooler than Clinton.  He actually took the time to shake everyone’s hand, pose for a picture with anyone who wanted one, and thanked everyone personally for doing what we’re doing before running off to catch up with our senator.  The painting she’s holding is from one of our own SSG O’Brien.  I tried to tell her it’s from the soldiers of the 69^th infantry, but I doubt she heard me what with her fast-paced handshake-smile-nicetomeetcha-next routine.  She also commented on how dangerous the routes have gotten, basically a slap in the face for those who patrol it, namely us.

 

 

 

 

This is a view of where we live.  Our trailers are surrounded by concrete barriers for protection against fragments from incoming mortar rounds, but I guess if one lands right on a trailer, whoever's in there is shit out of luck.  The path is covered with rocks to facilitate travel when it rains.  It gets really muddy when it rains, it sucks here wet or dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the building I work in.  As you can see,

it's just like the Carribean...without the water.

 

 

 

And this is antenna hill, across the street from us. 

One of these days, I'll drag my ass up there and

check out the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Army and Air Force Exchange Service Post Exchange, basically a wal-mart out here.  The pic on the far right is the Bazaar run by locals.  This is probably where I'll be getting everyone's souvenirs.  Camel statue anyone?

 

 

 

 

   Around the Post Exchange (PX) area, there're also little shops.  Barber shop, flower shop, jewlery shop, carpet shop, car dealership, Berger King, and coming soon a Popeye's chicken and bisket.  As you all can see, we have it pretty rough here.  Those guys in the World Wars got nothing on us.  So I'm doing good, and spirits are begining to go up with each passing day and regular rumors of when we'll be coming home.  But on a serious note, the guys here are enduring a lot and should be recognized for their contributions.  There's also a lot going on that we're not showing, for one reason or another, but for the most part, we're doing good.  Happy Easter everyone!!!

 

   When they told us that this was a media war, I think some of the guys might've misunderstood.  This has been quite a week.  We made headlines at record breaking speeds.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the story:  An Italian journalist who was kidnapped some time ago was released the other day, and on her way to the green zone, the vehicle she was in missed a check point and got lit up by our guys.  Our story is that the vehicle was moving at a high rate of speed, warning shots were ineffective, resulting in immortalizing our unit on the front pages of news papers on an international scale.  More to follow.

   Guess what I'm doing right now.  Deleting this guy's live journal online.  Apparently he posted sensitive info, especially about this whole journalist thing and now I have to go and delete all his entries.  So seeing as how he is probably is some serious shit, I guess I'll have to watch what I post. 

   So on January 26, 2005, we packed up once again and made ready to move elsewhere.  We’ve lived in Camp Cooke, Taji, for the past three months, said good bye to a couple of heroes, and made ready for the election that was to be our biggest mission.  Our main headquarters was located inside an abandoned mall.  It was cool.  Walking around at night was like living a live zombie movie.  My buddy and I found a kitchen with a big meat locker.  We went all the way to Triple Dog Dare to look inside, we agreed to change subjects and carry on.

   The elections went extremely well, thanks to Maxwell House.  The army runs on coffee and duct tape.  The experience was new.  The mighty Army of the United States had everything, computers, satellites, portable internet service, even toilet paper.  However, the toilets were forgotten.  I have seen some amazing things in my life, but soldiers can get really creative when the turtle wants to poke its head out.  Garbage can inside a wooden box with a hole on top, a chair frame, with the seat cushion punched out, set over the Iraqi toilets (like Asian toilets, a hole on the floor), I’d hate to have been the one to f@#% up and get stuck with shit burning detail.  I regret that I didn’t take any pictures of such inventions, but I’m sure somebody did.  Anyways, the elections were a complete success.  On the 2^nd of Feb, we migrated south to Camp Liberty, and that’s where I am now, with Tootsie, my valentine.

 

To the left is my old trailer in Camp Cooke

 

The pic on the right is my new home now in Camp Liberty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         This is the Mosque of Evil                                            A tactical checkpoint outside the mall                That's me outside the mall

 

No that's not Tootsie, that Lambo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's Tootsie!  She's all that and a bag po ta to chips.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYBODY!

HOPE YOU'LL GET LUCKY JUST LIKE ME!