Charlie's Weblog

So, after a year of drawing hazardous duty pay, hostile fire pay and of the combat zone tax exclusion, it was good to get away. Mary Kate and I went to England and had a wonderful time on a hotel canal boat from Birmingham to Gloucester. We celebrated our first anniversary at a bed-and-breakfast in Kenilworth (near Coventry). The boat owner was also a Church of England minister and re-dedicated our vows at the Sailor's and Boatmen's Church in Gloucester.

See www.reedboats.co.uk - we offer an unqualified recommendation!

England offered a lot of peace and quiet - beautiful patureland, sheep and horses...wonderful to spend a week on the water with my wife!

We are now going Space-A to Alaska. A C-130 took us to Andrews AFB in Maryland (yes, we got to see Air Force One) and a C-5 is taking us to Travis AFB in California (San Francisco area). Then we go to Anchorage. It can get a little noisy but the price is certainly right.

Everyone wish my brother a happy birthday today!

The Veterans of Foreign Wars were good enough to sponsor telephone calls today for soldiers calling back to the States. It should not be difficult to imagine the crowds of people wanting to call home today. Kate left a card for my mother but the one that was mailed from Iraq was sent to Aruba and, unfortunately, does not look like it will connect with her.

So, what's with the 3,100 people who have looked at the blog? Is it really THAT interesting?

Many have asked what they might do to help out the folks here in Iraq. Gifts to Children is a program being run through the chaplain's office to get toys and gifts to the children of detainees incarcerated at Camp Bucca. It allows for the American troops to be seen in a light that the fathers of these children rarely see otherwise.

Families, friends, churches or other religious organizations who wish to send gifts for the visiting children send to:

Chaplain’s Office
Camp Bucca
APO AE 09375

The following guidelines apply:

- Recommended gifts include: small cars, small Etch-a-Sketch, stamp-and-ink sets, markers, solar calculators, T-shirts, pens, toy jewelry sets, ball caps, watches, hair clips and small picture books. School supplies are especially welcome. Your local dollar store should have everything.

- If toys require batteries, send extra batteries.

- Please, no used items.

- No toys that relate to violence or warfare such as toy guns or soldiers.

- No liquids. No food.

- Pictures colored by children with a greeting are also welcome. We will have the greeting translated.

- NOTE WELL: No stuffed animals or larger toys into which a small explosive would fit. The reason for this is that insurgents were putting explosives into things like Beanie Babies. The children were maimed or killed and the U.S. was blamed.

- Sending the toys in plastic container boxes about the size of a shoe box is helpful.

Many thanks for those who get involved!

Today marks 40 weeks here in Iraq. My wife and I are hoping that the Army lets me go before the count reaches 52. There's an ever-lengthening row of hash marks on the inside of my locker that mark the Sundays spent in Iraq.

Mary Kate was at the mall yesterday buying sugar-coated pecans to send to me (it's considered very Texan to send pecans). She was talking on the cellphone with me and explained as much to the woman at the counter. She was moved to give Kate the pecans, gratis. We joked about trying the same thing with Kate at the jewelry store but neither of us are as optimistic about the outcome.

It's a big week in west Texas. The Fandangle pre-season dinner was held last night in honor of Aunt Eska Stasney out at the Cook Ranch (where Kate and I honeymooned last summer - beautiful place: www.stasney.com). Relatives are in town for the bank stockholder's meeting but the real news was from my brother Henry. He attended the scholarship selection committee at our church and they were able to find a highly qualified applicant to carry the torch this year. She stands in good company with the awardees from two previous years who are now doing great things academically. It looks like the young people of the church have vouchsafed its future.

All the best,

Charlie

Everyone have a wonderful Easter! This is a scanned image of a card sent to me by Henry, Lisa, Eric and Ethan! At Camp Bucca, we had a sunrise service attended by about 50. The NCO who preps the OR (SGT Barracks) organized a choir that sang three selections and the chaplain had me read a passage. It was wonderful to hear the unification of Christian voices here surrounded by Muslims in this Biblical land.

The D-Fac staff decorated the place in yellow and purple for Easter and it looked good at lunch today.

The hospital observed Easter in an odd way similar to the way we observed Thanksgiving - by holding an inventory for all sensitive items (weapon, helmet, ballistic vest, gas mask, etc.). That's the hospital.

Mary Kate said she is going to sunrise services in west Texas and will then join the ladies at the club for an Easter buffet.

Hope those reading this spend the day observing and reflecting on Easter thoughts of their own with the ones they love.

Yesterday evening was the graduation from the Professional Leadership Development Course (the first career course for junior NCOs). The 344th was well-represented there and then again later in the evening with the NCO induction ceremony (all of this section's enlisted troops participated in some fashion). The hospital sergeant major came down from Abu Ghraib for the event and invited unit officers to attend. Speaking was CSM Mellinger, who is the sergeant major for GEN Casey, commander of the theater here in Iraq. Mellinger spoke without notes and discussed the historical precedents of the NCO's role, dating back to Baron von Steuben, whose "Blue Book" trained General Washington's forces in the style of Frederick the Great. He also challenged the officers to look toward promotion of their enlisted soldiers and to the development of their NCOs.

The 344th hospital's CSM Villa came by today and gave me a challenge coin for the work the section here has been doing.

We're still getting occasional rain but the temperatures are now in the high 80s during the day and the high 60s at night.

Two weeks in Aruba were just what the doctor ordered after seven months in Iraq. It was a wonderful vacation and everything went right. Kate was there to meet me at the airport and already had the hotel room booked. It was Carnaval time and we watched the parade from our hotel balcony. White sand beaches, Mary Kate's cooking, magic shows and cabaret shows, boat rides, driving all over the island and swimming in the ocean. For all that, the very best time I had while in Aruba was going to the drive-in theater to see "King Kong" with my wife.

It was just right, except for the fact that the Army wanted me back in Iraq at the end of it. Fortunately, there should only be a few months left to this deployment (one of the advantages to taking leave late in the cycle).

Three books to recommend while on a journey of 10,000 miles:
1) Tom Clancy's *Without Remorse* hypothesizes what would happen if some lowlife messed with the girlfriend of a Navy Seal. Chapter 3 has a detailed, fact-based account of a project Sikorsky Helicopters assisted and was related to me by Bob Kelly, former VEEP and now with Radford Habitat for Humanity, Virginia.
2) Ken Follet's *Place Called Freedom* started in a Scottish coal mine in the mid-1700s and ended in early Virginia near Lynchburg.
3) Fletcher wrote a non-fiction account of the life of *Bill Wallace of China*, an account of a medical missionary who was martyed in the late 1940s. It is a wonderful read for anyone needing an example of a life inspired by the Holy Spirit and the author is a Hardin-Simmons man.

Also, check out the blog of another soldier here in the 344th. SSG Martinez is our unit photographer (both historical and forensic) and is pretty handy with his camera: http://iraqiconnection.blogspot.com/

There are five days left before I leave Camp Bucca to go on leave in Aruba. Mary Kate is still staying with Mother and Grandmother in west Texas. Mother writes that Kate has already packed and re-packed twice. My view on the packing issue is to go "minimalist."

Today marks 30 years of uniformed service for my friend 1LT Sam Hoffman. It's a pleasure to serve with this veteran.

We have a new psychologist here at Camp Bucca - LTC Gary Southwell is an active duty psychologist at Landstul in Germany. He has 18 years with the company and he will be taking over care of all Coalition Force troops, leaving the care of 8,000 detainees to me. It's good to have such an experienced Army psychologist on board. Unique point - he lived in India for two years while his parents were Baptist missionaries there. The picture has 1LT Hoffman, this author, MAJ Williams, 1LT Zabielinski (actually an MP officer but with a lot of counseling and psychology education and experience), SPC Goode, SPC Preston, SGT Matthews, LTC Southwell and PFC Liedeke.

Speaking of the ministry, both chaplains on post thought they would be out of town the Sunday before last so they let me deliver the 0930 sermon. It was rewarding to be able to use my Methodist lay ministry training and the chaplain had me assist with the communion service this last Sunday.

There will be changes by the time my leave ends. Most of the people I know will be gone. COL Schmidt, FOB Commander, gave me a commander's coin for service here, as has LTC Lynch of the USAF. That's okay, though, because the second part of this tour will be shorter than the first part.

As close as I am to my leave date, only half of my mind is in Iraq anymore. The other half is with Mary Kate.