Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Winning an Earthquake

Thursday, July 24th, 2008
     We experienced an earthquake here in our home in Japan last night.  It measured 6.8 on the Richter scale.  Luckily, no one appears to have died in the quake.      Since no one died, I can say I’m glad to have been through it.  Call me insane.  Natural disasters (or natural near-disasters) don’t [...]

Returned To Base

Saturday, June 28th, 2008
     I’ve done a reverse MacArthur.  I have returned from the Philippines.       As it happened, I rolled home and straight into an exercise! I’d like to say I swapped my ‘Battle Rattle’ for a chemical defense ensemble, but rather the chemical defense ensemble went on underneath the Interceptor body armor.  Mercifully it’s [...]

Revisiting Ramadi

Sunday, June 1st, 2008
     I received an informative article awhile back from Mr Gary Patriquin, father of my late friend CPT Travis Patriquin (the author of the PowerPoint slideshow How to Win in Anbar).  If you’d like to know how the West was won, see Ramadi from the Caliphate to Capitalism by Andrew Lubin in the April 2008 Naval [...]

Boodle Fights and Dead Gecko Coffee

Sunday, June 1st, 2008
     Today my colleagues and I were invited to a Boodle Fight with some of our host-nation counterparts.  The Boodle Fight is a tradition in this country that builds esprit de corps (team-building, in modern business parlance).  I’m not sure how far it dates back.  The cooks would prepare as much food as was available.  Then they would [...]

Cobra Quest Paused

Thursday, May 29th, 2008
     Some of my friends were not too far away from this event.  They’re alright.  They couldn’t tell me which of these reports about the event were correct.       I think I’ll be redirecting my search efforts. 

Arachnophobia

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
.gallery { margin: auto; } .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } .gallery img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } Chris points at a large spider      I was on my way into one of the buildings with some other folks here when I espied this spider.  As best I could tell it was an argiope spider.  This one was about as [...]

Looking for Wildlife

Friday, May 2nd, 2008
     I’m the type of guy who doesn’t shy away from wildlife, no matter how wild the life.  If a trail at a national park says to "Beware of mountain lions," it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll find me on that trail looking for a mountain lion.      This place is no different, [...]

The Best Thing About This Tour

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
     The best thing about this deployment was meeting this guy:                    . . . At least according to him! You know how these young folks can be brash sometimes.      You’re doing great work, AJ! Keep it up! [...]

Inspirational Antarctica

Monday, April 7th, 2008
     Here’s more amazing video from Rob T’s Antarctica trip; set to some music that got my soul singing along, too!

Battle Rattle

Monday, April 7th, 2008
     I’ve found it nearly completely unnecessary to wear this stuff in the current theater.  The primary danger is from pickpockets.        I can’t believe I traded in a G-suit for kevlar! Update 11 Apr 2008:  Due to popular demand to know which one of these fighter pilots-turned [...]