more news from my replacement

Sometimes, LTC Sanders will CC me on emails or write me directly to let me know how things are going in Balad with my old flight.  Since AEF 1/2 is about to end, the guys who replaced my group will be leaving shortly, so I’m very much looking forward to hearing about their deployment, and [...]

back at work – 3/12/08

Here I am in front of my decorated office.  I had an impromptu press conference for the first couple hours I was back.  time to return to being an atlanta workers’ comp attorney.

divorce

just learned that some members of my flight are getting divorced now.  i wonder how common this is? 
on my last deployment to iraq, i saw several friends get the middle finger from spouses or girlfriends while stuck in the sand.  i even counseled a few of them (as well as a law student could).  one [...]

3 months

i’ve been back for just over three months now.  this is the point at which, according to the armed forces network’s public service announcements, i am supposed to feel “like nothing is the same” or withdrawn.  for me, that is not the case.  not this time or at this point, at least.  maybe when i [...]

drop in casualties

Though my opining that ”all is well” below has a hint of sarcasm, my replacement does indicate that the downward trend I saw in casualties is continuing.  The 4-month rotation before me moved several hundred more patients than my rotation did (nearly 3k v. just over 2k), and the one after mine is moving even fewer [...]

news from the old flight

I get emails from my replacement every few days.  I thought this one was fairly amusing (posted below).  I think if these are the present concerns of our deployed, then all is well.
—–Original Message—–
From: Sanders James C Lt Col 332EOSS/EAEF
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 4:18 PM
Subject: Fitness+
Importance: High
Good afternoon everyone,
I just got word that we [...]

mortar attack and defense

this video shows a C-RAM (counter rocket artillery and mortar system) knocking out a mortar before it hits balad air base…then the alarm red can be heard here.

a fitting end: meet the president

today was my last day of making up drills after coming off orders for the deployment to balad, and i got to meet, and shake hands with, president bush.  i thought this was a fitting conclusion to to my second deployment to iraq.  now it’s time to play civilian lawyer again.
here’s my right shoulder on [...]

a few EU pics

valentine’s day 2008

next to our 5-star hotel

believe it or not, the louvre allows photography.  unbelievable. 

somewhere between madrid and cadiz along A4 with our fiat punto

straddling a couple hemispheres

museum in sevilla, spain 

leave

a week in the hawaiian islands wasn’t enough, so now we’re in the UK.  the day after getting back, we drove to charleston, hopped on a C-17, and landed at mildenhall air force base, about 70 miles or so north of london.  as a guardsman, i usually can’t travel “space available” overseas, and i can’t [...]