Some things change, somethings remain the same....

Thoughts for 17 February 2007

This is normally a busy month when I am at home. That doesn’t go away because there are four birthdays this month. My dad on the 1st, Rick my step brother on the 2nd, Faith my niece on the 14th and Stephanie my daughter on the 28th, so happy birthday to you all.


My family back home has interesting things going on. Visits to the doctor, trips planned, grades turned in, car problems returning home to cause further issues. Life is truly full without considering what is going on here which is that we have gained a number of new soldiers to work with internally and with the ANA. We have to bring them up to speed on the area, the customs of the people we work with, and get them as competent as possible as fast as possible, so that they can conduct safe operations while they are here.


We are working with the ISAF forces, and like all things that are done by committee, nothing is ever simple or easy. My entire military career has been based upon a chain of command and troop leading procedures. In this situation we have very convoluted lines of communication, multiple chains of command, different methods inherent in our cultures clash with each other, and in this situation compromise is not a great thing. Try imagining compromise between making an apple pie and a chocolate cake, using 3/4ths of the ingredients, and only one pan. You get neither a great cake nor a good pie. That might be okay in a stew, but this ain’t stew.


Relationships seem to take an additional strain as distance and time work on them. Some come through in beautiful condition. Some show the natural fractures that already existed, but are made more apparent by time, and distance, and strong personalities. The good news is that my wife and family and I, I believe are stronger and better together, I have always loved my wife, our time together has always seemed to fly, it has gone so fast, we have yet to have had a significant argument in our time together, and we respect and value each other more as the days go by I think. That is true for me.


I have never wanted to end friendships, because I have been fortunate to have such wonderful people enter my life. In spite of my wishes however I have had some relationships with people whom I really valued go by the wayside. You can never truly figure out the why of that, there is always so much that contributes to it. Religion, politics, personal actions, they all play a part. So does the fact that people in their 20-50’s are raising families, and rightfully their energies and focus are on raising their children. The other thing that I notice is that I expect less of the people I meet going forward, which makes me more reliant on both myself and my existing network of friends and family.


Here are a couple of things that I have figured out that help me keep it in perspective.

1. The phone, road, and email traffic work both ways, when some one says that they haven’t heard from me in a while, the flip side of that is that I haven’t heard from them either.
2. We all make mistakes, sometimes you make mistakes with people that are not truly repairable, and while that is unfortunate, it is also part of life. Even forgiveness doesn’t truly fix that.
3. It is still important to try and do the right thing, even if others don’t understand.
4. At the end of the day, your family, and some special friends are all that truly will care whether or not you are doing okay. We just don’t have enough emotional load capacity to care about everyone we know equally.
5. People do what it is their nature to do. Scorpions sting frogs, givers give, takers take, and the rest of the population does what it is in their nature to do. That is a pretty difficult thing to overcome. Mother Teresa was sainted I believe, however she also probably did exactly what it was in her nature to do, which was help others.
6. It helps me to ask for serenity, courage, and wisdom from God, because it is proven over and over to me that I don’t know it all, I am not always right, and yet I am the one I have to trust the most to do what I have been taught is right.

Okay, that is the end of my rambling. I think I will begin to get more pictures and things of what is going on in this part of the world again, as missions seem to be picking up.

Respectfully

Keith

In Memory of Sergeant Long Nguyen

I had the pleasure and honor to serve with Sergeant Long Nguyen from Oregon, while deployed to Louisiana in support of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and while in training at Camp Shelby. I found out yesterday that he recently died. The way the information super highway works, I may never know exactly what happened, and in fact that isn't truly pertinent to me now that he is gone.

Sergeant Long Nguyen served in HHC 141 Brigade Support Battalion while I knew him. He was a truly professional Non Commissioned Officer, who was a pleasure to work with. He did not complain about tasks given to him, he performed them to the best of his ability, and he was a pleasure to be around. We spent about 20 days together helping the recovery efforts in Louisiana, and we spent months together later on in the year in Mississippi, challenging each other to get better at our push ups and sit ups. It was something we would do together when we ran into each other, about once a day.

He was a popular person in spite of the fact that he was fairly quiet. People enjoyed his company, and respected his abilities. I know that the people he worked directly with in our Task Force will truly miss him, I wish I was going to be able to be present at the ceremony for him. He was working at a different location than I am, and so I first found out about his death the way most of the people in Oregon found out, on KATU news. I found it very shocking to have to accept it. Life is precious, it is important to live it the way you believe is right; to have as few regrets as you can have. I hope that is the case for Sergeant Nguyen.

Busy last week or so "People Helping People thats a good thing, right?"

It has been a busy couple of weeks, right now I am the Army equivalent of a bazzillionaire, which only means that I am signed for far more equipment than I would like to lose. Our three Majors have gone various directions of late. One off to take a promotion that requires he return home on time, instead of extending the way he was thinking about. One off to run part of the training center in Kabul, and one on leave home, to return to a different position when he returns. Our new fearless leader hasn't arrived yet, and I haven't met him, but I hear good things about him. So for a while anyway, I am stepping up my coordination game, and trying to juggle more things.

We went on a mission last week with ISAF, (We have various things that the acronym stands for) but in reality it stands for International Security Armed Forces. Wow. We took a lot of people and put them in some trucks and moved down under the cover of darkness to some towns that we know are bad. By the time we arrived, most of what we had hoped to find I believe was moved, It really is impossible to neak up (that is like sneaking only different) on anyone here, too many cell phones. Anyway we had two days of relatively uneventful searching, and a return home.

While I was on mission I ran into a Sergeant who normally would be finishing up his school right now, who is located a few miles south of my location. He knows my daughter from school and rugby, which they both played last year. Very small world, of course Oregon is small anyway, in terms of population, and it is almost impossible to meet someone you don't have something in common with.

Upon arriving at home I found out that my last Major here had to return home on emergency leave. That leaves me to do the reports that are required each day, and mission planning. Quite a bit different than what I was doing previously. I also found that the mail system has gotten healthy since the holidays have finished, I received three packages from the USA that took less than 12 days to arrive. Strange.

Thank you Pat , Uncle Dick, Aunt Mary, and Mom and Dad, I received your packages, I appreciate them.....

I watched the Superbowl this year with out professional commercials, it seemed that it was a contest to see who could lose the most, which I guess turned around in the second half. Next year I am going to have some Deschutes Brewery Quail Ale, chili and cream cheese dip, and Costco hot dogs, it just doesn't seem like the Superbowl with out all that. About 10 of us out of our small number got up to watch at 3:30 in the morning. It is of course a national holiday, isn't it? By the way, the Boise State game against the Oklahoma Sooners was still better, but that was the best game of the year, they will make a movie about it in 20 years I am sure.

Things promise to be in a bit of flux for the next couple of weeks, but time is going by faster and faster, and I am getting closer to being home. That is indeed a good thing.

Okay, that is all,

Keith

Busy last week or so "People Helping People thats a good thing, right?"

It has been a busy couple of weeks, right now I am the Army equivalent of a bazzillionaire, which only means that I am signed for far more equipment than I would like to loose. Our three Majors have gone various directions of late. One off to take a promotion that requires he return home on time, instead of extending the way he was thinking about. One off to run part of the training center in Kabul, and one on leave home, to return to a different position when he returns. Our new fearless leader hasn't arrived yet, and I haven't met him, but I hear good things about him. So for a while anyway, I am stepping up my coordination game, and trying to juggle more things.

We went on a mission last week with ISAF, (We have various things that the acronym stands for) but in reality it stands for International Security Armed Forces. Wow. We took a lot of people and put them in some trucks and moved down under the cover of darkness to some towns that we know are bad. By the time we arrived, most of what we had hoped to find I believe was moved, It really is impossible to neak up (that is like sneaking only different) on anyone here, too many cell phones. Anyway we had two days of relatively uneventful searching, and a return home.

While I was on mission I ran into a Sergeant who normally would be finishing up his school right now, who is located a few miles south of my location. He knows my daughter from school and rugby, which they both played last year. Very small world, of course Oregon is small anyway, in terms of population, and it is almost impossible to meet someone you don't have something in common with.

Upon arriving at home I found out that my last Major here had to return home on emergency leave. That leaves me to do the reports that are required each day, and mission planning. Quite a bit different than what I was doing previously. I also found that the mail system has gotten healthy since the holidays have finished, I received three packages from the USA that took less than 12 days to arrive. Strange.

Thank you Pat , Uncle Dick, Aunt Mary, and Mom and Dad, I received your packages, I appreciate them.....

I watched the Superbowl this year with out professional commercials, it seemed that it was a contest to see who could lose the most, which I guess turned around in the second half. Next year I am going to have some Deschutes Brewery Quail Ale, chili and cream cheese dip, and Costco hot dogs, it just doesn't seem like the Superbowl with out all that. About 10 of us out of our small number got up to watch at 3:30 in the morning. It is of course a national holiday, isn't it? By the way, the Boise State game against the Oklahoma Sooners was still better, but that was the best game of the year, they will make a movie about it in 20 years I am sure.

Things promise to be in a bit of flux for the next couple of weeks, but time is going by faster and faster, and I am getting closer to being home. That is indeed a good thing.

Okay, that is all,

Keith