Smittie's Ramblings

Training is complete. I, along with the rest of the unit, have put all the appropriate checks in the appropriate boxes so that someone, somewhere believes I am now qualified to go wander around in a "combat zone". We were fortunate enough to get an opportunity to take six days leave so that we could make our way home to visit friends and family one last time before we leave. And thus, I have been home for the past few days enjoying time with my family. It is nice to be home. I am also excited about what is ahead. I will miss my family and friends terribly but there is something very exciting and satisfying about being a part of something bigger than yourself.

I expect that when I return to the Army in a few days, things will be quite different. Jumping through training hoops defined by others is over. The focus will shift to getting packed and ready to go. I am sure the first day or two will be harried in order to make sure we're ready. I expect that once we are in fact packed and ready to go, we will wait. That's what the military does. We hurry and then we wait. But, for now my focus is on enjoying these last few days with my family.

As a family we are ready for what is to come. We've been through this once before and it is easier the second time through. We have a better understanding of what to expect. There is a certain peace in the knowledge that comes from having done it before. This makes it easier to enjoy whatever time we get together because we are not stressed out about the departure. So far, it has been a very peaceful and enjoyable few days. Everyone has adjusted schedules to afford more time together but there is less pressure on that time. We have been able to simply enjoy each other's company which has been nice. I'm very proud of and grateful for my family. I think it is very cool that the family is strong enough to handle military life. Even Reserve Military life which, I believe, is harder on the family than active duty.

aloha

I passed Combat Life Saver (CLS)! That was the last of the things I feared in coming on deployment. I didn't want to get the small pox vaccination again, I didn't want to get a lot of other shots again and I was afraid of CLS. I have now passed CLS.

CLS teaches one to deal with three avoidable life threatening situation in combat. Bleeding out, collapsed lung, obstructed airway. The correction involves tourniquets and IVs, needle decompression of the chest cavity and a nasal airway. One of the requirements of the class is to successful start an IV. This is the part I was frightened by. That and allowing some beginner to start an IV on me. I got my IV started first try without incident. My partner stuck me once but was unsuccessful. He had an appointment so he had to leave early. He'll have to go back, hopefully with someone else as a pin cushion.

Other aspects of training are going well. There is a lot of repeat training from my last deployment so I don't find much of it very interesting to talk about.

aloha

Today, my daughter's childhood legally ended. Today, my daughter turned 18 years old. As I sit, some 2500 miles away, the memories of her childhood flood my mind like milk poured into a glass by a five year old. So many memories. So many sweet, sweet memories.

With more time to write, I would wander through those memories recounting each and every one. My daughter was an awesome child and is an amazing person. It is only the promise of what she is yet to become that holds back the torrent of sadness that would overwhelm me at the passing of her childhood.

My daughter very often seeks my counsel. She also does me the honor of taking my advice. When she was first old enough to understand what it meant I told her that she only gets one childhood and then the rest of her life is adulthood. Do not rush toward adulthood but cling to childhood and innocence. I believe that my daughter has truly enjoyed her childhood. I believe that she has managed to carry more of her childhood into adulthood than most people. Good for you, girl! Good for you!

"Go on, take on this whole world but always know the road that will lead you home again..."

aloha

So, it's been a week. I've gone through all the initial in processing stuff; finance, medical, dental, etc. I've been deemed suitable for sending to war, though I can only wonder at the criteria used. I got four shots. Fortunately, I didn't have to repeat the smallpox experience for which I am very grateful. That sucked. The vaccination is good for 10 years. I'm kind of hoping that I'm done with deployments by the time I'm due for a another.

I am somewhat needle phobic. Me getting poked bothers me a little bit. Watching other people get poked bothers me a lot. I have one more experience to go through that involves needles. Not sure when but at some point I will need to take the Combat Life Saver course. This course teaches the fundamental advanced first aid required to keep a wound soldier alive until s/he gets to the trained medical folks who can actually save his life. That's a good thing. Learning to start an IV. Passing the class requires actually starting an IV on a live person. Your buddy starts one on you and then you start one on him. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it. I might also get to have an airway inserted up my nose. Sounds like an E ticket ride.

Found this article today. Presents an interesting summary of the situation in Iraq after the surge.

That said, it's still an open question whether the surge accomplished its main goal: of providing breathing space for the Iraqi government to regroup.

Iraqi politics has been a bastion of corruption, deceit, and intrigue for over forty years. Iraqis must learn a whole new set of skills to function in a new society in which the government is a servant to the people and not the other way round.

aloha

So, I finally got my official, from the President, pack your crap, you're going to Iraq, involuntary mobilization orders. This past Thursday I showed up, as ordered. For the most part it was a non-event. Several of the other soldiers teased me about joining late but in large part, I simply fell in step with everyone else. During the month that everyone else was out in the field training and being miserable, I did manage to get in to the unit office and complete the necessary paperwork so that I was ready for deployment on Thursday. Most of the activity on Thursday and Friday centered around fixing pay problems and after action reports from the previous month's training. Most of which did not involve me.

Tomorrow we will travel to Fort Dix to begin the mobilization process in earnest. Should be a lot of fun. Once we get into the rhythm of things, I really kind of like being Army. I absolutely hate goodbyes. I have that to look forward to tomorrow morning, or very late tonight depending on your lifestyle. The really early morning flights will put us into Fort Dix in the early evening which means we might get a reasonable night's sleep tomorrow night, which would be cool.

Today is day three of the deployment.

Smittie

I upgraded from 4.12 to 4.2. The upgrade from 3.5 to 4.12 went flawlessly. So, this should be a simple thing, right? All the templates for my blog are gone. I did exactly that same thing I did when I upgraded from 3.5 to 4.12. Copied the files to the MT4 directory on my server. Went to http://www.server.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt.cgi. Got redirected to the upgrade cgi which appeared to proceed without incident. Once it was done, there was a button to go to Movable Type control panel. Off I went. Hum, looks OK. Let's rebuild and see what happens.

Uh oh. Error. Oooh look, edit template button, how cool is that!! Hey, that's not a template I've ever used. Better go look at the templates and see what's changed. Uh, whadda ya mean No Templates found?? That's not good.

So, that's where I'm at. I was planning to go looking for the templates. I have no idea where they are stored. My guess is the MySQL database which is where I was planning to look next. I should also point out that I cannot Create New Template from the MT Control Panel either. Which probably implies deeper problems.

I always installed from downloads on the download page at Six Apart. I had 3.52, I think, for a long time. I avoided upgrading because of this very reason. A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded 4.12 from the Six Apart download page and upgraded my install. That upgrade went off without a hitch. Hence my confidence in upgrading from 4.12 to 4.2.

All in all, a lousy upgrade experience.

So, the blog design that I liked so much is gone. Partly my fault for not making adequate backups. Mostly Six Apart's fault for not finding data loss bugs before shipping their product.

With deployment so close I do not have time to learn the new architexture of Movable Type 4.1 and then re-create my weblog design. That makes me sad. So, Minimalist Blue, as Movable Type calls it, is my new look. It's boring. I'm not sure how long I'll actually be able to stand it. But, for now....

Crescenta Valley High School in 1978. One of the many things I will miss as a result of the upcoming deployment is my 30 year reunion. I'm actually rather bummed about that. I was looking forward to going. I was looking forward to talking to old class mates and hearing what life had done.

A few years ago I was talking to a friend who is some 10 plus years older than me. He had gone to all of his high school reunions, 10, 20 and 30. He had an interesting observation. At the 10 year reunion, most people were still trying to impress each other. Broad brush caveats apply, obviously, but for the most part that seemed to be true at my own reunion as well.

I did not go to my 20 year reunion. My friend said that he enjoyed the 30 year reunion the most but that the 20 was better than the 10. By the time everyone got to the 20 high school really was a thing of the past. When the 30 rolled around, many had children who were teenagers and thus were seeing the teenage years from the other side of time. It's funny but adolescence viewed from the vantage point of a middle age parent seems but a caricature of what it was when we were living it. This usually plays out in the form of an argument, the teen accusing the parent of never listening. Yeah, that's mostly true but the reason that parents don't listen is because we know the script. We're embarrassed at the realization of how ridiculous we sounded when we uttered the same words now being flung at us. The wise among us also remember how important the statements and the emotion behind them were as a teen and parent accordingly.

So, according to my friend, the 30 year reunion is far more relaxed. By the time people reach their late 40's, their pretty comfortable with whoever they've become. Even if they aren't yet comfort in their own skin, they realize that their old high school class mates probably can't help them.

I wish I was going to be there. I hope that I can somehow hear about it.

aloha

Obama, just returning from his trip to the Middle East and Europe, said recently that he was told by Iraqi leaders that nation does not want an open-ended presence of U.S. combat forces and that now is an appropriate time to start planning for a reorganization of troops in Iraq. He also noted that the war costs about $10 billion a month, which could be used to shore up the U.S. economy.

read story

Several interesting points here. Everyone, including Mr. Obama, is assuming an open-ended presence in Iraq in the form of a residual force. How big that force is, where it is based, and what its mission will be are open questions but everyone on the US side is planning to leave a residual force in or near Iraq.

That the Iraqi leaders think now is the "time to start planning a reorganization of troops in Iraq" is a direct result of surge. The 16 month time frame that Mr. Obama talks about today is significantly different that the one he originally proposed, which was intended to put pressure on the Iraqis. In fact, what Mr. Obama does not mention is that Iraqi leadership is actually beginning to put some pressure on the US to plan on leaving completely.

Lastly, given that Mr. Obama wants to shift the military focus to Afghanistan, increasing troop strengths there and possibly expanding military operations to pursue al Qaeda and Taliban into Pakistan, I have to wonder just exactly how much of that $10 billion a month would actually get spent on shoring up the U.S. economy.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Obama, politics

"That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political," Obama said. "The last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns. So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been a political controversy, of some sort, what we decided was that we would not make a visit."

read more | digg story

For a man who prides himself on his judgement, it seems to have failed him this time. In the course of planning a world tour in which he would meet with many world leaders and the purpose of which was to enhance his image before voters back home, Mr. Obama did not realize that a visit to Landstuhl military hospital might be misconstrued as having political overtones? Nor did he have the political acumen to realize that abandoning the scheduled visit suddenly would also have political ramifications.

It seems to me the smart move would have been to tell Maj. Gen. Scott Gration that he would need to sit this one out, take only his senatorial staff and visit the troops as the Senator from Illinois. Chalked it up to poor judgement due to lack of experience.

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: military, Obama, politics

The Obama Campaign's favorite magazine, The New Yorker, ran an article this month that carried what I think might become a very prophetic headline; OBAMA’S IRAQ PROBLEM (digg story). Now, the story talks about the controversy surrounding Mr. Obama's 16 month withdrawal plan. However, I think that when we look at Mr. Obama's rhetoric on Iraq, the problem goes deeper. Mr. Obama has been very reluctant to concede any credit to the surge for the remarkable progress in Iraq over the last year. Mr. Obama portrays, or at least has until very recently portrayed, the war in Iraq as an endless quagmire. However, he has clearly stated that he believes the real battle is in Afghanistan where he plans to increase troop strength to fight increased al Qaeda and Taliban forces there.

The problem now for Mr. Obama is twofold. First, if Mr. Obama did not believe that a surge would work in Iraq a year ago and is still only willing to call it a contributory factor in the progress in Iraq over the past year, why is he calling for what is essentially a surge in Afghanistan? And what if Afghanistan turns out to be the quagmire that Mr. Obama promised Iraq would be?

Second and far more important to me as one of the soldiers who will end up serving on the Afghan front, how does Mr. Obama define victory in the war on al Qaeda, the war on terror? I suspect that once he gets it all worked out it will look something like this:

The best way to secure long-term peace and security is to establish a stable, prosperous, and democratic state in Afghanistan that poses no threat to its neighbors and contributes to the defeat of terrorists. When Afghani forces can safeguard their own country, American troops can return home. (source)

And one last thought. Has it occurred to Mr. Obama that at least part of the reason for the increase in al Qaeda activity in Afghanistan is because of the surge and the success in Iraq? That maybe al Qaeda is shifting personnel from Iraq to Afghanistan?

aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: election, Iraq, military, Obama, politics