End of Year

Seems like there are all sorts of "End of Year" things in the media. Not wanting to be different, you may want to look at some pretty spectacular "large" photos taken during the year, of events many might have missed. It is here.

This will be my last post in 2008. See you next year! Happy 2009!

Football Day

Actually it was a VERY GOOD football day for me yesterday (Dec 28). I was watching/listening to the Cowboys-Eagles game while working on the magazine, and had a hard time not laughing my guts out at the worthless play of the Cowboys. They are clearly not a team, and never will be a team with the owner and especially the "me, me, me" players they have on board. I just wish they would all "go away". They are a distraction with all the unwarranted media attention people like T.O. get, and given that they have failed to win a playoff game in (what?) the past nine years or so, ought to tell America to dump them as "their" team… if in fact they remain so today. But, being a basic gloater, and general hater of anything that smells or looks like a Dallas Cowboy I will continue to watch every minute of their replays that show just how bad a professional football team can be, when it all really counts for something. How's that for a rant!

Getting ready for a new year

I took this photo in July of 2007 off the coast of Alaska near Kenai Fjords National Park. Eight of us were in an inflatable Zodiac boat, cruising along the shoreline, when we flushed a massive number of sea birds off the water and into the cloudy sky. The snow-covered mountain peaks in the background added to the scenic picture. I'm headed back to Alaska next June, this time with my grandson Michael, a present for him graduating with all "A's" from high school, and having been selected for early admission into the School of Engineering next fall at Virginia Tech. That trip is a ways off, but my excitement grows as I look back through all the photos I've taken from earlier trips "up north". My wife is allowing me to go back to Alaska without her, only so long as I don't visit any place she's not been herself. She and I have seen a lot of that part of the world together, so I won't have much trouble complying with her instructions. If all goes well, she and I may return together in 2010 to explore some new places. But, for 2009, it's Michael's turn.

Merry Christmas from Boots

Christmas Cactus

This one is carefully nurtured throughout the year by my wife Barb, and as a result, it blooms exactly at the right time, as you can see. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Photos of Christmas Lights

If you're like me, taking photos of Christmas lights is on your "to do" list. What I know about such stuff is not much. But, I got a bit smarter by reading this brief article on "how to do it".

Size of the Army

Army Times has an interesting article that discusses the size of the Army. It notes that out of a total of 695,000 Soldiers on active duty from all three components, 250,000 of them are deployed overseas. That figure has remained essentially the same for the past two years. Clearly, the service is stretched way too thin. Might be an interesting read for you. Check it out here.

Warmer days…

The temperature is not too bad here in SW Virginia today (50's), but that's a much different story in the upper midwest. For those of you with lots of white stuff on the ground, here's a photo to warm your eyes. Taken at Oak Island, North Carolina last August.

Neat Tie

Last week while I was at the 20th Engineer Brigade's OIF Lessons Learned Conference, I saw a retired Army Engineer Command Sergeant Major wearing this tie. I thought it was, well, interesting and felt some of you might want to see it. Actually, it's pretty neat. Did not ask him where he bought it, but I'd kinda like one myself.

Drill Sergeant Misconduct

Army Times has an article concerning the fact that Drill Sergeant misconduct at Fort Leonard Wood has been the worst in the Army over the past couple of years. Individuals involved were MPs, Chemical Corps and Engineers…each training female Soldiers. Leonard Wood and Fort Jackson, SC are the Army’s two training bases engaged in training of females. Such actions by a few worthless individuals is a stain on the reputation of the vast majority of Drill Sergeants who continue do the right thing. While the Army has increased the amount of leader training involving sexual misconduct over the past ten years, there apparently is a need to do even more.

Stuff happens

I was going to spend some time today working on the next issue of Army Engineer magazine. Instead, I'm going to be doing some outside house maintenance work, as well as some minor cleanup in my downstairs office. Last evening as I was about to sit down and watch the evening news with a "cold one" in hand, I made a quick trip downstairs to my office to check my email one last time for the day and heard was I first thought was water running down one of our roof gutter drains (there was a deluge of rain falling outside). After closer inspection, I found that water was leaking into the house around the spot where the main water line entered through the foundation. Water was dripping rapidly down the enclosure around the pipe, and running along the edge of the wall, thus starting to soak the carpet nearby. Shouting for my wife to come help, I immediately pulled the carpet and its pad up along the wall to prevent it getting any wetter, and then I searched for the source of the leak. I quickly found it and fortunately the rain had ceased by that time so the amount of water coming in had dropped considerably. Also fortunate was the fact that I had some leftover quick-drying and waterproof concrete sealant available, which I used to plug the area where water had started to enter. Looking further into the situation early today during daylight, I noted that I'm going to have to re-route the roof gutter downspout that empties near the area where the main water line enters the foundation, so that future heavy rains don't cause excessive water to back up against the foundation, as it apparently had done last night. We've had numerous equally heavy rains before over the years and this was the first time we had this sort of problem, so I'm not sure why it happened now. The good thing is that we had no water damage. Plus, I have been alerted to a potential problem with the roof gutter downspout in question. Yes indeed, stuff happens.

20th Engineer Brigade Conference

To say that the 20th Engineer Brigade OIF Lessons Learned Conference being held this week is/was a success would be an understatement. Hosted by the Fort Bragg Chapter of the Army Engineer Association, and Colonel "Duke" Deluca, commander of the brigade, around 200 Soldiers and civilians discussed various lessons learned, in a most candid and effective manner. I'm not going to go into all the details here, because I'm going to write an article for the Jan-Feb 2009 issue of Army Engineer Magazine in that regard. Suffice it to say that the main thing I carried away after listening to Colonel Deluca and others, is that many of the key lessons the brigade learned from their involvement in the counterinsurgency fight in Iraq, are almost exactly the same engineer lessons learned during our war in Vietnam. I'm not saying that, Colonel Deluca said it time and again. In fact, he quoted from historical publications written by Corps of Engineers leaders after the war in Southeast Asia. Why is it that high level leaders and managers in the Pentagon fail to go back and revisit things the military has done before? At least Colonel Duke Deluca does, and for that he is to be commended. In my view, the rest of the Engineer Regiment needs to heed what he is saying.

Going to Fayetteville

I'll be attending the 20th Engineer Brigade Lessons Learned Conference in Fayetteville, NC near Fort Bragg from Monday-Wednesday. While there I'll write some stories, plus take some photos some of which I'll post here after I return. The brigade headquarters recently returned from a deployment to Iraq, so I hope to learn a bit about what they did there, as well as where Soldiers in the unit see us headed over the next couple of years. More later…

Dutch Harbor

For me, a visit to the City of Unalaska (Alaska's 11th largest city with 4000 residents) and the Port of Dutch Harbor was a dream come true. I'm a big fan of the Discovery Channel series "The Deadliest Catch", which focuses on commercial crab fishermen sailing into the Bering Sea from Dutch Harbor during the winter season. The day we were in Unalaska started out with a low fog bank over the island, which slowly lifted during the morning. I was able to take this picture right at the point in time. Talking to them in person, made me realize how rugged the people are who live here year around. From time to time I wish I was one of them. But then I come to my senses. Sadly, I missed my chance years ago when I was more "adaptive" in terms of living environment.

Christmas Tree

There was a time when I vowed NEVER to own an artificial Christmas tree. We were "all natural". Some years I cut our tree from a designated area, and others I cut one from places that were, well, undesignated. I remember one such tree I cut from a training area on Fort Leonard Wood. It was, unfortunately, a cedar tree, and while it looked really good, it's weak stemmed limbs could not support even our lightest ornaments, so when it was all decorated, everything looked sort of droopy. My wife declared it a total failure. So, as I recall, I was ordered to the PX parking lot to buy a replacement. It was after we retired from active duty that we made the switch to artificial. We hauled that "boxed" tree around from homes in Virginia, then North Carolina, then back to Virginia. Last year I noticed that the metal limbs which had to be individually inserted in the tree's center metal pole were pretty well bent up (our two cats had climbed the tree the year prior and you can imagine the result). The other thing I noted last year was how much I hated to string strand after strand of lights, around and around, and then working for hours afterwards to get them all balanced out. You probably know the drill. So, last week, my wife and I went to Lowes and bought a new artificial tree, one with lights already installed, and with limbs that were fully connected. It took me less than a hour to get it up and looking great. Yesterday, I hung the outside ornaments, and last night we were looking a lot like Christmas. But, the center of it all remains the tree, albeit an artificial one.

Hard times in Michigan

When I entered the Army back in 1963, I did so after graduation from Michigan Tech. Thus, the State of Michigan became my military "home of record". Back then, GM was flush with cash, as were other major automobile manufacturers. The State was also well off financially, and the highway system it had was probably the best in the midwest. When I came back from Vietnam in 1966 and again in 1969, the State gave me a $500 "Vietnam Bonus" each time, in appreciation for my service. I was obviously not the only Michigander who served in Vietnam, so the total amount of bonuses provided by the State must have been quite large. Compare those flush times with today. The State itself is in a dismal condition financially, and most everyone is well aware of where our automobile industry is today. This week on Capital Hill will be interesting to watch as CEO's of the "big three" plead for financial help. I want to see the State and its automobile industry return to where they once were in terms of financial stability. But, I can't overlook the fact that much of the problems both entities face today result from their own doing…call it what you want, mismanagement, greed, etc. This is a tough problem to deal with not only for the State of Michigan and the American automobile industry, but for the country as a whole. I am no where near smart enough to suggest what the best course of action might be. I trust others will be up to the task.

Dwell Time

I have always felt that the time in between war zone deployments for our troops has been far too short. The military refers to that period as "dwell time". When the military says its goal is to have a certain period of time (months) back home in between deployments, and then requires unit personnel to often be away from home station during their dwell time period (training, domestic emergencies like tropical storms, fighting forest fires, etc) I have to ask, "where is the dwell in that dwell time?" Now, along comes Virginia Senator Jim Webb who proposes a law specifying that active-duty troops spend at least as much time at home as they spend deployed. National Guard and reserve members would have a promise of spending three times as long at home as they were deployed, before they could be tapped again for an overseas assignment. I agree with Senator Webb, but there ought to be some aspect of his proposal that recognizes the numerous "back-home" type missions being placed on troops, that may require Soldiers to be away from their families. After all, being with one's family is an integral part of dwell time, and if that's overlooked, then any set dwell time goal in terms of months "back home", is a goal in name only. Bottom line is that we have far too few troops to do all that is being asked of them. Unless we fix that, all these laws and goals are just a sham in my view.

It's a toy world…

Pretty cool collection of videos taken using a special camera lens, to make a scene look miniature and very cool. Several examples, all neat. Check it out here.