Patch Ceremony

In the Army we are all about stuff on our uniforms. Stuff that means something. Stuff that has a history and is wrought with tradition.

The Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI) is part of this stuff. Oh, and we like acronyms too. The SSI is worn on both the left and possibly the right shoulder of the ACU (Advanced Combat Uniform, duh!) The uniform regulation says you have to wear the SSI of the unit you are currently a part of on the left sleeve. The right sleeve is reserved for the patch of the unit you have deployed with in combat.

Before 9/11 rarely did you see people with the right sleeve SSI, or "combat patch". The Gulf War in 1991 was the last time it was doled out, so by 2001, not too many people had it.

9/11 changed all that, and now everyone has it. So much so, if you see someone in uniform without a unit patch on their right shoulder you catch yourself wondering, "Where's that knucklehead been hiding out all this time that he hasn't deployed yet?"

I am authorized to wear the patch of the 101st Airborne Division, "Screaming Eagles", for my last deployment in 2005-2006. I am proud of my time with that unit and I generally think the 101st patch is one of the coolest looking patches in the Army.

Now that I'm here with the 3rd Infantry Division, I am now authorized to wear the Marne Division Patch on my right sleeve. Technically I can only wear one at a time on my right sleeve, so I have to choose. The commander is famous for saying, "Love the one you're with." So, I am proudly wearing the patch of the mightly 3rd ID.

We had a patch ceremony not too long ago to kind of reinforce that tradition of the right sleeve SSI. Maj. Gen. Cucolo did an awesome job as usual delivering a speech that lasered in on what it means to be a part of this division, to serve, to serve voluntarily in a time of war, and to be here and now with the Marne Division.

He honored me by "patching" my right shoulder with the familiar blue and white diagonal striped patch. I can honestly say I am proud to wear it, and proud to be a part of this storied division. Me and Audie Murphy. (If you don't know who that is, look it up, you'll be a better person for it.)

Thanksgiving Day

The Thanksgiving meals were over abundant. The contracted food service people here do a great job in making it special. They're from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other Asian nations and they are very skilled in carving melons, baking intricate breads, molding butter into shapes, and ice carving. I even saw an alligator made out of pineapples, with pointy crab legs as his jagged teeth. He was about 7 foot long! I hope to post some photos.

I got to serve the meal at lunch time for a couple hours. Several of the officers and senior NCOs volunteered to work the chow line, dipping, and ladleing, and scooping onto the Soldiers' plates.

At 1100 this morning we had a combined worship service. Let me back up...

Yesterday morning I fell out of bed and was stumbling along the rock trail to the shower chu when I noticed a billowing tower of thick, black smoke in the near distance. As I cleared the Hesco barriers I could see that the smoke was originating from the building that housed my TV studio...plus the theater, an MWR center, gym, coffee shop, several small offices, and the chapel.

Come to find out, the building was indeed on fire, completely gutting the building. We were wondering, among other matters, where would we do the Thanksgiving service. Plus, what was the condition of all of the musical instruments and sound equipment that were in the chapel.

As things would have it, country music star Aaron Tippen was here Wednesday night to perform for the troops on a USO tour. The MWR folks decided to leave up the stage in the main gym, and to provide us with instruments and such that they had in storage, so we could have our service. And they have set aside a room for us, with instruments, to have our services every Sunday. What a blessing!

So, we executed our worship service which was a combination of the contemporary service I regularly attend and the gospel service. I didn't play for the service, but I wish I had...I just couldn't commit to the extra practices. The contemporary "Spirit of the Rock " band played two songs in our style, the gospel "Spirit of the Rock" played three in their style, but when the two groups came together on stage, it was simply wonderful. Not only was the music so much better, but it was a grouping of Christians the way Christ intended...people from all sorts of backgrounds coming together in praise. It was truly an amazing thing to see. The songs were interspersed by prayers of thanks lifted up by the Chaplains. It was a very nice event.

So, in between all of that, I did my regular work: press releases, powerpoint slides, working groups, meetings, etc. Sort of an unusual Thanksgiving. But I was so thankful to have it.

Veteran's Day

To all my brothers and sisters in arms, past and present, I hope you felt appreciated yesterday. The day was set aside in honor of you. And me. I feel pretty good about that.

The CG (commanding general) decided to pen a letter to the troops expressing his gratitude for our service. That's a pretty normal thing for a CG at any level to do. The problem this year is that he finished it at 1045 Tuesday night and blasts it out to me and three other dudes with the instructions to make sure it gets widest dissemination. Internet, email blast, poster-sized versions posted in the DFAC...oh yeah, make sure it's formatted correctly so I can sign it first.

Well, needless to say, a couple of us scrambled a bit and put together a plan. The personal staff guys formatted it for signature while I contacted the commo section to build an all-encompassing email list, contacted FSGA to be prepared to post it to the website, coordinated to have it posted on our Facebook account (search for it if interested, but I'd like my blog to be somewhat anonymous from my unit so I'm not going to name the unit), and scrounged up some large 28X18 picture frames to place the jumbo versions.

The next morning we got the signed version after our morning meeting so I missed posting the message for the breakfast meal. I got it printed of on a large plotter, cut the versions to size, and had them delivered to the DFAC s by 1215 or so. Everything else went off OK. I think the boss was somewhat pleased. I had to call a guy from FSGA to come in on his day off to do the website bit, however. He wasn't upset by it, I don't think.

I say all this to give you a frame of mind yesterday during the actual Veteran's Day. I didn't really appreciate it. It wasn't until today, when I was reading and listening to the news coverage of the many events honoring veterans that I really grasped how even I, an active duty service member deployed overseas, am so thankful for our Veterans. In light of the events at Fort Hood, even more so. Thank you my brothers and sisters. Thank you for your service to our nation. God Bless America.

Tomorrow I will wake up and instantly be 42 years old. It's my birthday. I think I will have a bowl of ice cream after dinner to celebrate. Maybe smoke a cigar.

Sunday I am playing drums for the first time with the contemporary chapel service. We'll see how it goes. The chaplain who runs that service, CH(MAJ) Terry Romine, is a gifted preacher and a no-pulling-back ambassador for Christ. It will be good to have him around during these long, lonely months.

I'm reading Galatians right now. Trying to be consistent, but it's tough. I've never studied the book before, but it has been a helpful way to start each day.

If you have been paying attention, a helicopter crash killed two OH-58D pilots this past week. Training accident right outside our FOB. Please remember us in your prayers--safety and continued success. Thanks.

Iraq--a haiku

For my loyal readers, I offer a...haiku.

Iraq

Dust, dusty powder silt

Penetrates the attitudes of men

Culture clashes daily

Thank you.

Transfer of Authority (TOA)

Last Tuesday we officially took over control of MultiNational Division-North in N. Iraq in a ceremony at Speicher. The staff planned for days upon days to make sure this event was a good step forward. VIP generals from Baghdad and officials from the State Dept were in attendance as were Iraqi generals and elected officials from Salah ad Din province.

My duties, of course revolved around the media and the post-event interview with my boss. We invited western and Iraqi media from Baghdad to fly up for the event...we even arranged for a helicopter to pick them up especially. We had commitments from the New York Times, AFP, and 8 Iraqi agencies.

The day before the event, every single one of them cancelled. We had a commitment of 20 more journalists from the local provincial area, but after that letdown, I was wondering if were were going to get any media coverage at all.

On the morning of, the weather was pretty sick looking. There was a large dustcloud that had formed over most of our area, shutting down rotary wing flights for most of our guests. The CG (commanding general, my boss) made the call to delay the event 3 hours to let the weather clear. The problem was, 12 Iraqi TV , newspaper, and web journalists had descended on the base. Once they get through the security checks it it very difficult to tell someone to come back later. Fortunately we had set aside a break room for the media to chill out before the ceremony--complete with food and beverages--so they weren't too upset about the delay.

It gave me the chance to mingle and meet with them. I even recognized one of the cameramen and I struck up a conversation about how I had seen him before. It was a good chance to build relationships and to learn more about the culture. Vivian and Hayder, our interpreters, helped me with the communication.

One of the journalists who was working for Reuters was complaining about being feverish and having congestion. Not sure what to do I found a medic and we had him looked at. Turns out he had been sick and receiving medication...through an IV that was stuck in his hand for the past five days! We cleaned him up and gave him some Tylenol. Not much else we could do--but he appreciated it and he seemed to feel better. At least it didn't stop him from doing his job,napping pictures all over the place.

The ceremony went well, the after event interview went well...overall everything was fine. They had wanted to have more time with the CG, but the MNF-I commander was on hand and they had a meeting to attend.

One peculiarity: They asked if they could put their TV microphones on the podium. You have seen them before--the ones with a box around the handle with the station's logo emblazoned on it. I said, "Sure, no problem."

The podium was littered with these microphones, but none of them were plugged in! It was all about getting a camera shot of their TV station on hand for the event.

It's a concept called " wasta", or street credibility, or machismo. They just wanted to build the wasta of the organization. Interesting.

See the b-roll video we shot here:http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=71982

As a side note: I'm praying for my grandma's right now, especially Grandma Allen. She's pretty sick and probably in for quite a battle with the treatment and recovery phase of this. Please remember her in your prayers; for a full and quick recovery.