Hello from germany

I appoligize once again for the latency of my posts. im not back from leave at home and enjoying this beautiful in summertime. Unfortunatly we usally have to travel outside of our base's home town in order to get decent weather. Baumholder resides on a mountian top. We usally get horrible weather all the time. One minute its sunny the next its pouring. I suppose thats more of a reason to go get out of town. Recently we traveled to Bavaria to see a concert. It's such a beautiful countryside to drive through.
Im not longer attached to my platoon of guys, which is depressing because i was returned to the aid station. It's normal procedure for all line medic's. So new people and new rules to come. But its ok. My friends and I are planning to go to all sorts of locations while we have a few months left here in Germany before I head over to Oklahoma. Im going to try to visit Cezch Republic, France and Amsterdam. Hopefully ill get the chance.

well...

finally an update...youll have to forgive me lately. with redeployment weve been bouncing around and havent had the ability to post anythin gon here for over a month... well weve reached home. were finally back in germany! this place is quite possibly the most beautiful country ive ever seen, either that or ive seen nothing but sand and tan for far too long. Germany has so much green ... everything is green here its increadable here. and great weather to boot. ill be going back to california for some fun in the sun and time with great friends and family within 4 days... i cant believe it. seems like its been s long since ive been home. but i will be posting pictures of germany and friends as soon as i can so bear with me

just a few thoughts

As we are preparing for our departure from Iraq we all tend to look back and reflect on our time spent here. Weve spenta little over a year away from our familys and loved ones, thousands of miles away from our familar homes and daily lives. Weve experienced quite alot in our relitivly short time here. Weve watched the tides of massivly over populated city turn from extream violence and ruthlessness that i personally neverthought possible, to a relative calm or lul in violence. Buisnesses are flourishing, people have resumed their daily lives, children are attending school. All of which was not possible 1 year ago. I can only hope that our actions here have made a permenentimpact of the social structure of daily life. I can only hope that in some small way i have made a difference. Because then and only then can my actions and experiences become worth my time here. I think that i have...i hope. Ive heard many civilians inthis area say that if it were not for our efforts then they would be dead. I dont know if thats true, but in a city where almost allhope for normalicy has been lost you settle into "the norm". Where death and destruction, violence and barberism are accepted as a part of daily life here. And quite possibly the grasp on your own mortality becomes limited in an enviorment like that. I couldnt imagine living in a country like that much less raising a family. But things have turned around for the people of Sadr City. They still have to deal with alot and its far from a complete transformation but i believe its on its way to making that transformation.

Since the start of my deployment ive delt with quite a bit in my experiences with being in a combat zone. From firefights to distrubuting food the locals. If had to try to deal with the loss of great friends both here and back home. My views on life andsocial issues and different cultures has changed so much. The things i have experienced here will forever shape everything i know from here on out in my life. Knowing that this year has impacted my life so much is alot to take in. But i can use these experiences to shape my life to come.

As this comes to a hopefully very quiet and speedy return home, we all have to come to terms and realize what our experiences meanfor our lives. Ive gained a large group of brothers and weve shared these experiences together and will take these things all differently.But these things will forever shape our lives.

im pretty much rambling now but these are a few of the thoughts on my mind.i hope all of you are well and ill be seeing you soon

food handouts

well hello everyone,

I know its been some time since ive written last but boy have we been busy. Things have been increased in the last month were still going on 8 hour patrols a day but we stay with our Iraq Army counterparts while were out in sector.

Some good news to come our way... aparently were going to be leaving Sadr City in the next few weeks and moving to another sector a little further south. It has its positives and negatives. Positives = were going home and only have to stay there for about 30 to 40 days. negatives = a whole different enemy.

Today we handed out 9 palets of food to the people in our sectors... its never announced we just show up with it and word spreads so fast that there are a couple hundred people in a matter of minutes. Again working with the Iraqi Army we distrubuted a hell of a lot of food to the people and a little bit of candy to the kids. Everything went very smooth and it was a nice perk to see alot of smiling faces. heres some Pictures from today and some random ones from the last few weeks

Its been awhile

Since ive written anything on here. Alot has happened lately, alot of changes have been made, and things are alot different then when we first got here. But hopefully its the start of us getting the hell out of here. Weve been working with the Iraqi Army everyday, we do patrols with them and live with them too. long days and nights. As we speak we only have 2 medics in the company, so myself and my senior line medic are split between 2 platoons each... long hours with not a whole lot of rest. but things could be worse. Its been about 30 degrees or so durring the nights so pulling guard is really getting to suck. hopefully this bitter bone chilling cold wont last forever.
The day after christmas I lost my good friend Ryan Armstrong. Im 8000 miles away from home and i felt someone punch me in the stomach when i found out. I spoke to him on christmas day, told him i missed him, and he said keep you head up, im proud of you. i have a hard time reading that email. I can remember so many days and nights spent together. It still hasnt fully hit me that hes gone. I dont thnk ive been the same since i found out. I have to wait another few months to say my goodbyes. but mayeb by then ill know what to say.
Unfortunatly we also lost another soldier in our company, a buddy of mine, SPC Gonzales...RIP, youll be missed
So as you can tell this year has really gotten off to a bad start, but im trying to turn it around. Trying to stay positive as much as i can. I miss home, but we wont be here too much longer...almost 11 months down, whats another few.
Take care everybody and ill post some pics hopefully tomorrow