Eight Mile Run

Every Friday morning Colonel Kelley, our commander, goes out for an 8 mile run. He's got an open invitation for anyone to join him and there's a group of us who usually go. We run the perimeter of our camp. For the most part it's pretty relaxing. We run a pace where you can still have a conversation so it's a nice way to get to know some of the others -- and at the same time is great exercise. I run a lot more here than at home. It feels good!

What I see when I go for a run.

This is a picture I took one day out on the road where I run. Adjacent to our base are all these old buildings which are mostly destroyed. It's a dangerous place because we know there are mines out there. But, there are a good number of people who are squatters out there. Often when I'm running I see kids playing -- today they were sliding down piles of dirt on their bums just like we may have when we were kids. In this picture there's a man watching some goats out there. Whenever I run past these buildings and see anyone out there it reminds me of how grateful I should be for the blessings I've got in my life.

Amazing mountains!

The mountain views here are just amazing. Everytime I'm out running I see mountains most anywhere I look. Can you imagine the skiing that could be done here!?!

Training time

Every now and then some poor guy gets to be training fodder in our clinic. We always say, "See it once, do it once then teach it once" when it comes to medical training. This is a picture of me showing our medics how to do basic stitches. This marine had a few deep cuts so we sewed him up and then two days later one of our medics did an outstanding job sewing up the next Soldier who needed stitches....I wish all my patients were as relaxed as he was...

Suture

Lily's grin

Is this a great smile or what? Leigh Anne sent this to me the other day. It looks like easter was a great time for everyone.

Great pic

This is just a great picture. I have a lot of these and I put together this little slideshow of family photos. Every couple of days I put on some music, turn on the slide show and just sit back and watch the family. It's nice. So, send me some of your best family pictures so I can have you in my slide show!

Boots

Our public affairs NCO has a phenomenal camera. I showed some interest in it, so one day he loaned it to me and I took a few pictures. It was amazing! It was amazing right up until I downloaded all the pictures and discovered that the camera is only as good as the photographer! The really didn't turn out well. One of the only good shots is this one here -- my boots! The other is the mountain picture near this one.

pics from Thanksgiving

I pulled out my camera today, and found all these great photos on it. I haven't looked at it apparently since the ankle break...Anyway, I thought you might enjoy! -Julie Kerrigan playing with the clay I brought...

Kerrigan and Alec up in a tree...if I remember correctly they got "stuck" and needed help getting down!

Lily...looking cute as can be! (go BYU!)

Baby Joshua, also adorable!

The big Croquet game...

That Kerrigan as got STYLE!

More of the croquet game...

Lily the BYU Cheerleader!


Craig teaching Kerrigan how to properly play croquet

Alec rocking out to Aunt Julie's Ipod...(I wonder, what song was he listening to??!?!)

Afghani Painted Desert

This is a wintertime shot from the air. It reminded me of the painted desert in AZ.

Rockin Rocks

Remember the post about painted rocks? This is the pile of rocks. Every NCO got together yesterday morning and marched in full gear carrying also their individual rocks. They did just 5 miles for starters and when they got back they put all their rocks together in this one spot. Cool, eh? I laughed when I saw the 'Wilson' rock! There are some pretty funny ones in there. I know it sounds like a whole lot of work -- and it is. But it's great for morale.

Lily Laughing

The terrible Two's can be tough but smiles like this one have to make it all worthwhile. What a grin! She's a cute one that's for sure.

Lily and Kerrigan

this looked like great fun. Leigh Anne sent this the other day. I never thought I'd see the day when Afghanistan was warm and Tennessee got snow! Great for the kids to be able to get out in the snow and play! I miss these two. If I were there we would have made snow angels -- Kerrigan LOVES to do this. And then we would have made a big snow man...and of course lots of throwing snow at each other! I think this was Lily's first time to really get out in the snow!

Joshy Trying to Crawl

When is the best time of your child's life for you to be gone? Really...if you had to choose...when would you CHOOSE to be absent? I'm missing Joshua...and I'm missing out on all those first year growing up things. When I left he could roll over...now he's about to crawl. I do get to see him sometimes in scype...he laughs and waves his stiff arms around like a bird trying to take off! Now he sits up, grabs things and smiles all the time. I think he must be the bright spot in Leigh Anne's day every day.

When is the best time to be gone? Never. At least he won't remember me not being around for this year. I think it is a lot tougher on Kerrigan and Lily.

Bathroom Beauty

Well this is it. I normally wouldn't make potty talk part of the blog -- but at Leigh Anne's request here it is! She was telling me all about how there were some toilet troubles at home and then I said something to the effect of, "That's nothing...you should see what's going on over here!" I'm going to leave your imagination to wonder about what surprises I have encountered here....suffice it to say that this is nice and clean. I would have to say that when you flush these industrial monsters you had better be ready to run or you'll get wet...and in spite of the power flush the design of these things requires what we call the Sh_t sled to get things moving....

Yes. It's often a mess.

Z Mooch

This is SFC Zeveney's marching rock. She wanted a picture of Mooch (this is her little bear's friend) and her VW bus from home so we got together and painted it up. She put the rock in her ruck sack and strapped Mooch on top for the ride.

Little Bear on Flag Rock

Little Bear

Little bear is just trying to help Rick out with all his V8! That guy really loves his veggies...

Imel Patriotic

Meet SGT Imel...he's one of our medics who does a little bit of everything. Yesterday he was teaching classes to Soldiers so they would know how to care for wounds. Today he was helping me in the clinic. Some days he scrubs personnel lists to ensure everyone has the immunizations they need. He was at a meeting with me the other day assisting with planning...he's a great help. Oh...and then there's the rock. I'm learning more about the army daily. This is a tradition I had not heard of. All of our NCO's will be doing a ruck march soon. 12 miles in 3 hours. They'll be wearing their full gear (about 33# of body armor) and then they will have a pack with lots of water -- and a ROCK! Everyone has picked out their rock, cleaned it off and is decorating it. When they get back there will be quite the colorful rock-pile. And, of course, they'll use these rocks over and over....

Chief Birthday

Chief's birthday was on the 8th...so we got her a cake, made a card, sang to her and managed to turn her BRIGHT RED! She hardly knows us because she just arrived. As you can see, she's the lone Navy Soldier amongst a whole lot of Army Soldiers. Just trying to make her feel welcome and enjoying ourselves.

Imel Airborne

V-8 Tower

We finally pulled our practical joke on Rick. We really couldn't hide any more V8! We all got a good laugh out of it and every time somebody asks, "What's up with all the V8?" Dr. Stocker has to explain it all again...and he's chugging away at the stuff. That tower will be gone before long.

Taliban Last Stand

Who knows if the rumors are true...probably not -- but the story is good! While I was waiting for our flight out of Kandahar, I was told that the airport has a nickname. The Taliban's last Stand. They say that this was the last building in Kandahar where they tried to hole up and make a stand. As you can see it was more of a place to catch a nap before the flight for us. There's certainly no shortage of old, beat-up buildings around here.

Craig's Birthday Cake

I should date this February 14th...when I hit 41 years old. The guys know my love for ice cream and acquired a cookies and cream ice cream cake!

Humpty Dumpty

I recently went out to a province called Bamian. I've got a bunch of pictures I'd like to load up so you can see them but the internet here is poor. I'll try to send them to Julie and maybe she can help out. Bamian is where the Taliban destroyed three 1500 year old huge buddha's in 2001. We were right next to them so we got drop in and see what remains. Now they are just massive alcoves and rubble. The pieces are all covered in plastic to protect them because there is some interest in reconstructing them...but after checking out the rubble it looks like it would have been easier to tackle the Humpty-Dumpty job. But what good is all this without pictures?!? I'll send some to Julie. Until then wikipedia will have to do! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamyan

CPR

You would not believe what happened to me the other day. I was in Kandahar and I went for a run…after 1.5 miles I found the body of a man on the side of the road. He was unconcious and gasping his last agonal breaths -- his heart had already stopped. I ended up doing CPR on him all by myself on the deserted side of the airfield -- I couldn't believe it. It looked really bad for this guy. In the middle of nowhere, by myself doing CPR. Then another runner came up and I turned him back to get help. He was from the Netherlands. He came back pretty quick with some guys in a minivan he hijacked who didn't speak english but we scooped this guy up into the middle seat and took off leaving all the other passengers out there in the desert. The driver didn't know where the hospital was but he was flying to find it. I was so focused on the cpr and not falling down in the van that I hardly noticed the door was open and our patients legs were hanging out…fixed that and moved on. They found a little clinic and the guy riding shotgun got out and ran inside. I knew this wasn't going to do so I yelled to some Soldiers and asked if they knew where the hospital was and one said yes so I shoved him in the passenger side and just yelled to the driver to go! Go! GO! Everybody was good about it and we got to the ER, got the man inside and then the ER doc took over and started with shocks and meds. This went on for about an hour with his heart rhythm coming and going. I eventually had to leave but checked back in before I flew out and he was in a normal rhythm and looks like he'll make it. When I got back home I checked my run data on the watch and couldn't believe it – it was probably 18 minutes total time from the time he went down until he was on the table in the ED. That's incredibly fast. It was great that all these guys from all over the world so readily jumped in to help. Anyway, it's good to have good things happen when the days are tough.