Information on my Upcoming Deployment

You need to give us a list of things you might need/want/share with you buddies and that are acceptable to send so that we can get you a care package together every once and a while!!

Well anything you would reasonably want to send is acceptable. If you still think it might be inappropriate, PM me for my home address, and we\'ll get it to me before I take off ;) Most of my basic needs will be abundant. The PX in Fallujah is supposed to be bigger than Camp Pendleton\'s PX. I\'ll be covered on regular hygiene and the supplies of life. Here are some things that will be hard to get and I might be interested in:
magazines
books
pictures
movies
posters

That\'s really all I can think of. Thanks for the kind thoughts.

What kind of books do you like? And you\'re a pop music fan, right? (ha) It sounds like you are happy, and I\'m glad you are in a position to potentially make an impact. I have to admit, it sounds really neat. Good luck and you have my prayers.

Any non-fiction about
technology
constitutional history
warfare
political history
guns

A few on my agenda are
From Beirut to Jerusalem
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold our Soul for Saudi Oil
Unintended Consequences (historical fiction)

Jeff, have you ever heard of the author Harry Turtledove? He writes some amazing historical fiction.

I\'m glad to hear about your attitude going into the warzone. It sounds like you have a pretty cool job. I know you said don\'t let the \"radio\" in the title confuse you, but I\'m curious; do you have a ham operator license?

Do you know how long you\'ll be there? I hope not longer than a year...

I\'ll be there 7 months, and I couldn\'t pick a ham radio out of a crowd of 2.

My mom sent me this, thought it was cool.

That\'s an awesome pic, Rayne.

Thanks Mintz :)

I am in Bangor, Maine. Yes, it is cold. This is our last stop in CONUS before heading on to Europe. So far we have done a whole lot of waiting around. However, there seem to be nice people all along the way to greet and feed us. That makes things a lot easier to stomach, pun intended. We rode buses from Camp Pendleton to March Air Reserve Base and flew from there to this commercial airport in Maine. At March there were several tables set up with volunteers serving PB&J sandwiches, Slim Jims, soda, fruit, and chips and salsa. Our flight was delayed for three hours, but we finally took off at 11:30 PM. Next stop is Ireland. If I am sneaky and find internet access there too I will post an update.

BTW, Maine is one large marsh. There are tiny ponds and streams everywhere. I really mean everywhere. That is all.

Come home in one piece.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

Wish you the best man, be safe. I know we are all proud you are serving our country, and know you will do a great job in doin so.

Yeah man, take care, kill some terrorists, and be safe. Try to keep in touch too.

And take some pics!

Dude, get a pic of you on a tank! That would be sweet! And I totally won\'t make any \"Is he compensating for something\" jokes!

Take care Jeff, and it\'ll be over before you know it. Make the most of your time while you\'re there, though :)

Good luck, Midnight! Stay safe! And I agree with Mintz, a tank picture would make you the coolest THXer ever :)

I\'m in Kuwait now. No place to use the net in Ireland, although Shannon (the city) was a nice airport. After landing at Kuwait City International we moved via bus to Camp Victory, an army camp that acts purely as a staging ground for troop movements in/out of Iraq. I\'m at an internet cafe in the camp. Looks like we\'ll be here a couple days until we move via C-130 into Iraq. Camp Victory has decent amenities. It looks like ass, but that seems to be the norm here.

On the way here I spotted a wrecked car, a herd of sheep, and 11,000 pieces of trash left by the side of the road. Apparently if you have no further use for something you just leave it in place where you last used it. Interesting.

The flights were long. The flight to Maine and to Ireland were both about 5 hours. Ireland to Kuwait was about 7. I\'ve now seen the sun rise, set, and rise again within about 13 hours. I\'m gonna fire off a couple more emails now before getting some lunch. TTYL

Awesome, Midnight. Thanks for keeping us updated.

Well, I\'m not sure if you\'re going to believe this. I just had crab legs for lunch and lobster for dinner. It was a little over-cooked, but man, staying this close to the gulf is sweet. It\'s not a holiday or anything, just a regular old Wednesday.

The PX here reportedly has Xbox 360s. I didn\'t look for 360s, but I did see Xbox games, digital cameras, the current issue of about 40 magazines, and lots of other stuff. A Kuwaiti lady ran the register with \"Wild Thang\" by Ton Loc playing in the background. A few locals peddle goods outside the PX.

I\'m now using the net from the USO. It\'s kind of a hang-out for military personnel that you usually see at airports. There are two free places to use the net here. The internet cafe has seen its last $5 from my wallet. About 30 feet away from me are 4 original Xboxes, each with a 20\" flat screen. I am assuming they are networked. I might even get to school some soldiers on Halo before I leave.

Camp Victory looks like ass, but I am very impressed by the quality of life here. Camp Fallujah is reported to be even better, so I am looking forward to my final destination.

Do I smell: White Men Can\'t Hump?

Take their money!

Sweet, I love crab legs!

Wow, seems like you got it pretty good so far. Is the PX basically just a huge tent, or is it a building? I remember my Dad saying the PX was an honest-to-God truck at one point, but that didn\'t stop them from having lots of Gummi Bears! :)

I made it to Iraq. I\'m not where I will be permanently (Fallujah) but in Iraq (Taqaddum or \"TQ\") nonetheless. Getting out of Kuwait was miserable. My group was on two failed C-130 flights that took off but couldn\'t land in TQ because of weather. You think commercial airlines can be uncomfy? Try the glorious bench seat and mesh net backing of a C-130. It was a 1.5 hour flight to TQ. So twice we flew there, circled for an hour to see if the weather would clear up, and went back. That equals 4 hours on a C-130. We did that twice in one night (about 3 hours between flights) before finally getting pushed to the next day when we made it.

Iraq looks like a craphole. The bases are built up with hardened tents and small buildings everywhere, but the outlying areas are horrendous. Imagine a corn field. Now remove the corn and cover it in sandy earth. Now hold two family reunions and a Bon Jovi concert there...leave all the trash. Add a liberal dose of deadlined vehicles, stray dogs, and the occasional herd of sheep. That is Iraq, or at least what I have seen so far (not much).

TQ is a decent base. I got my second full night of sleep of the week here last night. I have slept a bunch, don\'t get me wrong, but it\'s in 1-3 hour spurts while we wait on flights. I got some good sleep at Camp Victory as well. I woke up early and couldn\'t go back to sleep this morning so I went for a run. I can officially say I PT\'d on my first full day in Iraq. I am hardcore ;)

We\'re set to go to Fallujah on Sunday. That will be my final stop. Once I get settled in I will post again from there. That will probably also be when I transition to the blog software Rapture has set up for me. I feel like I need some prolonged internet access to square that away, and I will get that once I get to Fallujah.

BTW, there is an indescribable amount of gear, equipment, and just general shit here. If the President said we\'re pulling out tomorrow, based on what I\'ve seen here and my knowledge of this base\'s size compared to others and how many other bases there are, I say it\'d take between 1-2 years to get all this stuff out of here.

I hope everything is well in the states. I\'ll post again in a few days. Take care.

Jeff

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to get on here and let my husband know that I am reading his updates and also to let you all know that I appreciate the support that he has here. You all are such good friends and I am thankful that he has all of you guys. I have been doing good and staying busy with school and work. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful husband and the ability to stay strong in his absence. I just wanted to thank you all again for the prayers and the support you have given Jeff.

-Christina-

Hey BB: Go to see you around.

MN: Thanks for the update.

Ditto.

I like hearing your updates, MN. It\'s almost like you\'ve never left :P I hope you get to have a good amount of time to get on the internet to keep us updated.

Good to hear you\'re doing well with his absence, BB. He\'ll be back before you know it :)

And MN, if you\'re ever away from the base/post, keep your damn helmet on. Every time a guy took his off in Saving Private Ryan, they got shot in the head. Please don\'t get shot in the head.

I made it to Fallujah. We took the most boring helo ride I\'ve ever had (and I\'ve had a few) from TQ late late night. I\'ve never seen a helo taxi down a runway, but I did last night. When I arrived at the airfield my boss and his senior enlisted Marine were there to meet me. They had locked on lodging for me and my guys and had keys waiting for us. They drove us in HMMWVs back to the main part of Camp Fallujah. We stopped at our work area (called an Operational Control Element, OCE) to drop off gear and rifles. I got a quick and dirty tour and got moved into my room. I live in a trailer park (feels just like home). There are three rooms to a trailer. Myself and a roommate share a room. The room is about 10 feet by 10 feet in area. It\'s not spacious, but it\'s room enough for two racks, a table, a nightstand, and 2 clothing secretaries. When we procure a TV we can splice into the AAFES TV network with regular cable. American TV networks give programming to AAFES to show to us in country. You can view news, sports, and a variety of other things. There are also no commericals (it\'s free), so the dead space is replaced with weird military public service announcements like \"keep your barracks clean\" and \"don\'t rape women.\"

Our OCE is nice, compared to what I expected. There is plenty of computers, rifle racks, gear racks, and a 42\" plasma screen where we view the weekly movie on Saturday night (operations continue during that time, of course). The chow hall is nice, as is the PX, and shower facilities.

The best part is that my team is already at work. We will absolutely be gainfully employed during this deployment, this I know. I have to go to a meeting now. I will probably get the blog software set up next, maybe by Wednesday.

Sounds nice enough, I\'m glad you have good accommodations.

I\'m amazed that Midnight is there, front and center of an important time in our history - with some of the most precious technology ever developed. A few weeks ago we were lanning H1 with him. And now he\'s in combat on the other side of the planet.

You guys have noooo idea how bad this is. Think of a local commercial; the bad audio, poor video quality, horrendous \"acting,\" and overall lame-ness. Now imagine every commercial was like that. I wish I was kidding. And it\'s exactly like what Midnight is talking about: Don\'t rape women, tobacco is bad, keep up good work habits.

Now live with that for three years.

Neither AOL nor Cox nor Gmail are accessible from our work computers. However, Yahoo mail is. Until further notice, please use jeffbarnett513@yahoo.com to communicate with me via email.

Thanks
Jeff

The blog that rapture setup for me is now fully operational at
http://midnight.hushedcasket.com/

If you are interested in reading my updates please check the blog as I will be posting all updates there from now on. I believe there is a way to subscribe and get email notification of updates. I would also encourage everyone who has posted comments here to create an account and transfer those comments to the blog. I believe this will create continuity and interesting discussion that will be fun to look back on.

A big thanks to EA for helping me with the theme and timestamps. It looks great.