20 pounds of cat in a 5 pound bag

Golf Co. End of Tour Awards Ceremony

2nd 320th Field Artillery Regiment received their End of Tour Awards. My son received an Army Acheivment Medal.

My boy is the one on the left in the above photo.

Do you know what a VBIED is?

It's a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, basically a suicide bomber. My son was lead vehicle on a returning mission and was hit head on by one March 8th. They are all OK. His SGT. got a concussion and there was shrapnel in some kevlar. A civilian driving a "jingle truck" (Afghan tractor trailer) lost control when shrapnel hit his windshield and he rolled the tractor trailer in a ditch. He suffered a broken pelvis and two broken legs and was helicoptered out. There was a 30 Ft fireball and the M-ATV was destroyed. It did it's job - it's saved 4 lives.

My son's thoughts on being blown up "It was better than Superman at Sixx Flags! I want to do it again!"

Scary stuff. That happening with only a few days left of his deployment too.

The blast lifted the 33,000lb M-ATV off the ground. All they could see was orange through the glass and then the cabin filled with smoke. My son, soldier that he is, checked his gauges and then drove the truck out of the situation. There was one civilian casualty of which I have heard all the gory details and them only finding his lower torso and legs.

I could only find one small obscure post about the incident online and its "being investigated".

All I can say is - THANK YOU to Oshgosh for making the M-ATV that saved my sons life.

The M-ATV is officially my most favorite vehicle in the world.

Fort Campbell Courier Article on video below

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Most Dangerous Road in Afghanistan.mp4

My son, my soldier was driving the lead vehicle on this mission.

You see that counter over there?

The green one that says "Days of my Child's Deployment.......well........it's going to stop counting very, very, very soon!

Joss Whedon is a genius

I have been enjoying the broadcast of Firefly on Ovation this week. Even tough I have the series on DVD - I love watching it on broadcast TV. The world missed the boat on this one.

Dawn is breaking over Marblehead

What does a mother say when her 20 year old son finally has the self awareness to say;
"having a son like me makes you age faster so technically your prob like 80

goodnight mummy i love you", and he informs you that he is re-enlisting for 3 more years of active duty and requesting to go to Germany because "I haven't done what I came in here to do yet. I'm still not financially responsible enough to afford my own place and I'm still not mature enough. I still have to get my life right."?

?????

What do you say to that?


After I wipe away the tears and can manage to speak without sobbing I tell him:
"I'm so proud of you."

His response?
"Blah. Blah. Blah."

That's my boy.

I want a piece of that!

Could be a long night

I'm dogsitting for the weekend. My Mom has to work and my Grandmother, who is 91, is afraid to take Keegan out to do his business because he yanked her and she bumped her hip last week. She broke her hip not that long ago and she's afraid of it happening again. I don't blame her.
The yard isn't completely fenced in and Keegan has a tendency to ignore you if he latches on to an interesting scent.

We came through the door and Dusty gave a huge hiss and then there was a gray blur with a humongous tail heading down the hall.





This is where she hid. Not looking too happy, is she?

He's only seen the stray cats he's chased in the yard so he is very curious about just what that thing is.

This is Keegan's blanket I laid out for him. Guess we know whose house this is!
It's going to be an interesting weekend.