Another week down and another week closer to getting home. I am on a nine country, nine day trip right now so this one is going to be quick. Senior Chief Dyer (do you see a theme here – yes we are always together and maybe next week I will tell you more about him) and I flew out on Thursday morning and it has been non-stop since then. We have hit one country a day so currently it is our fifth location.
Today’s stop is mainly to wait for a flight, but we do have a couple of Seabees here working on the Central Command (CENTCOM) staff. CENTCOM is the Unified Commander for this area who is in charge of all the Operational Forces over here. By tonight we will be in country six. The neatest thing I have seen this trip is some work we have been doing for some local hospitals. We are building Landing Zones so they can land helicopters to drop off or pick up critical patients. The locals have been very appreciative and are really looking forward to using them (which should be in another week or so).
You will not believe this. Saturday night I go to my room in Bahrain and guess what is showing on TV. The UT/UAB football game. I could not believe it. I was able to watch about two-thirds of the second half LIVE. Hard to believe since it was often difficult to catch UT games when I was in Washington, DC. Kind of glad that they had a tough game so they will work harder the next couple of weeks in preparation for Florida.
As I am sure everyone has seen (and probably sick of) news of Hurricane Katrina, I wanted to pass on a quick story. Gulfport, MS is one of two main Seabee bases. Port Hueneme, CA (where my unit is stationed) and Gulfport. I interviewed for a job in Gulfport so thankfully I ended up where I did. A buddy of mine has the same job (Operations Officer) as I do for a Gulfport unit and is currently in the final stages of planning to relieve us in October. He and a couple others from the unit were in my location doing a Site Survey when Katrina hit. They showed an aerial view of where my friend’s house is (was) and there was nothing. I have not heard anything from him since he headed back, but most likely he now owns only the things that he had in his backpack. It looked like his house, his car, everything was going to be gone. Please keep him and all his troops in your prayers as they are trying to get back on their feet after that catastrophe.
Happy Labor Day and thanks for all the prayers and support. Keep them coming so I can ensure that all my troops get home to their friends and family. Should be a quick week again since I will be traveling for half of it.
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4 comments:
Sat was absolutely beautiful in Knoxville, TN. The stadium was filled with over 107,000 fans - 106,000 decked out in orange and white.There was excitement everywhere: the band, the cheerleaders and danceteam, Smoky the mascot, the hat venders, and of course the coaches and players. Before the game there was a moment of silance for those affected by Katrina and you could hear a pin drop. After the invocation the UT band played our National Athem and there were tears in people's eyes. Our country is so blessed. Keep up the good work. Seabees make things happen.
Go Vols! Weird that you could watch it live, but we couldn't see it here at all.
Notre Dame kicked butt, so that should be a good game.
Hope your buddy can recover something - anything - from his home. That's heartbreaking. Looks like a long, painful recovery progress.
Take care, bud!
-Jarrell
David, it was great to read your " blog". Thanks for keeping us up to date. We're very interested and concerned with what's going on with you. You're much in our hearts and prayers. Love,Jess and Mary
David,
UAB must have be a tough team. I know coach Phil worries about Florida but if I were he, I would worry about Notre Dame.Stanley is even expressing concern about the Irish.Maybe you can pick up a few tickets for that game and you, Andi and Jarrell can make it to South Bend.
Stanley's Papa
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