Life and times of Dave

2004-07-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

One way to mix cement, I like the spinny thingy we have back in the states.

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2004-07-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

One way to mix cement, I prefer the spiny thingy.

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2004-06-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

A morter "hit" called in that we had to go inspect on the airport. Probably a can exploding.

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2004-06-26T05:02:00.000-07:00

Another uparmored bites the dust.

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Green zone; back on a brad; hot

2004-06-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well went to the green zone, it was accualy kinda cool, huge pool, with a 35ft high dive.

Back on a checkpoint sitten in the drivers hatch.

It's starten to get hot around here.

I was going to write up a long one today but the internet cafe filled up with a long line and I dont have the time. Should get internet in the room soon so wont have that problem any more.

later Dave.

2004-06-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

A captin wanted test fire his 9m from inside the humvee, his driver must have cleaned the window really well.

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2004-06-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Norris (a friend from texas, He is also the guy that gave Broyles his wonderfull haircut) was the driver.

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2004-06-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

New way of checking the bottom of the track

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2004-06-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hole punched in 1/2 inch armor, new fangled drill press.

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2004-06-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

Tail fins of the RPG, dont know if I would want that to take home.

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2004-06-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

RPG vs. HUMVEE round 1

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2004-06-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

BMP and su 23-4

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2004-06-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

BMP with a palace in the background, not something you see every day.

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2004-06-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

Why they call it the frog.

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2004-06-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

Not that much better then a bradley.

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2004-06-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

1sg does something other then sleep.

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2004-06-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

Me in a BMP

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2004-06-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

23-4 23mm x 4 cannons air defense weapon.

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2004-06-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

Our capt. nothing to say here.

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2004-06-11T06:14:00.000-07:00

I love taking pictures of people taking pictures.

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2004-06-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

switch this one with the other kinda cool.

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2004-06-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

Sgt major, still havent figgured out what he does. Think it involves alot of solitare.

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2004-06-11T06:11:00.000-07:00

ICDC with iraqy flags.

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2004-06-11T06:10:00.000-07:00

O ya my Sgt got some practice too.

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2004-06-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

The captian practicing for the change of comand.

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2004-06-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

The thousanth practice for the change of comand.

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2004-06-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

Every body waiting for a change of comand cerimony.

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2004-06-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

A view from the top.

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2004-06-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

Finaly after 12 hours we got the ammo we came to get

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2004-06-11T06:02:00.001-07:00

Another view of the same court.

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2004-06-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

The fountain in a little court kinda cool.

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2004-06-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Carved on the wall of the palace.

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2004-06-11T05:59:00.001-07:00

A view from the top.

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2004-06-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

The pagoda on the roof.

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same old

2004-06-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

Watched more grass grow, accualy its browning. Starting to get hot around here. More pictures uploaded. Have a good day.

2004-06-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

The elevator.

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2004-06-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

8ft pool table, crooked as a lawyer.

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2004-06-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

SF palace.

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2004-06-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Dont play baseball in here.

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2004-06-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

The ball room.

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2004-06-11T05:24:00.000-07:00

View of the fountin in the entrence way.

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2004-06-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

The stairway.

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2004-06-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

Bad picture but its a large republic eagal, a recuring motefe in iraq.

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2004-06-11T05:20:00.000-07:00

The front door.

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2004-06-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

The coca cabana.

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2004-06-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

The servents rooms.

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2004-06-11T05:16:00.001-07:00

The back yard.

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2004-06-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

This is the entry for the palace 1AD was staying at. Home sweet home for somebody now.

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2004-06-11T05:15:00.000-07:00

1AD at work.

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2004-06-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

SSG Belz and I picking up some ammo from 1AD. The palace you see in the back ground is for Special Forces, alwase riding around in black SUV's like their cool or something.

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2004-06-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

1armored getting 4 more months of sleep.

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2004-06-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

The road down the wall, been down the road maybe 500 time so far.

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2004-06-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

Bad picture but it is a armored lounge chair on the back of a HUMVEE.

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2004-06-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

Russain made BTR 80

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2004-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Good one on the left.

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2004-06-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

One of the fully uparmored HUMVEE's had a bad day.

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2004-06-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

probably violates osha some where.

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2004-06-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

1cav getting a lift into battle.

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2004-06-07T06:41:00.000-07:00

another

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2004-06-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

view from OP 4

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2004-06-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

OP1

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2004-06-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Like the engeners have nothing else to do.

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2004-06-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

I took this thinking it was out of the ordanary, both the line and the chopers flying that low are far from out of the ordanary.

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2004-06-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Kaufman on a check point.

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2004-06-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

2nd brigade wanted year book photos.

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2004-06-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

line for chow

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2004-06-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

1sgt diging threw his personal supply yard, some people call it a dump.

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2004-06-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

1Sgt compleatly crazy.

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2004-06-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

Never thought I would see this in my life.

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2004-06-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

I just thought this was cool.

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Yea another day bites the dust.

2004-06-07T05:49:00.001-07:00

Well this will be short and sweet. Its Hot 124, the power is off, and the weeds are growing even slower. Uploading lots of pics as you can see, makes more since to view them from the bottom up.

From Iraq Dave

2004-06-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

Told you thats what the locals do.

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2004-06-07T05:48:00.000-07:00

The bridge over the river.

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2004-06-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

View of the tigres river going into bagdad.

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2004-06-07T05:45:00.000-07:00

My old truck, low rider with 2 tons of sandbags and 6 guys in back.

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2004-06-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

A army unit taking back some disposable Class II maybe.

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2004-06-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Right now in iraq probably 95% of the locals are doing this.

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2004-06-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

There must have been 300 fuel tankers lined up.

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2004-06-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

Only the army would bring a boat to the desert, even the marines left theirs at home.

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2004-06-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

One of my sargents, they dont call them death sticks for nothing.

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2004-06-07T05:03:00.000-07:00

One of the few plants in the desert, and before you ask, of course I ran over it.

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2004-06-07T04:56:00.000-07:00

All lined up ready to blow some sand dunes away.

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2004-06-07T04:50:00.000-07:00

Me, myself, and the camels.

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2004-06-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

My roomie Vexilluxe, or something like that.

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2004-06-07T04:22:00.000-07:00

First picture of the real desert.

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2004-06-07T04:16:00.000-07:00

The first of many hair cuts interupted by that annoying 110/220 power conversion thing. Friend of mine from texas.

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2004-06-07T04:07:00.000-07:00

Our charriot in Kuate.

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Airforce follies

2004-06-05T01:19:00.000-07:00

Was reading the stars and stripes the other day, and the main story was about the airforce needing training on M2 fifty cals and other infantry type weapons. Thought this was funny, join the airforce so you never have to get in the mud with the army. Also there are some pro airforce guys reading this im sure, and I want to take the time to tell you that all of the power outages we have around here are caused by the airfoce. Since were gaurding the airport we take power from the airforce power plant, and the airforce made a mistake like california did, didnt plan for as much power as is now being used. Haha airforce has egg on its face. Not to say I still wouldnt have joined the airforce if I had the chance to do it again. I just found out there is a two year option to join the airforce, and they arnt stop lossed.

Things are quiet. COL stoped by my OP yesterday, ive seen the brigade comander two times and havent seen my battilion comander even once. Only comment he had was why did I only have flares for my gernade launcher, my capt. was out there a few hours later asking around about gernades for 203's. :) If you want to study about 203's on M16's watch the last firefight in Scareface.

O ya its hot and the grass is growing slower.

From Iraq Dave

Wedding with bang!

2004-06-03T04:21:00.000-07:00

Another slow day watching the grass grow. Would upload some pictures but not working today for some reason.

Noticed alot of people haning out around a house, then when it gets dark some music started in. Not excatly rock music, think iraqi music. Then later that night they scared the dickens out of me, dont shoot up into the air at 2300 with a OP only 100 yards away from your house. Took me and my partner a few seconds to figure out it was just some locals having fun, almost shot a flare up to help them celabrate. Other then that a quiet night.

Just as a side note might get internet in the rooms in a couple weeks.

Past stuff

2004-06-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

Well nothing of consiquince has happened in the past two days, at least nothing that cant be sumed up by; its hot, and its the army. So I thought I would tell of some of the past fun that I may have not gotten out in a letter to all of you.

This happend about a month ago, and the comment that my brother was sitting on the tallest hill around watching a lightning storm just reminded me of the strange things that can happen around here. It was about nine aclock(2100) and maybe a dust storm was bruing on the horizon, so nothing out of the usual till the first loud bang, now I thought that it was either a rock that somebody threw on our tin roof, or one of the bullets that the iraqies shoot in the air in the rough direction of our housing. And yes they do have the energy to kill when they land, they cant aim them so its all luck and god keeping them from hitting you.

Side note a trailer two over from mine was hit a couple nights ago. We did the CSI thing of sticking a stick in the hole to try and find where it went in the room, the stick was pointing right at the bed of my friend, he was sleeping on a air mattress and the airmattress has no holes in it and theres no exit holes in the room. We took every thing out of that room looking for the exit hole.

But back to the loud noise in my room, didnt really thing to much of it till the next and then the next. So what do you do when your in a war zone and things are hitting your trailer that might or might not be bullets. You open the door of course! I go out side and promptly get hit by a golf ball sized peice of hail. Now alittle more causious I use the broom to open the door, its like a B52 full of Ice is trying to cool off iraq( which knowing the air force isnt inprobable they will do any thing for flight time). Now just watching the ice is fun and listening to the rock concert on my tin roof is even better, but the real fun is watching the poor guys caught outside trying to run for cover. And it was even funnyer when I see my roomie running from the phones to get to the room, hes running like you see people in movies running while under fire. dodging this way and that like it will do him any good:). He was fairly lucky only got one big one on the tempel. We had a good laugh and finished watching the hail it was all melted buy the time I could run to the office where the camera was sorry yall.

But time for me to go now. weve got several people waiting on computers. Thanks for all the notes. Ü dave

2004-05-30T05:10:00.000-07:00

Boy the army doesnt travel light, this boat was one of 7 for one brigade.

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2004-05-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

Going past the rail bridge over the suez canel.

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2004-05-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

The Bob Hope in Greece.

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2004-05-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

Sunset on the bridge of the boat/ship floaty thingy

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2004-05-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

The floating parking garage on the bob hope.

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2004-05-30T04:00:00.000-07:00

still trying to send pictures up UGG

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Back again

2004-05-30T02:37:00.000-07:00

Its been I think four days since the last post, and I have to admit that im suprised by the number of people that have responded to this. This is seeming to work out better then email, because back in the states if you send a email to somebody you expect them to get back to you in hours. Over here that just doesnt work. You can still send me email to flyboy@ponyexpress.net but it might take me up to a week to get back to it, because sometimes its excedingly hard to get to the internet, and then theres no promiss that it will be working or they will let us use it, every time somebody dies they shut down all phones and internet till the family is notified.

Had lots of fun the last couple days. For one my job is alwase in flex, im back on the observation posts for a indefenit time, and officialy my job changed from Sgt Pearl's bradley to a Sgt Johnson. Dont know exactly why they did it but it seams the guy I switched with had some personality conflicts with the SGT. I was told they put me on the track because out of all the guys they could have put on the track I was the one with the hardest head, I hope they mean figurativly.

Not that that changes any thing really, I still sit on the wall and watch the grass grow and the temp rise. Except last night, things started normaly hot, didnt get relived on time, hot, chow was unmentionable, and did I mention hot. Then about the time it got dark we had a wind storm, imagin being in the worlds largest hair dryer. That lasted about a hour then the radios went bad, well not bad just troubling, insted of being able to radio from the tower we had to climb up on the avenger to transmit, not bad just annoying. Now its one in the morning things are maybe going back to normal and then a trip flair down the wall goes off. It was in a spot that the FLIR couldnt get a good look at, so I poped off a flare from my 203 to get a better look, nothing there. We keep scaning with the FLIR (Foward looking infared radar), and I come accross a guy just sitting there stareing at me, scared the pants off of me. Stayed there for a min and then walked away, thats when WW3 started about a mile away, nobody knows what happened but somebody had fun, sounded like rocketts bombs and heavy guns, spent the rest of the night on edge.

Dont worry it ended up ok, got back to the room about noon right to watch them turn the power off, another great day in Iraq.

More fun and games in Iraq

2004-05-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Lets see I have to make this quick, I dont know when somebody might come in and take my laptop spot. See we only have thirty min to do everything and things havent been going smoothly today. Ok it all started yesterday.

One of our sargents had to cover down for another sarg going on leave, his wife had a baby. But since we lost a sargent on my check point( yes im on a check point now insted of the observation post) we had to work longer shifts standing in the sun, and boy it was a hot one. The rest of the shift went alright and the relif even showed up on time, but when we got back we were told we would have to go dispatch the truck, three hours later we finaly get back to the rooms and can get some sleep. Nope the power is off, not that that matters to me cuse my roomie says he broke the airconditoner, might get fixed in a couple weeks.

So I come to the internet cafe to send out emails. Except for outlook isnt working, Hotmail.com, army.mil, bank site, and half the other wegsites I wanted to use arnt working. Either the internet here isnt working just right, or the message I got from norten firewall/antivirus the other day is to blame.

My puter tried to get the auto update on all my virus stuff, and norton poped up a note saying something like out of the US violation, and now I cant get it to work. Ugg life over here is like that. If its not one thing its another, or its that you plugged something that only takes 110 into 220.

More rants and raves later Dave.

2004-05-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

Me at my desk the one day I had a desk.

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First Blog

2004-05-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

Well I think maybe I found a way to get some info out to all the friends and family I have back home. First off I have to say im still doing ok and have all my fingers and toes. Second I might beable to update this every other day, since I get off every other day.

Now Im betting some of you want to know what a blogg is, Its kinda like a really easy website. I just log on type or upload what I want to say and maybe do pictures also. Thats the thing I hope to do the most is use pictures on it but we will see how it works.

Just some updated info now. The power is off, we just had a class on the Geneva conventions/ ROE (rules of engagement) took two hours out of my day off. They didnt state it bluntly but it was in responce to the prison photos. Basicly they didnt say any thing new, but when the capt aske if there were any questions I just had to ask one. Yep he didnt know what country Geneva was in. And he was our S5 Cap the guy that is the one to go to on all things about prisioners.

But time to go and hopefully I can keep this going better then most Blogs. Most end up dieing within a few posts, and will work on the pictures as soon as I can.