Air Ambulance

These are just some random shots of the primary mode of transportation that our patients get. Of course, we are happy when we don't hear any coming in for a while.

Bean bags, Strawberries and Bubbles

Our friends, the McNeely's, invited us over for a cook out. After we got through eating we played a game using bean bags. Here Tony is showing his form in tossing bean bags. Sounds easy, it's not.... but it sure is fun!!

Cheyenne and Kevin waiting for their turn.

Chey striking a pose after throwing her bean bag.

Colin aims and releases the bean bag.

Strawberries and whip cream.... YUM

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!!
Who can resist bubbles...

Sunset

At the end of the day it's great to sit back and enjoy the wondrous work of God.

What a beautiful sight to see.

Sea World

We had a great time at Sea World. The weather was beautiful we could not have picked a better day to go. We got to watch a couple of shows, kids rode rides, we ate cotton candy and enjoyed being together.

The McNeeley's and the Johnson's

Picture time by the Clydesdale statute.

We couldn't miss taking a picture by the Here's to the Heroes banner.

Seymore the walrus doing sit ups!

Watching the Sea Lion show

Alligator Alley, we hadn't seen this area before so it was neat to watch the alligators...

Grrr

Patrick, Penny the Penguin, Cheyenne, Kevin and Colin in front

Taking over

The day I took this photo was the day we finally took charge of the hospital. I thought it was interesting that next to where we had the ceremony was the same stadium where Saddam Hussein executed the 1988 Iraqi Olympic soccer team for losing. And people wonder why we got rid of him. We use the stadium now for concerts and running around the track.

SFC Boe

This SFC Boe. Yes she is the same rank as me, but a whole lot cuter. She is our therapy dog for the unit and she really likes the cool tile and doggy treats. You will notice she has her own uniform and all the specialty patches showing she is fully qualified to be here. She's a great pup.

Dust Storm

Thought I would show you all what a dust storm looks like. The first photo is the ER I'm runnin' here.

This is about 20 minutes after it let up enough to see more than 10 feet in front of you. It makes everything look like your on Mars. This is something of a running joke with us here. How do we not know we're not on Mars? The way they brought us in kept us from seeing where we were going so whose to tell.

These tents, tubes, and sidewalks that you see are covered in a thick layer of dust. Something you would get if you went outside, brought in a bucket full of dirt and threw it into the ceiling fan about five times. Oh, and it gets inside the buildings too. Fun time sleeping.

Welcome Bar-B-Q

First let me apologize for not posting in a long time. Really bad internet connections here.

So I will be doing several posts for the last week or so.

The unit we were releaving finally decided to throw us a Welcome to Iraq Bar-B-Q.

Now don't get me wrong, there were some really nice folks in this unit. I was just anxious to get to work after sitting on my tail for 4 weeks. We had hamburgers and hot-dogs, the whole thing. And everything was great until the helicopters flew over and got sand in our food.

The fella on the left is a good man that I travelled with from Ft Benning, through Kuwait and then to Iraq. Been taking him to the gym to help him stay in shape, but I think he's doing better than I am. We have really good Chow Hall food here.

Cil's Visit

We were excited to hear that Cil was in town this week visiting with family. She came over to our house tonight to have dinner and spend some time with us.
We enjoyed seeing you Cil!

Dave and Busters

The kids were out of school this past week for spring break and due to the weather we were unable to go to Sea World so... we went to Dave and Busters instead. We all had a great time! It looks like we are trying to squeeze Tony out of this picture, we really aren't.
Anyway, enjoy our mug shot...

Roll over training

On one of the days that we spent in Kuwait they had us do some roll-over training inside a simulator. It was hilarious watching big guys like me get turned upside down, rolled over two or three times, and then left upside down to get out of the vehicle. Just take a look and you will understand.

Only a Soldier could come through that with a smile.My turn.
Not my best side.
Upright once again.

You will notice that we have some "really" fake weapons. This was so we didn't poke an eye out or jab someone in the ribs. Please do not take my sense of humor as anything other than that. We absolutely understood that what we were doing was serious work and that it could save our lives as well as that of our battle buddies. Soldiers just have a "sick" sense of humor sometimes.

The trip so far

Just wanted to add my own post to our family blog. Yep it's me, Mike, doing this from Iraq. Also wanted to show everyone a little bit of what's been going on with me.

It all started when we arrived at Ft Benning and had to redo some training that most of us had done more times than we could count. We spent about a week there going over some basic stuff and getting issued a lot of equipment.

Get over that wall!

Gettin' smoked!

From there we went to the airport for the long flight overseas. Each of us had no less than four duffle bags that could not weigh more than 70 lps. My total weight was somewhere around 310 lbs. of gear.

The fella lookin' at me is my brother from another mother, SGT Johnson, Joshua.

Once we arrived we were given some temporary quarters and they were tight. Something alot of us are used to.

Room enough for a small town and then some.

After all of this fun they took us out to the "range" to ensure our weapons could still fire.

Sand as far the eye can see.

Watch your lane? Which lane is mine?


This is the one and only critter I've seen except for the birds and as long as she was sleeping you were good. Once she woke up, she would look at you like you stole her kittens.