Washington DC

Last weekend, I made a trip to Washington DC, with another Marine from my company. The main reason of the visit, was to visit Arilington National Cemetary and pay our respect to our fellow brothers. We were also able to stay with another Marine that we went on a deployment together to South America. I had a great time meeting up with some guys there and even have a friend that is a staffer for a congressman. With that, we were able to get a private tour of the Capitol Building compliments of the Capitol Police. The officer showed us some great places around the Capitol, even some rooms that are not open to the public like the Senators' Restroom and the Senate Majority Leader's Private Balcony. The officer offered next time we visit, he can give us a more detailed tour if we contact him ahead of time and not just show up because the Capitol was actually closed to the public when we went through. We could even do a 2AM tour if we wanted!

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see the Iwo Jima Memorial, but there's always next time. And next time, it will be longer than a weekend. Here are a few more pictures I took during my trip. As always, check out my flickr for all my great pictures.

Most Views

I was recently talking with a buddy and we got into talking about our flickr accounts and what pictures had the most views, or interesting, or favorites. So, in light of that, I will be making this post for my most viewed pictures on flickr with 3,140 views:

Sergeant McKenzie

If you ask me, I don't know why this is the most viewed picture because I don't think it is all that great.

2nd runner up with 2,970 views:

My Hand

This is a picture I took shortly after I let some Iraqi kids write their name on my hand.

Some Minor Changes

Just in case you haven't noticed, I put in the sidebar, to the right, my war stories. They cover pretty much the 9 months of my deployment including my company's predeployment training in California then 7 months in Iraq. So, if anyone wants to read up on them, they are now pretty easy to find. Also, right below them, I put several links to my friends' blogs. Enjoy...

Bill O'Reilly

If you missed the Late Show with David Letterman the other night when Bill O'Reilly was on, you missed out on some good stuff. Check out this link:

David Letterman vs. Bill O'Reilly

Off Active Duty

With Tuesday being my last day of active duty, it was also the 1st day of class as I continue with my education at Wright State University. I am glad that I am going back to school because I think I was starting to miss it, though I will also miss my salary from the Marine Corps; I guess that's why they have unemployment compensation available.

As for school, I took an easy load; a physics gen-ed, financial management I, and probably the most challenging class, quantitative business modeling (basically statistics, this will be my 2nd go at it). I also took a guitar class and a Army ROTC class; both of which are easy A's.

Goodbye To An Old Friend

On Saturday morning, my family lost an old friend. Milo, our dog, died of natural causes. This was a rough year for him as his health was failing and was having some seizures. My mother was relieved that I was able to make it home before he died.

Milo was a fun loving and very well behaved dog. He was liked by all the people who visited our home.

My Recent Vacation to NYC

To start things off...

You are looking at my lovely room at the West Side Inn in Manhattan. Don't let the professional web site confuse you; this place was exactly what I paid for in Manhattan-cheap.

To start things off, the flight to New York was alright, except for the small aircraft that experienced a large amount of turbulence, but nothing I'm not used to riding in military aircraft and helicopters. On a positive note, the jet stream pushed us along and put the flight 25 minutes ahead of schedule! Next up, took a taxi from LaGuardia Airport to our hotel only to find that check in time is 3PM; time on deck, 1PM. So, my buddy Cpl. Rahman and I pay $5 to store our luggage in the basement. After that, we tried very hard to use the elevator to take us back to the 1st floor, but for some reason, the elevator like going to the 6th first, then hit up some random floors on its decent to the 1st floor. What fun!

After lunch, we actually took a nap before heading out into the town. The first place we went to was the Rockefeller Center to check out the Christmas tree and other such happenings.


During our short 5 day stay in Manhattan, we went to a lot of places; Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Chinatown, Grand Central, Times Square, Guggenheim Museum, and many other places. Even went to a musical called Avenue Q.

Overall, it was a great trip that allowed me to experience New York's many landmarks and life in the Big Apple. It did wear me down with all the walking we did and trying to learn the subway system. Thankfully the transit workers didn't strike that weekend.

NYC

Well, with a long year behind me, I have finally arranged to take a short vacation. Originally I wanted to go on a cruise somewhere, but I decided to put that on hold to next year. Instead, I will be going to New York City and staying in Manhattan this week for 5 days. It's been a dream of mine to visit New York and now I get a chance to visit it for a bit. Some points of interest I am looking forward to seeing is the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and the New York Stock Exchange. Of course there will be some quality shopping to do as well.
Any suggestions of places to go?

Nothing New

I have nothing new to report at this time. Though, this has me thinking, since my return, I don't think my posts are no where near as interesting as they were while I was in Iraq. So, who still likes to read these posts anyways?

By the way, I am doing various Toys for Tots this week throughout Columbus. So make sure to go out and drop off a toy in the box.

Thanksgiving

Well, as you can see, I was responsible for cooking the turkey this year. Actually, more like deep frying the turkey this year, which is something new for my family. I must admit, I was a little concerned about my lack of training on deep frying, but it turned out very well in the end and quite delicious, along with the rest of the fixins.

I would also like to take the time to recognize some things, this past year, that I am grateful for.

First and foremost, God's protection over my life and giving me the strength to continue on with the mission during the most trying times.

Family and friends. I have such awesome people backing me up that it just amazes me sometimes. I know that whenever I am gone, there are people who will take care of my mother and my mother will take care of me when I am gone.

The Marines. No better person than a Marine to cover your back in combat.

The Columbus community for showing tremendous support to Lima Company.

A End to a Great Weekend

This past weekend was the official welcome home for the Marines in Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. It started on Thursday with the Columbus Veteran's Day Parade. Our company was welcomed home during the opening ceremonies in downtown Columbus followed by our participation in the parade. We were marched along the parade route where thousands of people cheered us on and thank us for a job well done. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures.

Then come Friday evening, the Columbus Blue Jackets honored our company by inviting us and a guest to the game. Before the start of the game, we all went out on the ice, was acknowledged, and received a 2-minute standing ovation. It was a really great way to be treated and I had the honor to participate in the color guard during the national anthem. It was a great game, with some great fights, but the Blue Jackets didn't win.

Saturday morning, we did a memorial service, at the drill center, for all of the families and friends of the 23 fallen warriors of our company. It was emotional for a lot of guys and even myself as I got the chance to meet some of the family of the men I fought along with, but didn't make it home.
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A grieving widow placed some roses upon her husband's memorial.

And the best part of my weekend, the celebration of the 230th Marine Corps Birthday on Saturday evening. It was a chance to see some of the other Marines, who came from other units, and we hadn't seen in over a month. And with the support from the community, we didn't have to pay for anything and got a room at the Renaissance Hotel.

Cpl Watkins, Sgt Taylor, Cpl Bunker, and Cpl McCauley

Beans

This is a story that I heard about while I was in Iraq and totally forgot about until I found this article. I remember hearing some guys talking about a sniper hiding a dog from our Sergeant Major, but I didn't know that they got the dog home. I just wanted to share this because it is a really cool story and I knew Corporal Boskovitch.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1500797/posts

Military Honors

Today at work started like all others; show up and sit down and do nothing for about 30-60 minutes. Well, it ended up that there was a funeral for a Vietnam Vet. and there was a need for a NCO to do it. So instead of sitting around doing nothing and cleaning weapons, I volunteered to go and perform military honors at this man's funeral. Since I was the NCOIC (noncommissioned officer in charge), I had to lead this thing and such. It was pretty easy since I already done every other role, except this time I had to present the flag to the man's daughter.

A bit of advice was given to me before I left from a sergeant. He told me to not look into the person's eyes when I present them the flag because the majority of the time, they are crying and I don't want to be caught up in it all and forget what I need to tell them. Well, I find it odd to not look at someone when you are talking to them. So what did I do, I looked into the daughter's eyes while presenting her the flag and she started to cry. Then I almost got into the whole emotions of it and had to take a second to stop. I was able to finish the presentation without too much of a problem. Overall, I'm glad to get a chance to perform this honor for the locals vets.

After the funeral, LCpl. Roessner and myself wanted to get some lunch at a nearby Max & Erma's. It was a great place to eat lunch and even better while wearing our dress blue uniforms because some guy wearing a red shirt paid for our meals. This guy just told our server and then left. We didn't get a chance to say thank you. I have find this odd that a lot of times that I do get a meal paid for at a restaurant, the person who does it usually just leaves without saying but a couple of words or nothing at all.

Proud New Owner

That's right, I'm now the proud new owner of a Glock Model 23 handgun. This is something that I have wanted since I turned the ripe old age of 21. Now I have seen my dream come true 4 years later. What better way to spend some of that hard earned combat pay?

Update: my Dell laptop is working once again and I didn't even have to reformat and start all over again. Thanks to the diligence of Aaron and his father. Though in light of recent events, and the fact that external hard drives are so friggin cheap, I am going to invest in one so I will not lose my precious files and pictures.

Its Official

Yep its official, I hate my Dell Laptop. Its been almost a month since it just went crazy on me and decided not to boot up and give me some weird error message. It worked fine during the many months of the summer heat and dust of Iraq, but on the way home, it gave up on me.
Normally, I wouldn't mind this all too much and would just reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything. Though this time, I have a great deal of pictures and videos from my deployment that I really can't live without. So right now, I am having Aaron and his dad look at it for me. There is hope, I think I will be able to save my personal files.

In other news, over the weekend, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines were honored at the Cleveland Browns game on Sunday. I was able to get a ticket to go and about 20 of us were put on the field during the singing of the National Anthem. It was a pretty amazing feeling hearing the whole stadium cheer for us. We were also able to meet the Romeo Crennel, the Browns head coach, and former Marine Commandant General Krulak. Overall it was a pretty good day, except when the Browns lost.

Also, work at the reserve center in Columbus is going pretty good. I mean, we come in at 0900 and leave by 12 or 1300. That a bad deal really. As for the work part, just cleaning a couple of rifles a day and today was the hardest day so far; we had to count all of the issued gear. That took about 3 hours, then went home for the day. Oh, I just got a phone call and now I don't have to work tomorrow! 3 day weekend, what to do...

Trouble Sleeping

One of the things I've been have trouble with lately is my sleep. This was never a problem while I was in Iraq, but now that I home I find it hard to sleep but 1-2 hours before I wake up. I usually just lay there and then fall back to sleep to only be awoken a couple of hours later. The reason for this is probably due to the amount of security/fire watch that we had to do during the night when we occupied buildings in Iraq. You could only get a few hours of sleep in before it was your turn to due an hour or more of watch. Now this makes it difficult to get a full night of sleep and makes me feel very groggy during the day. At the same time, I occasionally have some bad dreams involving combat related events.

I've talked with some of the other Marines and find this to be somewhat common occurrence. That makes me feel a little better and I believe with a little bit of time, things will eventually go back to normal for me.

Also, I wanted to take the time to give a thank you to Chugach Man, from Flickr, for giving me a 1 year Flickr Pro account. This will allow me to keep all of my pictures that I have posted this year and to contiune posting numerous pictures in the future with few limitations. So, take the time to view his work and leave a comment or two for him.

Homecoming

Well, it's been awhile since my last post and that is mostly due to the fact that I've been just relaxing these past couple of weeks (also my laptop died on me the last week in Iraq). If anyone is interested in what kind of homecoming we had, check out this link and watch the video because words can not desribe the show of support we got from the community.

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/5065738/detail.html

So far, I've been just relaxing at home and a large number of friends have came by to visit me. I've also had a chance to visit my older brother in Akron last weekend. In all, it has been really great to be back and see how everyone is doing. And, of course, being treated like a hero around town, which can be nice sometimes.

Now, I am back in Columbus working at my drill center because I volunteered to finish out my orders till January 3rd. Then its off to college again at Wright State University.

Heading Home

The soldier is alone... as he is never alone in battle

The weight of all he has seen and done bears down on his broad shoulders. The soldier's personal war is over: he is Heading Home.

-Thomas Kinkade



Lima Company is coming home tomorrow (Friday) morning.

Back in the States!

Finally, after a couple weeks of "decompression" time spent at Al Asad, Iraq, and in Kuwait, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines is finally back in the states.

Update

Just to let everyone know, I am ok. Also, I did not get into any trouble with my blog. Long story short, there was a officer, from the unit that relieved us, and he didn't like what I was posting about and said it was a breach of security. So, he notified my chain of command. My command looked at my site and didn't see anything wrong with it. In fact, they were pretty mad that this officer made such a big deal about it. As for taking some of the posts down, it was just a precaution that I made so that no one else of higher rank can look at it and form their own opinion. Hope that clears some things up.