I'm just having a great news kick lately, aren't I?

A while back, I realized that my various stages of military training and education had almost earned me an associate's degree from the Community College of the Air Force. Even though I don't really work in a world where a 2-year degree means anything, I knew that having the CCAF degree couldn't hurt, and might be helpful if I ever apply for a position somewhere within the military. So, I sent my civilian transcript to CCAF to see if any outside courses would complete the requirements, and found out that I had everything satisfied except for 3 credits in Oral Communication (I've never taken a public speaking course).

Fortunately, CCAF will accept a certain number of credits through test-for-credit programs, and I signed up to take the public speaking DSST test. I left the test center feeling that I did great on the written portion, but lousy on the impromptu speech (I had 10 minutes to think about a topic, then 5 minutes to speak into a tape recorder). Well, I just got the news today that I passed both sections. Now I just need to see what I have to do to get that CCAF degree processed.

It will be kind of interesting to get my associates and bachelors degree at around the same time, huh?

Doesn't that title sound like something from an old movie?

Anyway, for anyone reading who didn't know this already, I'm going to be deploying to Iraq with several other members of my Air National Guard unit. I'll be doing my thing as an Air Force medic for about 60 days.

I just got my orders today... early March through early June. I realize that's a lot longer than 60 days, but it's because it includes time to out-process, travel time, as well as some extra time on Active Duty orders once I'm back...

The dates might change a little bit, but only by a few days in either direction.

It's officially less than 3 weeks away. I'm expecting my deployment to be relatively safe (for a war, at least), seeing as how I'll be at a base within a base... and there's a pretty good chance I won't ever leave the complex.

For better or for worse, it will be one of the most unique experiences of my life.

Even though I will probably have some level of Internet access, I don't think I'll be doing much posting here while I'm gone. I'll have to look into the rules and regulations about that sort of thing, and I'll post if and when I'm able to, but I think my primary means of updating friends will be via e-mail. I'll set up a list like I used during Basic Training so that I can send e-mails to lots of friends at once.

I will also make a post with my contact info over there... it will be a friends-only post, not public... so If you're not on my friends list, and want my contact info, let me know so I can make sure to get it to you (if appropriate, of course).

Stay tuned for more "getting ready to ship out" posts over the next few weeks.

Not a whole lot going on this week... although the past few weeks have been crazy busy. Funny how the more things I have going on, the more I want to record them here, but the less time I have to do so, so the less likely they are to be recorded. (uh... that was dizzying)

Anyway, I was in NJ the weekend of Aug 25-27 for Jeff & Blair's wedding. The whole weekend started off on Thursday night when I finally got to see Fiona... I had owed her dinner for somethin like a year! Hopefully I'll get a chance to see her in London sometime this fall... that is, if I ever get this work trip to Dublin scheduled, and if I can take a few extra days to isle hop. Anyway, after dinner, I finally got to meet JuJu's beau (after hearing about him for months), although it was unfortunate that JuJu wasn't around to hang out too. Finally, we met up with Dinah and I got a chance to wish her a happy birthday. Woo hoo!

Anyway, so Friday was the "quality time with the parents" day - which went pretty smoothly. I think 5 hours is about the right amount of time to spend with my parents before things devolve into violent chaos. Speaking of chaos, they took me to this new Mexican restaurant they like... the food was great, but there were about 14,500 young children in the place, all screaming. Also, my mom got a new car - I'm jealous:

(Stock photo from Lincoln - not actually my mother's car.)

Okay, so Friday night I drove over to the hotel where they were having the wedding, and checked in. Instead of the regular room I had booked, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all members of the wedding party had been upgraded to rooms in the hospitality suite. My room actually had its own conference room:

Not to mention the spacious bedroom or swanky bathroom:

Speaking of swanky, check out this tux that Jeff picked out for us groomsmen to wear:


So the wedding was a lot of fun... and a great experience to be a part of. Jeff and I realized that we've known each other for some 18 years... crazy, huh?

So anyway, I got back to Boston after the weekend in NJ... spent Monday at work, then left for Denver first thing Tuesday morning (Aug 29). The first 3 days of the trip were all business - I spent them at National Jewish Medical & Research Center getting them up and running on two of our research studies. I also got a chance to go down to Colorado Springs and see some old friends from when I spent a few months living there. Oh, Tejon Street and your silly bar scene, how I've missed you. But seriously, one of my favorite places, 32 Bleu, was gone, and Tequila's is now Vue... at least Phantom Canyon and Twin Peak are still there. I didn't have too much time to reminisce before the drama started. At the last minute, someone's boyfriend decided to join us on our bar-hopping... but totally disappeared several hours later in Rum Bay (Springs' own "8 bars in one" joint). We spent almost 2 hours looking for him... but eventually dropped his tipsy and crying girlfriend off at home without him. The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful...

I got home just in time to spend Sunday and Monday of Labor Day Weekend unpacking, catching up on laundry, and re-packing for my next trip.

Tuesday (Sep 5) I left for Florida... where I spent 2 days at the University of Florida in Gainesville getting them up and running on one of our studies... then driving to Melbourne and Ft. Lauderdale for study visits before coming home on Thursday afternoon (480 miles on the rental car in less than 3 days on the ground!).

I got back late Thursday night, with just enough time to get to bed so that I could wake up on Friday morning (Sep 8) for the CERFP exercise we had last weekend. The exercise went well, but when it's 88°F, and the sun is shining, it gets pretty damn hot in these suits:
(Stock photo from National Guard Bureau- not actually us.)

So that was last weekend... and then there was this week. Not really a lot going on this week... I'm hoping to finish reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest this weekend so that I can watch the movie (sitting in my apartment waiting for me a-la-Netflix). Once classes start next week, I won't have much time for leisure reading...

Hrm... it's 2:15 pm on Friday. I feel like calling it a week. Tonight I head down to the Cape for drill weekend (with a stop in Brockton on the way to see Lindsay)... tomorrow will be crazy, but Sunday is family day so I'll probably get out early (and apparently the uniform of the day will be civvies!)

I was flipping channels earlier tonight, and stumbled across the ABC News/Nightline Memorial Day special. Ted Koppel read this list of names of those US service members who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since last Memorial Day, and as each name was read, the member's name, age, and photo appeared on the screen. I stopped channel surfing... and not really sure of anything else to do, I pretty much spent the last hour standing at attention in front of the TV screen (minus commercial breaks).

As the 122 names were read, only two were familiar to me:

I recognized Marine Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, from Randolph, Massachusetts. One of my friends is close friends with the Arredondo family, and many remember the incident last year in which his father set fire to the van of the military officers who broke the news to him.

I also recognized the name of Army Specialist Brian K. Baker, who I knew about via two different connections: First, a friend of mine (from Randolph, MA, of all places) is married to a soldier out of Fort Drum who served with Spec. Baker. Also, my military supervisor emotionally recalls the day that Brian Baker (and 16 other troops) were brought to his medical unit directly from the site of the IED explosion. He specifically remembered Baker's name because just about every other soldier brought in at the time told him to "go help Brian Baker." Turns out, Baker's wife was pregnant with twins, and was 2 weeks from her due date. Sadly, he never made it home to meet his daughters.

Anyway, as Ted Koppel finished the list of names, he reminded viewers that unless we had some connection to someone who has died in service, it's pretty easy to forget that there is a war going on.

On this Memorial Day, I hope that everyone takes a moment to think about just how many men and women have died in service to our country. Whether it was the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, or Iraq, these men and women died in service to our country.

They may have been fighting a war that you believe in, or one that you do not. However, the simple fact is that without their service, without the presence of a military, we as a nation could not even have the debate about whether or not to go to war. We need to continue that debate... but we must also remember that service is separate from politics. We must know that it is the soldier's responsibility to serve with loyalty, the government's responsibility to use the military only when absolutely necessary, and the citizen's responsibility to demand accountability from government.

I can't help but wonder about the contradiction between these two stories out this weekend. I've cut because they're long, but it's worth the read.

( Summary: 2-star Army general who publicly disagreed with Donald Rumsfeld over troop requirements in Afghanistan and Iraq was retired at reduced rank over minor infractions that were not even included in his official record. )

( Summary: Two Army analysts who contributed to the CIA findings that Iraq had WMD's, and were cited by intelligence review commission for 'serious lapse in analytic tradecraft,' have received job performance awards in each of the past three years. )

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I should point out that both of these stories came to my attention courtesy of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, which is available as a syndicated RSS feed on LiveJournal (talking_points).