Well all the gear we could send by boat is packed and gone. I sealed the last container on Monday. It left for the port right after. This week hasn't been quite as busy. I have had a little time to get some other work caught up. I have been preparing to go to the mock up of a Forward Operations Base (FOB). It is a camp for training how life will be over in Iraq. We will learn about Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and how to try and avoid them. We will also learn about how to operate a convoy. IEDs are one of the biggest killers over there. Hopefully it will help. Got my ruck sack packed, individual ballistic armor put together, and my weapons cleaned. We will spend 8 days and nights out there. I won't have access to Internet until after we get back from the FOB. It will be difficult to communicate back home without it.
The weather has been strange here. It has been raining every day for the past week and a half. Today being one of the worst. I guess this time of year it is usually dry. They have flash flood warnings up for a good portion of Oklahoma. I might get a little wet in the FOB. We stay in tents and have dirt floors. Doesn't mix well with water.
25 days and counting until I get to come home. I can't wait. Peggy sent me a video of our son Joel (13 months old). At that age he sure changes allot. It has been since April 9 that I saw him last. I really miss my family. Todd

A new update from Ft. Sill. First I would like to Thank Rita Fletcher, Nancy Engler, Cindi Whitmer, and Jennifer Olson for the great cookies I received from them last Friday. The amount of work they must have went through to make and ship 30 lbs. of cookies was greatly appreciated by all that ate them. It was nice to have some homemade goodies. The timing was perfect. The stress of all the training was wearing on us and it gave us a little break from it all. The cookies were all gone by 4:30 Friday afternoon.
Another hurdle is past, We sucessfully passed the eval and had the debrief on Sunday. Most of the comments we had by the trainers was positive with only minor things we could improve on.
This week we are in the middle of packing. We have to have everything that goes by boat loaded into shipping containers by saturday so it can be trucked to port at Corpus Christi, Tx. We fly the helicopters to the port on Friday and Saturday. Not all the Helicopters are leaving, ten are staying back to keep training crews. It takes approximately 3 to 4 weeks to get our equipment to Kuwait. We pick it up there and move it into Iraq. It was nice to get some gear out of our room. With six guys and all our gear in a 15 x 17 ft. room it is crowded. July 23rd is the day we fly home. I'm counting the days to seeing my family. 33 days left. Todd

Here's another update on my stay at Ft Sill. The last week has been busy. We are in the middle of our evaluation for the flying missions we will be doing in Iraq. There is allot of planning that goes into a mission. It starts AMR ( air mission request) . From that we plan the routes and landing points along the way. We also have to take into consideration were the enemy is operating and what kind of threat they pose for our mission. The mission is planned for a specific takeoff time and making our other pickups and drop offs on time. I get involved in making sure we have the required amount of aircraft available for the mission and make sure they don't break down or have maintenance issues that can prevent them from being able to be used. I attend one to two meetings a day to discuss the maintenance and inspections coming due with our maintenance company. Fortunately I have only ten aircraft I have to keep track of. I have help from our maintenance test pilots. One of them attends the meeting with me. Right now our company is planning a major air assault mission for Saturday. We are supplying 6 helicopters and 6 flight crews. Each flight crew consists of two pilots and two crew chiefs. Sometimes a door gunner is substituted for a crew chief. The assault mission will include a total of 18 helicopters from all three flight companies. The planning and coordination takes allot of time by allot of people to make it successful.
We are still gettingequipment issued to us for Iraq. I was issued a new survival vest and body armor we wear when we fly. The body armor is suppose to stop 9mm rounds up to 7.62 rounds.The weapons the insurgents are using are AK-47 rifles and the vest should stop the rounds . The down side to wearing all that while flying it weighs about 30 lbs. To help to keep us a little cooler we have a vest that hooks up to a machine that pumps chilled water through it. Also I was issued today another set of body armor that we wear when we are not flying. That one also weighs about 30 lbs. My shoulders are going to have to suffer a little to get used to it. Like they say no pain no gain.
I'm missing home. I didn't think it would be this tough being away from family. My little boy is walking and I missed being there to see it. Another 6 weeks and I get to come home for a couple days before we ship off. I hope the time goes fast. Todd