D -34

My first post, I have a little over 30 days until I depart for ARMY training. This is a test to see how things work, I have decided to document my adventures, hopefully it will do a few things, keep my family informed, allow me to remember all the good and bad things, allow folks who follow a small glimpse of a war that is completely miss reported by the mainstream media, and help anybody who is preparing to deploy to Iraq as an electronic warfare officer (EWO).



I find it amazing that the Navy has been augmenting the Army since 2004 and even five years later they still can not get any info out to the sailor. They have checklists which help marginally and a command called Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center (ECRC) which theoretically is the one stop shopping for information once you are informed you are going on Individual Augmentation (IA), however in my experience Google has given me more info than ECRC has, I am sure the Navy has spent millions on ECRC to no effect.



I will stop the bitching, this blog will try to be funny as well as informative, it will have a bit of sarcasm as well as bitterness, I will try to keep the bitterness to a minimum but sometimes it is needed and helpful.



My wife and I are used to deployments, I have spent a little over 3 years of my career in some god forsaken country, however it is usually only six month at a time. This trip will be 10+ months, it will not be fun for all involved.



I will be in Iraq helping the Army, it is my understanding they need a lot of help in all areas, this will be my first time on the ground, I have flown over both Iraq and Afghanistan earlier, and have logged about a year of action during OIF and OEF. It is now time for me to do my time on the ground and see how the other side lives.