No Wasted Wake-ups

Much of what the 352 is doing is too sensitive to blog about and many of our conversations end up sounding like this:

Hey did you get the box of ___________ that I sent?
Yep! 
Well, where are my pictures?
The box is still in the office. No photos allowed in the office.

or....

Hey I want to see a picture of the Keurig in action!
Too bad...it's in the office.

or....

So I sent you a million Derby decorations. I need photos please!
I used them to decorate the office.

And so on and so forth. I don't get many specifics over the phone (which is fine with me because the last thing I want to be responsible for is putting our troops in jeopardy. Which reminds me...I had to stop listening to CNN altogether last week because the press corp just kept pushing for more details on the Osama bin Laden raid. Listen people...the military very rarely spills the beans about an operation...especially a covert operation. Take what you have, be thankful for their generous release of information, and go home. Do you want to be the journalist who wrote a story that got a servicemember killed? Yeah...I didn't think so...).

But a couple of ceremonies have occurred over the past couple of weeks that I can actually blog about.

The first was the "patch ceremony." This event officially recognizes each man and woman in the unit as combat veterans and free to wear the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI), or "combat patch." Each deployment's combat patch is different and for Neal, this is his third. He originally thought that only Soldiers on their first deployment would be recognized and receive the combat patch, but they included everyone. While Neal is more concerned with others than himself pretty much on the daily, I was glad to see that they extended the ceremony to all of the Soldiers in the unit.

Second was the transfer of authority over the CRY Yard (Container Repair Yard) in Balad. I would try to give you some background on the CRY Yard (it cracks me up when the military does this...when you spell it out, it ends up being Container Repair Yard Yard. Kind of like Headquarters Headquarters Battalion or Higher Higher Headquarters. Maybe the DoD should invest in a thesaurus next)...but this 1:27 video by 1st Lt Jon Hatcher, 289th Quartermaster Company in Charge & Contract Officer Representative for the CRY says it so much better than I ever could.




Last month, the 352 conducted a ceremony that officially turned the CRY Yard over to the Iraqi authorities. Three Iraqi leaders were on hand to speak and several awards were given out. Our commander also said a few words and thanked everyone involved for doing such a good job.

The plans for shutting down Iraq are being finalized as I type. It leads to a lot of uncertainty for the 352 and the families as this is unlike any other deployment. Instead of gaining new resources throughout the year, these Soldiers are gradually losing them. Neal tells me that Internet will most likely be phased out by the fall and several restaurants on base have already closed. For me personally, it's a frustrating process, but when I watch the above video and think about how we are finally leaving a country better off than when we entered, I take a breath and know that WE GOT THIS!