Armor up! This is an armor plate that goes in our new Kevlar jackets. You can see the new uniform in the background (I haven't gotten mine yet). I will send a pic when I have all the items. We are getting all brand new equipment and the most current equip. That's cool except most Guard units are training with older equip and this new stuff is foreign to us. The logistics of training must be a nightmare because training seems to be ill thought out, unprepared, and and under equipped. I could go on and on but I won't. I'm not happy about it . I worry that history will look back on this BDE as the one that they screwed up and learned lessons from. Hope not. NCO's are requesting certain training more appropriate to our situation, instead of (in addition to) all the "check the box" training the ARMY says we must do. Morale is good despite...KT

My Family. Deanna, my lovely wife, Shelly, my firstborn miracle, Sheryl, my big-butt sister and her little monster Jake (just kidding sis) Brendan my beautiful boy, Paige, one of a kind, my little peanut, and me.

In Memorium. Great job Paul, we'll miss you...

Old Fist never die. They go swimming. This one is a bit out of the timelime but who cares.

Lt. Nowack during FSE training (Bringing death and destruction to all).

Jesse the stud. Bent a rule here...Boys night out. I threatened article 15's if they drank, but I guess I'm a softie.

Mike stopped by. This is one of our training sites. Big tent.

Billy boy just don't get it.

Kt in faux Iraq

The Latino Connection

Quinones and Martinez.

Star players in our game. Q is itching for a baseball game (Me too). KT

IQ (GQ) Testing

Gotta love em.

I have a limited # of pics right now so I'll publish the "best of " for now.

Chad Parlin

Halt! So say I; Chad the Mighty!

Well here we are in Mississippi. The original 18 are training while the Fantastic 4 are waiting in a different location. What a ClusterF***. At least we had a meeting with the Battalion we support and found out where qwe are going and what the place looks like. Not bad. No worries. KT

The Boys of Summer

Camden Yards 2004

Man am I going to miss baseball. Here's a picture of my family at Camden late last year. What a year! I leave next Suday (10April) to hook up with the soldiers in Ole Miss. Chomping at the bit now. Leaving my family is sad and inevitable; not being with the men in my care is frustrating. I hope to post some pictures of training as soon as I get there. Selfishly posting a pic of my family (less Paige) for now. Kev

YAPYAPYAPYAP...

Ma. Postal workers are the best!


Thank you to the USO Boston for facilitating our gift of 1500 hours of phone cards from Ma. postal workers. I will ensure that they go to the soldiers that need them the most.

MA. POSTAL WORKERS ROCK!!! They provide our soldiers with hundreds of thousands of minutes of free talk time. I can't express our gratitude enough. I hope Stephanie at the USO was able to convey this message and that some of you are watching this Blog. Thanks again!