27 Years in...

Today is the 27th Anniversary of me signing up, in Uncle Sam's Big Green Machine, aka The United States Army (courtesy of the Illinois Army National Guard).

Oh, such a look in 1985

Over the years, I got to learn all sorts of things...

Claymore! 1989, Aberdeen Proving Grounds

I eventually got to work on a disaster

The Mississippi River tells a levee that it should just quit...now.  1993

Then overseas "peacekeeping"

Sarajevo, SFOR in 1997

Back to training

JRTC, Fort Polk, Louisiana 2000

Overeas, training

Yavoriv, Ukraine 2003

Then, to war...

Parwan Province, Afghanistan 2004

And back to disaster

Post-Katrina, outside New Orleans 2005

Then back to war

Outside Baghdad 2008

3 1/2 more months, and I will be done... I wonder what I will look like after that?  I've threatened to grow out my hair and a beard to make Lord Byron's ghost blush in shame.  Maybe, maybe not.

A Milblogger passes on...

If you check my links on the right hand side of this blog, you will see "Neptunus Lex" - a naval aviator's blog.  Well, the worst has happened.  Damn.