Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.  Today is Ash Wednesday.

From ashes we came and to ashes we shall return.

From Katrina I came and to Nightmares of Katrina I have finally returned.

After years of trying (the first post was back in Sep 09!) I have finally finished recounting my experience that I have called Nightmares of Katrina.

Go read, now.  It's groovy.

Cthulhu Sighting At Illini6!

Guess what washed up at Illini6, another spawn of Cthulhu Month!

This is the third year that Inner Prop is posting a Cthulhu image a day during October.

Why not come join the fun, and if you have a Cthulhu image let him know and maybe he'll post it, if it is safe for humanity to know.

Inner Prop is also conveying a story that he's been keeping to himself for four years now. It's about something that happened while deployed to LA after Hurricane Katrina. LTC John can attest to some of the story's veracity, but no body has ever heard the whole story, before now.

BTW, why is Inner Prop writing in the third person, and would someone please help the poor man in the photo. That spawn of Cthulhu has clearly seized him by the hands and intends to do him harm. Help him someone!

Photo From The "Front"

My dad just sent me a couple of photos and an email that came from Afghanistan and BG Huber, Commander of the 33d BCT and CSM Bones' boss.

I'd love to hear CSM Bones tell the story (assuming he was on the trip) since it was a trip the "Old Man" took to Herat.

The text of the email was a story about the trip that was sent to the Illinois National Guard PAO (Public Affairs Office) so I suspect it may be out there somewhere (if not waiting to show up on the latest issue of the NGAI newsletter).

33rd Leads the Way

I attended the regional Family Support Conference this last weekend and I have to say that there is a great deal of command emphasis on family support in the 33rd IBCT.

It is very refreshing to see that kind of focus from higher command. This is a program, if done correctly will be a tremendous asset to the families of deployed soldiers (and the 33rd is taking almost a third of the state with them) as well as an asset to the soldiers themselves.

When I went with the 33rd to Afghanistan (with CSM Bones and Major John) it was just the HHC of an ASG and it wasn't even used that way. On top of that there was no, none, zip, zero… support for the families. We had enough trouble trying to figure out what our jobs were and how we were going to do them with too few people. We didn't need the stress of worrying about our families back home.

The last thing a soldier needs to worry about when they're getting shot at is the leaky faucet at home (believe me, I've tried).

Now they have Family Assistance Center Representatives around the state to provide support and guidance to the families, including making a monthly phone call to a family member designated by each soldier. The 33rd has one better than that with the Family Readiness Support Assistant who helps the Family Readiness Groups of each individual Company.

Several Company Commanders even attended the training this weekend. Many of them attended with their FRGs or at least their FRG Leaders.

I applaud the efforts of the 33rd IBCT in this facet of keeping the soldiers safe and I give kudos to the leadership for making this a priority and providing the tools to get it done. The FACRs and the FRSA are state employees so the credit there goes to the Adjutant General (MG Enyart) and the state staff (JFHQ), but there seems also to be emphasis by the Brigade Command team.

NGAI and Major John

The National Guard Association of Illinois (NGAI) is a lobbying group that supports the NG in IL (duh).

They put out a monthly newsletter / newspaper and what did I find in it when I flipped through today; the photo on the left here.

I believe this was the night fire portion of what they described as the .50 caliber machine gun. I can't tell from the photo if it is MJ's nemesis, Ma Deuce or some new fangled replacement. I never had the opportunity to fire the M2 so I'm not that familiar with it.

This went with a nice little article about the unit and their deployment. I'll be sending that to MJ by email.

They're Off (Again)

Major John didn't want to talk about it, but I do. I have to say, "Wow." The send off for the portion of the 108th Sustainment Brigade who are being deployed was done very well.

When we left for the Mobilization station early in 2004, I felt the way I imagined the Baltimore Colts did when they slunk out of town in the middle of the night.

This time the armory at North Riverside was more crowded than I had ever seen it, maybe even more so than when we came back. American Veteran Motorcycle Riders Association (AVMRA) Chapter 7 (CSM Medina and his wife are members) was there handing out stuff and helping our FRG sell tee shirts, the American Legion was making pillow cases and the USO was there passing out goodies.

Among the dignitaries, I spied the Adjutant General of Illinois, MG Enyart, the Assistant Adjutant General, Army (number 2 guy in the state) BG Celletti and Judy Barr Topinka (former Illinois State Treasurer).

They didn't have a lousy tape recorder playing a bad copy of the National Anthem; they had a real singer who would have made Wayne Messmer proud.

As I mentioned the American Legion was there. They have a special program going on. They send teams out whenever a unit is deploying and they take photos, of the soldier, of their families or both and they iron-on the photo to pillowcases. The soldier can then take along their family when they go or the spouse can continue to "sleep with" their loved one until he or she come home. It's great.

The Berwyn VFW and Chapter 7 of the AVMRA have adopted the 108th.

I don't happen to have any photos of the event myself, but WLS channel 7 was there and they did a nice piece that you can see here.