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Rocket’s red glare
15 Dec 2004 | No Comments | Continue reading »
At 1500, Arabic Standard Time, The Iraqi Intervention Force’s 2nd Brigade, 9th Battalion arrives in Camp Manhattan. Ten Advisory Support Team members will be eagerly awaiting, literally chomping at the bit to get some hard core training under way. But what can four days accomplish? It had better be volumes, because 19 December is the […]
Bombs away
6 Dec 2004 | No Comments | Continue reading »
Camp Striker, Bahgdad. Somewhere beyond the perimeter defenses, surrounded by the low hum of generators and fog swirling round my feet, someone is trying to kill me. The first mortar round hit while I was watching Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, approximately two-thirds of the way through it. The Lebanese militia was […]
Kuwait part deux
4 Dec 2004 | No Comments | Continue reading »
The smell of exhaust hangs in the well deck like a black curtain. The vehicles have been idling now for over an hour and the lower V reeks of diesel. I’m anxious to splash and hit the Kuwaiti pier. Hell, we all are. I glance from my vantage point in the troop commander’s hatch of […]
Halloween: Revisited
16 Nov 2004 | No Comments | Continue reading »
Fear is a powerful motivator. It has made me run screaming from my basement in the middle of the day, with claws surely grasping mere inches from my shirt collar. It has pulled my bicycle tire at over 50mph down the rocky bluffs of Okinawa, Japan even though my tires were losing their sticky grasp […]
Reunion
9 Nov 2004 | No Comments | Continue reading »
John Klimas. Fellow Marine Security Guard. Connecticut resident. Pimp daddy. Klimas and I did time together in MSG class 1-02, 1 October 2001 to 15 November 2001. We road-tripped to his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut for Thanksgiving of 2001 and remained scoreless despite his relative luck with the ladies. I made a halfhearted stab at […]
Clarification [somewhat]
8 Nov 2004 | One Comment | Continue reading »
My arrival in Quantico, VA has produced interesting results. In the 24 hours I’ve been here, I’ve learned the following things: Training is approximately three weeks long. We will finish 2 Dec and be in Iraq within the week following. The “training”, as it were, consists of an over 300 page Iraq transitional handbook, an […]
Iraq bound
5 Nov 2004 | 7 Comments | Continue reading »
There is no more. There is no “continued”. These few words which you’re reading are all that exists. I’m close enough to leaving I can taste it. I can taste the sand. I can taste the air. I can taste the adrenaline. Today I leave with but a few words dredged from a drunken mind […]
Remembering why we fight
26 Sep 2004 | One Comment | Continue reading »
The recent completion of my Lewis and Clark trip has produced mounds of work I need to accomplish in order to get all the journal entries, photos, and videos on the web in some semblance of order. In the meantime, I present you with something to chew on while you wait. This article was adapted […]
The dusty trail begins
30 Aug 2004 | One Comment | Continue reading »
On 31 August at 1308 Central Time, I fly out of Bismarck, North Dakota and on my way into my own personal cycling history: riding the Lewis and Clark trail. This tour has been ten months in the making and delayed by two, but I’m doing it at last. I’ve made dozens of gear list […]
Seven year Marine Corps anniversary
28 Jul 2004 | One Comment | Continue reading »
Today is my anniversary. No, it’s not an anniversary of a relationship or buying a home or even survival, it’s an anniversary of an entirely different sort. Possibly, a new beginning. Maybe something as simple as one of choice. It was a decision that radically changed my life. Seven years ago today, I stepped on […]
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Born in the year of the Dragon, the author grudgingly accepts the fact he has too many interests and not enough time. A cyclist as long as he can remember, an avid yet inconsistent writer since age eleven, and a U.S. Marine since age twenty-one, the author also adds peak bagging, diving, snowboarding, and computers to his list of interests. Incidentally, he is aware of his inability to make a living from any but the Corps. The author accepts this as fact and remains optimistic. Feel free to drop him a line.
