A Sick Joke?

As our first week is drawing to an end, I look back it find it weird to say we are 'deployed'.  We are in a hotel...it has an indoor water park in it; a water park! It has slides, and a lazy river; the whole shebang.  Lambeau Field is right out my window and a 15 min walk away (Brett Farve's restaurant is right there too).  We have gone to hockey games (Juniors hockey; 'kids too good for high school').  I don't mean at all to sound like we are out partying the whole time.  I then remember, on a personal note, Dan and I were both in the Philippines supporting Balikatan 2010 at this very time a year ago.

At the end of the day, I do know that very shortly it will all change.....but for now we will do our best to enjoy it.

We have done quite a bit of training (Project management, team building, etc) and have plenty more in front of us.  Everyone at this unit has been really helpful and has made us feel quite 'at home' here. It will be kind of weird spending this roughly 90 days with them all day every day and then not see them for a year as we "go off to do great things".  Our (AZ unit) group has such a diverse experience level coming in.  Some have no deployments, some have only Iraq, some have only Afghanistan, and I have both.  At times, I struggle to make the comparisons and I have to be very careful when talking of Afghanistan since I have left there almost 5 years ago.  Through it all, we all ride the same emotional roller coaster; the duration of the peaks and valleys is all that separate us....and how we react to it of course.

Keep an eye on the site layout.  We are adding and 'tweaking' different aspects of the page as more information and capabilities become available.  Some will start as placeholders and then be expanded as we get the final piece of info to fill it out.  We are always looking for suggestions for improvements that will help us better tell our stories, so feel free to make a comment or send an email.  We are so 'in the moment' that a lot of times we forget what we know and what you don't know.

CPT Love


PS - We are working on posting some pictures.  Have to figure out how we are going go about it.

And so it begins....

Greetings.  I hope this reaches you all in good health.  As we make all of our final preparations, I know I needed to take some time out and get this started.  In the coming months, these pages will contain the trials and tribulations of all the Officers and Soldiers of the 492d Civil Affairs Bn who's home station is Buckeye, AZ.  Once a month and for two weeks a year, we come from all parts of the Great State of Arizona (some even come from neighboring ones) to train for worldwide deployment.  This will become a 'living' documentation of those excursions.  Feel free to share this site, comment on posts, and generally 'stalk' us as we travel the world.  Welcome.

CPT Love