Taken during a blank-fire run-through at Fort Polk's MOUT training center in December of 2005. My A Team had already cleared out the floor I was on, but B Team had run into some sort of a snag down in the basement. Turns out that one of the battalions Observer / Controllers was being a knucklehead, and trying to get himself or my guys killed.

This was back in July of 2005, while I was in Korea. Notice the all-important Dungeons and Dragons book in my hands. Damned berets... You can see the tan-line this one left in my forehead.

A friend of mine hand-knitted a scarf for me during the winter of 2004-2005. Those were some dark days, after my divorce, and feeling alone in the cold, foreign land of Korea. When a package arrived that seemed so practical, and so kind, I had to say thank-you to her.

This sums up about how I felt during those dark days. On top of that, I'd started to develop Achilles Tendonitus on my right side, brought on my Plantar Fasciitus, and exacerbated by the 45 and 60 degree hills there in Korea, on Camp Stanley. Man, I needed a beer!

It sucks the most, for a Soldier, when he's just waiting for all his goodies to come in from the States. Here, I was waiting rather impatiently for such welcome things as books, and my computer! If I remember right, it took them nearly two months to deliver my stuff, that time.