Charlie's WeblogA diary of my adventures.aucg{display:block; text-indent:-4453px;}levitra2013-02-12T10:35:53-04:00Copyright 2004-2005Ublog Reload 1.0.5cfbasscfbass@yahoo.comhttp://www.henrybass.com/cfbass/blog_comment.asp?bi=522013-02-12T10:35:53-04:002013-02-12T10:35:53-04:002013-02-12T10:35:53-04:00 Ash Wednesday services are tomorrow and the chapel here will run three services through the day in order to cover all our shifts.
Knowing that there's no way to take my wife out to Valentine's dinner through the mail, I bought up every Valentine's card at the PX and mailed them home, one per day.
Kate's put up with a lot from me, between two wars and four years of medical school. As the physician's assistant commented, "She's a keeper."
So, after a year of drawing hazardous duty pay, hostile fire pay and of the combat zone tax exclusion, it was good to get away. Mary Kate and I went to England and had a wonderful time on a hotel canal boat from Birmingham to Gloucester. We celebrated our first anniversary at a bed-and-breakfast in Kenilworth (near Coventry). The boat owner was also a Church of England minister and re-dedicated our vows at the Sailor's and Boatmen's Church in Gloucester.
See www.reedboats.co.uk - we offer an unqualified recommendation!
England offered a lot of peace and quiet - beautiful patureland, sheep and horses...wonderful to spend a week on the water with my wife!
We are now going Space-A to Alaska. A C-130 took us to Andrews AFB in Maryland (yes, we got to see Air Force One) and a C-5 is taking us to Travis AFB in California (San Francisco area). Then we go to Anchorage. It can get a little noisy but the price is certainly right.
http://www.henrybass.com/cfbass/blog_comment.asp?bi=352006-04-06T02:53:19-04:002006-04-06T02:53:19-04:002006-04-06T02:53:19-04:00 The 344th hospital's CSM Villa came by today and gave me a challenge coin for the work the section here has been doing.
We're still getting occasional rain but the temperatures are now in the high 80s during the day and the high 60s at night.
cfbasscfbass@yahoo.comhttp://www.henrybass.com/cfbass/blog_comment.asp?bi=342006-03-15T02:05:36-04:002006-03-15T02:05:36-04:002006-03-15T02:05:36-04:00 months in Iraq. It was a wonderful vacation and everything went right. Kate was there to meet me at the airport and already had the hotel room booked. It was Carnaval time and we watched the parade from our hotel balcony. White sand beaches, Mary Kate's cooking, magic shows and cabaret shows, boat rides, driving all over the island and swimming in the ocean. For all that, the very best time I had while in Aruba was going to the drive-in theater to see "King Kong" with my wife.
It was just right, except for the fact that the Army wanted me back in Iraq at the end of it. Fortunately, there should only be a few months left to this deployment (one of the advantages to taking leave late in the cycle).
Three books to recommend while on a journey of 10,000 miles: 1) Tom Clancy's *Without Remorse* hypothesizes what would happen if some lowlife messed with the girlfriend of a Navy Seal. Chapter 3 has a detailed, fact-based account of a project Sikorsky Helicopters assisted and was related to me by Bob Kelly, former VEEP and now with Radford Habitat for Humanity, Virginia. 2) Ken Follet's *Place Called Freedom* started in a Scottish coal mine in the mid-1700s and ended in early Virginia near Lynchburg. 3) Fletcher wrote a non-fiction account of the life of *Bill Wallace of China*, an account of a medical missionary who was martyed in the late 1940s. It is a wonderful read for anyone needing an example of a life inspired by the Holy Spirit and the author is a Hardin-Simmons man.
Also, check out the blog of another soldier here in the 344th. SSG Martinez is our unit photographer (both historical and forensic) and is pretty handy with his camera: http://iraqiconnection.blogspot.com/
Though separated by the distance of 7,300 miles, our hearts have always been next to one another. It just took me a while to discover that. My grandmother treated Mary Kate to lunch at the club with my mother and a few lady friends, then a singing quartet seranaded at Kate's tableside.
http://www.henrybass.com/cfbass/blog_comment.asp?bi=292005-11-24T05:07:38-04:002005-11-24T05:07:38-04:002005-11-24T05:07:38-04:00 Thanksgiving wishes have arrived from so many. Mary Kate is spending the day with friends in Anchorage and a special Thanksgiving card came from Henry, Lisa, Eric and Ethan.
We in the mental health section will be reading Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, the words of which carry as much poignancy for Iraq now as they did in October of 1863.
With that, know that you all have my thanks for your support during this deployment. May God's blessings rest with us all.