still alive

I know it's been a bit of a stretch since my last blog, a lot of moving and a small bit of "down time", but my spirits are high and in hopes of calling this place home for a while. Before I forget my email is no longer working properly so if you want to contact me talk to Megan and she will help you out. No matter how bad it is out here I have a good outlook because of my wife and son, they are truly my happiness. I have managed to miss the summer so far (knock on wood) because I have been on what we call reverse cycle. On an average day I wake up around 5:00pm and I don't go to bed until about 10:00am so the heat has been non-existent for the most part. We are living in big bays with about 35 other guys and you can only imagine the smell of a place like that. Right now we are trying to catch a rat that lives in the bay with us, now this is no ordinary rat. Ralph, otherwise known as the rat has been perused by all of us at least once, but this rat is quick and is as big as a a small sack of cooking rice which is not that small at all. we are now going to use a pistol next time we see him but who knows when that will be. I hope all is well and that everyone is happy, take care and I will write again real soon, maybe some pics next time.
-brian

To give some background on the pictures @ the bottom of the page, they were all from the 30 day operation i went on. The first one is my company comander and I sitting on the gator "smoked" from an all night mission the first night. We air assaulted onto the objective and i was the lucky one to drive the gator off the bird not knowing what we were driving into, it all worked out. The next pic is of two chickens that we caught, I don't know how Rocky caught chickens in the movie but its not easy. When that chicken and I made eye contact she knew something was afoote and she had to outwit a hungry staff sergant. That was the worst chicken I have ever eaten, but we all acted like it was a gourmet meal, hell .... it was compaired to another MRE. The next photo was taken just after daybreak on the combat outpost providing indirect fire support for the platoon that was out. When you're as tired as I was all you can do is smile.
The last pic is me and my gun crew minus a few you can see how happy we are, this was after chasing the chicken for half an hour. Well hope you all enjoy and be safe, you know I will
-Brian