With deployment to Iraq not being too far away (dates will be withheld for obvious security reasons), my company the 1171st Transportation completed the state SRP (Soldier Readiness Program). I completed a pre-SRP in April and wasn't really thrilled to endure another ordeal. Being that our company strength is at about 200 personnel; that makes for a lot of people going through the many stations. The company has grown in strength recently with many command directed people, with many of them young privates.
Being this is my 3rd combat deployment, I am finding SRP to be more difficult each time. More family information is needed, not like it was in 1990 when I was single. Required information is for the files, finance and life insurance. One aspect that is making it more difficult is medical. I am 42 today, while in 1990, I was 23 years old with no medical problems and weighing around 135 pounds. Currently, my weight hovers around 185, a no-running profile for a knee problem, back pain from a wreck in 2002. Fallen arches on my feet are no benefit either. The medics did point out that I need to get my cholesterol down or I am a heart attack waiting to happen.
I managed to complete SRP in one day, knocking out the quick stations and taking advantage of long stations when lines were shorter. Another advantage is that not being a smoker, I don't need the smoke breaks.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
First Phase Pre-Deployment Training 2009
The training that has been conducted for deployment to Iraq is much different than what occurred in 1990/1991 for me in preparation for Operation Desert Shield/Storm and in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 1990 and later in 2003, I received a call to report to the armory and within a few days, we ended up at Ft. Campbell to train for several weeks. For Desert Storm, training took place from November 1990 to January 1991 and later in 2003, we trained from January into April. This time, much of our training is being conducted closer to home either at the Armory (Dresden or Tiptonville) and at the Milan Training Center.
Three weeks of training was recently completed where a number of tasks were performed and tested during battle drills during the last week. Generally, the tasks were centered around infantry skills to include 3 & 5 second rushes, urban warfare, dismounted operations and some mounted operations. Tactics were practiced to deal with direct and indirect artillery fire, ambush, suicide bombers and IED's. There were also classes on combat lifesavor, dealing with chemical/nuclear/radiation/biological threats.
The training did take a toll on me and was difficult. In 1991, I was 22 years old, 36 years old in 2003 and now running around in a field with body armor at age 42 is not as fun as it once was. I do keep in mind that I am at the same age as Elvis Presley when he passed away.
I did attempt to make light of the situation when I could, in that after watching the movie American Pie, I would refer to Guard Camp at "Band Camp".
Being older than many in my unit, I was fortunate to pick a bay in the barracks that was much quieter than the others and some in the bay called our bay 'the ranch', in which I re-dubbed the term and called it the Mustang Ranch; again to make light of the situation.
Three weeks of training was recently completed where a number of tasks were performed and tested during battle drills during the last week. Generally, the tasks were centered around infantry skills to include 3 & 5 second rushes, urban warfare, dismounted operations and some mounted operations. Tactics were practiced to deal with direct and indirect artillery fire, ambush, suicide bombers and IED's. There were also classes on combat lifesavor, dealing with chemical/nuclear/radiation/biological threats.
The training did take a toll on me and was difficult. In 1991, I was 22 years old, 36 years old in 2003 and now running around in a field with body armor at age 42 is not as fun as it once was. I do keep in mind that I am at the same age as Elvis Presley when he passed away.
I did attempt to make light of the situation when I could, in that after watching the movie American Pie, I would refer to Guard Camp at "Band Camp".
Being older than many in my unit, I was fortunate to pick a bay in the barracks that was much quieter than the others and some in the bay called our bay 'the ranch', in which I re-dubbed the term and called it the Mustang Ranch; again to make light of the situation.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Fall Creek Falls State Park
Working in the Juvenile Justice field of DCS, I have the opportunity to attend a few Juvenile Justice Retreats. Two of those retreats were held at Fall Creek Falls State Park located in East Tennessee and regard this park to be one of my favorites. On my two trips I did manage to conduct some geocaching after seminars. My first trip I was unable to find a 4-star terrain cache due to the poor reception of my Garmin Legend. I did manage to find the virtual Smoke Signals. The memory I have of that visit was dealing with a score of dogs at the bottom of the fire tower and climbing to the top of the tower with the wind whipping around.
My second trip to the park, again I attended seminars and the classes lasted much longer in the day and prevented me from venturing far from the park. During lunch, I transported two other DCS workers to the Fall Creek Falls Earthcache and viewed the waterfall. I obtained information for the earthcache and took a photo.
There was one cache about a quarter mile from the inn called Yogi Bear & Boo Boo's Stash Cache along a walking trail around the lake. While the GPS noted the cache was well under a 1/2 mile, the walk was much longer and due to long classes, I hunted this cache at night. I found the cache with aid of a flashlight and returned after reseting the odometer on the GPS. I returned with a Red Jeep Travel Bug that I showed to some DCS workers interested in the GPS game. One worker was particularly interested and wanted to go find the cache. Since I check the distance the night before, I told the worker that the walk would be .75 of a mile. I had known this worker since the days I transported students to the Memphis Group Home and used to be in the Marine Corps and US Army as an Armored Cavalry Scout. We left the starting pointed and walked around the lake. There was no moon and not much light at all. We chatted much of the way and when I realized we were getting close to the place we would leave the paved trail, he abruptly stopped and said "we are here". I asked what his GPS told him, he replied he was unable to see the GPS due to the night conditions and but knew that we walked exactly .75 of a mile. I checked my GPS and he was correct. We found the cache and headed back to the inn. Being that he was a Scout in the Armored Cavalry, he knew how to tell distance without the aid of electronics and counting steps. I did find that amazing.
My second trip to the park, again I attended seminars and the classes lasted much longer in the day and prevented me from venturing far from the park. During lunch, I transported two other DCS workers to the Fall Creek Falls Earthcache and viewed the waterfall. I obtained information for the earthcache and took a photo.
There was one cache about a quarter mile from the inn called Yogi Bear & Boo Boo's Stash Cache along a walking trail around the lake. While the GPS noted the cache was well under a 1/2 mile, the walk was much longer and due to long classes, I hunted this cache at night. I found the cache with aid of a flashlight and returned after reseting the odometer on the GPS. I returned with a Red Jeep Travel Bug that I showed to some DCS workers interested in the GPS game. One worker was particularly interested and wanted to go find the cache. Since I check the distance the night before, I told the worker that the walk would be .75 of a mile. I had known this worker since the days I transported students to the Memphis Group Home and used to be in the Marine Corps and US Army as an Armored Cavalry Scout. We left the starting pointed and walked around the lake. There was no moon and not much light at all. We chatted much of the way and when I realized we were getting close to the place we would leave the paved trail, he abruptly stopped and said "we are here". I asked what his GPS told him, he replied he was unable to see the GPS due to the night conditions and but knew that we walked exactly .75 of a mile. I checked my GPS and he was correct. We found the cache and headed back to the inn. Being that he was a Scout in the Armored Cavalry, he knew how to tell distance without the aid of electronics and counting steps. I did find that amazing.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Ghost River
Last year I was determined to take geocaching to the next level and work on caches that require special equipment. I tried out an inflatable kayak and succeeded finding once cache with the craft but was not overly impressed with the craft thought about a different approach. This year using gift cards, military discount and tax return, I purchased a 9-foot plastic kayak from Gander Mountain in Jackson, TN. The kayak had it's maiden voyage at Garrett Lake in Weakley County, TN and used it for caching at Lake Graham in Jackson, TN and Kentucky Lake. I had planned to attend the Ghost River Geocaching event on May 2 of this year but was cancelled due to severe weather. The Ghost River is a trail on the Wolf River.
Chimps8mybaby took the bull by the horns and set up a Ghost River cache run. He selected July 3rd to be the date. I set aside that date on the calender. The day prior, pcsenn and I were talking about caching and told him of the Ghost River trip. After some planning, he called me back and finalized transportation plans and that he would share a canoe with Kailuasquid. Pcsenn and I met at McDonald's in Martin, TN just after 5 am and headed towards La Grange, TN to be at the boat ramp at 8 am. We arrived on time and were also joined by chimpsm8.
We put our boats in the water at about 8:45 am and headed west, down stream. Initially, the river calm and no major issues. We paddled a long team on the river admiring the view and getting more experience with my kayak. Chimps8mybaby is far more experienced on the kayak and gave me some pointers. The first cache, Nerodia Sipedon was over 3 miles from the starting location and took some time to get there and would prove to be the most difficult. Having topo maps on my Garmin 60csx and waypoints for channel entrances didn't seem to help. We were unable to find the correct channel to this cache and ended up parking the boats about 360 feet away. The just over 100 yards of overland travel was very difficult dealing with cypress stumps, mud knee high and a lot of water. After much effort and determination, Kailuasquid found an easier route and we waded through swamp water nearly waist high and mud to find the cache.
We moved on along the trail onto Tiger Celebrates and found it with no trouble. At this point, we gathered the boats together for a food and water break. I am thankful we took a break. Chimps8mybaby informed us the trail was going to get rough and will get the feeling of a pinball. We went on downstream and found the Ghost River trail and thought "What have I got myself into?". The entrance was just enough to get a canoe through and we went through a maze of Cypress tress and we constantly banged the trees and limbs. All the time I kept a look out for the water moccasin. We banged around and finally got out into a little more open water and found Legend of Ghost River Howler. I had been in the middle of the pack and saw the canoe with pcsenn and Kailuasquid move away from the cache and appeared to look of the correct channel. Seeing on my GPS the cache was less than 300 feet away, I took a bee-line towards the cache and found it. While signing the log, the rest of the armada showed up.
This being our last cache, I slowed my pace and paddled onto the end of the trail where we gathered to talk about the trip. This has been one of the best adventures I have had geocaching.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Nat's Knob
On Novemeber 11, 2005, I was off from work and cleared the geocaches in Benton County. My favorite was Nat's Knob which is located in Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park located on the west bank of the Tennessee River. The park is named for the famous Confederate Cavalry general and the Battle of Johnsonville. I consider this cache one of the better caches in West Tennessee and it's low number of finds, one of the forgotten.
I had visited the park many years ago while in the Boy Scouts and hiked the trails. My best recollection was hiking a few miles before my trip to Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I visited the park again when I covered the county for Department of Children's Services.
Parking at the bottom of the hill, I hiked up to the cache, passing the sign, "Highest Point in West Tennessee" and found the cache. Later, I went to the museum to rest and drink some water. It was November, but a somewhat warm day. The staff noticed my hiking gear and we got into the discussion of geocaching, where I left them a printout of the cache page.
I had visited the park many years ago while in the Boy Scouts and hiked the trails. My best recollection was hiking a few miles before my trip to Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I visited the park again when I covered the county for Department of Children's Services.
Parking at the bottom of the hill, I hiked up to the cache, passing the sign, "Highest Point in West Tennessee" and found the cache. Later, I went to the museum to rest and drink some water. It was November, but a somewhat warm day. The staff noticed my hiking gear and we got into the discussion of geocaching, where I left them a printout of the cache page.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Wingo Trail
When I first began geocaching in 2005, there were only a handful of geocaches around and debated if I wanted to continue the game. I found a cache that interested and that was The Cardinal Trail which was at an end of a 1.5 mile rails to trails in Wingo, Kentucky. On April 15, 2005, I loaded the truck with my girl's bicycles and along with my two daughters, we hiked the paved trail. On the way, we had second thoughts about pursuing the cache since we encountered teenagers returning from the creek soaking wet with odd conversations. We ignored them and went on about our business besides, this was minnie mouse's first long bike ride and she was enjoying the early afternoon bike ride. We found the cache and stayed a bit at the end of the trail observing the surroundings.
Later that cache became disabled and later archived. After being archived, I wasted little time and returned to the Wingo Trail and set out a power-trail of cache to include Cardinal Trail-Revisited. The trail has seen a lot of activity since placing the caches. Other caches have also been placed on the trail. I returned on New Year's Day of 2009 to find the new caches, Field Trip, The Lighthouse, Butterfly Ridge, Are you serious....A Nano in the woods???? and Gazebo on the Wingo Rails to Trails II . It does appear that Influence Waterfowl Calls is having the same problem with the Gazebo cache being muggled as I did with mine. I did hope he would have better luck than I.
This past Sunday, I visited the trail once again to work on cache maintenance and saw the trail was cleaned up after the massive ice storm.
Later that cache became disabled and later archived. After being archived, I wasted little time and returned to the Wingo Trail and set out a power-trail of cache to include Cardinal Trail-Revisited. The trail has seen a lot of activity since placing the caches. Other caches have also been placed on the trail. I returned on New Year's Day of 2009 to find the new caches, Field Trip, The Lighthouse, Butterfly Ridge, Are you serious....A Nano in the woods???? and Gazebo on the Wingo Rails to Trails II . It does appear that Influence Waterfowl Calls is having the same problem with the Gazebo cache being muggled as I did with mine. I did hope he would have better luck than I.
This past Sunday, I visited the trail once again to work on cache maintenance and saw the trail was cleaned up after the massive ice storm.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
GeoWoodstock 7: Bell Buckle, TN
Recently attended GeoWoodstock 7 in Bell Buckle, TN and the experience was far different than any event I have attended. The weekend began with a Meet & Greet in Mufreesboro. Well over 500 cachers were in attendance and I enjoyed the fellowship and put faces to names, including a couple from St. Louis, MO who made a pass through my area a couple of years back. After the event, we retired to dinner at Cracker Barrell and the motel.
The next morning I was excited to be going to my first GeoWoodstock. The pattern of the day would be set early with the first cache find just outside the motel when a cacher from Arizona hunted the cache with us. Later, when we got off the exit for Bell Buckle, we stopped at Road to GeoWoodstock 7, a large amount of people were at the cache and no need to hunt the cache since we we walked up, the log was being passed around. We arrived at Bell Buckle to find small quiet Middle Tennessee town coming alive with outsiders carrying handheld Global Positioning Receivers. Unlike muggle events where directions are printed out, we had coordinates to destinations. We found the town center and attended the opening ceremony with First Lady of Bell Buckle thanking geocachers for their attendance. We walked around the numerous vendors and ended up buying many products to include nifty cache containers. The vendor plaza gave me an opportunity to release several wheresgeorge bills and have had hits in Delaware and Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.
We spoke to many more cachers over the day including many cachers from West Tennessee and West Kentucky, whom I knew beforehand. The music was nice and lunch was great. From what I have observed from Internet sources approximately 5,000 cachers from 32 countries were in attendance.
All the geocaches in the surrounding area were also found. We walked up on Louisville & Nashville 3492 cache log being passed around. I did find my first Whereigo cache seeing others retrieve the cache and didn't have it on my Garmin. Would not have mattered anyway, since I need a Garmin Colorado or Oregon GPS to find a Whereigo cache. Later, I walked up the hill to Hazel Cemetery to find a church group from Tullahoma touring the cemetery. I noticed they were at a marker for a US sailor killed in action in the Battle of Midway while serving on the USS Yorktown. Knowing that my regional adminstrator's father served on the aircraft carrier and fought in the battle, I took a picture of the marker for the sailor. Several of the muggle crowd asked about the GeoWoodstock and geocaching. I explained the game and showed them my GPS. Walked onto the cache location to meet a cachers from Long Beach, California. Another cache where the log was being passed around. We talked a bit while walking back to town.
Later in the afternoon, we decided to leave Bell Buckle and travelled to Wartrace, TN. We looked at the town and hunted some of the caches. Locals from the town also asked us about the traffic and all the out of state license plates. We explained the game and what was going on in Bell Buckle. We found the caches with a group of cachers from Utah. We drove onto to Mufreesboro and continued caching. Again, we ran into more cachers, this time from Hawaii and West Virginia. Our caching ended for the day at Midnight Coin Madness Event which was just a quarter mile from our motel. We are not much into the geocoins, but I did enjoy the fellowship.
We left Mufreesboro the following day picking up two park and grabs and headed home.
The next morning I was excited to be going to my first GeoWoodstock. The pattern of the day would be set early with the first cache find just outside the motel when a cacher from Arizona hunted the cache with us. Later, when we got off the exit for Bell Buckle, we stopped at Road to GeoWoodstock 7, a large amount of people were at the cache and no need to hunt the cache since we we walked up, the log was being passed around. We arrived at Bell Buckle to find small quiet Middle Tennessee town coming alive with outsiders carrying handheld Global Positioning Receivers. Unlike muggle events where directions are printed out, we had coordinates to destinations. We found the town center and attended the opening ceremony with First Lady of Bell Buckle thanking geocachers for their attendance. We walked around the numerous vendors and ended up buying many products to include nifty cache containers. The vendor plaza gave me an opportunity to release several wheresgeorge bills and have had hits in Delaware and Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.
We spoke to many more cachers over the day including many cachers from West Tennessee and West Kentucky, whom I knew beforehand. The music was nice and lunch was great. From what I have observed from Internet sources approximately 5,000 cachers from 32 countries were in attendance.
All the geocaches in the surrounding area were also found. We walked up on Louisville & Nashville 3492 cache log being passed around. I did find my first Whereigo cache seeing others retrieve the cache and didn't have it on my Garmin. Would not have mattered anyway, since I need a Garmin Colorado or Oregon GPS to find a Whereigo cache. Later, I walked up the hill to Hazel Cemetery to find a church group from Tullahoma touring the cemetery. I noticed they were at a marker for a US sailor killed in action in the Battle of Midway while serving on the USS Yorktown. Knowing that my regional adminstrator's father served on the aircraft carrier and fought in the battle, I took a picture of the marker for the sailor. Several of the muggle crowd asked about the GeoWoodstock and geocaching. I explained the game and showed them my GPS. Walked onto the cache location to meet a cachers from Long Beach, California. Another cache where the log was being passed around. We talked a bit while walking back to town.
Later in the afternoon, we decided to leave Bell Buckle and travelled to Wartrace, TN. We looked at the town and hunted some of the caches. Locals from the town also asked us about the traffic and all the out of state license plates. We explained the game and what was going on in Bell Buckle. We found the caches with a group of cachers from Utah. We drove onto to Mufreesboro and continued caching. Again, we ran into more cachers, this time from Hawaii and West Virginia. Our caching ended for the day at Midnight Coin Madness Event which was just a quarter mile from our motel. We are not much into the geocoins, but I did enjoy the fellowship.
We left Mufreesboro the following day picking up two park and grabs and headed home.
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