Retirement

After 25 years of service, I retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard.  Upon completion of my last deployment from Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn, I took my medical conditions to the Veteran's Administration.  22 months after filing for disability, I was awarded 80% disability.  With the high percentage; it was advised by the full time staff that it would only be a matter of time before I would be discharged from the Guard and in the mean time, I would not receive drill pay or retirement points. After my conversation, I prepared and submitted my request for retirement.

My military career began with the US Navy at the naval station at Great Lakes, IL with basic training.  Later, I attended "A" School in NAS Millington, TN and studied on being a technician as Aviation Support Equipment Electrician.  During that school, I was awarded orders to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico.  Upon completion of the "A" school, I attended "C" schools at NAS Jacksonville, FL.  My time in Florida was probably the most fun period of my military career.  Visited beaches in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, and visited Magic Kingdom and EPCOT center.

Served the next 3 years in Puerto Rico within the Aircraft Immediate Maintenance Department. My work was not very enjoyable, at times working 18 hour shifts under a supervisor whom had no leadership ability who obtained the position due to extortion and blackmail.  I did enjoy the island, visited San Juan several times, a rain forest and swam the beaches.  I also made two trips to the US Virgin Islands, which were only 40 miles away.

Discharged from the US Navy, I joined the 1174th Transportation Company of the Tennessee Army National Guard while attending the University of Tennessee at Martin.  In 1990, my company was ordered to active duty and we deployed to Saudi Arabia to support Operation Desert Storm.  During that campaign, I was assigned to the wrecker and completed dozens of missions retrieving non-operable equipment.  Experienced the Highway of Death, bombing of Iraqi positions and burning oil fields.  Returned home later in 1990, completed my enlistment and left the Guard in 1992.

Re-joined the military in 1995 with the 498th Military Police Company in Murray, KY.  Work in that field was enjoyable with trips to the prison at Eddyville, KY, Kentucky Derby, concerts, Fort Clayton, Panama and Ecuador.  After about 4 years with the MP's, I transferred back to the 1174th in Tennessee.

In 2003, my unit was once again mobilized for war in Iraq.  We deployed to Kuwait and later moved to southern Iraq.  We hauled fuel to Baghdad and other places in Iraq.  We came under fire several times resulting in one KIA (SGT Roger Rowe) and one WIA (SGT Jackson, who was awarded the Purple Heart).  We came home at the end of 2003 and I remained in the Guard.  I transferred to the 1175th Transportation Company in 2006 for about 6 months and obtained the rank of Staff SGT (E-6).  Returned to Dresden that had become the 1171st Transportation Company.  The old trucks were gone and we drove newer Freightliner trucks with air ride seats and air ride cabs.  More comfortable trucks along with air conditioning would make haul missions more pleasant.

In 2009, the 1171st mobilized for Operation Iraqi Freedom that would become Operation New Dawn.  I stayed in Kuwait most of the time and did volunteer to go on one mission to Iraq.  Many of our missions were fired upon; and thankfully with armored trucks there were no injuries or deaths.

In November 2012, I retired after 25 years with nearly 4,000 retirement points.  In my career, I have deployed, visited or transitioned at:  Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Panama and Ecuador.  Within the United States, I visited Louisiana, California and Nevada.

Hydrology series

Pcsenn contacted me and wanted me to tag along for Hydrology 2, a cache that requires watercraft on Carroll Lake outside of McKenzie, TN.  This cacher has signed the log to this cache when out with the cache owner.  Pcsenn selected this cache for his 5,000th find and most of all to coloring the entire 81 terrain/difficulty grid also known as the Fizzy Grid.  We arrived in early morning and had the lake to ourselves.  We made the paddle without incident, arrived near the cache location.  Since I had already found this cache, I had no intentions of getting out of my kayak to get wet and cold.  Pscenn had some trouble getting out of the kayak but did manage to get out without falling into the water.  He found the cache and celebrated the huge accomplishment and joined the elite group of cachers in this goal.  I figure that less than one percent of all cachers will ever complete the 81 terrain/difficulty grid; even many veteran cachers are not close to completion.

We returned to the boat landing and went out separate ways to rejoin later at an event in Camden.  After the event, we drove to Hydrology 3 and found that cache.  This was a huge challenge in that the water was high due to recent rain and current was swift.  We surveyed the area carefully and placed the kayaks into the water.  With the swift current, making the turns on the bends was difficult.  I was in the lead and following my GPS and I went right under the cache.  Thankfully, a watchful pcsenn saw the cache and I turned around.  After signing the log we made our way upriver back to the landing.  This took everything we had to make the trip despite being only a 1/4 mile.

Park and Walk series in Paris, TN

While on annual training in September, I saw a new series of caches in Paris, TN and kept them under observation.  Pulling up the caches on a map; I was aware of the location in and the long sidewalk.  Unlike most power trails, such as guard rails along 4-lanes or containers along a greenway, this power trail was entirely on a sidewalk.

Minnie Mouse and myself had a Saturday afternoon to play around and after attending a Fall Festival at her school, we went after the power trail.  The first one was not on the same sidewalk and I parked at the nearby Youth Villages office.  Made the grab and moved my vehicle to the Memorial Park in Paris.  The park was busy with a number of activities; we parked and began our hike.  The hike was moderate with two hills to climb, this suited me since I have a physical fitness test upcoming.  All the hides were of the micro nature, but in this environment, that is expected.  We had a good time on the walk and were tired upon the completion.  We did throw the discs around for one hole on the disc golf course and plan to return to this course some day.

Caches found:

Park and Walk V1
Park and Walk V2
Park and Walk V3
Park and Walk V4
Park and Walk V5
Park and Walk V6
Park and Walk V7
Park and Walk V8
Park and Walk V9

Completion of "What's Shaking?" series

With a trip to New Madrid, MO this week, I completed the "What's Shaking?" series.  The series are 8 caches spread out from New Harmony, Indiana to Tunica, Mississippi that bring awareness to the New Madrid Seismic Fault System.

I took leave the much of the day after dental surgery to replace a crown, despite my mouth being numb and later sore, I didn't have any trouble on the cache run.  Except, that when I crossed the Mississippi River at Hickman, KY and tried to travel to New Madrid on back roads.  10 minutes after getting off the ferry the road was closed!  I turned north and keep trying to go West for the Nuvi to re-route.  I ended up in East Praire, MO and finally arrived on the Interstate to New Madrid, that taking 45 minutes.  My time was eroding and made quick work of all the caches I selected, choosing the "What's Shaking?" cache to best last since I knew the type of hide and would not have trouble locating the ammo can.

Arrived at the cache location and said to myself, "What a cool location!".  I took several pictures before finding the cache.  I easily favorited this cache as many cachers have done so too.  By far, the New Madrid cache was the best of the series.

Listed below are the "What's Shaking?" caches:

New Madrid, MO

New Harmony, IN

Reelfoot Lake, TN

Metropolis, IL

Tunica, MS

Hickman, KY

Blytheville, AR

Memphist, TN CUSEC HQ

LBL Bike Trail

Making our first trip to the mid-LBL since the bride repair in Aurora, Kentucky, we (Minnie Mouse and myself) completed some hard core biking on unpaved bike trails on Labor Day 2012.  We had biked the paved trail on the far east end of the LBL running along Highway 68/80.  Our day was difficult with the nearly constant rain and drizzle.  When the sun did come out the humidity went up.

We drove to the Visitor's Center which at the intersection of Highway 68/80 and the Trace.  Minnie Mouse and I walked around to verify the trail head and after discussion with a hiker, we found the trail head.  We went back to the truck, off loaded the bikes, grabbed a bag that contained water and ponchos we headed east along the trail.  The trail was tough with many elevation changes and turns.  Minnie Mouse found out the hard way the difficult terrain by wrecking twice.  After completing all the caches on the east trail, we had lunch at the Visitor's Center and walked to two caches on the west trail.  We ended the caching trip with two  caches on Jenny Ridge.  One of those caches completed a statistic that I have been working for over 2 years, in which I have found a career of finding caches hidden by 1,000 hiders.

We plan to return to the west section of the trail later in the Fall.  We are know armed with more experience and knowledge of the area and terrain.  After discussion with bikers on the trail, we completed the most difficult trail and the west section will be much easier.

Caches found on the trail found today:

LBL Greenway Trail East @ the Rocks

LBL Greenway Trail East - Micro#1

LBL Greenway Trail East - "Seven"

LBL Greenway Trail East - Micro#2

LBL Greenway Trail East - Intersection Micro

LBL Greenway Trail East - My Olympus

LBL Greenway Trail East - Halfway to Olympus

LBL Greenway Trail East - US 68 Overlook

LBL Greenway Trail West @ the Trace

LBL Greenway Trail West - NS Micro

Partnerships

This summer I have participated in two Introduction to Geocaching events.  One at Martin, Geocaching 101 hosted by Pharmd93.  We had good participation despite the constant rain during the day.  We walked/biked 3-4 miles on the greenway on that day.

Yesterday, I hosted Introduction to Geocaching event in Dresden; we had a large turnout of cachers but didn't get much turnout from the community.  We did meet with the park staff and one employee tagged along on the greenway where he found caches.  Overall, most of use hiked about 2.5 miles in near perfect weather.  The Dresden Parks and Recreation staff welcome geocaching and geocachers from all over and are excited that the geocaching community once again will be able to help out on October 20th where a CITO will be held in Dresden.

With the partnerships with area parks, we are often told by city staff "Hide More!".

Cachin' in Mississippi

With a number of recent visits to the VA Hospital in Memphis has allowed me to find caches in Mississippi.  I have been working on a stat to have found caches by 1,000 hiders by the end of this year or before I reach 4,000 finds.  Currently, I have seven to go.

The priority cache for me is What's Shaking?-Tunica, MS; this is a cache of an eight-part series and now I am only one cache find from completion.  While in the area, I also paid visit to Tunica Museum Cache.  Reading the logs I was concerned if I could get to this cache, however, it was an easy find and thankful I grabbed this one.

Another cache I really liked was DeSoto Trail #7- Final Stop.  I appreciate the cache hiders who make the extra effort to place a regular size cache instead of a micro.  In the next several months, I may pay more attention to this series and work on completion of it as well.

Overall, I have enjoyed working the caches in Mississippi.  Roads are newer that in some areas I have normally cache and straighter.  The terrain is also flatter which is better for my knee.