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Can I get a witness?

Today I had the pleasure of attending the Gospel service here on FOB Diamondback. This was definitely a time of refreshing. In the midst of the chaos and confusion that constantly surrounds us, about 100 brothers and sisters set aside two hours to come together to lift up the name of Jesus. This is just one of the many services offered throughout the week on FOB Diamondback and next door at FOB Marez.

The Spirit moved throughout the entire service. Today, Brother Alvis Hamilton taught from Luke 15, the Prodigal Son. In verse 17, it starts (NKJV) “But when he came to himself…”. The question he asked was “Where will you be when you come to yourself”? Where ever that happens to be, Jesus will be standing there waiting and knocking.

There was time for what Mugs and I fondly call “Share His Love”. This is when everyone walks around during the service greeting one another. This being a good charismatic service, the standard greeting is a hug. I turned to the person on my left, and he immediately responded by giving me a hug. From his expression, I think this 2nd Lieutenant was a little shocked and embarrassed when he realized he just hugged a Lieutenant Colonel. He was even more thrilled at the end of the service when we got to hold hands with our neighbors.

In Australia, they drive on the left hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car. You can bring your American car with you to use in Australia, but we decided against it. I knew the difficulty I would face trying to drive on the left side of the road, and concluded it was safer for all Australians if I wasn’t driving from the wrong side of the car. Now that I am back in America, I still periodically find myself on the left side of the road especially in parking lots (car parks). I also find myself walking down the left side of the aisle in the grocery store (shop). Suddenly, I will see someone coming directly at me and am jolted into remembering that now I am supposed to be on the right. Upon arrival back in America, we had to purchase a new vehicle. We bought a van and they gave us a nice manual explaining all of its features. I, of course, did not read it. Throughout the last week, I had been extremely irritated that my dash board lights weren’t working. I would turn my headlights on and the dash board would go completely dark. Last night, I was driving home from Parent night at the school trying to estimate my speed because there was no lighting on the odometer. I was thinking, “Does this feel like 45mph?” “If I slow down, will I somehow recognize 35mph?” “I can’t believe I buy a brand new car and the stupid thing doesn’t work right!” (In our family, stupid is a bad word. No one is allowed to say it. I tell my kids all the time that no one is stupid, everyone has the ability to learn. Someone may be ignorant, but they are not stupid. If you say stupid, you get a spoon full of vinegar. So, I never say stupid out loud, but sometimes I think it. My Mom believes it is o.k. to call someone a bad name as long as you say it under your breath. She told me it was o.k. to call Dale a jerk when I am mad at him as long as he doesn’t hear me.) The driving speed estimation requirement had finally gotten on my nerves enough that I called the service department to schedule maintenance. I told the guy what was wrong with the car and he asked me if my dashboard dimmer switch was turned all the way to the left. “I have a dashboard dimmer switch?”, I replied. He explained to me that the knob that sets your trip odometer can be turned to dim your dashboard lights. Ezekiel must have turned it all the way to the left one day when he was pretending to drive while we were waiting in the school pickup line. I then concluded that maybe the van isn’t the only thing with a dimmer switch.

I made a few updates to the comments form today. Hopefully I haven’t broken anything!       

1. Some of you will be happy to see that I’ve embedded support for emoticons (smilies) directly in the comments form. I’m not sure why I did this other than I thought Abby might like it! When you click on the smiley to insert it, you will see the text name for the smiley in the editor. This will be converted to the actual smiley face when you submit your comment.
2. I’ve also added an option to subscribe to the comments for a post. directly beneath the comments form, you’ll see a box the check if you want to receive an email notifying you when new comments appear for that post. But to enable that, you have to submit a comment!
3. If you want to receive an email whenever there is a new post or comment (for any post), you can register to manrymission.com using the register option in the Meta portion of the sidebar on the right.
4. Finally, I’ve completely blocked a specific IP address range. We’ve had two instances of a well known spammer sending spam comments to the blog. I’ve caught both instances and deleted them. If for some reason you receive a blocked URL message when you try to post a comment, just send me an email message using the link in the sidebar.

This is my first post in a new category - Must Have Deployment Gear.  No matter what Mugs may say, I don’t collect a lot of personal field gear. I will admit to possessing an astounding array of boots and gloves, but if your hands or feet are uncomfortable, you’ll be miserable the whole time you’re in the field! Anyway, I do believe that the right tool can make all the difference.

Someone recently sent me a collection of comics from Bob on the FOB. One of the best is titled Geardo. According to Bob on the FOB, a Geardo is “someone who spends at least 50% of each paycheck (before taxes) on the latest & greatest gear, just to have the latest and greatest gear, regardless of whether or not that gear will actually help the wearer perform his/her duties.” See Geardo and other comics at http://www.bobonthefob.com/pastbob.html.

The first item in my Must Have Deployment Gear list is the spork. For my birthday this year, Mugs and the kids bought me various small pieces of deployment gear. My spork is one of those items.

This awesome spork is from a company called Light My Fire.  If you would like to purchase your very own Light My Fire spork, you can find it online at Campmor.

When I finished my run tonight, I stretched for 10 minutes. Make sure you tell Lay Fong that I’m still stretching; I don’t want to get in trouble again. Anyway, after showering, I used my spork to eat a bowl of Smart Start cereal for dinner. I know in my last post I heaped praises on the DFAC, and now I’m writing about eating cereal for dinner in my hooch. Technically, it was DFAC food, since I brought the cereal and milk from the DFAC. But that’s not the point of this post. This was all made possible by the spork. I carry the spork in one of the cargo pockets on my ACUs and am ready to eat at a moments notice!

While Mugs and the kids are sitting around eating bowls of chocolate frosted sugar bombs cereal while watching the Food Network, I’m dining on the fine cuisine of the FOB Diamondback DFAC. The Army DFAC is typically referred to as the Mess Hall for very valid reasons. On a normal Army installation, soldiers that live in the barracks are allowed to eat in the Mess Hall for free. Even with this authorization, most soldiers choose to eat off post as often as possible. There is always one person in the crowd that enjoys the Mess Hall. One such individual is Chris Coleman, a friend of ours from when we were stationed in Germany. He and Mugs were Platoon Leaders in the same company when we were Lieutenants. Once when we were on the subject of food, Chris commented that he loved eating at Waffle House. Seeing the looks of shock on our faces, he went on to explain that he preferred Waffle House because “It’s the quantity of food that matters, not the quality.” Hopefully that helps you put his enjoyment of the Mess Hall in perspective.

Anyway, the DFAC here in Mosul does not deserve the Mess Hall moniker. This is the most impressive DFAC I have ever seen. Due to OPSEC, I am unable to post any pictures of this magnificent structure. You may recall the explosion in a DFAC in Iraq around Christmas in 2004. The blast killed 22 soldiers and wounded 66 others. That occurred here in Mosul on FOB Marez, right across the road from FOB Diamondback. Because many soldiers congregate at DFACs, these facilities are considered high-value targets. So we take every possible measure to ensure the safety of our soldiers in the DFAC. I will not discuss anything here that violates or compromises OPSEC.

In the FOB Diamondback DFAC, the options are endless. At every meal the mainline has a couple of options for the main dish as well as several alternatives for side dishes. For example, at breakfast this morning, from the mainline, I got bacon, hashbrowns, and a biscuit with creamed beef gravy. While at lunch, I had General Tso’s chicken over rice, also from the mainline. But if the pickings on the mainline are not to your liking, other choices abound throughout the facility. In the morning, when I have a little more time on my hands, I wander over to the omelet bar and have a made-to-order omelet. For the fast food junkies, burgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings, and even cheese sauce are in abundance. Some days it’s even possible to get jalapeño hot poppers.

But wait, that’s not all. If you call in the next 5 minutes, I’ll also throw in the Ginsu knives!

I’m running out of room and haven’t even mentioned the taco bar, pasta bar, potato bar, soup bar, salad bar. Have I left out any other possible bars? I guess the only bar not in this DFAC is the kind of bar not authorized for US troops in Iraq. But at least there’s Coors non-alcoholic beer in every cooler in the DFAC. I laugh every time I see someone with their near beer.