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On Saturday, Josiah participated in the Southeast Region ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) spelling bee in Atlanta Georgia. There were 70 spellers from the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The bee was held in a banquet hall. As we were sitting and waiting, Josiah commented, “I’m not sure what the disco ball is for.” Lighting a disco ball during a spelling bee would certainly add some lightheartedness to what is a tense occasion. I think I’ll recommend it for next year. I then explained to him that a banquet hall is more commonly used for wedding receptions and pointed out the wood dance floor and stage. I showed Josiah the program that declared the winner would receive $125. At which point he said, “I should have studied more.” Kids and parents were in all levels of spirit and dress. One boy wore a suit, some wore school uniforms, most were nicely dressed, but a few were in jeans or flip flops. Watching the other students and their families provided me with much entertainment. The Grandma in front of me was so nervous for her two grandchildren, I wanted to pat her on the back. I was certain that one speller was going to faint up there and another rubbed her hands in anxiety throughout. One middle school boy was completely disinterested and read a book when it was not his turn. The children were randomly assigned a number and Josiah was blessed to receive a higher number which proved helpful later on. The first round was a practice round and Josiah spelled the word - ACCOUNT. If you misspell in the practice round, you are not out. Round 1 then started and I had great empathy for the kid who was assigned #1. He looked like an 8th grader and had been to the regional bee the year before. For his word, he got budgie (a small Australian parrot). Now all you Aussies out there would think it impossible for a kid not to know how to spell budgie, but while most Australian words end in ie, most American words end in y. Budgie was on the 5th grade difficult list which I am quite certain this 8th grader did not think he needed to study. He had never heard the word before and spelled it wrong. I felt awful for him and began hoping that Josiah could at least get through the first round. For round 1, Josiah spelled OPERETTA. Round 2 provided his first near miss. Josiah spelled CALLUS. He said CAL and then paused and thought about whether or not it had 2 L’s in it. I had my head in my hands, mentally sending him L’s in my mind. He got it right. In round 3, Josiah spelled ONOMATOPOEIA. When the judge said the word, the audience groaned, thinking Josiah finished. However, thanks to Josiah’s English teacher who made him write a line of a poem in onomatopoeia, the word was familiar to him. In round 4, Josiah spelled COALESCE. In round 5, he spelled SOLILOQUY. At the start of round 6, there were 17 spellers left. In all the previous rounds, the judge had used words from a study list provided to the students. In round 6, she began to give them words not on their study list. In round 6, Josiah spelled COMPREHENSIBLE. In round 7, there were 7 spellers left. Here is where Josiah’s higher number proved beneficial. The three students ahead of him spelled their words incorrectly. Therefore, the remaining 4 students were automatically the 4 chosen to go to the National competition in DC even though at that moment, they had not spelled any more words right than the others. At the start of the competition, the judge told the students that the spelling bee was not fair. It was the luck of the draw. At that moment I realized what she meant. Several students were given words I had never heard before and knew that if Josiah had gotten those words, he would have been eliminated. In round 7, Josiah spelled ECOSPHERE. By round 8, only Josiah and one middle school girl were left. In order to win, he had to spell 2 words correctly in a row. He spelled PATINA and misspelled VENTRICAL (correct spelling: ventricle). The girl then misspelled. On his next attempt, he misspelled GENIE (correct spelling: genii) When the judge spoke the sentence, Josiah was supposed to understand that she wanted the plural form. She pronounced it just like genie and I couldn’t understand how he had gotten it wrong. I was his arbitrator and had the right to approach the table when I thought something unfair had occurred. To Josiah’s mortification, I approached the table and asked the judge for the proper spelling. When the spell off for the final two students began, she had stopped giving them the correct spelling for the words they missed. She informed me it was genii. I sat down. (I do believe that she pronounced it wrong and should have made it sound like gean-ee-i) The girl missed her word and Josiah spelled PERPETUITY. He then misspelled FEDUCIARY (correct spelling: fiduciary) The girl received two words that Josiah was sure she could spell and he thought that he had lost, but she misspelled succumbed. Josiah then spelled METTLESOME and UNTRAMMELED to win. I jumped out of my seat and gave him a high 5 and shook his opponents hand. When I turned around, I discovered that everyone else was still sitting and now looking at me. My only excuse is too many days watching the families of game show contestant winners run up on stage. Josiah won a plaque and $125. He will now participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC on May 10th. So, he is not yet untrammeled from studying his word list.

Mugs reminded me last night that I’ve neglected to share with everyone the details of my travel from Kuwait to Iraq. In a previous post, I mentioned spending some time in Ali Al Salem in Kuwait. Before I arrived in Kuwait, I didn’t know how much time I would spend there before moving on to Iraq. Turns out, I spent less than 24 hours in Kuwait. I arrived at AAS at 0400, slept until lunch, explored the tent city for half a day, then flew out to Iraq at 0100 the next morning.

The military takes every appropriate action to protect its assets (personnel and equipment) from losses due to hostile actions. The majority of flights in and around Iraq take place in the middle of the night to avoid terrorist activity. Additionally, the flights are flown in such a manner so that the aircraft is not greatly exposed to enemy fires. As mentioned in the title, I flew on a C-130. This is the workhorse for the Air Force’s tactical airlift mission. The seating accommodations are cargo nets running along the sides and the middle of the plane. The windows are blacked-out, and of course, there are no in-flight meals or entertainment! Needless to say, it’s not a very comfortable ride. Most legs (non-Airborne qualified personnel) out there question why people want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. The answer is that it’s so uncomfortable in the airplane that after a couple of hours, you’ll do anything to get out.

Our flight from AAS this morning included a quick stop in Balad before continuing on to Mosul. It was easy to tell when we began our approach to Balad because it felt like the pilot pushed the nose of the aircraft down as sharply as he could without crashing. Then just for fun, he threw in numerous hard bank turns in either direction. After a couple minutes of this, I started to feel a little queasy and broke out in a cold sweat. Sitting a couple people away from me was an airman who was going on to Q-West, the stop after Mosul. At this time, he pulled an air-sickness bag from his pocket and proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach into the bag. Fortunately for me, I felt the wheels touch down about a minute later. The total flight time to Balad was a little over one hour. After touching down, the crew opened the tailgate for those stopping in Balad to unload. The pilot kept the engines running so that we could take off as soon as possible.

The take-off from Balad was just as fun as the landing. Luckily, I was a little more prepared for it this time. However, I was unable to locate an air-sickness bag for myself, so I practiced a lot of deep breathing exercises! The 20 minute flight to Mosul was over too quickly when we began our descent. My stomach did not have enough time to recover from all of the earlier trauma. Once again, the airman utilized his personal air-sickness bag, while I began my deep breathing exercises. As before, I broke out in a cold sweat. It seemed that the descent into Mosul took much longer and was much more dramatic than the landing in Balad, but I hung on and barely made it again.

I stumbled off the tailgate with the 3 other individuals stopping in Mosul. Once inside the military terminal, I discovered that there was no one waiting for me. When I called the office number, it was very evident that I had woken Master Sergeant (MSG) Kaseman up from a deep sleep. MSG Kaseman is the NCOIC of the MAO. When I told him I was sitting at the airfield waiting to be picked up, he commented that they weren’t expecting me for a couple more days. Gotta love Army planning!

So there you have it. I can’t even look at those rides at the fair that spin around without getting sick!