This guy below wanted me to tell you that he won the sexiest man on guard contest.
Today I finally got my promotion. I can finally be called Sgt. Myers, not that it's going to change what my job is, but it is a pretty nice pay raise.
We're down to about 4 months left here so I can finally start counting down the days until I'm home. I'm ready to get back to normal life for a little while and hopefully get back to school.
Just for your information the temperature here now hovers between 110-120 most days making it pretty friggin hot outside. I'm still safe and sound though even with the ridiculous weather.
I have been taking some pictures so that everyone can see what I've been up to these past 7 or 8 months, but I'm going to wait until I get home to post them. I hope everyone is doing great and I'll see you all soon.
This is to let you know that the army runs like a corporation. I've been to so many meetings in the past week that I think I'm about to go crazy.
The good thing is that I'm still alive and the temperature here isn't that bad yet. It's hovering around 105 degrees or so, but I usually get to sleep through the hottest part of the day.
I wish I had more to talk about, but there's not much I have to say about things at the moment. I've been paying attention to the political races as much as I can and all I can say is that it's an interesting race so far. Although I won't reveal who I'm going to vote for in November.
I hope everyone is still doing well back home even with gas prices being as high as they are.
That's all I have for now, peace out.
Ok, here's some more pictures that I've taken lately. That's pretty much what Iraq looks like minus that awesome guy in 2 of the photos.
If you're really wondering how hot it is here, look in the 2nd photo. That salt stain on the back of my pants is from sweat.
Well its time for bed, sorry I don't have much to say, but I've been working all day long and I'm tired now.
Ok, so I've been very busy with missions and planning and working out and all sorts of stuff around here which means that I don't have a lot of time to write anymore. Just know that I am doing well and am really appreciating everything that's being sent to me. I'm really glad that I have such great friends and family who care about me.
Any ways, here's something I've been working on for a bit. It's a customizable tabcontrol created in C#. It basically lets you manipulate tabs to look any way you want.
...not excited?...fine...but I am, ok?
Just wanted to post some screenshots of my newest applications that I'm working on. I'm not going to give any details as to what they are right now, but don't worry they'll be awesome when I actually have time to finish them.
So, I wanted to thank everyone again for all of the care packages that I have received. I have so much food and tea now that I barely have any place to put it(which is awesome). My team members and I thank all of you very much because that food makes a big difference out in the field and back in the tent when we're just chillin.
I was told that some friends at my mom's work pitched in some money for the care packages and I wanted to say thanks for supporting me even though my parents only tell you the nice things about me :p.
But really, thanks again guys, getting a package in the mail makes every day seem a lot nicer.
So here's a few pictures I was able to take. A couple are from our walk in the desert on one mission. One is when a herd of sheep and goats decided to invade our formation and the last picture is me and my team chief after 5 days in the field.
I'm basically in the field all the time these days just walking and talking, doing some infantry stuff. It's good times though.
Sorry guys, I've been retardedly busy lately and haven't been to the computer much. Just wanted to share this with you.
Here's an excerpt from the February 29, 2008 edition of Stars and Stripes:
The Chinook's twin rotors grow louder as the helicopter nears a landing zone near an anonymous Iraqi canal that may or may not have attackers waiting nearby.
This early Thursday morning, infantry troops are crammed in the helicopter with full gear, about a third of them on the floor in order to squeeze in as many as possible into the tube-shaped cargo hold.
"10...9...8..." a crewmember calls out over the intercom as the helicopter drops its last few feet, hitting the field with a thud barely heard over the rotors.
The back ramp drops, and the foot soldiers plod into the pitch-black landscape, all 40 or 50 of them.
Well, I don't know who those guys are, but that sounds like some cool stuff. I'm obviously not doing stuff like that. Never...
Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still doing awesome. Since we've been a little slow on missions lately I've been developing lots of random stuff in my spare time. Soon enough I'm gonna have a new website to try and put up along with some new applications I've developed.
I've also purchased justindmyers.com and I'll be switching over to that as soon as everything is ready. Basically I spend all of my time here either working out, eating, reading, or working on things on my computer. Honestly it sounds just like back home except I'm sort of stuck in Iraq.
Strangely enough, it's really not that bad here, but I'd still rather be home. Only about 9-10 months to go!
Anyways, until next time, take it easy.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing alright. I had my first field expedition and it was interesting to say the least. Maybe I'll give some details another time ;)
Edit:
I finally see what you mean about the text being cut out from my post a few weeks ago. I think it was just a copy and paste mistake i made without realizing it. I would fix it, but I have no idea where my original copy of that post is. To answer your questions though, nothing was redacted from it, I'm just stupid and can't post correctly.
Ok folks, so I have a new address now.
Myers, Justin, SPC
HHT 1-71 TPT
COB Speicher
APO AE 09393
Don't worry if you already sent me mail though because it'll still reach me, it'll just take a bit longer.
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has sent me things so far. I appreciate each and every thing that anyone sends and I really mean it when I say thank you. It's the little things here and there that keep me in good spirits when I'm halfway across the world and only get maybe twice a week to hopefully talk to somebody.
I've also had more people wondering what kind of stuff that I want or like besides my amazon wish list(which i don't have much time to update anyways). Things for the field are always nice to have such as packaged tuna, granola bars, or any food that stays fresh.
Otherwise I go through a ton of green tea here and read a ton of books. I'm actually studying Arabic, Islam, Personal Training, and studying for the GMAT, so any books on those subjects are cool too.
Also, if you want to just send me a letter or something that would be awesome. I'd love to hear from anyone back home and I'll definitely write back.
I'm going on my first mission pretty soon and I'm excited/scared about it. I'll let you all know when I return and that I'm safe and unharmed. As always, take it easy.
-Justin
I'm sure all of you have heard about the recent bombings in Baghdad this past week and the dozens of deaths they resulted in. I wanted to discuss what happened and give my opinion on what the ramifications of the bombing might be.
The gist of the story if that 2 female suicide bombers attacked 2 separate animal markets in Baghdad on the morning of February 1. What's to note is that both women were reported to have Down syndrome and were said to be remotely detonated. Despite the fa
ce, along with the recent bombings, show the terrorists losing their foothold. When the war starct that this type of attack is a lowly and despicable course of action by the enemy, it actually sheds some light on the current situation surrounding terrorism in Iraq.
As everyone has heard lately, the situation in Baghdad has been improving vastly over the past few months. Violence has decreased dramatically since the troop surge started. The reduction in violen
ted the majority of suicide bombers were teenagers to adult males. These young adults were mostly idealists, believing their actions were just in the fight for Islam.
Recent violence in Iraq has less to do with these willing young men and more to do with young children or women. This shift in the types of people used in attacks shows less willingness by the population to encourage terrorism in their own towns. This is a drastic shift from where we were a few years ago. The people of Iraq are finally realizing that most of the terrorists are not even from their own country and that by allowing the violence to continue they are only hurting themselves.
Let me know what you guys think about anything you hear about. I'm getting a much different perspective now that I'm here and I'd like to hear some other opinions.
Thanks to Eric, here's some info on how to send packages.
Eric said...
The U.S. Postal Service has also introduced a Military Care Kit, or “Mili-kit” to make it easier for military families and friends to send care packages to their loved ones stationed overseas. Since the inception of the Military Care Kit, the U.S. Postal Service has shipped more than 150,000 kits. Each kit contains three flat rate boxes, two cube boxes, nine address labels, and 16 customs forms. This kit may be ordered by calling the USPS Expedited Package Supply Center at 1-800-610-8734. There is no charge for the kit.
The Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes included in the kit can be shipped to any APO/FPO in the world, regardless of weight, for $8.95.
And since Eric is bugging me about not updating my blog lately here goes...
All I've done in the past week is eat and workout and play on my computer. It hasn't been very interesting yet, but I'll be sure to tell you when I actually get to do something.
Ok, so I finally got an address for all you boys and girls.
Myers, Justin, SPC
350 TPC
COB Speicher
APO AE 09393
That's it. Feel free to send me whatever you want, just not alcohol or anything that will spoil. It takes about a month for mail to get here by normal means, but I think amazon shipping is pretty fast. Take it easy folks I'll update again when I actually have something to talk about.
Update: Ok, it seems amazon doesn't ship some items here. I have no idea what exactly the real restrictions are so you'll just have to see for yourself.
Ok, so my wish list seemed to be screwed up, so I fixed it. It's now just a button because the other little widget was retarded and didn't work for some reason. Although I still don't have an address yet so you can't send stuff to me anyways.
I've made the journey from Kuwait to Iraq at some point in the past few days. Strangely enough it really doesn't look that different here except for a few more trees and some old iraqi buildings. The weather seems to be just as cold at night as it was in Kuwait, but we at least have toilets that flush here and showers that usually have hot water.
What's truly amazing here is the chow hall. I have never seen so much food in my entire life. At least I'll eat well when I'm here regardless of other living condition.
Sometime today I'm supposed to meet with the unit we're being assigned to. It'll finally be nice to start doing my job here and getting some work done. I not able to give specifics of the missions that I'll be doing, but it looks like I'll be having some fun here.
I don't have anything else to write for today so in closing I'll just let everyone know that I've put up an amazon wish list for things that would be nice to have that I can't find over here. I don't have an address yet, but hopefully I'll get that later today and if you buy something off of amazon you can ship it directly to me. :)
Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm in Kuwait and doing well. We got here a few days ago and have mainly been sitting around freezing our butts off. A couple of days involved some training, but mostly we just eat, sleep, and workout.
Pretty soon we're going to head up to Iraq and actually start doing some work. I'm excited about it and can't wait to get started.
Remember, you can email me at anytime because we have pretty constant internet access.
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