If anyone still checks this board, they'll be suprised to see a new post here.  It is now August 31st, a looong time since my last post, but hey, who cares, right? The good thing is I am waaay past halfway done with this deployment, and damn am I happy about that.  Good news has been flooding my inbox recently. One of the bad things was since my home unit is deploying in November, they Stop-Loss'ed  everyone in that unit. Not bad for the war effort, horrible for me.  Since I am already downrange in support of Operation Enduring Freedom here in A-stan, the Stop-Loss does not legally apply to me...However, I am having to wait on my home unit to get the paperwork done to get that fixed.  Once that occurs, my get out of the service date will be returned to the wonderful 3 April 2006 date as it should be.   Here's where the good news comes in.  Provided my home unit gets that done, I should be able to return from this theater of operations early, say around the beginning of January or so. Here's one better. There is talk of allowing alot of us Individual Augmentees return home even earlier than that. This is why it is so important for my home unit to get things fixed. If they get my release from stop-loss taken care of, then I can return without the worry of being deployed again to Iraq. That means I can properly persue a job in the states. That means I can be home with my family again. That means I can finally relinquish my ties to the military which has taken such haphazard care of my family. That also means I might be home for Christmas, but Shhhh!!! Don't tell Angie just yet. I really need confirmation on that, which I'm sure I wouldn't get until right before I pop smoke here. It's just the way it is. I have no real worries either way. This deployment has been much easier on both myself and my family that I could ever have imagined. Yes, we have had our trials and tribulations along the way, but then again it would not be life without them, would it? I have been home on R&R already, and I've gotta say, those were nearly the best two weeks of my life. Everything just fell into place. Tere was no real stress, and it felt almost like I had never left, and OEF was just a strange dream. But here I am again, immersed in that very same strange dream, trying to get my bearings so I might push through to the finish of it all. It will be easy enough, and with any luck at all, it will be much shorter than originally planned!!!  I will begin mailing things home in a couple weeks, and as time goes by, I will knock my belongings down to hopefully less than what I came with. As a matter of fact, if there is anyone at Bagram Airbase who wants to buy a fridge for $40 and a 6' tall bookshelf for $10, just let me know. DSN 318-231-2917. I'll even consider delivery. I have a number of computer games to offer as well. Just give me a holler, and we'll work something out. Email is another option. Just use the one here on the site. I'll get it and reply.

Everyone, don't forget! I am still looking for a job!

Intelligence Analyst, Active TS/SCI Clearance, DIA certified SSO, TS COMSEC custodian; Also network administrator here in Afghanistan. Looking for Colorado and Florida, but all states welcome.  Look me up on Monster.com

That's enough for now. Take care everyone!

-Joe