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Wednesday, December 21

"You are released from active duty, not by reason of physical disability, and assigned as indicated on the date immediately following released from active duty." What can I say? These words on the orders were music to my ears when I was handed them as well as my DD-214, "Release or Discharge from Active Duty" paperwork this past Saturday morning, capping off an event-filled 15 months to say the least. I actually still have about three weeks of unused leave time built up so I will technically be on active duty through January 10, after which time I will be able to submit the necessary paperwork to remove myself from the dreaded Individual Ready Reserve list.

So it gives me great joy to report that this will be my final entry and it will be a long one as the past 10 days have been a whirlwind for sure. And I have included plenty of pictures to wrap up the whole experience as well.

When I left you last time, I was twiddling my thumbs in Kuwait anxiously awaiting word on when we would be booked to fly back to the states. Well, it turned out that December 13 was going to be the day (one that I will never forget, to be sure!). And it proved to be a long day at that, actually 30 hours or so, but in the words of one of the officers I worked for over there, "the juice was definitely worth the squeeze" in this case.

We were scheduled for a 1400 (2 p.m.) flight on the 13th so the first requirement for that was for all 187 of us on that flight (the rest of the battalion was to fly back on the 14th) had to have all of our baggage cleared by a Naval customs inspections team at midnight between the 12th and 13th. This entailed us taking over three tents and unpacking and spreading out all our gear on cots and waiting for the inspectors to show up. They came and went through everything to make sure we weren't attempting to transport any war souvenirs or other contraband back stateside, and then we got to repack everything (although believe me we were not complaining!). After that was completed at 0200, we had two hours of waiting before the buses and baggage trucks showed up - not exactly conducive to getting a great night's sleep.

When they finally showed up, we loaded up the buses and prepared to ride over to nearby Ali Al-Salem Air Base for some more customs procedures and briefings. I should point out that I got to experience an unforgettable army phenomena on these buses for the first of many times that day - that of a head count. Basically, it's like when you take a group of little kids to the zoo and have them count off to make sure that you have all of them. We would start in the back of the bus and, one by one, we would all count off all the way to the front - seemingly someone different was jumping on the bus every five minutes and asking for one of these - shockingly, somehow the number came out the same every time. Of course, my philosophy on this was that if someone was going to miss the bus that was taking us to the airport for our flight home to the states, they probably deserved to be left in Kuwait for another year. In any case, all of us got loaded up and we got over to the air base at around 0500.

At this point, we got to feel like a herd of cattle for about three hours as we basically were herded through about 15 different lines. In one line, our ID cards were swiped through a scanner, recording the day that you were leaving a combat zone and therefore no longer eligible for tax-free benefits and hazardous duty pay, among other things. Then we went through about four or five more customs line, where our carry-on bags and our bodies were repeatedly screened and x-rayed, and we filled out some more paperwork and received plenty of briefings as well. Finally around 0830, we made it to the passenger holding area, where we were able to relax for an hour and a half or so - again, not quite long enough to get comfortable and grab a good nap, and of course with a few more head counts and roll calls thrown in there to make sure you didn't forget you were still in the army.

At around 1000, they had us fall out onto the buses for the 90-minute ride to the Kuwait City International Airport. Once we got there, we waited for about an hour or so just off the runway as they started loading our bags onto the ATA plane that was waiting for us (I'm thinking maybe Dick Cheney owns some stock in ATA - all four flights I took between the US and Kuwait in the past year were ATA ones). Finally, at around 1315 our buses drove across the runway out to the plane and sleep or no sleep, you could feel the excitement of the soldiers on the bus. An hour later as we were all settled in and that plane went airborne, wow, were people fired up!

Unfortunately getting from Kuwait to Indianapolis was no hop, skip and a jump. We had about 14 hours of flying time ahead of us, with about a 90-minute fuel layover in between at the airport in Shannon, Ireland. The flight to Shannon was pretty uneventful - seemingly every two minutes a stewardess was putting food or a drink in front of us (a nice change from a domestic flight where you are lucky to get a miniature bag with three pretzels in it and maybe a quarter of a can of Pepsi with lots of ice cubes!). They even showed the Dukes of Hazard on this leg, definitely keeping a good chunk of the males on the plane awake for that!

When we made it to Shannon, it was announced we had to be ready to re-board in about 60 minutes and the soldiers made a beeline (actually, stampede is probably a more accurate depiction) to the terminal's Irish pub. Needless to say, everyone enjoyed a few adult beverages (having an authentic Guinness isn't a bad first drink after a year in the desert!). The duty-free shop did pretty brisk business as well. In an hour, we re-loaded the plane and we were airborne and en route to the promised land.

There was quite a whoop when the pilot informed us we had finally entered American airspace and another one when we pulled below the cloud cover and could make out Indianapolis below. Of course, the most noticeable feature at 10 o'clock at night was the snow on the ground, leading more than a few of the soldiers to grumble a bit - my response was, "as long as it's American snow and American cold, then it's fine with me!" At about 2215 (10:15 pm), we touched down at the Indianapolis airport. Because of customs regulations, families were not allowed to meet us at the airport so there were eight to ten state dignitaries who shook our hands as we got off the plane. We went through customs and then we loaded up buses to head over to the 38th Division armory about four miles away from the airport where all of our families were waiting.

The parking lot was packed at the armory as we pulled in just before midnight - quite impressive considering the time of day and the fact that most of the soldiers hail from northern Indiana, a good two-hour drive from Indianapolis. As we got off the buses, we were lined up in a mass formation right outside the giant overhead door to the armory's gym, where everyone was waiting. When we were all lined up, they opened the door and we marched in to hundreds of screaming and cheering people with signs and banners and American flags waving. Definitely a major goosebumps moment and I still get them just thinking back to it as I type. After what seemed to be an eternity of wandering around, I finally saw my parents, who had driven eight hours from Buffalo to be there. I know it was a huge relief for me but I'm sure it was even a bigger relief for them - they had made a banner for me and before I knew it, a local TV camera crew was interviewing my mom and she was telling the reporter that this was her best Christmas present ever, and I would have to agree.

The greeting at the armory was short and sweet and my parents drove me down to Camp Atterbury, where we were going to demobilize. We got in after one in the morning, at which time we had to unload all our bags and get ready for the 0700 briefings we were scheduled for that morning. The demobilization process went fairly smoothly - over the next four days, we sat in on a ton of briefings, many of them focused on the benefits we are entitled to as veterans, some medical screenings, plenty of paperwork, and turning in all of the gear we had been issued over the past year (and yes, that was a great feeling - you won't be seeing me in camouflage anytime soon!).

Of course, the other part of having my parents down in Indiana was so that they could drive me to our game at Cincinnati on the 14th. I was sky-high in Kuwait when we made all the big plays down the stretch to pull off a fairly big road win at Rhode Island, especially with Leon having four fouls with an eternity to go in the game. Considering the army's track record with these sorts of things, I didn't want to jinx myself so I didn't call Coach O'Shea and let him know I would make it until we were in Shannon the day before and I knew we were just one step away from being back stateside.

In any case, I was excited to get down to the Shoe for this game and knew it would be a tough one with Cincinnati coming off a huge road win at Vanderbilt. It was great to see everyone live and in the flesh for the first time since March and as I spoke to the team, it was extra special thinking of all the soldiers in our battalion being back on American soil and reunited with their families. Of course, I hadn't expected Andy Katz and crew from ESPN to be there, although I guess that made things a bit more dramatic. Obviously, we gave a great effort and more than held our own in the first half and then couldn't get anything to click in the second half (and Cincinnati deserves a lot of credit for that - they were flat-out better than us that half).

I returned with my parents that night to Indiana and at 1:30 in the morning in the hotel lobby, we broke out the authentic chicken wings they had brought from Buffalo, as well as a few cans of Guinness that their friends had brought back from Ireland for a special occasion like this. A bit of an impromptu celebration but a celebration nonetheless.

On Thursday, my parents headed back to Buffalo and I completed my final few days of out-processing. Ironically, Captain Melissa Elliott (my fellow IRR officer) and I went out on one of those nights with about seven or eight IRR officers from another unit that was demobilizing (I know, probably the only 10 IRR officers who probably showed up!). As we compared notes, we came to the ironic conclusion that all of our social security numbers began with 0 - so it became obvious that was the rationale behind us being the ones who got those fateful letters in the mail. Of course, that ruined our previous (and much more enjoyable) conspiracy theory that people called up off IRR were from states that were strongly expected to vote democrat in last year's presidential election (New York and Pennsylvania in my and Melissa's case for example!), thereby making sure to minimize the potential negative impact on the president's reelection bid. In any case, we made sure to avoid holding any of these conversations on cell phones where we potentially could be eavesdropped on all the way from DC (and earmarked as potential threats to national security).

Saturday marked my final day in an army uniform. At 7:30 in the morning (notice how I am transitioning back to using civilian time!), we reported to the post chapel for a safety briefing and a few words of congratulations, reflection and encouragement from the post chaplain. At the end of this meeting, we were each handed a manila envelope which included our discharge orders and all of our paperwork - I felt a bit light-headed as I walked out of there. The first thing I did after this was pack my uniform and boots away and switch into some civilian clothes. With my flight back to Buffalo not until the next morning, I spent the rest of the day giving out Ohio Basketball t-shirts to the soldiers who I had served with and even got a little shopping in at a nearby factory outlet. Usually I cannot stand shopping but after a year in purgatory, even this was an enjoyable experience for me - there was even an adidas outlet where I was able to pick up some stuff for my return to the practice floor!

On Saturday night, our battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Shatto, took out a bunch of our staff officers for dinner and a few drinks and thanked us all for a job well-done all year - that was much-appreciated. We rolled back to post where I finished up packing and at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning, boarded a shuttle van for a ride up to the airport.

As we drove through Camp Atterbury's gate, that was when it really dawned on me that everything was over. Although obviously happy, I must say it was a little bit weird as I thought about basically starting over a totally different life - no uniforms, no ranks, no scheduled meal hours, plastic forks, half-ply toilet paper and on and on. But I knew that I would have some great people to lean on as I made the transition to include my family, the coaches, players and everyone else associated with the team, athletic department and university, and friends from all over the place - from Lackawanna, Athens, Notre Dame, the coaching ranks and plenty of other people who chose to reach out to me over the past 15 months as I dealt with this seemingly super-sized challenge.

Of course the experience wasn't quite over yet, as when I stepped off the plane in Buffalo and walked through the security checkpoint into the airport lobby, my parents had probably a hundred of my family and friends from good old Lackawanna, New York, waiting there for me with signs and flags - it was definitely a bit embarrassing but also much-appreciated. There is a statistic that goes back to World War II and Vietnam where Lackawanna, a small blue-collar city of 25,000 on the south edge of Buffalo known for the Bethlehem Steel Plant that used to employ nearly its whole male population, sent the most military-aged males per capita of any municipality in the United States, so it was an honor to be recognized by so many of the people that my parents and I grew up with. From the airport, everyone drove to the Matthew Glab Post, the American Legion Post that my grandfather Al Kuwik helped to found, where we enjoyed all the staples of a Western New Yorker's diet - pizza, chicken wings and Labatt Blue.

So as I get ready to type the final few paragraphs of this journal, which really helped get me through this deployment in terms of pushing me to stay positive even at times when there wasn't a lot to be positive about, as well as keeping me in touch with so many people - my family, friends, the entire Ohio Athletics and Ohio University family, and countless other people literally from all over the country - I can't say thank you enough. Special thanks go out to Bob Lee and everyone in the athletic department for giving me the opportunity to do this and for keeping me a part of the Bobcat team every step of the way. And to every single person out there who thought of me and all the soldiers over there for even a single instant during the past year - it truly does make a difference knowing that people appreciate the sacrifice that every soldier is making.

And last, but certainly not least, to the soldiers and officers of the 113th Engineer Battalion, who I had the honor and privilege of standing side-by-side for the past year. Through the high points, the low points, the laughter and arguments, the sunny days, the smiles, the frustrations, the mistakes - through it all, you constantly inspired me with your dedication, your courage, your determination to accomplish the mission no matter how well or not-so-well things were going. We left Mosul, Iraq, a better place than it was when we got there last January and gave hundreds of thousands of people there the opportunity to participate in democracy, something that I think we will all have a newfound appreciation for here back home, as well as helping the Iraqi soldiers and policemen gain the confidence to start to stand up and defend their city and nation on their own. Today I will drive back to Athens with my dad to resume my life as a basketball coach but wherever that path takes me, each and every one of you and all the experiences we went through the past year will never be far from my heart and my thoughts and I truly hope that our paths come to cross again as we move on with our lives.

Thanks to all of you - Merry Christmas, Go U.S.A., and Go Bobcats!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Saturday, December 10

Welcome to the latest installment coming to you from Camp Victory, Kuwait, and hopefully there aren't too many of these left. Things are definitely moving at a slower pace out here but hey, as I keep telling myself, at least it's not Iraq.

As I alluded to in my last entry, Camp Victory isn't too bad a place. It basically is a camp set up in the middle of the desert to serve as a temporary stopping point for units heading into and out of Iraq. The camp consists of a "downtown" portion which includes the headquarters buildings, a small post exchange store, and some food stands and souvenir shops that prey on servicemen and women with some money to burn (thankfully I have resisted the temptation so far). There are also some large airplane hangar-like tents that are set up with a weight room, basketball court and a USO facility that includes plenty of armchairs, couches and recliners set up around big screen TVs, video game stations and computers with Internet access for the soldiers to relax.

Arrayed all the way around the "downtown" are rows upon rows of 70-man (or woman) tents. Again, they are hangar-shaped with plywood floors, lighting and heating/air-conditioning systems. Having 70 in a tent, no matter how big, does not exactly lend itself to a great night's sleep in the first place but the cots we sleep on make that pretty much a moot point anyhow. The shower trailers are in pretty good shape, although one drawback compared to Mosul is that there are only port-a-potties here, no bathroom trailers, and usually not in the best of shape with toilet paper in scarce supply - the first day we were here you saw scores of soldiers walking back from the post exchange with rolls of toilet paper in tow.

But hey, we are one step away from being back in the states so it's nothing we can't handle. The first day we were here, we cleaned our weapons and turned them in to be stored in a large container that will be loaded on the ship for movement back to the states (by the time these weapons make it back to Indiana in 45 days or so, I hopefully will have my discharge papers). Turning my M4 in was a great feeling for three reasons: 1) it is a pain to clean and keep clean, 2) it's nice not to have to trudge all over the place with that thing slung on your back and, most importantly, 3) it's nice to be in a place where you don't need it in the first place!

One other funny tidbit related to the different threat level here in Kuwait involves the clattering of dumpsters when they are being lifted and emptied into the garbage trucks - when we heard this rumbling sound the first day, many of us initially thought of the similar-sounding mortar explosions that we had heard up in Iraq. I do admit to chuckling a bit about how edgy I was just to drive into Kuwait City last January looking back at it a year later after spending eleven months in Mosul - Kuwait is like Disneyland compared to Iraq. But hey, we really didn't know any better back then.

Once we turned our weapons in, our jobs were pretty much complete here in Kuwait. We have a 75-person detail down at Camp Arifjan (also in Kuwait) that is taking care of washing all the equipment and getting it moved to the port to be loaded on a ship. Right now, it looks like our ship load date is going to be December 17 and we will have some flights before that and some flights after - they are keeping us guessing a bit but we should know in the next few days which flight we will be on.

In the meantime, lots of downtime for the 325 or so of us here at Camp Victory. And that has translated into lots of card-playing (with Euchre being the game of choice), movie-watching, book-reading and games like softball, volleyball and flag football. Last night, about 20 of us found a makeshift softball diamond in the sand surrounded by portable lights. We wheeled them into position, fired up the generators and presto, we had our own Kuwaiti "field of dreams" - my dad and brother Mark and the vaunted Lackawanna softball league back home would have been proud.

So while the accommodations here are not going to score me any Marriott points, they are not unbearable either. It is still 65 and sunny during the day and while it does get a bit chilly at night, it still is nothing like the snow and cold temperatures that I hear are waiting for us back in Indiana and Ohio. The only two things that do get under my skin a bit are the sand particles that find their way into every nook and cranny on your clothes and body as you walk around this place, and the phone situation. There is an AT&T long-distance trailer here on the base but it has been out of operation for almost two weeks now, allegedly due to a satellite problem. Basically it takes an act of congress to be able to get on a government phone here and to make the three connections it takes to get a line back to the states. So for any of the 113th's soldiers' family members who might be reading this, if you haven't heard from them or are getting emails that say they can't make any phone calls, I'm here to vouch that they're telling you the truth!

So that's a pretty good update of what's going on over here. Of course, the last few days were made a little more tolerable by the Bobcats holding on to defeat Marist on the road to improve to 3-0. While I wouldn't call it a work of art, I do think that we did a pretty good job on them defensively and showed true grit in holding on when they were coming back and had all the momentum and the crowd behind them. Jeff Halbert and Mychal Green stepped up like the senior leaders they are in making big shots all game whenever things got a little too close for comfort. Hopefully tonight we can build on that with an even better performance against Rhode Island - this will be another great early season test that will serve us well in preparing for MAC play and our quest to defend our MAC title.

Finally, I want to close with some kudos for the Ohio women's volleyball team. Although they lost a tough one to Arizona last night, Geoff Carlston and his team had a truly unbelievable year. Each year for the past three years they have lost key seniors and each year they have had new people step right up so that the program hasn't skipped a beat. Winning a MAC championship is definitely an accomplishment in itself but to repeat and then three-peat when everyone is gunning for you and has your game circled on their schedule is definitely remarkable.

So if all goes according to plan, sometime in the next week or so we will be airborne and heading back home, and I definitely can't wait. I look forward to talking to everyone in person as opposed to through email and this journal, and in the meantime?

Have a great day and GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Tuesday, December 6

Greetings from Kuwait, and let me tell you, it feels great to say that. At 0110 this morning, our C-130 touched down here in the Kuwaiti desert and the Iraq chapter of this journey came to an end.

My last few days in Mosul went pretty quickly. On Saturday night, I went to my final Catholic mass - throughout the year this was a good way to get away from the rush of our headquarters and clear my mind, and also helped mark the passing weeks. After that, I listened to the Bobcats' game with American at midnight on the Internet (more on that later) and thankfully it was a better Internet connection than last week. I was operating on the assumption that our flight was going to be Monday morning so I spent my Sunday doing everything for the final time. I finished packing, swept and mopped up my room (which at this point was stripped down to the bare bones with nothing except two beds and four wall lockers), and had my final Sunday dinner of steak and lobster. I even allowed myself a near-beer to commemorate the occasion, funny how they seemingly tasted so much better as the deployment went on. I also went for my last run around FOB Marez and made sure to get up on top of Radar Hill for one last glimpse of that Mosul skyline which I will not soon forget.

Of course, we wouldn't want things to start going according to plan here at the end of the deployment so we had one final audible Sunday night when we got word that the flight I would be on, the second of six for our battalion, was not scheduled to fly out until 2345 on Monday night. That left me one more fun-filled day in Mosul. With all my packing complete and my room ready-to-go, I did some reading and also reviewed some material for the NCAA's annual Recruiting Test that I will have to take when I get back to Athens before I can get back out on the recruiting trail.

True to the Army's "Hurry up and wait" mentality, we started loading our duffle bags on the truck around 1700, almost seven hours prior to our scheduled departure. I had my final dinner at Marez (they do a pretty good stir-fry, by the way), and then we loaded up the busses to drive across the street to the airfield at 1945. I guess you definitely wouldn't want to miss your final flight out of Iraq (or any flight out of Iraq, for that matter), and we were certainly in no danger of that, getting to the passenger area just under four hours prior to departure. That left us with plenty of time to fidget and wait but don't worry, we weren't complaining. The Air Force even threw us a little bone as our C-130 arrived 30 minutes early and at 2300, 53 of us marched out onto the runway two by two and loaded onto the plane with two pallets stacked with our duffle bags as well.

As a final reminder of the environment we were leaving, whereas back in the States flight passengers are asked to remain seated and keep their seatbelts fastened until the plane reaches its cruising altitude, our instructions for this flight were to make sure we didn't turn on any flashlights or headlamps until we reached our cruising altitude and we took off in complete darkness, both inside and outside the plane. But although any insurgents wishing to take a potshot at the plane couldn't see us as we took off, they just might have been able to hear the whooping and hollering of all of us as our plane went wheels up and whisked us away from Mosul for the final time. Now a C-130 is not exactly renowned for its comfort level, as the canvas benches the passengers sit on are firm and unforgiving and you sit basically knee to knee with the guy across from you, but believe me, no one was complaining. As we took off, the guy across from me started talking to someone about his favorite Subway sandwich and that got me to thinking about all the things that I have missed from back home over the past year - I am definitely excited to be getting back to all of that and then some!

We touched down in Kuwait in the middle of the night. I didn't jump off the plane and get down on my hands and knees and kiss the ground or anything like that but everyone was definitely all smiles as we loaded up on busses to be transported to our home for the next 10 days or so, which is appropriately named Camp Victory. I say appropriately named because I feel that the 113th Engineer Battalion was victorious in its efforts over the past year to make Mosul a better place and also set up the Iraqi security forces for success, and also for the 21 memorable victories and MAC Championship that the Bobcats provided me during the 2004-05 season (and hopefully many more this year as well).

Camp Victory is just like Camp New York, where we stayed in Kuwait last December on the way into Iraq. Basically it is a ton of tents in the middle of the desert surrounded by a 10-foot sand berm. I'll have more to say about it in my next entry but I am looking forward to listening to the Bobcats play their next three road games here. I was really pleased with the effort in the American game. Most notably, we jumped out to a nice lead in the first four minutes, a nice contrast to the last few years where our trademark often was getting off to slow starts, falling behind by double digits and then storming back with our press to make things interesting, winning a lot but definitely losing more than we would have liked. So hopefully with everyone anointing us as a team to watch in the MAC this year, we can translate that into jumping on teams early, never giving them any daylight to get back in the game, and then getting our bench plenty of minutes at the end of the game thanks to having a comfortable lead. And we couldn't have done much better in this regard over the first two games. Now let's see if we can take this approach on the road as we play three successively more difficult games with Marist, Rhode Island and Cincinnati.

As a final note, it looks like I'll be back in Athens at the end of the month, just in time to catch plenty of flak from the Ohio State faithful as my Fighting Irish take them on in the Fiesta Bowl. As a legendary Bobcat - Mo Banton - always says, he has three favorite teams: Ohio, whoever is playing Miami, and whoever is playing Ohio State, so I am definitely looking forward to having Mo on my side for this one!

Have a great day and GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Friday, December 2

As I type this, I am listening to "Beautiful Day" by U2 and it certainly is as we have just completed our TOA (Transfer of Authority) ceremony and are officially "mission complete" in Mosul. Now we are just waiting to load our equipment up on trucks to be hauled to Kuwait and then we get to jump on some Air Force planes and fly there ourselves - should be in the next few days.

The TOA ceremony was very well done. It was attended by our Task Force Commander, Major General Rodriguez, and our Brigade Commander, Colonel Shields. Our entire 400-soldier strong battalion, minus the 75 soldiers already down in Kuwait putting some of our vehicles through the wash rack, was present in addition to the unit that is replacing us. Prior to the ceremony officially beginning, our Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Shatto, took the opportunity to give awards to our interpreters, who were an integral part of our success this year. It was clear that this was a great honor for them - they kept bowing in front of LTC Shatto as he presented their awards.

The ceremony began with 10 soldiers being awarded Purple Hearts by Colonel Shields. For the deployment, 29 soldiers in our battalion earned Purple Hearts, thankfully none posthumously - a tribute to the bravery and courage they displayed all year, often operating slow-moving engineer equipment in the heart of the city. This was followed by LTC Shatto and Command Sergeant Major Smith casing our colors (our battalion's guidon or flag), symbolic of our battalion being done with our mission here in Iraq. After this, our distinguished guests, General Rodriguez and Colonel Shields, offered remarks to our soldiers, commending them for a job well done and being an integral part of the success of coalition forces here in Iraq. Probably the comment that will stick in my mind the most was when General Rodriguez said that he will remember this battalion as being one that never said "can't" to any mission, as I feel that this was the hallmark of our unit - we went above and beyond in meeting the engineer needs of all the infantry battalions in the area of operations, often with minimal notice, always accomplishing the mission.

Also of note, I took my final ride through Mosul yesterday, as I headed up to the Palace to turn in some equipment and say farewell to the people whom I had worked with when I was up at Brigade Headquarters. It was good to see them one last time, although I was definitely glad when we pulled back into our home base, FOB Marez, and my final trip "outside the wire" was complete (I'm sure my mom feels the same way!).

So now all that's left is for me to finish my final packing and clean up my room - I have already mailed three footlockers of stuff back to Ohio so there is not too much left in this regard.

And of course, there is a Bobcat game to catch on Saturday versus American and hopefully we will achieve a similar result as we did last Saturday versus Saint Francis. Unfortunately my internet connection kept cutting in and out, which was definitely annoying for me, but the guys did a great job of jumping on them early and keeping the defensive pressure on throughout the game, never letting Saint Francis get totally comfortable on offense. I am really excited about our depth this year, as I think it will allow us to maintain a higher intensity level out there on defense and also allow us to avoid some of the occasional scoring droughts that have plagued us in past years - we have some real firepower that we can call on off the bench.

And speaking of the bench, it is a great feeling to think that I will be back there in less than a month - in this case, absence really has made the heart grow fonder!

Have a great weekend and GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Thursday, November 24

Ten shopping days left in Iraq! Or something like that, as we still don't know exactly when we will fly. But it's definitely better than 365 days, that is for sure!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! As much as an ordeal as being stationed in Iraq can be at times, our battalion and I personally have much to be thankful for, as - knock on wood - we are just a few weeks away from completing a successful and, more importantly, relatively safe deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Seeing how life is on the other side of the world has definitely opened all of our eyes to how appreciative we need to be of how good we have things back in the good old U.S.A.

Personally, this holiday is a good time for me to reflect on and give thanks for the truly unbelievable support that I have received from so many great people. Obviously, my parents Ed and Karen, brothers Keith and Mark, and extended family have been a constant throughout, sending me daily emails and anything I could even dream of needing (short of a plane ticket out of here about 10 months ago!). Coach O'Shea, John Rhodes, Brian Townsend, Adam DeMong, Brenda White, and everyone else associated with Ohio Basketball and Ohio Athletics have really bent over backwards to keep me a part of everything even while I am half a world away. Of course, it has been great to keep in touch with the players - the true reason I am in coaching - and they gave me the best possible support and inspiration by the way they stepped up and delivered a MAC championship last year when no one else thought they could do it. Athens, Ohio, and Ohio University are definitely two of the best-kept secrets that I never knew about prior to joining the program five years ago and the citizens, faculty, staff and students definitely have lived up to that billing with care packages, emails, letters and even a welcome home sign in the windows of Copeland Hall when I came home for leave. Believe me, I can't wait to be in your midst walking around campus and down Court Street again!

I was also fortunate enough to spend four amazing years and make the best friends one could hope to have at the University of Notre Dame, and despite missing too many weddings, football weekends and other get-togethers the past year, these friends have never let me get far away from their thoughts and prayers, which means so much as well. To all the people who I have come across at various stages of my life, to include former grades school teachers, high school classmates and fellow coaches, as well as people whom I had never even met before, who all took it upon themselves to reach out to me via email or snail mail - to all of you, your thoughtfulness has meant so much and made what could have been a miserable and frustrating year a truly positive and beneficial experience for me. And finally, I must give thanks for the soldiers of the 113th Engineer Battalion who I have stood alongside for the past year, through the highs and lows, heat waves and cold snaps - you all have truly inspired me with your dedication and commitment to duty and I am thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of your team.

And now that the Kleenex moment has passed, it is time to focus on the key tasks at hand - getting home and the soon-to-kick-off 2005-06 Ohio Bobcats basketball season. In terms of getting home, our battalion moved another step closer to this when our Anaconda company (a little factoid for you - our Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Headquarters companies are named after snakes - Anaconda, Boa, Cobra and Viper, respectively) rejoined us at Forward Operating Base Marez to prepare for the final push out of here. For the past year, Anaconda has been serving in support of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment out at Forward Operating Base Sykes, just outside of Tall Afar, a town about 60 miles west of here. Tall Afar was in the news back in August as coalition forces surrounded it and rolled through it and stamped out the insurgents, a la Fallujah, and our Anaconda engineers had a lot to do with the success of the mission. So we continue to prepare for redeployment, signing over equipment that is going to stay here in country, washing and loading everything that is coming back with us, and also preparing our replacement engineers for the missions ahead of them.

As an aside, the air was dripping with irony this week as I read our military's daily newspaper, Stars and Stripes, and came across an article that spoke of the Army's recent announcement that it is discontinuing its program of involuntarily recalling officers who had served beyond their eight-year commitment off of the IRR list. Unfortunately, that comes about a year and a half too late for my good and probably for the stress level of my parents as well. That being said, everything that has happened to me since I got that letter in the mail September 3, 2004 - both good and not-so-good - has made me a stronger and better person and I have had the chance to benefit from meeting some truly impressive people through this deployment. That old saying, "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it," comes to mind and hopefully I have been able to live up to that challenge.

And now on to the topic most near and dear to my heart, the Bobcats versus Saint Francis this Saturday afternoon (2300 over here). My ears will be glued to my laptop (if that's possible!) and the voice of Derek Scott and whoever is his able sidekick for this one. Looking forward to hearing our seniors - Mychal Green, Jeff Halbert and Cliff McGowen - lead us in our quest for another MAC championship in their final go-round in the green and white. Definitely excited for our junior class of Matt Annen, Whitney Davis, Stephen King and Sonny Troutman, who have all worked their butts off day in and day out and improved every day - they truly have been the backbone of what we have been trying to build with our program, both on and off the court. The bulls-eye will be firmly on our sophomores, Leon Williams and Jeremy Fears, after their exciting freshmen seasons - I am sure they are up for the challenge. And finally the newcomers that I am hearing so many good things about - Johnnie Jackson, Ken Ottrix, Tony Chatman, Jerome Tillman and Seth Bauman - hope they are ready to pick right up where our senior class left off last year in terms of accepting roles and putting the team first, which had so much to do with the great successes we achieved. Looking forward to a great year and even more so to being back and being a part of it in a few (hopefully short) weeks!

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving and GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Friday, November 18

The days keep marching on (not quickly enough of course!). In two weeks, November will be over and we will be getting ready to board a series of Air Force planes for the flight to Kuwait.

The overall situation in Mosul remains relatively stable. There has been some intimidation of local Iraqi policemen of late but other than that, enemy activity remains extremely low compared to 11 months ago when we arrived here. In addition to the upcoming national elections in December, our military's focus remains on preparing the Iraqi army units and Iraqi police to take up the fight by themselves. The pace is not as fast as we like at times, especially in terms of getting them properly equipped to take up the fight (up-armored vehicles and the like). But hopefully the next year will see significant strides being made in this area as, one by one, Iraqi battalions become ready to take over and patrol their own battle space and the requirement for American forces decreases.

In terms of the 113th Engineer Battalion, our focus is fully on getting our vehicles and equipment ready for redeployment and also on what is known as "left seat, right seat rides." That is the Army's term for preparing the unit relieving you to assume your mission. The "left seat" portion consists of our soldiers in the left seat and the replacing soldiers in the right seat - basically we run the missions and they are along to observe our TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures). After 5-7 days of this set-up, we move to the "right seat" portion, where the replacing unit runs the mission in the left seat with just a few of our soldiers along to observe and critique in the right seat. During this time, our soldiers are slowly phased out of the operations, with the end state being the replacing unit ready to run missions on their own (YEAH!!!). Same thing goes here in our headquarters - for the left seat portion, our radio operators control the missions and handle all communications with our subordinate units and with Brigade headquarters. As we transition to the right seat, we sit in the TOC and are available to answer any questions that arise but the new guys are running the show (again, YEAH!!!).

So the best part of this all is that the new guys have been arriving the last few days. It is great to see them come in - all wide-eyed and energetic and chomping at the bit. Everything is new and exciting - the dining facility, the little mini-mall area, the gym and the other recreation facilities. I chuckle to myself thinking back to this time last year and wondering if that was us as well (I'm sure it was). And then I can't help but think of the old saying, "It's a marathon, not a sprint" - for believe me, it is! A year from now, I am sure they will feel like they were here for about five years like we do.

This week we also had to take care of some personnel actions required for redeployment. We had to endure (and that is definitely the word) a series of demobilization briefings centering on topics like family reunification and finance, legal and medical issues. Concepts like "don't throw things at your spouse or kids when you're mad," "clean up the language that you have been using out in the field all year," and my favorite, "don't go home and buy a new vehicle for everyone in the family and a new entertainment center to boot with all the money you saved all year." But I guess it is all stuff that needs to be said.

We also had our post-deployment health assessment. Each soldier sits down at a computer workstation and answers a series of questions, designed to document potential medical issues down the road resulting from our time over here. Some of the questions asked us to detail any medical issues that we might have suffered from during the deployment. Another series of questions focused on anything that might lead to psychological issues in the future, such as "At any time did you feel like your life was in danger?", "Did you ever see anyone killed or wounded?", and "Did you ever have to discharge your weapon at someone?" Lastly, we were asked to detail the list of potentially harmful things we were exposed to during the year, which included lovely things like raw sewage, burning trash, loud explosions, extreme dusty conditions and on and on (if my kids end up with three eyes or purple skin, we will definitely know why!). After completing the questionnaire, a physician reviewed all of our answers with us, determined if any further examination or check-up was necessary and everything was entered into our permanent records.

So that's where things are at over here in Mosul. Meanwhile, I must finish up by acknowledging Bill Toadvine, our baseball team's associate head coach who passed away from cancer this week. I was deeply saddened by this news, as Bill truly was a class act whom I enjoyed talking to and being around. Bill and Joe Carbone, our head baseball coach, played together at Ohio when the Bobcats went to the College World Series in 1970 and since Joe became head coach for the 1989 season, have been together every step of the way with Ohio Baseball. I admire their program because it truly is a family, with their former players staying in touch and involved in the program no matter where life takes them and Bill certainly had a lot to do with that. Bill was very supportive of me personally when we went through a tough season two years ago and I am very thankful for that. He will be missed by many but I am sure that wherever a Bobcat team is competing, he will never be far away.

Have a great weekend and in Bill's memory, GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Saturday, November 12

Hello from Mosul - almost down to one month to go over here and to be honest, the days seem to be dragging a bit as we get this close.

Nothing remarkable to report this week - I guess that is a good thing. I continued cleaning up my gear and packing up and shipped my first footlocker back to Ohio. We loaded some of our non-essential equipment into large metal shipping containers, which were inspected by the customs inspectors and sealed up, ready to be line-hauled down to Kuwait in a few weeks to be loaded on a ship.

With the end being near and lots of redeployment-related activities underway, definitely the biggest challenge is keeping everyone focused (not unlike having a big first-half lead in a basketball game). It is hard not to let your mind wander to being back home next month but when preparing for any mission "outside the wire," we need to keep our head in the game and stay sharp and vigilant.

I am typing this in the wake of the Bobcats' 86-70 exhibition win over Mercyhurst. No Derek Scott over the Internet for this one so I had to follow it on the GameTracker, which can be a bit challenging (and lead to some pacing) at times. At first glance, it looks like our depth is going to be a big strength for us as Tony Chatman and Johnnie Jackson both gave us great sparks off the bench. And, as always at this point of the year, there are certainly some things to work on but I am sure the coaches have these items pinpointed and will give them plenty of emphasis in practice over the next two weeks prior to the opener against Saint Francis.

I am also eagerly awaiting the arrival of the CD with our scrimmage from last Saturday against Boston College so I can get a good look for myself at this year's team. I did get a lot of positive feedback on that scrimmage from the coaches and players.

In the meantime, in case the preseason preview magazines didn't do it already, any chance of us tip-toeing up on any of our non-conference opponents was blown away with our prominent piece on ESPN.com the other day. As a coach, you always fear that hype like this can lead to overconfidence but hopefully we have the focus and mental toughness to recognize this for the challenge that it is and step up to meet it. On the positive side, this type of recognition can really increase the visibility of our program, which potentially could pay dividends if it ever came down to being considered for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. Of course, we could just win the MAC Tournament again and the point would be moot! Time will tell.

In the meantime, we keep moving closer and closer to getting home. As I've said, there's plenty of uncertainty as to when exactly we will be moving to Kuwait and then on to the States but I am still very hopeful that I will be home in Buffalo with my family for Christmas and that our December 30th tilt with Kentucky will be my first game back on the bench - that is definitely something to look forward to!

Have a great day! GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Friday, November 4

Well, we are into our final full month in Iraq and at long last the end is getting near. The days can't go by fast enough. This is a big Bobcat weekend as the Bobcat football team hosts a key MAC match-up with Toledo in Peden tonight and the hoopsters head out to Boston College for a season-opening closed-door scrimmage - that should be a good barometer of where we are at. In any case, it definitely is a good thing that it is one of the last big Bobcat weekends I will be missing - I am eager to get back and get into the flow, not to mention my own bed and porcelain toilets and real silverware!

Probably the two big events for me this week were moving back from the palace to join my battalion at our old base and getting the chance to roll out on one of our IRONMAN sweeps the other day. In terms of moving back, my jobs as assistant brigade engineer and liaison officer to our Brigade headquarters were pretty much complete as we now have our final month of missions laid out. Part of that mission set will include bringing our replacement unit up to speed on what we do so that they can pick up where we leave off. Additionally we are constructing three more combat outposts for Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police forces - this is part of our effort to get the Iraqi Security Forces out into the city to allow them to maintain a more visible and positive presence in the neighborhoods.

The other key aspect of moving back is starting to get my living unit packed up so that I am ready to go (I will have no problem getting motivated to do that!). While most of the soldiers plan on carrying a few duffle bags with them and putting the rest of their stuff into foot lockers that will go in large metal containers, and then travel via ship back to Indiana to arrive sometime in February, I will be mailing that stuff back to Ohio so I don't have to worry about it. So that will keep me busy the next few weeks. Also, with one month left in country, they have cut off our mail as well - thanks to everyone for being so supportive in that category - your generosity and thoughtfulness were definitely a huge boost and helped me maintain a generally positive outlook throughout this deployment.

I also mentioned getting to go out on one of our IRONMAN sweeps the other day. One of the key functions of engineers anywhere they operate, but especially here in Iraq, is that of providing mobility support to ensure that coalition forces have freedom of movement throughout our Area of Operations. To achieve that end, one of our key missions is route clearance, as we sweep routes in and around Mosul looking for Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) that the insurgents love to hide. Recently, the army has fielded us a Buffalo (I had a memorable mission in one of those back in February) as well as three RG-31's. The Buffalo is a monstrous vehicle with the large robotic arm that allows it to investigate suspicious looking devices along the road side. It is heavily armored with a sloping underbody that provides it blast protection. The RG-31 is basically a security vehicle that is a smaller version of the Buffalo, again with heavy armor and a design that offers maximum protection from blast.

As we fielded this equipment, we assumed this sweep mission (which we appropriately dubbed IRONMAN sweeps) consisting of these three RG-31's and the Buffalo, and approximately 25 soldiers. Basically one of our platoons sweeps various routes in Mosul each day at different times. I went out on an evening sweep and rode in the Buffalo. One of the interesting parts of this mission is all the intelligence that goes into it, kind of like a scouting report for a basketball game. Basically it involves keeping track of the enemy's recent tactics in emplacing these IED's (usually artillery rounds or land mines), both in their locations and methods of disguising them, ranging from emplacing them in chunks of concrete, to bags or boxes that blend in with the multitude of garbage that lines the streets here, to hanging them off of overpasses. The platoon leader gives the soldiers an overview of the route they will be sweeping focusing on specific areas and things they should be looking for.

The night I rode out on the sweep, we spent approximately two hours driving around the city. We stopped to probe suspicious looking devices with the robot arm six times, lifting up and dumping a few bags that just turned out to have garbage in them, and moving some chunks of displaced concrete from curbs which tend to be favorite hiding spots as well. Operating the Buffalo's arm takes some skill and it was interesting to watch the soldier manipulate it to drag concrete out of the way or to stab a bag and lift it up and turn it over. At one point, we thought we had spied a round hiding behind a piece of curb but when the arm dragged the concrete out of the way, it proved to be a dirty water bottle sitting there.

So my trip out with the sweep team proved fruitless in terms of finding anything but just last night, the team discovered two IED's - one land mine and one artillery round. The fun part of discovering them is once they disconnect the firing system using the arm, they get to place some C-4 on the device and blow it in place (an engineer's dream!). But more than fun, the important part of this is that these were two devices that were prevented from being utilized on coalition forces and/or Iraqi civilians, and that's what it's all about!

So as we wrap things up over here, my mind never strays far away from our team back in Athens getting ready for our opener against Saint Francis on November 26th. Everything I am hearing from the coaching staff and players is positive and exciting - if we stay healthy and stay together, there is no reason that we can't have another great year!

Have a great day! GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Friday, October 28

Hello again from my home away from home for going on 10 months now - Mosul, Iraq. This was a milestone week as we went under the two-month mark for getting back home and I also hit the one-year anniversary of John Rhodes driving me to the Parkersburg airport for my trip to report to Fort Sill, Okla., and the beginning of this adventure/ordeal/odyssey (based on whatever kind of mood you find me in at any given time).

Depending on how closely you follow the news, you may or may not know this was a big week over here as the referendum results were announced. While the biggest headlines proclaimed that 78% of all Iraqis voted "yes," things actually ended up much closer in terms of getting the constitution ratified - our province of Ninevah (of which Mosul makes up over 2/3 of its population) proved to be "the Ohio of Iraq." To overturn the constitution, three provinces were required to cast at least 67% "no" votes. Two other provinces went well over this threshold so it all came down to Ninevah (which does have a Sunni majority) - while the "no" vote did get a majority, it ended up only being 55%, well short of what was needed.

So this is a positive step as it enables the process to move forward, with national elections for seats in Iraq's legislative body being held on December 15 and then a round of provincial elections being held in February as well. Thankfully, the 113th Engineer Battalion is not planning on being around for either of them!

I also was fortunate enough to have had a unique chance to fire some artillery the other day and it all owes to my Bobcat connections. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Captain Mike Bugaj, a 1997 graduate of Ohio University and its ROTC program, is stationed here at Forward Operating Base Courage with me and holds the position of Battery Commander of Bravo Battery, 4-11 Field Artillery Battalion. Bravo Battery's main responsibility is to run the FPOC (Force Protection Operations Center) here at FOB Courage, which mainly means that they control and oversee the gates and guard towers and all other security measures here on the base (I'm sure you'll agree with me and all the other soldiers on the FOB that this is a very important mission - keeping us all safe).

However, in conjunction with the other hat that Bravo Battery wears as one of our Brigade's field artillery assets, they are also responsible for maintaining eight M198 howitzers ready to fire anywhere around Mosul as the need arises. To stay prepared for this mission, the battery must periodically calibrate their guns and this past Wednesday was one such day, dubbed Operation "Mosul Thunder." The Battery was scheduled to fire well over one hundred 155-millimeter rounds and before you get nervous, they selected a large open area well to the west of Mosul to fire into with plenty of notice provided to nearby villages and "eyes on" the impact area throughout, in case anyone should inadvertently wander in there.

Anyhow, Mike was nice enough to extend me an invitation to join his soldiers for the shoot. The shoot was scheduled for 0800-1500 and my plan was to join them around lunchtime. Unfortunately, there was a general visiting the base for a series of briefings and because the artillery was so loud (a few windows were shattered and a generator was knocked out), Mike's battery got shut down after a couple of hours (that can be the Army for you!) and it wasn't looking so good for me. But they were allowed to resume after lunch and I was able to join them as they fired off their final 15 rounds or so for the day.

It definitely was quite the experience. Words really don't do justice to how loud and smoky those guns are when they fire, that's for sure. But the teamwork that goes into firing one of those things was quite impressive - in this case, it was 4th Section of Bravo Battery. A two-man team picks up one of the fairly large rounds sitting on a tray-like structure and carries it right up to the opening in the back of the gun. The "Number One Man" then comes up and uses a ramrod to push the shell up into it. After the round is seated, he takes the bag of propellant and loads that in behind the shell - for this shoot, I was told that we used "Red Bag," one of the most powerful propellants out there (unfortunately so for those windows). They throw in the primer, basically a cartridge of gunpowder to get it all rolling, and close it up. Finally, they hook up the lanyard to the back of the gun - this is what actually fires the round. The "Number One Man" takes the lanyard back 25 feet or so (I was told that usually six feet is all that is necessary but because of the vaunted "Red Bag" and all the recoil it produces, a lot of extra standoff is required), pulls it taut against his body and on the fire chief's command of "Fire," twists his body to pull the cord and fire the round. Very impressive.

Anyhow, as part of the VIP treatment that Mike provided me, I was allowed to fire a round. The private who had been doing it was a pretty stout fellow so as I walked up to give it a try, I was a little unsure on how much "juice" was needed to make that round fire, not too much different from finding out how much pressure from your finger is needed to pull the trigger on a given gun when you fire it for your first time. And this certainly wouldn't be a story worth telling if I had a misfire on my first try so you can see there was a lot of pressure there! But I pulled the lanyard to my body, got the command to "Fire" from the chief and not only twisted but probably pulled a bit on that cord, and you can imagine not only the exhilaration but also the relief when that round thundered off into the Mosul sky. A pretty neat feeling. To cap off the experience, Mike gave me the casing from the primer cartridge, a souvenir of sorts and proof that I fired an artillery round in a combat zone - a great day to be a Bobcat for sure!

I had lunch with Mike the next day and he coached me up a bit on what exactly happened again - even for an engineer, this was a fairly complex process. And we also shared stories of him being around for the Gary Trent years and some of our team's accomplishments in the last four years as well. So as I get ready to get back to Athens and rejoin the team in a few - hopefully short - months, I think it would be only fitting that our team unleash some of their own "Bobcat Thunder" on the MAC this season and particularly send some of it Mike's way here in Mosul come tournament time in March!

Have a great day! GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Tuesday, October 18

Well, the referendum is over, the polling sites are closed down and I would say that 95% of the 113th Engineer Battalion's mission in Iraq is complete. And it is a good feeling. I would call the election process here in Mosul a solid success - voter turnout was fairly high (somewhere in the 60% range) and, more importantly, there was no violence to speak of. Last night, our soldiers recovered concrete barriers from the final polling sites, culminating 17 days of long hours and hard work. Prior to the referendum, we emplaced approximately 2,000 barriers at 130 polling sites in Mosul and the surrounding regions here in Ninevah province. Compare that to only 55 sites for the election last January and you can see that there has been great progress, not only for us but for Iraq, as conditions were permissive enough to allow almost three times the number of polling sites this time around.

I am not going to lie. There definitely were some glitches, mainly due to trying to allow the Iraqis as much control as possible of the voting process. When things got dicey or looked bleak, American troops on occasion did have to step in and make sure things stayed on track. As we completed the barriers and obstacles at the polling sites on the nights prior to the vote, Iraqi "jundi" (Arabic for soldiers) or policemen were supposed to occupy and guard the sites. This was easier said than done at times. As a matter of fact, there was one point where the chief of police called all the polling sites in a neighborhood and told them those sites were deception sites and they did not need to guard them (sounds plausible but definitely not the plan). Well, it took more than a couple hours to run those police down and get them back where they were supposed to be - thankfully nothing bad happened as a result. Then there were all the ballot deliveries scheduled for the day prior to the elections - there were a few sites where the election officials were nowhere to be found and even one hub site where the head honcho allegedly forgot that the election was that weekend. All of these issues were worked through.

One of the biggest issues on the night prior to the elections were the possibility that people were not going to be allowed to vote if they showed up at a site other than where they were listed on the rolls (due to the cumbersome registration process, this province had been granted exception to this rule, which had been publicized for weeks only to be apparently reversed the day before). Thankfully this was resolved, as it was feared that if people were turned away at various sites that allegations of fraud would be raised. Additionally, the heightened security measures to prevent violence at the polling sites included every person being searched prior to entering the site. Only problem here was as election day approached, it became obvious that there weren't going to be enough female searchers (most polling sites were at schools so many of the female teachers were hired for this duty). Once again, the system adapted and female searchers were cross-leveled between some sites and at other sites, two females would be brought up to search each other while watched by a policeman.

On the day of election, there was a little drama as there were rumors that people in the Kurdish region in the north were voting in their towns and then being bussed to other towns to vote again. The Iraqi Army spun up to investigate this and, thankfully, it proved to be baseless.

But all in all, despite more than a few challenges, there were plenty of good news stories. Stories of whole families showing up to vote in their best clothes, elderly people being wheeled to the polling sites, pictures of many Iraqis proudly displaying the ink on their finger signifying that they had voted (and so they wouldn't try to vote again). In one small town on the outskirts of Mosul, the polling site director did not show up and, being a poor village and very isolated, the American and Iraqi soldiers patrolling through found that the couple hundred citizens were disappointed and fearful that they would not be able to vote due to lack of transportation. So the Iraqi police chief for that region sent a few trucks to a nearby town where every registered voter had voted prior to noon (how about that?!?!) and his policemen transported the election officials and their materials back to the other town where all the citizens were neatly lined up and ready to vote - the commander of the American unit reported that the cheering of the people in line was truly heartwarming.

Now don't ask me how the vote turned out here in Mosul and in Ninevah province because even though I am at headquarters and have fairly good access to information, nobody still truly knows. Just in some of the media accounts I've seen on the internet, I have seen some widely varying numbers. So it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

But again, all in all, this referendum was a success story and gives us a feeling that at least for now, some progress is being made and that there is hope for Iraq on the horizon. Only time will tell.

Have a great day!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Friday, October 14

Today I will have to start out with kudos to my parents Ed and Karen who celebrated their 35th anniversary on October 10th. To me, 35 days is a long time let alone 35 years, and for being such great parents to boot, they have much to be congratulated on. Not to mention my dad having to put up with all those shoes my mom buys and my mom having to listen to all my dad's polka music for all those years! Unfortunately I had to phone in to be a part of the party that my brothers Keith and Mark threw for them but in a few short months, I look forward to congratulating them in person.

Meanwhile, over here in this lovely tourist trap (oh, it's a trap all right!), things are ramping up in a big way for tomorrow's referendum. Being at brigade headquarters for this go-round as opposed to being down at the ground level for last January's elections offers a truly different view of things. Obviously the goal is to transition as much of this process as possible to Iraqi control but it's not like they have a lot of experience running elections so there definitely are some growing pains. From time to time, we will have officials from the Iraqi Election Commission, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police passing through here, as they all have a key role in tomorrow's events. While I have not worked with them directly, it is interesting to hear the stories of those who have, some good and some not-so-good. Bottom line is it looks as if things are as much on track as could be hoped for the vote.

As engineers, my unit has played a key role in helping secure the polling sites by emplacing thousands of concrete barriers throughout the area. I had an opportunity to roll with one of our teams out to emplace barriers at two rural sites a few nights ago. Our team consisted of four Strykers for security, four of our hummvees, one tractor trailer with a bucket loader on it and three more flatbed trailers hauling about 35 concrete barriers. We rolled out around 2000 and arrived at the first town about thirty minutes later. Once on site, the platoon leader linked up with the town's police chief while the soldiers began downloading the loader and the Strykers set up a security perimeter. The team leader walked around dropping luminescent chemical lights in the locations where he wanted his team to put barriers - the goal was to block all the avenues of approach to restrict vehicular access to the polling site (one gate made of steel cable was emplaced to allow for emergency access). The polling site in that town, as is the case in most, was one of the town's primary schools. As the engineer team got the equipment ready, I walked around the area with our interpreter - we happened upon a corner store where seven or eight men were sitting out in front telling stories. One of the younger ones, who turned out to be a 20-year-old university student, came up to us. He spoke some English with our interpreter but, of course, I spoke my English too fast for him to understand. Through the interpreter, I asked him for his thoughts about the referendum. He said that most people in his town would vote, that as Sunnis they would vote "no" because they had heard the constitution would give too much of the nation's wealth to their rivals, the Kurds, and that he thought the Kurds would cheat with the election by voting in multiple towns. When I asked him about how things were compared to how they had been with Saddam, he said that with Saddam, they had security, security and more security (I guess that's one way of looking at it) but nothing else; with the new post-Saddam era, security was still a bit iffy but that they had so much more in every other regard. All in all, he was positive about the direction things were heading. I should say that the biggest issue that came out was that it was a week before the referendum and the constitution still hadn't been released - in lieu of this, people were hearing a lot of rumors and were subject to whatever they heard from their leaders at their mosques - definitely not the democratic way. (Now it appears as the reason this constitution was not released was that amendments to appease the Sunnis and win more broad-based support were being negotiated).

After this, I walked further through the town where a horde of locals were interacting with the soldiers. Lots of laughing and pictures and candy being passed out - this is definitely the fun part of the job. The interpreter and I continued up the street towards the Christian section of town and walked into an internet café on the corner. The owner was an older man who gave us free Pepsis and had a lot of positive things in general to say about the current state of affairs. The interpreter asked him for me about the Sunni vs. Shiite vs. Kurd issue and he pointed around his shop and said that everyone got along just fine in this town. He said that he was planning on voting for the referendum.

At this point the barrier emplacement was just about complete so we loaded up and headed out to the town that I had been to on a recon just a week before. It was a good 45-minute drive so by the time we got there, it was almost midnight and the town was quiet. We found the town hall/mayor's office that was going to be the polling site and the police woke up the mayor and within 10 minutes he was over there dressed in a dress shirt and suit - no tie but pretty impressive nonetheless. He made my day when he pointed at me and said "Engineer" - good memory. While the soldiers emplaced the barriers, he took the platoon leader and platoon sergeant and myself into his office with three or four of his head policemen and we sat down on couches and had a little chat session. Amidst a lot of small talk and some sweets that were passed around, he indicated that his town was firmly for the referendum (even though, once again, they hadn't seen it). He also said that his town's biggest issue was jobs and also was very complimentary of the American efforts overall.

About an hour later, the obstacles were in place and we were ready to head back. It was over an hour drive but the good part was that I got to ride up in the rear hatch of the Stryker through the Iraqi countryside on a starry, yet chilly night. We returned to base at around 0230, fueled up and it was off to bed - another fun day in Iraq in the rear view mirror.

To close out, I had a humorous experience the other day. As I was walking with a fellow officer from this new unit across the base, he said to me, "Man, you walk slow." Of course, anyone who knows me knows that this is way out of character for me back home - I am usually rushing around somewhere for something. As I reflected on this, I figured either 1) it's been a long year and my body's worn down (I hope not), 2) 120-degree heat has a way of making you move a little slower so you sweat a little bit less or 3) over here, there's no reason to walk fast - you're not going anywhere (unless you're getting shot at, of course!). Whichever one it is, all I know is I'm looking forward to walking as slow or as fast as I like on some American street - Court Street (Athens), Church Street (Burlington), Chippewa Street (Buffalo) and Beale Street (Memphis) are just a few that come to mind!

Lastly, tomorrow is a big day as it will be the opening day of practice for Jeff Halbert and Mychal Green and your Ohio Bobcats - I'm looking forward to getting my email reports from the coaching staff. In the meantime, have a great day! Go Bobcats!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Wednesday, October 5

Well, I have to send a shout out to my Yankees, who overcome a rough start and a maddeningly inconsistent season to turn it on in September and send the Red Sox to second place, a position they have come to know very well over the past 90 years or so. And I figure I better enjoy it while I can because the Yanks are going to have their hands full in the playoffs. Fortunately, I was able to catch a few innings of the pennant-clinching victory on Saturday on the television - access to games and shows on television (and at normal hours as well!) is another thing I will really appreciate when I get back to the States.

Not much is new out here. As we prepare for the upcoming referendum, there is a lot of work associated with selecting and preparing the various polling sites. Last Friday, I had the chance to go out and visit one of the rural sites. I really enjoy those missions because the threat level in these outlying areas is much lower than in the city itself and you can actually walk around and interact with the citizens a bit without worrying so much about getting shot at.

In this particular town, the polling site was going to be the mayor's compound, which doubled as his residence and the town meeting place. It was formerly a getaway for Saddam Hussein so it had some well-landscaped grounds with a 12-foot wall all the way around and a commanding view of all the surrounding area. We rolled out there at around 0700 and I had a 45-minute ride in the guts of a Stryker - no window seats for sure but there are some neat electronic gizmos in there that allow you to track where you are on a map as well as see some imagery of the vehicle's surroundings through some high-tech optics.

When we got there, the platoon leader who was in charge of this town introduced me to the mayor and we chatted through the interpreter about putting some concrete barriers and wire obstacles around the compound to better protect it during the election. The mayor had his own set of bodyguards and in general projected an aura of importance. Interestingly, he did not want to have his picture taken, as there still is a fear at some levels in many Iraqis of being identified as pro-American. The other thing I find pretty fascinating is trying to talk to Iraqis through interpreters - I am interested in how they handle a lot of the slang and figures of speech that we use, as well as how they translate not so much the words but the feelings that we are trying to convey. There is a whole set of recommendations for using interpreters, including how you position your body while you are speaking and listening (to just name a few) but to be honest, I have not had to use one enough to really master this.

After our introductions, the platoon leader went into the mayor's office to spend some time with him and I walked around the grounds taking a look at how to defend the place (which didn't take very long - the architects weren't going to leave Saddam very vulnerable). After that, I spent some time hanging out with the U.S. soldiers who were pulling security, the Iraqi policemen who were guarding the place and the droves of kids who were attracted to the American presence. I got to meet the mayor's son, a fearless 10-year-old who knew just enough English to be dangerous (and the soldiers didn't help this any!).

Because the new unit here in Mosul is wearing the army's new uniform (ACU's - Army Combat Uniform - more grayish in nature to fit into urban terrain better) and I was the only one in the traditional desert camouflage, I think the villagers thought I was important or something (what were they thinking?). The policemen invited me into their break room for some tea - the Iraqi version features about two huge heaps of sugar that has little chance of dissolving in the little shot-glass-sized tea cup - they serve it hot and sweet. To show my gratitude, I gave them each a handful of suckers for their kids - one of them was pretty funny as he kept trying to milk me for more suckers, his family was getting bigger by the minute - but despite the language barrier, we all got a good laugh out of that.

Prior to leaving, the Iraqi Election Commission official - who also happened to be the Mayor's brother (sounds like a good way to assure re-election) - showed up and we went through the defense plan for the site one more time. Then it was back into the Stryker and the long ride back to Mosul.

Other than that, the Bobcat nation will be glad to hear that I got approached by an officer with the new unit the other day and - surprise, surprise - he turned out to be an Ohio University Army ROTC graduate - Captain Mike Bugaj. To make things even crazier, he had been stationed at Fort Lewis the same time I was and knew my good friend from Notre Dame ROTC, Nate Ebeling, well from having served in the same field artillery battalion. Small world. And did I mention how fired up he said he was all the way up in Alaska when the Bobcats made their run through the MAC Tournament and into the Big Dance - Bobcat fans are everywhere! We'll just have to give him reason to tune into the Big Dance from Mosul come this March!

Have a great day! Go Bobcats!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Thursday, September 29

Yes, I have been slacking, I know. Twelve, now it's fourteen (this is the third time I've tried to sit down and knock this one out) whole days with no entries. I promise that I will try to do better next time. With me being up here at headquarters, there just haven't been many missions for me to go on of late (and I am sure my mom is just fine with that).

Things are going fairly well these days. First and foremost, I must send a happy 40th shout out to my partner in crime, Big John Rhodes! The emphasis is on 40 years YOUNG in his case. Unfortunately not being there to celebrate it with him will be chalked up as another one of those missed opportunities along this yearlong journey. But we will just have to create a new opportunity when I get back and I am sure that Rhodey will be more than happy to oblige! In any case, I sent him my well wishes in the form of a picture I posed for out in front of the Palace here where I was holding a Happy 40th sign in one hand and toasting him with a Coors Non-Alcoholic in the other - Rhodey, you're out of sight by thousands of miles but in spirit you're always just a high five away!

Another big win for the Bobcats this past weekend - I am definitely missing out on an exciting football season. Meanwhile, I found myself as the only person still up at 0330 watching the conclusion of my Fighting Irish's victory over Washington to keep their renaissance season rolling right along. Of note, I watched the game in the MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) Palace, another one of the many small palaces on these grounds that has been converted to other uses. In this case, this particular one has a TV lounge, a weight room, a cardio room, some shops and a computer and phone lab. Probably the most striking aspect of the experience of watching the game on Armed Forces Network was looking at a big-screen TV that had small shrapnel rips in the screen - the taxpayers will be happy to know that obviously the TV was hit during a mortar attack and was salvaged and is still being put to good use.

The referendum is fast approaching, just a little more than two weeks away. And that means that the engineers are even busier than usual, and that's all I will say about that. It is really hard to get a feel for how the political process is going here. I do not even think the constitution has been officially released to the public so I wonder how the people are even going to know what they are voting for. The prevailing wisdom is that the turnout is going to be a big jump from last January but that there is a lot of sentiment out there to vote "No" as many feel they were not well-represented in the process last time (mainly because they didn't bother to vote!). A "No" vote would mean that the December elections would be for a new transitional government which would then spend the year trying to come up with another constitution and this whole process would be repeated. While all in all this could be construed as a good exercise in collaborative government, I am a bit concerned that this would just extend our nation's military presence over here even more than currently projected as they try to sort this out, and I do not think that would be the best thing in the world.

I was lucky enough to head back to my old base for a night to take part in some of our battalion's plannng for this mission and besides being part of that process, it was just great to see all the soldiers again after a few weeks of being away. Not to mention spending the night in my old "hooch" with some carpeting on the floor and all my cards and letters from back home on the wall - just much more comfortable than living out of a rucksack like I am right now.

Lastly, I took note the other day that it was just two months away from the Bobcats' home opener against Saint Francis on November 26th. Not to mention that practice starts in just over two weeks. So hopefully our Cats are ready to step up to the plate and defend our MAC championship! And soon enough, I'll be right there with them - can't wait!

Have a great day! Go Bobcats!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Friday, September 16

Greetings from the Palace. Unfortunately, I am not sitting in the throne being fanned by my servants and having fresh fruit brought to me on a platter. Instead, I am sweating my butt off (not as bad now as it has finally dropped below 100 degrees) and continuing to slog through gravel to get to the shower trailer each morning.

My first two weeks here have gone fairly well and I would say that the change of scenery has recharged my batteries a bit. It's definitely a different war being fought here at headquarters, as it is being fought mainly with the mind. Each morning when I call back to my battalion on the phone, I sharply report that despite heavy fighting, I did not suffer any paper cuts at the hands of the insurgents the day prior. Properly moisturizing your hands each morning is crucial to being able to shuffle all that paper and not suffer any casualties!

The other headquarters phenomenon is that of the laser pointer. The army is famous for its meetings and briefings and even more so for its heavy reliance on powerpoint presentations - the popular term is "death by powerpoint" and it definitely is more effective than anything the enemy could muster. Additionally, you can not turn around without bumping into a paper or electronic map adorning every available inch of wall space. Consequently, the laser pointer is immensely popular for pointing out locations on maps or slides and is a must-have for any butt-kissing captain aspiring to get a good efficiency report and move up the food chain (I definitely do not fit this bill!). I was proud of myself as for the first eight months in country while I was at battalion, I did not use one. Unfortunately, coming up here to brigade marked the end of that as it is expected that you will brief each time with a laser pointer. So I have been swallowing my pride for the past two weeks in that regard.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get off base the other day to roll out to one of the outlying towns (about 15-20 miles away from Mosul) to check out some security measures that our soldiers had emplaced at their town's police station/town hall. In addition to the cavalry troopers that brought me out there, a civil affairs team also accompanied us. The civil affairs teams interact with the locals and attempt to take a barometer of where they are at in a variety of areas, as well as initiating projects to improve their living conditions - their motto is, "winning their hearts and minds." Anyhow, from the soldier's standpoint, all they do is a lot of talking - what could have been a 45-minute mission ended up being about four hours.

When we arrived in town, we immediately went into the Town Hall where the cavalry commander and the civil affairs leader had a meeting with the mayor. I avoided that one like the plague and made my way around the grounds to check out the force protection for the facility. As I did so, I met quite a few kids as I made a mistake of sorts by giving one of the boys a tootsie pop - after that, I was like the Pied Piper and couldn't turn around without two or three of the little buggers hanging on my arm. Soccer is a hit here in Iraq and I kicked around a ball with a few of the soldiers and kids in the street as we waited. I also met a few of the policemen who had returned from a patrol - they somehow managed to cram 13 into a small Nissan pickup truck, including seven in the cab! Lastly, I went inside to some sort of business office where they were issuing ration coupons for benzene (gasoline) - evidently there is a fairly severe shortage out there. I was surprised by the amount of females working in the office but learned that the town is predominantly Christian, which explained the more westernized view of women.

As the meeting ended, I was told we would be heading to the town's courthouse, which was just a "short" walk away. As usual with everything else over here, the distance was grossly understated. I probably could have covered a pretty good stretch of the way back to Athens (Greece, that is) in the time it took us to get to the courthouse (and we certainly did not take the most direct path either!).

Along the way, the kids would cluster around all the soldiers and we stopped at one of the corner marketplaces where there was a host of small shops and an area along the street to sit and talk. I bought a bottle of Iraqi Coca-Cola and enjoyed a slushee of sorts as well. There were some nice-looking churches and I also met some cute youngsters. I saw quite a few fair-skinned youth and even a few with reddish hair - definitely different from most of the neighborhoods we usually work in.

Of course, there had to be some excitement and as we plodded through the narrow streets around the whole perimeter of the town, one of the Strykers hit a truck, causing a relatively minor dent to its fender. This set off quite the commotion as the truck driver got pretty excited, as did the soldier who was driving who felt the truck should have gotten out of the way sooner - never fear , the civil affairs major came to the rescue, whipping out a $50 bill from the petty cash that they carry for these exact type of emergencies. Any consternation on my part from this episode was quickly replaced with a sense of longing as we walked by one of the scant liquor stores that Christian towns like these are well-known for - the open door and Carlsberg and Tuborg signs were definitely tempting!

Finally we made it to the Courthouse, which definitely did not prove to be worth the march over there - at that point, I was hoping to maybe see a thief's hand cut off or something like that! And after all that, we were all definitely ready to pile into the Strykers and roll back to Mosul - I had seen what I needed to see and the civil affairs crew was fairly satisfied with the feedback they had gotten as well. Much more rewarding and enjoyable than a lot of the night missions that I have gone on where you don't get to interact with the locals and you're always on the lookout for the bad guys popping out - not a bad half-day's effort (and no paper cuts either!).

Back to my daily existence, I often talk about some of the challenges - big or small - that we face over here that I look forward to leaving in the rear view mirror in a few months. Certainly you have all heard me lament the flimsy plastic ware, the heat, the gravel, the dust, and on and on. One other thing that I will definitely not miss is how dark it gets at night. All external lights are left off and all windows are covered to prevent light from getting out, so as to not give the enemy a reference point to fire at. Well, the other night, as I was walking across this still unfamiliar base, I had the misfortune to walk into a three-foot-high concrete barrier that I didn't see coming. Luckily I only scraped up my knee a little bit and no one was nearby as it was pretty embarrassing. I learned the hard way why so many of the soldiers purchase head lanterns - I dutifully bought mine the next day.

Lastly, I will leave you with a great compliment to my unit that was paid to me the other day. I must preface this by saying that there exists a stereotype of national guardsman and reservists among active duty soldiers that is pretty much unavoidable - since the guardsman and reservists only train one weekend a month, the thought is that there is no way that they can be as competent as someone who does it full-time, 24-7 (don't even want to think about what that means for someone off the IRR like myself who doesn't even do one weekend a month!). Anyhow, there was a brigade staff officer whom I had only known for about two weeks. On his last day here at the palace prior to heading to the airfield to fly for Kuwait, he actually sought me out and told me, "Thanks to you all for your great support. If we go somewhere else in a few years, we hope you guys are there with us." Again, in light of that preconceived notion of guardsmen, that really is a great indication how the work of the 113th Engineers has been regarded here. I expressed my heartfelt thanks as well; of course, I didn't mention that for my mom's sake, I personally had better not be there with them the next time!

Have a great day! Go Bobcats!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Sunday, September 11

Well, it was four years ago today that our nation experienced a great tragedy and events that probably have a lot to do with me being where I am today were triggered. Here in Mosul, we held a short service commemorating those who gave their lives on 9/11, complete with a minute-by-minute account of that fateful morning. It was a very solemn, reflective ceremony and hopefully the efforts of our country the past four years have made things safer for our citizens and better for people around the world as well.

In terms of day-to-day happenings, probably the biggest news item is that I have changed jobs and changed locations. I have moved on to a new base, this one located on the grounds of Saddam Hussein's former palace in Mosul. Additionally, I have moved on to serve as the assistant brigade engineer on our brigade staff.

In terms of the change of scenery, it is a big difference. In spite of dried up grass and a multitude of concrete barriers and concertina wire, the palace grounds are impressive indeed. There is one mammoth palace that is the focal point of the estate and probably four or five other mini-palaces that probably belonged to each of Saddam's wives or something. The main palace has been converted into our headquarters so that is where I report to work each morning. Another welcome change is that all the roads are paved on these grounds, which especially makes a big difference when I go running. Probably the most interesting thing that you notice as you walk the grounds is how the various buildings and rooms have been converted to military use - the indoor pool that now serves as office space is a prime example of that! Lastly, the base offers some spectacular scenery and views of the city that sometimes just sneak up on you as you round the corner - Saddam knew what he was doing when he picked out this location and designed the whole estate.

As far as day-to-day living goes, there are some plusses and minuses compared to my former home. Not being co-located with my battalion and all the soldiers I've worked with for the past nine months definitely is an adjustment but at the same time offers a great opportunity to meet some new people. As far as my home goes, I now have a roommate and left almost everything I brought with me back in my old living unit - I brought one duffle bag, as I am only looking to be here 6-8 weeks - definitely makes for some spartan living. On one hand, the internet and phone access is not as good but on the other hand, everything is located very close together and it is easy to walk wherever you need to go. The dining hall is not as big and does not offer as large a selection of food but it is not as crowded, and since the commanding general eats there, you never run out of anything.

Work-wise, it definitely is a big adjustment. It is much slower-paced than being battle captain and a lot less stressful as well. I am much more removed from the day-to-day operations of my battalion. On the other hand, being here at brigade headquarters gives me great insight into what is going on with the whole brigade and also gets me involved with some of the long-range planning (or lack thereof that used to drive me crazy!). The other funny thing about being here at "the flagpole" (reference to the headquarters) is all the saluting that goes on. You have hundreds of people working in the palace so as you walk in and out, you can't turn around without bumping into a horde of privates saluting you (and they're always spaced just a couple of steps apart so that one salute isn't enough) or even worse, a horde of colonels that I have to salute. Bottom line, just walking to the dining facility one building over can require 15 to 20 salutes - I probably haven't raised my right arm that much since my 21st birthday! But all in all, the change of scenery is probably a positive for me and hopefully will help speed our last 80 days or so along.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of big wins this weekend for the Bobcats and Notre Dame. I was not able to catch the Bobcats but was able to check the result online and couldn't be happier for the players, coaches and all the fans - definitely a great and memorable victory. As for Notre Dame, the first year that Brian Townsend was on our staff, the Irish were drubbed 38-0 by his Wolverines and it was a painful Monday morning in the office two days later. However, the Irish have now defeated the Wolverines two years in a row so as they always say in the army, "Smoke `em if you got `em," a reference to the old days where the soldiers could smoke when they got a break but only if they actually had cigarettes, sometimes a hard commodity to come by. Well, victories in the ND-Michigan series are definitely hard to come by so "T," I'm looking forward to savoring this victory over the #3 in the nation Wolverines (in the Big House, no less!) for the upcoming year and look forward to being back stateside to remind you of it here in a few (hopefully) short months.

Have a great day! GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Sunday, September 4

Well, it was one year ago yesterday that I received my now infamous letter in the mail from the Army's Human Resource Command notifying me of my call-up. I remember stopping by my house on my way back to the Convo at lunchtime that Friday afternoon to check on my mail. And not even batting an eyelash as I ripped that envelope open, expecting to see my discharge orders. And then the disbelief as I realized what was happening - after seeing the part about being mobilized for up to 545 days and that I was to report to Fort Sill in three weeks time, I didn't even bother to read the rest of the orders (made it a little difficult trying to answer my parents' questions later on).

It is hard to believe that only 365 days have passed since then - it feels (and my hair reflects) a few lifetimes. I didn't end up having to report for duty until October 24th so that made for plenty of farewells in Athens and South Bend and on the recruiting trail, which I jokingly referred to as my "farewell tour" (in the temporary sense, of course!). Then it was on to Fort Sill, and to Fort Leonard Wood, and to Fort Hood, and just when I had had enough of "forts," they sent me to "Camp" Atterbury, and then as I was getting tired of American military installations, they sent me to a Kuwaiti one (but they named it Camp New York, at least), and when I was starting to wonder if I would ever actually see an Iraqi, they dropped me into a mud puddle here in Mosul.

Now I am definitely on the downward end of this whole challenge/ordeal/adventure (depending how you look at it), and for the most part, I feel like I have succeeded in living up to what I wrote down the day after I received those orders - "Turn a negative into a positive." One of the biggest pieces of evidence in that regard arrived the other day, as my MAC championship ring arrived in the mail. Certainly, that owes mainly to the efforts of the 14 players and my fellow coaches who were there for the day-in, day-out grind of the season (although I assure you I was never far away in spirit). And then there are the amazing men and women whom I have had the pleasure of serving with over here. And finally you throw in the wonderful people back stateside who have written and emailed and sent packages to me, many who have never even met me before. Add it all together, and while I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, I certainly will be a much better and enriched person for my experience through all this.

Enough of the nostalgia - no need for a Kleenex. First and foremost, our unit completed the construction of the combat outpost that I referred to in my last email and have received numerous kudos for the effort. I went out there again on the final night of work and it looked great. It took four nights to complete the project and I will say that with each successive night for engineers, there is less and less of the element of surprise and you get more and more nervous that the enemy might have something up his sleeve. But thankfully we were able to avoid any enemy contact and there is great hope that having an Iraqi Army presence at this location will be a significant factor in denying the enemy one of their favorite areas for emplacing improvised explosive devices (IED's) in the road.

The other day I received a most unusual (and pleasant) surprise in the mail, as one of my college roommates, Sean Norton, sent me a package. In addition to the usual goodies (especially his wife Heather's delicious double chocolate cookies - they didn't have a chance and were gobbled up instantaneously), Sean also included a copy of Heather's sonogram - definitely a unique way of telling me about the impending arrival of their first child (hopefully he/she takes after their mom!!!). Congratulations!

I also had a little fun after work the other day as it was time for one of our radio operators, Specialist Kalina, who also doubles as our Battalion Commander's tracked vehicle driver, to take his M113A2 armored personnel carrier for a test drive, which he was nice enough to invite me to be a part of. Our battalion is a mechanized engineer battalion, which means that we move around the battlefield in tracked vehicles, as opposed to light engineer battalions (which use LPC's - that's short for Leather Personnel Carriers - also known as their boots, a fancy way of saying they walk!) or wheeled engineer battalions (which use dump trucks and Hummvees). So the M113 is supposed to be our primary means of maneuver. Two problems with that premise, however. First of all, the urban battlefield that we find ourselves in here in Mosul does not lend itself to rolling around town in tracked vehicles - they tear up the asphalt and are not made for the frequent maneuvering and turning that city traffic demands. As a matter of fact, back in February I saw one of our M113s get caught in a tight spot and roll over the hood of a subcompact taxi that was even more subcompact after that collision. And more importantly, the A2 version of the M113 is a bit antiquated (that's being kind - like wishing your grandparents a happy 39th birthday), and have a nearly impossible time keeping up with the Strykers that our infantry brethren utilize to move through Mosul. Realizing that, the army fielded us M1114 up-armored Hummvees, which have basically taken the place of these M113s.

But we still have the M113s and do use them on occasion, as they do cut a bit of an intimidating figure when they noisily roll through town, hence the need for Specialist Kalina to give his some exercise that night. So we spent a good hour rolling around our base, first storming right down the main drag in front of the dining facility in what we would jokingly call a "show of force" and then heading out to the perimeter of the base where all the guard towers are located. SPC Kalina drove and I rode up in the vehicle commander's hatch, where I definitely ate a good bit of dust but it was worth every bit of it. The funny thing about these M113s is that they will get going and you will think you are going 40-45 miles per hour when in fact you are lucky if you're going 20. If only I could find a car that gave me that same feeling, I might have saved some of my speeding tickets!

And last but definitely not least, I was standing tall at 0400 this morning to listen to the internet audiocast as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish took the Pitt Panthers to the proverbial woodshed to the tune of 42-21. Brian Townsend's Michigan Wolverines and the Big House loom large on the schedule for the Irish for next Saturday and hopefully Armed Forces Network will carry that one live over here - I know Charlie Weis and company will bring their slingshots with them and see what they can do. In the meantime, hopefully the Panthers are nice and softened up for the Bobcats to give them a rude welcome to Peden Stadium this Friday night.

Have a great day! GO BOBCATS!

CPT Kevin Kuwik

Sunday, August 28

Good morning, Iraq! Not quite, but when I was walking to the shower this morning, I was thinking that we definitely could use Robin Williams over here.

I had a different idea for my journal entry today. I often get asked what a typical day is like over here, as most people have a tough time visualizing what day-to-day life is like in a combat zone (and let's keep it that way!). And it's a question that I usually have a pretty difficult time answering. So while Saturday, August 27th may or may not have been a typical day, I figured that I would give you a rundown and hopefully offer some better insight into a day in the life of IRONMAN 3-ALPHA (my call sign).

0355 - (That's 3:55 a.m. for civilians.) I wake up an hour earlier than usual. To set the stage, on Thursday night I went out to check out one of our missions, a night mission to build a combat outpost (basically a small fort) for the Iraqi Army on a field overlooking one of the notoriously most dangerous parts of town. I didn't get back in until about 0500 on Friday morning and after a quick hour cat nap, I was at my desk by 0700. After working all day Friday, I crashed at about 2000. My friends from Notre Dame probably are a bit disappointed in me, as back in the day I would have chugged a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew and not skipped a beat. I guess old age (or maybe Iraq) is taking its toll. Still, four and a half hours of sleep for two nights isn't bad work.

0445 - After sending out a few emails, I make my daily morning stroll to a deserted shower trailer and do some not-so-quick mental math that tells me we're almost down to 100 days to go in Iraq (I suppose that I'll have to celebrate the 100 day mark with a "near beer" - really living it up, I know). After showering and shaving, I return to my living unit, where I change into my uniform and get back to some emails. I am not even through the first email when the new online phone service that I am trying (Skype--basically a way to talk computer-to-computer with headsets) chimes in that one of my old college roommates, Mi