Change of Plans, new deployment

Alright, much has happened since 22 July. As my buddy Nate told me, "dude, all I see when I check up to see how things are going is a stupid bottle of pills on a computer". Well, I better bring everyone up to date.

I left for Combat Skills Training at the end of July, and began training with about 180 or so Air Force civil engineers (reserve, active duty, and guard...good ol' mix). I was the company commander for about 20 or so active duty firefighters, and it was an awesome experience. However, one night out on the range, as we were night firing and I couldn't see crap on my iron-sighted GUU (a short barreled, Vietnam-era M-16), I called my boss back at McGuire AFB, and told him I needed a newer gun, possibly one not from Lyndon B Johnson's presidency. I received a phone call the next morning stating that I was coming home. I tried explaining that the newer gun wasn't a big issue, when the boss told me that my deployment to Northern Afghanistan had been canceled. After a couple days of leadership calling around trying to figure out what was going on, we found out that the Navy had a LCDR (lieutenant commander, equivalent to a major in the Air Force) that was taking the job, but forgot to tell the Air Force not to fill the position. Needless to say, I was done and off the hook for my deployment! (Jess was ecstatic)

The problem with me being pulled off the deployment so late, was that all the awesome deployments were gone. I was number one on the list to go on a deployment, and now that I wasn't going, I was back to the number one position on the list...again. To remind everyone what the history has been for me for the last 3 years, this is basically the 3rd time I have been pulled off a deployment for random reasons.

Long story short, I had two to pick from. One to Iraq in early 2011 and one to Afghanistan in mid 2011. I decided to pick the Afghan one because I didn't want to change the title of this blog. Pretty good reason, right?

Anyway I will be around Princeton a little longer, and will be updating this blog as I find things out and closer to when I leave. So if you are around Kabul in the summer, look for me!