Kyle’s Blog

Most of everyone who’s anyone took off for home today as it was our last day of pre-deployment training. It felt very odd to shake hands with all my shipmates and new friends I’ve made and saying “See you over there.” I’m in an odd mood about the whole situation. I feel tremendously excited that I’m doing something that’s actually impressing myself, and pretty nervous to jump right into managing my own armory. I’m blown away about how quickly and cavalier I made my decision to hop on board, get shipped overseas, and do something I never really realized I’d like to do. I’ve always been upset that I’m never doing enough to protect the country I love, but headed into the middle of it is satisfying and rewarding.

I can’t wait for this next week to be over. I’m sad that both Seattle and California are going to go by very fast and before I know it I’ll be in a small boat doing boardings on Iraqi wooden boats wondering what the hell happened.

On a total side note I think either Children of Bodom or Dragonforce shall/will be played in route to each boarding if I’m the boarding officer.

- After many year I do believe that Clarie Danes has been dethroned in the “famous person I’d like to do bad things to” category only to be replaced by Sarah Silverman.

- The amount of modifications I can and want to do (with money as a non issue) to my M1A is ridiculous

- I posess a strong desire to tattoo my wrists and put an American flag on me

- I need new clothes… bad. I might as well be wearing stone wash jeans and an Anthrax t shirt

- I really wish I had a rocket launcher backpack and/or jet pack

- I wish I had a personal chef, costume designer/ wardrobe, and a few muscle cars

- Having muscles again rules

- Beer rules

- Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. is the only movie that comes to mind in the terms of AWESOME for the next few months of movies

- Holy shit I’m going to 100+ degree heat and horrible miserable operation tempo for a whole year in 2 months

We’re winding down with the last week of Pre-deployment training and the (prospective) captain put it best when she said, “I have every confidence that we could go clear an abandon building, but we still know nothing about what’s going on over there.” Well, first off I wouldn’t want to clear much of anything with these guys iffin’ I didn’t have to, but the second part is right. There’s still a whole shop full of weapons I have to maintain, learn how to do logs, maintenance scheduling, and work computer programs that are more trouble than their worth. More importantly what are schedule is like, what exactly we’re doing, what’s currently going on over there etc. The standard response is that “You’ll get all of that over there.” which thankfully the captain agrees with us in thinking that’s really not an answer at all. It’s okay… the Coast Guard’s motto is only Semper Paratus (always ready) *insert thick sarcasm*

I wish I had a friend who talked like Starscream from Transformers.

The crew is headed out to Busch Gardens this Thursday and I’m really excited. A lot of other fellas aren’t so pumped up for another day with the crew and have already packed their bags. I can’t blame them for being ready to leave, and I might feel the same way if I wasn’t staying another week on the east coast. All I know is I’ve been on the roller coasters at Six Flags, Disneyland, and Knott’s, but never at Busch Gardens. Let me tell you… I love roller coasters… like a lot. Woooo!

I’m mailing my uniforms, dvds, books, and all that jazz off today to lighten my load on the way back to Seattle. I was packing my stuff yesterday and I was amazed that it actually looks like I’m leaving with less stuff… not sure how that’s possible. I was folding everything up, specifically my old blue uniform and it just felt odd to look at, personally I think I look a lot better in blue than I do in desert three color cammo.

I watched ‘The assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ and I was pretty impressed. The movie was slow at times, but absolutely beautifully filmed. Casey Affleck was amazing, and I was excited to find that Sam Rockwell was in most of the movie as well.

I hope I have enough time to enjoy myself back home in California. I really want to get out to the desert before I leave with my pa, even after adventures here and there I always feel completely away from everything and everyone in the desert and I need that. Hopefully this time I lead the jack rabbit a bit more and not pepper it’s ass with .308 rounds. Mmmm rabbit.

I miss good friends, the old job, the down time, the runnin’ and gunnin’, livin’ life fast, the travel, and what some might call questionable sexuality

Today was our last day of CQB at Blackwater. The whole crew had a great time and according to the instructors who were both BW and CG employees, we were one of the best to come through that represented the Coast Guard. I managed to get shot during one run, but nothing that would have killed me in real life thankfully. They always say make your mistakes here in training, learn from them, and you’ll never make the same mistake twice. The whole Baranof crew won the respect of one of the lead instructors who was an awesome guy, former Arizona SWAT and deploys with Blackwater overseas. Not only did we all work well coach pupil wise, but he gave us a Blackwater coin each… which of course meant a lot more having in handed to you in the form of a handshake (as it is supposed to be given) than bought in the store on base.

Coming to an undisclosed Middle Eastern location near you!

I was thinking today on the drive home that I miss Seattle more than California… bigtime. More and more I lean towards calling the Pacific Northwest “home”.

Just two pictures of down time during CQC today.

Looking down the barrel of a simunition converted M9 9mm Beretta .

I love hearing officers talk… no really… can’t you tell how excited I am?

You know what peace loving liberals… you’re right… all this world needs is a big ol’ hug… that’ll fix everything.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=163653&title=marines-in-berkeley

Thank you for being the inspiration for my tears… caused by tremendous laughter.

First day of close quarter combat/battle and man was I rusty. For everyone else this is all new stuff, most of them are picking it up pretty quickly too. The task of clearing, flowing through multiple rooms, and other related tasks is proving very difficult with me after working with the same guys for so long. The instructors have a way of teaching that is very “crawl walk run”, and it’s a bit more difficult to function where I’m just a bit (not tooting my own horn) above the curve. It’s very beneficial working in tight quarters that you’re able to play off your teammate, recognize their body language, and know exactly what they’re thinking… a lot more difficult to do with a whole new crew. It was good day however, and work like this only builds our crew camaraderie up more and more which will be essential while we’re in theatre. So the next week (including this weekend) will be spent over at Blackwater kicking in doors and shooting stuff so I don’t expect to be writing very much.

In a world where the United States has to play hall boss safeguarding multiple governments all around the globe leaving the middle east is not the answer. When Coast Guard and US Navy assets are staring down the barrel of Iranian gunships while their government supports multiple known hostile factions of anti American groups it’s a NECESSITY that our people are there. Iran is begging for WWIII that is started by US gunfire to the point where our government is willing to sacrifice a meager 110 foot cutter (like the one I’ll be on) in order to protect itself from further criticism from the rest of the world from the title “war monger”. The reason why I’m going over there as a VOLUNTEER is to ensure that we’re there protecting a country and it’s people from falling into civil war and internal strife. Sadly, one of these democrats will be elected and one way or another we’ll all be pulled out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait etc. Moving out of the middle east is the equivalent of negotiating with terrorists… succumbing to their demands, leaving Iran, Syria, and Chechan anti coalition forces to rape, pillage and destroy the middle east and fund every other group that hates America with a passion. This opens us to a barrage of attacks by said forces due to zero American forces to deter and/or stop such activity. Mark my words… elect Obama or Hilary, when they pull out our forces from the middle east expect another attack on American soil within 2 years. The solution is not pulling our troops. Bloodshed, sacrifice, and the will to protect others who cannot protect themselves isn’t anything new and it isn’t anything different here today, that is the duty and responsibility of a nation who holds the most power in the world today. Nothing has changed from history with Great Britain protecting international trade with their massive navy in the days of old. From battling piracy to other countries who could barley support themselves, it was their duty as the world’s “superpower” at the time to manage and create a more effective and efficient world. From assisting other nations in selling their goods all around the world to protecting other nation’s assets… that is the burden and duty of the nation who prospers most.

This will be the first time that I will be voting for a presidential candidate. I never considered myself educated enough about candidate’s policies to actually cast a vote in confidence. After seeing both these horrendous democratic candidates that (in my opinion) will destroy this country… I’m doing what I should have been doing a long time ago… educating myself, reading up on candidates views, and doing my best to not let Hilary or Obama in office. Pulling out of Iraq is not the answer, and any preson running for president who doesn’t have the respect for his country to put his hand over his chest for the national anthemn shouldn’t be running in the first place. I’m going to stop myself for fear I start incoherently rambling about foreign policy, pussy bleeding heart liberals, and fools who think voting for someone simply because they’re a woman or black is the right thing to do.