Happy Birthday, Terry.

Terry and Jocey
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Terry and I have the same birthday (not the same year, though). In this picture, the best thing that ever happened to Terry (Jocey) is kissing Terry at a party the night before Rick and Cali got married.

Sleeping and Smiling

Hunter Sleeping

Sarema is enroute to visit me here in Colorado over the long Fourth of July weekend. I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with her and Peanut.
Before she left, Sarema took a picture of Hunter smiling during an afternoon nap. Since he's my son, he must've been having a mischievous dream.
This is one of my favorite pictures of him.

Rick, Terry, and Me

SB Half Marathon

This is a picture of me with two of my best friends: Terry and Rick. We ran the Santa Barbara Half Marathon together a couple years ago and it nearly killed us. Well, it nearly killed Rick and me. Terry breezed through it like the physical stud that he is. Note that Terry trained for the 13-mile race by running 10-15 miles three or four times a week. Rick and I trained for the 13-mile race by running 3-4 miles two or three times per week. Rick and I also relied on Little Chocolate Donuts to give us the performance edge and keep up with Terry.

Beep Beep

I finally rented a car here. We were forbidden from bringing our own vehicles from home, but there is a loophole that lets us rent cars while we are here. I rented a car with a buddy, Dave, who is still in California, but is on his way here this week.
It's so nice to have a car again after a six weeks of walking and bumming rides off of people. I even drove out to the nearby Drop Zone on my own and did a few jumps yesterday.

Swoop

Swoop
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Mikey from Colorado Sky Sports in Canyon City, CO lands his parachute at 35+ mph in May, 2005.
I took this picture with my Canon Digital Rebel on sports mode. This camera makes takes great pictures easy.

Convoy Operations

For the last two days, we've been training on convoy operations. Since the majority of the injuries to American soldiers in Iraq occur during convoys, the Army has taken some big steps to train us on convoy operations. In six years of active duty in the 90s, i only fired my rifle on a rifle range; never from a moving vehicle. Yesterday, I trained all day to do that and today I did it with live rounds. We drove four Humvees down a road and shot live rounds out of both sides. This type of dangerous training would never have been done by logistics troops before 9/11. Only infantry troops did such live fires then.
During today's training, we got hit by simulated IEDs twice and we were ambushed by insurgents 4 times. The four-vehicle convoy that I was leading had two disabled vehicles and three injured troops that I had to call in a (simulated) medevac helicopter for. The evaluators seemed to be pleased with my group's performance and the Lieutenant Colonel in charge told us that we were ready to execute a convoy in combat. That was nice to hear and I could tell he didn't lavish praise on every group that came through.
The top comments of the day, though, were when the NCO evaluator who accompanied us on the live fire training said that he would roll with me on combat patrol in Iraq. He served 12 months in Iraq last year, so that meant a lot to me. Right after that, one of my NCOs, SSG McElroy, said "That's my boss." That was the ultimate compliment. I hope that I can live up to my troops' expectations and bring all of them home safely.
I'm glad that the training went well today and that no one was shot by accident. Like most of this training, I hope to never have to use it.

5 Stack

5 Stack
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Some of the soldiers on my team getting ready to enter the shoot house last Saturday.

CQB - Close Quarters Battle

4 Stack
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Yesterday and last night my soldiers and I were training on how to enter and clear a building. In the picture, I'm #2 in line to enter a shoot house. We were training on "city fighting" with night vision goggles and blank ammo. Three of my NCOs are "stacked up" with me: SFC Nash and SGTs Cos and Basco.
I hope that we never have to use this training for real.

been busy

you're getting your money's worth out of your tax dollars. I've been working six days a week, 12 or more hours a day, getting ready for the middle east. i'm off to do some radio and GPS training now. I'll write more soon.

distracted

distracted
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

hunter's looking at the music-maker on his swing (off camera)

Old Glory

Flag Jump
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Marienne gets ready to land an 80 lb. American flag at Colorado Sky Sports during a practice jump before Memorial Day.

Feeding Hunter

Feeding Hunter
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

This was the first bottle that I got to feed Hunter. We weren't supposed to pump any breastmilk until after he was six weeks old. This was the day before I left for Fort Carson.

Flickr Test

Just a quick test to see if I can link to pictures from Flickr a free picture-hosting website.
This picture of me, Sarema, and Hunter was taken a few minutes before I shipped out to Fort Carson, CO to begin my training enroute to the middle east. Hunter is camera shy as usual. You can click on the picture itself to see a larger version.

First Post

I would like this site to serve as a place where my friends and family can come and check in on how I'm doing and see a picture or two.