Now For Part 2

We're moving back to Burbank so we can drop off our shovels and pick up our artillery gear. We're going straight from the fires to Ft Irwin to shoot artillery and put on our new patch - the patch of the famed 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
In the meantime, check out a news article about one of the units in my battalion.

still here

supposed to leave yesterday for burbank so we could prep for our drill at Fort Irwin this weekend, but we are still sitting on this airfield. The governor's office hasn't released us, yet. a lot of work (especially MY work) has gone into preparing for this live fire weekend at Irwin, so I hope it happens.
the biggest bummer about not leaving yesterday, though, is that I probably won't make it home to go with Hunter on his first trick-or-treating walk around the block. sucks to be gone during these times.

Wildfire support

So much for my intent to live-blog this wildfire event. After working 19 hour days since wednesday, I haven't had much time to blog. We set up on a closed runway at Montgomery Field in San Diego and began running security and humanitarian missions to support relief agencies and displaced civilians. Mostly I've been running around coordinating logistics (food, repair parts, fuel, ammuniton, and transportation) for our 200-man battalion. For the last three days we've had an additonal 200 soldiers attached to us, doubling our size.
It's been a busy, interesting, and sometimes frustrating experience trying to get the support our guys deserve.
It's also been frustrating living next to an active runway... Every day I have to watch Twin Otters, King Airs, and Caravans land and take off here. Hundreds of flights and I haven't jumped out of one of them!

Balance

We've had some people showing support by honking or waving at us on the convoy down here, but it's mostly been a case of indifference as people went on about their business. We did have some guy who honked his horn and gave us the middle finger the entire time he was passing us. It's ok because we just acheived balance... A very nice young lady shared a view of her breasts with us.

God Bless America

40 Foot Flames

We're driving past Las Pulgas road on Camp Pendleton and can see two large fires each burning a few hundred yards east of interstate 5. It smells like I'm standing downwind of a campfire and the smoke is thicker than fog. It's all very surreal.
Side note: we just got passed by a red cross van hauling ass in the correct direction... towards people that need help.
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MAJ Rob Wooldridge

Smoke everwhere

I'm in the back of a HMMWV ("Hum-vee") heading for Montogmery Field in San Diego. We're passing through Irvine and Mission Viejo and the smoke is thick enough to reduce visibility to less than 2 miles. We're only halfway to San Diego, too.
It took. us a long 6 hours to pack up everything and get out of Burbank. We're not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I hope we can help out. Last I heard, there were 1200 homes burned and 600,000 people evacuated in America's Finest City.
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MAJ Rob Wooldridge

Activated

I'm on my way down to LA. My battalion has been called up to help with the
fires in Southern California.
Side note: having a military ID and and purpose for speeding is a great way
to get out of a ticket (75 in a 55)
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MAJ Rob Wooldridge
Cell 805-431-3434

Timely Information

A couple of days ago, on the October 1st, I got this timely email from Amazon:

Finish the Fight! Halo 3 Is Here
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who has purchased "Halo" products at Amazon.com, you might be interested to know that "Halo 3" is out. The epic saga continues in the anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed "Halo" series.

Interested? Duh.
I had already been standing in line for a hour when the clock struck 12:01 am on September 25th and Halo 3 finally went on sale. I promptly drove home and played online with Ron until just before the sun came up.
so now Amazon emails me six days later to tell me that the game of the year is available. Somewhere in there, they also let me know that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.