On Pass

I'm back at wonderful Fort Hood, Texas - The Great Place - at least that's what the sign at the front gate declares. I spent the past four days on pass. It was both a welcome relief from training and preparing to cross the water and a nice chance to spend some time with Andrea and the boys.

On Saturday, we stayed local and took the boys to the First Cavalry Division Museum here on post. They enjoyed it, but I think Matthew tapped out early with boredom. Nicholas, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the tanks, trucks, and helicopters on static display outside the museum. Afterwards, we drove to the Belton Dam. While we were there, we spied a seafood restaurant called the Dead Fish Grill. It looked decent enough and the dining room looked out over Belton Lake, so we gave it a shot. It was an excellent choice. We had the peel and eat shrimp followed by fish sandwiches. All of it was delicious.

Sunday, we decided to drive a couple of hours north to Dallas. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Press Box Grill in downtown Dallas - the food was excellent, but the service was beyond terrible - then headed to the Dallas Zoo. We had given the boys a choice between the zoo and the science museum and they both screamed, "ZOO!!!" in unison. The zoo's high points included the King Cobra, Black Mamba, and the albino Alligators. To round out our time in Dallas, we returned to downtown and took the boys to the site of the JFK assassination. I explained to Matthew who JFK was, explained a little about the assassination, and pointed out the window Lee Harvey Oswald shot from. Then I told him just to file the information away in his brain so that when he learns about this in history class one day, he can dust off his memories and  have a decent visualization of what they're teaching.

The next day, we headed south to San Antonio. Of course, we made the obligatory stop at the Alamo first. Unfortunately for the educational-minded parent in me, the boys immediately spotted the Ripley's Believe It Or Not and Guinness Book of World Records museums across the street. They begged, I gave in, we ended up spending some hard earned money and time looking at the World's Largest Twister Game and reading about the World's Largest Star Wars Memorabilia Collection (it's in England, by the way). We ate lunch at the Chart House, a revolving restaurant at the top of the Tower of the America's. It sits almost six hundred feet in the air and provides the diner with a revolving, panoramic view of San Antonio. After lunch, we wandered the Riverwalk for a bit, took a boat tour, and enjoyed a late dinner of Mexican food.






The last day of my pass began with every kid's favorite thrill - the falling of fresh snow. After remaining snow-free since 1989, Killeen, Texas received somewhere around two and a half inches of powder on Tuesday. The boys made snowmen and we ended the day with a massive, hour-long snowball fight between me, Matthew, and Nicholas. Afterwards, we ordered a pizza delivery and chilled out in the hotel room watching Animal Planet. It was close to midnight when my ride to North Fort Hood arrived and I was forced to say good-bye once again. It was sad but the sadness was offset by how much fun I had running around with the boys and enjoying some romantic time with Andrea.

4 a.m.

I know it has been a while since I’ve posted, but we’ve been busy…crazy busy. The past six weeks or so have been a non-stop gaggle of training, chasing training documents, weapons ranges, and the monster of all of it – planning the logistics of moving this entire task force across the ocean with all the proper weapons, computers, radios, personnel, and other miscellaneous equipment needed to fight the conflict formerly known as the Global War on Terror.

Today started with an unexpected four a.m. wake up call from the Tactical Operations Center. Never a good start to a morning. Forty minutes and three more wake-up calls later, I just said to hell with it and got up. Luckily, I just got a fresh re-supply of my favorite coffee, so I brewed a pot, hit the shower, and started the day with full-tilt crisis management. It all seemed to work out in the end, but Chapter Two will come later when I try to crush the skull of the miscreant who started the whole thing by passing along unverified and incorrect information.

Other than that, things are going well. I manage to squeeze in enough time to run or hit the gym every day and I can usually end the day with a little reading time. Depending on my levels of exhaustion, I might only get to a page or two, but I try to stay religious about it. Mike W. was kind enough to loan me Inside Out – Personal History of Pink Floyd, written by long time Floyd drummer Nick Mason. I also picked up a dog-eared copy of Jon Ronson’s book, The Men Who Stare at Goats – which details the efforts by U.S. intelligence and Army Special Forces to explore the psychics and mind-control. The Grant Heslov movie by the same name is based on this book.

Anyway, that’s all that is new in the world of Central Texas Army life. I’ll post up some more soon and I promise to update this more frequently if I can.