July 4th Dinner

I have to admit, we knew they would do something nice at dinner on July 4th but we had no idea the extent of pride that would go into the decorating. Here are pictures of how wonderful the chow hall looked.

Chris and I enjoy our meal. Notice the walls behind us. There are streamers covering the entire wall from floor to ceiling on all 4 walls around the chow hall. Since we ate dinner and stayed there until 9:30pm the night before, I can vouch that they had not even started decorating then.

John enjoys his "near beer" while Dave growls next to him

The happy family just finishing their holiday dinner. No BBQ this year, but we did celebrate with friends.

Chris tries to decide on dessert, while Cheua (the little guy behind the counter) gives me a big smile. Cheua was so happy to have his picture taken that he kept asking when he could get a copy. So we made 5x7 prints and gave them to him the next day. Service at the dessert bar was always wonderful, but it has gotten even "sweeter" after that. Get it, "sweeter"? C'mon, work with me here.

The "champagne" bar. Or should I just say sparkling cider.

Once again, we closed down the chow hall (meaning we stayed long after closing). Cheua and a friend pose for more pictures. Afterwards, I walked around and took pictures of the many statues and food sculptures in the chow hall.

Melting ice sculptures - an eagle and I think that is a swan. But it is over 120 degrees outside, at least they made it through dinner.

These baskets and alligator are made from bread. They were so cool, then I saw other bread sculptures. See if you can guess what they are.

The alligator up close.

A lobster or scorpion, you decide.

I had to take a double look at this thing. It is suppose to be an eagle. Can you see it?

How about sinking you teeth into this giant sandwich?

Then I just took pictures of the many patriotic statues and displays around the room.

Cannon. The gentleman sitting on the end of the table holding a cup of coffee is my CO of our Surgical Company. Hi Wil!!!!

This eagle protects the fruit, pop tarts and muffins on a daily basis.

Betsy Ross.

And what would be a holiday without a picture of a cake. So here are two!

I hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July. Cheers!!!!!

Ladies Day In

1 July

The ladies of Taqaddum, Iraq held their first "Ladies Day In" on July 1st. Many thanks go out to all those at home who sent many wonderful female items, especially my friend Cathy. Without you and Kate's contribution of nail polish, candles and other manicure necessities there would have been very little to do except eat, watch movies and talk about men. Wait a minute, we did that anyway!! It was truly a fun time for all. We enjoyed feeling liking women again.

The men used the hut that night for their evening poker match and said how torturous it was because it smelled so darn good.

A view of the manicure/pedicure area "lightly"decorated with feather boas and candles.

A different view.



Chris makes ham and turkey wraps with food confiscated from the chow hall. We were a little nervous because we had been out of food there for a week or more. But faith and prayer prevail and that day at lunch they had received a shipment.

Robin can't decide if she wants to make them or eat them. Lora laughs at her efforts in the background.

Valerie tastes my punch and gives me the "yum-yum" sign. It is amazing what you can do with Diet Sprite and Cranberry juice. Thanks Mom for the ice cubes! Sorry Christina, your special "Something" didn't arrive until after the party. But don't worry, I won't let it go to waste.

With the pre-party preparations complete, I sit down to relax.

First shot of the ladies. From left to right: Me, Val, Kim, Chris, Nicole

Robin, Lora, and Jen.

Kelly arrived a little late because she was working on her joke. Jen and Chris look on as they try to figure out her punch line. That's okay Kelly, you keep practicing. We still love ya.

Cathy's candles definitely help make the room smell delicious. But as the candles burned down we realized we hadn't done our pedicures!

So after soaking our feet, buffing them with that scratchy, hard stuff, we began to apply the toe colors. Well I happened to like a lot of the colors and couldn't decide. So I went with the rainbow effect.

These little things work great to keep your toes seperated, but they hurt! Ah, the price of beauty.

My finished product!!

One last group photo.

Happy 109th Birthday Hospital Corps

The Hospital Corps was founded with the approval of President William McKinley and by act of congress on 17 June 1898. This is referred to as the birthday of the US Navy’s Hospital Corps, though the actual name of the servicemen under that rating would change several times (being known as "Pharmacist's Mates" throughout the World Wars) before ultimately becoming simply "Hospital Corpsman". The modern rating abbreviation is HM.

The Hospital Corps is the single most decorated rating of all branches of the U.S. military. Twenty-three Hospital Corpsmen have received the Medal of Honor, the most of any single group in the U.S. Navy. Fourteen ships have been named after Hospital Corpsmen.

A common description of the Corpsmen during the late 60's and early 70's was, "A long haired, bearded sailor who would go through the very gates of Hell to tend to a wounded Marine." The look of the sailor has changed but the mission of the corpsman remains the same.

Ceremony recognizing the HM held in our aerobics tent at 1400 (2pm for those people who don't know by now). In case you didn't catch it in my earlier blog post, 1400 is very, very hot.

Two of our corpsman pass the flag while one of our Chief Hospital Corpsman reads the Medal of Honor names.

Tribute to the fallen corpsman.

Cake cutting by oldest and youngest corpsman.
(You thought we only did that in scouts, didn't you?)

Well by now you know my fascination with cakes and celebrations. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good shot of the top of the cake because the heat had already started to melt the icing. So I wanted you to notice it from the side. See I told you it was hot here.

Happy Birthday Hospital Corpsman! We are only as good as those we lead and you make us look real good.

Our corpsman here in Al Taqaddum, Iraq were honored in an article published by the Marine Corps News. To read the full article follow the link below.

http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/EB42C02F55E301E5852572FF001B115A?opendocument

Happy Father's Day

June 17

Happy Father's Day to all those special men out there. I wish I had some sort of inspirational poem or phrase to capture how much we appreciate you but I feel sometimes pictures are better than words. Here is how many of our fathers enjoyed their day.

It started with a simple message...

...along with a card and a gift...

...for all the fathers here in Al Taqaddum, Iraq.

Later that night, the gifts got worn in the normal fashion...

... and the not so normal fashion.

In case you don't remember, we have no alcohol here.

These fathers are completely sober.

Scarey.

What would be a holiday without the chow hall cake.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Grandma's Half Marathon

June 16

Apparently in Minnesota, they have a big marathon this time of the year. But since our Minnesota Army National Guard is here instead of there, the boys in the guard decided to host their own marathon. Due to the size of the base, they had to cut it down to simply a half marathon which was approximately 13 miles vs. the normal 26 miles in Minnesota. Several of our medical staff are long distance runners who decided to step up to the challenge. The other medical staff who signed up didn't realize what they were getting into but thought "Hey, I get a t-shirt." I am proud to say everyone finished with no real injuries. A few were sore in the days that followed, but everyone felt a since of accomplishment.

The marathon gang are smiling now

(it's 0430, that's before the sun comes up for you non-military folk).

from L to R: Dave, Tom, Dave, Chris, Liz, Ken, Lora, Ricks

Chris and I came out to cheer the runners on. We are in uniform because (1) we are not running and (2) chow hall opens at 0500 (that's still before the sun comes up).

The last of our folks from medical come in strong and well ahead of many others. Way to go Ken and Dave!!

Chris and I have eaten and quickly changed into our cheerleading outfits to greet the runners at the finish line. Originally we were there to support our medical runners, but we were having so much fun we stayed until the last runner past the finish line. The Minnesota boys showed their appreciation for our talent by awarding us honorary t-shirts and pins.

Our first place medical runner HM1 Ricks!

Ricks ran the marathon with a stress fracture and came in 7th overall averaging a 7 minute mile pace. His orthopedist is going to have a fit.

A few of the boys at the finish line.

from L to R: Tom, Chris, Ken, and Dave.