Castles on Ft Sam Houston and Nearby

Here we go, I finally got one to work. I just started using the Xanga picture server thingy and they keep showing up as broken links until I publish then edit the post (weird). Anyway, this is a castle just off of the old post at Ft Sam. It's outside the gates but it's quite a single family residence.

I just don't get it. I think I told the program to use the same size for this picture as the last but it shows up smaller. Ayway, this is the Pershing house. If you can't tell it's quite the place. The two story porch is consistent across the majority of the older on post quarters (that's where the officers live). In case you hadn't guessed this house is the quarters for a very important person on post. It's the commander of the US Army North (5th army).

So I found an interesting site

I just had to post about this website because it has brought memories back to high school when I was getting good grades without much work and had time to actually read and discuss some of the more "brainy" things in life. I think I'm going to spend some quality time on this site and read some of the essays and stuff. The site is The Friesian School it is based on the Friesian school of the 1800s which was a philosophy school in southern Germany which was founded for the purpose of a philosophical revolution. Today this site seems to be just more of an amalgamation of intersting articles about interesting topics.

The other day I read an article on the site titled Zero Divided by Zero which started my mind gargling mathematical principles in a way which it hasn't really done in about 4-6 years (yikes). Philosophy is cool. If you look at the diagram in the article it really explains the theory well.

More pictures from the field!!
Protecting the FOB is a challening job. Especially when all you have to do it with is blanks.

Oh, my does running with a litter hurt. When you do enough carries consecutively with 180-220 pound people who are wearing LBE and carrying M-16's you start to get woosy from extreme muscle fatigue.

2nd Platoon group picture. We called this our militant picture with all of our weapons pointed at the sky in a not so usual carry position.

The hot rod of the Army. It's the Stryker (hooah). This one's a medical (duh see the big red cross) stryker. They are a wheeled armored vehicle kind of like a tank but they move a lot faster and smoother.


 

Have you ever wondered about how companies control food production so that there is no chemical, biological, or physical contamination?
Have you ever had dreams about analyzing production lines?
Have you ever thought about how much bleach you have to put into water to adequately kill bacteria, or what temperature the food needs to be cooked to to do the same?
If you've answered yes to any of these lovely questions than maybe, just maybe you should join the US Army Veterinary Corps!!!!
It's an adventure in practice. Not only do we get to take care of the traditional roles of veterinarians like kitties and puppies and horses and cows, but we also get to have fun with auditing food production lines, inspecting grocery stores and restaurants, taste testing MRE's and other sumptious rations, and playing with the nice little war dogs who just love to bite.
If you're still interested then I need to talk to you and get you in.

All kidding aside, I LOVE MY JOB. Even though I haven't actually started yet, what we do as army vet's is awesome and fun.

The maids are definitely trying to earn a tip, definitely!!!
I walk into my room tonight and I take a look around and say to myself somethings wrong here. Then I notice, that my shoes are missing from their usual spot. So I search the room and find the boots in the other room by the closet/pantry. Then I notice that the camera bags have been hung on the doorknob so I was wondering what else they did. I went in to use the bathroom and when I was washing my hands I looked over to get a cup afterwards because I was thirsty. Well there was only one of my glass glasses left where there were three this morning. Hmmm, I thought, I bet they washed them, and sure enough out by the coffee pot (which was also cleaned). So all in all I really like the maid service here at Sam Houston.

On another note. My wealth of useless information has started to have a little use. In discussing food safety and food micro I evidently made it quite apparent to the class and to the subject matter expert (WO3) that I was after a little more information about the topic than my colleagues.

Anyway, today was fun though I felt like I ate too much since going to the DFac for breakfast and lunch and later tonight we're celebrating Cpt. Pfanenstiehl's (sp. formerly Tidd) birthday by going out for fermented grain tea and dough circles with tomato puree, shredded processed milk, and slow and fast twitch fibers with various other flavorings.

The long haul has begun. BOOOOO!!!
Karly left this morning at about 9AM to head back to Kansas for the night and tomorrow she'll be heading back to Iowa. The long haul unfortunately means I won't seen my lovely wonderful beautiful sweet wife for about a month. I know, I know, I should count myself lucky that it's only a month and that I'm not heading to theater but I don't care how long the time is, wether it's 2 weeks or 2 years, it still isn't fun. (BTW Karly says hi!!!)
So on to the pictures. This is a beginning of the tribute to my first couple of months as a veterinarian. Yes that's right these are pictures from the first few months of my life as a veterinarian. NO I am definitely not a normal veterinarian and nor have I really had any desire to be a "normal" vet dating back to my second year of veterinary school. Since then I have persued more of a preventative medicine and herd health slant on vet med. The whole fixing broken animals just doesn't do it for me. I digress.

The first picture is of myself on the left and two buddies after a nice 2 hour session of learning buddy carries. These are the carries that you would use to evacuate a soldier (or anyone) out of harms way without the use of a litter, gurney, or some kind of wheeled object. Needless to say we got extremely dirty that day and guess what else. There were absolutely NO showers after this day. We were in the field and the streams were dried up so all we had was a sink (which was nice) to be able to shave and wash our face (thank God for that one).

The second picture is myself (though I don't look like me to me, the glasses throw me off). But that's me with my coffee cup (canteen cup) full of coffee and my trusty M-16 by my side.

Third picture: wandering in the wilderness. Actually it wasn't soo much wilderness in my opinion. There were way tooo many trails for driving and hiking which were well marked on our maps, and the vegetation wasn't very dense so doing land navigation on this 3k by 2k course was in my opinion very easy. Though with only a map and compass to go by there were quite a few people who took quite a long time to get their four points in the daylight and another four after dark (9% illumination). Here's my time to boast and say that I got all 8 points correct and on the night land navigation which started at 8:30PM I was back in bed by 9:45PM (the last group came in at 12:45AM) and we had to go all the way to the farthest end of the course.

And the last picture is of the lovely and wonderful combatives instruction. Yes a veterinarian needs to know how to defend himself when doing hand to hand combat.

By the way, I didn't bring my good camera or any other camera to the field so these are all pictures from my buddies so feel free to use them as you please.

 

As per request of my mother here's some new pictures.
This is Karly and I post graduation. The chopper is in front of the AMEDD center and school.

These are pictures of our new room on post. It's good to be an officer. The room is a two room suite with a couch...you can see what it has to offer.

The last picture is during graduation. The guest speaker is at the podium and Maj. Nazarro our class advisor is standing behind him.
Graduation was fun but it's good to move on to my next five weeks of death by powerpoint.

 

Sooooo. I have no idea if anyone is even reading this blog anymore. I love having visitors but since I really don't get comments from anyone I have to wonder if I should even keep this one going or just consolidate into my clone blog which I do get comments on. So if you want me to keep updating this one let me know please!!!
Thanks,
This blogs manager

Good news

My grandfather is starting to get better. No thanks to the doctors and hospital who tried to starve him to death. But he's doing better now which is great. I won't get into much detail about what's going on with grandpas case but I will ask for him to be in your prayers.

On another note. I received the schedule for the Vet track portion of my training. It looks like I'm in for 5 weeks of the worst death by powerpoint that I have ever had. There is a week in the middle where we do some surgery and practical stuff but overall we'll be spending most of our time in the classroom looking at slides about food and handwashing...

The best note of all is that Karly is currently in Norman, OK on the way down here. That means that all of our stuff was delivered to our house this morning allowing Karly to get away and drive the first leg of the trip at a reasonable hour. She's only got 7 hours left of driving to get here. YAY!!!!

Last news, I have a test tomorrow. It seems the military uses the community college version of test review and teaching. aka I'll teach you everything during the class and tell you it's all important, then the day before the test I'll give you a review which outlines almost exactly what's going to be on the test because we want you all to succeede. I guess it's true that in the military anything other than excellent is not enough so they can't make it extremely hard or no one would be able to make rank.

Fun fun fun!! I'll be an OBC graduate on Friday. YAY!!!

Happy day of rest

Yesterday was pretty dull. I didn't really do much of anything which kind of felt good but I also felt cooped up. So this morning I left the room bright and early and walked up to the chapel. I took pictures since I thought it would be fun to have some pictures of the area. The first picture is the gift chapel which was given to Fort Sam Houston by the people of San Antonio. It was finished in 1911. The second is the outside of the gift chapel and the third is a painting in the chapel.

Good morning everybody!!!

It's good to be able to sleep comfortably for a whole night through. I was extremely tired last night and at about nine o'clock I seriously couldn't stay awake to say good night to Karly. The next thing I knew Karly was calling me again, this time at 7:45AM. Wow was I out of it. So I must speak for Karly now as she's in Kansas at our house doing cleaning and figuring out stuff but has no internet yet so I'm the only contact. If you need/want to talk to her and don't have her phone number, email me, identify yourself and perhaps give me a reason and I will give you contact info.
It looks like our stuff is going to be arriving on Tuesday and Karly is planning on leaving to come down here shortly thereafter.
Life just keeps getting more interesting.

I'm Back

Another four days in the field. Another 2 stinky uniforms and about a hundred fire ant welts. I do love the field though. The only thing that would make it better and thereby reasonable to stay for long term would be a source of water to bathe in. If that were out there I would definitely vote to stay out there for the entire training time. I'm definitely a country boy at heart.
Karly's on her way to Kansas where she will spend the next couple of days waiting for the movers to arrive. She will then head down here for my graduation on the 21st in the afternoon.
More on the field. This was the AMEDD ftx where we had a lot of fun doing scenerio training and more team exercises like litter carrying. We had a lot of fun using blanks to defend ourselves while they simulated morters, fires and casualties which we had to evacuate and bring to level 1 aid and then further on to level 2... (they didn't decide who was going to die based on weight, I think more 200 lb guys died than lived). It was quite a workout.

I couldn't help but laugh at this picture. Enjoy!!!:) 

Entrance to Cascade caverns
My sweet wife kissing me somewhere in the San Antonio vacinity.
This is a great picture of the fault line which cascade cavern is located in. The black line which divides the top of the picture in half is the actual fault. I found this extreely fascinating. At the end of the line the 90 foot cascade waterfall is running. It's hard to see the water but trust me, it's there. 

Espada dam constructed in 1745 planned by the Fransiscans and built by the indians.
Mission San Jose. The arches to the right are the ruins of the convento (the priest HQ). The main chuch is to the left.




This be a large very old bald cypress. the bald cypress is called that because it is a conifer which loses it's needles in the winter. They are also known for their way of producing young cypress. They shoot up new trees from their roots. When the new tree pops up it's called a cypress knee. Not all knees will grow up into trees though.









A snake which was found on the way out of Cascade caverns.

 

We Bought A HOUSE!!!!

Yay!!!!

Busy Weekend
The fun started saturday morning when I woke up to the rain. I started getting ready for the day about 0700, typed on the computer and talked to Karly and my family. At about 0900 I went to pick up the rental car from the reputable company Enterprise which has an office on post. I left the building and it was still raining but I wanted to walk so I proceeded the 1.5 miles uphil toward the DFAC where the car was.
When I arrived it became plainly obvious that they didn't open till 10 even though their online hours began at 0900 so I waited under a shelter over at the DFAC. When I walked over to the office at about0955 they had opened the door a little early and 3 people had already gone in and were doing the paperwork. I got my papers and started working. The entire group before me and those in line behind me were all IET students so when I got up there and told him I was in a hurry because my wife was landing at 1035 and that I was a 26 year old officer he was much more cordial to me than the others. He gave me a free upgrade because the size of car I had reserved would have taken me to another lot on post and he said someone was going to have to get an upgrade and he would prefer me over a 21YO enlisted soldier.
So I got a nice 2005 Chevy Malibu and was off to pick up Karly who was at the baggage claim around the time I left Fort Sam.
I arrived at the airport and found my lovely wife in all of her cuteness and beauty. We headed back to the post hotel to drop off the luggage and get her through a shower.
After we cleaned up we went down to the river walk for lunch and then went to the alamo then had some coffee on the balcony of a restraunt overlooking the river and a walking bridge. Someone had glued a quarter to the third stair up on the walking bridge and that became quite a source of entertainment as countless people used countless measures to try and aquite it. We were also entertained by a number of house finches who had discovered that the door, that was behind us which led directly into the upstairs of the restaurant, had a large gap on its bottom side with no protection to keep animals... out. Thus they would fly onto the balcony, look at the door, decide if it was safe and quickly rush under into the safety of the restaurant where they would fly around and pick up crumbs off the tables. After that we went for a walk and had dinner at the Texas Land and Cattle steak house. Karly was introduced to her first lobster tail as we shared a surf and turf plate for dinner.
Sunday,
We started the day off at church for the "traditional protestant" service which is usually run by a lutheran minister but that day the methodist ran it. After church we discovered the Sunday brunch at the Fort Sam Houston club. The brunch was delicious however buffets are bad for the waistline so we had to watch what we ate. We then got in the car and headed to a cave which was actually part of a fault line. It was extremely interesting actually being inside a fault line and looking up seeing the split in the rocks above. At the end of the cave was a 90ft tall waterfall which was breathtaking. The waterfall is fed by a large amount of water seeping through the limestone. The guide said that if San Antonio were to have a long extended drought, the waterfall would continue to run as it was that day for 5-6 years without rain on the surface. After surfacing from that really wet cave (the wettest in texas) we headed out for the "cave with no name". That caves main point of entry was nothing but a 4 foot wide hole in the ground. But when you went into it the cave opened up into a very large series of halls. These halls in series were where the Guadalupe river once flowed and carved out the large caverns. After emerging from the second cave we attempted to find George Straight, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Rodmans houses. We didn't actually find the right hill until the next morning when we found the gate to "The Dominion" where they all live. Humorously enough "THE DOMINION" overlooks FOB Colorado where we did our FTX the week before and I used George Straights pole light as a direction indicator during my night land navigation. That night we had dinner at a chinese place which served all you can ceat Crab legs. I think Crab legs are almost on the order of celery being a food which you actually burn calories eating. But if you're good at cracking crabs (like I am) you can eat a whole bunch of them at one sitting and only have moderatly sore hands.
Monday,
Happy Birthday to Karly, Happy birthday to Karly, Happy birthday dear Kaaaaarrrrrrlllllly, Happy birthday to you!!!!!
She said she had never been sung to for her birthday as much as my family did. We have a tradition (especially if your not at home) of bombarding the birthday girl/boy with as many songs as possible over and over throughout the day. Fun Fun Fun!!!!!!
For Karly's birthday we had fun. We actually did find "THE DOMINION" and then went to Guadalupe river State Park for a few hours of cuddling on a rock in a rapid in the middle of the river. Then found Katrina's New Orleans Restaurant (the restaurant came first). The food there was excellent. We then went to the mission trail and hit all four missions (minus the Alamo as it's not part of the National Park) in the afternoon. We then went up to Espada park and visited the oldest dam in Texas (which was built by the indians and designed by the Fransiscans). We then headed up to Groene, TX to the Gristmill restaurant for some really good ribs and a bottle of wine. This was a fitting end to a lovely birthday for Karly.
Independence Day!!!!
Last year Karly and I got engaged on the 4th at sunrise in the Ledges State Park. It was an amazing morning and I doubt the experience could ever be repeated. Fortunately my ploy was that we were going to take pictures of the sunrise from the cliff (Karly was smart though and knew there was something else in the works). So we had the camera and were able to document the moment very well. So back to the present. We decided on the fourth last year that we were going to have to watch the sunrise on the 4th for the rest of our lives no matter how many miles may be between us (sounds good to me). So we got up early and headed east on 10 out into the country to watch the sunrise. Guess what, the sun never rose (at least not visibly) but we were there watching from 10 min before time till 10 min after rise time but the cloud cover made it impossible to see. So we went to breakfast and split a helping of eggs benedict (yummy). We then spent the afternoon on the riverwalk. We went to the Imax theatre and saw the Alamo (which gave light to the story behind the Alamo (which unfortunately neigther of us knew very well)). We rode the river taxi around for a long time, took some pictures of the river wildlife (water moccasin, snapping turtle, and crawdaddy). Then we headed out to watch the firewoks at Richardson AFB which were pretty much rained out. We then headed home and went to bed.
The next morning wasn't fun as Karly had to head home.

In other news, Karly and I are now officially Home Owners.

The fun started saturday morning when I woke up to the rain. I started getting ready for the day about 0700, typed on the computer and talked to Karly and my family. At about 0900 I went to pick up the rental car from the reputable company Enterprise which has an office on post. I left the building and it was still raining but I wanted to walk so I proceeded the 1.5 miles uphil toward the DFAC where the car was.
When I arrived it became plainly obvious that they didn't open till 10 even though their online hours began at 0900 so I waited under a shelter over at the DFAC. When I walked over to the office at about 0955 they had opened the door a little early and 3 people had already gone in and were doing the paperwork. I got my papers and started working. The entire group before me and those in line behind me were all IET students so when I got up there and told him I was in a hurry because my wife was landing at 1035 and that I was a 26 year old officer he was much more cordial to me than the others. He gave me a free upgrade because the size of car I had reserved would have taken me to another lot on post and he said someone was going to have to get an upgrade and he would prefer me over a 21YO enlisted soldier.
So I got a nice 2005 Chevy Malibu and was off to pick up Karly who was at the baggage claim around the time I left Fort Sam.
I arrived at the airport and found my lovely wife in all of her cuteness and beauty. We headed back to the post hotel to drop off the luggage and get her through a shower.
I will post more later.

A little explanation of the acronyms as per request of my sister.
CTT-Common task training
IET/AIT-Initial entry training/advanced individual training(AIT acronym being phased out)
Plt.-Platoon
SINGAR-radio
NBC-old acronym for nuclear, biologic, chemical
PT-physical training
For other acronyms the following is the official ABCA (acronym for army acronyms).
https://www2.arims.army.mil/abbreviation/mainpage.asp
I don't know how to make one of those fancy links so it's just the website.
There are some acronyms that just shouldn't be typed out as the acronym is way to long and technical and that's why we only use the acronym as a word eg. HMMWV- High mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle or for brevity Humvee. The SINGAR is another example of this and I won't even try to type it out.

Home sweet hotel. It won't be "home" until Karly gets here tomorrow. The last week was a lot of fun but really a lot of work. We basically did a weeks worth of the CTT that an IET soldier would learn and were given it in one day and tested the next. All I can say is holy cow were we pushing. We did M16, SINGAR, M9, 9 line Medevac, NBC training, day and night land navigation all in four days. Not to mention the leadership training course, GPS training, down chopper scenerio, and M9 range as well as learning to do weapons PT. It was a really hectic 4 days. But I managed to survive, get a go on all the tasks, make an expert level on the M9, and only got one blister. It was a lot of fun. I hit 100% of my points on the day and night land navigation and last night my partner and I even took 2 Plt. 1st Place on the nite run allowing me to get to bed by 2215 which was great since the time to complete the course ran until 0030 so I got to bed around 2 hours before the last person rolled in . I don't know that there's much more to say here other than this experience has made me realize how much I truly don't know or am unable to do when it comes to being a soldier. I now know how important the training we recieve is and no matter how hard it is to be away from my wife, if I am ever to be put in a position where I need to use these skills, I had better have the proper training and therefore I need to be away on occasion. The military is an amazing buisness.