Miscellaneous Forum

Keep your head down Mister. Take care of your Buddies and they will take care of you. No need for Heroes. Just do your duty. Good luck, God bless.

Here Here Im with Ray on that one. Please return to us at VT safely. Do you know how long you will be there for??

Will you be able to check on VT while you are there? I have brothers in the Navy and they have internet access.

G'day Jeff. Yes we'd all like to still keep in touch with you so I hope too that you have net access. That would be nice. All the best matey. Cheers, Ann :o)

Thank you for all you do, and all you will do ..... our thoughts and prayers are with you Jeff. Come back safely :)

God bless, good luck and as Ray_D says..keep your head down. We will keep the home fires burning. I raise a toast to you and to freedom.

All the best Jeff. :) Lesley

Jeff, Ray said it so well, I'm sure that he echos the sentiments of so many of us on here. Take very good care of yourself and we will miss you here on Vt. You will be back. We will all be here thinking of you and praying for you to have a very safe return. Hopefully you might find a way to keep in touch and let us all know how you are doing.

Will keep an eye on your site, as I think and hope you'll get internet access there - will keep a thought and a prayer for you there too

Take care, keep your head down.

Blue eye I do wish you the best but can you reconsider??? You are a Canadian citizen. Why are you going to Iraq??? My nephew just came back after a year in Bagdad. Very jaded....I must say. Try to stay safe. Jeannette

Be safe Blue Eyez and come back unharmed... Hope that you will be able to check up on VT and tell us how you are holding up! Be safe man... be safe.

Yes be safe. You have a whole world of vt at your back at least in thought. Ellen

I was thinking the same thing, hahaha!

might, could be...

I just hadn't found the post yet! Good luck Jeff, and thank you for what you are doing.

To Answer some questions before I go for my morning jog. Yes, I will have internet access but I am not sure what the "rules" are. I'm not sure when and how long we get to use it.....but i will definately check in from time to time and that is a fact My tour is scheduled to be 12 months long, but, if our teams that are traing the NIA (new Iraqi army) succeed and the Iraqis can start to defend their selves our government said we'd be pulling troops out at the begining of next year.....so who knows. I do want to thank all of you for your kind words, you have no idea how good that makes a soldier feel before heading to the battlefield. Jeff.

Keep your head down and keep safe Jeff. We will be looking forward to your return. :-)

All the best over there, and thank you for all that you do.

There is something about depending on others in dangerous circumstances. Your life will change in so many ways. The discipline learned will be a great asset for the future. The ability to handle stress will be enhanced. Taking and giving commands and quick assessment of situations are great assets in Business. It will not be nice but it is up to you see beyond it. Take note that although many are not comfortable with the Politics your job is to help Irakis fend for themselves. The effort now it to take out troops to reduce the attacks. You will experience the best and worst and it will affect you. Normal life will still exist and we will welcome you back to it on your return.

Ray, you sound like you have been in the middle of the military operation before as well. It is something that really can't be explained to those who have never been there before, but it does change your perspective on life.

The Military is not as bad as most make it out to be Balfor. It is a necessary evil and fire needs to be fought with fire. It is the reasoning, one is comfortable with, that pulls them trough the bad times. With luck, an individual will come out with unscratched psychologically. As long as they understand they are doing a normal job in abnormal circumstances. The hard part is to return to normality once it is all over. Believing that what you are doing is Morally right, is the key for me. I like your cakes Man…Want to try my baked Maccaroni? :o)

Ray, I did 6 years in the Navy. Nothing like what the ground guys ahve to see and do, but still it builds a certain comeraderie when your life literally depends on someone else and theirs on you. You just sounded like you have served in the military with that insight. And yes, it is certainly normal people doing extraordinary things in an abnormal situation. Sure, I'll trade you a cake for some baked macaroni! :-) You coming to the States or am I going to Australia? *grin*

Ex Quartermaster Royal Navy. Pleased to meet you Sir.

My Nephew has just enlisted in the RAAN, his first day is tomorrow, (sob, sob hes just a baby !) you guys are reassuring. VTer JAFA-Rease has just been to Iraq Jeff, maybe he has some advice for you.

oops typo Royal Australia Navy is what i meant to type.^

Australian ^ sheesh !

Ex-Machinist Mate second class at your service. :-)

And Majik, your nephew is entering into an organization that will give him unknown friends for the rest of his life. There is a cameraderie amongst all sailors, no matter the time served, the countries represented or the oceans sailed will be something that will come up between strangers, who are instantly comrades. I have no way to explain it, but he will find people 20 years from now that served and they will have a bond that cannot be earned by anyone who has not sailed on the ocean.

good luck, you will make it, my niece did! she was first liutenant USMC, in the initial invasion of Bagdad, commanding a group of 30 guys, and she got promoted to second liutenant during her tour of duty there. She finished her tour of duty there, thank god she got out of there it was crazy during the invasion on Bagdad. She got a one month leave, and was reassiged to Okinawa and got promoted to Captain. She is USMC and bad ass, I'm proud of her. You can make it, dont worry, you will be fine. If you want I can put you in touch with my niece, she has e-mail. be safe. It's a hell of a lot better now than it was during my nieces tour, she was going over there during the intitial invasion of Bagdad. just watch out for the roadside bombers mostly, and be safe!