Some "Lighter" News

Just so you don't all think it's just work, work, work over here, I've decided to post some lighter pictures of our time here:

This is the last alcholic beverage I had 82 days ago, aside from wine at Communion. However, this was a REAL Guiness at a REAL Irish Pub in the Airport at Shannon served by a REAL Irish barkeep. Okay, so it's not such a "real" atmosphere but it was Guiness in Ireland. How cool is that? Technically, we were in violation of regulations but when the senior leaders lead the way, one has an obligation to follow along.

While alcohol is strictly forbidden, tobacco is not. Our higher headquarters holds a "smoker" every so often so we go drink N/A beer and smoke cigars and just hang out. This is me and our retention NCO. He's really busy getting Soldiers to re-enlist while in Iraq because their bonuses are tax-free over here. (Note to my dad: please don't kill me for smoking cigars! I don't do it often!)

This is just last Sunday. Our battalion sponsored the "Hotter than Hell Biathlon" and this is me crossing the finish line. Yes, I'm in ACUs, boots, carrying a Chaplain's guidon, and wearing a 35-pound rucksack. I was talked into it by the guy with me in the photo below, CPT Wennblom. CPT W is wrapping up his 15 months and had won the previous four biathlons. He was looking for a new challenge and came up with the idea of a "combat run" and I was silly enough to follow along. He did a 5k run (3.1 miles) with the same gear, in 27:30. Me? Well, it took me almost 35 minutes and I was the slowest run of the day.

CPT W and I post run. I can smile because it's over. He can smile because he's still in shape! It was quite an event. It's a good thing that the internet doesn't allow me to post smells because I was quite rank after this.

These are the people from HHC who finished the biathlon. All of them beat me. Heck, everyone but one beat me in this thing. Still, many more were sleeping in on a Sunday morning whilst we busted our behinds against the clock. All in all, it was a good time and fun to do some multi-sport endurance events. There's one more for this "season" in October and I plan to run that one normally. No ruck, no boots, just me and my super fast self! Seriously though, it's nice to have races like this to provide focus for my physical training (PT) program and to provide an opportunity for us to blow off steam. They are a lot of fun.

So, hopefully you can see that, while we do take our jobs very seriously, we do have the opportunity to have fun once in a while as well. It helps us stay healthy in so many ways.