DEC. 1 – It’s December!!! I will be coming home for a short Christmas break for about 10 days! I am so excited about that! The food in the mess hall is starting to get to me. I found out from some of the guys that the mess hall has been adding additives to our food! No, not to reduce our sex drive but to add calories! Trust me the majority of us guys around here can stand to lose a few pounds around our midsections! The menu seems to repeat itself every 3 days. I have seen chicken and ground beef cooked in so many different ways it makes me sick to eat it. I can tell that it’s time for us to leave because when we are done at the end of the day the guys in my room watch these shows: Divorce Court, Maury Show, Geraldo, and Judge Alex. I have never seen such a waste of the brain in my life! Especially when the Maury show exposes men who have denied the fatherhood of the women who have accused them. You should see this. My guys are glued to their chairs!

DEC. 3 – Today we went out as a team to practice entering an Iraqi town. I am so impressed because the Army has hired people who speak Arabic to be role players in our training. We pulled a makeshift Iraqi village. There were people there who were dressed like Iraqis. We were executing an operation with an Iraqi army force. The object of training was to get used to working with an interpreter to accomplish our mission. My team leader met with the Iraqi leader and through an interpreter hashed out plans to search for insurgents in that town. Our focus was to be advisors to the Iraqi force and coach them on proper procedures for searching. When we got there it looked so real! The Iraqi commander only spoke Arabic and our interpreter communicated for us. The only problem I had was being very uncomfortable with the townspeople walking right up on me. That is too close for me.

DEC. 7 – Today’s training was totally cool. We were in an automobile simulator. This simulated us driving in our vehicle and suddenly our vehicle would flip over. I got inside with all of my equipment and weapons. They started the machine and they rocked us from side to side. Finally, they would flip us upside down. It was the weirdest feeling because I had to use my arms to brace my body weight. I had to go through it 3 times. At one time I was upside down on my face! I had to unbuckle my seat belt (which held me in) and then rotate my body to an upright position so that I could open the door to get out. This training helps us with what to do should our vehicle roll over on its back. It was fun but I hope this never happens.

DEC. 11 – Today is the week where we start our final evaluation for our team. We will move out of our current barracks and move into a compound that is set up just like a FOB (Forward Observation Base). We arrive later in the morning and this place is on the back end of the post. Instead of sleeping in a room with 6 guys this time, it’s an open bay consisting of about a hundred guys! It has three rows of bunk beds. There are also located in the other barracks, Iraqi role players and real interpreters. The bathrooms are located in another building. Yes, you guessed it, open showers, toilets with no doors, and rows upon rows of urinals. I thought the food at our barracks was bad this is worse! The chow comes out to us in green containers. My first night in the barracks was difficult to sleep. It sounded like feeding time at the Bronx Zoo! There were at least 30 guys that snore. Mix that in with the incoming sounds of gas intermittently popping off it was a difficult night to sleep.

DEC. 14 – Wow, Christmas is almost here. Since I’ve been here I haven’t had a sense of the Christmas season. There is one team here that has a Christmas tree in their room. I told my guys that we should play some Christmas music in our room but my comment was met with jokes of sarcasm. We are going to get a little Christmas break to come home. This is my last one before I leave the country. My team can really use the time off. Just this week I can tell that sensitivities among us are growing. Team members are getting a little testy with each other. There was one team yesterday in which two sergeants had a fistfight! We haven’t even started our year over there and personalities are already conflicting with each other. I have to admit that I have had a few issues with several of my team members myself. For me, I tend to be quiet and choose which battles I want to fight. As I’ve written about many times most of the guys in the military have had issues with broken marriages, and personal issues. There is always intense peer pressure to cuss, degrade women, and indulge in sex, drinking, and naming others. When you don’t, you are perceived as being weak or soft. I choose to live with that. One for starters I am a Christian, second, I am older and have been there and done that! Thirdly, it causes too much pain in the end. I try to at least try to be a role model. It doesn’t mean that they can’t get me mad either. I have a fictitious character that I call Leon. Leon is my alter ego. Leon is a big black man who will stand up when he is fed up and will tell you exactly how he feels. He will chew you to pieces! Leon has a big afro and one gold tooth. He doesn’t care about hurting your feelings because you started something that he is going to finish! I bring Leon out very rarely but it’s nice to know he’s there when I need him.

DEC. 19 – We graduate tomorrow. Finally. It’s been a long 2 months. I can tell that the guys are getting restless. I am going home tomorrow for my Christmas break. As for me, I need to get home. I got into a fight with another sergeant in my group. This guy was picking on me day after day. I was the brunt of his jokes just about every day. At first, I would laugh and just let the moment pass. Each day he was becoming more and more intense in his course joking. Last night the joking started again and it was then that I responded back to him with course joking. Well, to make a long story short he got very short with me. So much so that he threatened to fight me. Well let’s put it this way, I outweigh him by at least 70 pounds! I asked him how long he wanted his hospital stay but our Captain jumped in between us and broke us up. He ordered us to keep quiet. There was a moment when the sergeant sat across the room from me and just tried to stare me down. I was sitting on my bed and I stared right back at him with a smile on my face. I knew that someone had to do the right thing. It was obvious that that person would be me. Sometimes I hate when I have to do the right thing!

DEC. 21 – I am in the Kansas City International Airport waiting for my flight. I can’t wait to see the wife and the kids. My wife got me a great price on a ticket. Christmas will be a little tight this year. We had an unexpected situation that came up. There are a lot of people traveling for Christmas.

DEC. 23 – It is so great to be home in my bed and eating some home cooking. One thing that I have noticed is that my wife really has everything under control. It is not much for me to do. She is a very strong person. I worry sometimes for her. She can get a little overwhelmed by the responsibilities. My daughter has her driver’s permit and she has been driving me all around Charlotte. She is so confident. I am so proud of her. She has been through a lot. My son is working out some issues and has changed a lot too. My family is so precious to me. It is so hard to let go of things but it is necessary.

DEC. 25 – Merry Christmas! The older I get I am getting more and more turned off by the commercial side of Christmas. Why? For us Christians, Christmas is the acknowledgment of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Christmas that is being portrayed in the stores and on television is a different celebration. It’s the celebration of the ‘dollar’. How, what, when, and where you can spend your dollars during this season? It saddens me because the birth of Jesus is so important. He is the reason why I am a changed man today. Jesus has touched the lives of so many people. Just to give him one day is not enough. I am sorry but material things will pass away but the love of Jesus is eternal. So to all who share my sediments, Merry Christmas and praise be to our God and Lord and Savior Jesus for coming into this world to save us. This is Christmas for me and will always be.

DEC. 29 – I have to go back to Fort Riley tomorrow. This time off has gone so fast! This time I will be home in 6 or 7 months! Really since I’ve been home it’s like I have been stuck in a time warp. I can’t move forward on any plans until this deployment is done. While I was here I taught a few aerobic classes. It was great to see some of my students. Mostly everyone was away for the holidays but nonetheless the great to strap on the old microphone.

DEC. 30 – A lot of you know that I can find inspiration in the smallest of places. I gave the attendant my ticket and she to my surprise assigned me a seat in the first-class section. I graciously accepted the gift from her and took my seat in first class near the window on this United Airlines flight headed for Kansas City. It was then that this black man came on the plane with his son. He was using a walker and it appeared that the left side of his body was paralyzed.

His young son and the flight attendant assisted him in taking his seat which was next to me. As he sat down I too joined in and helped him find and fasten his seat belt. “Hi, how are you doing?” was his greeting to me. “Fine” I replied as I fastened my seatbelt. As we waited for the plane to take off he had told me that he was once in the army. I thought because of his condition that maybe he had been in a car accident. He appeared to be young. My guess was that he was at least 38 years old.