Calvary Ball



 

The 2-116th held their annual Calvary Ball last weekend.

How do we look?  :)

 

My handsome man.

This year the ball wasn't held in a nice ballroom as in years past, but a hockey rink.  Budget cuts???  Who knows.  No matter though, the place was still decorated nicely and festively. 

Jed did a lot of socializing.  There were many people he was happy to see again.  So most of this post you're gonna see a lot of Jed visiting with his friends.  I was happy to take pictures, a great excuse to just stay out of the conversations since I didn't know most of them anyway.    

Jed and Sgt. Stanley

Jed and Sergeant LaMott.  I love the new Calvary uniforms - I like the dark blue better than the olive green.

Jed with Commander VanHooser.

Sergeant Fallows and Jed.

Jed with his friend, Tony. 

Tony, Jed, and Lieutenant Price

I was soooo glad that Julie came to this event too...she was the only other female that I really knew well.  And the fact that we're friends too made it even more fun.  :)  So we made sure to sit close together.

Tony is SUPER excited to be here.  :)

Tony and Julie.

Colby and Tony - some of Jed's closest friends.

Yeah, I don't know what to say about this one, Jed was being funny.

The traditional GROG ceremony.

The Cavalry Grog is a long tradition where during the years of the Westward expansion, Cavalry Troopers would share their spirits (alcohol) with one another thereby insuring that all fellow troopers had something to drink. The alcoholic spirits usually consisted of whatever an individual trooper’s taste was, and that when mixed with other alcohol created a powerful drink known as "GROG".  The grog or punch bowl ceremony is now a symbolic reflection of this age-old tradition.

Holy crap, every kind of alcohol was put in that huge punch bowel!  That had to be some extremely potent stuff!  Tequila, Vodka, Rum, Brandy, etc were all poured into the mixture, each representing war campaigns that the Calvary has been a part of.  Once the grog is complete someone from each table goes up and gets their container filled.

Then the toasting begins - with your grog, of course.  For most of us at our table, we just stuck to the non-alcoholic lemonade, thank you very much.  :)  It was fun watching everyone else get drunk though, lol.

Before the toasting begins, you first you gotta "mount" your horse.  Sadly, since there are no more horses used in the Calvary, chairs would have to do. 

The toast is called out and everyone repeats it with one loud voice.  After each toast, you take a drink of your grog.  By the end of the whole toast I'm pretty sure all those drinking that stuff were sufficiently drunk within minutes, lol.

Then dinner was served.

Our men look like they were pretty hungry.

Actually, they were being gentlemen and holding the us ladies' plates.  Awe, chivalry isn't dead after all.  :)  Ok, ok, to be completely honest, Julie and I gave them our plates so we could make an early run to the cheescake tables...yum. 

The food was delicious.

 

Eric and Jennifer were at our table too.   

Then it was time for the Yellow Garter - another Calvary tradition.  Upon arrival, each wife/girlfriend was given the "Order of the Garter."  Tradition states that when a new wife came to her first "Hail and Farewell" she was welcomed with a garter and a kiss for good luck at her "new post."

The legend of the Yellow Garter is this: Long ago when the Calvary went off for patrols, these Troopers would be gone for several days or weeks scouting.  The girlfriends and wives would wear yellow ribbons in their hair while the Troopers were away.  Over the years, this idea has taken many forms that we are familiar with today such as tying yellow ribbons on trees and houses.

Jed performing the yellow garter ceremony.  I love traditions.  It connects us to those from the past.   

Cadet Holt with Jed.

Sergeant Mark Foster and Jed.

Lieutenant Roberts - he and Jed lead the platoon in Iraq together.  They became good friends throughout the deployment.

Jed with Keith, one of the soldiers he served with in Iraq.

We had a great time. 

Later after we left the ball, we got together with a few of the other soldiers from the troop, such as Eric and Jennifer Rankin and Colby, and went hot tubbing back at the hotel where a lot of us were staying.  There, the guys retold funny and eventful stories from their Iraq deployment.  We had a really great time laughing over and over again.  It was a very entertaining night.

The next day a troop picnic was held.

Awards were handed out.

Jed received the Defender of Freedom award.

Jed with his friend, Colby, and his son, Connor. 

It was a great weekend with lots of memories made!

11-11-11 - Thank You Soldier!

Just a quick shout out to all those soldiers out there who have served our country - THANK YOU!!!!  You have done and are doing what most of us will never do ourselves.  I have an increased and deeper appreciation for you and your families that sacrifice so much. 

To commemorate this day, here's a slideshow of Jed and his platoon's deployment pictures taken throughout this last year in Baghdad, Iraq:

116th B Troop - Iraq, 2010-2011 - slideshow dvd


“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States.”
Ronald Reagan

News From Baghdad, Iraq

This last chapter in our lives will soon be turning its final pages.  Jed's Iraq deployment is finally coming to a close!!!  Yay!!!  It's been quite the experience for him and for his little family back home.  Quite honestly, it's weird to think he's really coming home because it's felt like it was never going to happen.

Jed and his night shift soldiers - the ones he spent the most time with.  Some have described these guys as a rough, stinky group, but Jed absolutely loved working with them.  They were a lot of fun.  (Jed's an old man compared to this group, lol.)


As Platoon Sergeant, Jed had to bounce back and forth between daytime responsibilities and yet also work shifts with his night crew at the same time.  This was quite exhausting and took it's toll on Jed.  Sometimes his work days would last between 16-20 hrs a day, and just when he could finally get a few hours of sleep, he would often be woken up by people knocking on his trailer door, needing something.  Or else he was being woken up from rocket attacks hitting the base.  Even on his rare days off were never really days off, he still had to go and get business taken care of.  He's ready for some serious R&R.

Meanwhile, over the last few months, different US bases in Iraq are slowly being turned over to the Iraqi leadership for the troop drawdown that Obama has ordered.  So lately there's been an constant flow of soldiers arriving at the main base, Camp Victory, where Jed has been stationed at.  Jed's brother Joe was one of those soldiers.

Up until now, these two haven't been able to see each other at all.  Even talking to each other has been extremely rare.  Jed's loved having his brother in the same location during the last few weeks.  It's been really nice for him to have a family member so close.

A few months back, the popular country singer, Toby Keith, came and performed for the troops at Camp Victory. 

Not surprisingly, just as Toby was beginning his concert, the base was attacked by mortar rockets.  So while there were explosions going on in the background, Toby was unfazed and just kept talking and singing for the soldiers.  What a stud!

This is Jed's most favorite picture that he took of that night:

This guy was a Marine who had his leg blown up from a prior deployment.  He was waving his prosthetic leg while leaning on his buddy next to him during a few of the songs.  Watching the two soldiers made Jed get a little choked up with emotion.  He said seeing this was even better than the concert itself.

Meanwhile, Jed has continued to go on patrols "outside the wire", aka: going outside the base.  No one is allowed to leave the base except for the Quick Response Units. 

Some of his patrol buddies.  This here is Smith.  He's awesome and only 18-19 years old.  Talk about some serious life experience at such a young age.

Martinez.

 

I love this picture because it's the only one I've seen where Jed is simply relaxing in the FOB (hang out area.)  It's nice to see this because I know how busy and stressed out it's been for him lately.

Jed has continued to serve as the LDS Group Leader for the LDS branch on Camp Victory Base.  This guy in the next picture is Jed's Assistant Group Leader, a civilian who is also working on the base.

Jed says it's nice to see him at the church meetings because he really stands out since he is the only one wearing a suit, lol.  The rest of the congregation consists of soldiers who are wearing their camo uniforms.

I wish I could remember names...this guy is the one who is over all the Group Leaders in Baghdad? and is the one who called Jed to his church calling.

There was a marathon several months back for the soldiers on Joe's previous base.  I noticed that Joe is in this picture (guy on the very right.)  This one's especially for you, Julie.

Sadly, the 116th Calvary lost two of its own recently:

The two soldiers were blown up by a roadside IED that is much more dangerous than previous types of IED's and is made by Iran (can't remember the name for it though).  What was especially scary for me is that Jed had patrolled the very same road and location sight the day before.   His platoon had also patrolled that exact road just a few hours prior to the explosion.  Sometimes I feel like their lives are like rolling dice, they take the chance that it could be any one of them on any particular day.


If you've never watched an IED explosion before, check out some of these videos (warning: there is a lot of cussing by the soldiers - this obviously isn't fun for them to go through.)
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80607498/

http://www.break.com/index/stunning-500-lb-ied-explosion.html

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2007/12/IED-Explosions-Compilation-425168

I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a loved one in a way such as this.  One of the soldiers had only been in Iraq for about a week or so.  My heart goes out to the families.  :(


This week, Jed and his friend, Drollinger, were instructed to go have dinner with the Iraqi General, Fadil, at his house (it's located somewhere on the base.)  So they of course went and were told to wear their Calvary hats too.  (Drollinger doesn't have his yet.)

Jed and his Lieutenant with General Fadil:

General Fadil thanked them for serving in Iraq.  He was given a Calvary hat as well; looks like he's happy to be wearing it.  :)

This is Fadil's hawk that was just hanging out in the dining room area.

He also owns monkeys. 

One of those unique experiences for Jed and Drollinger.  :)

The summer months are brutal in Iraq, ranging from 120-135 degrees.  Now imagine packing 70 pounds of extra gear, equipment, and weapons in that kind of heat.  Not fun by any stretch of the imagination.

Huge dust storms also come along every now and then.

There is a serious rat problem over there.  These disease-ridden rats get into everything...food, buildings, vehicles, you name it they'll get in it.  Jed figured out a way to catch of few of them that kept getting into their building.  Concrete block traps, who knew?

"Figure-Four" Traps.

Wow, it really works!!!

SQUISH!!  Flat as a pancake!  Jed caught several rats this way.

Some of Jed's soldiers figured out another way to have some fun with these annoying rats.  They would tie a piece of food at the end of their tazer strings and then wait for a rat to come along.  Sure enough those rats would go for the bait and ZaP!  Tazered rats!  Obviously it didn't kill them and oddly enough, those stupid rats would still come back for more.  This became a great source of entertainment for some seriously bored soldiers.

Speaking of little critters, this is Jed's office companion.:

This little guy would often come hang out in Jed's office and just stare at him.  In this particular pic, he was chillin' on the bag right next to Jed's desk.  I think he's quite cute!

Preparing for another night patrol.

Jed and Tveidt.

One last thing - Camp Victory continues to be rocketed on a constant basis, although it has been quiet for the last few weeks.  But just to get an idea of what it's like, check out of few of these videos taken from other soldiers during their deployments, it's the same stuff.  *Note: again, there is usually alot of cussing in these videos so beware if there are tender ears nearby!

Rocketing courtesy of your local terrorists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQ8UjjLeZE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8F2ebn4nSc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKYi5cCA9i0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dXJmZnEWqg&feature=related

Now it's our turn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1iiigJHwZ0&feature=related

Can't wait to have this man home for good!!!!!