I Have It Easy

It has been a while since I updated my blog. My publisher is on my case (just kidding). It is hard to keep coming up with ideas. Now I know what writer’s block is all about.

Now, for a little history of the 909th FST. This FST was first organized about 1989.Their first deployment was to FOB Salerno 2002-2003 in Afghanistan, just over the mountain range south of here. From that original group, there are 5 soldiers who were on that deployment who are still with us today. They are our command, First Sergeant, XO (Executive Officer) and a nurse and sergeant in the OR. The rest of us, about 16, all have replace and added to the original. They brought along some pictures of their deployment at FOB Salerno. We have it easy compared to what they went through. When they first arrived, they had to build everything. It was just a small FOB at that time, anywhere from 75 to 200 soldiers. They had to build their own out house, showers, put up their own tents and do their own laundry and cooking. One of the guys bought a pet monkey from some local kids. They built a cage and even took it to the vet to get all the shots. The best part was giving it a bath. They had to sedate it do it. They kept it for a while until a higher up found out about it and made them give it up. I have posted some pictures from their deployment.


Original sleeping quarters while putting up tents and wood structures



Laundry day







Building a base for a tent














Giving Mojo,the monkey, a bath



Piss tubes. No explanation needed
















Woman's facility











We had our patch ceremony which is after you are in theatre over 30 days. You receive a patch that you wear on your right shoulder. The Army ACU (Army Combat Uniform) is half Velcro. The right shoulder area under the flag is blank unless you have been deployed. Then you wear the patch of the unit that you deployed. So if you see an Army soldier and want to know if he/she was deployed, just look at their right shoulder to see if there is a patch under the flag or not. And by the way, we wear the flag with the stars always pointing to the front, so on our right sleeve, it looks backwards, but that is intentional.




My patch is of the 173rd Airborne Combat team. The 173rd Brigade has a long history starting with WW1. They were active in WWll and Korea. They were the first airborne brigade in Viet Nam. They had the most combat time in Viet Nam than any other brigade, 6 years. In fact, the country western song “8th of November” by Big & Rich is about a famous battle of theirs in 1965 in War Zone D. They had very high casualties from that battle. The unit does a memorial marathon every year on that day for the last 9 years. In 1971, the unit was deactivated to a reserve unit and lost their airborne status. In 2000, it was reactivated to airborne and stationed in Italy for airborne support of the entire European theatre. After 911, it made an airborne jump in 2003 for OIF (Operation Iraq Freedom) in northern Iraq. They have been in Afghanistan since 2007 for OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom).


Speaking of memorial runs, we at FOB Shank are doing a first annual Pat Tillman run. Pat Tillman was the professional football player who gave up his career to join the Army to fight in Afghanistan. He was killed April 2004 and was stationed out of FOB Salerno. It is a 4 and ½ mile run this Saturday. They have been doing this run for a number of years but this is the first time at Shank. Our entire unit is doing it by strong encouragement of our command, very strong encouragement. The best part is that the tee shirts are leftovers from a run in 2009 in San Jose. They are all women’s double XX shirts. I wonder why they had so many extra, extra large shirts left over. They are giving us woman’s clothing to wear and they worry about gay’s in the military. I haven’t figured that one out yet.
Hopefully, I will be home in about 2 ½ weeks.

Tom