This is the beginning of a very long journey. Over the next year I will be going to Iraq. Things are still up in the air as to when exactly. We have begun our training by spending a month in CA. I did most of the training in January 09, so this trip was primarly to perform my job as a PA. Below are some of the pictures of that training.

In many of the pictures you will find a special little friend

named Captain. He was given to me by my kids to take with

me and watch over me. In these first pictures it is pretty clear

where Captain is, but there will be times that

he is more hidden as well.

Here he is on our first day at Camp Roberts, CA, resting in our lovely WWII barracks before we decided to change the room around. He said that it didn't work for him.

One of the many classes that we had to attend was how to disassemble the M9 pistol 9mm. SGT Barnes gave a very good class and we all had hands on training. This was what the barracks looked like, if you weren't lucky enough to have your own room.

This is my buddy Will. The first day out on the M4 range, we were zeroing our weapons. He did much better than me and came off the range after only 9 rounds. The target is suppose to represent a target at 300m and he nailed it. Took me a little longer to get.

What the over all area of the zeroing range looked like.

CLS class. Combat Lifesaver Course. This course is designed to teach non medical soldiers some basic medical skills including sticking an IV.

This is the IV portion of the class. You buddy up with 2 other soldiers who you hope have steady hands and a strong stomach and then you get to stick needles in their arm and pray they can do the same for you. It helps out the line medics a lot during emergency situations. They can then direct medical care for more than one soldier at a time. The best medicine that a CLS can supply is to kill the enemy so that none of his buddies get hurt!

I hope the Chaplin's son is saying a prayer as he is about to get stuck. By the way they both did a good job!

After all that good training Captain was just a little too tired and needed to be perked up a little - so he had his tank topped off!

This is the main lobby of the TMC (Troop Medical Center) at Camp Roberts. This is where I spent most of my days from 0600 to 1600 (6am to 4pm for the rest of you). We would see anywhere from 50 to 100 patients a day between me and the Dr.

This is the BUB our nightly meeting to make sure everything is going well. It includes all the commanders, staff and special staff (that's me, I'm special!) We talk about what has happened each day and what is going to happen over the next 72 hrs. Pretty informative, but can be long too.

This is the SCO (Squadron Commander). GO CAV!

(where is Captain??)

This is my room again after I changed it to work around the one plug in the room, behind the desk.

On our first leg of the journey back to Oregon - luckily Captain can sleep on busses and planes.

Just a brief little picture of my adventure so far. Two days prior to leaving for Georgia I was informed that I could skip the 2 month training and go directly to Iraq without passing go or collecting $200. I get phone calls almost daily from my guys down there, so we can coordinate things for when I join them in Iraq. I don't mind the calls because I get to spend 2 more months with my family!

Thanks for following along and for all the prayers during this journey!

Here we go again!

The 41st is getting ready to go. This time it is Iraq. We will be going to training soon to get ready. This is a heads up to start looking at the blog again. In a few weeks I'll start doing regular updates and let you know what's going on.

In the mean time please pray for my family. They have the really tough job, staying here!

Thanks for all your support in the past and the future.

mike

Post Deployment

Just want to say "thanks" to all who have looked at this blog. If interested in keeping up with me and my family, post deployment, click on the link to the right called Wulf Family Blog.
Thanks
mike

My Crew

41st LTF (Logistical Task Force) medical detachment

HM2 Jason Duty (Left)

Sr. Airman Olanzo and Sgt. Capers (below)

Jay Day, HM2. The NCOIC (non commissioned officer in charge of medical evacuation)

1Lt Pong, Pharmacist. He has a dog named Ping!

Sr Airman Jessica Castillo

Sgt Rodriguez, night shift NCOIC

Navy Corpsman Swatski, night shift medic

HM2 Connolly

HM2 D-lo and Airman Neval

The Boss, Cpt. Trish Lucus PA-C

Fellow PA Gina Wellik

The old Man of the group,

and for that matter of the army!

LTC O'Leary

The Guys! Left to right:

Cpt. Carl Bonnett, ER doc from Colorado

Col. Syvenski, dentist from Colorado

Me

Cpt. Christopher Studavent, PA from Oregon

Maj. Bill Stutts, Doc from Iowa

Our last night together at Ft. Benning before going home.

A great adventure with great friends!

Overall the medical assests at Camp Phoenix were great. It was a very smooth working team with a lot of professionalism. I am very proud to have served

with these soldiers, sailors and airmen.

I wish them well in the future and hope that all can come home safely!

Thanks to everyone that has followed up with the blog and supported myself and my family.

mike

A Final Flurry Of Activities

It has been a busy week with Memorial Day and change of command, but a little fun was had too.
Fallen Soldier Memorial

Here are pictures of the fallen soldier memorial. It was presented to Camp Phoenix on Memorial day. Each of the plaques inside this case represents a soldier who paid the ultimate price for freedom. 7 soldiers died under Oregon's command. 4 from Oregon and 3 from Oklahoma. General Pritt on the left and Command Sargent Major Conley, (both from Oregon), read each of the soldiers names during the ceremony. The case was placed in the chow hall and is the 5th of such cases placed around the building.

This is 1st Lt. Dennis Stahlnecker. He is a Chaplin from Oregon. He gave the opening prayer for the ceremony. It was a very touching moment.

Specialist Gary Huddleston, the builder of the memorial and one of my buddies over here. From southern Oregon. He ran the wood shop. He had spent a lot of time and effort on this and should be rightly proud of the job he has done. He helped and gave great suggestions on many of my Battle Field Furniture projects. A good man and a good friend.

If I learn to fly, he has a plane to sell as well. Honey?

Change of Command ceremony from Oregon to South Carolina.

Patriot Plaza :
Area outside the chow hall is where we had out change of command ceremony. Most of Oregon has left, but a good representation was still there. We also had soldiers from the ANA and theater command. You can see ANA and ANP personnel in the foreground before the formal start of the ceremony. Soldiers in the background in formation.

ANP in the blue uniforms.

General Pritt giving his address under the flags. The man behind him is a terp and would repeat the generals words for the local soldiers and policemen.

Flag raising ceremony on Memorial Day.

It took all day to get it done, but wow it was amazingly cool to see the colors fly. Some of the soldiers from the TMC put together a honor guard team. Each of them had done it before but in their services style. Each brought that style to the ceremony and made it something very special to behold. Chris sent some flags over specifically to be flown on Memorial Day. The entire ceremony was silent and incredibly honoring to all fallen soldiers.

We had to get permission to lower one of the existing colors in order to fly ours. Good thing about it was that we were able to do it later in the day after the heat of the day and some cloud rolled in. Bill also recorded the ceremony on video.

D-Lo and Morin folding of the colors after flying one of the flags.

All of us in this picture. I'm the guy in the foreground with no hair. In the background you can see the 41st BCT symbol on the wall.

The team: Left to Right

Me

Wilfredo F Delos Reyes Jr. "D-lo"

Kathleen J. Lavender "Kat"

Blair Morin

Off camera is William (Bill) Stutts

There professionalism was incredible. They made the ceremony so wonderful and truly memorable. It made the day a standout and brought the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Weapons Test Firing Day

A day of Testosterone at the foreign weapons test firing range.

Russian 50 cal, loud and pretty good but jammed a lot. Have video I can show you when I get home of me firing it at a target about 500 m out.

All of the toys to be test fired that day. They have been repaired by Afghan armors. We let them take the first shots, just in case. There were U.S, Canadian and Polish troops out there firing.

I missed the shot of them fixing the weapons with hammers. Notice the baseball cap?

This is the first of the AK47's I got to shoot. Notice the modified weapon stock. It had a bayonet on the end at first. I guess you could use it to dig a hole for a fighting position, then use it to defend yourself. It fires the 30.06 or 7.62mm round.

I look pretty cool all armed up with an AK, M-4 and 9mm. Do you think I put fear in the enemies hearts?











Thanks again for tuning in to my little adventure. It has been a good experience, and one I hope you have come to understand a little more about. It is almost time to leave. It is a little sad, but I won't be looking back. I can hardly wait to get home and spend time with Chris, Caitlin and Luke.

Take care, god bless.

mike