Let's begin

Hi. My name is Ken. I am a reservist in the United States Army. I am a computer technician, and I am about to go to Iraq for a year. I hope to make this an outlet for myself, and a way to stay connected to the rest of the world. Thanks for joining me on this trip. Here's where we are now.

My task force, an Aviation unit based out of Virginia, is in final preparations to mobilize. We are heading to Oklahoma for our last step, which could take as much as 2 months, but I'm not certain how long it will be, and not sure if I could say if I did know. Once we are done there, we go straight to "The Sandbox". I'm in the process now of saying goodbye to my family and my regular job. I have already been on a trip to California with my unit to get equipped and trained for the conditions. Now, it's mostly just waiting for the big day.

As I said, I'm a computer technician, and that gives me a particular skill set and set of "tools" to do things like this with. I have been officially trained to do the job for a year now, but playing with computers my whole life up until then. I am quite knowledgeable, but I know I can stand to learn a lot more, and am always ready to. I tend to be a sort of "Jack of all trades" when it comes to computers. I know how to do a lot of different things, and in my civilian job, I'm sort of an on-hand expert, even though it's not in my job description.

My home life is great. I have a wife named Rachel and 3 wonderful kids. I'm going to miss them all, and since the kids are quite young, I know this will have a major impact on them, so doing this will also give me a chance to share something that they can grow up and see when they want to better understand their father. I still live very close to my parents, and even work just down the street from my mother. On the road of life leading up to where I am now, I had already served 4 years on active duty in the Army in the 82d Airborne Division, and have even been to Iraq once before, but a lot has changed in the 6 years that have passed since then.

Well, I think this is a suitable introduction. Posts from here may be a little sporadic, as getting into a rhythm will be difficult in a time of so much transition, but these first posts are surely more for the sake of introductions then to start a following. Looking forward to the future.

Ken