Updated 18-Sep: Welcome to the Schriefer Blog, my name is Tavis Schriefer. Recently, my wife Jill and I raised money to supply driFIRE shirts to every soldier in Apache Company of the 1-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. We were successful in raising over $6500 and we would like to thank everyone for all their support to make this happen.
Please read our entire message here...

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Desert Jon called today

Jonathan called today. Its getting warmer there now and apparently the mosquitoes are out in force. His Grandmother gave me some citronella candles to ship him and I will be adding a few movies to the box.

Everything is going fine.

Polar Nick has landed

Nick called me a few minutes ago. He has landed in Anchorage and said there is about 2 feet of snow. He said the mountains are beautiful. He also didn't waste any time meeting women and has already got a phone number. He was joined in Salt Lake City by several of his Airborne buddies who are stationed at Fort Richardson as well.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Nick Goes To Alaska

Here's an update on Nick. He graduated Airborne school on 11 March and came home for leave before going to his first duty station at Fort Richardson, Alaska (in Anchorage and next to Elmendorf AFB).


Fort Richardson

Looks like the "polar" opposite of Jon's current location. His cell phone won't work there because Sprint's "nationwide" service doesn't cover Alaska, so everyone that has his number, just hold on to it until you hear of a new one.

Nick leaves tomorrow and will probably enjoy the weather there since he is complaining that our 70 degree weather is too hot. Here are a couple links to the area with some pictures...

http://www.usarak.army.mil/

http://www.usarak.army.mil/framwr/photos.htm

Spoke with Jon yesterday

I spoke with Jon yesterday - first time by phone in a while. I did IM with him a couple times while I was in Germany. He is doing fine. He has access to internet from time to time, but its slow . He said he had pictures to send when he can. He also IM'd with Nick for a while the other day (Nick has been back home on leave)

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Online Photo Albums

It's taking me forever, but I'm starting to get our photo albums online. I've created a second blog to make it easier for everyone else to see our general family photo albums. However I will continue to update this blog with information and pictures regarding the boys and their tours of duty. The Schrifer Photo Album blog is at http://schrieferphotos.blogspot.com/

Here are the new additions for Jon and Nick...


8/19/2004 - Jon's Bootcamp Graduation
Here are pictures of Jon's graduation from Bootcamp at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Tavis, Nick and Jan drove there and spent 4 days.




10/8/2004 - Jon's AIT Graduation Ceremony
Here are pictures of Jon's AIT Graduation Ceremony at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Tavis and Jill drove there for the ceremony and brought Jon back for a few days before he reported in at Fort Hood, Texas.







2/11/2005 - Nick's Bootcamp Graduation Ceremony
Here is the photo album of Nick's Turning Blue Ceremony (10 Feb 2005) and Graduation Ceremony (11 Feb 2005) at Fort Benning, Georgia. There are also pictures of the Infantry Museum at Fort Benning.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Baghdad Update

Hey everyone, we finally got internet in our barracks! It's not all that fast, but it IS faster than a dial-up connection and it actually works, so I'm happy with it. Especially since i don't have to ride my bike to go to the gym to get online :D Although I still don't have a phone close by. The DSN phone line (military phones) that is close by me didn't work last I checked on Saturday. I've also taken a lot more pics and now that I have my own internet, i can start uploading them. Also, I mailed a letter to Lenn (did i spell that right??). And I don't have grandpa and grandnan's yahoo id's yet...but I did want to say thank you for the care packages - they are all very much appreciated not only by me but by the rest of the guys in my platoon as well!