Jon with a SAW in Kuwait Jan. 2005 

Pics from Kuwait

Hey everyone, I've got some pics (pictures) that I have taken since leaving the States that I'm sure y'all wanna see... It's not too bad out here on this beach, but I'm still trying to find the water that my travel agent told me is here. I'm thinking I'm gonna have to sue that agent when I get back home. Well, hope you all enjoy them!

Found Waldo (Nick) in some pictures

Tonight I went through the pictures I mentioned earlier (Jan 7) on SoldiersChapel and found Nick in the following pictures:


photo #23
photo #40 and photo #41
photo #44

DefendAmerica News - Texas Guard Soldiers Prepare to Deploy

I found this article on the DOD website about the recent deployment of the Texas National Guard.
DefendAmerica News - Texas Guard Soldiers Prepare to Deploy

There are also more photos by clicking on the link under the main photo "More Photos", including some of the 111th Engineer Battalion.

IM'd with Jon today

Jon and I IM'd today on Yahoo Messenger.

• He is doing fine and said its cold and rainy there.
• He has been exchanging emails with a friend of his that is in Mosul.
• He is getting email, but his connection is very slow so we probably shouldn't send enclosures of any significant size.
• He has seen this Blog and left a comment to one of the messages (ref: Military Exchange Prepaid Calling Cards)
• He says the food is good and they are allowed to bring sodas and juices back to their tent.
• He has been taking pictures and will try to send some when he can.

Pictures of Nick's Company in Basic Training

These are pictures of Foxtrot Company at Boot Camp, currently ranging in time from 5 Nov - 6 Dec.

Its like a "Where's Waldo" trying to find him, but in pictures with combat helmets, he is #447. He's also in photo 41 on Nov 28. Anyone spotting him in others, please provide photo number in the comments.

Webshots - Images of 1-19 F Company

Nick Graduation Info

I just spoke with Foxtrot Company' training office (Nick's Company). Their graduation is on Friday, 11 February at 10:00AM. After graduation, he will be released to his Airborne Training unit where he will likely get a weekend pass as they do not train on weekends. Fort Benning, GA is 830 miles from Dallas (Fort Leonard Wood was 562 miles)

-Tavis

Military Exchange Prepaid Calling Cards

This is the link to the AAFES calling card. The 500 minute WalMart card @ $30 gives 50 minutes of talk time from Middle East ($0.60/min), where the AAFES cards have a much better per minute rate.

Not yet sure if you have to really mail the physical card to Jon or if there are card numbers and pins that can be emailed instead... looking into it.

Military Exchange Prepaid Calling Cards

Spoke with Jon this morning

Jonathan just called and we talked for about 30 minutes. He is in Kuwait and arrived sometime within the last 24 hours. They are 9 hours ahead and he says the weather there is about 70F during the day, but gets cold at night. He said there is sand everywhere (big surprise) so they have to keep their stuff put away when not using to try and keep clean. He called using the WalMart calling card he got for Xmas (500 minute card gives him 50 minutes from Kuwait).

They flew there on an American Airlines 777 out of Fort Hood, landed in Germany for refueling (and smoke break on the flight line), then on to Kuwait. The AA crew was all volunteer. The crew persuaded the Sgts to dress up like women (wigs and all) and serve the troops dinner on the flight. Jon said he got some pictures and will send.

He has no idea how long he will be in Kuwait. They will not get a mailing address until they go to Iraq, so only way to contact him is via email (jon_schriefer@hotmail.com) or Yahoo Instant messenger (got_bawls). Everyone might send him a quick email with your contact info, just to make sure he has it.

He said that it appears they have free internet access at the CyberCafe if they use their own computers (he has a laptop) or they can pay to use the computers provided, which have web cams. He said that it seemed that the internet speed was not real fast, so we may want to hold off on sending pictures via email.

He has a digital camera as well and is taking some pictures. I suggested to him that he start a Snapfish account (www.snapfish.com) and upload them there instead of emailing to all of us (would be faster for him). This will allow all of us to see the pictures, print, email and order prints if we want. We can do the same for any pictures we would like to provide to him, allowing him to save download times by not having large email attatchments.

Spoke with Nick tonight

Nick called tonight from his cell phone he smuggled back to basic training after Xmas holiday. I asked him if he was hiding in a closet or footlocker - he said he was hiding in the corner, but to get a signal he was hanging his head outside the window overlooking the Drill Sergeant's parking lot (yep, he's stealthy). He sent me a SMS message to my phone a couple days ago saying he was already homesick. He now says that things are better and he's getting back in the swing of things. He also snuck one of Jon's cold weather undershirts and was wearing it the other day - everyone there was saying "that's nice, where did you get it". We spoke for about 10 minutes before he had to go (someone was coming). He asked for letters to start coming again, so here is his address in case anyone doesn't have it...

Pvt Nicholas Schriefer
RN-447
FCO 1st BN, 19 INF
9075 Holcomb Dr.
Ft. Benning, GA 31905


Remember to blacken the three corners like this:



-Tavis

My next technology baby step

OK, here it goes. I've heard and read about them for years, but never tried it myself. I have now created by first blog. I must really be getting old since it took me so long to do this, but decided this would be the best way to relay communications from Jon and Nick to everyone. -tavis

ps - call me anal, but I just spellchecked this and "blog" wasn't found in the blog application's spelling dictionary - hmmm...