Whoaa I'm Halfway There...

Whooooaaa living on a prayer!  Stolen from my friend Micah's blog as we both mark the half way point in our deployments.  I confess that I have not had Bon Jovi ringing through my head much.  Perhaps too much of a throwback to college.  Perhaps b/c it's mostly Jack Johnson, country, and island music as the current unit packs up their bags.

I have been slacking on the blog lately.  Not because there haven't been things going on to write about.  Every day seems to bring a new challenge, crisis (real or imagined), setback, good news story, or humorous "oh to be deployed with the Army" story to write about.  Sometimes it's best not to put such things into words in the moment or I am too tired or too frustrated to do so.

Looking at my blog I see my last post was on the heels of the Quran burning incident and 48 hrs ago brought the latest crisis in the tragedy in Kandahar.  I have seen it written about in the media as another "incident" following the Quran burning, discussed in terms of the soldier's multiple deployments and TBI suffered in Iraq, and finally as a CIVCAS.  I take issue with the last characterization -- civilian casualties are incredibly unfortunate but a part of war when they happen.  CF here go to incredible lengths to avoid CIVCAS to the point where you frequently read about joes being hampered because of Commanders/JAGs and their ROEs.  This was not a CIVCAS incident, it was a crime.

I had the fortune to have my Commander on the ground for a great meeting with the judicial officials in my province this week.  It was a short visit but I was able to catch up with Chief and snap a pic after we got back from patrol before they headed out again.