Memorial Day

What does it mean to you? It's different for everyone but it usually involves grilling, a pool, drinks with friends, etc. Do you ever sit down and think about why we get this day off work every year? I know it seems like a silly question, but it has more meaning to me this year than ever before. Congress made it an official federal holiday in 1971 to honor all Americans who gave their life fighting for our country. This day is not about me, and I sincerely hope it never will be, but as I look around at the soldiers who wear armbands for their fallen comrades, I can't help but think back to past Memorial Day weekends and the lack of remembrance I showed. So please, don't change your plans for the day and do enjoy the freedoms and liberties these valiant Americans gave their all for. They wouldn't want it any other way. But please do something to remember them: put a flag on their grave or say a toast in their honor. God Bless America and her brave military

Sandstorms and Jet-lag... blah

So jet-lag has struck and I slept from 0100 to 1700 today... that's right, 16 hours straight. I needed it. When we finally did venture out, we were stuck in the middle of a minor sandstorm. I now know what it feels like to be sandblasted. Guess I should be glad for some semblance of ex foliation... we supposedly having training/briefings tomorrow; we shall see. Today was a day to get over our jet-lag and apparently we needed it. I got an internet card for the week. I decided it was a good investment because now I'm not sitting in line for the opportunity to get online and now I can skype! I'm 8 hours ahead of all you Texans so finding a time we're both available may be difficult, but middle of the day for you (aka night for me) tends to be my free time. I'll let you guys know if that changes. Well, not much else to say. Going to be here in Kuwait for about a week and then we're headed into Iraq, so everything may change at that point; we shall see!

In Kuwait

The title pretty much says it all. I'm here in Kuwait safely. And now after almost 48 hours of travel and travel prep, I'm exhausted. I will definitely be sleeping well tonight in our air conditioned barraks. Yes, they have AC. And this is nothing like a deployment should be; there are gyms, a Baskin Robins, Starbucks, a fully stocked PX, etc. But hey, if you have to be over here, might as well do it in style.

I think I'm the only one enjoying the heat; I've missed it while I've been in Colorado. So everyone walked off the plane and started complaining and I sighed because I was finally warm. :-) If we could get rid of all the sand(not fun to breath in) this weather would be perfect. Kuwait's really tan though... everything is tan/beige. If Iraq's the same way, I'm definitely going to have to put lots of color in my room or I'll go crazy. It's an easy fix though.

Oh! I found AT&T calling centers but calling cards are in short supply.... so if you send me a calling card and your phone number (they're all in my phone which doesn't work over here) I will call you! Make sure it's a global card or a military card otherwise it won't work.

I'm exhausted, so I'm going to head off to my cot. Love you guys!

Made it to Germany

Woohoo Leipzig! Yeah, not super exciting as an airport (at least not the terminal I'm in) but it time off the plane and I have internets! So here I am... looks like it'll be about an hour til the plane's ready. Oh! My mom's college roommate Amy lives in Colorado Springs and came to see me off and she took some pictures; here they are:




You may notice that the bottom of my duffel only reads "OCKRAS"; that's because my name was too long to fit. I'm gonna be screwed if there's another 2LT Ockras.... ;-)

Not much else to say... next stop Kuwait!

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

In a few hours anyway. I've been in holding since 11 last night and it's now 5:30am... yeah we've moved to the airport, but there's absolutely no reason this is taking so long and had to start so early. If the flight's at 7:20, why were we at brigade with our bags packed and laid out with our weapons drawn by 11:30? It just seems like it's unnecessarily long. Maybe that's a good timeline for a full unit leaving, but there are a little over 100 of us... things go a little faster. Oh well; c'est la vie. So we're sitting in a room that has concrete floors and chairs until 6:30 and we've already been here an hour. The only plus is this free wireless internet; woohoo! I look around and this is definitely an add for Army Sleepy... soldiers literally can sleep anywhere and in often times contorted positions. They crack me up. I took a few pictures; I'll post them soon.

I've started compiling a list of things I know I'm going to want. For some of them, please call dibbs before sending me anything because I won't need more than one. For others, send away! For example, as soon as I know my unit, I want a real pillow and some non-army pjs. Those I don't need hundreds of. However, I also want Q-tips and pipe cleaners; they're fantastic for cleaning weapons. We have to clean our weapons daily so I'll definitely have a use for them and if I can't use them, the other soldiers will love me for supplying them. :-)

Well, I don't really have much else to write at this point; we're just sitting here waiting. They threatened to go through everyone's medical packets but they haven't in the hours we've been sitting here and I can't see them doing so in the hour before flight... but maybe that's just me. Oh well, I'll be on a plane at some point, going to some destination on the east coast (they haven't told us). Love you all!

Last Night in a Real Bed

I leave at a ridiculously early time Thursday morning, so tonight's my last night with a real mattress and pillows. I have a natural ability to sleep anywhere, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss the real bed. I'm looking around my room and I see all my stuff I'm taking with me (I'm double checking my packing) and it seems like a lot but really nothing at all. I can remember everything I packed in my car for my year of training across America and this is nothing. You guys better mail me stuff :-P I turned my car in today, so it's at a storage facility. Which means I've rented a car for a day because there's no way I'm carrying all this gear across post. Not happening.

I promised pictures from Ward's graduation, so here are some of my favorites:






Well, I'm off to get some food and then continue this evening of packing... woohoo!

My Address!

So it's official, I have my address. It will change one they figure out exactly where they're assigning me, but this will work until then:

Theresa Ockrassa, 2LT, HHC
64th BSB 3BCT 4ID
COB Adder APO AE
09331

Things take between a week and a month to get there, so keep that in mind. Also, here are some friendly tips from the USPS on mailing things to an APO box.
- liquids must be placed in a sealed container and wrapped in absorbancy material with outer packaging that will protect contents
- All package weighing one pound or more must a have a properly completed Customs Form 2976-A (white form). They won't accept forms with scratch outs or cross throughs
- Detailed description of contents are required on customs form. Bad Ex: "Toiletries" Good EX. "1 roll-on deodorant" Bad EX: "food" Good EX: "3 bags Oreos, 2 bags M&Ms"

The following things are not allowed to be sent to an APO box:
- alcohol based products like perfumes, colognes, mouthwash, hairspray, etc
- lighters, matches, butane
- cleaning agents and detergent
- fingernail polish and nail polish remover
- flee collars, DEET, most bug sprays
- pork products/pork by products, aka Spam (this is seriously on the USPS list... if any of you were thinking of sending me pork, you're weird...)

That should be everything. Let me know if you have any questions/ bring everything with you to the post office and have the lovely person behind the counter help you out.

Flight's been moved to Thursday at a ridiculously hour in the morning, so I have a few more days here. Have to put my car in storage tomorrow so that may make things interesting.

Wait... what?

So I got back to Colorado, everything's going fine, settle into my hotel home for the next few days, get some dinner, and then call the sergeant keeping track of all our training and schedules to see what's on the docket for tomorrow. Turns out they extended everyone's weekend pass through Tuesday so I actually didn't have to be back for another 2 days... but no one told me. It's a whole he said, she said type thing where no one really knew they were supposed to contact me. So I'm here, 2 days early, with nothing to do when I could have stayed home. Thanks Army, you rock.

Ward Graduated!!!!

It's official: Ward has graduated! Many of you know this is epic and took him 8 years to accomplish, so I'm super psyched. I don't have the cable to put pics on my computer with me in Austin, but I"ll post a few pictures of the occasion as soon as I can. I loved te guest speaker because he looked and acted just liked an economics nerd should; it was awesome. Which meant it was also funny to watch the audience and see how many people were proud of their child getting an economics major but really didn't understand economics themselves. The looks of complete confusion were amusing.

I fly back to Colorado and then start the flights to Iraq on Thursday. It feels kind of odd to be this close to leaving. In some ways it changes everything and in some ways it changes nothing. I'm really just ready to get this thing started; I've been a commissioned officer for a year now (yeah, check the date; a year plus a day) and I still haven't really done anything that I signed up to do. I've been stuck in training and I'm ready to go actually do something.

I'm going to go back to my afternoon with Ward; he's making sure I have all the electronics and entertainment he can get me for this upcoming year. He's so cute. So I'll get back to picking the movies I want on my harddrive (let me know if you have suggestions) and getting translation and map applications for my iPod touch.

Whirlwind of Days

Sorry for taking so long to post; I've been running around getting stuff together and getting everything done before I leave. This was a week of range time, but it was frustrating because it didn't seem like training; it was all about checking the block. Guess I should be used to that mentality by now but it still irks me. It was also a really great week because Ward was able to come visit me. He studied for his finals during the day while I was at work and then I had the evenings with him. It's amazing how much it improved my mood and outlook. He's heading back to Austin now to take the aforementioned exams. Good news though, for all you Austinites: I'm coming home! Yep, I convinced the rear detachment commander to let me come home for Ward's graduation. So, if you're in the Austin area and can come to Ward's graduation shindig on Friday, I'll be there! I know, I'm psyched.

Well, the next few days are going to be hectic. Finishing up IRT, getting all my stuff packed away, getting my smallpox vaccine (not fun...), making sure all of my paperwork is ready. You know, fun stuff.

Good News amid the Beauracracy

So I've started the long, dreary process of deployment prep. Today was Soldier Readiness Processing(SRP). It's a long day of waiting in lines to make sure everything is medically ok (eye exam, dental, blood work...), you have all your paperwork in order, etc. Turns out I have a couple more appointments to do to complete all of it, but I'd rather figure that out now than in a few weeks. So, I have a doctor's appointment later this week (normal check up) and then I get my shot concoction next week some time. I have to get smallpox so my arm's going to hurt after that one.
Despite the mundane nature of today's tasks, I got some wonderful news. As things stand now, if I get everything done on schedule and I'm deployment ready and nothing changes in the schedule, I'm going to be able to come home for Ward's graduation! It won't be a long stay, but I'm elated that I'll be able to go home before I deploy and also be able to celebrate his graduation. I'm so psyched.
Also, not military related but nonetheless ridiculously awesome, my grandma told me my two cousins, Monica and Nicky, competed in a Virginia statewide ice skating competition. Monica took first place in her age group and Nicky took third. I'm so excited and proud of them!!! Props to you lovely young ladies!
Tomorrow we head into briefings on Iraqi culture and language. Level of interest will depend on the instructor, so keep you fingers crossed for an engaging and intelligent teacher for me!