SSgt Michael S. Rice is Back In Iraq
Updated 12/01/2009 See Mike on FaceBook
Our oldest son, Mike Rice, is on his 3rd tour in Irag, and our President has no
business sending him to Afganistan! He is currently at an Army post
near Balad Air Base of the 332 AEW, Iraq. Balad is a Shiite town of
100,000 inside the Sunni Triangle, 50 miles north of Bagdad on the
Tigres River. Thanks for asking. Thanks for praying. Subj : here i is, sep 11th. Date: 11 Sep, 2009 From :Rice, Michael S. SSG , HHC. 1-28 IN, Mayor Cell, JBCC, APOAE 09391 well yall, here i is, sep 11th. still in kuwait, but we are suppossed to be flying out sometime tonight/tomorrow. finally. i kinda hate this place. rumour going around that 1-4 cav is stuck here for the next year because they no longer have any battlespace in iraq, the iraqi's have taken over the area that they were suppossed to go to completely. am i glad that i am not in that unit. i dont think i could stay here for a year. ran into my old first sergeant and lt from the engineers, they have been here for 3 and a half weeks, and i thought it was bad for me, i only been here for about 11 days. a lot of this is just a ramble, no correct punctuation or capitalization, btu i am sure that yall can figure that out on your own. another rumour is that i will be the fob mayor, which means that i am the one in charge of anything and everything that happens on the fob that we end up going to. all the contracts that need fullfilled from the iraqi's to us and vice versa. any work orders that need completed have to go thru me. overall same as being a mayor in a small town i guess. i really hope that rumour is not true, that job will be a full time operation. but if they do give me that job, i can tell you right now, i will not have any other little side job going on, trained as i am or not, lol. if i do not specify anyone in particular when i am speaking i am sorry, this is my randomness that will be published to anyone and everyone that would like to know what is going on in my life over here, sorry, no name dropping to protect the innocent.....or the guilty?......lol. had a 3 day mrap training going on for the past few days, wasnt to bad although it was geared for the beginner, someone who has never before seen or driven one before, unlike myself who have played with them things for the last 6 months of my last deployment. for those in the dark....mrap is a class of vehicles with a dozen or so variants to it, uumm, brain fart here, i forgot what mrap stood for.......Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, there it is. one big vehicle, very top heavy because of the way they are made. drives pretty good, very little new additions since i have last played with em. we hit the range yesterday, just to zero our weapons again, in case anyones sights got knocked out of wack while shuffling around to get here. mine got knocked a lil bit so i had to readjust up a few clicks then was able to hit dead center. we only got 18 rounds to do this in, which is normal, i shot 3 rounds, made adjustments, then tore out the lower half of the targets center. a few rounds got pulled out of center but i attribute that to the way we were placed on the range. sfc tipton was to my left, about 3 inches really, and pfc mullins was on my right, another 3 inches. so everytime one of us shot, the other was getting hit with the spent brass, which by the way is VERY hot for about 5 seconds. believe me, it will make you dance if it happens to fall in between your vest and your flesh. i got pinged a few times, but luckily nothing fell down my shirt, the closest was one that hit my neck, a quick burn and rolled away, made me flinch though. and of course we had those mandatory briefings to let us know the who, what, when, where, and why of it all. nothing particulary interesting that happened to catch my attention. well, it is currently 1642 here, gotta get ready for guard duty over in the toc, so i wll chat atchyall at a later time. i shall try to keep this updated as often as possible and get it emailed out to yall once i get setup in iraq. for some of you, i love you, for others of you, i miss you, for still others i love and miss you, lol. take care everyone. 11 september 09 ok, well we ended up not flying out last night. we werre suppossed to fly out last night at around 0400 in the morning, got issued ammo, 30 rounds, to carry with us somewhere around 2200 or so. finished packing up the little bit of gear that i had out and then crashed on my empty cot until wake up for formation. i got woke up at 0230 this morn and was told to remove my boots and get more comfortable since we werent flying now. oh well. woke up myself around 0530 or so and heard people shuffling around in here and tried to go back to sleep since we didnt have nothing going on at all today. finally got out of bed about 0630, shaved and brushed my teeth, then woke up the other 4 guys in the shop to see if they wanted to go eat breakfast. went to eat then came back to the tent and scrounged a morning paper from captain breckinridge. sat on the only side of the tent that still had power, since someone tried to plug in a 110 into a 220 outlet, they ended up frying the side of the tent that i stay on of course. sometimes stuff happens when i am not around i guess. got invited to a game of spades, so myself and sfc fletcher played against spc evans and sgt menan, took about 3 hours for the 1 game. i think that was the longest one game of spades i have ever played. took off for lunch immediatly after that game. arrived back at the tent and snatched a movie form spc taylor, watched that and am now sitting here typing to anyone who might find this interesting, lol. but hey, i am sure that some of you out there are leading a lot more interesting life right now. so here i sit, still in kuwait, remembering 9/11 since it is the anniversary. i wont go into details and tell you all where i was or what i was doing, i am sure you all have your own memories as well. its kinda hard for me to picture myself sitting here typing all of this to yall. especially since i am not a big talker of any sort. i am a quiet shy guy. some of you out there might disagree with that, but thats only because i know you pretty good and i get along with you and feel comfortable around you. i dont know if i will write in here everyday, but i will will try my best to keep yall updated about my life here in iraq this time around, third times the charm right? hey tori, this ones for you....i ran into curtis today during lunch, he looked like he was doing pretty good, he said hi. well, yall i is taking a nap i guess since i have absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day except sit here and wait for news of when we mmight fly outta here, and hit up some dinner chow i guess. laters yall. ok, i is returned. had guard duty for 2 hours at the toc, then took off to eat qwik. got word upon my return that i should be flying outta here around 1130 tomorrow. it is now 2230 right now so i guess i is gonna get ready for some rack time, all the lights have been doused so its kinda hard to see what i is typing, lol. one last run to the porta potties then i is crashing for the night. chat atchyalls laters. 13 september 09 ok, STILL here in kuwait. another flight cancelled. only this time we was all packed up and had half of my baggage brought over to the pick up point before they came running back and said that the flight was cancelled. uugghh. i think i should rename this my rambling page. i is thinking that that is what i be doing the most on here. but hey, at least i am trying to keep people updated as to what is happening in my little corner of the world. granted yall might not read this until about a month or so after i have wrote all this, but you get the idea. upon looking back at the dates that i had previosly wrote up top i think i am about 1 or 2 days off, this time i actually looked at my watch to see what the day was so i know i got the right date, lol. its looking like i will be teaching drivers training upon landing at balad. which means that i will be there for a while because they want to shuffle the whole battalion through it. not good for me since i will be living out of my duffle bag for a lot longer than anticipated. all i want to do is get to where i can unpack and stop living like a gypsy. it was expected coming here to kuwait, but enough is enough. i want my stability, lol. granted we really aint doing a whole lot over here, which means a lot of downtime, but i am trying to save money so the only thing i have bought so far is some shave cream, razors, baby wipes, and 1 meal at subway. the first three were necessary items, the meal was because i got stuck in the toc for 3 hours and misssed dinner chow, oh well. for those of you that dont know, this is my third time getting sent to iraq. i have also had 2 trips to korea. 1 trip to turkey, and 1 trip to saudi arabia. making this my 7th time overseas. hopefully my last time then i can retire from this army life. currently have 18 years in. 14 sep 09 well, 1127 in the afternoon and still here in kuwait. just got word that the suppossed flight we had has been cancelled, of course. so here we be for another day or 20. to me its just another day of sitting around doing pretty much nothing until my turn for guard at the toc later this evening. 15 september 09 well, here i still sit, in kuwait. another flight has been cancelled. so, i just kinda sit here all day doing next to nothing while waiting for the word to get outta here. the original first flight that i was suppossed to have been on was scheduled for the 9th. since then i have been sitting here. not really wanting to go anywhere so i can save money and so that when they say we is flying i will be here and wont have to jump through hoops to get ready to fly out. listen to m y music, pull a 2 hour toc shift and read or play a game on my computer. 1340 and still sitting here. 1832, and still here with no word about flights, about to head to chow. 18 september 09 well, 0735 in the morning and here i be, finally in my place of residence for the next year. well, almost in my place, might be moving to a different room here in a few days, but at least i am in the right area anyways. if i do move it will be just a few meters down the road to the next pad. and i do haave an address for yall. SSG RICE, MICHAEL S. HHC, 1-28 IN, S-3 BJCC APOAE 09391 that is how yall can reach me throught the postal sevice. and yes, it has been confirmed for me. as soon as we got here once i ran into the first sergeant, he said with the biggest grin on his face ;boy am i glad to see you rice, this job is all yours.' meaning of course that i will be the mayor for the fob. it was a fun 2-3 days that it took to get here lemme tell ya. 0230 in the morning of the 16th we had our formation for manifest, bussess showed up around 0330 or so, we loaded up, wheels up at the airfield about 0830. arrived at balad airfield an hourish later. then got stuck in the transient billets for the day. made the rounds to the messhall and the px area. then got the word that we were suppossed to leave out that same night so we repacked what little bit we had unpacked and headed to the airfield. all the bags got loaded and we sat in the waiting area for about 2 hours and then, guess what, flight cancelled. headed back to the transient area told our bags had already left for jbcc. so spent the night without any gear and no shaving stuff. so of course we all looked a lil like hillbillies the next morn. about noonish we were picked up from there and convoyed out to jbcc and here i be. well yall, i is off to my first meeting as residing town mayor, uugghh. 22 september 09 well, another day gone by. i not really the mayor thank goodness, just work in the mayor cell. but everyday it feels like they keep adding new duties for me to do. i am now in charge of force protection, badge issuance, linguistic personnel, water points, conex in/out flow. i realize that i havent typed anything for a few days, sorry bout that. but i have been busy trying to learn my job and everything associated with it. so lot of walking around and doing the whole meet n greet of everyone i will be interacting with. i am sure that in a few monthes or so i will learn all the names and faces. i think i got the address out to everyone who would like it or needed it, but if not then whoever reads this if you could please disseminate to whomever wants it for me. that and anyone who has an email address if yall could send me them as well. cant wait for the guy below me to move out, 3 more days. then i can fully take over the bottom bunk and everything that goes with it. plenty of shelving, a lil locker type thing and a desk. he's a good guy, i just want my space, lol. but not to much longer. i dont think i will end up spending a lot of money here, simply cause there aint nothing here. but i guess thats a good thing. 29 sep 09 ok, so i missed a few days writing. 3 of those days however i spent down in balad for a 1 day class. container managment. however since i have been back, i have been extremely busy trying to get everything squared away as for my job duties here. the bulk of the previous unit has left out earlier today. we now have only a handful of 3-4 cav guys still running around. so we have mostly taken control of everything here. so i stay pretty busy doing the 3-4 different jobs i got. but, sorry about the little short jaunt i have trespassed into here, however it is 2354 so i have to drop into bed so i can get up at 0530. early mornings and late nights make for a LONG day. i think i need the hours that uncle gail has hanging in his ranch office. but yall, i shall continue this "ramble" aat another time, yall take care and god bless. if yall have any pictures or anything else you would like me to have or see, please fell free to drop them on this datastick and send it back. but whether or not you drop anything back on this thing, please send this stick back to me so that i may update it with octobers ramble and get it sent back out to yall. by the way, just in case i didnt send the address for this place or if i did and it changed a bit here it is again SSG Rice, Michael HHC, 1-28 IN, Mayor Cell JBCC APOAE 09391 GROCERY LIST: baby wipes, microwavable single meal type things, ramen, microwave popcorn, small thing of coffee (flavored?) 1 pound or smaller    |
ADDRESS:
As of 10/23/2009 Mail to:
SSG RICE, MICHAEL S.    More Pictures   Even More:       |
Balad (Arabic) is a city 50
miles (80 kilometres) north of Baghdad in Iraq. It is located within
the borders of the so-called Sunni Triangle; however, Balad is a
primarily Shiite town of approximately 100,000. |
Military Camps Located within the municipality of Yethrib, the installation is known officially as LSA Anaconda. The Saddam era military base also hosts several U.S. Air Force units and small attachments of U.S. Navy personnel. The Air Force refers to LSA Anaconda as Balad Air Base. The base is also unofficially called Camp Anaconda. As of early 2007 the base is the central hub for airlift and U.S. Air Force operations in Iraq, it is also a major transshipment point for US Army supply convoys. It is probably best known for having the only Army & Air Force Exchange Service 35mm projection screen movie theater in Iraq and for having a full-size swimming pool. Known colloquially as "Mortaritaville" by some of its residents, it is also derogatorily called "Pogadishu" by combat arms soldiers in reference to the large number of non-combat arms soldiers--or the "Pog" (Personnel Other-than Grunt)--stationed there. Broadcasting infrastructure Balad has a shortwave relay station SED. SED's transmission capabilities * 16 x 500 kw shortwave transmitters * 26 HR type curtan arrays SED has similar transmission capabilities to RCI's Sackville Relay Station, and DW's Wertachtal Relay Station. |
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 As of 9/19/2009 Mail to: SSG RICE, MICHAEL S.    |
