Radio Silence

If you're reading this, it is likely that I have succeeded in joining the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division on training maneuvers at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif.

This training event requires a communications blackout. While "in the box," soldiers are barred from possessing cell phones, personal computers, and even MP3 players.

I look forward to resuming regular Red Bull Rising posts not later than October 18.

Until then,

"Attack!"

Theories of Time and Space

If you are open-minded and observant, you can sometimes detect the presence of angels--even if you don't particularly believe in them.

Long-time friends will recognize that I tend to get both faithful and fatalistic when it comes to big life decisions: Whatever is supposed to happen is supposed to happen. Some people might call that living in the present, or being mindful. As a good Lutheran boy, however, I choose to ascribe it to a powerful and loving God--a being supreme enough that he probably thinks it's funny that I give him so much credit.

Life is a journey, but it's more like steering a canoe than it is driving a car. You can shift it this way or that way a little, but you're always moving forward, and you'd better anticipate the occasional rapids.

When Household-6 and I found out that I was going to deploy to Afghanistan, we put ourselves in God's hands. When we found out, dramatically and suddenly, that I would not be deploying to Afghanistan--that, in fact, I would be retired by the end of the year--we tried the same tack:

"Maybe we have learned what we were supposed to learn, just from the experience of making preparations," we told ourselves. Little did we know.

A few days later, I was back in uniform. This time, I was assigned to help my Red Bull buddies get to Afghanistan. Traveling back and forth to Camp Shelby, Miss., has turned out to be a strange blessing, because it's kept me in touch with my buddies and my unit, far longer than I would have otherwise.

I can't predict where my family's new path may lead, but I know that am occasionally visited by angels of coincidence. Today, on Iowa Public Radio, Garrison Keillor read a poem by Natasha Trethewey on his daily "Writer's Alamanac" program. Titled "Theories of Time and Space," the poem begins, "You can get there from here, though there's no going home. Everywhere you go will be somewhere you've never been."

There are too many coincidences happening to me right now. Almost daily, obstacles are removed, opportunities are presented, and happy coincidences flash by like roadsigns. Here's one such example: Trethewey’s poem moves on to explore a drive along Highway 49, the very road I've traveled repeatedly between Gulfport and Camp Shelby. I have walked this ground; I am walking this ground.

The title of the collection from which the poem is taken?

"Native Guard."

***

(Here's an Amazon link to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, in case you are as inspired as I am to explore Tretheway's work.)

Update on Vermont's Green Mountain Boys

Earlier this week, Red Bull Rising presented remarks from Maj. Gen. John Campbell ("Eagle-6"), commander of the 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles" Division, currently deployed to Regional Command-East (RC-East), Afghanistan. These comments were part of a regular series of publicly disseminated messages from the commander.

In his message, Campbell specifically mentioned Vermont's 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (I.B.C.T.), a National Guard unit currently under his command that is operating in the Parwan, Panjshir, and Bamiyan Provinces.

Here are excerpts of a recent National Guard Bureau (N.G.B.) news release, which describes the 86th IBCT commander's impressions at the "third quarter" mark of his unit's mission.

On current conditions in his unit's Area of Operations (A.O.):

"Across the board we are seeing a lot of success in separating the insurgents from the population, a lot of success in building infrastructure and a lot of success in helping the Afghans build institutions of government, so they can help their people,” said Army Col. Will Roy, commander of Vermont’s 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

“We are continuing to see improvement day-by day. Certainly there are some days where you take three steps forward and four backwards. For those days, you have others where you take four steps forward and you stay there.”

In some areas of the country, you can walk through the bazaars with no body armor, Roy said.

On working with Afghan National Security Forces (A.N.S.F.):

By working with their Afghan partners on a daily basis, they have a better understanding of “who we are and why we are here,” Roy said.

He added that the Afghans believe that without the coalition forces there would be “utter chaos.” They are creating a “buffer zone” for the Vermont troops, who are training the Afghan Security Forces to take over the mission.

“(They) are almost there,” Roy said. The new Afghan battalions need their greatest attention, because “we have to show them what right looks like."

On losing Vermont soldiers:

Two Soldiers from the brigade were killed on Aug. 22: Sgt. Tristan Southworth of Walden, Vt., and Sgt. Steven Deluzio of Glastonbury, Conn.

“Losing ... our Soldiers is one of the most difficult things,” Roy said. “We believe the best way to pay tribute to them is to carry on with this mission of helping the Afghans build a government that will provide safety and security for its population, so that it can never be used again to attack our nation or any other nation.

“And that their children have the same opportunities that our children do -- that is to grow up safe and secure, have a chance for to education, have access to health care, clean water and a just a brighter future.”

On the deployment so far:

“It’s really one of those missions that keeps you on your toes,” he said. “When you wake in the morning, you don’t know what to expect. And by the time you go to back to bed, you look back and think wow that was a long day. The days are really long, but the weeks go by very fast.”

[...]

“We know our replacements are at their mobilization stations. We see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that we can turn around and look the other way and see the accomplishments in the time that we have been here.”