To all at the USOC, thank you very much for the two huge boxes of shirts, hats, pants and all the other goodies included. I have now outfitted the entire team in Olympic and games gear. We kind of look like USOC-Iraq around the compound. The clothing is great and all the people on the team greatly appreciate the generosity!!!! I have included a picture of us in the some of the gear (the second box came two days later). You all are fantastic.

All is going well here. The weather is still hot, the work is consistent and the team is all doing well. I do not have any deep thoughts at this time, but I will say that the Anbar province is much more quiet than it has been in many years. I hope I didn't just jinx us, but the surge has worked in this area. Keep the faith in the troops here, we are winning, slowly, but we are winning!

More to come, hope all is well!

This picture was supposed to the below blog, so read the blog, then look back up at the picture.

I wanted to drop a line and tell everyone who sent a package, card or email for my birthday Thank you Thank you Thank you. I cannot tell you all how much I appreciate all the cards, car packages and emails that were sent. It always a huge morale booster to receive mail, but it is even greater when it happens on a birthday. So to everyone, THANK YOU!!!!!! I feel very lucky to have so many people looking out for me while I am here. Thanks especially to all of you who look out for Caroline while I am out of town. It is much easier to deal with the separation here, because I am with other separated people.

So to all of you supporting me and my team from the States, we say Thank You!

Well hello. For those who have been in the military or been around the military you know the expression change one. Well this is change one, I can write on the blog again myself. So Caroline's proof reading to make sure what I am writing is properly done will not be happening. It is getting hot, hot, hot. We have hit the 100's over the past week. But the hot weather is not here yet. We are expecting it to reach into the 130's as the summer progresses.

Work as always is going well. The good days are great and the bad days stink. But that is the way with every job. I look forward to telling you more about what we do when I get back home. I have gotten my first batch of letters from Holly Bass's fourth grade class. It is fun to get the letters from the kids and write back to them.

Caroline is in Hawaii at the wedding of her cousin Christopher and his new wife Jessica. I am sorry to miss the wedding, but happy that Caroline could go and have fun with the rest of the family.

Not too much more from here. Type to you later.

Hello again from the land of the Two Rivers

I know it has been awhile since I last updated the Blog, and for that I am sorry. We have been working hard and it seems that the Marine Corps has decided that the site for the blog is not allowed to be viewed. So I am going to have to adjust fire and have Caroline (ed note: she's going to try and fix my spelling & grammar) post the entries for me. That means that I will not be able to receive the comments, unless I can figure out how to get them sent to my email once they are written.

Enough of that stuff, I have some thank yous to be sent out. First to Brownie Troop 1922, the troop of my niece Madeleine, thank you all very much for the huge box of Girl Scout Cookies. They were awesome (because we ate all of them!). All the guys on the team enjoyed them a lot. I took a box or two of my favorites, but I was told sharing is good, so I also shared them with the team. Also, thanks to my mom and dad for the baked goods and the letters. The simple things are some of the things that we appreciate the most. It is always good to get mail from home. I will tell you all though, I am not good at sending it the other way. I will work on getting better at it.

Work has kept us busy and we are working some long hours. The weather is starting to get hotter. It has been a cool spring (I just jinxed us). The daily highs are now in the mid 80’s and the nights are in the 50’s-60’s, so at this time it is bearable. Like last time, I have gotten to do some building and woodwork. Nothing as elaborate as a roof and a new wing on the building, but some simple desks for our break room and a couple of desks for my room. It was a nice change of pace from the job, but I am enjoying doing what I have been trained to do.

I am excited to be again be adopted by the fourth grade class of Holly Bass. It was a great experience last time I was here and I am looking forward to conversing with a new group of students.

I hope this blog finds everyone doing well. We are good here and looking forward to the time when we are back home.

Attached is a picture of an Iraqi traffic jam taken by a friend of mine on a bridge going over the Euphrates River.

Enjoy!

Here it is early Easter Sunday morning in Iraq. All is well on this side of the world. Al Asad has been quiet, except for being at the end of a runway. Unlike last time, we have not had any indirect fire attacks on the base. In fact, I don't think that we have had an indirect fire attack here in over a year. It has gotten much more secure, at least on this end of the war. Work continued to move along, not much different to report there.

Many people have asked what we need here in the way of care packages. Some of the favorite items of the me and the team are: goldfish crackers, Twizzlers, basket style coffee filters (apparently they aren't in Iraq's supply system), coffee mate creamer (French Vanilla and Original), Crystal Lite on the Go drink mixers (all flavors), candy pretty much any kind makes us happy, pringles, and most microwaveable single serve meal type of things.

For personal stuff I am not in need of anything. I live in a comfortable space and really do not plan on collecting too much stuff while I am here. The more I have the more I have to send home. Thank you for the things that people have sent so far, everything sent is greatly appreciated.

All is well for me. Work can be frustrating and rewarding depending on the day. I look forward to more of the rewarding days as time goes on. That is all for now, type to ya later. I will also include more photos at a later date. Sorry for not sending anything deep or philosophical, don't have anything to pass at this time.

Well, here we are a couple of weeks in and ground hog day has started. The flow of our day is starting to get tough, but at least I am getting to do the job that I am trained for. I have a great team all the way around, so I feel quite lucky. The Lt. takes good care of us and the team is a good hardworking group.

The weather is still fairly nice. But the days are getting hotter and the nights are getting shorter. All that means is summer will be here soon, and the hot weather will follow. You wouldn't believe how Al Asad has changed. The main side of the basis huge and it has all the amenities. To include but not limited to a coffee shop, Burger King and a Pizza Hut. I am lucky, in a way, to be on the other side if the base an not to close to temptation. But having those things available is nice. It makes it seem more like we are not in a "war zone".

For those that are wondering what you can send to make life more like home I will let you know later in the week. We are finally getting settled in to our living spaces and we do not have the grand list yet. I will also try to send some photos of me and the team, but here is one of me and Nate in our fancy clothes, ie battle rattle.

Hello from Iraq! We have arrived in country and have started our work here. We are still turning over with the team that is leaving and getting ourselves settled into a routine. The address that I posted earlier is correct, good thing because I sent myself a package and it arrived. It takes about 11 days from CA to our area. The weather is kind of cold right now. The days are getting up into the low to mid 80's (when the sand and wind are not blowing) and the nights are into the 40 and 50's (with blowing wind). But we know it will be getting good and hot soon.

My email addresses are as follows:

NIPR david.bennett@acemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil
SIPR david.bennett@acemnf-wiraq.usmc.smil.mil

So for those of you that have a SIPR account you can shoot me mail on the high side.

Things are going well and we are getting ready to get into our schedule for work. I will keep everyone updated as time allows about life in the Iraq. Hope all finds everyone well.

Hello from Kuwait. We have arrived here and are awaiting our movement up to Iraq. It is a good time of the year to arrive as the temperature is not nearly as hot as it was last time. We should hit in the low 90's today rather than the 135 that greeted us in 2004. Overall the trip here was uneventful. We traveled for about 29 hours and stopped in Colorado Springs (unfortunately no chance to see Caroline), Bangor Maine, Hahn Germany and finally Kuwait.

Prior to leaving I had the chance to return to CO for 10 days of leave. Caroline had a gathering of friends at the Elbow Room (a bar in the Springs). It was great to get together with everyone there for the evening. Once I have the pictures I will post them to the blog. We then spent four great days in the mountains with Matt and Wendy (from Ann Arbor) skiing and having a great time hanging out. I also got to meet the newest addition to the family, Jackson the cat. I had a good time laughing at his antics and spending time with Caroline and friends before returning to CA. Caroline was able to come out to California for the last weekend and we had a lot of time top just hang out. Her time in CA was the only time that I made it down to the beach, which was nice. She got the opportunity to meet a couple of the guys on my team (besides the ones that she already knew) and their wives. As with all leave blocks and weekends both ended too early and we had to part ways. I also got to spend time with Caroline's aunt Doloris, Uncle Tom and Cousin Chris and his fiance Jessica. It was great to see them and hang out prior to getting out the door to Kuwait.

I also got to catch up with my parents and Dan in Virginia Beach for a weekend in February. I was attending a class in Myock NC (just over the VA/NC border) and got to extend my stay a day to see the family. It was a short but fun visit and it is always good to catch up when you can.

Not too much happening right now. My .mil email address is going to change, so do not send anything to the one I posted earlier. Once we are in Iraq and getting started with our mission I will update everyone with what we are doing. Hope all is well with everyone and I'll type to you again soon.

Dave

Hello all,

Just a quick post. We have our address in Al Asad:

SSgt Dave Bennett
RCT-2 HQ Co S-2 HET-10
Unit 73910
FPO AE 09509-3910

That should get anything you send to me. Also my .mil email address is:

david.m.bennett@usmc.mil

That might change so I will be sure to keep you updated. Our leave block starts tomorrow, back to the cold of Colorado, let me tell you I can't wait.

Another week down and continuing to conduct training in preparation for leaving. The last week was our the Battalion Field Exercise, basically a week of us wearing all of our gear and running around. For the most part it was good training and gave us knowledge about things we might not have known. It was also week of early mornings and late nights, which added some realism with the level of fatigue that we were dealing with. We practiced MOUT operations (Military operations in urban terrain) and got the opportunely to shoot some of the bigger guns that Marines shoot (Mark 19 grenade launcher, 240-G machine gun and a 50 Cal machine gun), so that was fun. We finished on Friday with a run in our combat gear (or battle rattle) and we got a CS gas attack while we ran. The gas attack wasn't too bad and the run was only 1 1/2 miles. The attached photos show some of the things that we were doing and the members of our team.

We have arrived in California! The Colorado Team flew in on the 6th and will be operating here for the next few months. We will be conducting training and pre-deployment preparations. Right now we are checking into the unit in Pendleton and getting settled. Today was getting together with our team that we will deploy with and got in a good 5.2 mile run. The run included the 7 steps, a good 500 ft elevation gain in a 1/4 mile clime, not the incline but a definite lung buster.

For the next few months we are living in the Marriott Residence Inn in Carlsbad. Nice accommodations and comfortable living. Ate at In-n-Out for the first time and have decided to make it a weekly stop.

Not much else in the way of excitement happening right now. But as we know more and I have some photos of our training and what we are doing I will post them for you all to see.

Starting off the new year.

This blog is my answer to the mass e-mail thing that I didn't do too well last time out. I will do my best up give regular updates about the things that are going on and what we are doing. This should be the best way for people to get in touch with me as well. Hope it works like I want it to.

To start off..... As you might have read in the Christmas letter I am getting ready to deploy for a second time. The deployment will return me to Al Asad with Marines from Camp Pendelton, CA. I will be heading out with a Marines from my unit in Denver and we will join the guys in Pendelton for a couple of months of training and pre-deployment work ups. We will then head over to Iraq for our seven month deployment. Once I know more of the mailing and information about what we are doing I will let everyone know.

As training goes on I hopefully will be able to visit family and friends in California. It looks like we will get a week or so of leave at the end of February/beginning of March. I don't know the dates yet, but I will update you as I know more.

Hope all is well and I will keep you posted.