"The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live."-Seneca

2007-01-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

This will be my last blog for a long time. I wish everyone well and I hope I can stay in touch no matter where the Army takes me. As I have pointed out before, my wife has started her own blog, hopefully she will update it enough to keep everyone informed. But keep in mind, she will be writing me a lot while I am gone so she may not have a lot of time.

Next time I update, I will be a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army.

2006-12-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Finals are actually final this semester. I should end up with a 3.75 this semester. I guess I got that going for me...which is nice. It keeps me from having to explain anything to the Captain, Major or Lt. Colonel who oversaw my selection.

I have set the bar high for myself. Finals are over tomorrow night, I am hoping to be moved out of my condo by Friday or Saturday. I graduate on Saturday morning and we leave for Playa del Carmen Sunday morning. Lots to be done. I am going to be selling or renting out my condo. If you know anyone let me know. If they don't have a realtor I will sell for 130,000 (a hell of a deal, the assessor has it appraised at 149,000) I just need to be out of it soon so I am a little desperate. If they want to rent I will rent it out for 850.00 a month. It is a 2 bed 2 bath 1100 sq foot, nice upgrades inside and really good area.

2006-12-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

My wife is awesome. Apparently she started a blog herself a while ago. She only has one post (that is pretty old too) but she will be updating more after I leave. So while I am in training you can go to her blog for updates on everything.

Also so everybody knows. My going away party will be 12/31/06 from 2:00 p.m. till the next morning. It will be at my parents house near Columbine High School. I am trying to get invitations out but I may miss some, so if you want to come please contact me. Everyone is invited.

2006-12-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

I never did finish the vacation update...and I doubt many read anymore (if any really ever read). But here is a quick finish since I promised. The Visckburg campaign:

Here is a union gun boat. Although it looks big it is pretty tiny and would have not risen out of the water much at all.

Here are some confederate cannons strategically placed where they were during the Battle of Vicksburg.

This goes without saying. During the Vickburg campaign the union suffered 31,275 casualties and the south suffered 4,550. This is just one battle and this picture is just a tiny fraction of the cemetery. It does give you a funny feeling walking through it. You can see graves further than the eye can see. Over the entire Civil War it is estimated that there were more than 620,000 casualties. The entire US population was just over 30 million at the time (that would be the equivalent of about 6 million casualties with todays current population). Soldiers enlisted in the war had about a 1 in 4 chance of not coming home.

When you realize the sacrifices others made to keep our country intact you can't help but to be thankful and honored. When I think about the hard times I will have being apart from the wonderful and beautiful Mrs. Principled American I do get sad (I am extremely lucky to have such a strong person like my wife who will always believe in me, support me and make sacrifices along with me). But in comparison it seems so trivial to the sacrifices that others have made, are making, and will make. Afterall, men like these made the biggest sacrifice of all.

For that reason among many others, I will be happy to pick up where this man left off.

2006-09-08T14:34:00.000-06:00

Well now, it is time for me to finish my vacation update. Even though I only have one real reader-the Danimal. Oh well, as they say quality not quantity. Since Danimal is one hell of a guy it makes it all worth while. Thanks for the kind words buddy, I am also proud of you and one day you will be a great Sheriff (maybe I can get some leave to help you with the campaign...just a thought).

Anyway as I said we visited lots of Civil War sites and covered all of Grant's Vicksburg campaign. On the other hand, we also toured many of Forrest's battles and I have to say both Grant and Forrest had to have a huge set. They seemed unafraid of anything.

I will start off by showing the beginnings of the Vicksburg campaign. Grand Gulf was an area where Confederates would menace the Union gunboats coming up the Miss. river. They were able to convince Grant to move his troops across the river and attack Vicksburg from the east.

The guy above is a 17,000 lb mortar that would lob 200 lb bombs. It was most likely fired from a Union gunboat.

This is a picture of a cool house that was restored on the Grand Gulf battlefield.

Eventually, the confederates deserted the camp leaving behind artillery and some guns which they blew up in a giant crater which can still be seen today.

However, this site had some other things for tourists and the picture above was taken with Petau, Stever and Cory in mind. It is a really old school firetruck.

After that we decided to take a little drive and see the remains of this mansion that burned down in the 1890's. These pillars were huge! That must have taken a lot of time and been a really sad day when it caught fire.

2006-08-28T09:50:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update on what I have found out. I leave for boot camp January 4th. Afterwards, I leave for OCS on March 20th which I will graduate on June 21st. Boot camp will be at Ft. Jackson, SC and OCS will be at Ft. Benning, GA. That is all I know for now because I won't be assigned a military occupational specialty (MOS) until the end of OCS.

I am excited but that will also be a long time away from my wife not to mention the rest of my family and friends. I do get to see her after I graduate boot camp but that will only be for about 2 days. I guess being away from her will be the first real sacrifice I make for my country.

2006-08-24T09:30:00.000-06:00

Woohoo! I was accepted by the Army Officer Selection Board yesterday. It was pretty nerve racking stuff because only 2 of the 7 packets that were sent up were accepted therefore only me and a reservist Sergeant were interviewing. Also, normally the board is made up of two Captains and a Major but this time it was a Lt. Colonel a Major and a Captain. But I guess I did well because it only took them about a minute to deliberate after our meeting before the Major came out and told me congratulations.

I still don't think it has sunk in yet but I sware into the delayed entry program tomorrow, I think it will hit me then. I should also find out the dates I will be leaving which will most likely be some time in January. Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way.

2006-08-21T09:11:00.000-06:00

It is update time. Luckily I just finished a vacation in Mississippi and have something to talk about. I went out there to visit my dad. Here are some pictures of the beautiful scenary.

Mississippi is probably one of the greenest states I have seen. They also have lots of wild life. We saw deer, turkeys, wild boar and this guy.

We spent most of our time visiting Civil War sites which was absolutely amazing. However, I will save that for a future update because right now I need to prepare for the Army Officer Selection Board which I will go in front of on Wednesday. Wish me luck.