Icewind's Ramblings

No Cars in Iraq ! In Alaska we have a great group of men and women serving our country while stationed at Ft. Richardson , home of our “Artic Warriors” and the 172 nd Stryker Brigade . Their tour was extended over in Iraq and like many other units the number of wounded or killed has grown over the last few months. I saw yet another news story recently about insurgents using car bombs to attack security personnel in Iraq . This includes the peace keepers and the Iraqi soldiers trying to support the new “Freedom Plan” government being established for this country. This has become an almost daily occurrence and seems to have escalated in the last few weeks. Thinking about this for a little bit, I decided that the major issue as far as I can tell isn't with the feisty-ness of the insurgents or the poor security in Iraqi cities. The biggest problem I can see is with the cars there. They are just too convenient and plentiful to stuff with explosives, drive into

If you travel west four hours by jet to the international dateline from Anchorage, Alaska, out on the ice cold tundra, you will find Eareckson Air Force Station on the island of Shemya - - the Westernmost island of the Aleutian Island chain (besides Attu) where I led a Project to refurbish the housing for part of the National Missile Defense Program’s Site Activation Facilities several years ago. Shemya is a 2 mile by four mile island that is a radar site and was called “Big Alice” and “Cobra Dane” back in the days of the ‘Cold War’. It is now part of the defensive system to protect the USA and Canada from any missile attacks from that part of the world ( North Korea , China , & Russia ). We were doing a project on the island remodeling several barracks that had been abandoned years earlier but were being brought back online with the missile defense program. I'm always impressed looking at a map of this place. We were very far from almost "EVERY" where; a

Insanity can be organized. Just look at my Blog. Ice

Never buy a car you can't push. Ice

I leave messages on the toilet paper roll in public bathroom stalls for the next person to find. It's hilarious to stand out of the way outside the bathroom and watch their faces as they come out! Try it sometimes to brighten your day and someone else’s. It’s fun sometimes to go back and see if anyone answered or left another message. Ice

Accept that some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue. Ice