Sunday, January 13, 2008

Greetings from [INSERT SOLDIER NAME HERE]

Hello from the United States Army! Your Soldier has arrived safely in the country of [NAME WITHELD] and has inprocessed at Camp [NAME WITHELD] successfully. He/She will be enjoying a 15-month deployment here on Camp [NAME WITHELD], where we anticipate that his/her mission of [WITHELD] will be very successful, allowing us to defeat the threat posed to our national security by [WITHELD]. Please do not worry about your Soldier, as he/she is fine and healthy.

Have a nice day.

The Army


Seriously, though, I have arrived at what I will be affectionately referring to as Camp Slappy, and am doing just fine. There is a nice gym here, a good dining facility where many Bangladeshi, Malaysian, and Filipino laborers cook day and night, and a fairly nice work environment (for a tent, that is). Things are very safe here, and there is not a lot going on. For obvious reasons, I won't be posting very much about my mission here, but you will get fairly frequent updates on life here at Camp Slappy.

The deployment started off fairly well, seeing as how the Army chartered a plane for us and I got to sit in First Class for the twenty-hour trip here. The only crappy part is that when we arrived here in the desert, it was raining and super cold. Then we had a bus ride from the airfield to Camp Slappy, and then had to stay up all day so we could avoid jet lag.

NOTE: The cure for Jet Lag has been discovered. Ready? DON"T EVER LEAVE YOUR HOUSE! This amount of travel blows.

I am sleeping in a nice, climate controlled tent with a plywood floor. I have a bed and a wall locker. I will post pics when I can. I am eating well and going to the gym daily, so that's nice.

For those of you who are wondering what I do, I manage communications. I maintain two computer networks, some satellite communications, and several tactical radio networks. I also interface with the Big Army communications folks, ensuring that we can tie into any of the joint and multinational networks we need to.

Anyway, I am here, and will be here for 15 months. If you want my address so you can send me gifts, please email me at wdgalan (at) gmail (dot) com. (thanks ricky)

More later.

-w

9 comments:

La Yen said...

How come you always get the first class and I always get the diaper blowouts in sub-coach?
I love you.

Carina said...

I already wrote to you. You know, without the hassle of paper, the post office, or any real effort on my part.

dastew said...

W. Keep us updated on your life, we're all praying for you (which is a statement that sounds more impressive if you have kids to back it up, I'm sure the cats are praying to their cat-god though). Let us know if you need anything from NY.

Anonymous said...

Hey Waldo - glad you are safe. You are in my thoughts daily. Jen and GG are too.

Take care of yourself and keep your blog as current as you can.

Email me your address and any requests.

Can't wait to read more.

Rick Galan said...

you should change your email address to something that looks like wdgalan (at) gmail (dot) com so the spambots don't pick it up.. :)

Glad to hear you are doing well. Keep us posted.

Waldo said...

sweet, will do. Thanks, ricky. Sue- I will send yoy my address right now.
Stew, they have a Nathan's hot dog stand on the base here, so I think all my new york needs are covered (people are unpleasant enough as it is).

Thanks, everyone

~j. said...

Please do not worry about your soldier...

Okay. Right.

Did you get Darin's loveletter voicemail message? I hope so.

We love you.

waldo and cay said...

Just so you know, it's easier to go west--jet lag isn't as bad, so when you do make it for a home leave, you'll be fine! I'm glad everything's fine!
I'll call Jen when I can--love you! Mom

La Yen said...

No, that wasn't Jen's Mom, it was Jen-Mom. So email her. Except I already sent them your info. But you might want to email her anyway so no one is hurt or mixed up.
xoxo