This is My Time - This is My Tale

Del Rio, Tejas!

2009-10-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Patrick, Karen, Katie, and Slinky Dwyer now live in Del Rio, Tejas! We have completed our PCS move from Incirlik Air Base to Laughlin Air Forc e Base. I haven't posted in a while. I guess that's what happens when your are busy with a one year old and planning an intercontinental move. If you know us at all, you have been following us on Katie's blog located at ( adayinthelifeofkatiedwyer.blogspot.com ). Now that we are settled in Del Rio and our stuff has arrived, I will be posting again more often.

Looking Back At Landstuhl; Birth, Death, & Freedom

2009-04-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

This is a photo Karen took of me as we left to walk over to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to check into Delivery. This was Sunday 13 July and we would literally be in the hopital awaiting the birth of Katie Dwyer just minutes after this was taken.

Katie was born on the 15th. On 19 July we took Katie over to the Landstuhl Dining Hall and I bought a Stars & Stripes paper. It had a story I was really affected by. While the above photo was being taken there was a fire fight going on in Afghanistan and many Americans were wounded or lost their life. The wounded ones were brought to Landstul and were treated while we were there. I can't say we saw the guys mentioned in the below story but we certainly could have. We certainly saw ones just like them. So the story really brought the whole idea of the cycle of life home. While we were bringing an American life into the world, there were other Americans losing their's and leaving children and wives without fathers or husbands. That really hit me hard when I was reading this story in the Landstuhl dining hall with our four-day old Katie sitting next to me.

I just found the paper again tonight while cleaning up and wanted to post this. Credit goes to Stars & Stripes writer Steve Mraz. I wanted to post the pictures of two of the guys but it keeps messing the text up so I will have to do without. From Stars & Stripes, 19 July 2008:

____________________________________________________________________

Everything was on fire. The trucks. The bazaar. The grass. It looked surreal. It looked like a movie. That was what Spc. Tyler Stafford remembered thinking as he stepped onto the medical evacuation helicopter. The 23-year-old soldier would have been loaded onto the bird, but the poncho that was hastily employed as his stretcher broke. His body speckled with grenade and RPG shrapnel, the Vicenza, Italy, infantryman walked the last few feet to the waiting Black Hawk.

That was Sunday morning in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province. At a forward operating base — maybe as big as a football field — established just a few days prior.Outnumbered but not outgunned, a platoon-plus element of soldiers with 2nd Platoon, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team accompanied by Afghan soldiers engaged in a fistfight of a firefight.

After maybe two hours of intense combat, some of the soldiers’ guns seized up because they expelled so many rounds so quickly. Insurgent bullets and dozens of rocket-propelled grenades filled the air. So many RPGs were fired at the soldiers that they wondered how the insurgents had so many.

That was July 13. That was when Stafford was blown out of a fighting position by an RPG, survived a grenade blast and had the tail of an RPG strike his helmet. That was the day nine Chosen Company soldiers died. It was just days before the unit was scheduled to leave the base.

The first RPG and machine gun fire came at dawn, strategically striking the forward operating base’s mortar pit. The insurgents next sighted their RPGs on the tow truck inside the combat outpost, taking it out. That was around 4:30 a.m. This was not a haphazard attack. The reportedly 200 insurgents fought from several positions. They aimed to overrun the new base. The U.S. soldiers knew it and fought like hell. They knew their lives were on the line.

"I just hope these guys’ wives and their children understand how courageous their husbands and dads were," said Sgt. Jacob Walker. "They fought like warriors."

The next target was the FOB’s observation post, where nine soldiers were positioned on a tiny hill about 50 to 75 meters from the base. Of those nine, five died, and at least three others — Stafford among them — were wounded. When the attack began, Stafford grabbed his M-240 machine gun off a north-facing sandbag wall and moved it to an east-facing sandbag wall. Moments later, RPGs struck the north-facing wall, knocking Stafford out of the fighting position and wounding another soldier.

Stafford thought he was on fire so he rolled around, regaining his senses. Nearby, Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling, who later died in the fight, had a stunned look on his face. Immediately, a grenade exploded by Stafford, blowing him down to a lower terrace at the observation post and knocking his helmet off. Stafford put his helmet back on and noticed how badly he was bleeding.

Cpl. Matthew Phillips was close by, so Stafford called to him for help. Phillips was preparing to throw a grenade and shot a look at Stafford that said, "Give me a second. I gotta go kill these guys first." This was only about 30 to 60 seconds into the attack.

Kneeling behind a sandbag wall, Phillips pulled the grenade pin, but just after he threw it an RPG exploded at his position. The tail of the RPG smacked Stafford’s helmet. The dust cleared. Phillips was slumped over, his chest on his knees and his hands by his side. Stafford called out to his buddy three or four times, but Phillips never answered or moved.

"When I saw Phillips die, I looked down and was bleeding pretty good, that’s probably the most scared I was at any point," Stafford said. "Then I kinda had to calm myself down and be like, ‘All right, I gotta go try to do my job.’ "

The soldier from Parker, Colo., loaded his 9 mm handgun, crawled up to their fighting position, stuck the pistol over the sandbags and fired. Stafford saw Zwilling’s M-4 rifle nearby so he loaded it, put it on top of the sandbag and fired. Another couple RPGs struck the sandbag wall Stafford used as cover. Shrapnel pierced his hands. Stafford low-crawled to another fighting position where Cpl. Jason Bogar, Sgt. Matthew Gobble and Sgt. Ryan Pitts were located. Stafford told Pitts that the insurgents were within grenade-tossing range. That got Pitts’ attention. With blood running down his face, Pitts threw a grenade and then crawled to the position from where Stafford had just come. Pitts started hucking more grenades.

The firefight intensified. Bullets cut down tree limbs that fell on the soldiers. RPGs constantly exploded. Back at Stafford’s position, so many bullets were coming in that the soldiers could not poke their heads over their sandbag wall. Bogar stuck an M-249 machine gun above the wall and squeezed off rounds to keep fire on the insurgents. In about five minutes, Bogar fired about 600 rounds, causing the M-249 to seize up from heat.

At another spot on the observation post, Cpl. Jonathan Ayers laid down continuous fire from an M-240 machine gun, despite drawing small-arms and RPG fire from the enemy. Ayers kept firing until he was shot and killed. Cpl. Pruitt Rainey radioed the FOB with a casualty report, calling for help. Of the nine soldiers at the observation post, Ayers and Phillips were dead, Zwilling was unaccounted for, and three were wounded. Additionally, several of the soldiers’ machine guns couldn’t fire because of damage. And they needed more ammo.

Rainey, Bogar and another soldier jumped out of their fighting position with the third soldier of the group launching a shoulder-fired missile. All this happened within the first 20 minutes of the fight.Platoon leader 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and Cpl. Jason Hovater arrived at the observation post to reinforce the soldiers. By that time, the insurgents had breached the perimeter of the observation post. Gunfire rang out, and Rainey shouted, "He’s right behind the sandbag!" Brostrom could be heard shouting about the insurgent as well.

More gunfire and grenade explosions ensued. Back in the fighting position, Gobble fired a few quick rounds. Gobble then looked to where the soldiers were fighting and told Stafford the soldiers were dead. Of the nine soldiers who died in the battle, at least seven fell in fighting at the observation post.

The insurgents then started chucking rocks at Gobble and Stafford’s fighting position, hoping that the soldiers might think the rocks were grenades, causing them to jump from the safety of their fighting hole. One rock hit a tree behind Stafford and landed directly between his legs. He braced himself for an explosion. He then realized it was a rock.

Stafford didn’t have a weapon, and Gobble was low on ammo. Gobble told Stafford they had to get back to the FOB. They didn’t realize that Pitts was still alive in another fighting position at the observation post. Gobble and Stafford crawled out of their fighting hole. Gobble looked again to where the soldiers had been fighting and reconfirmed to Stafford that Brostrom, Rainey, Bogar and others were dead. Gobble and Stafford low-crawled and ran back to the FOB. Coming into the FOB, Stafford was asked by a sergeant what was going on at the observation post. Stafford told him all the soldiers there were dead. Stafford lay against a wall, and his fellow soldiers put a tourniquet on him.

From the OP, Pitts got on the radio and told his comrades he was alone. At least three soldiers went to the OP to rescue Pitts, but they suffered wounds after encountering RPG and small-arms fire. At that time, air support arrived in the form of Apache helicopters, A-10s and F-15s, performing bombing and strafing runs.

When the attack began, Walker was on the FOB. He grabbed an M-249 and started shooting toward a mountain spur where he could see some muzzle flashes. Walker put down 600 to 800 rounds of ammunition. He got down behind the wall he was shooting from to load more ammo and was told they were taking fire from the southwest. He threw the bipod legs of his machine gun on the hood of a nearby Humvee. A 7.62-millimeter caliber bullet struck Walker’s left wrist, knocking him to the ground. A soldier applied a tourniquet to Walker and bandaged him.

Walker and two other wounded soldiers distributed their ammo and grenades and passed messages. The whole FOB was covered in dust and smoke, looking like something out of an old Western movie. "I’ve never seen the enemy do anything like that," said Walker, who was medically evacuated off the FOB in one of the first helicopters to arrive. "It’s usually three RPGs, some sporadic fire and then they’re gone … I don’t where they got all those RPGs. That was crazy."

Two hours after the first shots were fired, Stafford made his way — with help — to the medevac helicopter that arrived. "It was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused. "Normal humans wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head … It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ’ em off."

Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers fought so hard. "Just hardcoreness I guess," he said. "Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don’t want to come in and try to get us."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for our freedom guys.

Now That's A Speech

2009-04-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought there were no true economic conservatives out there. Articulate, charismatic, and persuasive as well. Somebody that actually understands that when we talk about money in today's world, we are not speaking about money in the traditional sense of human history. Today money is simply imaginary digits created out of thin air. We are walking a fine line between printing a functional valued currency and printing Monopoly money. Here's Daniel Hannan, Member European Parliment.

A Day In Incirlik Village 2009

2009-02-07T12:27:00.001-08:00

Since Karen and I have been feeling a little better, we decided to venture into the Village today. Our firt stop was by the furniture store to see how the jewelry box Karen is having made is coming along. This is where we bought Katie's bedroom furniture. Katie says to Sunny, "That stuff is really nice."

Then Karen and I went by The Turkish Turtle to have spicey chicken sandwiches and Efes beer.
The village is actually in the process of removing their above-ground-wiring. It's been funny to watch the process. First, they just dug a two-foot deep trench in front of all the stores all the way down the street. They didn't put any caution tape up or any warning signs. The merchants just layed down pieces of wood across the trench and that's how people were expected to get across if they wanted to get into a store. After the wiring was laid they didn't repave the street, they just covered the trench with rock. You can sort of see this in the bottom left of the above picture. The underground-wiring is not yet active and they haven't actually wired to the stores. So what does a merchant do to get ready for the new underground wiring? How can you access the new wiring if it doesn't come into your store? Well you just drill a trench up to your front door!

But what if your electrical cords don't reach the sidewalk? How can you power your jack hammer? No problem. Just climb up to the still active, above-ground-wiring and plug directly in!
We also saw the bakery cart come by with baklava and other pastries.

I negotiate a shrewd business deal for some baklava.

A nice day back out in the village.

Pack Me Up And Ship Me Home

2009-02-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

"Just mail me home," says Slinky! Even the Little Ghost is ready to go. Just a quick note to let everyone know that things have been a little better lately. Karen is doing well with traction therapy and loosing weight, all of which helps alleviate pressure on the spine. Patrick is feeling better after a two week battle with some form of stomach virus. We finally managed to both get back on the healthy track and are looking forward to a few adventures as we prepare for what may be our final Air Force PCS.

6 Months And Counting

2009-01-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

I wanted to thank everyone for their concerns about how we are doing. I haven't been on line much as we have really been focused on Karen and just getting through each day. The good news is we have about six months left and should be watching the sun set and rise in America by September at the latest. Hopefully, closer to early August.

Karen is doing much better but it still is difficult. She has returned back to work. We found out she has one herniated disc in her lower back and one bulging disc (not quite herniated). As the herniated disc protrudes out it touches and irritates the sciatic nerve causing extreme pain, numbness, and even muscle spasms down the entire length of her right leg. The first time the spasms hit we ended up at the Medical group and they literally had to give her morphine to calm the spasms down. The second time was almost as bad but we didn't go to the medical clinic. So the plan is six months of good diet and light exercising with stretching. We are hoping that can help alleviate the pressure on the nerve and Karen can avoid surgery. Karen has definitley improved and can get through the day by being careful and moderating pain with medication. But walking long distances or standing is out. As is lifting Katie or holding her while standing.

So it has been very hard on both of us I think. Hard on me because I do almost everything around the house or with Katie, but even harder on Karen because she has to endure the pain and wants to carry Katie around very much.

The Air Force certainly isn't making things any easier. I have once again found myself in the position of working for a Medical Group that thinks nine hours days are not long enough. So it's mandatory ten hour days right now. Except, I actually have to get up between 0400-0430 in order to get Katie up dressed, fed, changed, and to daycare. So as far as I'm concerned they are 12 hour days. And the drug testing job is the worse job I have ever had in my 27 years of working. I'd rather be washing dishes back at Pantera's Pizza. The job itself isn't too bad - it's the status and support of the program that are the big problems. Karen has been able to start helping out with folding clothes and a little cooking while sitting on a stool. But I would be lying if I didn't say it's been hard. Katie is really the only thing that makes the day worth it for us right now. We really need to be home and near friends and family at a time like this.

Which brings us to our friends and family. Thank everyone so much for all the stuff everyone has been sending. It has been just astounding how much stuff people have been sending us. So thanks for everyone's concerns. We are making the best of the situation and will continue to post as able.

Patrick & Karen Dwyer Blogging Hiatus

2009-01-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

I will be limiting posts on this site for the near future. As many of you may know, Karen has been experiencing some extreme sciatic nerve pain. This has progressed rather severely since last Friday and we really need to look at how we spend our time and money. At this point we are not sure what the future holds as far as Karen working, medical treatment, our ability to afford daycare, and many other "Incirlik" complications. I think it best if we focus on being ready to get out of here so when the time comes we have everything in order. Karen is having a tough time and all I can say is she is my hero for ever more.

2009: The Year of The Dwyer's Escape From Midnight Express

2009-01-02T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Dwyer's spent New Year's Eve at a Turkish carpet store in The Alley in Incirlik Village. One of the local carpet guys often throws parties. We didn't have anywhere to go on New Year's Eve so Karen did a little talking and found a party to crash. I had told Karen I didn't want to spend New Year's Eve being pressured to buy carpets. But it wasn't like that at all. The owner, Nuri, had food catered and served beer. He was very nice and never even discussed his carpets unless you asked him a question about them. For some reason it's difficult for many of the Turk's to understand that Americans don't like pressured sales. Nuri seems to have picked up on this long ago and it seems to pay off well for him. I heard he sold $10,000 in carpets on New Year's Eve.

Below: Katie models the hand made sweater Major Alicia Edward's bought her. Notice the buttons are actually Turkish "evil eyes."
Katie has removed her sweater to reveal the beautiful party dress made by her Zia Enrica Malone:

The carpets come out and people start looking:

Katie only made until about 9PM and really started to fuss. She fell asleep on the cold walk home. We stopped by our neighbors with the intention of seeing midnight with Katie but she woke up there and fussed util we took her home. I think I fell asleep about 12:15 while Karen was talking to her Dad on the phone.

Dwyer's Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

My concept of Octonodecembuary is that once you decorate for Halloween every day becomes a blur that can make Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day just seem like one quick month. Plus, I have my birthday in December, Karen has hers in January, and we have five close friends and family birthdays in there as well. So the most important thing of all is to make sure you don't let anyone rush you through it because time flies when you're having fun.

This Christmas was no exception. Katie Marie Dwyer's first Christmas ! ! ! It was hard getting prepared. We had "the incident" at the mosque in Adana that set back our decorating one entire week. And work...work has been very busy in December. With Karen having sciatic nerve problems, me not getting any time off due to base drug testing needs, and not having seen our friends and family in over 16 months - it has been tough. But it has also been one of the best Christmases ever just because of Katie. She can light up your day like....well, like a Christmas tree.

Karen and I want to thank all of our friends and family for everything they have done for us. Especially during the Christmas holidays. It was amazing how much stuff everyone sent us. I could go on for days and not have said enough about that.

I am going to just let the pictures tell our story. The first one above is Katie's first "face-to-face" with Santa Claus on Christmas eve day at the CDC. She had seen him at the tree lighting ceremony. But here she gets to really check him out and tug on his beard.

The Christmas season started with the tree lighting ceremony. The gradeschoolers put on a great performance. The video is very dark but it sounds great and you get the idea:

Below is 3am Christmas eve after Karen and I finally finshed getting the house just right:

Below: ELMO! ! ! ! Elmo does abso-frig-lutely everything. And I mean everything. He even farts and tells two minute stories. I am not kidding. Sometimes he will say, "Elmo has something to tell you. Squeeze Elmo's nose." And when you do he farts and says, "Excuse Elmo."

Below: Karen and Katie opening presents:

Below: the Grinch rears his head:

Below: A young girl after a very tiring first Christmas:

Starbucks At Incirlik Air Base

2008-12-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

Starbucks has opened at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey! And this is not a "We Proudly Serve..." but a full-blown Starbucks with mugs, desserts, and wifi. In fact, I believe this is the first full-sized Starbucks in all of USAFE. The base had been trying to get Starbucks to come in on a smaller scale but once Starbucks Turkey saw the base and the captured market, Starbucks offered to put in a full store. I heard they paid for 100% of the construction in exchange for being able to keep all profits for the first year. Sounds fair to me. Thank you Starbucks!

Karen and I love our Starbucks. I don't care how commercialized people claim it is. The ambiance and smell offer a comfort feeling that reminds us of home. I'm a pop culture junkie anyway. We spent four years at the intersection of Black Mountain and Mira Mesa in San Diego, where they literally had afour Starbucks - we miss our coffee! We bought Starbucks thermoses that say "Turkey" on them. They are the yellow ones onb the shelf in the photo above. We also bought a little bear wearing a Starbucks 2008 jacket and waving a Turkiye (Turkey) banner. We are hoping they will bring in mugs that say "Starbucks Incirlik" but we will see. Starbucks may not want their name going on mugs with the name of a military base on it. Incirlik is also the name of the village outside the base so it still could happen.

Below Katie is held by one of the Turkish workers on opening day:

Whirling Dervishes In Konya

2008-12-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

NOTE: BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE VIDEO OF THE DERVISHES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

Karen and I went to Konya on December 14th to see the "real" Whirling Dervishes. It was a long five hour trip up into the mountains and a sort of high desert area that looked a lot like the Antelope Valley near Edwards Air Force Base. I took the above picture myself.

A quick Wikipedia explanation: "The Mevlevi Order or the Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet, Islamic jurist, and theologian, in Konya(in present-day Turkey). They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah). The Mevleviye, one of the most well known of the Sufi orders, was founded in 1273 by Rumi's followers after his death, particularly by his successor Hüsamettin Çelebi who decided to build a mausoleum for Mevlâna, and then Mevlâna's son, Sultan Veled Celebi (or Çelebi, Chelebi, meaning "fully initiated"). He was an accomplished Sufi mystic with great organizing talents. His personal efforts were continued by his successor Ulu Arif Çelebi. The Mevlevi, or "The Whirling Dervishes", believe in performing their dhikr in the form of a "dance" and music ceremony called the sema.

The Sema represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." Turning towards the truth, the follower grows through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth and arrives at the "Perfect." He then returns from this spiritual journey as a man who has reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation.

The sema was practised in the semahane (ritual hall) according to a precisely prescribed symbolic ritual with the dervished whirling in a circle around their sheikh, who is the only one circling around his axis. The dervishes wear a white gown (symbol of death), a wide black cloak (hirka) (symbol of the grave) and a high brown cap (kûlah), symbol of the tombstone.

The Mevlevi Order was outlawed in Turkey at the dawn of the secular revolution and the dervish lodge was converted to Mevlana Museum in Konya by Kemal Atatürk. In the 1950s, the Turkish government legalized the Mevlevi order as an association and began allowing the Whirling Dervishes, who are chosen among the members of this authentic Mevlevi sect, to perform annually in Konya on the Urs of Mevlana, December 17, the anniversary of Rumi's death.^[1] In 1971, they performed in London with Kani Karaca as lead singer. In 1972, they toured North America for the first time with Kani Karaca, Ulvi Erguner, and Akagündüz Kutbay among the musicians. They performed in France, for Pope Paul VI, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Musicand other venues in the United States and Canada - under the direction of the late Mevlevi Shaikh Suleyman Hayati Dede. In April 2007 the order initiated another tour of the U.S. where they performed to sold-out crowds, in places such as Denver and San Francisco.

The order is still active in Turkey, currently led by the 20th great-grandson (22nd generation descendant) of Rumî, Faruk Hemdem Çelebi."

So I guess Rumî, Faruk Hemdem Çeleb is the guy in the picture in the black robe on the right side of the floor. We were glad we went to see such a unique event but ten hours on a mini-bus is a long time.

This was also the longest time we left Katie alone. We left at 0600 in the morning and did not get home until around 1100 PM. Thanks to Larissa and Chris Cook for watching Katie on her first "long day" away from Mom and Dad.

OK. There are some errors on here I just can't fix. For example "Katie" text above being wrapped around so the "e" drops to the next line. The software literally won't let me correct it. Just part of living in Turkey I guess.

Our Turkish Christmas Birds

2008-12-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

Two birds have been sleeping in our vine outside our front door every night. I have never seen anything like it. I didn't know that birds actually get close together and snuggle. It has been cold here - in the 30s most nights. And our vine is just about bare at this point. But these two birds get up there every night just after sunset and snuggle together until the morning sunrise. When they are puffed up like in this photo they seem to be asleep or almost hibernating. there eyes are closed and I can actually walk up to about a foot away to take a photo like this. While we are going in and out the front door in the evening, we walk within three feet of them and they never move.

I'm not sure what type of bird they are. Our Turkish shoeshine guy at the Medical Group, Jaf, tells me they are Nightingales. They don't look like the Nightingales I see when I google them. But perhaps they are some Turkish variation.

Merry Christmas From Patrick, Karen, Katie, and Slinky Dwyer!

2008-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

Meeeeerrrrrry Christmas everyone! I have one minute to post this! they now have a time limit set on the computers and they automatically log you off. In fact I am going to log off right.....NOW!

And now I'm logged back on and have 55 more minutes but the library closes in five so let me get in what I can. Octonodecembuary is blowing by and time is literally flying. I posted as many pictures as I could of Katie on her site. She is wonderful and talking (or she thinks she is at least)...a lot! They have made it even harder to do stuff on government computers including at the libarary. Flash drives and active x controls are disabled to some extent. I found a way arounfd loading the pics though. Karen had a hell of a time accessing e-mail and Facebooks.

I'm still collecting pee at work. I can only begin to tell whay an absolute thrill that is. I don't actually have to collect it but I have to manage the program. We are trying to get cards and stuff out to everyone but please expect delays. We appreciate everything everyone has done for us or sent us. We miss everyone! Oh, the pedal car. I drove that thing around the entire base perimter - 8 miles. It absolutely killed my legs! It was to raise money for the Combined federal Campiagn.

Our holiday greeting videos ran in St. Louis missouri on KSDK and some station in San Diego. If anyone has a way of capturing that in file format, please send to me. We miss you all. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night....

Long Time No Post; Getting Short

2008-11-09T04:11:00.001-08:00

It's actually been more than a month. Wow. I'm telling ya - Octonodecembuary is in full swing. We haven't had time to blink since October got here. We just put the Halloween stuff away today. And we are getting short. We should be home about nine months from now. When Octonodecembuary rolls is over we will essentially only have 5 months left and we will be shipping our stuff 3-4 months after Octonodecembuary is over.

I am going to try to start coming by the library one night per week to blog so hopefully I will catch up soon. A quick summary of events: I gave my last guitar lesson a week ago, I am still the base drug tester with no end in site, my Mental Health Flight won the paintball championship yesterday, we had a nice Halloween night giving out candy (Katie slept through the whole thing), and Katie will be 4 months on November 15th. Some recent photos:

Below, our house on Halloween. That's Karen's boss, Rada Ford on the left and a prop on the right...or is that Rad on the right? No Rada is on the left:

Below, Karen and Katie in the living room just prior to Halloween:

Below, the hedgehog that seems to be coming through our back yard every night. So far Slinky seems to know to stay away. That black dot is his nose and the smaller black dot just up and to the right of his nose is his eye:

"Little ghost, little ghost, your the cat I love the most." Some of our Halloween decorations sat out on the patio until today when we had time to put them away. last night was a little cool so Slinky warmed up to the skeleton bride below:

The Fence Is Down

2008-10-05T06:15:00.000-07:00

I know we posted before that we are enjoying the fence being down. Just wanted to post a few more photos. Below Slinky is amazed to see there is a whole other world on the other side of the fence. This is the first time he was ever able to see past the fence much less walk out the back gate. Remember, we had a five foot tarp around the whole fence.

Another shot of our banana tree. Actually, it's our neighbor's banana tree but this year it has grown so much we have one stalk that has sprouted up on our side of the fence. We have a smaller one on the other side of the yard as well. This tree below is over two stories tall:

Now that Karen's back to work and things have fallen into a routine, we have found time to venture back in the alley. Below is Katie's first trip to a bar. We went to The Turkish Turtle to have their famous chicken sandwich. They were excellent! Below is a shot of Karen and I over by the grafitti wall.

There is a good shot of Katie in the bar that I will post on her site at adayinthelifeofkatiedwyer.blogspot.com

Well Piss On All Ya!

2008-09-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

That's right, I am now the official Incirlik Air Base Drug Testing Program Administrator. That means I am the sole urinalysis tester. For all practical purposes I am actually the Program Manager as well. On paper, the Program Manager is our new OIC but since I am the only one actually in the office doing the testing and coordination I would say I am doing both jobs. So I am now the NCOIC of the Mental Health Flight, the base DTPAM, and also perform the Demand Reduction Program Manager duties. I was crunching numbers the other day and I calculated our Mental Health staff has shrunk by 42% since I first arrived. Since July of 2007 we lost our Family Advocacy Outreach Manager, our New Parent Support Program Nurse, our DoDs school alcohol and drug counselor, our child psychologist, our Demand Reduction Program Manager, and one mental health technician. Now I will get a tech back in June of 09 and we did regain a new Child psychologist, but I also see the potential of loosing two more positions so a 42% reduction hurts hard.

So when Karen and I are at home I try as hard as I can to forget about all the work stuff. We have been busy trying to get our back yard looking nice. Here is Katie and Karen in the back before dinner. Don't let the banana tree fool you. There's something about a banana tree that can make everything look like paradise. Trust me it's another world beyond that fence. but that's the whole idea. A paradise backyard. It's a little blurry but I was trying to get far enough away to capture the effect of the whole yard:

Karen has started back to work at NAF and Katie is at the CDC. Karen actually was moved to the corner office of Building 833. Well, she had the corner office and now she has the one next to it - but they are both NAF offices. Normally, the Air Force sticks NAF in a really crappy location so Karen and her boss, Rada, are happy to have one of the best views from the building. It's actually a commander's office that somehow went vacant.

Katie is thriving at the CDC. All the ladies love her and she is always busy. They actually had her make an art project last week. hopefully, I can get a picture of that soon. If you want pictures of Katie, you should know where to go for that. If not - just ask.

Slinky is busy doing his best to help out with his little sister. Here, he inspects Katie's new exosaucer:

I finished my 30 education units to recertify my alcohol and drug counseling certification. Now it's time to take the 6 unit CLEP before Christmas. Octonodecembuary is almost here!

Flashing Before Our Eyes

2008-09-07T05:23:00.001-07:00

Well it seems like I won't get time to post as often as I like out here until we get home internet. When we do find time to go to the library, I have just enough time to post the daily photos of Katie. Remember, you can find those at: http://adayinthelifeofkatiedwyer.blogspot.com .

There is some interesting stuff going on at work and some nice changes to the house. Karen and I are going by the club on the way home from here to get a Club Card application. Gives you a discount for the internet. So after we get signed up and buy a modem we should be good to go.

Karen had a bunch of neighbor wives over for margaritas and I am trying to finish up my distance education hours so i can recertify my CADAC (Certified Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselor) . I some how crammed in 30 education hours in the last two weeks.

It's starting to drop out of the 100 degree days in southern Turkey now. Once we get some snow up in the Tarsus Mountains it should be really nice. Unfortunately, this is the time of the year all the farmers burn their fields and the air is REALLY bad in the afternoon.

Hope to write more soon.

Dwyer's Update

2008-08-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

Life is great with Katie. We need 72 hour days but life is great. Just a few updates. We sadly said goodbye to The Matriarch of Incirlik Mental Health, Major Alicia Edwards. She is headed to Misawa, Japan. We received an opening at The CDC (Incirlik Day Care) for Katie, so Karen will be going back to work in early September. We are tentatively planning to get internet services in the coming weeks so hopefully some of our friends and family will hear from us more often. I'm trying to accumulate 15-30 CEUs online in two weeks. It's really tough with trying to work, teach guitar, and have time for Katie but my CADAC expires in September so I'm up against the wall. Can't wait to get the CEUs out of the way. And the strike by Turkish local nationals was averted on base so we will still be able to buy groceries and baby supplies- that's always a good thing. See you soon.

A Day In The Life of Katie Dwyer

2008-08-10T06:40:00.001-07:00

For those of you that want to watch Katie grow up before your eyes: http://adayinthelifeofkatiedwyer.blogspot.com

MArk it to your favorites Grandma and Grandpa.

The Return From Germany

2008-08-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

I know everyone knows we have made it back to Turkey with Katie, but I haven't had a chance to describe the flight yet. I really try to avoid sounding negative out here. Hopefully, this will only sound funny now that it is over. Here is the story of the the Dwyer's flight from Ramstein to Incirlik.

Let me start by saying I to fly. I used to love to fly. But since 911, it is such a hassle and the airlines provide such crappy service, it's not worth the money any more. And it's such a long ordeal. I don't think it's fair for an airline to say a flight is, for example, 3 hours if you have to arrive at the airport 3 hours early and it takes a minimum of an hour to get your luggage and depart the airport. Well, with Karen and I, our flight adventure started several days before the flight. We flew The Patriot Express or The Rotator, as some people call it. This is a fairly regular flight from USA to Incirlik with a layover at Ramstein or sometimes Ireland. The DoD contracts the entire plane and staff with Orion. We flew what is known as Space Required. This means we have a lower priority than someone moving from one assignment to another but a higher priority than people who are trying to fly Space Available. Space A is essentially catching a free government flight for personal travel. Now, one of the requirements to fly Space R is having official orders saying someone is paying for the flight. Well Karen was on roundtrip orders and I was on roundtrip orders. But Katie had no orders. Incirlik's aerovac office was required to "amend" Karen' orders to show we had a new dependant requiring flight. We were ble to get Katie's emergency passport back from Frankfurt on Friday, 18 July. So I started calling Incirlik's aerovac office to get Katie's orders so we could fly back to Turkey on Wednesday, the 23rd. Incirlik kept telling me there was one guy that could amend the orders and he would be back later...which turned into by 4 o'clock...which turned into "call back Monday." So on Monday I called. This time later turned into "after lunch" which then became "...he's actually not going to be in today. Try back Tuesday." In the meantime, I have Ramstein's passenger terminal telling me I had to have the orders in by the day prior to the flight. So when i got up on Tuesday, we had eight hours left for Incirlik to get me the orders. Adn the I still had to GET them to Ramstein. Remember, we were not at Ramstein but at Landstuhl about 5 miles away. I start to call back every hour and I finally reqch the guy and he says, "Sgt Dwyer, don't worry about it. I do this all the time. Sometimes I even get the orders to the terminal five minutes before the flight." Now, the guy cutting me the orders is a great guy. I know him. But I find myself saying, "Well, yeah, maybe you have gotten them there five minutes before the flight before - but Ramstein is telling me that won't work." And Ramstein has the plane! So I was leaning towards their point-of-view. I finally got the orders around 1PM, just 2 and a half hours before the Incirlik guy went home.

So now we rush over to Ramstein to turn in the orders around 6PM the night before the flight. You would think sigh-of-relief and good-to-go right? Nope. They looked at my paperwork as if they had never seen anything like it on our planet before. But after a half an hour they said we were checked in and all we had to do was, the next day, go to a specific counter they pointed out to me and get our seats. The flight would be around 1:50 PM and we were to show at...ready for this...9PM! Almost five hours before the flight.

The 23rd rolls around and Karen and I are out of bed before 5am so we can pack, clean the room, check out, and get to Ramstein. All is well. I go up to the counter and they say, "No you have to go to that counter over there." "Are you sure? We went to that counter last night." So I go to that counter and they say there is no record of us having ever checked in and again looked at our paperwork as if they were written in another language. They finally figure it out and simply say they have redone what must have fallen out of the system. Whatever. At least I can now check my luggae over at the last counter. Until I hear, "There is no record of you having checked into the system." I explain that this would be the third time we have tried to check in the system. This time it takes even longer but when I leave the counter we all have boarding passes so I didn't care what the system thought after that.

So then we cram onto the flight with a bunch of people Incirlik bound and so more that will be continuing on to the Kyrgyz Republic. Finally get situated. We get a row of five seats for the three of us. Plenty of room and katie is being perfect. We ate our meal and were about one half hour into the movie when we hear the pilot say, "Attention. We need to announce that we are turning around and heading back to Ramstein. We have a hdraulic leak that is causing the landing gear not to move automatically. We will lower the landing gear manually so you will hear some noise. Unfortunately, this warrants attention back at Ramstein." Well crap. We were finally three hours from home and now we have no idea when we will get home. Then a second announcement, "We will not be heading to Ramstein. Instead, the US military has requested we land at the former Hahn Air Base." hahn is near Ramstein by the village of Lautzenhausen. When we landed, I heard an officer behind me say he could see a line of hydraulic fluid on the runway as we were towed back to the other end of the runway after landing. This was probably true as a fire truck and two safety vehicles seemed to follow our path scrubbing the runway where we had been.

Once we arrived to the spot where they were going to attempt to repair the aircraft, they had us disembark with our carry-on luggage. We were bused about five minutes away to a VERY SMALL terminal and told we could not leave the area. The plan was to fix the plane before 11PM as the flight crew could not take off after midnight due to flying restrictions. This part was . Some people did very well. A lot of the active guys moving on to deployment just played cards and drank beer. But we had an 8-day old baby! Katie did well but got fussy after a few hours. We went through several feeding and diaper cycles. We started to get worried because there was no place for Karen to pump or breast feed and we were down to only three bottles of formula. And Katie was really starting to fuss. We couldn't get her to sleep because all the other kids on the flight where running around screaming, but we couldn't take her to the quiet area where the soldiers where sleeping because we didn't want to wake them up. I was completely convinved they were going to send us to a hotel when they announced the plane was fixed about 10:45PM. So we made it in the air by midnight and landed at Incirlik after 4 am, 24 hours after we got up to head to the airport for our "four-hour flight."

One other funny note about the flight. At one point, Karen was trying to sleep with her head on a card table in the corner of the room. We had also just gotten Katie to sleep. Well a lady three tables over was playing cards and continuously shuffleing the cards very loudly. No big deal. But I guess her husband and teenage son were getting irritated beccause they couln't sleep due to her shuffleing. So what did she do? She moved over next to us and started shuffleing! Her famil asked her to move because she was too loud so she came nect to karen and an 8-day old baby to keep them awake. We just moved (we moved several times due to other similar incidents). So the funny part is the women turns out to be the wife of a very high ranking Medical Group leadership member. They were on their way to Incirlik! It's going to be interesting when I say, "Yes, I have met your wife. We were on that flight together."

I wanted to document this here. It's not that I'm furious about the whole thing. I mean, it was a pain, but now it's just a good story. I just want Katie to someday be able to read about the ordeal she went through to get back home...or at least back to Turkey. Home will come later.

Two Quick Videos of Katie Dwyer

2008-07-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

Video of Katie at Landstuhl NICU a few hours after birth. Watch for the bubble:

"Finally at home in my crib at Incirlik in Turkey! Turkey....where the hell is Turkey? Why am I in Turkey? Listen and you can hear my pacifier click."

Dwyer's Are Back in Turkey

2008-07-30T05:39:00.000-07:00

I'll tell the story later. A few pics for now:

Just an hour or so after birth. NICU has placed a bow in Katie's hair and tried to make her comfortable as possible:

First day out of hospital...and first smile! Great to see - gas or not:

First pediatric appointment. "I am really bored and don't want to be here." Just prior to this shot Katie had tried to lift her head and look at Karen. This caused her to look like she was rolling her eyes and then she fell into her favorite contemplative position:

Our flight home from Germany was diverted in mid-air due to an in-flight emergency. They landed at the former Hahn Air Base and we had to sit in a SMALL terminal for 6-8 hours. Karen and Kattie trying to get some sleep on the floor:

"Finally, back home and in my brand new crib!"

Kitty and Katie get along just fine. We never leave them alone and always supervise interactions just to be sure:

Taken today:

Katie Marie Dwyer - Director's Cut

2008-07-21T05:54:00.001-07:00

To start with, we want to make sure everyone knows Katie is just fine. She has been released from the Landstuhl hospital and has been staying with us in lodging since Thursday night. I have a ton of pictures but will again have to wait for posting as I can not load from this computer at the Landstuhl library. So here is the story of Katie Marie's birth...

Karen and I checked in to Labor and Delivery around 5:30 PM on Sunday, 13 July 2008. Karen was scheduled to be induced. Now, I want to say before I start that EVERYONE we dealt with concerning the birth was fantastic. but there were some interesting moments that we can laugh about now. To begin with, when we checked in, we still weren't sure if they were going to induce with a gel or a a "fully bulb" or "fully bowl" - I'm not sure how you pronounce it, but basically it's a little balloon they stick up a pregnant women's hoo-ha and slowly inflate to induce labor. Karen was reluctant to go the hoo-ha route. So we get settled in the room and we hear this guy outside our door say, "OK I'm going in - wish me luck." Then this 18-year old kid walks in and says "I'll be getting you started." So we are thinking he's going to insert the balloon. Karen says, "Have you ever done this before?" The kid answers back "Well, I did one earlier today." Fortunately, we learned he was only talking about starting the IV - but his experience wasn't much better with the IV. He stuck Karen two or three time and could not find a vein. Then the nurse came in and tried - same results. Turns out Karen has small veins up by the wrist and they had to call the anesthesiologist and have them find the vein. During this time they also checked Karen's dilation and told us they preferred to use the gel and not the balloon. Karen was agreeable to that. So they got the gel in, started the IV, and also started Karen on Patosum (spelling?), a medication that also helps increase contractions. This is when it got interesting.

Karen wanted to wait as long as she could for the epidural. When you get the epidural you loose all leg movement. So for quite a while we continued without the epidural. The only problem was we expected to get some sleep. However, they would come in and do a check on Karen every hour or so, and when they did the internal checks it made her have to go to the bathroom. So neither of us slept more than 10 minutes the first night. As daylight rose on the 14th, Karen's contractions became more intense and she finally reached around 4-5 centimeters dilation. Around this time Karen asked for the epidural. I think they tried 2-3 times at this point. But the first insertion didn't seem to go where they wanted and when they finished they were still uncertain if they had a good spot. The epidural is somewhat of a chance procedure if I understand it correctly. Once they get through the cartilage, it's kind of a roll of the dice that the wire will go the direction they want and evenly distribute the medication. Karen's hit her left side perfectly, but she still felt everything in her right side. As the contractions became stronger, they tried different thing like rolling her to one side to get the pain meds to shift. Nothing seemed to work and it got to a point in the afternoon where she was feeling every contraction intensely. They offered to readminister the epidural but Karen was reluctant to go through all that a second time. She settled for having some form of alternative narcotic administered through the epidural. That also had no effect. I don't remember exact time but I remember thinking Karen went through four hours of intense contractions every sixty seconds without the epidural working. Finally, she said she didn't think she could take much more and asked for the epidural to be reattempted. It was much more difficult to go through the procedure because Karen had lost feeling in one leg and was much more exhausted at this point. But she had to sit up straight on the side of the bed for the epidural to be administered. But we managed to pull it off and this time she was feeling nothing in about a half an hour. We were actually able to snooze for 10-20- minutes at a time for about two hours now. They told us Karen would deliver "...sometime tonight."

Well, she almost made it. Doctor Sewell said Katie didn't want to be born on Bastille Day. The labor started getting more intense and Karen was up in the straps pushing. Very exhausting but no pain. I saw her head about five minutes before she came out all the way, and I remember thinking, "Well she is smaller than I thought." But that was because of the head compression. After, Katie went back up inside, Karen continued to push without getting results. That's when the dod said he might have to consider the vacuum after another 10-20 minutes. It only took karen a few pushes after that comment. When she came out the second time, she kept coming and coming and then I though, "Oh she's actually bigger than I imagined." In reality Katie was quite small at 6.5 pounds but it sure is a lot to come out down there. She has very long legs and big feet. She was born on 15 July 2008, at 4 minutes after midnight.

Earlier we asked what would happen when Katie came out. Would they just hand her to mom and then clean her, or clean her and hand her to mom? The nurse told us they would clean her a little and hand her to mom unless there was a need to address something first, which sometimes happens. We knew something was up when we started seeing two to three other people show up and set up at the side. Then we heard Dr Sewell say, "The chord is around the baby's neck. I had to cut the chord but be sure to make note of that." She was literally white when she came out and didn't cry although I could see arm and leg movement. Then I heard little cries as they took her to the warming table and began to work with a manual oxygen pump and clean her up. The table was only about ten feet from Karen so she could see everything. They seemed to be trying to clear her lungs and getting her to breathe OK. It all happened so fast it was hard to have time to really think. Then they asked me to cut the umbilical chord, which I did. But that made me think everything must be going OK. Then the NICU doc walked over to Karen and said, "I'm going to make this fast. You can kiss her and then I'm going to be gone." And Karen did. And the doc was - gone. In the 5 seconds it took me to decide whether to stay with Karen or go with the baby, they literally had her down the hall and hooked up to tubes and were working on an IV.

It was all very scary but I was able to watch and stay with Katie. About two hours later Karen was able to clean up and make her way down by wheel chair. It was very hard for Karen. They had Katie on breathing assistance, warming, and an IV. Then they had Karen move to the Mother/Baby unit around 4 in the morning. At this point we had been up for almost 48 hours without ever sleeping more than a half hour. I went to back to our hotel room which is less than a quarter mile from the Mother/Baby unit.

I got 4 hours sleep and went back over 9am. Karen had already gotten up and had the nurse wheel her over to NICU. She was able to hold Katie. When I got there we went up again and this time I was able to hold her as well - that's the picture in the previous post. Things were looking much better for Katie. All the tubes had been removed from her nose and she was maintaining her own body temperature. I don't remember a lot of details from this day except that in our mind this was the day after Katie was born, but in reality it was the same day. This really made us loose track of getting sleep. I do remember that we again slept apart on Tuesday night, meeting up again on Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, they moved Karen and to her own room where I could spend the night with her in a chair. And in the afternoon the moved Katie down to the unit with us! There where and are still things to watch for but we were very happy to have Katie with us. They explained to us that babies are very adaptable during birth. When a chord gets wrapped around a babies neck, they instinctively know to let there lower body organs (liver, kidneys) take a hit so they can protect the brain. They think this is what Katie did. They believe her liver experienced a bit of shock but that the brain was just fine. When she came out she had a hard time breathing but was able to recover from that and they don't see any current problems with the liver - but that will continued to be monitored. Hearing and vision test are just fine. She is a little low on iron right now and receives an extra .3ml per day.

Wednesday night we again got almost no sleep. We were finally all together but in a 15ft x 15 ft room with a bed, a lounge chair, a bassinet, a sink, and a computer stand. It was crowded. I finally left Karen and went across the hall to family lounge and watched TV all night. Luckily, on Thursday morning they said they would release Mom and baby in the afternoon. Good thing. Thursday became really frustrating. I don't blame anyone. Everyone was just so concerned and trying to make sure we were OK. What happened was we would get seen back the lactation nurse, the attending nurse, the Labory and Delivery unit, New Parent Support Program, the technicians for vitals. And they were all so adamant, "You have to feed her every two hours!" But we couldn't because they kept coming in. Finally, I had to say, "Look you all have to stop bothering us - you keep telling us to feed her every two hours but it's now been four because we can't get any privacy." I think that was the trigger that made them rush getting us released, since all tests on Katie were good. So we all ended up free together for the first time around 5PM on Thursday back at the hotel room.

Katie's first visitor outside the hospital was Karen's boss from Edward's Air Force Base, Tom Burkett and his wife Karin. They gave us a card and Katie a pink blanket that Karin calls a "snuggle blanket - because it is cold in Germany." It says, "A star is born."

Katie's first trip was to the Landstuhl dining hall on Friday for lunch. On Sunday she also went to Ramstein's Chili's, the Ramstein BX, and the Vogelway Commissary. We received Katie's emergency passport and Birth Abroad certificate on Friday. Hopefully, Katie will be flying to her new home at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey this coming Wednesday. Pictures to come.

Katie Marie Dwyer

2008-07-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

No words needed - "just pure joy" Karen says. Stay tuned for the director's cut.

Trier in the Rain

2008-07-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

We did make it to Trier today. Probably our last sight-seeing for some time. We saw the Roman ruins from over two thousand years ago and a beautiful Church that was started around 300AD. More details and pictures some other date.

Karen's final NST check was fine and we rest tomorrow and check in on Sunday evening. One and a wake-up. We'll keep you posted........

Katie's Arrival Approaches

2008-07-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

I was joking to Karen that if you look at our blog, it looks like we are on a giant vacation. Let me assure everyone there is a lot of other stuff going on. Our storknesting sponsor, Robin, has gone exceptionally above and beyond in getting us out of lodging and showing us the area. But we also are spending a lot of time taking care of the things that need to get done.

So today, I'm including just some of the things we are working on a daily basis on, such as...documents. Document, documents, documents! We have to apply for an emergency passport for Katie, a birth certificate for Katie, and a social security card for Katie. Plus, we also have to file a notice of birth abroad and get all of this expedited for through the American consulate and returned as quickly as possible after the birth. The American consulate gladly charges us $150 for that privilege - seems like it should be free for service members on a government directed move overseas. Then, once we get Katie back to Turkey we have to give Turkey $85 to allow Katie to be in Turkey. We have to pay close attention to all these document dates because Turkey is known for giving out one year residency permits that expire just before families are scheduled to leave Turkey forcing the families to purchase a second residency permit they only need for a matter of days to weeks.

Karen is also continuing with regular fetal monitoring at NST. They check the baby's heartbeat and movement along with Karen's blood pressure. All have been fine including Karen's blood pressure which has actually been excellent lately.

We also work on things such as preparing the labor bag, reading up on parenting, and taking care of other necessities. For example, last night Robin and Andy had us over for dinner but we also took the time for Robin to show Karen how the breast pump works and answer any questions Karen had.

On days we stay at Landstuhl, we sleep late, go to NST, each lunch, do our laundry, and try to keep in touch with those we can. Today we see the doctor at 1500 and will ask some last minute questions we have thought of. Then Karen has an NST on Friday. On Sunday, we are back in the evening for Karen to be induced. We don't expect anything to happen until Monday though. Karen and Katie will stay in the hospital a minimum of 48 hours. If all goes well, we would hope Karen and Katie could be released by Wednesday and that we receive our documentation back by Thursday. This would allow us to take the rotator flight back to Turkey a week from this Friday - however, more than likely we will have to wait on some paperwork and would be looking at the following week. We are hoping we can catch a rotator back because this allows to land at Incirlik and not have to catch a civilian flight into Adana.

If we are on base we can chose between three of Landstuhl top 5 dining choices: the Chow Hall, the Community Club, Burger King, Sub Way/Anthony's Pizza, or The Cappuccino Shop...actually those are ALL the dining choices. But we make do and the Chow Hall is quite good for my taste buds.

Tomorrow, the tentative plan is for our Storknesting sponsor to take us to Trier after Karen's NST appointment. Trier is the oldest city in Germany and is located close by near Luxembourg. It was established by the Romans over two thousand years ago.

This gives you a little "behind-the scenes-look" at how we spend a lot of our time. The hospital has fixed some of the computers in the cyber-lounge. Now there are 6 working computers instead of 2. So, hopefully, I'll have a few more posts before Katie arrives.

Dwyer Pictures From Germany

2008-07-09T10:36:00.001-07:00

Karen on The Rhine River.

Karen at the castle overlooking Landstuhl.

Drinking a meter of beer at the Kaieserslautern street festival with our Storknesting sponsors, Robin and Andy - no Karen did not drink.

Eating authentic German food in a small village near Vogelway.

The Rhine River

2008-07-08T04:18:00.000-07:00

Katie Marie Dwyer continues her vagabond fetus travels - this time exploring the Rhine River for a second time with Daddy Dwyer on hand. Our Storknesting sponsor Robin and her 8-month old, Eve, took Karen and I on the Rhine River cruise again yesterday. We went by car about 50 miles north to Bingen-Rudesheim where we drove the car onto the ferry at Bingen (western side) and crossed over to Rudesheim (eastern side). There are no bridges anywhere to be found on this section of The Rhine. We actually never passed a bridge as we traveled north. The view was amazing - can't wait to post pics. There were at least thirteen castle's along the way. Everything looks like Disneyland except it's real - and it goes on forever. The first bridge was well north of our destination. At Rudesheim we boarded the tour boat which then proceeds north while stopping at most villages along the way. We got off several stops to the north at St. Goar where we had lunch. I had wiener schnitzel, which was essentially a thinly cut pork steak. After lunch we boarded the train and proceeded back down the river on the western side. We exited the train back at Bingen and took the ferry back across to Rudesheim, where the car was parked at. While we waited for the next ferry to get the car back across, we had apple strudel with ice cream and went in the Kathe Wohlfhart store. If you like Christmas - you will LOVE Germany. After all, a huge portion of those American Christmas traditions come from Germany. Kate Wohlfhart represents everything that is related to a German Christmas. You must check out their web site: wohlfahrt.com. Click on the "English" button for translation.

At the end of along afternoon, we crossed back over on the ferry to Bingen and drove back to the KMC (Kaiserslatern Military Community) where we had an authentic German dinner in Vogelway. I had jagerschnitzel and potatoes. The jaegerschnitzel was essentially a thinly breaded pork steak covered in a mushroom sauce. It reminded me of the breaded pork chops my Grandma Sprenger (Mildred Sprenger) used to make. I also actually walked up to the bar and ordered a beer with very little rehearsal. I don't know the spelling but I said something like "Ish mushta ein heffenveizen bitte."

Katie and Karen did quite well. Karen probably walked a good mile. We got a picture of Karen under Kathe Wohlfhart sign - "Kathe" is a German variance for "Katie." We are now scheduled for inducement on Sunday evening. Nothing is expected to happen until Monday. We still have a few more questions which we will be asking the doc this Thursday. We will be sure to keep everyone posted.

Where Are the Pregnant Karen Pictures?

2008-07-03T02:47:00.000-07:00

OK whoever asked this hasn't been reading the blog very thoroughly. The only computers we have access to are government computers and they do not allow downloading. Unfortunately, it may be a while before anyone sees pregnant Karen pictures. We will get them up as soon as we are able. And also, we have very limited telephone access - if you don't hear from us it's not because we aren't thinking about you. We miss everyone! Happy 4th of July ! ! ! !

Karen Dwyer - Pregnant Castle Conqueror

2008-07-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Karen climbed a castle in Turkey during her first month of pregnancy and now she has climbed a castle in Germany in her ninth month of pregnancy! Not bad. Karen finally got over her cold today. We ate lunch at the Ramstein O Club and went out to Vogleway Where we bought three German Nutcrackers. Then we came back and found our way to Nanstein Castle (I've also seen it called Sickingen Castle - not sure which is correct), which overlooks Landstuhl village. Karen made it all the way to the top. I have to pull pictures from the web though - no way to download at this point. If you want to read the history of the castle, I found an excellent site by someone named Keith Laney at http://www.keithlaney.net/Legendary_Castles_of_the_Palatinate/Nanstein/castle_nanstein.htm

Another interesting bit of history is that Lanstuhl Regional Medical Center, or at least the land where it is, was developed by The Third Reich as a Hitler Youth School campus in the late 1930's. Supposedly, there are still some buildings left from that but I haven't figured out exactly which ones yet.

Tomorrow we see the doc again and should get a more exact idea about what will happen when. We are not sure if they will want Karen to keep coming in for monitoring as her blood pressure has been perfect the last two times they checked. We will also try to get as much paperwork done as we can tomorrow. there is so much paperwork. Birth Abroad documents, social security card documents, passport applications etc.

A picture of Landstuhl taken from the castle:

See Where We Are Staying

2008-06-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

I realized that you can actually see where Karen and I are staying at in the picture of LRMC. If you look at the clump of trees in the bottom left corner of the photo and work you way up - the first building you see up the left side is the building we are in. We are actually in the bottom-right window. To get to the library where I am at right now, I walked up to the middle of the photo and straight up the road in the middle of the photo that shoots toward the bottom of the photo. The library is up that road. computer access is really strict here. I went to check Facebook and I guess the Army doesn't allow that. I got a pop up window saying my attempt to log onto Facebook has been logged and will be reported to the commander. I guess that is now part of that permanent record "they" start keeping on everyone in kindergarten. So there may not be any photos until we get back. karen has a bad cold today so I am going to wonder around and figure out where everything is on base.

Patrick is In The Motherland

2008-06-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have now arrived in Germany and Karen and I are together at Landstuhl. Karen's Storknesting sponsor, Robin Sheehan, has been absolutely incredible! Robin and her husband, Andy, had a previous engagement when I landed, so they actually gave Karen their second car so I didn't have to take a cab. Amazing. I am just getting settled this weekend. We went to The Ramstein O' Club All You Can Eat Brunch today - all you can eat KING CRAB. Not snow crab but King Crab. Karen was in heaven. Ramstein has got it going on. They're selling tickets for Eric Clapton and REM. And on the 4th Gary Sunise (the guy from CSI New York) and his Lt Dan Band will be here playing with fireworks for free!

Karen is now scheduled to be induced on 11 July. So we may get to meet Katie Marie a little early. It may not be easy to get pictures up until later. The computer at the medical center only has internet - no other features I can access and the hard drive is locked up. I'll try the library later. We are doing well and miss everyone.

Hi to Joe, Melissa, Cameron, and Emily in Alaska. And congrats on Joe making Tech Sergeant!

Patrick to Join Karen in Germany

2008-06-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend I should be flying into Ramstein Air base to join Karen. I don't have a lot of time lately. Work is really busy. We should have five techs working in the Mental Health clinic and we are down to three. One is in Germany at Non Commissioned Officer Academy and the other position is vacant awaiting a new tech arrival in July. Soon, they will be really hurting when I depart leaving them at only two. Karen has an excellent Storknesting sponsor in Germany. Karen has been fortunate enough to spend the night at her house twice and do a little sight-seeing. She spent the entire day on the Rhine (spelling?) River yesterday and promises nice pictures. On Google maps, I noticed their is a little a little village near Karen called Frankenstein. THow quaint. Things are getting very hectic now. If we don't get a chance to talk to you, we are thinking of all our friends and family. Talk to you all soon!

Karen is in Germany

2008-06-08T04:23:00.000-07:00

Karen arrived in Germany Friday night. It was a little confusing getting out but she made it. They are never actually able to give you the exact time until just before the flight, because of security issues. But we knew it was on Friday. But we also knew it was going to be late. They let you check your bags in a day early if you are actually flying on a boarding pass. When we checked in at 9 on Thursday the plane hadn't even left Baltimore yet and they seemed to know it would be pretty late. They told us not to check in on Friday until 1230 when it was originally 7AM. Then it got confusing. AFN (Air Force News - our TV) was saying check in at 1300, the phone said something else, but they said 1145 on the phone. So we went at 1145 and they said come back at 2. But she was able to get on and depart around 3-4PM. Karen said the flight was fine. We managed to talk the Turkish counter agent into giving her an aisle seat. Sounds like he even did one better as Karen said she had mega foot room and it almost seemed like first class. They did have to stay on the flight line for about an hour in Germany because of rain and lightning. She said they almost actually diverted the flight. Thank goodness that didn't happen. I will let Karen tell you the rest:

"Yes I am now in Germany and oh my gosh it is so beautiful here! Everything is so green and I am surrounded by lush green trees and grass. I love it here! I just wish Patrick were here with me, I know he will love it too. It is kind of like St Louis without the humidity. My flight was wonderful. They gave me a great seat at the front of the plane. I was surrounded by guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. They had all been away for a year and were headed home. They were such great guys, asking me all kinds of questions about having a baby in Turkey. They thought I made the right decision to come here to Germany instead of Ankara. My boss from Edwards meet me at the Terminal and one of the other ladies that I worked with was there too visiting her daughter who is stationed here so we all went to dinner. It was so yummy to have good ol American food that tasted good. I was in heaven! I had a huge BBQ pulled pork sandwich. Today I am at the hospital and had my first subway sandwich in a about a year and they have a cyber-cafe with plenty of computers so I can keep in touch with you all. I am getting so excited to see my little Katie. She will be here soon. I am so weepy all the time too. I am feeling great. My back is hurting today as my bed is kind of hard. We have a feather bed on top of our mattress at home so I didn't sleep too great. She is sitting on my bladder a lot too so it makes it hard to walk very far. I am hoping I will be able to sightsee anyway. There are so many things here to do and see. My old boss is taking me to brunch at the officers club tomorrow morning. He said they have these awesome crab legs and shrimp. YUM! Do you see a theme running here. FOOD!! My room here is really nice too. I can tell that they just remodelled them recently. I even have a flattop stove and lots of windows looking out at the woods. I sure am not going to want to go back to Turkey! The air is so clean too. I went outside this morning and took a big breath of fresh air. It smelled so good with all the trees around and it had been raining. You just can't believe how bad the air is where we are in Turkey. Well, that's about it for now. I am just wandering around my little area here. I have a dr appointment Monday afternoon and a bunch of paperwork to fill out. I will keep you updated on my adventures here."

It's amazing how many people we know seems to be in or heading to Germany. Karen's old boss Tom Burkett is there. Alice, another lady Karen worked with for a while at NAF Human Resources Edwards AFB is also there. She also came along to pick Karen up. And Dr. Soto, my supervisor from Edwards is arriving for an assignment at Ramstein in August. Well I still have to grocery shop and clean today - it's harder to get by with just one! Oh, almost forgot that I do have Karen's number to her hotel and room. If you want it shoot me an e-mail or call. Karen and I can talk for free via Government DSN line, She said they advertise about 40 cents a minute for commercial lines. I'm not sure what it would cost someone dialing in though. See that's one other thing they don't tell people who are choosing to have the baby in Ankara. You have to pay for every phone call there. Expensive! Bye Karen. Love you and see you in Germany.

Like A Pregnant School Girl Sent Away

2008-06-06T00:18:00.001-07:00

Karen and I are at the library at Incirlik. We head to the passenger terminal at Incirlik in about two hours to send Karen away to have Katie. We have been joking how this all seems like in the 1950s and 60s when the girl in high school gets pregnant and the family sends her "far away" to have he baby. I'm about to send Karen on a four hour plane ride to another country to have the baby. Karen's like the pregnant catholic shoolgirl. But, in this case, I will be following in a few weeks AND baby Katie will come home with us. Karen will contact me tomorrow and I will be sure to give everyone a number where she can be reached at Landstuhl as soon as we know what it is.

Karen is Germany Bound

2008-05-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

On June 6th Karen will be heading for Ramstein Air Base. She will stay at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (http://www.landstuhl.healthcare.hqusareur.army.mil/ ) which you see pictured here. Karen's lodging will be a short distance from the medical center. This is the largest military hospital outside the continental United States. It is also the treatment center for wounded military members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. If you go to Google/maps and search "Landstuhl" it will key you into the German village, Landstuhl. Then search "Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and you can actually see the medical center. Lodging is just adjacent and is literally surrounded by woods. Unfortunately, the Incirlik commander, has just decided to change the leave policy and will only let father's take 30 days of leave. We figure that means I can only arrive about three weeks before the due date since it's possible we can be delayed trying to obtain Katie's passport before returning to Turkey. So I probably will flying to Germany around June 28th or July 4th.

Katie is now kicking and moving around a lot. Karen is excited to actually soon get to see the person who has been kicking her. They assigned Karen a "storknesting buddy" and she has offered to show Karen a little sight-seeing if Karen feels up to it. I know Karen is hoping to go to Peris for a meal also. Katie will be quite the world traveler before she is even born.

A lot of people coming and going at my job. Our friends Joe and Melissa Thompson left last week bound for Eilson AFB in Alaska. Canisha Carson showed up here to take Joe's place. When I return from Germany in August, our two officers will be getting ready to turn over their positions. After that's over, we will only have 10 months left!

I did great for my fitness test this year. Last year I weighed 225, measured a 38 inch waist, ran the 1.5 mile in 13:20, maxed out my 1-minute push ups at 42 and did 30-something for my 1-minute sit-ups. That's a barely passing 77 points for a 41-year old. This year, I increased my score 10 points to an 86: weight 209, waist 35, max push-ups at 42, max sit-ups at 47, and the one I am most proud of - I did the 1.5 mile run in 11 minutes and 15 seconds. I have to give all credit to Joe Thompson who motivated us all via the CrossFit program( http://www.crossfit.com/ ). Gotta go - they are closing the library.

Katie's Nursery at Incirlik

2008-05-04T05:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Katie's Nursery. Remember to let these load fully. Sometimes you have to click on the play button twice but make sure you have given it plenty of time to load before trying a second time. The video will start off sideways but quickly adjust.

And everyone keeps asking to see Karen's Buddha-belly. So here she is:

Touring the Dwyer's Home at Incirlik

2008-05-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

OK, this file something like 32mb so I don't know how well it will work. For starters - turn your volume up both on the blogger video window and your personal speaker. These videos do have an excellent narrator. If you can't hear him - turn it up! The video is over two minutes in length. So give it time to load. I'm trying to load it to the blog as I type this. I'm not sure which one it is. Karen and I did one video of the house and one video of Katie's room. The video is currently processing message 420 as I type this. Hopefully, it won't be too big for the system.

5 minutes later now. Processing message 532. Oh wait, I think it is done at 562 messages to transfer the video. So now I will see if it plays......

Yeah. It seems to work on this end. OK, that is a tour of Dwyer House Incirlik. Notice we skipped Katie's nursery. We will try that in a second post.

A couple of other pictures of the house. First this is a picture of our street below. Kastamonu Court may look very elegant. And it is pretty don't get me wrong. But see that nice looking building in front of you. No that's not a mansion. That's four separate homes holding 4 couples to include 6 kids, three dogs, and a least one cat. We live off to the right of this building complex.

And here is our house. And only the little half. The tall half is somebody else's house. If you look close you can see Slinky, or The Ghost as Kori and Ryan like to call him:

Our Turkish Bassinet

2008-04-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

We finally brought home our Turkish bassinet! We think it turned out perfect. Now remember, this was our third trip. And when we go to the store, the guy that's there speaks not a word of English. Since we only know the most basic of greetings and thank yous in Turkish, communication can be funny. To recap, the first time we were there the guy called his brother-in-law who spoke "a little English." He said come back in one week. We did, but it still was not ready. The guy called his brother-in-law again and he was trying to get us to come back on Monday. We were having a hard time getting him to understand we had to wait until Saturday. With all the communication problems, we were only able to get across that we wanted the white and blue bassinet they had but that we wanted it done in white and pink. But we had no specifics on design other than that. As you can see, it came complete with white and pink, as we asked, but with a sleeping kitty cat design that Karen just loves. We all were lauging when we picked it up. We had to ask my boss, Major Alicia Edwards, to go over with us in her SUV because the bassinet wouldn't fit into our car. I followed them in our Toyota but we became separated at the light. By the way, we went right by the stork on the way over - saw her again - and yesterday we sat two storks in the nest! So Karen and Alicia got there first. I guess the guy came up and was just speaking Turkish as fast as he could as if they understood. Karen said Alicia got the funniest look on her face like the guy was crazy because he was talking like they understood Turkish and of course they did not. But the workers pointed to the crib and when Karen realized it was hers and ready - she was very happy. The workers were smiling and very proud of themselves. But Alicia said, "I don't understand. If they don't understand anything you said how did they know to put cats on there?" We tried to explain it was a coincidence but Alicia kept saying, "That doesn't make any sense to me - I mean how would they know to put the cats on there? Did Slinky make a call?"

In the first shot you are looking from above. The heart pillow and pink pillow under the cats are removable. the cats are actually own a removable blanket. In the second shot you can see the sleeping kitty on the front.

The third shot shows the woodwork. It is a very nice bamboo-type wood except much darker and stronger. Everything was made by hand. So we are hoping the furniture will arrive on Wednesday. We have two dressers for Katie, the Camel bar, and a homemade Turkish rocking horse on the way. We bought a lot of stuff at The Praktiker store (kind of a Turkish Lowes) over the weekend for Katie's room. Curtain rod, bamboo shade, storage. May not post for a little bit as next weekend is all about Katie's room. Also, we have received so many nice things from everyone! Thanks everybody. The help has been much appreciated.

A Stork for Katie Marie

2008-04-13T04:30:00.001-07:00

The stork has literally paid us a visit at Incirlik! Apparently a stork migrates through here on her way to and from Africa every year. She build a huge nest in an electrical tower just outside the base. Karen had heard about it and kind of forgotten it - but we were leaving the base the last week and you can't miss her. The nest is about 4-6 feet tall and at least three feet wide. She mostly sits but she does stand every so often and I was luck enough to get a shot of her here. I believe she is actually leaning over here paying attention to the eggs or whatever is down there. What appears to be her left leg in the picture is actually her neck and head.

Bad news for the baby shower pictures - we have none. Major Edwards felt really bad but when she went to load them they had simply disappeared from her camera. Oh well, they still did a fabulous job and we have GREAT memories. Lesley Evans did get some shots of the cake and set up and I will post those soon.

Karen and I think we bought a bassinet today. This was a Turkish transaction so we really aren't sure. Last week we found that bassinet for $220 that we really liked except we want it in pink not the blue. Well the guy there spoke no English but got his brother-in-law on the phone and he said to meet him there in a week. We did but no brother-in-law. But they are very nice. So he called the brother-in-law back and he said "You come on Monday night after 5 and it will cost $200. " I said, "I can't come on Monday." He said, "No, it is a finished deal - you will come on Monday." This went around and around like this for a few minutes before he finally agreed to come next Saturday afternoon. We are not really sure why he needs to be there because the guy there understands what we want to buy and knows how to write out $200. we shall see next week.

Now you may be wondering how all this baby stuff seems to have fazed Slinky the cat. as you can seem below, he seems quite oblivious to the whole thing:

What? You say you can't even tell that is a cat? Neither could we. His hair is so long that when he gets all puffed up and curls up you literally can't find his head. We were laughing so hard at him I had to get up and go over and see where his head actually was. And....

...even standing right on top of the damn cat - I still can't make out any features except his two legs and an ear sticking out the side. What a life.

Oh, if only he knew of the troubled days ahead. But I'm sure he will adapt he always has. I keep telling him every time he cries, "Slinky, you're going to meet somebody soon that will teach you what crying is really all about." He ignores me.

Lastly, just wanted to show you all what our back yard has looked like for the last....well pretty much ever since we moved in. And yes this comes complete with jackhammers, bulldozers, and singing Turks. Our backyard is fenced in but only about 20 feet to the back fence. This is the view directly over the fence. Scheduled completion date is not until October. Luckily, when we get back from Germany, this should mostly be done.

Katie's Baby Shower

2008-04-06T04:47:00.000-07:00

Maybe she didn't exactly know she was in attendance but let's face it the shower was for Katie. I will repost on this again as soon as we get pictures but it was FABULOUS! My boss Alicia Edwards and Lesley Evans put on the most spectacular shower I have ever been to for us. We had it at a great place in Adana called Pastabahcesi last Friday on April 4th. This is a great indoor/outdoor restaurant in New Adana that overlooks the Seyhan Lake. They specialize in desserts and pastries. One of the most modern and clean restaurants I have ever been to. Very nice for Adana. We had around 17 in attendance . As soon as we get photos we will post. On the web site, to see photos of the restaurant, click on the bottom on "Kurumsal" and wait for it to come up, then click on "Fotograflar" on the left. Once a photo appears, click on "ileri" or "geri" at the bottom to see other photos. Play around a bit and you may be able to see some menu shots as well. We received some fabulous gifts from everyone. And of course friends and family have been sending stuff all along. Many thank yous are on the way.

Yesterday, we also bought a camera since our Kodak crapped out. We bought a cheap Samsung but it seems to work well enough and take good photos. We also purchased two dressers for Katie and a special wooden camel we will post pictures of when all the furniture arrives. We also found a place just outside Incirlik everyone calls Furniture Alley. Karen found a nice bassinet we hope to maybe get next week. Just to show you how the locals see dollars sign when they see Americans coming - the first shop quoted us $350.00 for this bassinet. The second shop was 50 yards away and said $220 for the same bassinet. But the guy didn't speak any English and we wanted pink material instead of the blue he had. So the worker got his brother, who spoke English, on the phone and he said to come next week and he would be there after 1PM. Karen and I are going to offer $200. Then we will almost be set with furniture. We still need to get some wall shelves and a rocking chair for Karen. We will also need to get the crib set, the wall border, and the diaper genie to complete the nursery. OK, more photos of the shower coming soon.

Painting Katie's Room

2008-03-30T05:12:00.001-07:00

We finally got around to clearing out the extra bedroom so we could paint it. The color is a little deceiving on the pictures here. It is a very soft-shade of sea-foam green. It appears a little darker here than I think it actually is. It matches some of the items in Karen's sea/beach theme she is working on.

We are accumulated some nice clothes but we need to get moving on furniture! We have the crib, an Under The Sea Carpet, a Kick N' Play, but we don't have any dressers yet. We need two but the BX only has one left. We may need to go into the alley to get that made. The shower is scheduled for this Friday, which we have off.

What else is new? Well the job at Miramar Brig opened up and I did apply for it but it sounds like the chances of me getting it are zero. I have been told I can not get out of my DEROS (date eligible to return from overseas). Even if I am the only person that applies, the Air Force will select a nonvolunteer before they give the job to me.

We have almost been here 8 months already! Every now and then we talk about what we think the remainder of our time will be like here. I think it will go pretty quickly. Karen will be heading to Germany in June for Storknesting. I will follow shortly after. Katie is due on 18 July. Apparently we will spend a busy ten days after Katie is born working on a passport for Katie. Then when we get back we will have one year left and only nine months left until we find out what our next assignment is. Plus, Octonodecembuary will begin just two months after we get back with Katie and we know how time flies during those months.

Well, as usual we are in the library as I post this. I actually here thunder outside - we may get a little rain. We will make sure pics are taken at the baby shower and are trying to find a new digital camera on-line. See you all on-line soon.

Mama Took My Kodachrome Away

2008-03-16T04:22:00.000-07:00

Our digital camera took a crap! It seems to still function and a flash goes off when you push the button, but there are no images displayed on the screen - it just remains white no matter what button you push or setting you move it to. We are trying to get a replacement but will have to wait for the end of March and order on-line. All the cameras for sale on base are around $300. Walmart, Target, and some others have much better on-line offers. We will probably borrow one for Karen's shower on April 4th. Then should have a new one fairly soon after.

We bought paint for Katie's nursery yesterday. Karen picked out a soft, lime green. Kind of the color of the water along the Emerald Coast in Florida. Hopefully, we will paint next week. We bought the paint at a store in the mall called The Praktiker. We got around Adana fairly well. We found the mall on our own for the first time, then we went to McDonald's which is only about ten minutes from the mall but took us over an hour. I wasn't sure how to cut across town to get to McDonald's so I wanted to come back the base and take the road I was sure of. But we missed the base turn-off and ended up another 30 miles down the road before we could get turned around. I think the freeway sign said Ceyhan was only 19 miles from where we turned around. There are very few places to turn around on the freeway in Turkey. We finally figured out that every 5 miles or so there will be an opening in the left side guard rail. But even with that only 1 out of every 5 of those is actually open and the others are sealed shut. Then we missed a right side turn off. Finally caught a left-side guard rail opening as we approached Ceyhan - and then went all the way back to McDonald's in New Adana. McDonald's never tasted so good. It was packed. They had full upstairs seating and downstairs plus about 50 tables outside on a grass lawn that were full. The Turks love the McDonald's - at least in Adana they do.

Also put the Master Sergeant stripe on officially on March 1st.

Radio Days

2008-03-02T03:22:00.000-08:00

I like to check Mike Anderson's Saint Louis media site every now and them. When i was younger there was a time I thought I would work in radio all my life. Although I'm glad it didn't work out that way, I sure had fun working for KIX 104FM from 1987-1990. Mike runs a web site in St. Louis that covers St. Louis media news. I e-mail Mike every now and then. When I e-mailed him from turkey he actually put a small blurb up about me on his web site. I can' figure out how to link to a specific date on his site but his site is: http://stlmedia.net/ and the feature he did on me is on 02-24-1008. He put a photo up of me that I can't copy over - but here is the story:

02-24-08 Got a great weekend email ... from former KIX104 Promotions Assistant Pat Dwyer. Kind of a wild man back then (I remember the altercation he got into with the soon-to-be Mayor of Maplewood over a bumper sticker incident), Pat's become an Air Force success story. He's married, and he and his wife, Karen, are about to become parents in the next few months; Pat will become Master Sergeant Dwyer in the next few days and he's a just a few years away from retiring from an honorable Air Force career as a senior non-commissioned officer. Read about his military time here. On AF retirement, Pat and Karen want to come home to St. Louis and he intends to go into accounting, a degree toward which he's been working while in service. When young Mr. Dwyer left KIX, he left a vacancy that was never adequately filled...he was missed. I'm glad to see that it was clearly the AF's gain. Say hi here.

BABY KATIE NEWS: Karen has now felt Katie "doing something" in there. I ask, "Did you feel her kick or was it movement?" Karen says, "She's doing something!"

Thanks to all the recent e-mails/comments from Jackie Rangen, Gittan Grondahl, Tracy Breece, Jeff Pixler, Mom, Kori Smyth, and probably many I am forgetting. I only have 15 minutes left before my time here is up. Besdies Karen needs to be off for "high tea."

Find me on Facebook. It's a great way to stay connected to all your friends and family everywhere simultaneously. Some of you need to get your pictures on there (Mom, Jan, and Jeff).

Octonodecembuary

2008-02-24T05:12:00.001-08:00

I forgot that Preseident's Day was the official end to Octonodecembuary! What is Octonodecembuary? It's the name I have given for the incredible rush of holidays and birthdays that seems to occur between Halloween and President's Day. You have Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, New years Eve, New year's Day, my wife's birthday, Martin Luther King Day, Valentine's day, and President's Day. We also have at least four close family and friends that have birthdays during Octonodecembuary. It seems like most families have a slew of birthday's during this period as well. Octonodembuary is literally October, November, December, January, and February all rolled into one quick blur.

I first came up with the phrase as a joke about two or three years ago. But I was also serious. Since I work in the mental health field, I actually worked it into holiday stress briefings while I was at Edward's Air Force Base for 2005-2007. Mental Health Flight's always gets tasked to do briefings to remind everyone to watch their stress levels during the holidays - and also the stress levels of those around us. A lot of concern comes from leadership about suicide, stress, and drinking & driving during this time frame. It seems like just when you get the Halloween decorations down, the Thanksgiving decs and planning start. And immediately after Thanksgiving, Christmas decorating starts. Then New Years. Then.....the bills start coming in. But don't forget Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It can be a stressful time just trying to keep up. So I actually inserted a slide into my PowerPoint briefing about "Octonodecembuary" in 2005.

So here it is. I want credit when the term starts getting thrown around.

Some Funny Things In Turkey

2008-02-24T02:58:00.000-08:00

Today is Karen's last day working at The Incirlik Library - so I get to post two days in a row. The down side of not having a computer at home is I end up posting long after events happened. We may end up getting Internet but most likely we will continue just posting at the library. The local company charges $80 per month, wants three months up front, and we would have to buy a modem - so it's $300 just to start Internet service. The library will work just fine at those rates.

Today we are looking at a few unusual things about Turkey. Let's start out with the whole idea of copyrights and trademarks. In Turkey - there is no such thing. If there is, it is simply not enforced. That takes us to our first photo. Below we have the store "Disney World" in Adana, Turkey. You can see Karen and our friend Melissa Thompson coming out of the store if you click on the photo and blow it up. Now I don't know if the "XL" means trademark or copyright, but it clearly doesn't matter. I doubt that Disney has anything to do with this store. But the owner wants you to think it does, right? That clearly looks like your typical Disney writing to me. But this was the first Disney store I have ever been in that smelled of cigarettes and actually had people smoking in the store. Oh, did I mention there are not any actual Disney products in the store. You can find Spiderman, The Flintstones, Hana Barbara - but no Disney characters! I see Mickey and Minnie on the front window but they are not in the store anywhere.

But we had fun with the Thompson's looking at all the stuff that isn't actually Disney. Below, Joe and Melissa's son Cameron finds Disney's latest new character - Spiderman!

Everyone has heard about the Turkish toilets - the ones that are simply holes in the ground. The newer restaurants and offices have American style toilets but you still find the old hole in the ground quite frequently. Below is a toilet at a gas station in Mersin:

Below we see an American-style toilet at great restaurant we ate at in Adana with the Thompson's. The Turks definitely have a sense of humor. Each toilet has a photo of a famous woman above the toilet. If you look close you will see that the Sharon Stone is looking down at the male's package. Pretty funny. Luckily there wasn't a Turk in the restroom wondering why I was taking pictures in the bathroom!

And the Turks do celebrate a form of Christmas around New Year's Day. In the below photo you can actually see Santa and a reindeer on display at the mall in Mersin. I only caught the back because I was actually trying to get a photo of the penis-shaped balloons that seem to be all the rage. Karen I laughed every time we saw one at the mall. I'm not sure what they are supposed to be. If you blow this picture up you may be able to see one the kid is carrying.

Karen says hi to everyone. Bye for now!

It's A Girl

2008-02-23T03:24:00.001-08:00

Please allow me to introduce Katie Marie Dwyer. We love her:

Click on play button - you may need to click 2x - once you see the word "buffering" appear on the screen it is about to start.

We found out about three weeks ago but I haven't had time to post. It was an interesting experience. First Dr. Tajha (spelling?) at the 39th Medical Group told Karen and I he was 95% sure the baby is female. But he wanted to send us to Adana for a more advanced ultrasound and screening. So we showed up to TriCare about a half hour before the appointment and "Sami" from TriCare drove us Sistems in Adana. At Sistems he took us up to what seemed like a SIP lounge. All the Turks were waiting in the lobby but they took us up to a special private room with a TV and we waited away from the crowd. The other interesting thing was the entire clinic smelled of cigarettes. We couldn't actually see anyone smoking but they clearly were in the offices. This was a clinic not a hospital but still... My coworker who is a longtime resident here, Tom Evans, tells me even in the hospital you sometimes see people smoking despite signs forbidding it - no enforcement. Sistems was very nice and had great equipment. Karen could actually watch everything on a television while I sat beside her and watched on the machine. The doctor at Sistems said they were also "almost positive" the baby is a girl and they saw nothing to worry about. "Looks good," said the doc.

We have also purchased the crib and attached diaper changing stand with a mattress. Buying the crib was a typically funny Turkish experience. You have to remember the Turks run most of the Incirlik Base Exchange (BX). And where we bought the crib they run the entire store. The name of the place we bought the crib is the BXtra because they sell all the large items that don't fit in the BX. So here's how it went:

Patrick and Karen walk in and tell Turkish employee which crib they want. "Do you have some in the back?" asks Patrick.
"Yes Abe. They are in box - we deliver to you on Tuesday."
So Patrick and Karen buy the crib. After we have exchanged money Turkish employee says, "Oh, I am sorry Abe but I realize we don't have any in the back. they are at warehouse and we can't get for a few days. We can deliver the model on the floor?"
"No. We want a new one in the box. Can we just wait?"
"Sure Abe."
Awkward silence as Turkish employee looks at computer screen. "Abe, I am not sure if we have two at warehouse or not. it says two. I think we have two. Can you call Mehmet on Tuesday?"
On Tuesday, Patrick calls Mehmet who says, "Abe, my guy looked at it wrong. We have two on the way but not at the warehouse."
Patrick says, "But you already sold it to me."
"I know Abe. What are we going to do?"
"Well, when will the two new ones get here."
"Maybe two to three weeks Abe. I could also give you the floor model."
"Well we looked at it and there's nothing wrong with it but we won't pay full price for a floor model."
"Abe, I will give you 25% off."
Patrick rushes over to take advantage of the fantastic Turkish bargain. He finds Mehmet. "The crib will be delivered today then."
"Yes Patrick, except we have a problem with the 25% off - we have no money in our register."
"Well, I am going to buy the mattress. Why don't you just give me the mattress."
"I have to be able to show the transaction Abe. We will give you a gift card for the 25% and then you may buy the mattress with the gift card."
"Tamum (OK)," says Patrick.
I was happy that it only took ten minutes for them to figure out how to work the gift card and then I got an even better deal. Those Turks thought they were getting me but I pulled the wool over their eyes. You see, when we were all done I was able to buy the mattress AND still have money left over on the gift card. So they had to hand me a gift card with one cent of credit left on it!
"But Abe we still have one problem left. Can we deliver maybe before the delivery time?
"Well...when?"
"Oh, anytime before the three o'clock time. Maybe one or...NOW?"
"Yeah, I can do that but I don't have a car. You need to give me time to walk home."
"Abe, you can ride with my guys in the truck."
"My wife has the only key and she's at the library."
"Abe, we will drive you to the library and we can get the key and then deliver the crib."
So I hopped in the Turkish van looking like a Turkish worker - crammed three to the front with no seat belts. We got the key from Karen. And that is how Katie received her crib!

We Were Hacked!

2008-02-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

Just to let everyone know we are OK and fine. Yesterday, Karen received a call from a friend of hers on base while I was at work. "Are you OK?" the friend asked. "Yeah....you just saw me an hour ago," Karen replied. Turns out, someone accessed our g-mail account around 1-2pm yesterday and sent out an e-mail with the title "It's Over" and a message saying I had had it with the Ar force and couldn't take it any more. Unfortunately, the message went to relatives, friends, friends of family, the incirlik spouses club, Karen's former boss and her current boss. So after Karen got ahold of me and determined that I was in fact still working for the Air Force and earning a paycheck - we then began to try to figure out what happened. I'm fairly certain it wasn't an actual hack but that someone got on the computer I had used the previous night at the library and was able to acces the actual gmail/google page I had accessed the previous night when he or she typed in the google address. We have seen it happen before on a specific computer at the library. Access to deleting history and cookies is disabled on this computer and I had manually shut the computer down thinking it would delete the actual logged on page - but it appears it doesn't. But we want to asssure all friends and relatives that everything is fine. If for some reason we are wrong and you receive and any sort of weird message, please call us and let us know. But i think we have it figured out. I am on the same computer now and it appears that I can now eliminate the problem.

Baby news: we tried to have the sex determined this past week but baby was not cooperating. I was able to see the heartbeat and some arm/hand movement but he or she was facing down from the side and the movement wasn't enough fo the doctor to make a determination. We will try again in about two weeks.

One More Photo From Christmas

2008-01-27T06:27:00.001-08:00

I wanted to put this one last photo up before I run out of time. This is most of the 39th medical group Mental health Flight on Christmas Eve at the Dwyer's House. Across the front from left to right, you have: Daniel Williams, Dallas Williams (complete with Home Alone pose), me (Patrick Dwyer), Melissa Thompson, and Cameron Thompson. In the back: Keisha Henry, Emily Thompson, Quinlan Creech, Seanna Creech, Seanna's friend, Casey Creech, Karen Dwyer, Joe Thompson (in gray sweat shirt), Wes Williams, Dasha Williams, Angela Williams, and Alicia Edwards.

So, it looks like we will be able to get more pics onto out Picasa site slowly. But I need help. If anyone knows how to reduce the file size of pics, please let me know. each one of mine is 1-2 MB! I know there is a way to get them smaller. I just don't know how.

Karen and I may be able to find out the sex of the baby on January 29th!

See if you can see the photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/patrickjamesdwyer I did get a few in of our trip to Mersin last week. Check out the picture of the Turkish toilet (they are just holes in the ground).

PICTURES FROM TURKEY ! ! !

2008-01-27T02:12:00.000-08:00

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! Everyone keeps asking for pictures. Here they are. I finally have put some stuff on a zip drive so I can put a bunch of stuff up. Pay close attention to the end of this post for important info on pictures. The following our in chronological order since our departure from San Diego for Turkey:

To the left. A terrified Slinky hanging in there. I believe this was taken in Los Angeles because I am still using the soft carrier the Air force wouldn't let us use.

When we were finally able to move into Incirlik housing, we still didn't have any of our possessions. Slinky was still a little freaked out about the whole thing. Damn cat kept crawling up inside the bed! We're lucky they didn't charge us as this is part of the "stick furniture" they lend you.

Slinky decided to immerse himself in things that smelled like "our stuff."

Karen with some people from the Med group shopping in Kahramanmaras during our Mt. Nemrut trip. We call it "K-town" and it is famous for its ice cream. Notice how the man on the left is staring. The locals are fascinated by black people and blond hair. We really stood out.

Also, during the Mt. Nemrut trip. We spent the night in Kahta before ascending Nemrut. These kids were playing right under our hotel window. Once they saw I had a camera they wanted to pose. Extremely friendly.

At the top of Mt. Nemrut. this was very early, right after sunrise. The pictures that follow will give you an idea for how high up we are.

We had already been descending for quite a while at this point. Then the road turned to dirt...with no guard rails. Then we came around a corner in our little bus and saw this. It was so scary all we could do was laugh - the guy behind us kept yelling at the driver, "Yavash ! Yavash !" That's Turkish for "slow." Karen was belly-roll laughing You can see the dirt road we we are on down below. The following shot is several more miles down this road after we descended a few thousand feet.

Here we are several thousand feet down. We are actually walking on a trail at this point. That's a tributary to the Euphrates below. See below for explanation of where we are.

I love this picture of Karen at Park Zirve. This was taken during a Ramadon Iftar. Those are Whirling Dervishes behind Karen. I had the Karen set for a slower speed so it couldn't actually keep up with the Dervishes. But the lights and the blur really made the picture.

This is in Adana. That's Karen and my buddy coworker Joe Thompson. We are up on the roof of an apartment Joe is watching for one of our docs that returned to San Francisco to go to school for a year. I think you call the lake Seyhan. This is in the nice area of Adana just down the street from Park Zirve.

Inside the apartment. Does Karen look beautiful or what?

OK, I was hoping to get a bunch of photos into either Picasa (which is part of my Google/g-mail account) or into Photobucket. it was a little more complicated than I thought as the library won't let me install Picasa. So I may get around to it soon. I have figured out that the photos I post on here are viewable at http://picasaweb.google.com/patrickjamesdwyer . But, if I don't post them in a blog there doesn't seem to be a way to add them unless i have the software and the library does not. Stay tuned.

Hockey Is Back !

2008-01-03T02:29:00.000-08:00

Wow ! I haven't had that much fun watching a hockey game since I was a kid in the 70s. 71,217 people watching outside. In the snow! With the retro uniforms and hockey's next great one, Sidney Crosby, winning the game in the shootout. It felt like hockey had a vibe it hasn't felt since the 60s expansion from the original six teams to twelve. I hope NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman sticks with the idea of making this an annual event. Sure, it may not snow every year. But for this year, the first year of the NHL's Winter Classic, it was pure magic.

And how about Sidney Crosby? Did you see that assist? Did you see the turning pivot move? Did you see him stick handle three times consecutively in mid-air? Did you see him win the game in the shootout? Crosby is exactly what hockey needs right now.

The NHL has so much opportunity right now to advance its marketing image. If they played their cards right, they could make The Winter Classic "the" New Year's Day event. The fans absolutely loved it. The only thing I would suggest is considering a larger rink strictly for the large venue outdoor games. It may seem a little weird at first, but adding 10-20 feet on all four sides would make for excellent skating and better viewing in a stadium.

I can't wait to get back to America and be close to hockey again. They actually had a rink here in Adana, Turkey , but I guess it didn't last very long. In 2002-2003 I managed to reconnect with the sport I love. I played in pick-up scrimmages on Monday nights and got a job at San Diego Ice Arena where I learned to drive the Zamboni. But, in Lancaster there was no ice rink. And now no ice rink in Turkey either. When karen and I return to America I want to live where the guys have a hockey night on TV and there's a rink with an old timer's league. Perhaps we will have a little hockey player or figure skater in the near future.

So 2008 starts out with a huge BANG for hockey! Did I mention the fans liked the event?

All photos from nhl.com

Merry Christmas & Other News

2007-12-22T03:10:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TURKEY! ! ! !

It has been over a month since I posted - so I have a lot of news. Things are slowly getting more organized at our house. We are having a big Christmas Eve party that's kind of forcing us to clean up quickly. 17 adults and 10 kids are coming...that we know of. Possibly as many as 15 more people. We didn't bring any Christmas decorations but the house actually looks pretty good. Pomegranate martinis will be the theme drink. We will take plenty of drinks...I mean pictures.

Speaking of pictures. Hopefully, soon I will be able to post more. We may not get Internet access at home for a while - if ever. But since the home computer is up, I will be trying to find time to put some pictures on disc and move them to the blog at the library. The only pictures I can access at the library are the ones that happen to be in our gmail. But it's been a while since I posted - so here are some photos from a trip we took in November to Anavarza castle within an hour of Incirlik. It's interesting to visit Turkish archaeological sites. There's no one around to say "...don't touch that." Most sites have never even been excavated, as is the case with this one. Now it may not look like we are high up in some of these photos so I downloaded this one below from off the net to show you how high up we climbed:

A quick description of Anzavara Castle from Mehmet Birbiri who writes a column called "Ask Mehmet" (clever ain't he) in the Incirlik newspaper:

"We have so many historical sites in our neighborhood, but very few know about Anavarza Castle, one of the most striking historic cities, which served as the capital of the kingdom of Armenia Minor for centuries. Anavarza was built by the Assyrians in the ninth century B.C. Built on a sheer rock ridge, Anavarza Castle is actually two structures; an outer fortification and an inner castle. Both overlook the ruins of a Roman city by the same name. Your first view of the castle may be daunting. While driving through the village by the castle, the structure can be seen at the top of the ridge several hundred feet above you. The castle can only be reached by climbing. What first appears to be a route fit only for a mountain goat quickly reveals itself to
be accessible because many steps were carved into the rocks. Still, it takes approximately 20 minutes to make the climb. Just a little way up the ridge you will see the ruin of an ancient amphitheater on your left. Climbing higher still, you see what looks a little like a street map. The actual city of Anavarza was swallowed by the great earthquake of 525 B.C. and has not been excavated to this day. What you are seeing are roofs of buildings and streets that outline a small city buried almost 10 feet below the ground. Once you are near the top of the outer castle wall, you will have a superb view of the countryside to the west. On a clear day
you can see several of the nearby towns and even Snake, Black, Tumlu and Kozan castles a few miles away. Reaching the top, you come to the main wall of the outer fortifications complete with intersecting rooms and underground chambers. For the more adventurous, try walking along the top of the wall. You can almost feel what it was like to be a sentry on that wall hundreds of years ago. This is also a great place for a picnic. As you look north from the main wall, you can see how the ridge narrows and rises with the main castle in the distance. Between you and the main castle are the ruins of an 11th century Armenian castle. Continuing up the gradual rise toward the castle, you will reach a dry moat leading to a tunnel-type building and another dry moat. Watch your guide carefully because he knows all the steps and handholds possible. You may tour and climb the castle by yourself or get one of the villagers who will ask you if you need a guide. If you decide to have a guide, ask how much it will cost before starting the tour. In every direction is a sheer drop of several hundred feet. My advice when visiting castles, ruins and ancient sites; either walk or look, but don’t do both at the same time. Around the right side of the second moat and through a tunnel is the main part of the castle. Fortified on the west and north ends, it is marked by two horseshoe like towers. This part of Anavarza is in relatively good condition. On your way down, the guide should take you along a slightly different route to show you the burial crypts."

Below, we are climbing to the top:

Below, you can see Karen and I having just completed the 15 minute climb up to the top of the mountain where the castle is. That's our friend Corina Gestring just entering the castle. Corina and her husband Ken were kind enough to let us go with them and get off base for a day. The guy is a local Turk. They try to tag along and get paid for being pseudo tour guides. Karen had just found out she was pregnant the day before this trip.

Below, preggo Karen looking fine at the top of the castle:

A black and white of Karen and I at the top:

Climbing inside a tower:

It's surprising to find sheep way up there when you get to the top. As you can see, they are very sure-footed and walk the stairs and edges without problems:

Baby news! We did have our first ultrasound and we were able to see an image of the baby and see the baby's heart beating. We still don't know the sex. We have another appointment on 7 January. We know we will be going to Landstuhl in Germany in mid June. I will try to get there in June as well. Karen is currently due 18 July. And the great news is Caroline Haley plans to try to come out and stay with Karen. Also, Karen's boss from Edward's NAF, Tom, has offered to put us up in his home in Germany and maybe even take us to Paris. Karen is excited.

Work is a whirlwind. There are only five mental health techs here including me. I will lose 3 of them between Feb and June with three new ones coming in. Wes Williams is leaving us for Canon Air Force Base (AFB) in New Mexico. His replacement will be Jennifer Hoag from Korea. Then we lose Seana Creech who is getting out. Her replacement will be Kanisha Carson from The Azores. I was Kanisha's supervisor back at Sheppard in 1999 and look forward to seeing her again. Then we lose Joe Thompson to Eilson in Alaska and gain a SrA Thompson from Ramstein in Germany. A Thompson for a Thompson! We also found out last week that our Mental Health Officer-In-Charge (OIC), Captain Edwards, has been promoted to Major. In 2006 she was passed over for promotion but they left one of her performance evaluations out - so she appealed the decision and just found out the Air force agreed and her promotion actually took effect Dec 1st but she is waiting for Congress to take some sort of action before she can wear the rank. And our Psychologist, Captain Henry, recently completed a short humanitarian assignment to The Congo. Our group is a GREAT bunch of people and it is going to be hard seeing us all get broken up.

What's on the way for 2008? More baby news! And hopefully more frequesnt postings. I also have to study for a big CLEP test, complete the Master Sergeant correspondence course, gain 30 online CEUs for my 08 CADAC recertification (drug counseling stuff), and hopefully start on the accounting degree. Once we actually get settled after the baby, we will have less than a year left at Incirlik.

And here is the big teaser for 08. I have a GREAT idea for another blog. It's a unique one. Stay tuned.

NOTE ON THE PICTURES: double click on a picture to get a better view!

Karen Dwyer is Pregnant !

2007-11-18T04:02:00.000-08:00

Surprise! How's that for news out of Turkey? Karen was feeling a little off about a week ago. Then she felt queasy. So she took a home EPT test and we had two positives. This past Tuesday she completed a test at the Med Group and that confirmed it. Our first appointment is tomorrow, on Monday. We have talked to a lot of you on the phone. If we haven't, it's simply because we keep running out of time.

In the middle of all of this, our property was finally delivered...on the wrong day. It was supposed to be scheduled for 10 Oct. Then we were told it would be late and they finally scheduled for 12 Nov. That was rescheduled to 14 Nov and that was rescheduled to 15 Nov. So of course on 14 Nov, while I was at work and Karen was getting ready for work, one day before they were supposed to be there - they showed up at our door. The only problem was we had a house full of furniture with all of our stuff in it. "No problem Abla...," they told Karen. They then proceeded to throw all the temporary furniture into the car port while Karen to scrambled to get everything we owned out of the drawers. Clothes were flung, cats were flying, Turks were gobbling - it was chaos. But now our stuff is here....and Karen is pregnant. Yeah. We are very happy.

Names? How does Mehmet Dwyer sound? Sort of a tribute to our Turkish hosts? No, how about Dasher Dwyer since we like Christmas so much? That would be Dancer Dwyer if it is a female. Thanks to Ryan Smyth for the Dasher inspiration. But I think my neighbor here at Incirlik, Wes Williams, has come up with the ultimate male name - Darth Victorious Dwyer! OK, all kidding aside we are leaning towards Noah James for a boy and Katie for a female.

More news to come.

Our Property Has Arrived....NOT ! ! !

2007-11-10T02:59:00.000-08:00

So we received a call from TMO (Transportation Management Office) saying your stuff arrived in Adana and we will have it delivered to Incirlik on Monday the 12th. Well all right! We were truly excited. Especially since they are more than 30 days late from the 10 October promised delivery date. But then they called back an hour later, "The Turkish Air Force won't let any carriers on base on Monday or Tuesday. We will have to reschedule for Wednesday the 14th." OK, so we'll just deal with it. Then they called back an hour after that, "The Turkish carrier has no availability on the 14th so we have to cancel and reschedule for the 15th." So perhaps we'll get it then. Oh, they also want to verify that I own a motorcycle. I told them, "No, but if you deliver one I am going to keep it." So we should get our stuff on the 15th...or at least we should get someone's stuff.

Karen started a part time job at the base library and I will start teaching guitar at the end of November.

Hi to The Haley's

2007-10-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

Don't have a lot of time this week. Just wanted to say hi to Don & Donna, Matthew, and Caroline Haley. Don has been kind enough to print out some of these post and take them over to Papa Kuhns for us. Don, just wanted to let you know to look at the comments as well. looks like my mother is calling Jim to task on that last post.

Hopefully our stuff will be here by mid November we are now hearing.

Turkish, Armenian, and American Politics

2007-10-20T05:12:00.001-07:00

If you have watched any news recently I am sure you have seen what passes for media now days refer to "The Armenian Genocide" resolution. This is a resolution in Congress that would acknowledge the death of Armenians around and after WWI as an act of genocide. You may have even seen reference to Turkey limiting access to Incirlik Air Base or kicking the Americans out of Incirlik if America allows the resolution out of committee. So let me say here and now that I don't believe this will happen. Has anyone been paying attention to the Democratically controlled Congress at all? Nancy Pelosi hasn't gotten one piece of legislation through Congress. Not one! Who is everyone kidding? Not that it matters anyway. Democrats such as Dick Murtha and others have already withdrawn their support commenting that (paraphrase), "...no one really knew what this resolution was all about." Now, I could point out that it seems silly to think that some of us are paid $0 by the US government and could tell you more about the political and strategic history of this issue than Mr. Murtha, Pelosi or their supporters - yet they are paid over $100,000 a year to know such things and still don't understand the most basic concepts of the region...oh wait, I just did point that out. The issue is not if someone believes genocide happened or not. For me, the issue is Congress has things it should be doing other than spending time attempting to sabotage over 100 years of diplomatic efforts and cultural influence just to analyze one of hundreds (if not thousands) of events of history to decide if they were genocide or not. It doesn't matter. It's history. It has also really bothered me that both sides seem to now be talking about how the whole issue could harm the troops in Iraq. This is true, but it is short-sighted to not be aware of how it would effect the thousands of Americans at Incirlik, Izmihir, Ankara, and Istanbul. Military members could literally loose every possession they own if forced to leave without notice. But it's especially short-sighted to be unaware of how such an event would affect NATO, the EU, the IMF, or the future of secular governments in the Muslim world. Anyway, mark my word, Nancy Pelosi hasn't passed one of her agenda items and this won't pass either.

What else is new? I now have signed a contract to start a second job at Incirlik as a guitar instructor! My coworker and next-door neighbor Wes is the current guitar instructor. I should be replacing him as he gets ready to return to the states. I'm a little nervous but looking forward to getting paid to do something I truly love. I haven't been able to do that since I drove the Zamboni or when I worked in radio. It should only be two nights a week for 2-3 hours.

Karen and I have been hanging low in the last two weeks or so. We keep busy on base walking. But money is going to be a little tight as we await the 09 raise, and MSgt pay raise. Still no car or household goods yet. The car has actually arrived in port. I'm hoping household goods will arrive in late October or at least by mid-November.

Also, it appears as if some of this blog's fans (there are at least three besides my mother) have been complaining about my spelling! Remember, I only have one hour to get this in before they kick me off the computer. Once it's done - it's done and in the history books. So please forgive the spelling. Actually, today I did try to go back and correct a few that I missed.....just for my father-in-law, Jim Kuhns ! So hopefully my editor sitting there on West Avenue J-10 in Lancaster, California...will find it in his hart to furgiv my speelings.

A couple of photos I was able to pull out of our g-mail and place on the library computer. On the upper left is one of the Chuck Norris photos we had taken. We have one other that isn't quite so blurry. On the upper right is Karen and I at the Iftar dinner during Ramazon. Bottom left is the tea man at the Iftar dinner (27 Oct edit - OK evidently my page displays differently after I create it, so the order of the pics may be different than described but you can figure out who is who):

Mt. Nemrut, Chuck Norris, and Iftar

2007-09-30T02:23:00.001-07:00

So much continues to happen. It's difficult to capture it all when I only have one or two hours a weekend to access to a computer I can post on. We continue to struggle with having a limited amount of clothing and personal belongings but still seem to find ways to find cool things to do and places to go. Let's start with Chuck Norris.

Karen and I got to shake Chuck Norris' hand and have our picture taken with him. Chuck had been in Iraq visiting the troops and came through Incirlik on the way back to Germany. He was very nice. We were at work in the 39th Medical group and they said Chuck Norris will be coming into the lobby around lunch time. I called Karen and she came up with the camera. There were only about 100 of us in the lobby when he came in. Chuck said he had been wanting to go back to Iraq and thank the troops again but he wanted to do a less formal tour and be able to go into work areas and shake every one's hand. So he said (paraphrase), "...so I only have a limited amount of time but I wanted everyone to know I am grateful for your service, we are thinking of you back home, we pray for you - and I hope to be able to shake each of your hands and you can get a picture if you want to. " They tried to make sure the Americans got to Chuck before the local Turks but I had to laugh when I saw our Med Group shoeshine guy, Jaf, third in line to get his picture with Chuck Norris. Chuck did serve in the Air Force and spent time at March Air Force Base. There is a whole cult thing that has built up around "how bad" or "how tough" Chuck Norris is. For example, "In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone has ever gotten. " My favorite is, "Chuck Norris is so bad that at night the Boogie Man checks his closet for Chuck Norris." We did get one closeup shot of Chuck and somebody took a shot of Karen and I with some of my coworkers and Chuck. We hope to post if we ever get our computer and personal belongings.

As far as personal belongings we are now hearing that could be into November. We will be living out of our suitcases for three months!

Then came Mt Nemrut in the land referred to historically as Commagene; a spectacular must-do experience if you visit Turkey. We went on a Dulmus (small Turkish minibus) with a group of about ten and a tour guide. It was about a five hour drive east. Going east is interesting because a large part of south eastern Turkey is off limits to us due to instability with terrorism, Kurdish nationalists, and the PKK party. I noticed we seemed to be about 90 kilometers west of Diyarbikir, which is off limits. So it was cool to be going right up to that limit. What I like about Mt. Nemrut is that it corrects the idea people have that this continual east/west Asian/Europe conflict is a new idea. The statues at the top of Mt. Nemrut were built by King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene around 62 BC. I think part of what he saw himself as was someone who was able to bring together eastern and western ideas in peace. Ironically, Turkey still finds itself trying to fill the same role today. Here is the Wikipedia explanation: " Nemrut or Nemrud (Turkish: Nemrut Dağ or Nemrut Dağı, Kurdish: Çiyayê Nemrûd, Armenian: Նեմրութ Սար) is a 2,134 meters (7000 ft.) high mountain in eastern Turkey, 40km north of Kahta, near Adıyaman. At the top of Mt. Nemrut, King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene built his tomb-sanctuary along with huge statues (8-9 meters high) of himself, two lions and two eagles, and various Greek and Persian gods such as Hercules, Zeus-Oromasdes (associated with the Persian god Ahura Mazda), Tyche, and Apollo-Mithras in 62 BC. These statues were once seated, with names of each god inscribed on them. The heads of the statues are scattered throughout the site; the pattern of damage to the heads (notably to noses) suggests iconoclasm. There are stone slabs, with bas-relief figures on them, that are thought to have formed a large frieze. These stones display the ancestors of Antiochus, who were Macedonians and Persians both. This tomb contains stone carvings of gods, such as the head of an eagle. The same statues and ancestors found throughout the site can also be found on the tumulus at the site, which is 49 meters tall and 152 meters in diameter. The statues have the likeness of Greek facial features, in conjunction with Persian clothing and hairstyling. The western terrace contains a large slab with a lion, showing the arrangement of stars and the planets Jupiter, Mercury and Mars on July 7 62 BC, the possible time when construction began on this monument. The eastern portion is well preserved, being composed of several layers of rock, and there is evidence of a walled passageway linking the eastern and western terraces, from a path below at the foot of Mount Nemrut. Possible uses for this site might have included religious ceremonies, due to the astronomical and religious nature of the monument.
The arrangement of such statues is known by the term hierothesion. Similar arrangements have been found at Arsameia on Nymphaios at the hierothesion of the father of Antiochus, Mithridates I Callinicus. This tomb was excavated in 1881 by Karl Sester, an engineer from Germany. Subsequent excavations have failed to reveal the tomb of Antiochus. However, this is still believed to be the site of his burial. In 1987, Mt. Nemrut was made a World heritage site by UNESCO. Tourists typically visit Nemrut during June through August. The nearby town of Adıyaman is a popular place for car and bus trips to the site, and one can also travel by helicopter. The statues have not been restored to their original position, although this would not be difficult to do."

To give you an idea of how high up Mt. Nemrut is look at the highest point in this photo and that is where we went to. It is the peak that seems to come to a point:

I believe we stayed in Kahta were I took a couple of great photos of the local children playing underneath our window. We also saw a very old Roman bridge and several other sites of extreme interest. I just don't have time to go into all of them in detail. Mt Nemrut is 7,000 feet high. It can be a little scary going up some of the roads when they turn to gravel or dirt with no guard rail...but an unforgettable experience. It's hard to imagine people building these statues and a tumulus over 2,000 years ago at the top of this mountain:

The pictures are all borrowed off the internet as we still can't post ours.

We also found the nicer more progressive part of Adana when we went to the Iftar at Park Zirve. An Iftar is a large community dinner held during Ramazon at the end of the day's fast. Park Zirve, overlooks the lake at Adana and is truly one of the nicest restaurants I have been in. We ate outside and were entertained by Whirling Dervishes. I had hoped to put a nice pic of Park Zirve but I couldn't find one. Their web site is: http://www.parkzirve.com/ . And if you are wondering what a whirling dervish is here is a pic:

There is so much more to write, but I am out of time. Karen will probably be trying to return to work as cost are more than we thought they would be. I am playing in a fall softball league. And Karen is going to go back to Park Zirve this week for another Iftar with just the ladies.

Intersting Turkish Facts

2007-09-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true we now have a house. It also true that we may have to wait until the end of October before our household goods and car are here with us at Incirlik. So, we are comfortable - but we only have our suitcases, assorted dishes, and our papazon chair with us. Loaner furniture is provided but it is very small and cheap. Thus, the term "stick furniture." Karen and I barely fit on the same bed and the blankets we were given are only 5 feet long. We did manage to carpet the entire place for $300. I guess just a year ago the going price was $200. You can see how hard the US dollar is getting hit in Europe. Once we get our furniture things should really settle into a routine...and then we will have 19 months left before they pick it up again!

Computer access is still difficult to come by. It will probably be November before we can post any pictures. The only reason I have time to access the computer today is because they decided to shut the power off on base for 12 hours today. The Community Activity Center has a generator so here we are.

Ramadan, or Ramazon as the Turks pronounce it, started on Monday. I was awoken around 2am to the sound of drums being played through The Incirlik Village loudspeaker. The loudspeaker lives up to it's name. The drums are a reminder to everyone to get up and eat so they are prepared for the 12 hour fast. During fasting times the people have nothing to eat or drink - not even water. I have been reading a lot about Turkish history, the government, and modern Turkey. I read Ataturk: The biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey and The Turks Today, both by Andrew Mango. I also read a book about the last coup in 1980. Some interesting things about turkey you may not have known:
- The Turks are considered to have immigrated from somewhere in Mongolia
- Turkey is among several nations to have emerged from the former Ottoman Empire
- The Ottoman Empire included present day Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, etc
- Ataturk described Islam as a "superfluous strategic necessity"
- Ataturk admired western culture, especially German and French
- Ataturk mandated the wearing of European style hats in the 1920s/1930s
- Turkish government is mandated to be secular by design
- Turkey was able to remain neutral in WWII
- Turkey rescued many persecuted Jewish professionals from Germany
- The modern Turkish alphabet was created just 80 years ago and is ingeniously simple
- The Turkish military has overthrown the government 4 times since WWII
- The current Turkish President is a former Islamic scholar and not viewed well by Kemalists
- Kemalists are those that ascribe to Ataturk's original nationalist, statist, and secular goals
- Ataturk's born name is Mustafa Kemal
- A few weeks ago The Turkish High Command refused to salute the new Turkish President
- Turkey is the most strategically important piece of NATO; literally the "tip of the spear"
- Turkey is the bridge between Europe and Asia.
- Turkey has the second largest Armed Forces in NATO after the USA
- Turkey is the home of the fabulous Efes Beer product

And one local note: Incirlik is pronounced "injure-lick." The "c" in Turkish is pronounced with as a "j" like in the word "injure" or "gist." Apparently, Americans kept using the Turkish spelling which looks like " iNCiRLiK." So we started pronouncing the c as an "s" sound. Properly it is "injure-lick," which means a holder of figs or an area of figs.

We Have a House Now

2007-09-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday of this week we were told that our house was ready. If you would like to see where we live go to google.com and click on "maps." Drag the map over to Turkey and find Adana which is in southern, central, Turkey. It's almost on the coast about 90 miles from the Syrian border. Put your cursor on Adana and zoom in. A lot of people use the zoom bar on the left of the map. A shortcut is to just use the wheel on your mouse. Each time you role one click on the wheel, you are zooming in or out one level. Don't turn the wheel to fast though or you will confuse google map. When you get close enough so that you can see the streets of Adana, you will see "Incirlik" off to the east of Adana. On the upper right corner of the map click on "hybrid" so that you can see the sattellite and street view at the same time. We are in the housing area on the southern tip of the base. We live on the cul-de-sac just north of the huge grass circle. I can't see it right now as I type because this computer does not allow multiple frames.

Although we have the house we are still waiting for many things. When we moved in the toilet didn't work, the washer didn't work, we had no phone, and we had no electricity in one bedroom until today. We now have a toilet, washer, and electricty, but still no phone. We bought one phone but all the directions were in Turkish and the display was in Turkish. So we took that back but the only other phone they had plugs into American 110 electrical outlets and there are only Turkish 220 outlets in the room with the only phone jack. So currently there is no phone to purchase unless we want the Turkish one. Hopefully we will get a cell or landline (or as my father Jim Kuhn's calls it - "a walk around phone"). We have temporary loan furniture, aka "stick furniture", until our stuff arrives in October.

Karen is keeping busy reading, doing aerobics, coordinating the house repairs, and getting the house ready. We have been to the mosque in Adana and have some pictures. Tomorrow we might get to go back into Adana with one of my coworkers to see the mall and some of the nicer areas. Probably no pictures until November or December. Once we get the computer we have to buy a Turkish modem and then get DSL access.

Oh, a quick note about the Turkish hospitality. We seem to like The Moonlight Cafe best out of the few restaurants outside the gate - althought they are all very good. We forgot to bring cash last night. I went upstairs and asked one of the boys if it was cash only. He didn't speak English well, so he went to get who we think is the owner and he said it was cash only. I explained to him that we forgot to bring cash but we would be back over the weekend. He said, "No, no - please sit. You pay next time you come." This time we sat on the third level which is essentially the roof. We had fun watching the local cats move in on the chickens behind the The Moonlight. They would just to start to get close enough to worry when these water bottles would come flying out of The Moonlight and another building. The cats would take off running only to repeat everything again in 20 minutes.

We are headed to dinner, Baskin Robbins (no Golden spoon unfortunately), and to see the movie Evan Almighty right now. A nice 5 mile walk so we are staying in shape! See you soon.

Into Incirlik Village

2007-08-17T05:21:00.000-07:00

Karen and I ventured off base for the first time last weekend. We went to a very popular restaurant called The Moonlight Cafe in Incirlik Village, just outside the gate. The food was very good. We had chicken kabob, humus, bread, salad, and water melon for desert. We also had "The Special Tea" which is a must have if you eat there. Incirlik is rather small. Unfortunately, it will be a few months before we have our computer and can download our digital camera. But I did find this photo on the Internet to give you a feel of the flavor of The Village:

Credit to Fred Moore who has an excellent page on the net with detailed information about The Village at http://www.merhabaturkey.org/1MOOREFindex.html . I would disagree with Fred in just one area. You can most definitely get authentic Turkish food at The Moonlight Cafe. There were a few locals there when Karen and I ate there. Adana is a few miles further away with many more modern experiences we have yet to see.

Work is going well. I have not even gotten half way through inprocessing and they have me seeing patients already. My coworkers have had some very nice TDYs to Izmir, Ankara, Venice, and Istanbul. Maybe I will get one of those in the next two years.

Kori: if you read this - a coworker I have here is going to participate in a marathon in Istanbul. The cool thing about this one is it starts in Asia on one continent and goes across the bridge n Istanbul and ends in another continent - Europe. http://www.istanbulmarathon.org/

Karen and I wanted to let everyone know that we have very limited computer access. We are both on a computer today at the library. But that is a rare occurrence. Normally, we are only able to get on one of two computers at lodging and those have a 15 minute time limit. Most of that we use trying to pay bills back in the states. So if we aren't e-mailing you, it's simply because we can't access a computer.

Lancaster, San Diego, LA, Ramstein, Incirlik in 5 Days

2007-08-11T04:51:00.001-07:00

Marehaba. What a journey! The whole trip is one blur but we certainly experienced a lot on the way and have some great memories. It has been a challenging trip. Karen and I can now truly say, "If we could pull this trip off we can do anything." Just to recap a few of the roadblocks we have overcome along the way:

USAF Assignments Office: "You can not take your wife to Incirlik"
Edwards Passport Coordinator: "Your wife will not receive your passport on time."
Edwards AFB Vet: "Sorry we are rescheduling your appointment."
Edwards AFB Vet: "Sorry we forgot about your second appointment."
Point Loma Vet: "Sorry we canceled your appointment."
Vehicle Processing Center: "Your car has too much gas, you must go have your tank drained to 1/4 tank."
Vehicle Processing Center: "Your car is too dirty, you must go wash it."
United Airlines: "We have no ticket for you and no reservation - and who is Julie Dwyer?"
Air Mobility Command: "Your cat can't fly in that cage, he needs a bigger one and you have 3 hours to find one. He will have to fly in the cargo hold."
Air Mobility Command: "Why is your health certificate not in Italian?"

The positive thing for us is we beat back every one of these obstacles. We truly saw a system, the military PCS or "permanent change of station" suffering from some minor infrastructure collapse, especially in the area of military veterinary services - but we never accepted no for an answer and we won at every single step. Now Karen is here with me in Incirlik, Slinky is with me in Incirlik, and our car is on the way.

It was great to be able to see all our San Diego friends one last time prior to leaving. Brent & Jackie, Brent's brother - Mark, Matt and Enrica, and Karen and I all went to the Padres game on Friday. I think that was the 3rd. Kori and Ryan were also there but sat one section below us. It was sold out as Bonds had a chance at tying Aaron's record. Fantastic game as the Padres came back to tie late and win it with a home run in the 9th or 10th (can't remember). The next day we all met for our last supper at Buca De Bepo in Mira Mesa. Then Karen and I finished packing at Matt and Enrica's. It seemed like it took forever and I think I still had to leave about 30 pounds of stuff at their house as we ran out of room. We finally were on our way to The Radisson at LAX with Matt, Enrica, and Slinky around 6PM. The four of us had a fabulous Last Supper - yes another one, except this one was well into the $200 range...but well worth it. So we went to sleep fat and happy.

Now, I thought about whether I should include this next bit. And Matt, you are not around to ask permission, so I am going to put it in here and hope you don't mind because it was so damn funny. Besides, I will be picking on myself shortly. We shared a room with Matt and Enrica. About 2:30 AM Matt start flinging the covers around. At first I thought he was just hot and was trying to get comfortable. But he kept flipping them all around and was wrestling around - then I saw him reach for the light. The light came on and Matt had this crazed look in his eyes with a sheet draped over his head like an Arab and his fingers pointed in the shape of a gun, like a kid playing cowboys and Indians. He looked at Karen and I and said, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I dreamed were playing paintball."

But I topped Matt the next morning. We found ourselves running slightly behind going to LAX. Then we had a little difficulty finding the terminal and ended up one story above where we needed to be. If you know me, you know I like to be early and I was a little stressed that we might have to now turn around and back track to figure out how to get to the lower level where ticketing was. I could see the ticketing line and it was not short. Then I saw an escalator going down to where we needed to be. Now bear in mind that I had three 60 pound bags on one of those rental, metal baggage carts. It all happened so fast. This is the moment Enrica refers to as "when Patrick lost his mind." But my thinking at the time was that I would have just a narrow enough slant on the escalator that I could balance everything. That didn't happen. All three bags tumbled all the way down the escalator and landed at the bottom. About one second later, I realized when I got to the bottom I would have a 50 pound metal cart with no where to go and people coming behind me. So I lifted the metal cart and threw it over the baggage making a huge crash causing 30 Asians waiting at the bottom to all simultaneously turn their heads and stare for one second. It was like they looked, thought "crazy American", and all looked away again in unison. Luckily a United Airlines employee saw our plight and rushed us to the front of ticketing when she realized we were short on time. Then another roadblock -The United ticketing rep kept saying I had no ticket or reservation despite the fact that I had a ticket reservation and confirmation number in my hand and that I had confirmed at least three times in the past week including the day prior. The rep kept asking us "Who's Julie." She said we wouldn't get on the flight and the flight was sold out. Then she said she found our reservation but she claimed it was for a different day. Then she said she would switch our reservation to the flight we thought we were on. I know, she just said it was sold out right? Then she amazingly got us the exact same seats as were on the original reservation in my hand! Praise the lord! After that, the LA to Baltimore flight went well. The stewardesses never even knew a cat was on the flight. We spent the night in Baltimore and were able to eat at G & M where we had the best crab cake I ever had ( gandmcrabcakes.com ).

Air Mobility Command in Baltimore was an entirely different story. That wouldn't let Slinky fly in the Sherpa bag, said he didn't fit in the hard shell carrier, and made him fly in the cargo hold. He is still recovering from the stress but did well. At our layover in Germany, Karen's boss from Edwards, Tom Burkett met us there just to say hi for the brief half hour we were on the ground. Very nice of him.

So, we have now landed at Incirlik and are staying at temporary lodging with Slinky. We should get a house within three weeks. Right now we walk everywhere. About mile to work, to the dining hall, to The Turkish Inn. We received our temporary gate passes yesterday but haven't made it off base yet. We still need to apply for Karen's residency on Monday.

Updates may be infrequent until we get our computer in October. Thanks to all for e-mailing. Keep it up. We love messages.

The Dwyer's are In Turkey

2007-08-08T11:54:00.001-07:00

The Dwyer's are in Turkey. More details to come later when I have time to post the story of the flight. Right now Blogger is having a hard time accepting posts - we'll see if this gets through.

Bye Bye Socal

2007-07-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

This may be the last post for a while. The unaccompanied baggage movers come tomorrow and I will most likely ship the computer. This is a hard move. Less than two years in place and the move itself was completely unexpected. Lancaster is hardly our dream place to live but we are REALLY going to miss our house and back yard. And Slinky will miss it even more. This is what we are leaving behind in our back yard in this land where mosquitos can't grow:

We had a great time staying with Matt and Enrica Malone last weekend. Got to see Brent, Jackie, and Taylor. And also got to see Kori, Ryan, and Owen. We didn't get to Diego until late on Friday but everyone was able to gather and Ryan and Kori's on Saturday evening. Then Matt, Enrica, Karen, and I met the Smith family plus Kori's sister and mother Ryan in La Jolla Sunday afternoon before we drove back late Sunday night. Had a fabulous lunch and some adult beverages at The Tin Fish outside Petco Park on Sunday as well. Matt and Enrica also gave us the coolest good-bye gift. It had a photo album of all our time in San Diego from the beginning that included photos from everyone and one of Matt's custom CDs with San Diego 2001-2005 memories. We will see everyone one last time next week -l actually get to see a Padres game a week from tomorrow before we leave for Turkey. Maybe even see Bonds tie or break the record. Well I was going to post some pics but I realize they are all still loaded on the camera.

I probably won't post for a while but we can access our gmail and blog from any computer so as soon as we can access a computer in Turkey we will return. And remember, we WANT to hear from everyone via the blog and e-mail while we are over there. This will be our link to home, family, and friends. Take care and see you soon.

Passport Is In ! ! !

2007-07-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you "Holly" from Missouri Congressman Todd Akin's office on Manchester Road in Ballwin Two Senator's offices tried working the issue. Friendly at first but not very good with the follow-through. Holly got it done in two days. When Karen and I get time we are going to write a letter to Congressman Akin to let him know what a fantastic job Holly did.

There is so much more to tell but so little time now days. Today we obtained the passport, got an oil change, car wash, rotated the tires, and separated every single thing in the house and garage into either: going to storeage for 27 months, being shipped to Turkey, or garage sale.

Circle of Friends

2007-07-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

On a positive note: we get to see Brent & Jackie, Matt & Enrica, and Kori & Ryan in just a few days. Can't wait....

The US Passport and Background Check System

2007-07-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is the update on the passport status. Last week, both of my Missouri Senator's said they would work this issue and request the passport be expedited. However this week they are unable to give me any status on the matter other than to say an e-mail was sent or a call was made. So today I also contacted my Missouri Federal Congressman's office, Todd Akin. "Holly" at the St. Charles office was very attentive and said to send everything to her via e-mail and she would work the issue in the morning. I am hoping the fact that she is local in St. Charles will help. The office sounded less frantic. This passport issue should concern everyone. the slowest part of the passport process is getting the background check done. Now think about this next part and think about it real hard.....the government can't complete a background check within 10 weeks for a military family like Karen and I who are being forced to move overseas as nonvolunteers - yet the Amnesty Bill was supposed to supply a one-day background check for 13,000,000 additional illegal immigrants. Get it? They never had any intent of complying with the background checks - it wasn't even a possibility. But we are American originals and we will persevere.

USAF Master Sergeant Induction Ceremony

2007-07-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

My Air Force Master Sergeant Induction Ceremony was held on Friday at Club Muroc at Edwards Air Force Base. It was truly a first class event. The Med Group's own First Sergeant Compton put together the finest dinner/ceremony I have ever seen in my fifteen years. I think the group of Master Sergeant Selects I was a part of made it a nice event as well. It was the first time I had ever been a part of a small class that just gelled very quickly. We only had five days together but it just seemed like everyone was there to get it done and get it done right. So the class went smoothly and was relaxed and the dinner and induction ceremony was even better. Our guest speaker was Chief Master Sergeant Terry Reed, the Command Chief Master Sergeant for the Air Force Personnel Center. He truly hit a home run - one of the most inspirational speeches I have ever seen ANY Air Force member give from any rank, enlisted or officer. The class first met Chief Reed on Thursday morning when the Edwards Command Chief Master Sergeant brought Chief Reed out for a three mile formation run with my class. We ran a very tight, steady, formation run, complete with cadence and Jody calls . At the end, we moved off the trail and onto the track to walk a cool down lap in formation. Chief Reed moved out ahead of us and jogged backwards as he spoke to us, "This is what you do. You lead by example. You get out and do and and show others how its done..." It was really mesmerizing as he continued on in his laid back but captivating voice with the sun rising behind him and the Joshua tress in the distance. It seemed like a scene out of a movie. And the ceremony in the evening was just as inspiring. I must say I am glad Chief Lewis and Chief Soltis pushed us all into buying the mess dress. I was disgruntled at first because it was such a financial burden. But now I have it, I look good in it, and I look forward to using it again in Turkey.

Lot's of stuff still going on. Still trying to deal with the passport issue and saying goodbyes to many.

SNCOPE

2007-07-10T05:42:00.001-07:00

Senior Noncomissioned Officer Professional Enhancement. Started this one week class yesterday. They kept us busy from 0700-8PM. Have to leave for morning work out now. Passport problems continue. Details later.......

Passports, Medical Issues, and a Baby

2007-07-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Karen found out on Friday that passports are running way behind. This is very bad news. Karen applied for her no-fee passport on May 25th. That gave us ten weeks to the day of departing Landscatter. We were told that passports were taking a LONG time to get back to applicants but that all the stories we were hearing on the news were about vacation-bound travelers applying for fee passports. We were told it should take about eight weeks. Well on Friday we discovered the lady who processes the passports at Edwards Air Force Base just received back the passports for early April applicants. This affects and complicates so many other issues. Can we get reimbursed for Karen's ticket on the commercial flight from LAX to Baltimore if Karen's passport doesn't come in on time? What about the military flight from Baltimore to Incirlik? Where does Karen live if she can't fly with me?

The Air Force needs to improve it's explanation of the passport process. While it is true that we knew of our assignment to Turkey in mid-April, it's also true that I had to fight with the Air Force for around 45 days to get them to understand I could take Karen with me. We did not receive orders until around 25 May. You have to have orders to apply for the passport. So we applied at our earliest opportunity, which was delayed by about 45 days by the Air Force due to Edwards Outbound Assignments not understanding their own rules and AFIs. And we knew that passports took a long time but we really didn't know it could take months - and no one in the Air Force ever told us that. Luckily, my sister-in-law, Carol Czjakowski, works for a company that takes passport photos and told us, because no one in the Air Force did. Tomorrow we are going to ask Carol about rushed passports and see if it's possible to pay extra to get 'em quick but I think even those take longer than the time we have left. Karen is also going to check with the lady at Edward's that processes passports on Monday and then we just have to adjust to whatever situation presents itself. It's really discouraging when you consider all the difficulties we are encountering just to be able to continue to live together as a husband and wife while we serve our country, yet we have several thousand immigrants a day walk into the USA border every day without any papers whatsoever. But we will adjust and press on.

So on top of all that, my father-in-law, Jim Kuhns, has had some serious medical issues going on. Happily, after a successful out-patient procedure last Monday he appears to have a positive prognosis. follow-up up on Monday.

And some good news to report: Our good friends, Brent and Jackie Rangen, had their first baby. Welcome to Earth, Taylor Lynn Rangen. First Kori and Ryan and now Brent and Jackie. Congrats to everyone. I would post pics of both beautiful babies but that seems a little personal without the mom and dads knowing. So just take my word. Both babies are knockouts and both have wonderful parents and a great life in San Diego to look forward to. We will be seeing both babies soon when we go to San Diego to say our last goodbye for two years.

Preparing for Turkey

2007-06-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are now down to the wire. Only a short time left but we still have to deal with issues involving car storage, car shipment, auto insurance, driver's license, passports, airline tickets, cat transportation, vet issues, vacating and cleaning the house, temporary lodging before we leave Lancaster and when we arrive in Turkey, finding a cat sitter at Incirlik until housing is ready, possibly refinancing the car, getting new military uniforms, preparing for our three separate pick-ups of property, and getting a Turkish mail address - to name just a few things. We still have a few big social events coming up: (1) dinner with the Haley's, (2) Tom and Dave's July 4th party on the 30th, (3) my father-in-law's birthday on 1 July, and (4) getting to San Diego to see Kori & Ryan's baby and Brent & Jackie's baby. Jackie is probably in labor as I write this. But other than these social events, every minute of the day will be preparing for PCS (permanent change of station).

Also thought I would start a long term experiment. I added a page element on the right side towards the bottom called "People I Would Like to Find or Hear From." As I have mentioned before, one of the frustrating things I have found in moving so often is that I have really lost track of people I intended to keep in touch with my entire life - dating all the way back to childhood. And every time I move it seems like I gain a few more people I have lost touch with. In today's Internet age, there is really no reason to loose touch. So I am going to try to reconnect with people and maintain that contact. But I think it would be interesting to take it even a step further. Could I literally reconnect with "everyone" that has been a significant part of my life? I am going to find out. So I am starting with childhood. I am starting with the seven kids I used to play with the most between the ages of 4-10 when we lived at 1975 Keeven Lane in Florissant, Missouri. And I already have one reconnection! Actually the first one, Mike Morford, was kind of easy as we reconnected 2-3 years ago. This is a real case of "small world." Mike Morford, Todd Davis, and Scott Hudson not only played together but our lived in houses all adjacent to each other (a four corner type thing). Well, when I googled Mike Morford a couple years ago while working at The Naval Consolidated Brig at Miramar, I was living in Scripps Ranch in San Diego. We hadn't seen or heard from each other in like 30 years. Ironically, I discovered that Mike's first job out of college was working right in Scripps Ranch about a mile from where I was living. That's a small world. Mike is in northern Cali now but I was fortunate enough to be able to reach him before leaving for Turkey. Mike, I still hope to catch up with you sometime when we return stateside.

So, this blog is still brand new. but I enjoy it and i think it will continue to grow, If you know of any of the people I am searching for, let me know - or let them know. Once I reconnect with these old friendships I will add more names.

Shuttle Landing at Edwards

2007-06-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

Karen and I were able to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis land at Edwards Air Force Base yesterday. It was my third time seeing it land and Karen's first. I was glad Karen finally was able to see a landing - especially since we are leaving for Turkey soon. I think it was special to her since her father spent so many years building shuttles in Palmdale. For those in the Antelope Valley, it always seems funny to hear media say, "...the shuttle will leave Edwards to return home..." because for local residents the Antelope Valley is a shuttle's home.

I want to try to show some photos you normally don't see on the news. This landing was closed to the public, which gave us much more opportunity to get a good viewing spot. The best spot was over at the aeroclub - but Karen and I weren't in time to get there before they closed the road off. So we positioned ourselves on a high point overlooking main base. A lot of people always wonder how the shuttle seems to come from the north when it was obviously in orbit from the south. Below is a pic of the landing route onto the Edwards dry lake bed. Notice the shuttle actually loops around much as an approaching plane would. Karen and I were about a mile north-northwest of the runway on the dry lake bed:

Below, a worker test for some sort of interference that could disrupt communications:

Atlantis landing below. The best my camera can do from the distance we were at:

Atlantis down with parachute open:

Great pic from over by the aeroclub:

Everyone getting ready to head back to work or home:

This is the platform the shuttle will be loaded onto so it can be raised up on top of the 747 to fly it back east:

Blogger Video Upload

2007-06-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out the new Video Upload feature on Blogger. It seems pretty cool. You simply add it as a page feature and position it where you would like on your page. I have positioned mine down at the bottom for now and labeled it "Grow Your Musical Appreciation." If you click on one of the four video stills, the video will open up at the top of the page. I plan to rotate some of the music I like through this every now and then. The one feature that could be improved is it only does one search for all four videos. You can list multiple search criteria but it will still simply grab the first through fourth videos from that Google search. I would like to be able to post four different search criteria and have it pull four different videos based on individual search criteria - not one search based on multiple search criteria simultaneously - confusing?

I launched this with four different versions of Jimi Hendrix Hear My Train A Coming. Some great stuff here. The video of Jimi playing acoustic 12-string is a unique look into Jimi's acoustic abilities. The last video is nine minutes of Jimi performing and playing on The Dick Cavett show. This includes the part where Cavett brings up Jimi's Woodstock version of The Star Spangled banner as controversial. Jimi replies, "I thought it was beautiful."

23 June 07 edit update: I just realized that this feature seems to change every time it is viewed. It seems to do a video search every single time it is viewed. This means the videos can change without my knowledge. so, for example, even though I mentioned the Dick Cavett clip it may disappear if the number of hits it received drops below the four other videos based on my search guidelines. I wish Google would add a locking feature. That way you could let them search each time as they currently do or lock in the videos you desired.

Time Flies

2007-06-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

In the words of OMB: "Time flies when you're having fun."

In the words of Mick Jagger: "Don't let the world pass you by."

Time has been flying lately. It's been fun but Karen and I have to be careful not to blink - seems like everything is coming at us at a lightning pace right now. I could write all night but I am short on time. So here it is in bullet format:

in April we found out we have Air Force orders for Incirlik Air Base
it took 45 days for the Air force to completely understand I can take Karen with me
I was selected for promotion to Master Sergeant in the AF; line number 3973
as I prepared to outprocess Edwards AFB, I discovered I would need to attend a week-long PME class for Master Sergeant selects and fork out a few hundred bucks; unfortunately, money and time are scare resources right now
my parents visited us in Lancaster for Father's Day weekend; just left today
our great friends Ryan and Kori Smyth had their first baby today; Ryan wanted a unique name no one else would have but Kori said no to Santa Smith; welcome to Earth Owen Smith

My wife Karen and I with my mom and dad, Sherry and Jim Dwyer on Father's Day 2007:

Me, brother-in-law Randy Czajkowski, father-in-law Jim Kuhns, and my dad Jim Dwyer on Father's Day 2007:

Below, one of the first pics of Owen Smyth - kind of. At our 2007 Halloween party, Kori didn't know she was pregnant yet - but she actually was in this photo! Kori was a good sport tolerating all of us while she was not drinking. I don't know how she slept throught "2am Living Room Strobe Light Dancing" but she did. Below is my father-in-law as a one-eyed jack after he lost the vision in one eye - that's a dark sense of humor...at least in one eye. And notice that Kori and Ryan came to the party dressed as Patrick and Karen! Kori has Karen's hat on, fake boobs, and an apron that says "friends don't let friends drink white Zen." Ryan has a grey-haired wig, Air Force shirt, and Rolling Stones' pants on. Classic:

First Post

2007-06-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

First Post. So why am I blogging? Well, I've always considered myself a writer...a frustrated writer without time. And an amatuer historian. Hopefully, I will find this forces me to take the time to write and I will get some enjoyment out of it as well. Plus, as I prepare to move to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, I expect to have a few comments about the adventures Karen and I encounter without violating any DoD rules. This should be a great way to keep track with friends and family we will be missing. As I get ready for my 18th move in 22 years, I'm finding contact with friends and family gets harder every year. So, please, help me change that. Read, comment, e-mail, enjoy...stay in touch.