Looking Back At Landstuhl; Birth, Death, & Freedom

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.

The Return From Germany

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

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

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

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

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

Trier in the Rain

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

Our Turkish Bassinet

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.