What's all this Horse Poup?

Hello all,
Let me first explain the title - those who know me know that I'm deployed to a foriegn land with an Air National Guard unit bearing the acronym RED HORSE. Since this blog is to chronicle my thoughts regarding this tour, I figure Horse Poup... all the poup on my travels, might be a catchy title.
"But p-o-u-p?" you ask, incredulously.
Why yes. I've always wondered why a word that rhymes with soup isn't spelled like it, haven't you? And, as you may have guessed, Horse Poop was already taken. But really though, haven't you ever wondered about poup and soup? I move that we change that immediately. Perhaps if this thing becomes what it probably won't, the spelling change will follow of its own accord. Hey, it could happen.
In any event, my plan for this blog is to let my family know I'm still alive through regular postings as well as answer some of the common questions I spend my evenings answering in various levels of appropriate language based on the questioner. So fire away with those if you have them, bearing in mind of course that operational security prevents me from disclosing many military secrets that I'm not privy to anyway. Actually, at this point, I don't even know if you can post comments or questions to this thing yet cuz I'm pretty new at it, but if you can't, I'll try to fix that before my next entry.
Moving on...
According to our public affairs briefings, I'm allowed to tell you that I'm a heavy equipment mechanic/body and welding technician/maintenance controller; however, none of that matters because it's not what I'm doing here. I'm actually doing some Army job for which I've received a good three days of on-the-job training from a guy who just wanted to get out of here. (Hey Carl! I don't blame ya) It's office work and it's killing me. I actually quit a cushy government job to get out of an office and now I'm stuck in one in a God-forsaken hell hole thousands of miles from a family on whom I could vent my frustrations by beating my kids, yelling at my wife and kicking my dog. (they know I'm joking and that I'm just happy to be helping out the team)
So here I am, a member of our volunteer service, doing a job I didn't volunteer to do for a branch of the service I purposely didn't join. In fact, I purposely chose a branch that doesn't even have an infantry! That wasn't an accident. But the Horse answers the call.
So what is the Horse? RED HORSE stands for Rapid Engineer Deployed Heavy Operations Repair Squadron. There, that clears it up, eh? Actually, slaves to acronyms occasionally add an extra "Engineers!" to the end of that, but I've never felt the need to. According to the widely disseminated text available on the web and elsewhere, RED HORSE was established during the Vietnam era to bridge the gap between Air Force base civil engineers and the Army Corps of Engineers. The former maintains established air bases and the latter builds gigantic things. Our primary purpose (as widely and publicly disseminated) is to build or repair air bases. In the course of that, we do everything from site prep and development to finish carpentry and landscaping, including excavation, plumbing, electrical, water and waste treatment, you name it. We're supposed to be able to do it under "austere" conditions as a self contained unit, with our own finance, personnel, info mgmnt, etc., but lately our trips to this part of the world are as part of a much bigger ensemble of fellow military folk. If any of you are familiar with the Navy's Sea Bees, or the Army's Combat Engineers, then you're familiar with the kinds of things we do, minus the whole underwater welding stuff and the combat stuff, if we can avoid it.
As I mentioned, I'm just one of the mechanics who tries to keep our equipment running so the real stars of the show can build cool stuff for the people of this wonderful country to enjoy after we're gone. Or, I should say, I'm supposed to be one of the mechanics, but I'm not allowed out of the office. I work for an iron-fisted Master Sergeant who strictly enforces office policy and never lets me see the light of day. She keeps a blog of her own as a matter of fact (and she usually does it during work hours!... kidding, of course) that you should check out at www.pepperguy.com/laurie. In all honesty, she makes it fun to come to work and reminds me that I am, in fact, a volunteer here. She boosts my ego by pretending that I'm competent and that she actually needs my help. I know she'd kick me out in a heartbeat if she could find someone willing to put up with her crap! Wow, I never realized how much she and my wife have in common - they both put up with me, they both control most of my life, and both got tricked into being stuck with me. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm not extremely grateful for them! I am.
In fact, on that note I will wrap up this first installment by expressing how grateful I am to be surrounded by extremely cool people. One thing the National Guard seems to have over active duty folk is continuity. Many of the people I came over here with have been in the unit since I joined almost 18 years ago. We went to college at the same time, bought our first houses, had kids, and travelled the world together... one weekend per month and 15 days in the summer. Only recently have we also had these extended vacations together. While there is always a period of clashing when we first take on the initial chaos of another deployment, we eventually settle in and take care of each other. I can't speak for other units, but ours really is one big (occasionally dysfunctional) family. Were it not for the people around me and my family and friends back home, I don't think I'd be up to this current challenge. As I type this, a new member of the family is making an appearance... one that Laurie didn't welcome this morning. A cute little mouse that Laurie rudely shook out of her flak vest this morning has ventured across the office floor in search of crumbs.
It's past my bedtime. Perhaps in my next post I'll begin telling about the characters whose presence has convinced me to remain in the Guard this long and whose friendship and support have made it worthwhile... or at least tolerable.
Type at ya later,
Luth