look below

hey all, i got the following post "a tired, new commander" from an email from neilson. he explained everything better than i could have so i just copied and pasted.

a new, tired, commander

hi to all,

It was a good day.  All went just fine.  I got up at around 0630, and
the 1st Sergeant, myself and the outgoing commander (pat blankenship)
all practiced the ceremony then ate breakfast.  Later we had the entire
company out there practicing for the ceremony.  Complete with Choir
practice (the "Army Song" - [you'll know it as the "cassions go rollin
along"]).  We had to cut one of the platoons out of practice early because
there was some "yard work" to do in our sector.  Nothing serious, just
the usual annoyance.  At mid morning, my new boss arrived on the FOB,
LTC Dunlop along with some of the staff.  The rest of the company
commanders in 3-8 showed up later - they had to wait on the "yard work" to
finish (ie conduct analysis and cleanup).  Then the Brigade commander,
COL Sutherland arrived via helicopter.  I invited my old Boss MAJ
Gauntlett to come, so he showed up with COL Sutherland.  COL Sutherland then
spoke to Pat and I in the conference room about any issues with the
change of command or the company.  At 1130, the company lined up and we had
the ceremony.  It's a quick ceremony, only about 15-20 minutes.  First
you salute and play the national anthem.  Then we march up.  The 1st
Sergeant passes the Guidon (company flag) to Pat (outgoing CDR) who
gives it to LTC Dunlop who passes to me, then i give it back to 1st
Sergeant, all in a circle.  Then the commanders march back and speak at the
podium.  Both LTC Dunlop and Pat gave good speeches.  As the new
commander, i speak last.  And by tradition, i'm not supposed to speak long
(what is there to say, i haven't started yet!).  I thanked COL Sutherland
and LTC Dunlop for the opportunity to serve, thanked the company.  Then
I say "this is Chaos 6 [my callsign] signing on"  I march up to the
company formation and take command.  Then we sing and thats about it.  We
were able to order some steak, burgers and hotdogs for lunch.  They
even made two cakes for me.  The indian workers who made them spelled my
name right, but missed spelled chaos (cahos!?).  I was able to sit down
and talk with MAJ Gauntlett for a while.  Then the Brigade commander
few out, Pat flew with him to his next assignment at FOB Warhorse (you
may remember that place).  Then everyone else left.  I spent the rest of
the day moving into my new room and getting my army/commander email
straight.  Its about 2141 now and i'm exhausted.  The good news is that
i've got regular internet actually in my room (finally!), so Heather,
we'll be able to IM much more often.

So, now i'm in command of "Chaos" Company, 3-8 Cavalry, 3rd Brigade,
1st Cavalry Division.

Is it any wonder that I command Chaos company considering how much
"Chaos" ment to us three boys as we grew up.  I new the moment that they
told me I was going to "Chaos" in 3-8 Cav that this was FINALLY the right
company (instead of C/6-9 CAV or C/1-12 CAV)

I command "115" soldiers and are directly responsible for over $75
million dollars of equipment including "14"  M1A2SEP Abrams tanks, "4"
Bradley Fighting vehicles (did you think there wouldn't be a Bradley in
Chaos company?), and "20" armored hummvees.  My area of operations
includes the city of "Ad Dujayl"  [add-do-jail], with a population of over
35,000 people. So i guess my area is like the size of lenoir county. All
the leaders of the city think i'm arabic because of my last name.  That
helps; my name is very easy for them to remember - its a common name
here.  Lets see, I also rate five 1st Lieutenants (a couple are west
pointers).  I'm also the commander of Forward Operating Base O'Ryan
(because i'm the commander of the largest US unit here).  There are a couple
of majors and one lieutenant colonel here, but they don't command anyone
(they do advisory work the the Iraqi Army) and are not in my "food
chain".  Anything related to the base, they pretty much follow what i say,
I'm the commander, despite the difference in rank.  In total there are
over 200 people on O'Ryan that I sort of look out for (which includes
my company).

Not much else to say about today.  I did get some video, but you can't
hear very well due to the generator running.  But we did get some great
pictures.  One of the guys in the company is an amateur photographer
with an awesome camera.  I will send the pics when I'm able.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

All my love

Neilson


Neilson W. Wahab
Captain, Armor
Commanding

first day of school

these are the official first day of school pictures of little missy. she was very proud to have her backpack and lunch. miss tracy and miss monica reported that she had a great day. she didn't cry and she played with friends. i did see a photo that miss tracy took of her and she looked to be having loads of fun.

grace reported that she played in the rice table, miss tracy read brown bear brown bear and they went all over the school looking for the brown bear animals! she also drew a picture of herself. at nap time she did sleep with her new friend carlton and their head were together-- apparently it was very cute.

i'm glad she had a good day. she is very excited to go back and that's even better!

more meet the teacher.

miss tracy grace's teacher and flat daddy with grace in her room.
grace and flat daddy working on her t-shirt project
grace still working on her projectmiss monica and grace

pics from meet the teache

gracie and daddy outside the school. see the playground in the background?

pics!

i ordered this outfit from http://www.etsy.com/ the crafter is actually a member of an online message board i frequent (dear hubby she's a pea).

anyway it came in the mail yesterday and i'm thinking that weather permitting this a first day of school outfit :)

OK OK

oh my has it been almost a month since updating? yikes! bad blogger!

yes after being prompted by several people i am updating you all on our crazy life right now.

we'll start with the petite one. little miss gracie is a trike riding expert now. and in accordance with texas state law she wears her helmet every time she rides. she can go pretty far too -- around our looonnggg block. she even navigates the driveways and curbs like a pro. right now she loves riding to the mailbox to pick up the mail in her basket. she also enjoys a ride to the playground around the corner. and yes the picture is sideways but i'm too lazy right now to fix it. :P

neilson is now with 3-8 cav and is very happy. i have had several looongg telephone calls with him and he is looking forward to taking his command at the end of this month. and we are down to 4 monthsish so that is great!

and i am enjoying my last week before school starts. i took the classes to be an FRG leader. the frg is the family readiness group. and grace and i also went to the hood howdy and learned all about ft. hood and the cool things to do.

we had jennifer come stay with us for a week and we had a blast. she and i decided that we need to make it an annual event. (hint hint)

karen and thomas are coming next week to visit. gracie loves having the company at her house and i am anxious to show off our new home.

and it looks like we will be headed north for labor day. :)

oh and neilson and i celebrated one year since he proposed this week (aug 10) and yes that means our first anniversary is coming up soon!

and that i all i know right now. i better get working on knowing more stuff!