Well,  over a year ago i was placed on a roster to go to Iraq.  I spent several months training up getting ready to go, then was pulled off the roster last minute.  having just completed Real Estate school I decided that since I was taken off of the roster I would hurry up and jump right in.  I deposited all the money that was needed, found a Broker, and off I went starting my Real Estate career.  To much surprise on my first day in the office on my own I received a phone call from the Army telling me I was re-called to go to Iraq.

This time they was calling me up for a new job so I spent a month or so in Arizona training up some more on the new job.  Next I was off to Fort Benning, GA to prepare for mobilization, followed by a week in Kuwait for follow on training, and then finally my destination, Baghdad, Iraq.  I arrived in Baghdad in the beginning of March.  The temperature was still moderately close to home.  We was getting rain about once a week, and nothing about it seemed like a combat zone. 

The accommodations were pretty nice.  We had a huge gym close by, good dining facilities, our offices were typical of what you would see in the states.  (Unfortunately I was stuck in an office this whole tour.  (My wife loved the fact that I was shoved on a desk this tour however it made for a REALLY long year.)  The living accommodations were nice too, we all lived in two man rooms.  Each room was part of a trailer that had three rooms total, lined up so that they looked like the picture below.

We spent about two months there before we were told to move to Basra, Iraq.  For those not familiar Basra is the third biggest city in Iraq and right on the gulf and Kuwait border.  The area was owned by the British military just prior to arrival.  It was obvious that the Brit's did not intend on staying there as long as the Americans.  Most of the bases that is ran by the U.S. has been build up very nice with a solid perimeter, guard towers, and established security on the camp.  Basra was no where near this stable.  We pretty much had to build this base as we established ourselves.

The accomadations were less than adequate.  We had a small gym on post that could hold about 30 people.  We had a small store on post however it was always out of stock, it was about the size of a typical gas station convienience store.  There was no places to eat except the dining facility which was limited at the start due to lack of supply runs, and lastly, we were all moved back into tents.  The beds we were given were also "coffins" as the brits liked to call it.  They took the bunks, and put barriers all around them to protect them from mortars and rockets while they slept.  To be honest I liked that better than the Army's answer to jump at the sound of an alarm and run outside to a bunker. 

We managed to keep a good routine for most of the year.  Up by 0630, in the office by 0700-0730.  Lunch (doubled with going to the gym) from 11 AM to 1 PM, and then finish the day in the office til 6 PM.  This was the schedule EVERY DAY for most of the year.  The only exception was the two weeks we were authorized in the states for leave.

Anyway the year was pretty much un-eventful.  We had occasional incoming mortars and rockets.  The guys going out on missions occasionally hit an IED, however most are un-successful, and most importantly we allcame back with all of our personnel and body parts. 

Around mid November we finally got the word on the date that we was to return.  December 8th was that lucky day for me.  I wasn't quite finished on that day but it was the first step.  I was able to get on that plane out of Iraq, and back into Kuwait.  I waited around a few days then was on another plane back to Atlanta GA.  Five days there and back home.  I was back in my living room as of last Friday and just as I promised everyone, I am home just in time for Christmas . . . (Barely). 

Now it is time for me to get my Real Estate shoes back on and finally get started (again) for my new career in Real Estate.  In case no one noticed as well I finally did what I had been debating all year and changed companies.  Nothing against my old brokerage, I will miss working with them, but I decided to move on.

This morning I had my interview with Keller Williams and was extatic and the information I received.  I of course am still waiting on my license to get hung on the wall but it was one major step towards the rest of my career.

Thank you all for your support throughout this tour.  I feel that from the support here on Active Rain I am ready to head into the world of Real Estate.  The information I received this year from all of you has helped prepare me more than you could ever imagine.  I will continue to keep in touch and look forward to raining with you all even more as I begin my career.

Thank you and god bless.

Remember those days when you used to work shift jobs.  Especially how nice it was when it came time for shift change and you see your replacement walk through the door.  You know its time to go so you get your things together, hit the time clock, and out you go.  Now imagine that you have been on shift for a year and you get to finally see your replacements.  Thats where im at now. 

It has been over 330 days since I was activated with the Army Reserves.  It started when I got a ten day notice to show up at Fort Huachuca, Arizona to learn a new job. Then sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for deployment training.  Then on to Iraq.  I spent a few months up in Baghdad, then quickly moved to Basra, Iraq.

I still can't mention dates but some time ago I finally got to see my replacement show up to start learning the job.  We first spend a period of time training up our replacements so they can see exactly where we are, followed by a couple days of packing, then on my way home.  I will say that I am in the middle of that time period somewhere, and it is very refreshing.  Sometime in the near future I will be on a plane on my way back home. 

I have shifted gears here and starting preparing heavily for my return.  I spent the past few weeks researching my SEO for my website and studying more on the home market.  I have been interviewing and researching a few brokers back home in case I decide to switch companies.  I have also planned a surprise weekend getaway for me and my wife once I return.  Hopefully after Christmas I will be ready to hit the Real Estate doors running. 

Anyway It looks like I have to go now, but I will continue on this later.

As always thanks to all who support us!

I just thought that I would take a moment to talk about some of the things that the news is not showing in Iraq.  I thought this would be a good topic as I know many people have this mis-conception that all we are doing is patrolling down the roads, shooting the bad guys and, get killed ourselves. 

We have two major operations right now, training the Iraqi goverment so that they can take over when we leave (Iraqi Army, Police, and the government itself).  Our other mission is to do what we can to help the local economy and populace so that they do not have to resort to other means to have an income for their family.

My first tour over here I was responsible for living with and training the Iraqi army.  I was involved in the training process from teaching them combat tactics, to advising the commander on how to handle different situations.  We helped with administrative issues, supply issues, how to support their army in all aspects.  Below is a few picutes from my last tour. 

--- Okay Iraqi internet, I cant get the pictures to load, Ill try to get them on a silent sunday.---

 Anyway I spent most of my time trying to train the Iraqi Army unit I was assigned to as well as "Advising" the Commander.  After a year of working with them we were finally able to let them go as they were well on their way to supporting themselves.  We were one of the first units to do this, four years ago, there are still units getting trained like this today.  However from what I hear most of the "advising" is done at much higher levels and the smaller units are working on their own.

This was/is very important because once we leave it is fully up to them.  I am glad that we started working on this such a long time ago to give them time to be able to work suffeciently without assistance from the US.  In fact much of the work that is done in country now is done by the Iraqi's.  If you keep good track of things over here you would have heard that back in June/July we pulled out of all the major cities.  We turned everything over to the local police and military units and they are handling the city limits.  That's not to say that they do not call us for help from time to time but for the most part they are taking care of themselves.

The other major operation that we are doing is Civil Affairs.  Again I am right in the middle of it as I belong to Civil Affairs myself.  Below is a quick summary of what Civil Affiars is from Wikipedia:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Civil Affairs units help military commanders by working with civil authorities and civilian populations in the commander's area of operations to lessen the impact of military operations on them during peace, contingency operations and declared war." With their expertise in civil matters, they are the principle unit in assisting a commander in the conduct of civil-military operations.

CA units act as a liaison between the civilian inhabitants of a warzone or disaster area and the military presence, both informing the local commander of the status of the civilian populace as well as effecting assistance to locals by either coordinating military operations with non-governmental organizations (NGOs)and IGO's or distributing directly aid and supplies.

Comprised primarily of civilian experts such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, police, firemen, bankers, computer programmers, farmers, and others, CA soldiers provide critical expertise to host-nation governments and are also able to assess need for critical infrastructure projects such as roads, clinics, schools, power plants, water treatment facilities, etc. Once a project has been decided on, a contract is put out at a civil-military operations center for local contractors to come and bid. CA teams will periodically check up on the status of the project to make sure the money is being well-spent.

CA provides the commander with cultural expertise, assesses the needs of the civilian populace, handles civilians on the battlefield, refugee operations, keeps the commander informed of protected targets such as schools, churches, hospitals, etc., and interfaces with local and international NGOs and private volunteer organizations, which provides the commander with a unique battlefield overlay of all civilian activity, ongoing infrastructure projects, and the presence and mission of NGOs in the area.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you check none of the other links on this page I ask that you at least read this one.  (CLICK HERE) This page is stories from Soldiers that serve in my home unit out of Knoxville Tennessee.  This is the stories from just one deployment from one unit.  We have around 30 units with multiple units deployed to Iraq and Afghanastan and Africa.  You could imagine how many stories Civil Affairs has to tell has a whole.

In the Grand Scheme of things this is one of the most important aspects of the war that is constantly overlooked.  I would like to write a follow up to this blog in the next few days that elaborates why I feel that our presense here is so important.  As for now, well its time for me to get back to work, so I will see you all later:)

Well . . .  in one month (ish) I should be back at home spending time with my wife and starting my Real Estate career.  I still cannot give exact dates for security reasons but the song "I'll be Home for Christmas" is a certainty.  I have already sent most of my un-needed items home and my bags are practically packed up and ready to go. 

Kinda wierd how a year ago this week I took and passed my Real Estate Exam.  I was originally supposed to report to my unit for deployment on the first of December last year so I was holding off on paying all the fee's to get my lisence.  However on the last day of November I was told that i was taken off of the roster for deployment.  I spent the first two weeks of December jumping through all the hoops and paying all the fee's to get my lisence.  I started work with my company shortly after Christmas and the first day I sat down at my desk in the office, I get a phone call from the Army telling me that I will be going after all. 

Before I was able to deploy I had to get trained up in another job.  I had the privelage of spending three weeks in sunny Sierra-Vista, Arizona for training.  Then the first week of Feburary I went to Fort Benning, Georgia to report for deployment.  By the end of the month I was already in Iraq working with my unit.

I spent the first few months working out of the nicest base up in Baghdad.  We had 24 hour gyms with brand new equipment.  A superb dining facility that is good enough to make a Soldier fat.  One of the biggest Post Exchanges (PX) in Iraq (sort of like Wal-Mart), which is nice to have when you are so far away from everything.  Lastly never one sound of explosions or mortar fire.

After my time there I moved down to Basra.  We moved onto a base that was just being established.  With several thousand Soldiers we only had a PX about the size of your typical gas station.  Needless to say it was always out of stock.  The gyms were run-down and most did not even have air conditioning (in 130 degree whether).  Our dining facility is nice but its the same food week after week and not nearly as nice as Baghdad.  Lastly is our reminder that we are in a combat zone by the sounds of explosions and rocket/mortar fire that greets us on about a weekly basis.

It has had some improvements since we moved here.  We did get a new gym and PX, a few venders moved on post (Green Beans Coffee - Pizza Hut - Burger King), however I have stayed clear of the fast food while here.  We finally got internet available to our Soldiers however it is a mojor rip off (See my post about this, it still gets me steamed up (CLICK HERE), yet I still pay for it).   However despite the improvements and everything else, it never really seemed to get better.

Geez, it almost feels like a life-time ago.  Its wierd how my last deployment seemed like it flew by.  Even while I was there it seemed to come and go so quickly.  My guess is the difference between going on missions, living in the field, and constantly working missions, versus, working an eight to five in an office.  This year seems to have taken longer than any other.  This place is just like the movie groundhog day, (early 90's, with Bill Murry).  Everyday wake up 0630, get ready, go to work, go to lunch, get off work, go to gym, eat dinner, go to sleep, all at the same time everyday.  If it wasnt for the X's on my calendar I would never even know that time was moving. (By the way, I put the X on the calendar at the same time everyday).

Oh well, its all behind me now.  Things are starting to change as we have to attend our mandatory classes, pack and ship items, create planning on how to hand off to the replacements, and other aspects that are added into our daily routines to get ready to go home. 

The wife is excited, she already has the timeline that she needs to take off of work, going to try and be there when I get off of the plane in Atlanta, GA.  She plans on staying with me in Fort Benning for the few days I will be stuck there, then back to the house we go.  Just in time to enjoy Christmas. 

Hopefully everything else will be ready to go to and I will have a few listings ready to pick up before the year closes.

As always I want to thank everyone for their support.

This is the 15th blog in my series "Iraq-The Story Unfolds".  Wow, I didn't realize I had posted so many.  For those that are not following you can go back through my blogs and see most of the different "untold" stories that I have for my deployment to Iraq.  This is a much different side that you won't see on TV.  Anyway this post is to talk about the weather again, seems to come up in alot of posts.

So I came back a little more than a month ago.  When I got here at the beginning of October the temperatures were still lingering around the 105-115 F range.  This was a little better from this summer when it ranged from 120-140 for the highs.  This was a bit of relief except the wind was coming in off of the gulf which meant the humidity was also much higher.  I will still say that I will take a dry 125-130 over a wet 110.  I would go and take a shower, get out, dry off, and instantly be soaked once again.  It was very un-pleasant.

So most of the month went by and it has dropped dramatically.  Our temperatures this month dropped down to highs in the 90's or below.  In fact our high Thursday is only supposed to be 79 degrees.  In one month we have had a drop of about 40 degrees.  It almost feels like back home.  And the wind has changed again from the gulf and is now blowing down from the north so the humidity is gone.  I actually think I will need to buy a blanket before I come home.

The other major change is that we finally see rain.  It has not been much usually a few sprinkles during the day and a small shower after mid-night.  It has been constant for the past week.  This is much relief after about four to five months without any percipitation.  Only one major problem with the rain.  What happens when you our water over a country full of dirt and sand.  Yep we now live in one major mud-puddle again.  Driving around can be a pain, and now we cannot keep the office clean, but I will take it as opposed to the heat.

Well this is all I really have for this post.  The focus now is on our re-deployment.  Our replacement unit should be on their way sometime in the near future and my days in this country are starting to get really low.  I can finally stop counting weeks and start counting days.  And yes Im still singing the song "I'll be home for Christmas".  That song has such a nice ring to it. 

Thank you all for following

Nicholas S. Bush

(Deployed) REALTOR®

Total Auction and Realty LLC

(O) 637-8777

(C) 243-4574 

www.homesaleseasttn.com

     First off for those of you who have been following my posts I want to apologize for such a long wait time from the last one.  Things have been very hectic in the past two months.  Anyway I had left the last post talking about my up-coming leave.  As you can guess from the title of this blog, it was not quite what I expected. 

     So the days from my last post until I left got really crazy.  I was placed in the administration office to help out the personnel section to cover down on other Soldiers that were on leave.  This is all and good except I was still required to work my other full time job as well.  This is why I say things got really hectic.  Most days started around 6:30 AM and lasted up into the late evening.  The only good that came of any of this was that it helped my days pass by just a bit quicker.  However with my eye on the clock it still seemed to be barely moving.  Finally after about three weeks of pure (well crap) my day to leave finally came.  I will walk you all through the experience.

     You would think that after six years of being in this country they would have the system to get Soldiers home down to an art.  Well it is far from that.  My unit was able to schedule my flight from my current location down to Kuwait.  This is where all the leave processing is done.  I arrived around 2PM and told to "transient housing" until 7:30PM.  Transient housing is a fancy name for a tent.  However in this case it is about 96 tents.  Each tent has the capacity of about 12 Soldiers, and everytime I have been through there they are darn near full.  These are reserved specifically for the Soldiers going to and from leave.  Your space consists of either a top or bottom bink, no more no less.  Ill let you do the math on how many are coming and going everyday.   

     So 7:30 rolls around and its roll call for those going on leave.  We show up and they told us, thanks for coming, come back tomorrow morning.  That was it, there was no information, nothing else but a time and place.  The next morning we show up, sit through a binch of mandatory classes on how to act around civilians, then its off to customs.  A very (and I mean VERY) thorough search through our bags and off we go to the flight line.  We sit there until about 10 PM waiting on our aircraft.

     One look at this aircraft and you can tell that it is defanalty contracted through the military system, (lowest bidder).  The airline is called "Omni-Air International,"  I have never heard of it.  In fact after seeing the inside and out of the plane, I believe it is only still in business from the military contract.   As all 360+ of us cram inside, we realize that this aircraft must have been built for the smaller framed Arabs.  Us overweight, larger framed, American's can barely fit side by side in here.  Add that up to the fact that my seats recliner was broken, headset didnt work, and the TV (8) rows in front of me looked like a 1980's 15" computer monitor that barely supported color.  Lastly, and what I blame the most for my failed vacation, was the fact that it did not even have ventilation.  Okay maybe a few vents were hidden up in the top ceiling above the rows, but nothing you could feel at the passenger level.  Keep in mind that most Soldiers at this point have been in the desert, at 120+ temperature, going on 24-48 hours without a shower or change of uniform.  You could practically see the bacteria flying around in the cabin.  My best definition of this place was a cess pool.

     So 18 hours in the air in these conditions, I never thought Atlanta airport looked so good.  It was a quick transition from Omni-Air to Delta and now on my way to Knoxville.  As I arrive in the terminal of Atlanta, I am quickly on the phone making sure my wife is at the other end.  A quick Im here and you would have thought someone was chasing me through the breezeway's.  I exit out the security gate and finally get to see my wife for the first time in eight months.  If anyone is interested my wife actually had a photographer there waiting on me.  He took some great pictures and put them to music and a slide show.  He did a really good job, all of my wife's friends really loved them.  You can check them out at my Facebook account.  I will admit that while I am over here, I do not have access to my FaceBook so my wife maintains it.  You will have to request to add me as a friend, make sure to put a commment that you are from Active Rain.  Search for Nicholas Bush and filter by school.  Look for Southwestern Pulaski County High School.  (For some reason Facebook does not want to aknowlege that I live in Knoxville Tennessee).  Anyway after the photographer got plenty of pictures, I threw my wife in the car.  Since I had been gone for eight months . . . . . well . . .I wont talk about the rest of that day.

     Day one:  The real fun begins.  I woke up this morning, less than 24 hours after arriving, not feeling so good.  My wife took my temperature and found it at 101.7.  Not wanting anything to ruin this two weeks of bliss I actually for once agreed to go straight to the family doctor.  There he ran a few tests, to include a flu swab, and everything came back negative.  However he thought it was still probably the flu and due to my quick response it hasnt had enough time to come positive yet.  He started me on Tami-flu, which was a good decision.  To be honest I was actually feeling alot better that afternoon and still managed to steal my wife away for dinner and a movie.  It was a fairly good day.

     Day Two:  This morning is when everything hit the fan.  I woke up feeling absolutly horrible and extremely weak.  I managed to drag myself to the couch and passed out shortly after.  I was woke up by my wife an hour or so later, I was sweating perfusely, and my temp came up to 105.7.  My wife (a nurse) said she was surprised that I did not start having febrile seizures.  The funny part to this is that I had been watching Smallville on TV the night before and when I woke I was having hallucinations.  I actually believed that I was Clark Kent, however thankfully I did not have enough energy to get up, or I may have tried to see if I could fly off the porch.  Anyway I was talking all kinds of non-sence.  My wife finally managed to get me off the couch and in the car and she took me to the ER that she works at.  Several hours there and a few bags of IV fluids I was feeling a little better but it would be a few days before I was able to recover.

     The next few days I was pretty much bed-ridden.  My temperature was staying between 101-104.  The worst part was that it was time for us to finally take that Hawaii vacation.  Unfortunatly I was un-able to fly, and we had to cancel.  Thankfully I had the fore-sight of getting vacation insurance and managed to only loose a few hundred, as opposed to a few thousand that I put down.  The Hawaii trip was a bust, but I was still able to salve part of my vacation.  

     After I got better, (on or around day eight), I was finally able to go visit some friends and family.  I managed to squeeze in a game of golf with my dad, and a day to "try" to teach my wife to play as well.  We took our anniversary a month early and went down to Sweetwater Tennessee to a place called The Lost Sea.  It was actually a nice little place to visit.  I wouldnt recommend travel to the area for the attraction, but if your in the area it would be worth spending half a day to visit.  You go down in a cave about two miles underground to a hidden underground lake.  The tour guide takes you out on a little boat in the dark over the water.  It was kinda romantic, (it would have been better without the other ten people that was with us). 

     Not much else happened on the trip until it was time to return to Iraq.  I flew back into Atlanta where the military screened everyone to make sure that no-one was going to take any sicknesses back to Iraq.  When I was screened (even to my surprise) my temp was back up to 99.6.  This normally would not have stopped them from sending me but when they found out that I had just been diagnosed with the Swine Flu they sent me to some little clinic in the airport.  The doctor there thought that I had developed some type of bacterial bronchitis and put me on a 48 hour hold.  Thankfully I only live about five hours from the Atlanta airport so I quickly had my wife packing her things and driving down.  I wasnt able to leave Atlanta, but that didnt mean it would stop her from coming down.  I was able to get an extra two days to spend with her.  I actually just found out that several of the wives and Soldiers in the unit are not just jealous but downright upset that I got an extra two days.  This message is for them only:  I would happily trade that extra 48 hours for the 7 days I spent staring at the ceiling, cross-eyed and dreuling.  While I did get two extra days I still came up about 5 short.) Sorry everyone else, I had to do that.

     I really dont want to get into the goodbyes as it was hard enough the first time around.  Actually the funny story is that on this one depolyment this was actually our Sixth time saying goodbye to one-another.  First I was told that i would be going to train in my new job at Fort Huachuca Arizona and would be going straight from there, then I was sent home after that training.  Second was when I left for Fort Bennign for the Mobilization Center.  Had some administrative issues there and was placed on a four day pass.  This lead to the third when my wife came down and stayed with me for those days.  Fourth was at the Atlanta airport when I was leaving the first time to come over.  We were told we had to wait from 8am to about 2AM on our flight and she had time to come down.  Fifth was on leave when I left for Atlanta as mentioned above.  Then Sixth when my flight took off after the 48 hour hold in Atlanta. 

    Now back to that great Airline "Omni-Air".  Our aircraft to get us back to Iraq was in as good of condition as the one that brought us over.  As we start down the runway seomthing happend and our aircraft lost all power.  We taxi'd back in and after some time they finally had us un-board.  My wife was still there so we managed to grab something to eat and steal about two more hours until they were able to get another Omni-Aircraft ready for flight.  This lead to our SEVENTH good-bye.  You would think that by now it would be easier but I think it got harder everytime.  Anyway on the second attempt the aircraft managed to get us back.

     Wait, thats not the end.  The process for leave still continues.  We finally reach Kuwait and now it is time to get back to our duty location.  THis is much harder than it seems.  There were some people there that waited one-two weeks for that flight back to their location.  Again this falls under my comment "You would think after six years of this they would have this down to an art."  It was far from that, in fact the process of tracking the Soldiers seemed to fall through somehow as names were "magically" dropped off the rosters, and Soldiers were overlooked.  In one case they even FORGOT to tell the group that a flight for a certain location was leaving and let it fly back almost empty. I will not bash on the military anymore but I will leave it with one last well-known to military.  The system was as screwed up as a football bat. 

    Anyway my 15 days back home managed to streatch out to 31 days away from my duty location.  Im back, now and just counting down the days until I get to go home.  Yes I do have a date now however due to "operational security" I cannot disclose that date.  However I will continue to sing the song "I'll be home for Christmas". 

Thank you all for putting up with such a long post.  I guess I should not wait so long between them the next time.

NICHOLAS S. BUSH

REALTOR®

TOTAL AUCTION AND REALTY LLC

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE

OFFICE:  865-637-8777

CELL:  865243-4574

EMAIL:  NBushRealtor@gmail.com

WEBSITE:  www.HomeSalesEastTN.com

This is to follow on with my last blog about my tour here in Iraq.  I hve decided what to do for my period of leave.  If you have not been following and don't know about the military leave program, basically if you are deploying here for over 270 days you get a 15 day leave to go home and spend time with the family.  I originally stated that my wife was really wanting to go to the beach and I was wanting to do nothing more than relax at the house.  Understaning that there will probably be multiple people wanting to come visit, and wanting me to visit them, me and my wife decided that a get-a-way vacation would probably be best.  (To my family that reads this, dont worry I'm still going to come visit). 

I have made reservations to go to Hawaii.  Thats right, what we originally planned to be just a simple trip to the beach to get away turned into a major trip to Kauai, Hawaii.  I booked through expedia and for the exchange of price we ended up stuck on 18 hours of transit to get there, for about $400 less dollars.  Im not really happy abou tthis as I will be spending about 20 hours in transit from Iraq to the States, the several days later another 18 hours to get to Hawaii and then the return trips to get back, but it will be worth it.  I reserved a decent hotel "Sheraton Kauai Resort" for 5 nights, and also a rental car to get around.  I really look forward to this. 

My only problem now is trying to figure out what we will be doing once we get there.  If there is anyone out there that is familiar with Kauai and has any recommendations let me know.  I already plan on a few things, snorkeling, swimming, checking out some lagoon that is close by, but havent really had alot of time to research the area for other fun or romantic activities.  Especially since this will be for our one year anniversary. 

This trip will eat up about one week of my time still leaving plenty of time for my family, friends, and finally a little rest. 

As always thanks to those that are supporting us over here, and I'll see you all in the next blog.

Nicholas S. Bush

Realtor®, Total Auction and Realty LLC

www.HomeSalesEastTN.com

IJANGO Representative

http://nbush.ijango.com

Which number do you like better; 39 or 130?  Well I am definatley looking forward to 39 which is how long until I get to go on leave.  I get a full 15 days to spend at home, plus whatever time it takes for travel.  Looking at about 20 days total.  However I would definatly say that 130 would be  my magic number and that is the "Estimated" amount of days I have until I get to go home.  Sorry I cannot say, and sadly I dont really even know when that magic day is.  However, we have been told that unless some significant event occurrs we should be home for Christmas. 

So . . . 15 days til I get to go home.  Time starts the midnight following our aircraft touching U.S. soil and ends the midnight prior to my return flight.  I can only hope that I land at 1:00 AM and fly out at 11:00 Pm giving me just short of 17 days home.  I have mixed feelings about how I want to spend time when I get home.  After pulling 7 months here of 6-7 days a week and 12-14 hour days I really just want to go home, relax, keep visitors and travelling to a minimum.  Another part of me wants to have some extravagant vacation.  I was originally planning on taking my wife to her dream vacation in Gulf Shores Alabama.  Im not quite sure why its her dream vacation,  you would think it would be more like a tropical beach on a remote island in the Carrabean but thats what she wants.  Anyway I was looking at vacation packages and ideas for the trip but with my leave time being variable, I did not want to make any reservations and risk loosing them and the down payment because my flight was delayed in Iraq. 

My main concern with leave is all the people that want you to come visit.  When I came home for leave on my last tour I had all kinds of friends and family calling and emailing asking em to come visit them, some several states away.  They all wanted to see me but it was expected of me to go around to all these different places just to visit them leaving me no time to relax.  Needless to say there were some angry people when I refused to travel.  But we can do all that once I am back home for good.  My plans right now consist of coming home and relaxing for a few days.  I do want to travel back to my hometown to see my family.  I plan to take one maybe two days for that.  I am also talking with my dad and brother-in-law about trying to join the Masons. (I figure with all the other changes for the good in my life, (becoming a Realtor, getting married, getting ready to start a family)this may be one of the best.))  I also think I will take my wife to the beach, she is really looking forward to that    Then back to relaxing before returning to this place for two-three more months. 

So another 130 or so days until I get to come home.  That is the true number I cam counting down towards.  Home by Christmas, and hopefully never gone again.  I have decided that it is time to get out of the Army.  I plan to put full emphisis on my Real Estate career and do not want the distraction of going to weekend duty, or leaving for several weeks at a time to get in the way of my potential as a Realtor.  I still have until August 2011 until my contract is up but they should not be able to deploy me again beofre my contract ends.  I have had second thoughts about getting out but my wife is so excited that I made the decision to end my career that even the mention of staying in those last eight years seems to break her heart.  Of course in her defense.  The Army did take me away from her a mere three months after our marriage.  This deployment is hard enough on her and I can't imagine doing this once we have a family. 

So here I am, the end of July, just counting down the days.  Actually its almost the end of the work day so I will go ahead and change it to 38 and 129(ish).  It sounds a little better anyway.

Nicholas S. Bush

Realtor® 

Total Auction and Realty

IJango Representative

www.homesaleseastTN.com

www.nbush.IJango.biz

NBushRealtor@gmail.com

     My last post I had mentioned that we had finally past our half way mark.  With that it seems like the time has suddenly started to fly by.  I beieve that I had told you all that my biggest thing to look forward to was my Sundays, the one day that I get most of the day off.  Well they seem to be coming and going faster than ever now.  I believe this is because of two things, we have passed the half way mark so we are starting to talk about our re-deployment and everything that goes with it, the paperwork, supply issues, timeline.  The other thing that I contribute it too is our unit finally flowing without problems.  Its sad to say that it took almost six months to get here, but we are finally in our groove.  I guess it is not too bad considering that the last time we had almost smoothed everything out we had to up and move from Baghdad to Basra.  Also the division that we were working with left and a new one moved in, and with that came a different set of rules, a different way of organizing things, and in all actuality a new style of living.  Now that we are settled in again, and we have fixed all the internet connectivity problems, electrical problems, our offices are fully functional again.  There is hardly anything un-expected popping up anymore and with all this means that we now come in do our job and leave with much less stress then before.  Now it seems as though nothing ever changes.

    Here's the one problem with nothing ever changing.  All the days seem the same.  Every day (except Sunday) I get up around 0630 usually fight to sleep as long as possible, get ready and in the office by 0700.  I have a daily routine that I work through, it varies very little from day to day, fill out the same paperwork, send in the same reports, create the same slide show presentations for the commander.  Hardly any variation in the day.  I usually either go to lunch around 12:00 and come back at 1:30 then leave at 4:30 and go to the gym. Or I go to the gym at 10:45 followed immediatly by lunch and back in the office by 1:30 and finish the day at 5:00.  Dinner around 7:30 and in bed by 1030-1100.  Sundays I sleep until about 0930, church at 1000, lunch at 1:00, staff meeting at 6:00 dinner at 7:30, and sleep by 1030.  It very rarily changes.  There is no exceptions, no variations, not even for the 4th of July. 

    How Ironic, I missed the 4th of July.  Apparently they did have something lined up here on post.  There was a country music concert put on by Artie Dean Harris and a talent show was scheduled as his opening act.  I guess several of the larger units were able to attend.  Especially the soldiers whose jobs are much harder than mine, going out, patrolling everyday, doing typical Army stuff.  They were able to take a break and go have fun.  As for me (and almost everyone in my office) it was just another day.  Get out of the Office around 5:00 do laundry, get dinner, clean personal area, and go to bed.  Just as every day before and after.  All days come and go without a change, except another "X" on the calender and one less number on the countodwn to returning home.

   Also for all that are interested I have finally got internet connection in my room; however the payments and collections suck.  I cannot believe that the Army is allowing some Iraqi company to come in and rape us on these prices.  The only connection that we have available to us that will allow us to access personal email, myspace, twitter, facebook is this civilian company and the packages are as follows:

$40/mo for 64 DL and 32 UL

$70/mo for 128 DL and 64 UL

$160/mo for 256 DL and 128 UL

$330/mo for 512 DL and 256 UL

     I will never again complain about my internet prices back home.  Anyway I signed up for the $70 plan so that I can get on all those sites, finally be able to see AR the right way as all pics are removed from it on my office internet, and get to upload pictures to put on the internet.  This means that hopefully next Sunday or Wednesday I am going to try to do a wordless post with a bunch of pics of the area here.  (But dont hold me to that, I will have to see if the internet will in fact allow me.

To all reading, again, thanks for your support

SGT Nicholas S. Bush

Realtor®, Total Auction and Realty

www.HomeSalesEastTN.com

Well, we have finally reached the half way point.  My unit was mobilized at the end of December, got to Iraq in the beginning of Feburary and we are now half way done!  I guess looking back the time is kinda flying by.  While each day seems to take forever I believe the past six months has flown by.  I think it has helped that most of us find something in the near future to look forward to. 

   For most it is that beloved Sunday that we get most of the day off.  Alot of units do not get that luxury but we managed to get "Mountain Time", named after the 10th MTN Division that started the Sunday break.  It is the one day a week we are allowed to sleep in, take most of the day for ourself, we only have to report at 6:00PM to ensure that we did not miss anything important.  Every week it seems the same, everyday feels like it is no closer to the next Sunday, however once Sunday hits it seems like it was yesterday when we had the last one.  Funny how that works.

   For me I think it is the care packages and online orders.  To be honest I don't really need the care packages.  Every once in a while there is something I am really looking forward to, like the one coming from my wife right now which has a digital photo frame so that I can put 500 pictures of her and us on my desk.  I also have an order from a store coming with some games on it to help pass what little bit of down time I get.  On average it takes about 10-14 days to get a package, and I try to space them all out so that I am always waiting on one.  This is my near future goal that helps me pass a week or two at a time. 

   Right now its in the countdown stage.  First I am counting down to leave.  I scheduled my leave for late September.  I wanted to take leave at the last possible moment during the deployment.  I did this because the last time I was over here I remember that I was fine until I took leave.  Then once I got to visit home for a few weeks when I came back I was not worth anything.  All I could think about was getting back home.  I wanted to put this off until last moment so that I would reduce my "worthless" time.  I scheduled this at the last moment so that when I come back from leave I only have two things to worry about; packing up, and training my replacement. 

   And of couse I am counting down to time for "re-deployment" (thats when we come back home).  I have total about eleven weeks until I get to come home on leave.  I have about 20 weeks until my replacements come.  I have about 23 weeks until I leave Iraq.  And i have about 25 weeks until I am back home at what we all like to call Fort Livingroom.

   Thank you all for listening; oh and if you have not checked it out yet I am still excited about my new website.  Let me know what you think.  www.HomeSalesEastTN.com

Thanks again,

Nicholas S. Bush

Total Auction and Realty

www.HomeSalesEastTN.com