Blogs by a Deployed REALTOR

My Year in Iraq is Over, Now back to Real Estate

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:40:10 -0800

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. Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Iraq, The Story Unfolds; "Time for Shift Change"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:24:53 -0800

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!Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

The Stories the News Won't Tell from Iraq.

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:11 -0800

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:) Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Iraq, The Story Unfolds; " One Month to GO!"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:43:13 -0800

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.Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Iraq - The Story Unfolds; "The Weather Finally Changes"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:23:09 -0800

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.comNicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Iraq, The Story Unfolds -- "Vacation from Iraq, Swine Flu Came to Visit"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:05:38 -0700

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 Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Iraq, The Story Unfolds -- 15 Days of Rest

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:34:21 -0700

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 Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, The Story Unfolds" -- Counting Down the Days

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:43:18 -0700

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 Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Iraq -- The Story Unfolds; "Wait . . I missed the 4th of July"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:47:43 -0700

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 Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, the Story Unfolds" -- My Deployment is Half Over!

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:35:58 -0700

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 Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, YAAAY Its Raining"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:09:00 -0700

Well today was the first in about two months. It finally started raining. It is almost a foreign feeling. We have been seeing clouds gather and the wind pick up for the past week or so with no results. This is great as the temperature today has dropped from about 120-125 degrees down to about 105-110. The light cloud cover outside also makes a huge difference. There are three main problems with this. One, there is so much dust and sand just floating in the air here that when it rains, everything gets nasty. By the time that it hits the ground it is already practically mud so everthing that you have out in the weather is absolutely nasty. This means cleanup once the rain starts. Two, this country is nothing but dirt, sand, and dust. This means that the whole country will pretty much turn into a large mud puddle. Once again the bad side is that there will be alot of cleaning over the next few days. And lastly, while today is nice and cool all the rain will make tomorrow EXTREMELY HUMID. So in the end, having just one day of rain I still have not decided if it is worth it or not, but since I dont get to make the decision I guess I will just enjoy it today while I can. Have a good day:) NickNicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"For the Dog Lover -- We Saved Abbie"

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:20:25 -0700

Well for all those that have been following my stories on Abbie we actually managed to save her. For those that don't know, I am a new RE Agent that was deployed to Iraq as soon as I got my lecense. I had been asked by multiple members of my AR family to post my experiences on here, you can view my previous blogs to see what has happened so far. For the dog lovers is my recent story on a "force protection" dog that we received from the British army. She is about 9 month old now and we have been desperatly trying to find a way to get her to the states. However after about a month and a half we started getting resistance from my chain of command and was recently told to "get rid of her". You ca read the rest of these stories in my other posts. Well for the rest of you that have been tracking the story I have some really good news and some bad news. The really good news is that we found a way to save her. Things were coming down to the wire and it was looking like we was going to have to put her down. In the last post I explained why this was the probable option. Anyway was it got close to time we all pulled our heads together asn was able to find her a good home. We found a small unit of Navy Seebee's who had their own camp within this camp. Their camp is fully inclosed with a single gate that is guarded 24-7. They actually knew of Abbie becuase it is the same camp that the Brit's had her on before they left. The SeeBee's were extatic to get to have her on the camp. The big bonus is that she is able to run freely on the small camp and will not be caged up 24-7. Plus I believe the people there will take better care of her than what she received here. The bad news is that she still will not be coming home with me (or any of us). We are hoping that the SeeBee's will contine the work that we have started on getting her back to the states and to a good home. Good Luck Abbie NickNicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, The Story Unfolds" -- Bad News for the Dog Lovers

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:18:06 -0700

Well for those of you that have been following my posts I have some bad news. It does not look like I will be able to bring Abbie home. We have had problems getting other soldiers to step up to helping out with her. Alot of the soldiers here feel that she is an un-necessary responsibliity. Most of them have been pointing the finger saying that (I) being the one that is going to take her home, should have 100% of the responsibilty of taking care of her. I understand what they are saying, if I was not taking her home I would not have as big of (however I still would have some) interest in taking care of her. However many of the other soldiers refuse to do as much as get her cold water during the day if I am not present. I have expressed concern about her health being stuck in a cage all day in the blistering heat. I have asked that we find a way to at least build a pin for her to run in. Find better shade for her. And mostly I have asked for help that while I am gone or on a mission, or pulling additional duty somewhere, or sleeping in after working an all-nighter, that someone help with taking care of her. Sadly there has not been enough help. If any of the soldiers from my unit see this I just want to say: Thank you to SGT Pollock, SGT Agee, SSG Singhurst, SPC Richard, SPC Pancoast, MAJ Warren, LTC Roche, and anyone else that I forgot to mention for the help that you have been able to give. However after a talk with our Battalion Command Sergeant Major I was told that we will have to get rid of her this week. This is due to the un-healthy lifestyle that she is being forced to live in, and the qualty of care that she is receiving. We are not sure exactly what will happen to her. I suppose this week we will try to get one of the local nationals to get off off post and try to find her a home with the locals. However from my experience the Iraqi's absolutely hate dogs. If we try to put her out somewhere she will jsut keep returning. She is a very intelligent dog and she knows where the food is. Sadly the probable answer to what will happen is that she will be put down like many of the local dogs becuase of the outstanding number of strays that we have and the rapid spread of rabies in the stray K9's. It is already policy here in Iraq that stray dogs on post will be put down. It is also policy that units may not keep dogs as pets. We were able to cleverly title her as a force protection dog within the unit and with our Battallion commanders signature however she would not be that lucky in any other unit here on post. Im sorry Abbie, I wish there was more that I can do however I am not in the position to make or really even influence these decisions. I hope sopmething works out between now and then but I will miss you. To everyone out there sorry for the gloom post but this is a personal blog and I promised to keep everyone in the loop. I will see you all in the next one. Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, the Story Unfolds" -- Entertainment in Iraq

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:02:08 -0700

So what do we do for fun here in Iraq. First I will say that there are two groups of people here in Iraq, with a few in the gray area between. There are those that are working the office setting like myself and those that are constantly on missions. My last tour over here was with the second group where now I am with the first. Those that are on missions. Most days consist of five to seven hours of sleep. You wake up, shower and shave, and get ready for the day. The only way you are going to get breakfast is if you plan to sacrafice that last our of sleep to get it. You go to your motor pool or similiar setting and prepare for that days mission. Once you get weapons cleaned, vehicles checked, and mission essential supplies such as water it is time to line up and get ready for the movement. After talking with many of the soldiers here at my camp, they state that the average mission will take about 12-15 hours. Once back in, it is just enough time to grab chow, re-stock, and maybe take an hour or two in your room to watch a movie on your laptop before going to sleep. Those that want to talk to their families or catch up on the internet will go to bed late that night. Then the next day, rinse and repeat. For the lucky ones they will set aside one day a week to do basic mainenance on their vehicles and weapons and take the rest of that day off. Again - thats if you are lucky. For the other group, the office worker, it can vary. Most end up working 10-16 hours everyday with limited time off. However most office workers are able to check their email, e-pay their bills on-line or blog (on active rain) while in the office. Some of us get lucky to go to the gym daily, with great luck your boss will allow time during lunch to go so that you still get your evening to yourself. Even better than that was what our division has allowed, it is called mountain time. Every Sunday we get the day off, we have to check in at 6:00 PM to make sure that there is no pressing issues, then continue with the day off. As far as entertainment on post. If you are able to get the time most camps have some sort of gym set up. Even though we are on a small base we have two small gyms and they are building a large one. Other than that we dont really have much here. The larger camps however have movie theaters, computer lounges, phone centers, swimming pools, and large chapels. The largest of the camps will even have ampitheaters, where occasionally major performers in all genres will come and perform. My last tour I had a chance to see Toby Kieth live. The majority of us though, we find solitude getting a chance to surf the web, or watch movies on our laptops or small TV's. You will find a few that have had game systems shipped over here such as my best friend that is here with me, yesterday he got his X-Box and Rock Band care package shipped from his wife. Right now him and a few others are in his room beating the drums and playing guitar to some of Rock and Rolls greatest hits. Others get T.V's and DVD players such as the guys in the tent next to mine and I can hear the surround sound from the movies as I am lying in bed. As for myself, I prefer to either sit in my bed and watch the hundreds of burnt copies of movies from my external hard drive. Play the occasional game on my PC such as Age of Empires or NFL2009. Or sit in the office and try to figure out what my next blog on AR will be about. Thats all for today, by the way be watching for my post about a soldier in trouble. I need some military support for a friend of mine, who's mother is getting foreclosed on. He is very young and just joined the army. I really dont want to see him go back to the states without a home. I will post more on his situation once I get all the details from him. As always thats for the support that you all give, have a good night. NickNicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq - The Story Unfolds" -- Beat the Heat

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:04:10 -0700

Well here is a blog by popular demand. This one should be short and sweet. I have had several people ask me about the heat in Iraq, the first thing I want to say is that it is ******* HOT!!!! Here's the sad part, its only June 4th. When I got here in March it was around 85 during the day time and down in the 40's and 50's at night. Now as we get closer and closer to the peak months it is already darn near un-bearable. Last week we had a high of 122. I hear that the peak temperature for where I am at will get to be between 135 and 140. Its kinda funny, the other day I had called my wife in Tennessee and she slipped with a little comment "Man its hot here today". So of course I pop right back asking just how hot it was and she states "85". Man I wish the temperature would get that low at night. I was lucky during my last deployment, I was initially in Mosul. The northern most major city in Iraq. I think during the summer it got up to about 110, and during the winter it had actually snowed. In fact the Iraqi's that I was training up there were all originally from Baghdad and when it snowed, they had went crazy. Many of them had never seen snow in their whole life. Talk about an experience. It was nice land, rolling hills, lots of vegitation. Now this time, hot - hot - and more hot. Nothing but baren flat land. Now as far as beating the heat, its simple . . .dont go in it. Well obviously that one is hard to do but talk about learning how to drink lots of water. I go through approx 100-130 oz of water on slow days. On days I have to spend time outside I probably drink 150-200. Not to mention that we have to alternate this with gaterade to ensure proper electrolyte balances. Spend any time with the army and you will learn that the army has one cure all answer for any problems. Drink water. you have a headache - drink water . . .you foot hurts - drink water . .ect ect ect. I think what they are actually preparing you for your whole career is for when you will end up in the desert. So that anytime you have a problem you always remember - DRINK WATER. Oh and to answer a few questions I have seen, yes we have A/C in the tents and in the offices. It is not great as you could imagine how hard it would be to combat this level of heat but it works.Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, The Story Unfolds" -- How we Live

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:26:29 -0700

Today I am going to talk about the living and working conditions for my unit here in Iraq. Before I start this blog I first need to say not to assume that this is the way that everyone lives or works, every unit is different . . and I mean that literally, every unit lives differently, has different "anemities", different schedules, different jobs, so this is just for one simple unit in Iraq. The Camps, or FOB's -- We started our tour working in a huge building in Camp Victory . .one of the biggest, nicest bases in Iraq. Many would say it is a resort compared to the others. In fact I know several units that send people to Victory for rewards, for a few days off. Camp Victory is attached to Camp Liberty, Stryker, and BIAP (Baghdad International Airport). The three are connected so you do not "leave the wire" to travel to the next. Many people have normal vehicles to travel in, mostly you see Ford Explorers and Chevy Trailblazers. There are several swimming pools, several movie theaters, several dining facilities (so far the best dining facilities in Iraq (my opinion)), several small "PX's" (post exchanges), similar to a convenience store, and one very large PX, similar to a super wal-mart. They also have several huge gym's, and other various places for morale. Later we moved and are now at a different much smaller FOB. This one is about 2 miles wide by 1 mile long (est.). We only have 2 dining facilities, much smaller less selection. We have 1 PX located in the back of a tractor trailer and 1 that is about the size of a small gas station. The selection of stuff is very limited and usually out of stock due to the massive amount of troops vs. the very small shipments that they receive. As of right now most of the stuff that i need to buy I just order on line or have my wife send me. We have no chapels here on camp yet, one is coming soon, right now we use the dining facilities between meals. We also have 2 very small gyms, one with and one without AC, (which is one amenity that you cannot live without over here). That about covers it for the bases. The work areas (unit specific) -- Some would say that I got lucky this tour (in fact almost everyone but me) says I got lucky, im in an office. Here's what I can say about the work area's. We started in a really nive big headquarters building. We had office space simular to what you would see in a movie . .cubicle after cubicle. Not really much to say about it. Not as clean as you may picture as sand storms and dust collect so quickly that it is almost impossible to keep everything clean. This includes computers, they need to be dis-assembled about every two months to ensure the vents are not clogged. other than that it is the typical office with cubicles. When we moved it started the same way, we were in a large building full of cubicles again. Since then as our unit was deemed not important enough (I suppose), we moved into what we call "our little trailer park". We found some make shift trailers, and luckily we have a Carpenter on staff. We found little pieces of scrap wood all over the camp and have used it to re-make our floors, desks, shelves, anything else that is needed. Talk about finding a way to make anything work. It actually looks pretty nice. Kinda funny since it is the same wood, the wood matches the flooring (with the exception of my trailer, we found real flooring for it). Here is a pic of me in the office. The living areas -- This was the most drastic change for us. We started living in "CHU's". Central Housing Units. They are nice . . . two person rooms with just enough room for two single beds, two wall lockers, and a shelf with a tv on it. I'd say about half the size of your typical hotel room (well a hotel room on my budget). However when we moved half us got to move into CHU's here, the other half (myself included) live in tents. Tents . . . in the middle of the desert . . . well it could be worse. The tents were originally from the British and had what was called "coffins" for your bed. They were small bunkers in the floor with concrete blocks surrounding it . .I guess it was safe but not very comfortable. Anyway there are about eight people per tent so its not real bad but no privacy anymore . . .not like I expected any when I joined the military anyway. But it is livable. Still cant wait to get back to real houses and real stores and most importantly . . .my family. Hopefully this gives a bit of insight to the living conditions . . .any questions feel free to ask. I tell you what I can. Anyway, thats all I have for today . . see you in the next one.Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, the Story Unfolds" -- For the Dog Lovers

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:40:31 -0700

Well, after I wrote that post last night I thought of another good one . . to be honest I am surprised I did not think of it earlier. It is about my new friend, Abbie. Abbie is a eight-nine month old part lab, part . . .something dog that we are trying to rescue. First off I need to say that we are not allowed to have pets here, or mascots as the army calls them, so for purposes of saving her life I will be referring to her as our "force protection dog". Anyway here is her story. The base that we are at right now used to be ran by the British army. Well if you are watching on the news you probably know by now that the British are pulling out of Iraq. The British came to us about a month ago and asked us if we wanted a puppy. They stated that they found her when she was a newborn pup, "she was just a little fur ball when they found her". They have raised her, fed her, kinda trained her since then. However now with them going home, and the British having such strict regulations on foreign animals they asked if we could take her. If we could not take her she would probably be killed, as the stray dog population in Iraq is out of control and causes lots of problems. Well, luckily we are a Civil Affairs unit. We have on staff a Lieutenant Colonel that is a Veterinarian. She is the one that is heading up the project to save the dog. Now as I mentioned before we are not allowed to have pets or mascots. So the first thing that we did was get her officially assigned the title, "Force Protection K9." Next she had to find a place for her to go home to . . .I volunteered. I have been looking for a good dog for home anyway, plus I am on the rescue squad back home and would love to have a dog that I can train in search and rescue. There are also several others that have volunteered in-case something falls through and I cannot take her. There are a few more steps that has to be taken, she has to get all of her shots, and she needs to be spaded. The last and the biggest step is physically getting her to the states. We found an organization called "Baghdad pups". You can check them out on the web at www.baghdadpups.com. It is a great organization that is being used for cases just like this. If you are a dog lover I suggest you check it out as it is a very moving website. The hardest part is getting her excepted for the program but i dont think that we will have a problem. Anyway I have been doing my best to take care of Abbie while here, this is a warzone and I do still have a job to do, but I do what I can, along with several other soldiers in the unit. When she was with the Brits she ran free, never put on a leash or caged up so her life has changed a bit now. We have to restrict alot to keep her out of trouble. Right now she has to stay in a cage pretty much 24/7. I take her out several times a day, give her lots of water, feed her, and try to entertain her some. But it is very restricted with our schedules. Below is a picture of me and her. I will let you all know what turns out, at the moment I am still unsure of the outcome. Well, thats all that I have for today . . .I'll see you in the next post. Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, the Story Unfolds" - I Made it to Iraq

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:01:50 -0700

Okay so this part of the story will probably be more boring than the rest. Last time I left of with me in Kuwait. As I stated before I stayed there for approx. two weeks. Things did not run as smooth for me as most becuase my unit was already in Iraq. I was running about two weeks behind them since I had to go get that specialized training in Fort Huachuca. Since I was running behind that meant that I did not have guarenteed transportation, lodging, and other amenities that whole units get when coming through. Basically when you have a unit of several dozen to several hundred coming through everyone is tracking it closely, aircrafts are scheduled to transport, camps set aside enough lodging. When you come through by yourself, you basically hitch-hike for transportation, and try to squeeze into some transiet loding tents if there is room. Anyway, I did make it through Kuwait, I finally got an aircraft from Kuwait into Baghdad, where my unit was waiting for me. I had been waiting to actually get started so long that despite my being up all night trying to catch flights, when I finally landed I just found a place to drop off my bags and went straight to the office to begin work. Now this is why I said this blog would be the most boring . . . my last deployment was full of excitement, lived outside the wire with 150 Iraqi soldiers and ZERO Americans. I went on patrols almost everyday. I conducted multiple cordon searches and snatch and grab missions with the Iraqis. I had a nice assortment of missions and very climatic moments. This tour . . .well lets just say that I am stuck behind a desk. My family loves the fact that now at 3 months here I still have not left the wire. I probably will not ever go outside the wire, and it drives me crazy. I have spent 10 years in the army as a scout riding in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, now Im in an office, riding in a rolling chair. Yeah, I have a fancy title, "Electronic Warfare Officer," but I am going crazy. Anyway from where I left off: I landed in Baghdad, found my office, and well . . .i dont have anything really interesting to tell other than that. I have moved since then to another base, and it is equally as boring here. The only part of my job that is interesting is getting to see all the intelligence reports on whats going on outside the wire. Getting to see what technology that the enemy is using against us. Getting to see what kind of technology that we are using against them. But obviously the most interesting part of my job . . .I cannot post here . .or anywhwere else for that matter. I will continue to blog about events that happen, events in my life, or anything else that you all may find interesting. At this time I am now at a loss for words . .Maybe I will tell you all about the part of my life working on the ambulance . . .(Now that was more dangerous than this deployment). Or maybe about my last tour as there is alot I can talk about there. But for now . . .I think this is it. Just simple little SGT Bush, in Iraq, behind the very desk that I am typing from right now. This blog will be continued . . .after some brainstorming on what you all might want to hear. For now . . good night Nick BushNicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, The Story Unfolds" - Jumping Ahead

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:24:50 -0700

Well, I know that I am up to the point where I actually got into Iraq but I'm going to jump ahead a bit. I want to talk about some events that happened the other day. Now I am limited on what I can say due to ";OPSEC"; (Operational Security), which does not allow to talk about events, casualties, or anything else that if the enemy was to read it they would gain intelligence on how effective their or our tactics are so this will be a bit chopped up. So the other night, I was pulling guard on the front gate of my compound when for the first time I hear an audible alarm. . .";(Siren Wales), INCOMING, INDIRECT FIRE . . . .INCOMING, INDIRECT FIRE . . . SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY";. This is the first time since I arrived in theater this time that I have heard the alarm. All I can say on this is that due to our advanced technology when someone fires rockets or mortars into the compound we get about a five second warning. So this is the first time the alarm has sounded in a long time here, me and two other soldiers stand there looking at each other thinking, really, incoming, that never happens here . . .BOOOM! Okay so its for real, the first one hits something (again I'm limited on what I can say). Then again the alarm sounds, it gets half way done and resets and starts the alarm again (it started twice therefore two more are in the air). . . .yep time to find shelter as we make a dead sprint for the bunker. At first it was a calm walk but when the first of the two hit closer than the last you would have thought we were in a marathon. Don't worry we made it to the bunker, actually to be honest we never saw an impact from the mortars . . so from the area I was at they were not close. I can neither acknowledge or deny that any hit the camp as that is an opsec violation. But they were close enough to get my attention. Now this is not my first rodeo, I remember the first time that I was in Iraq, this was a daily occurrence. I was here for the first general elections in Iraq. There was alot of rebellion from the terrorists at that point and indirect fire was a VERY common attack. The last time I was here it would have taken a whole lot more than this to get me startled. I guess if you dont experience it for a while then you get sensitized to it again. Or maybe it was the reaction of everyone else around me that had me slightly panicked. Im not sure why but it had my blood pressure up a bit that's for sure. The one thing that I wanted to mention about this was the reaction of everyone during the calm moments after the attack. See, after an attack like that we dont just come out of the bunker, we have to stay in the cover until it is deemed safe to come out. This usually takes a few minutes (I wont say how long), but it gives youtime to think. I never noticed this the first time, again most of us were very de-sensitized to the situation and it was an everyday thing. However as I mentioned this time I am sensative to it again. Also the soldiers that was with me in the bunker, the other two, had never been in combat before, this was their first time, and they had never experienced this. You really get to see where peoples priorities are during a time like this. All of us did exactly as we were trained as the indirect fire came in, we established the situation, knew the drill and went straigt to the bunker, assumed a low profile to the ground, and waited for further. Once the fire stopped and we was in the wait period, I hear soldier number one start praying. It was very low under his breath, eyes tighly closed, sweat coming off his forehead, legs trembling beneath him. It is easy to understand this becuase in a fire fight you see the enemy, you react, he reacts the more trained soldier wins (usually). In indirect fire, you dont see the enemy, you just see the impacts and hear the explosions, you cant stop it, there is nothing you can do but pray its not coming to your spot. Soldier number two, I he starts babbling nervously, talking about anything and everything, just wanting to get his mind off of it. I am trying to ease his mind by listening and replying as necessary but I have other things on my mind. First is me hoping that I am going to make it home to my new wife, and thinking in my head that I cannot tell her about this becuase she will freak out and spend too much time worrying. (I hope she never finds this blog, at least while I am still here.) I am also worrying about the soldiers in my unit, "did the explosions happen in their area, Im not sure, it could have been more to the east of them . . . I hope." I am also trying to figure out our next step . . .after this we need to check the gate, I need to get back to the radio and let command know that we are o.k. here, I need to get to the command point for accountability. Just a flood of thoughts, not sure how to control them . . oh and soldier number two, I am more of a Vols fan sorry, I am from Knoxville. Still trying to ease his mind. Anyway, like I said before I jumped ahead a bit, this was the first experience of this kind since I got here this time. I thought i would share it as it is fresh on my mind. My next post I will go back to when I arrived in Iraq. That is unless we have more drama here worth mentioning before the next post. To all, thanks for you support, Ill see you in the next post. Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

"Iraq, The Story Unfolds" -- Deployment Starts

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:55:17 -0700

So the deployment starts, first I am asked by my unit to go to a course at Fort Huachuca Arizona to become an Electronic Wafare Officer. Cant say too much about this as it is a classifed job. The simple answer is that I spent a few weeks in sunny Sierra Vista, Arizona learning how to protect our convoys and troops from IED's. You know, those bad things you hear about on TV that blows up and has killed most of our troops in Iraq. For me it was a very interesting course, I actually enjoyed it. Anyway few weeks went by, I finished the class, and got to return home for a few days before it was time to leave. This was the hardest part prior to leaving as me and my wife knew this was the last few days for almost a year we would get to see each other. It made it especially hard that we had only been married for 4 months. We spent as much time together as we could and then off to Fort Benning to prep for Iraq. I showed up to benning on Feb 7th. I had gotten lucky as the rest of my unit was forced to endure six weeks of training where they were on lockdown, long hours, middle of no-where and basically no amenities. All this time I was in Arizona and now Fort Benning. We did have long hours, however once we were done we were allowed to do pretty much what we wanted. Most just hung out, watched tv or hung in their room. However I had managed to get my wife to come down and stay in a hotel off post and was able to keep seeing her for the majority of the week. The last time that I got to see my wife this year was the day after Valentines day. Feb 15th. Later that week I flew onto Kuwait. I ended up in Kuwait for a few weeks also. Mandatory training, supply issued items, and other medial things holding me back. It wasnt too bad, most of my day was spent adjusting to the time and climate. The PX (similiar to a Wal-mart) was huge, we had a great gym, and small movie theater. I got to call my wife about everyday at the AT&T calling centers. Just a few weeks there and time to move to Iraq. **Well not a very interesting blog for the day but you get an idea on what it takes to get to Iraq. This tour for me was not to bad . . if you ever get a chance ask a guard or reservist what it is normally like. It is horrible, 6-8 weeks, lock-down, poor food, very long hours. In most cases they will tell you that "PRE-Mobilization is worse than the tour all together." Thats all I have time for today, tomorrow I will talk about the initial impression of Iraq on this tour. -NickNicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

New Agent in Iraq, as the story unfolds.

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:18:59 -0700

Well, I posted a quick blog this morning as my first blog on AR, telling about my story as a brand new agent, first day on the job, and getting called back to active duty that very day. I have had several people comment that they would like to see a routine blog about what it is like over here so here I am, ready to talk about the experience. First I will tell a little about myself. I originally enlisted in 1999 as a Cavalry Scout into the Army Reserves. I have spent most of my career as a Cavalry Scout instructor at Fort Knox, Ky. I served one tour in 04-05 as a foreign army advisor to the Iraqi Army. I lived, ate, slept, and worked day in and day out with the Iraqi's hardly ever even seeing other Americans. Despite the conditions I really enjoyed the mission, and grew to respect my Iraqi counterparts. Since then I came back and switched to Civil Affairs in hopes of getting to work with the Iraqi's again. On the civilian side (again I am a reservist) I began working as an EMT-Baisc at several ambulance services and I graduated paramedic school. Now anyone who is familiar with EMS knows that the pay and the hours suck!!! My wife (at the time my fiance') was sick of never seeing me so I decieded to move to big Knoxville, TN. Once here I started working as a counselor at the Tennessee School for the Deaf until I could find something that I enjoy. Finally I stumbelled upon Real Estate. Several people told me that I would be really good at this line of work becuase I have good work ethics and love working with people. And lastly as I mentioned in the other blog, I spent 5 months taking the classes and precepting at my job when I was finally released to become a fully licensed Realtor®. As my luck usually works, my very first day, at the end of what had promised to be a very good day, the Army called telling me that I was being activated to Iraq, and to report in less than two weeks. So much for my great start. So here starts the blog . . .I will continue tomorrow.Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com

Getting Started

Nicholas Bush (Keller Williams Realty) — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:47:22 -0700

Well, I am finally able to get started on my career as a Realtor (R), and guess what happens . . .On my first day with a stack of leads on my desk, the army calls telling me I have been called back to active duty. Two weeks later Im sitting in Fort Huachuca, AZ learning new skills for a new job that I will be performing over seas. Just my luck, after 5 months of taking classes, studying my butt off, and being precepted at my new job, and on the first day Im working here we go. So now here I am four months later, sitting in Iraq, watching the economy start to pick up, and hearing about how good my associatiates at my work are doing. Wishing I was back home, with my new wife of six months, and wishing I could be out building my Real Estate career. On the bright side, I am able to study other agents over the web, see what tactics they are using to bring in clients, and which websites seem to draw the most business. I have recently signed up with Point2Agent to build my website, seems easy enough. And now Im working on building my active rain account. I hear this place can do wonders for my career so here I am giving it a shot. So . . .if anyone out there has any good advice for a new agent that has no history or name in the city that they will be working feel free to contact me. I will take anything I can at this point. Hopefully when I get back home I will be able to hit the ground running and be ready to take on the challenges of being a new Realtor (R). Thanks for listening, Nicholas Bush, Realtor (R) Total Auction and Realty LLC.Nicholas S. Bush REALTOR® Keller Williams Realty Knoxville, TN 865-441-6216 Nicholas@ListingKnoxville.com www.ListingKnoxville.com