i've always loved motorcycles. convertibles or jeeps were the next best things. but i've also been known to be doing 80 down the interstate and stick my head out the window while driving if i was in a sedan. i've always hated being enclosed in a normal car. when i was wanting a road bike dad and me got into a huge argument. so i got a jeep as a compromise.

i'm not quite sure why, but for some reason i got made the operations NCO for our company and our detachment in iraq. i also did alot of the planning and training for the detachment. when we first got into iraq, four of us took off on this whirl-wind tour of iraq. we had to go to all these remote sites around the northern half of the country to inventory the equipment that we'd be taking over from the people we were replacing. we set out in trucks and the rest of the guys flew out later. the very first night after we got there when we first left the wire we got shot at. because we racked so many miles up so fast and had the experience we were the ones that turned around and trained the rest of the guys in the det. i used to obsess before a mission. i'd be lucky to get 2 or three hours of sleep because i was just constantly trying to play possible scenarios out in my head and how we'd respond. i'd try to remember all the planning that we'd forgotten so i could do whatever needed to be done in the morning. whenever something bad happened to convoys i'd look over the reports, talk to as many people in similar positions as me, just trying to sponge up all different sorts of tactics and procedures. i'd take all of this stuff and train out guys. we were constantly refining our operating procedures, up til the last minute before we left the country. i think some of my guys hated me, they didn't understand my paranoia.

i spent a year trying to come up with every possible way to destroy a humvee or lmtv and then tried to come up with ways to avoid that. or if it happened to figure out how we'd respond to save as many lives as possible and keep from losing any more. it's kinda silly, but i can't turn that off now. i hate riding in a car now. i didn't love it before, always felt confined, but it was at new levels when we first got back. i still don't want to wear a seat belt. feels like i can't get out of the vehicle fast enough if something happens. i'm not a nervous wreck or anything, i can do it and have a pleasant little conversation with whoever is in the vehicle with me, but there's definately a nervous little itch that i can't get rid of. blah. silliness i know. i just wanted to explain why i'd rather ride a motorcycle when it's 26 degrees outside than ride in a car.