Top Ten List for 2011

10. Christmas Letter

The pain and suffering that goes into writing a Christmas letter is hard to fathom (we know you secretly agree!). Trust us though, when we say that getting this completed at all easily qualifies it as a "top ten" moment for our year!

9. Chapel

Despite waning numbers of families to fellowship and grow with as well as waning numbers of chaplains, along with the indefinite end to children's church, we committed to staying with the base chapel. God brought a new chaplain on staff, committed to our service and ready to work. Since then, the body has grown inwardly and outwardly, children's church has been re-established, and the Holy Spirit is moving. Praise God!

8. Dignified Transfer

The war(s) has taken its toll on our family as well as many others. This was more apparent than ever late April 28th when David stood in the rain with hundreds of other service members to honor eight fallen Airmen during a dignified transfer at Bagram Airfield. He remembers where he was when he found out about Bin Laden's death and where he was when the last Airman left Iraq, but no time stands out as poignantly as those cold moments that brought a pause to the six and a half month deployment he was engulfed in day and night.

7. Travelling/Visiting with friends

Arguably the best aspect of the military life is the potential for finding old friends just about anywhere one travels. This was certainly the case during a 4700-mile, 13-state road trip we took during October and November. Spending a week at the Sulhoff Family Cabin in South Dakota's Black Hills was a much needed respite for everyone. And seeing firsthand the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and rebuilding in New Orleans brought great perspective to us and the kids. Still, the true highlights of the trip came from visiting Rachel's Grandmother, many dear friends from our first assignment (the Rensch's, Cecilia, Leonard) and multiple families who have grown with us (the Chambers, the Eckarts, Geof and Kyle. Our only regret is that we could not visit with more!

6. Giving

Giving has always been a priority for us, but being released from the bondage of debt in 2006 provided more opportunities than ever to share our gifts with so many others. In that regard, this has been an exciting year for us as David promoted to the rank of Major, bringing home a little bit more "bacon" to share. In addition to financial gifts that will go without mention, David was blessed with the opportunity to give his time in service to the Bagram chapel as a Praise Team leader and Rachel was likewise blessed to share her time as a teacher for AWANA. This is a conviction and a joy for us and we pray that even in these lean times, your family will discover new and exciting ways to increase your joy through the sharing of your God-given time, talents, and "tokens."

5. School's In

Home education is a full time job with a crummy benefits package. There is no paid leave, no medical benefits, no additional staff to assist with the load and the hours are at best fluid and unconventional. The home educator is principal, teacher, hall monitor, nurse, lunch "lady", coach, cheerleader, and friend all rolled up in one – oh, let's not forget parent as well (makes for some interesting parent-teacher conferences…) This new year brought great growth by way of kids who have finally "bought in" to the idea and a fabulous homeschool cooperative we joined this fall. Here we met with like-minded and driven families once a week to provide some semblance of a structured schooling environment while capitalizing on the strengths and experiences of every parent to serve as subject-specific teachers.

4. School's Out!

For the first time in 28 years, David has zero school hanging over his head and keeping him from being available mentally, emotionally, and physically to the rest of the family. This happened after he completed Air Command and Staff College via correspondence, a mandatory Professional Military Education course that all Majors should complete. Halleluiah!

3. Homefront growth/healing

Rachel discovered the cause of several health issues she had been facing. God has begun healing her body through informed friends, even more informed doctors, medicine, nutritional supplements and changes in diet. This change alone has given her so much more energy and mental capacity, leading to a much more productive homeschool. After pushing a year and a half, Hannah Joy Sulhoff has finally decided to be completely potty-trained. Her parents are very relieved!

2. Family Gatherings

Over all the years and duty stations, we have only grown closer to our families. Though it is sometimes difficult, we make it a priority to spend time with both of our sets of parents and siblings. This year Rachel and the kids spent July in GA and AL visiting mostly family, but a few friends as well. Cousin's Camp was the highlight of the trip. Riding a four-wheeler, playing foosball and ping-pong in the "man-cave", shooting at targets, swimming, jumping on a trampoline, campfires, skits and just pure playing with their cousins could not be beat. BorderTown, a weekend retreat focusing on God and men/boys encouraging one another was an event this fall at which all of the male Sulhoff's were in attendance. Since moving to the southeast, we have always shared in Christmas traditions with both of our families and will this year as well.

1. Reunion

Living months on end without your spouse is difficult. Sometimes, living with them is difficult, too, and we (like everyone else) are not exempt from miscommunication or arguments. However, being together as husband and wife/father and mother and operating out of the same home, is the best thing in the world. Our family has begun a new chapter and David being home with us daily, being the man he is, has changed everything for the better. His homecoming was unequivocally the best moment of our year.

Out with the old, in with the temporary

We are building a new wall here (as you've read about in other posts) and I needed to build a temporary wall to make room for the new wall (confused?) Well, this excavator is doing the heavy lifting to make it happen and I thought it was pretty cool how it framed the Queen's Palace in the background. Sweet, huh?

Pro-Bono Work

This is my most recent work as the defacto FOB engineer. I draw up the designs and the operations and maintenance folks at the camp do the rest.

I thought of it after watching how many folks liked eating from the Ice Cream Parlor I had designed several months back. I guess I had about ten pounds of added guilt watching everyone enjoy the new dessert digs that I felt a produce stand would help me feel a little better . . . . unfortunately, a lot of space on our new "produce stand" is taken up by cakes and cookies as well. C'est la vie!!

In Him,

Christmas Away From Home

The banners were flying high and plenty in preparation for the big day at the DFAC.

Employees placed sparkling grape juice on ice to make the occasion even more festive and tasty.


Just as at Thanksgiving, the center tables were full of goodies from special cakes to "gingerbread" houses covered in hot dog buns and bread slices.

We enjoyed the Holy day by watching Christmas classics on T.V. and in between meals I worked. Go ahead and scroll down to Rachel's pics of a much more exciting Christmas. God Bless you all!

In Him,

Real-world Engineering

One of the perks of this deployment is that I get to actually build stuff! This wall is an example of some of the construction I've been doing over the last nine months. Of course, most of my work was at other locations so I travelled quite a bit. Thankfully, that has waned some and a very large project started at my base, so I finally get to monitor a project from the beginning - it is a good feeling!

The wall required a span that went over a small open culvert so the contractor proposed the shown design for a concrete beam on two piers that had to be approved. And, for the first time in my Air Force career I had to go to the drawing board (literally) and calculate the moments of deflection for the wall and the nominal moment capacity of the designed beam. I also had to determine the force per square foot on each of the piers and the transferred force to the ground to determine what possible settling issues we may face.

I can't lie. It was hard! It took me about five hours to determine everything, going back to Civil Engineering handbooks and the web for equations, coefficients, and standards. But it was actually fun, too. Who said those five years at Tech were a complete waste?

Where to start?!?!? Gifts in the Mail or Tampa?

OK. I will start with the totally awesome care package I received today from my office back in Alabama. Besides an assortment of food goodies specially selected to meet my tastes, my office (and I can take a good guess who specifically) decided it would only be more perfect by plastering half of the items with the face of a personal hero - David Hasslehoff. Yes, the "Hoff" made it all the way across the Atlantic and several continents to bid me a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Does it really get any better?



How about this? We had to take a detour through a portion of Kabul we rarely frequent due to serious traffic issues and lo and behold, there's KFC! That's "Kabul" Fried Chicken, in case you were wonderin'. . . .

Finally, I'll leave you with this shot. The 2008 ACC Player of the Year consoles the 2009 ACC Player of the Year on the sidelines shortly after the clock ran out. The ACC Championship Game in Tampa proved to be a lot more exciting the the SEC Championship Game and brought out the very best in both teams. Thankfully, Tech's best of 39 points was better than Clemson's best of 34 points. How about them Oranges?

Tech is dropped 30-24; fall to 10-2

UPDATE: Amazingly Coach Richt made the very difficult personal and professional decision to fire Willie Martinez (UGA Defensive Coord.) and two other Defensive staff members.  This really surprised me due to the terrific performance the UGA Defense put on against Tech.  In other news, Coach Paul Johnson received ACC Coach of the Year honors for the second year in a row; this was of course, no surprise.

You can see it on his face - Paul Johnson had an idea of what was about to happen at the beginning of the second half. (of course the score was a little telling as well)

1:22 from the continuation of a true rivalry.  It was a true in-state showdown.  Unfortunately, UGA left more on the field than Tech did.  I won't blame Demarius Thomas for the dropped 1st down pass.  I won't blame Coach Johnson for calling three passes in a row when we really needed to keep the game on the ground and run the clock down.  I also won't blame the defense.

In the end, I think that I will blame noone.  It's just a game.  A game that I hate to lose, but a loss this year to UGA does something that a loss any other year would not have done.  Nothing.

From the beginning, Tech's goal was to win the ACC Championship.  That's the second item on the list - last year the first item on the list was to beat Georgia (check - they came from behind to win 45-42).  Next year I imagine Johnson will place an even loftier goal on the top of the list. . .

It was not a fun game to watch at all but my hat's off to Josh Nesbitt who came back in after what could have been a devastating hit and subsequent injury.  Yet the real winner in my mind is Willie Martinez.  This win might have been just enough to keep his job as Defensive Coordinator at UGA.  I will admit that I, too, chided Mark Richt for keeping him aboard - and it still may not be the best decision - but tonight he rallied his team together to take down the second-best rushing offense in the country.  Not bad - especially when most were expecting a blow-out.

Revenge may be a whole year away, but the Yellow Jackets have much bigger fish to fry - first Clemson for the ACC title; then the Orange Bowl.

This dude in the middle of these UGA fans knows how I feel right about now . . .

The only thing I really am not looking forward to is the "good 'ole fashioned hate" and gloating that is sure to come from all of Georgia's 48th Brigade who are stationed with me.  Yes, Georgia Tech is in Georgia, but most of the GA Army Guard don't recognize anything inside the perimiter as part of the state.

Go Yellow Jackets!

Making life interesting

My life here in Afghanistan is pretty good considering I am in the middle of a war-torn country thousands of miles away from Rachel and the kids.  However, it can get awfully monotinous.  In an effort to break the monotony, we'll do just about anything!  Here are some examples with some respective remedies:

1. The meals are served on a 21-day menu; we have the same meals offered exactly every 21 days.
- Add pineapple to my cheeseburger at lunch every now and then; a little BBQ sauce and it's something totally new!
2. A typical workday is from 8:00 to 5:00 (of course we'll go back to the office after dinner to check on issues, but not to spend much time); this is our workday six days of the week (when we are on camp).
- Sleep-in without warning, miss the showers before they start getting cleaned at 9:30, and amble into the office 30 minutes before lunch starts!  End the day by working 'til 10:00.
3. Armed Forces Network (AFN) plays the same commercials over and over again.  We have four T.V.s in our dining facility and it's completely feasible to see the same commercial on two T.V.s turned to two different channels at the same time.
- Stop watching T.V. and bring up a completely untouched subject with friends at the table.
4. Mission briefs, convoy movements, and radio calls follow a specific pattern - every time.
- Use different voices over the radio, mimicking other team members or famous actors.
5. Phone calls to home can even become like a broken record sometimes asking a lot of the same questions and giving the same responses.
- Call at odd hours and ask to speak with the kids - they always have something new to talk about!

Well, that's just a flavor of the monotony that we face over here.   Thankfully God provides breaks for us as well with seasonal changes, occasional rain, and the few earthquakes we've had! 

In Him,

I am back in Afghanistan

And I have been for almost two weeks.

The last 130 days are slowly ticking away and I am starting to finally get back into the "post-leave swing". I've started several projects lately and I have a few more left to start in the hopes of getting most of the concrete work done before winter sets in.

I am not travelling as far as I was before the break but I am travelling about as often. The air is getting a little clearer as the cold sets in, but it is still a drastic difference in air quality from the North Georgia mountains or the Gold Coast of Florida.

I have been exercising more lately, running almost every other day. I also use the stationary bike and occasionally workout on the rowing machine. In general though, I still feel like I need to lose a few pounds.

Every day I am comforted by my Creator and my life is made perfect by His grace. It is a hard concept, grace; but it gains importance in my life daily. I am constantly reminded that I am saved by grace alone and that anything good that comes from me, actually comes from Him - driven by His grace.

In Him,
David

Carpets, CONEX, and Roses

Aladdin would be proud!

It's nearly impossible to come to Asia and not buy a carpet. They are amazing! The more expensive ones are handmade and the even more expensive ones are silk. The tighter the knots, the more silk, the larger the size, and the more elaborate patterns = mo money.

The shown carpet is from a "family" of carpets that are easily my favorite (and most expensive - go figure). They come from Iran and they are exquisite! You can easily drop a couple grand on a small carpet that end up hanging on the wall over here, and yet they are still worth several times more than that in the States. Feel free to click on the picture for a larger image.

HOLY RUSTED CONEX BATMAN!

These are everywhere in theater. And by everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. The CONEX is a watertight shipping container that usually comes in 20' or 40' lengths (the picture is a 40-footer) and they are not only everywhere, but they are used for everything. All across the country, these containers are retro-fitted for use as latrines, showers, offices, bedrooms, warehouses, and just about anything else you can imagine.

One of the benefits of these CONEX's is that they are relatively easy to ship. All you need is an appropriately-sized "Jingle" truck (affectionately named because the Afghan drivers usually deck their trucks out with elaborate and colorful paint schemes, tassles, and bells) and a crane. This one is being shipped from one FOB to another. Fun Fun!

For the Beauty of the Earth

Even in a war-torn nation there is beauty to be found. It can be found in the rugged mountains, the lush river valleys, and in the eyes of children while driving through the market. The Afghans wish to make their country more beautiful and in a dried up flower bed, an ANP troop had managed to plant and nurture this rose bush.

Truly a diamond in the rough.

In Him,

David

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........

(MP) - I had a rough morning. I had a simple request get denied by a new layer of red tape between the user and accomplishing the mission. Of course, it was billed as a "streamlining" of the process, yet it really equaled: Extra work and less chance of getting stuff done. Sheesh.

At my job

So, what is your job?

Another good question that warrants a good answer. First off, I am an Airman filling a Soldier's billet. Basically, about five years ago the Army asked the Air Force, "Hey Air Force, we are really hurting out there for folks to fill important jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan - would you mind sending some of your folks our way to help us out." Reluctantly, the Air Force said, "Sure." So, although I am still wearing the Air Force uniform, I am performing a job that would have otherwise been filled by an Army engineer (or so they say). Regardless, I'm here and proud to be so.

As an Airman filling an Army tasking, I do basically whatever the Army wants me to (within reason) and this job is well-suited to my work experience. See, the biggest push in Afghanistan right now is to field a force of local nationals as soldiers and policemen in the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) so that the rest of the country feels secure under their own governmental agencies. In order to do that, we have mentor teams all over the country. PMT's (Police Mentor Teams) help train and equip the ANP (Afghan National Police) and other police entities. The ETT's (Embedded Training Teams) do the same for the ANA (Afghan National Army). PMT's and ETT's are all throughout the country (you can imagine) and their mission is basically the same - to get the ANSF to efficiently operate autonomously without having to hide under an umbrella of corruption or greed. It's a BIG job!

The country is broken up into several regions - the details of which I will leave out - and each region is made up of many provinces (akin to a "state", though it is governed more like a "county"). Under the ANP (the side of ANSF I deal with the most), each province has districts and provincial headquarters. All of these facilities need to either be repaired, built, or modified. Additionally, the PMT's who are doing the actual training and equipping need places to live and work as well. This is where I come in.

My job is to make sure the PMT's and ANP forces in my region have adequate facilities for living and working. I do that through the help of several other US servicemembers who monitor individual projects near their areas of operation as well as by making personal visits to job sites or potential sites. This does require me to go "outside the wire" more frequently than the typical "Air Force" job, but it is also more rewarding than any other job out here I can imagine.

Like every job it has its highs and lows, but as an engineer, I can say unequivocally that the highs have so far outnumbered the lows by a long shot! Even in this short time I've been here, I've cleared over a quarter-million dollars worth of construction invoices and seen a project go from a brand new idea to work order to approval to funding to results! And I've only been here for a month!

Anyway, that's my job. I could ramble on about the various aspects about it that get my goat or a specific site that's really exciting to work on, but I'll save that stuff for when I get back.

God Bless!

Life in the 'stan: Part I

Occasionally I'll post individual stories from my deployment along with some pictures to help tell the tale. However, a lot of experiences and pictures are more anecdotal in nature and would be more appropriate as a compilation rather than individual posts. Here is the first installment. (Remember: the pictures and stories are not necessarily related)

Transient life is horrible. I'm thankful for twin size beds at every stop, but settling into my home for a year was a wonderful feeling after weeks of this.

I. Afghanistan is an islamic republic. Hence, building codes need to follow several Islamic traditions. One interesting example would be that an Afghan toilet (it's really just a hole in the ground with treads on each side to stand on while you squat - n/k) must never face East or West. This way, there is no risk of facing the same direction one would pray while taking care of "business". Funny, but true.

This is the view from the first camp where I was living, before I moved to my current camp.

II. I went to a provincial police headquarters building to check out a generator site for future improvements and repairs. We wanted to get a better picture from one of the second story windows of the site, so we went inside, up to the second story and found an office that gave us a great vantage point for photos. Incidentally, the men in the room (mostly Afghanistan National Police - ANP) were just "chilling" - at least as good as you can in this country. They were seated, eating corn nuts and raisins, and drinking chai tea. Before my friend and I could thank them and leave the room, two servings of chai had been brought in for us and we were offered a seat. The next fifteen minutes of drinkink chai, eating the snacks, and speaking in broken english/dari were interesting to say the least. Finally, we thanked them, and went on our way. That was all - just two americans, several ANP, and chai.

This is the attic to the Queen's Palace. It has been pretty abused over the years, but it still has an amazing allure to it.

III. A contractor who is working on the camp is bound by the principle that his father will choose his life partner. He hopes it is this girl he gets to see once a year, but that's all he can do - hope.

Kyrgyzstan

It's pretty amazing how many consonants and how few vowels they can fit into a 3-syllable word. I'm tired and sick and sore from some immunizations, but other than that - everything's great. I'll post more later as I get closer to my actual home for a year.

In Him,
David

Guten Tag

Yes, I am in Germany right now. I'm waiting to board for our next leg on this yearlong journey in the making. So far the flights have been OK. I've eaten four times in 10 hours and my indigestion is getting the better of me - thank goodness I have an aisle seat! We've had several movies and several more to come.

I still think wifi is just about the coolest thing in the world - just an hour ago I video-chatted with Rachel and all the kids (even Hannah put in her $.02). They are well, but I miss them tons already - and it's only been 3 days!

We stopped over in Iceland and I watched a pretty amazing video that presented many of Iceland's amazing landscape and regions. What was more impressive than the movie was the projector. I have no doubt it was a very high-end DLP as the image was easily a 30-40 foot diagonal image and the clarity was unbelievable! It made me eager to save and prepare to drop some change on an upgraded model for our home after I get back.

Well, that's enough for now. I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to posting again!
God Bless!

CST Urban Ops Fun!

Here is a picture of me and my teammates preparing to clear a room during urban operations training. Guess which one is me?

Bang-Bang

The last week of training was tiring at times and exciting at times. Most of it was spent at the range firing off round after round on a mixture of military weaponry capable of taking over small towns.

I've been qualified on small arms for several years, in accordance with AF requirements, so I was already familiar with the M-4 carbine (similar to the M-16 rifle only with a shorter barrel, built-in rail mount system, and an adjustable stock) and the M-9 handgun (Beretta 9mm). Those training/qualification days for the Army were last week, so there wasn't much to talk about as it was not too new to me. This week, however was different - very different.

Instead of firing small arms, I fired an automatic grendade launcher (MK19) and several machine guns (M-2 .50 cal, M-240B, and M-249) in various settings. And yes, it was pretty incredible. I feel fairly competent with targeting, cleaning, disassembling, reassembling and maintaining each of these weapons systems and I have the Army to thank for that. Years and years ago, when my LEGO village was ravaged by an unprovoked attack from G.I. Joe and his buddies, orchestrated by my brother, I was completely confident I would never be this intimate with such powerful instruments of war. Today is different. My goal is to learn as much as possible about the job ahead of me so that I can come home safe to my family and friends and more importantly, so I can conduct my nation's business with honer. The long days at the range were a not-so-gentle reminder of this and the percussion of the rounds blasting forward only added an exclamation point to what this business model often requires in order to ensure success.

Biggest mental hurdle has passed!

Today our team successfully completed the Combat Lifesaver (CLS) course. This is historically the most fretted-over training for most people attending Combat Skills Training (CST). It is due to the IV requirement. Everyone has to actually place an IV lock and initiate the flow of IV fluid into a battle buddy. Phew! We did that yesterday and thankfully, everything went fairly well. One member of our team almost passed out and a couple bled all over themselves, however I was pretty happy with my work as well as my buddy's work. I ended up getting stuck twice because the first one was accidentally pulled out as he was placing the needle in the vein. The second one, however, went without a hitch. I cleanly got my buddy's IV in and had no blood anywhere - clean and quick! It was fun, and today's mass-casualty exercise was even more fun. We entered a smoke-filled, dark room and pulled out an indeterminate number of casualties. Cool stuff. Anyway, here are some shots (no pun intended) of me and my buddy and the team with our CLS instructor. Take luck!

G'bye Charter, G'day Gmail / Update

Today I joined the masses in establishing a Gmail account. The reasons were simple - I couldn't send e-mail directly from my computer while travelling without logging in to my webmail. This gets very annoying seeing as how I download all e-mail using Outlook and I can't easily reply. So now I have a fully functioning POP3/SMTP server with Gmail, capable of taking my send items and delivering them as required without flinching.

"How will I be able to e-mail you, now?" you may ask. Well, thanks to my brother's purchase of our family's domain over ten years ago, you can continue using the same simple e-mail address I've had since college. It requires no additional effort on your part at all!

That being said, if you know my whole name, you know my e-mail. Please feel free to send me a line anytime. Or, if you don't remember my name, feel free to send comments on any of the blogs here - they are always welcome.

I thought it was also fair to provide an update of my status in training and how we are doing. Well, the Army is an interesting establishment. Air Force officers are not allowed to sleep in the same lodging room. I'm currently roomed with 30 other Air Force and Army personnel in a 40-man barracks. Air Force personnel are empowered to think freely about the "best" way to do things. The Army has its ways - and they are all the "best". Air Force training has been streamlined and minimized to impact the mission. In the Army, training is the mission while in garrison (not deployed) and training is expanded as much as possible to fill available time (In the last 2.5 weeks, we have not had a single day of training longer than 7 hours). These are just a few of the differences - but I'm not complaining, it's just different.

Last week I learned a ton about the mission I'll be supporting and this week I learned a ton (and became pretty proficient) about programming/using various military radios. Just yesterday I placed a satellite call to someone standing fifteen feet from me. Pretty cool stuff. Tomorrow we have Army 101 (a little late in the schedule, but better late than never!) and marksmanship.

I sleep on the bottom bunk of a bed shared with no one else and the free time is spent working on equipment, watching movies, talking with Rachel and the kids or eating. I'm getting over a cold (that everyone got) and I should be a lot stronger for it! I'm excited about the mission I'll be embarking on and I hope that I can be a successful piece of our strategy for that war-torn country. I'll send another update in a few weeks, but I'll probably blog about other random stuff before then.
In Him,
David

HUA

Heard
Understood
Acknowledged

I'll admit, readers, you deserve much better than this. I've thrown you off with sporadic unannounced changes to the website with little to no explanation. There hasn't been a new post in nearly a month anywhere to be found. Add to that, I'm nearly out of touch with reality by being TDY at Ft Riley for the next 3 months. Please accept my apology and just keep reading.

I said 'goodbye' to my family for a TDY in uniform for the first time. It brought images of sailors and soldiers heading off to the front to my mind. It also gave me an inkling of an idea of what it will be like when I return. The next 16 months will be a flurry of TDYs, short jaunts home, and a duty that humbles me. When all is said and done, though, that moment of embracing Rachel after returning with honor will be a truly fine moment. But until then, there is a lot of training and a lot of work to do. Please pray for me and for Rachel and the kids as we forge this path.

I'll try to post more updates/stories as I see fit, but until next time - God bless!