BECAUSE THEY NEEDED THE BEST

...they sent the 951st Engineer Battalion Sapper Company

out of Rhinelander/Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Thank you to Stephanie Aimone for these photos.

MAY I BRAG A LITTLE?

So I am going to use this forum to brag a little about my eldest son. Against my better judgment, I was online chatting with him on Facebook from 12:30 to 2:30 AM last night...or this morning...whatever.

Ramsey was sitting in a tent some place, not Afghanistan, waiting for the go-ahead to make the last leg of the flight to FOB Lagman, the base where he'll spend the next ten months. He sent me a photo attached to an email of him qualifying on the M4, a type of machine gun. It's kind of weird looking at a photo of your son in full battle gear intently firing a machine gun.

I asked him about the photo; what he was doing, who the other people in it were. He said it was taken on a shooting range at Camp Shelby, MS, where he was shooting targets while walking. Ramsey is the lead soldier on the right. The soldier directly behind him is an instructor. For those of you who have any experience shooting a firearm, it's difficult enough to hit a target when you are stationary, much less on the move. Ramsey qualified as an Expert on four weapons: the M4, M9, .50 caliber, and the M-240. Expert is the highest weapons qualification. It may come as a surprise to those of you who know Ramsey, and are aware of his reputation as a hunter, that this is the first time he has qualified as an Expert . Apparently, this is not an easy accomplishment.

Ramsey is a member of the 951st Combat Engineer Sapper Company, whose job it will be to provide route clearance...locating, disarming, and disposing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), aka roadside bombs. In addition to his training to carry out this duty, Ramsey will also man the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on top of a vehicle, and perform emergency life saving medical tasks, like controlling bleeding and starting I.V.'s., as a trained Combat Lifesaver.

While it is very difficult to think about what our son may experience in the coming months in Afghanistan, I am very proud of him and his willingness to serve our country. I am proud of his accomplishments and abilities gained during his years of training in preparation for this assignment. I am thankful for the gifts God has given Ramsey and His Hand upon him shaping him into the young man he has become.

TESTING

Ok, so when I published my last post earlier today my blog spot was lost to me...all that was left was a big blue screen with about three lines of encrypted gobbledygook at the top. I tried finding it everywhich way with no luck. I called Cheri and she was able to view it from her computer. Hmmm. So I'm checking to see if it is restored after I publish another post. If not....I don't know what's up. Keeping my fingers crossed.

RED-EYE TO AFGHANISTAN

Yesterday Ramsey and the rest of the 951st Engineer Sapper Co. out of Rhinelander/Tomahawk, WI, boarded a plane at Camp Shelby, MS, for the first leg of their long journey to Afghanistan. Ramsey called us from somewhere in Maine after a 3 1/2 hour flight. Maine? I admit I know nothing about flight patterns, but doesn't flying from way down south 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the northernmost state of the Union seem a little out of the way? Is Afghanistan at the same latitude as Maine? Here's where my geography prowess fails me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the next stop is Germany. Then Romania. (Romania? Do we have air bases in Romania?) And finally, Afghanistan.

All this to say, Ramsey is on his way to a dangerous part of the world to do a dangerous job. I don't know where he is right now, how long it takes to get there, or when he'll arrive at his final destination. All I do know is I have put him in God's hands and "I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day." 2 Timothy 1:12