The website will soon be available as a DVD version, with all the pictures in a row, as well as any videos that were (or maybe weren't) on the website. Also, I'll include the DVD version of the airsoft battle, a 25-minute epic movie! It came out great, and everyone who has seen it has loved it and had a laugh.
Till then, this is me waving goodbye! Be sure to check out the new drmfreek.com.
Keith
Update 11-20-2006: More than a year for the website! As such, I finally made a more official home for it. The current address of www.drmfreek.com/iraq will still work, but now it exists as a subdomain as well. What does that mean? Just replace the www in the address. iraq.drmfreek.com now gets you the same results! As a celebration of this, here's some numbers to show how many people have been checking out the website. I don't have a way to see how many indiviual people have looked at the website, but this at least shows how many unique visits per month it's been clocking. (So this isn't me sitting at work refreshing the page to get the numbers up.) Starts with October of last year, and ends with October of this year. Still a few months left to go!
As you can see, that's over 1000 people every month! For October thru October, the total was 19,998. Almost 20,000! We've already passed the marker anyway, as there have already been over 1000 for November, and the month isn't over! My sincere thanks for coming by to look at my website. I hope the pictures I post aren't too much of inside jokes; I try to include explanations when they're extra vague.
So thanks again to all who have visited. We're nearing the home stretch now, under 3 months time left. As fun as it's been to make this site, I'll be glad to be done!
-Keith
Update 10-30-2006: My battalion was saddened to learn that the daughter of my platoon sergeant had passed away this month. I am naturally not privy to all the details, but I do know she is survived by two children, Michael and Hannah. In support for John, his wife, and the rest of his family, 2-224th aviation banded together to start a trust fund for his grand children. If you would like to donate, the information is as follows:
Make checks payable to BB&T or John Lanan or Anne Lanan in trust for Michael Lanan and Hannah Marie Wintering, children of Maria Lanan-Wintering.
BB&T
PO Box 1310
Gloucester, VA 23061
Donations may also be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Richmond in memory of Maria Ann Lanan-Wintering at:
2727 Enterprise Parkway, Suite 201
Richmond, VA 23294
Story: I left home in October, and am now on the verge of heading overseas after many weeks of training with Marines in Yuma, AZ. We're ready to move on to doing it for real, and starting the clock counting down to coming home. Training doesn't seem to count down, instead it just adds days to the total. We're glad for all the training we've received; it will make things run smoother over there, and hopefully keep everyone safer. We had a well needed break for Christmas, it helped cool everyone down after the stress of training, having constantly changing daily schedules can be taxing. Everyone looks forward to just getting into a regimen over there, so that days can start falling off the calendar.
I miss my family and friends, and will more as time goes by. Most of all Dena, who has only recently started to change my life for so much good. I tell her that at least I wasn't deployed last year, or else we might not have gotten to where we are now. It doesn't make it any easier of course, for me or for her, but we look forward to the day that I'm back for good and done with this job for good.
I do this job proudly, and without [too much] complaint, but I will be very glad when all is said and done and I'm allowed to take off the uniform and move on with my life.