My son is in Afghanistan with the Oklahoma National Guard assigned to Task Force Phoenix. Task Force Phoenix has many duties assigned to it, such as The Training Assistance Group (TAG), The Central Corps Assistance Group (CCAG), The Embedded Training Teams (ETT), and The Security Forces (SECFOR).
He is with (SECFOR) , their duties are…

The Security Forces (SECFOR) play a pivotal role in the security and overall success of the Task Force. Not only do they man the guard towers and gates at all our camps, they also conduct frequent patrols outside the perimeter fences. These patrols provide an American presence in the communities around the camps and insure the security of the installations. They are the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) for the camp and have been used in this role many times. They escort convoys to Bagram and other locations weekly. These convoys are conducted in all kinds of weather. It is not unusual to see a SECFOR soldier covered in dust, rain or snow as he stands behind the .50 machine gun atop a HUMVEE. While the camps sleep at night, the soldiers of the SECFOR are conducting patrols in their Areas of Operations. All soldiers can rest well, assured the professionalism of the SECFOR will keep them safe.

This is the 2nd time he has been activated and sent overseas, the 1st time was in 1999/200 where they were in Bosnia. While he there we communicated by e-mail and occasional phone calls. Just recently he has been able to connect to the internet by satellite which allows us to use MS Messenger for voice and video to communicate. This makes it easy on both of us as he is 9 1/2 houras ahead of me.

Now I have RSS feeds from Yahoo, it took me awhile to find some code that would work. While searching Google I came across this site RSS Feeds via JavaScript.
The instructions are not very clear but I whacked away and got it to working.

Some people say it’s a small world, I have to somewhat agree as I have found a blogger who also knows someone that I know.
While floundering around the web looking for interesting (non-political) , not to angry sites to read I came across Trailer Park Girl. After reading her blog for awhile I came to realize that she was in the same RV park that a friend of mine had spent a couple of winters. I sent her a short message with a link to a photo of me and my friend, and yes she knew her. I had visited my friend and it would have been nice to meet “TPG” while I was there, maybe some day as we are not that far apart.
I have added her to my blogrolling links…..

Since I have left Houston and gone back home, I have been taking it a little easy by following the Dr’s restricting me to lifting only 20 lbs until the end of Jan. I don’t have any left over pain now as my chest and leg scars have healed and are looking good. The only discomfort that I am having is in the 2 muscles that are on each side of my neck, which I think are the “Sternocleidomastoid” and they connect to your pectoral muscle.

I have been adding up all the charges relating to my surgery, which includes 2 hospitals and 5 doctors, and am around $110,000.00 right now. I have some more time before I find out just how much Medicare will pay on the cardiologist’s bill. When I have all the info I will post a detail of the costs. Rough figures look like I will owe around $2000.00 or a little more when all is said and done.

Well being that I was such a good little boy and also a quick healer I was released on Friday which was nice because my daughter was flying back to Tulsa that afternoon.It was nice to have her there when I was confined in the hospital as she helped me when I went on my walks in the halls.

I stayed at my sisters until Dec 11th which was nice as I needed her help in changing my bandages and helping me in many ways to get me back to being able to take care of my self.

Nov 17th 2003
After having a couple of iv’s connected and talking to my daughter and sister, I drifted off and was to wake up later in icu. The first indication I had, after surgery, that I was still alive was hearing voices and also feeling the “Tube” that was in my throat which I could feel every now and then. They removed the tube before I totally woke up, it felt funny when they pulled it out.
I became fully awake sometime in the afternoon and saw my daughter and sister sitting beside the bed. I was on a iv drip for pain killers which did their job as I did not have any pain. I had to stay in icu until tuesday, before moving back to the 4th floor until either friday or saturday when I could go home.