In case you haven’t been closely tracking our progress, yesterday we made it over $250,000 of debt eliminated in 23 months. My goal is still to eliminate all $556,848 in 48 months. It is going to take some dramatic change and some serious work to accomplish this and I am prepared to do just that.

I have some plans lined up to double my income next year; stay tuned, I will provide some details soon.

During my cold flight back to Bagram I finished reading the Kite Runner. It is the best written book I have read in a long time, and you have to read it! It is the story of Amir, a young boy growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan who aspires to be an author. The book is fiction; however, you are left wondering if it might really be the story of Khaled Hosseini; almost wishing that to be the case.

It is certainly not a feel good story and it doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending; however it is about honor, dishonor and redemption. It exposes the true human nature in us all. After you read this book you will understand how true Afghan people live and think and have a better understanding of what we are up against in our current war here. Check it out today!

Today the News-Leader published my letter I posted here a few days ago. When I sent the letter I told them of my former position within the department and where I am currently serving in Afghanistan. Yesterday they called Amy to confirm the letter per their policy, and she too told them I was serving in Afghanistan.

Today when I saw the article online I noticed the tag line said I was currently serving in Iraq. I shot them a quick email letting them know of the error (it has now been corrected online), and they returned with an apology. I answered back, “No problem, I’m used to everyone forgetting about Afghanistan. Take care.” Don’s quick response was, “And that isn’t a good thing. More importantly, you take care.” That exchange explains what is going on in Afghanistan.

I spent the last few days in beautiful and warm Qatar. I had the honor of being appointed to perform an investigation there. Like my previous visit, I love the environment there. You don’t have to worry about incoming rockets or if the guy walking up to you is going to blow himself up. Unlike Afghanistan, none of the locals that I saw have that I hate America look in their eyes; it is as close to home as one can feel in a Middle Eastern country.

My flight back to Bagram this morning was quite the experience. We took off just after midnight and unfortunately it was a C-130 so the flight took over five hours. It was also freezing cold and I had not brought a jacket with me; for whatever reason the cabin never made it to 50 degrees the entire flight. Needless to say I was unable to sleep. Once we arrived I was greeted by some dreary, cloudy and cool weather. It is supposed to snow tonight. The incoming weather signals my countdown is starting to get really low; well into the 60s now for days left

I came into today feeling sorry for myself, mildly depressed about my situation and all the required events associated with it; however, today turned out much better than I could have hoped.

It started early this morning meeting with Lieutenant General Jack Stultz who is the Chief of the Army Reserve (CAR). He explained in great detail many of the initiatives that Secretary Gates had ordered him to implement. The key initiatives are the twelve month door to door which became policy in January (too late to rescue us from our 18 month order). He also discussed the five year unit rotation which hopes to eliminate cross-leveling (our unit is a poster child for the evils of cross-leveling) and give Soldiers predictable mobilization cycles along with a four year dwell time between mobilizations.

For lunch we took over for KBR and served our Soldiers. I was worried the meal would be the regular disgusting turkey and dressing we have about twice a week; however, they really went all out. Somehow they located the good stuff which really makes me wonder about the garbage we were eating the last ten months.

Tonight we had a town hall meeting with LTG Stultz. He talked a lot about employer relations and our protections with the Service members Civil Relief Act. When it was time for questions, I asked him about small business owners and what there was for us. He just said thank you. He wished there was more he could do, but there just weren’t many options. He is really right on this; loans don’t help and any other government intervention would simply hinder more than it helped.

All in all I was very thankful for the day and for the required events. I was happy my leader decided to be with us for his holiday instead of with his family. Now all that is left to do is fall asleep watching football; it doesn’t get any more Thanksgiving than that