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"Support our troops" T shirts

These shirts are for those who would like to show their support for our troops over seas. Worn on Fridays
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cost of the shirts will be $8.00

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857-472-1136
cjv1266@yahoo.com

This is where you can track our members and relatives whereabouts and involvement in the Armed Forces

If you have a relative over seas please send us some information so we can keep tabs

Kevin Goddard in Northern Iraq

Here are our Military boys at the send off party
John Babstock, Mike Crane, Kevin Goddard & Joe Lemont.
(photo submitted by Bob Marshall)

Members away on Military Duty and/or over seas at this tme

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John Babstock

Kevin Goddard

6/6/08

We are almost done we have about 17 days left, I am in Iraq right now but this should be my last mission. I will be back in Kuwait for about 10 days then to the states and Indiana for about a week. They wont commit to any real time table so this is an estimate. Well I just got off the road I need to get some sleep I will see you soon.

Kevin

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4/3/2008

Hey Joe,

Good to hear from you. I know that bar you aretalking about; been there a few times in my travels. If your plane gets there during normal hours the barwill be staffed with a good amount of bar tenders, butafter hours it usually goes to one or two after that. I would recommend you sitting near the hatch on theplane, especially if your plane is loaded. Once youget to the airport do not, I repeat do not go to thehead. The head can wait or go in the plane before youstart your landing. Make a run for the bar, once youget there get 2 drinks. You probably won't have totime to go back up.Time will be critical if your plane is loaded, yourlay over is short, or they only have one bar tender. The last time I was coming home; I just made it to thebar and they called us back to the plane. I stood inline for 45 minutes and I hate standing in line. Whenwe were coming back out here on this trip I was one ofthe first guys at the bar. I hope we stop there onour way. I could really use a stiff one, actually 3shots.Well Joe; have a safe trip back and I will see youabout the middle of July. I get back in June then Ihave a month in Conn before I demob. It looks likethey are sending us to Gulfport Miss for demob thistime.I saw Kevin a week ago at his camp. He just gotback from up north and was waiting for his next run. He is doing well and might be home in between you andI. Don't forget the 3 of us have a date at a bar whenI get back. Stay focused and safe

John


Hi Everybody

This deployment is definetly winding down. All of the Mass. guys are back together here at Camp Stone. Only two are not here, one voluntered to extend and the other is all ready back in the States at Ft. Riley due to illness and injury. I should be back at Ft. Riley around tax day. I will be there for 2-5 days outprocessing, then fly back to Massachusetts.When we get back to Mass. we should be going up to Devens for a day or two to wrap things up. I hope we fly back to the States thru Shannon Ireland, there is a nice bar at the airport I am craving a cold beer.
The last couple of monthes up here in and around Herat have been generally pretty quiet. The only real action has been one of the Police Mentor team(Not Mine) raided a compound and found some IED's and suicide vests. Most of my missions have involved patrolling the desert near by and some trips out to Chest-e-Sharif. I guess to sum up the deployment besides the end of October thru mid-December, overall a pretty quiet deployment. We're all coming home.

Take care
Joe


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February 28, 2008

How's it going? What's new at the firehouse? My time over here is winding down I have 3.5 months left then back to Indiana and the back home. Things got slow for a short period of time but have now picked up again. I am in Iraq with my convoy heading north with some equipment we drop off the equipment then pick up some more equipment and head south and do it all over again. Well I should go it is almost time to head out on the wild roads of Iraq, see you soon enough.

Kevin (Goddard)

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January 1, 2008

Hey hows it going? I hear we are getting plenty of snow back in Mass. thats a lot of hydrants to shovel. Any fires lately? I am writing this email from somewhere in Iraq i got a new mission just before new years and celebrated it on the road. I should be back in June but I am not holding my breath. Weather has gotten colder and we do get rain but not like in Mass. Well got to go will try and write soon take it easy.

Kevin Goddard

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December 4, 2007

Hi Everybody

Sorry for my tardiness in keeping in touch. Here is whats been happening here. Most of November I was down in a town called Delaram. At the time, Oct. 31, I was up at Camp Stone near Herat. We had gotten word that there was some serious fighting going on down south in the province of Gulestan. Basically the Taliban took over the entire place. The U.S. advisor teams and Afghan army & police sent in to retake the place got hammered. The afghan army leadership left behind about 18 of their soldiers. No ones seen them since, so the Taliban in all probabilty shot them. The team I'm on got down there on the 2nd of Nov. We linked up with another U.S advisor team and headed off to a village called Baqwa. This place was attacked the night before. We got there no civilains around at all and the police station was completely destroyed. Many of the Afghan police around seemed to be in a daze. We were checking out the place and after about an hour or so someone finally realized that there was an unexploded RPG round in the wall. we were all pretty startled.
Myself and a medic went to a nearby compound to check on some afghan police. We found one dead and one wounded. The afghans thought it was a good idea to keep the dead guy next to the wounded. We got them to remove the dead guy. A couple of ours later we finally got the wounded medevac by the British. The Italians & Spanish that basically control this part of Afghanistan wouldn't fly down there to pick him up. The rest of the advisor teams headed back to their bases to rethink things over. That left the team I'm on to secure this town of Delaram. It was basically us and a few remaining Afghan soldiers and police. We were by ourselves for a couple of days until a British advisor team arrived with some Afghan soldiers. Also U.S. Special Forces teams arrived along with some Romanian Special Forces . It was a good thing that they did because that night the compound we were in got rocketed. They landed just outside the compound. The Brits respounded with there mortar. Then the SF called in a B-1 to drop a Two thousand pound bomb on where the rockets came from. Hey it looked really good, but truth be told the dudes who fired those things were long gone. We were there for another week or so, as more teams and afghans arrived to go back into Gulestan. We finally got back to Camp Stone/Herat around the 15th. What had begun as a three day mission turned into two week mission. We headed back there a week later for a few days by then the Spanish & the Italians were down there in large numbers.

The weather here has finally turned. It's no longer in the 90's or 100's. In fact it snowed the other day. It was only about 2-3" and was gone in about a day. Generally the day time temps are in the 50-60's with night time temps in the 30-40's. Camp Stone now is pretty crowded. The Spanish moved in more soldiers and the Mongolians arrived to teach the Afghan's about artillery. So the computer room is often packed. The network has a real hard time handeling all of the users. The Spanish, Italians , Slovenians are cool even if they don't like to get into a fight. I think it has more to do with govt's back home than the soldiers here. The Mongolians, are well unique.

A lot of guys on the teams are starting to take some leave. I'll be going in mid January. I'm just about certain that I'll be going to Australia. If Uncle Sam is going to pay for the airline ticket why not? The way I figured it is 1) They speak english. 2) They drink beer. 3) And its summertime down there. The downside I really can't make hotel reservations because I don't know when I'll get there. And two, I'll be going alone . No offense but Boston in January is not that appealing. I'll try not to be so tardy next time everybody enjoy the holidays and be safe.

Merry Christmas
Joe


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September 27, 2007

How are things going in the WFD? I will be home on leave from October 16 until
November 5 (approximately). It is a little early to go on leave but they
assigned it to me I would have requested something a little later in the year to
break it up better. Let me know what the group 3's schedule is so I can stop in
and say hello. John B. I guess you are probably going to be in country by then
so I will get in touch with you and see where you are stationed at. Chuck got
any new style t-shirts I may need a couple, well I will talk to you when I get
home on leave.

Kevin (Goddard)

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Thursday, July 5, 2007 8:23 AM

What's up? Had to work the 4th we have started our missions north into Iraq so
the training is over and the job starts. What's new at the station any fires
lately? I am betting against it but i would be jealous also is you have had any.
Just wanted to send a quick email talk to you later.

Kevin (Goddard)

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007 9:21 AM

Here is a quick email.
I am here in Kuwait and it is hot as hell we have
not had much sleep since we arrived hopefully that will change. We are basically hurrying up and Kuwaiting around (Tom N.) we have a little training to do before we start our missions. I will be in a different location with no phone or email access for about a week. I will email again when I get more time.

Kevin (Goddard)


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Sunday, June 17, 2007 6:48 AM

Steve,
What's new? All is well here. It's pretty hot 110+ every day now, but the nights are nice. We've been pretty busy over here lot's of training, An unoccupied helo rolled over on the ramp, brush fires, and an aircraft engine fire. There isn't much to do when your not working, but we try to stay busy. I went with the folks from the clinic to help treat the Iraqi's the other day, It was the most rewarding thing I've done here. We've also been training the Iraqi firefighters from the civilian side of the airport. The seem like a good bunch of guys, most of them don't speak english, but their chief interprets for us. Here is my e-mail address, feel free to post it icabod916@yahoo.com. Well That's all for now.

Later,
Crane

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007 7:10 PM

Steve.. I'll get my digital camera up and running. Most of the training the last few weeks has been mostly class room. In the next few weeks training will take on more of a tactical feel. That means guns and bullets that generally makes a better picture.

Take care
Joe (Lemont)

Mike Crane and Brian Ciccone hangin in Baghdad Iraq