Daily Archive: February 17, 2010

Feb
17

Olympic Update February 16th

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American skater Johnny Weir skates off the rink after his performance.

Barry Cain, Olympic Blogger

The season is here, the season of the Winter Olympics. An epic event that grabs our interest, gripping us to our television sets, making us feel that much more American. With our pride in hand, we tune in to NBC every night at 7 p.m. to cheer for our athletic representatives.

As of last night, America is no longer in 1st place with the medal count; Germany has surpassed us with nine. Two of those medals came in Luge: Tatjana Huefner (gold) and Natalie Geisenberger (bronze).

America’s medal count is at eight, with our last medal a gold from Seth Wescott. He won his second consecutive medal in Men’s Snowboarding Cross-country that has only been at the Winter Olympics twice.

The events that took place last night were Women’s Snowboarding Cross-country, Women’s Luge, Men’s Figure Skating (short program),Men and Women’s Hockey, Women’s Downhill Skiing, Women and Men’s Biathlon, Curling, and Men’s  Speed Skating .

The main source of talk started in WomProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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’s Snowboarding was Lindsey Jacobellis, (returning to claim a gold after events that occurred in the Winter Olympics of Torino in 2006) who fell in the final race, costing her a place on the podium.

In Men’s Figure Skating, returning veteran from Russia, Yevgeny Plushenko, claimed first

American skater Johnny Weir skates off the rink after his performance.

place in the short program.  “I had to come back for the feel of competition. All the other competitors are afraid and should be.” Representing America were flamboyant Johnny Weir, Jeremy Abott, and, grabbing second place in the short program, Evan Lysacek. Oddly enough, Jeremy Abott, who was a favored skater, did not live up to the expectations of the Olympic standard. All of his jumps were less than that required by the judges. Johnny Weir wore a typical tasseled outfit, with his more-than-expected flamboyant routine putting him in 6th place. Breaking through Japanese ranks, Lysacek placed second with his phoenix-

inspired routine. He remarkably landed all jumps and his foot-work was phenomenal. Now all of us must wait until Thursday for the long program to see who will take the podium.

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Feb
17

Ask Sergeant Drew: Daily Life

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Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

    Staff Sergeant Drew Koch shares his views about current happenings in the Middle East. Everything said in this article is of his own opinion and not to be confused with the offical standing of the U.S. Army. This week’s question: What does the average day of a U.S. solider look like? What is your main duty in the Middle East?

I guess that the question that everyone wanted to be asked finally was.  What is a day in the life of a soldier in Iraq?  Simple really!  

There are two phases of operation for the guys and gals here.  There is out in sector, and there is on the camp.  Most of the people here rotate between the two.  When out in sector, we do patrols and act on tips from locals.  In our location, most things are Iraqi driven.  Meaning that we are here to assist and advise the Iraqi Army (IA), they do the vast majority of planning.  They come up with where they need to do patrols, timelines for the patrols, personnel requirements, etc. We offer advice as to the validity of their requirements.  Remember, the IA is a rather young organization. We also send out people with them on the patrols to assist and observe the operation.  It is not very glamorous, but it is good that the IA is able to do this stuff with us just tagging along.  It wasn’t very long ago the roles were reversed, we would provide the planning and the bulk of personnel, the IA would send smaller numbers along to learn how it was all supposed to happen.

             Out in sector, these patrols would happen daily at various times. Guard is pulled 24/7 and is shared by the entire platoon.  During the down time out there the men take care of their equipment (weapon maintenance) and burn time.  Burning time for my guys consists of movies, videogames (laptop, PS3, 360), hacky sack, and playing a little football.

The basic days events would look like this:

Wake up; personal hygiene; breakfast; check the trucks-make sure radios are good to go, check oil, check tranny fluid, etc; prep for mission-weapons clean and oiled, uniform complete, eye pro, gloves, batteries good in devices that require batteries, etc;  roll out; conduct mission; return-clean out trucks, power down all equipment in trucks, weapon maintenance, etc; eat; down time.  Take up some of the down time with guard and the rest is spent doing what one wants (videogames, hacky, football, internet etc).  That is the basic out in sector life that my guys have been living.

On camp is pretty much the same except that details (odd jobs) replace the guard, and there is not mission prep or mission recovery.  The guys might have to spend some time in the motor pool to repair the truck if it was damaged in sector, but mostly it consists of physical training, details and down time.  

If anyone wants to get more specific than that, they will have to ask more specific questions.  For reasons of security, I cannot discuss actual timelines through email, or on the phones.  Please keep the questions coming as I kind of enjoy giving a first hand point of view on the topics that you have interest in.  Please remember that these answers are of MY opinion and are in no way to be associated with official Army views.

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Feb
17

Hope for Haiti

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Antonia Wilburn, Staff Writer

Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment – yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 T.V. stations

This message was sent out on several different occasions to Americans all across the United States. It was posted on Facebook and forwarded through text message. In the heartbeat of this message speaks the voice of every American affected by the unfortunate state of the economy. But this message can’t speak for everyone.

“I think America sucks,” voiced junior Briana Keller about the recent aid from the U.S. to Haiti. “Maybe we should be trying to do more work here, like fixing our economy.”

Dominic Carnahan, a junior from Poinciana High School in Florida suggested, “We should help, but we should look at our own country and see who needs help here.”

“I think it might be a bad idea [to help],” said Brandon Sterken, a freshman from Sage Valley Junior High, “but we should try to get other countries to help too.”

Senior Justin Chapman stated, “It doesn’t matter how we are doing here; the people over there need our help and we should help them regardless of our economy’s state.”

In agreement to Chapman’s statement, senior Sean Allen, said, “The economy may be bad, but they have nothing. We’re still better off than they are. I think it’s good we’re trying to help them.”

“Those people need our help no matter what,” declared Newcastle resident Penny Vielhauer.

Keith Aipperspach, a local parent of a CCHS student and Gillette resident, wasn’t happy with the thought of our country helping Haiti. “America’s always running out to help everyone, but you don’t see people like Haiti coming to help us.”

            Clearly, the earthquake has not just affected the meager families and individuals of Haiti, but it has more than upset the American people as well.

            As a world power, America has made it an obligation to take care of other countries by showing them our prosperity over their poverties, and yet it has become difficult for us to solve our own problems. Maybe the American hostility and bitterness toward the situation in Haiti is a wake up call. Maybe it’s time to bring together the people of our own country. Maybe it’s time to help America.

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