Sour Swinger Predominantly follows my Army & Iraq Deployment. Also has some Geek, School, and other talk.

It was an early morning for our last day in Hamburg. The night sky still loomed overhead and an erie quiet was heard throughout the armory. There was a visible sadness on everyone’s faces. Most of us got little sleep as it was the last opportunity to spend time with our families. Soldiers said their final goodbyes the previous night, though a few family’s came to see us off on the bus for that one last long goodbye.

Many tears were shed, kisses given, and hugs shared. The familiar drill feel was replaced by the seriousness of mobilization. At that moment, the realization of the events to come started surfacing. Despite the sadness of leaving our families, there was an even deeper feeling of completing our duty. This is the sacrifice we willing chose. This is the burden we willing carry. For many years we were citizen’s first, soldiers second. Our family first, our brethren second. Now is the time to make the switch. Now is the time where we must put our country before ourselves. We are now soldiers first. We leave knowing our family’s will stay strong and help support each other. We depart everyone with our final kiss goodbyes.

See all our departure/arrival pics.

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Unfortunately I’ve run into the same issue I had during our annual training. An inability to upload pictures or videos. My own personal internet through Sprint Mobile Broadband only obtains dial-up speeds. Signal is too weak down here. Camp Shelby broadcasts its own internet which I and few others paid quite a bit of money to receive. Speeds are not quite DSL but a big improvement over my Sprint. Unfortunately they block/throttle certain websites. For instance, I’m unable to use any speed testing websites. The upload speed is severely limited and am no faster then a dial-up connection.

Basically what I’m saying is that there is no feasible way for me to upload any pictures or video I collect. Unless we get a day off and I can find an internet cafe in town somewhere, I’ll have to wait until we switch bases in two months. With any luck, the new base will provide better internet service. I’m very disappointed by all this. To further add to the disappointment (but very awesome news), Delta Company went ahead an bought its own HD video camera and digital camera. They issued them to me so as to be the official media recorder within the unit. The video camera is expensive! It can record up to 7 hours of HD video on max quality! I’ll end up with quite the collection of videos now. As for the digital camera, my own personally one takes better shots so I won’t be using it.

Stay tuned for at some point, there will be a massive uploading of media from me which will probably take a long time to do.

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Managed to get one video from the parade. Short clip of us during the National Anthem taken by one of the soldier’s wife.

National Anthem from Sour Swinger on Vimeo.

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Delta’s last day at home station came as quite a surprise. On the schedule was a parade. The town of Hamburg wanted to send us off with a bang. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. Its a small town and the whole situation with Iraq has really calmed down. It’s certainly not as dangerous now as it was a year ago.

Though small, Hamburg did not disappoint. They put on quite the show. Two flat bed trucks were used to sit all us soldiers. The trucks were fully decorated with American flags. Patriotic music blared from the front. A ton of people were involved in the parade. They include The Lyons Clubs, local police and firefighters. Unfortunately I don’t have the complete list of all parties. I’m currently attempting to track down that info and will post it here when I get it. Suffice to say there was an overwhelming amount of volunteers. The entire parade cost us nothing since everything was donated. Thank you all!


While parading around on the trucks, I snapped a bunch of pictures. It did feel weird as usually pictures are taken from the bystanders view point. The parade managed to hit the Reading Eagle and the front page picture was of a few of us soldiers. Guess what I was doing? Yup, I’m taking a picture of the photographer taking a picture of us. The camera perfectly lines up to block my face. Haha!


Following the parade, was a few speeches for us held at our armory and open to all. A sea of people showed up. I’m guessing +100. An astonishing large number considered the very small size of our company. It was amazing to stand in front of all those people who are there to support us. There to let us know they are thinking of us. One couldn’t help but feel a great sense of pride and joy.

Pictures From The Parade

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As required, Delta Company stayed at the armory for the first three days of our mobilization. The pace was easy and the work was light. Mainly we packed, conducted briefings, and lots of PR with civilians. We also managed to play a lot of catch with the football.

The first formation as title 10 soldiers already felt different. Those soldiers who were not shipping out were not there. Some of those non-deployable soldiers I’ve known for several years. It wasn’t until the second day that Delta plumped back up. We were joined by all the backfills. The backfills were pulled from other units from all around the state to fill our vacancies in the unit. Looking about in formation, I saw my new brothers, my new family. It is a unique feeling to know that together we will put our lives on the line for our country.


Over the past few days Delta saw lots of media. SPC Acevedo was picked to have the press document and follow him and his family during our home station stay. There was also a lunch for Hamburg’s town dignitaries. Some of the guests included the mayor and the chief of the police. That lunch made the Pottsville Republic newspaper.


Among all the gear we packed, two stood out as being…odd. Both were brought by SGT X. Go here if you don’t know whom I’m talking about. First is a complete weight lifting set. Includes dumb bells, bench, curling bar, medicine ball, resistance bands, and wrestling mats. Granted Army base gyms can get crowded but how much time are we going to get to work out with them? Sure we have PT in the morning but the amount of weights brought cannot supply even a platoon at one time. Then to bring them to Iraq? My favorite was SGT X telling me I need to get into shape…..riiiight. Never mind I get +280 on my PT test. Never mind that I race for my school’s cycling team. Yup these few limited weights are gonna put me in prime shape.


Second is about 50 some war books. Taking about an entire large container of space. Everyone is in agreement in the absurdity. The books range from “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Understanding Iraq” to “Instructions For American Servicemen In Iraq During World War II”. What is the purpose of these books? Every platoon has 1 or 2 soldiers with combat experience except the platoon SGT X is in. Half that platoon has combat experience. Many of us wonder if it’s to offset SGT X book ideas of how to do things with more practical ways of doing things. This all boils down to book smart vs. street smart. Main problem here is this book smart person isn’t open minded.

Pictures from home station.

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Several months ago I was authorized to create a new website for Delta Company. It sat on the back burner for some time but I finally completed it. You’ll find important information, contact lists, pics, videos and more. As of right now, I’m still waiting on the FRG information. This marks my first ever website built from the ground up. It was quite the learning experience and came to enjoy the whole process. I HIGHLY recommend you view the site with anything but Internet Explorer. I learned that IE seems to be the only browser that does not follow W3C completely. I suggest downloading and using Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.

The New Unofficial Delta Company Website.

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The drill that really wasn’t like drill but technically the last drill until we mobilize has finished. It wasn’t like drill because for one it happened during the week. More precisely yesterday and today. Tomorrow we officially start our mobilization and are considered active duty. Since there’s no break in between, it further in-reinforces the feeling that this wasn’t drill.

Unfortunately I left my camera in Colorado so I was unable to take any pictures or videos. On the plus side, nothing really worth wild happened to take photos of. Wednesday we watch 7 hours of briefings on video. Yes the same 7 hours of briefings we sat through at AT and yes many were videos of power point presentations! Worse, we probably will have to sit through this crap again when we return to Camp Shelby in a few days. Let the bullshit begin!

Today involved some actual training with this laser system that attaches to our rifles called LCATTS (Laser Convoy Counter Ambush Training System). It allows us to fire at targets that will react to the attached lasers. Its not quite like the MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System), which requires blanks to use. LCATTS will work when firing dry (no ammo at all). SGT Reese, SPC Rhoads, and I missed all this as we needed to go to the hospital. Well Rhoads and I did. SGT Reese drove us. I was involved in a mountain biking crash a few weeks ago which resulted in a bad concussion which I’m still suffering from. Rhoads was in a motorcycle accident last night which involved a lot of road rash and a mild concussion. Both of us are more or less fine.

As for everyone’s attitudes with this deployment so near? Seems no different then any other drill, though tension seemed to be a bit higher then normal with some individuals. Since we still won’t leave for a few days and can still see our families, I don’t think its hit quite yet. There are a few soldiers on advance party who already left and are down in Shelby. Everyone does seem to be in agreement in wanting to do our duty, do it well, and come back home safe.

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