Southern Comfort Tour

The colors make this a little hard to read, but I've been wanting to add more pictures. :)

This is a design another soldier and I came up with while we were off helping with the Hurricane relief missions last year. The title "The Southern Comfort Tour" was a play on words. The command structure kept us hoping from place to place and someone (I can't remember who now) mentioned it was like being on tour. Thus a tour t-shirt motiff came up. With us traveling through the south and some of the fellas liking Southern Comfort it seemed to fit. With the title and dates set it gave us an outline.

The 'ying yang' was used because it was our task forces unit insignia up until TY '06 (training year). So it was the last time we were all going to be sporting the patch and it has a lot of history. The 29th division was first formed prior to WW I primarily from National Guard units from Maryland and Virginia. The history of at least on of these units has them facing parts of itself on the field of battle during the civil war. In many ways memories were still fresh of the Civil War and thus the blue and the grey. The division has served with distinction in both World Wars - most notibaly was their actions during D-Day. The only National Guard division to participate during the initial assault. I could fill up several days worth of blogs on this magnificant division. I began my National Guard career with them, and I am proud to be ending it with them.

The three regiments represented at the bottom are those that provided men to the task force.

The Hurican Relief mission was typical of what I love doing in the National Guard. We stayed at a high school where they cramed 30 of us in a small science room... it's one thing to have 30 desks, but 30 cots, with 30 soldiers 24 hours a day, and all their gear. We stayed in a big circus tent with not enough air conditioning. We even stayed at an emptied out JC Penney's. The chow was decent for the most part. On two occasions the forrest service had their chow trucks (and these are impressive set ups) doing the catering. I wish I had digital pictures of those deals. The forrest service also provided shower trailers and laundery service. Our missions varied from presence patrols - to - relief efforts (handing out meals, water, and tarps) - to - escorting convoys. It was not a five star guided tour, but the people down there were so nice despite all they went through. I even got to tour the French Quarter - a place I would not normally go. They were not quite fully open for business, but I was interested in the architecture and I did stop in one or two novelty shops. I couldn't help myself... I bought some Mardi Gras beads for the wife. :)

Well, it's not much... but it's all I got for today. :) God Bless...

Updates: None, but I have two stories in the works...

Verse for today:

Phillipians 4:4-7, esv

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.