BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

I have to admit, it feels good to be back home. I've been riding the "car" (Battalion 2)for the past few cycles but got to return to the Officer's seat of the ol War Wagon today. Our Department recently switched shifts for our Operations Battalion Chiefs. After all the names shook out, C-Shift North Battalion got Chief Bobby Slayton. Chief Slayton was hired on with the Roanoke Fire Department back on December 6, 1965 (I was born in 1969). He was already a Battalion Chief when I got hired in 1991. Needless to say, we are gaining a LOT LOT LOT of fire experience. There are a few more tie ins with Chief Slayton, myself and Station #9 as well. For starters, Bobby spent many of his younger years right here at station #9 (C-shift). Here's an older pic that I stole..errrrr borrowed from Mikey Overacker. That's Bobby coming down the stairs at #9. Check out some more older pics of the station from over at Mikey's site here. The other tie in is that my dad (now retired) was assigned as Bobby's driver (aide) for years. He has pretty much seen me grow up, apply and get hired on the Department and make promotions to Captain. All of our Battalions are top notch but for me, getting Bobby feels right. Anyhow, since the moves, he hasn't reported for duty. He basically had the month of December off for vacation and we were beginning to wonder if he would return at all (now that he holds the record for longest on the job with the Fire Department... Captains Givens and Swanson respectfully bumped to 2nd and 3rd). Today, he quieted all the rumors and reported for his first shift as the C-shift North side Battalion (and just in time for ol blog boy Fleitz to bang out sick). Here's the pic of Chief Slayton this morning.. So, with Bobby on duty, I'm back in the saddle of E9 (where I belong). Welcome back to C-shift Chief, it's gonna be a BLAST! OK...I know the New Year's post was a let down. Excuses are like a certain body part..everybody has one, but in my defence, I do have a good one. It was Tyrone's fault! LOL. On Holidays, other than station chores and running calls, I pretty much give the boys the day off (no training, pre-plans etc). Well, Bugg got one of the new Atari games for Christmas .."Duty is Calling.. New Age Killing part 40", or something like that. Anyway, he brought it in and we plugged her up. While I was trying to pull together all my writing skills to make the last post of 2009 a good one, Tyrone was raining death and destruction on some poor unknowing souls at mega loud volume. Writers block, shell shock and just plain mayhem. .

Regardless of the last posts quality, I felt like we've had a good year here at #9 and that the blog has done pretty good as well. I know we've had fun keeping it updated and as fate would have it, New Year's Eve was our busiest day ever for blog traffic with 798 hits! To follow up on the events of New Year's Eve and Day, Medic 9 had the honor (if that's what you want to call it) of running the last call in the City for 2009 and then the 1st for 2010. The engine had an interesting one as well. While staging for an assault, a man ran down the street to find some help for the person stabbed. Guess who he found... yep E9. When they didn't respond to his waves to "come this way" he decided he'd just go fetch em. When he couldn't coax them out of the Engine, he decided he'd just get in and make them get out. Oh yea, he got up on the side board and tried to get in the War Wagon. How'd that work out for him???? NOT TOO GOOD! Let's just say he didn't make it in and Roanoke's Finest soon had him in cuffs. The boys are fine and the patient (who was a few blocks away)received treatment after RCPD secured the scene (**TRAINING NOTE** on assault calls, stabbings and /or gun shot wounds, stage a SAFE distance away from the dispatched address and remain ALERT. If someone approaches you, LEAVE. Cops don't put out fires and Firemen don't...errrrr SHOULDN'T carry guns!). Nothing too exciting to report on today. I guess a little good and bad news. The good news is that it's NOT snowing again.

The bad news is that it's COLD. REAL COLD. I mean 20 degrees COLD! And WINDY too! Did I mention it's COLD? Well it is! The boys always laugh at me about wearing long johns and using an electric blanket on my bed.. well who's laughing now? I've warned em too... I'm sleeping with a halagan tonight and the first fool who tries to get under that blanket with me is gonna regret it LOL. I guess that's one downside to an older house.. the windows are old too and don't have the best seal. I'm in the Captain's office downstairs and can hear the blinds blowing in the upstairs bedroom from here. It's past "drafty" up there and just about at the right temp to hang meat. Another thing I wanted to share with you all is from last day. I was riding the Battalion so that means you run out of "The Deuce" aka Station #2. Well, that's where Zack Obenchain is assigned and he took the time to stop by for lunch with his crew. He again express thanks from his family for all the thoughts, prayers and support. He said that everyone is doing as well as can be expected. Here's a pic of Zack at the kitchen table and one with me


Oh yea, for all you Tech fans out there...that was a Tenn. Vols shirt he had on...poor little "tink tink" (**adults only** look it up..you'll laugh your butt off). Ok, that's enough for tonight. Don't forget to put a "cold weather bag" on the rig tonight if you haven't already. Everyone stay safe, warm and in house. We start 4 day in the morning...SEE YA GEEKS!
Captain Wines

IT'S ON ! and "meet our members" part 2

Ok, some of you may have caught on that Rhett and I have a friendly little game of fretting going on. We are actually close friends and enjoy the jabs at one another. Lately, it seems as though we've been "one upping" him as far as our posts / blogs go. Even though he thinks he's an "arther" (an inside joke), he really has a long way to go. Of late, he's been caught twisting the facts, doctoring post times and dates and is often out right guilty of plagiarism and copyright infringements. Well, today, he's taken it a step further and involved "almost" innocent bystanders. When I say "almost", it's because the little Hippies should have known better. You see, today I stopped by Roanoke County's newest fire station #1 for a tour (WOW!!! but I'll get to that in a minute). When I got there, Capt. Witt told me that Rhett (riding OIC on City Engine #3 today) had stopped by earlier for a tour and took a few photos. Well, not to be out done, I too got a few shots around the station and had intended to beat him to the punch as far as posting them. I called in a favor with the Hippies at the Green house to help me in my efforts but got double crossed instead... PLUS Rhett took a little jab over on his precious Fire Critic site ..you know what that means..

I would have never thought Rhett would put Innocent people in the line of fire nor would I have ever believed that the Hippies at #3 would have gotten the balls to mess with the misfits again... especially after the last spanking we gave em here LMAO. Anyways, the Hippies got the post up first and I'm sure Rhett will soon have an award winning (in his own mind) post up as well. Not be stopped, I too will proceed as planned and post on my tour of the palace. Here's our local news coverage of the stations opening here and here's a picture of the building

The building is AWESOME! OMG if we had stations like that here in the city. Helmets off to the County on a job well done. Modern EVERYTHING! Check out these shots of the kitchen, day room and bay...



YES, that's leather recliners! I just had to give one a test ride

Oh..sorry, that one's a little blurry. Let me see if I have a better shot...

I gotta admit, I was speechless when I walked into that station. All kidding aside, I hope Rhett got some good shots and creates a decent post (if ya need some help Rhett just call me...u got the digits). As for the Hippies getting in the middle of it.... it's coming ;-)
Ok, on to our 2nd installment of "meet our members". Tonight we'll get you a little closer to Tyrone (Ben Obaugh). Tyrone was hired 9-22-03. His 1st assignment was to Lucky 13 and soon after became a Misfit. He is married to Jill who is bound to have a special place reserved in heaven. Together, they have 2 children (and future firefighters) Jackson and Noah. He's a Veteran, and a past Marine. He's an avid outdoorsman who often hunts with his bow or uses open sights on his riffle. He scares easily and believes in zombies. All in all, a great guy to work and live around. Above all, he's a devoted husband and father. Heres a family shot

Now, Tyrone is often portrayed as a "jokster" the "funny" or "crazy" guy around the station but I really don't understand what would give anyone that impression...He's perfectly normal in these shots.... right??




He's been featured in several of our videos.. check out these links from our past
here and here
He is a BLAST to work with but also a damn good firefighter and paramedic. He too rotates between the Engine and Medic and has become proficient with his skills on both levels




I gave him his nickname because he thought he was fretting me. He was here when I got the assignment. Well, to break the tension of a new Captain / crew etc. I may have fretted him just a touch. In return, when asked what his middle inital "T" stood for (Ben T. Obaugh), his reply was "Tyrone". Like I would believe a skinny white boy from Highland county would be named Tyrone...anyow, it stuck and he's been Tyrone ever since. Besides, he looks like a "Tyrone".... well groomed and handsome!

SO there he is.. well all we can show ya on here anyway. It's rainy and cold here tonight. Bugg's in the seat while I fill in for the Battalion. We'll update if anything comes up. Thanks for following, use the comments to let us know what you think. We're back Friday and Sunday. Until then, stay dry, safe and in the house. Capt. Wines

TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM

Been one of those days for the C-shift Misfits. Wheezy is a little short of run and skills for his EMT-I certification so we had to transfer him up to The Deuce to ride with a preceptor. That led to us getting a fill in from Lucky 13 who ended up being First Lt. Sam Stump. Now, this affected us in a few ways. First, next day (Friday) is Sam's last day on C-shift for a while. He is being moved to Station #8 A-shift as acting Captain taking the place of recently retired Captain Jimmy Renick. Due to the facts of him being an Officer and his leaving the shift next day, I didn't want to assign him to the Medic unit. Here's a shot of Sambo.

Tyrone is still wandering the Highland County mountains in search of the perfect kill. That leaves Opie to ride and he's been on there for the last several days (not to mention they took a beating last night). So...the Ol Capt. bit the bullet. That's right all ye non-believers.... I'M RIDING THE MEDIC. OK, let me ellaborate... I'm out there "DOING IT". Yep, we've seen it all and in just 1/2 a tour. Heres the proof...





Now don't get excited. The box drives a lot easier than the "Cowboy Cadillac". The only reason I'm in the back of the copter is cause they wouldn't let me fly it. And, you have to admit that I look GREAT in my Doctor coat. I know, I know... I didn't have my mask on in the OR but hey, the stash makes for a pretty good filter. I mean come on guys... if it was easy, everybody would do it! Alright, the day hasn't been all about us saving lives, we always manage to squeeze in a little training as well. Today, we got to experience our newest training tool. Our regional gas grill....errr burn building. The latest and greatest. No more real fire, a brand spanking new Class B burn building. Here she is...ain't she a beaut?? More safety features than NASA and the Space Shuttle..Geesh

We basicly ran company evolutions with Ladder/Medic 7 and Battalion 4. Let me tell ya what... Woooooo. Talk about your barn burner! I mean just before those fans kicked on at 500 degrees ... OK OK so it's gonna take some getting used to. At least they have it labeled right..

LMAO...that's the actual label on the building. Anyways, we moved our riding positions around so the boys could get some training from other perspectives. Coon rode the seat and became the Incident Commander while Opie pumped the War Wagon. Both did an excellent job. Here are a few shots from the training...




You may have noticed the "bull horn" located on Coon's Command Board. Well, that's because our brand new radios work REALLY well inside that building. Communication was much better after he started using that thing. LOL. All kidding aside, we had some good hands on training (plus a little "pretend like" on the side) so helmets off to the lead instructor Lt. Tom "Bucket Head" AKA Guts Gherman (and his quality control Officer Plaza)...

Ok, enough of these shananagans, lets move on to some important stuff. New hires. We posted earlier AND FIRST on the 11 new hires for the City. Now Rhett would have you believe that he had the list first by changing his post time and date, BUT...BUT read the comments. He's a fraud....An imposter! We just may sue for copyright infringment and / or Plagiarism (that means you "stole" it PUNK). A cut and paster this guy is. And an insult to every readers intellegence by trying to cover it the way he did. An "arthur" my ASS! Anyway, regardless of where you read it, CONGRATULATIONS again to all of the new hires. And hey, just to PROVE we are the bomb and beat him to all of the "REAL" stories, here's the list of new hires for our Brothers and Sisters out in Roanoke County
Mallic, Meger*, Miller*, Martin, Campbell*, Hefflin and Googin (again, " * " denotes Medics) CONGRATULATIONS to these folks as well and "UP YOURS MIDGET BOY"...gotcha again :-) OK 2 more things real quick. Our Local's President Rodney Jordan and Lt. Steve Jordan from over at #4 A's father is in ICU up at UVA. Keep these brothers and their family in your thoughts and prayers. We also wanted to tell everyone HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We hope each of you enjoy the day and time with family. Keep the brothers and sisters all across this great country who have to pull a tour tomorrow in your thoughts as well. As for you folks out there not on the job...take a moment to stop by your local firehouse and let the guys know you're thinking of them. That's it for tonight... don't eat too much turkey. Everyone stay safe and in the House... see ya on BLACK FRIDAY... peace out! Captain Wines and the boys.

Monday Monday 1st day back for C-shift Misfits

I don't know why but it seems as though when you take a few days off and then return 9 days later, tasks which before seemed simple and routine now have become much more difficult. I usually arrive for duty first ohhh anytime between 06:30 and 06:40. My first chore is to put on a hot pot of coffee. Today... NOPE. We have a new combo lock on our food locker and guess who didn't get the memo. Result... no coffee. Next, I get my gear in shape and on the truck, do the computer work, check department e-mail then my favorite sites. As the boys arrive, they too get their gear on the trucks and begin to complete their morning checks while one of them prepares our morning egg sandwiches. This morning, 08:30 before the sandwiches were up. OK, one slow / late meal ain't so bad but we do try to maintain a schedule here..it is a firehouse you know. Lunch is at 11:30 so we catch the Price is Right showdown and the noon time local news. Dinner is at 17:30 so we don't miss Andy and then get to catch the evening news. Well tonight, as 17:30 rolled around, I was waiting for a pregnant lady to walk in. Why a pregnant lady you ask... cause this is what Wheezy had on the stove...

Enough water boiling to birth triplets but NOTHING to eat...GEEESH! I thought for a minute or two there that Wheezy has been taking lessons from the 'ol "Ninja Cook" Opie. Guess I was just a little impatient cause after throwing a weee weee weee tiny fit, tossing a few pots and pan etc. Wheezy produced a master piece... and well worth waiting for. Yard bird, stuffing with gravy, mac and cheese and a side of CROW for the Capt....lol

And, my little "I'm gonna starve" tantrum wasn't the only obstacle for Wheezy this evening. I guess the clock and my showing had him picking up the pace a little. Ok maybe turning up the heat instead of picking up the pace. The result of that... smoke. It got kinda bad at one point... so bad in fact that Coon had to take protective measures...

And again, seeing how fabtabulus the meal turned out, I guess we should have paid a little more attention to the sticker atop the Captains desk

(NO WHINING...and also note my Fire Geezer mug, I'm not sure how it manages to sneak its way into so many of our pics). So, Wheezy's cooking and riding backwards. Tyrone has been off to hunt camp since Friday and with no cell service, all we can do is pray that he has and is taking his medication. If he's not...well Highland County will never be the same. Opie is riding the box with our own little poop magnet Coon. Opie actually attended hunt camp with Tyrone Friday through Sunday. He slayed the big one from his mobile recliner, slept ON a wood stove (placed inside a tent by multiple firemen), showered outside in 30 degree weather and used a 5 gallon bucket for a toilet. Guess he had all the fun he could stand so he came on back home. A rainy / cool day here in the "NOKE", sitting on 8 runs total. Nothing too exciting, some local lumberjacks fell a tree across a service drop and didn't think enough of it to slow them from continuing their work. Downed line and all, they finished cutting the tree, loaded the wood and cleaned up debris before anyone called it in... and oh yea, the line was hot


Other news includes a HUGE date that we totally missed. Our house..station #9 located at 514 24th Street NW Roanoke, Va turned 80 years old last month. The station was completed October 2, 1929 so HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY old gal. Like a fine wine, she gets better with age. Warm in the summer, cold in winter and, the roof only leaks when it rains. No, she's a good house and we'll miss her. Here's a pic of how she looks now. I'll also add the new station. Scheduled to open in March 2010, her replacement is well under way and we managed to snap a shot from across the street today. This pic is from the front or the Orange Ave side..check it out, a "measure of progress".


I also wanted to remind everyone that our Public Safety Football team will have it's 1st official practice a week from today. I CAN'T WAIT.... PUT ME IN COACH! Check out the Roanoke Rampage site here. Thanks to Captain Todd Stone and Assistant Fire Marshall Chris Price for all their hard work and effort.
I'll close with a very special announcement. Most of you have figured it out by now but today, we (ok..more like Rhett than "we") officially completed our "RSS" feed. What that means is that whenever we post here (to this blog) we automatically feed to "Networked Blogs" which takes the post to our newly built and under construction Face Book Fan and profile pages and then on to our Twitter page. WoooHoo, now all you "picture bookers" and "Churp Churps" can follow the Melrose Misfits as well. I hope you all enjoy the ride. That's it for tonight, We've got the Monday, Wednesday, Friday tours so we'll see ya again Wednesday night. Until then, stay safe and in the house. Captain Wines

EVERYONE NEEDS A LITTLE TYRONE!

You just gotta love Tyrone. With him in the house, there's never a dull minute. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times it ain't so bad. Today, the boys decided to take matters into their own hands and attempt to suppress his thyroid problem by fretting him into a state of calm. That plus I think they were just trying to get a jump on him and beat him to the punch (usually Tyrone is the one doing the fretting). Anyhow, it's been Tyrones day to be the center of attention. That, along with some other happenings has made today a pretty fun tour. It started with us getting up a few leaves this morning. Tyrone had a nice big pile. I think he was planning on doing a swan dive into them from the bed of the "cowboy Cadillac" but just as he'd get em piled up, Opie would come along with the leaf blower. Just might have saved Tyrones life... or at least a few fractures.
Now, we all know that Tyrone is a little "wired" at times... ok ok.. MOST of the time and I thought we had learned to work around it. Apparently NOT! The one thing we try to avoid is letting him eat sweets. I think I've even issued an order on it. DIDN'T MATTER. The boys juiced him up today. They've done everything but shoot him up with D50. I know you've heard the "you might be a redneck if" jokes. Well, here at station #9, the joke goes a little different. "You've worked in the ghetto to long when..." ???? how about when you make Kool-aid pies. Yep... I said "Kool-aid" pies. At least they made it from our favorite flavor...RED!! So sweet your teeth hurt! Just look what happened when Bugg licked the spoon. Ok, so fretting Tyrone didn't calm him down ANY. The Kool-aid pies only jacked him up worse. So, our only option... buy a new mask and scare the crap out of him...
LMAO...He's still sitting in the corner shaking! But at least he's quiet :-) The rest of the day...just as funny. A tour full of laughs and even one unbelievable event. The well known, famous, master blogger, self proclaimed genius, author, mega web master, paterfamilias Rhett Fleitz himself was left SPEECHLESS... Yep...didn't (couldn't) utter a word! SPEECHLESS! Well after the fact anyways. You see, Todd "multi media" Harris was attempting to talk on a cell phone while utilizing the "redneck hands-free technique" (pinning the phone between his shoulder and ear). Which generally works, just not so well when you're wearing a radio strap across the same shoulder. You guessed it...the radio mic was keyed. Oh yea, and for what seemed like an eternity. Always up in someones business, looking for any hint of a story for his "feel good" "eco-friendly" piece of poo, rag blog / web site, Rhett was in close proximity and just had to add his 2 cents...it came across the air loud and clear.... here's how it went.... #%&@^%!$%*#) church $@^*#*@^^#((&&^%@*&@^% please $@#&&@%*@%#&$!&@%** yes, thank you *#&@#%$^^#(@***@^%%@$#&*$%#^@ I love my job too @*%#&^!$@*%%$#*!&@**#@* that Chief of ours..what a nice guy*#%@^$#*@&%#&^@** gonna have to buy him dinner#$@*&!%@$#(!*@&^#%!$@#**@#!HAHAHaahahahahahahahaha. Every man on the North Battalion was running for their radio or cell phone to notify them. Too late. Afterwards, when the Chief came out to bust a few balls;...errrrr I mean to investigate the matter to assure there was no radio malfunction or possible safety issues involving their portables, Rhett had no rebuttal. NOT A WORD. Quiet as a church mouse. GUILTY! The best part was that we got to witness it. They (Lucky 13) were out hose testing and, since they never get to use any of that "yellow stuff" on the back, they called and asked the Melrose Misfits if we'd come help. The chief even rolled his sleeves up and all the while kept us in tears with his antics over the open mic. (editor's note: Rhett and I are good friends and he knows I'm only poking fun in the above posting. His site is NOT eco-friendly). The shenanigans haven't been all about Tyrone and Lucky 13 today. The boys have even worked on me a little. You see, Wheezy and Coon are testing for promotion to Lieutenant. Our Lts ride the seat when the Captain is off so, in an effort for them to gain some experience, I have been letting them "ride the seat". Today, Wheezy is riding and I'm backwards. Our War Wagon is still sick so we're using a reserve piece. Yesterday, the "Q" siren quit on the reserve. Now, the engine is equipped with an electric siren as well but I CANT STAND hearing a fire truck on a run blowing an ambulance siren. Ughhhhhhhh! I'll stick my head out the window and yell for vehicles to move while blasting the air horn before turning on the "woo woo". Well, Wheezy and Bugg know how much it irks me so.... THEY BLEW IT! I guess they were thinking I can't fit over the dog house and between the seats to get to them. Blowing and laughing all the way. Then....THEN... to top it off, when he keyed the radio to clear us from the incident, he identified us as "Medic 9". See... that's why I hate those woo woo sirens, messed him up so bad he thought we were on a medic truck. Geeeeesh.
Ok, this is getting long, it's late and I'm tired so I'll try to wrap it up. Sorry we missed the post last day. Caught a small job, looked and seemed worse than what it was. I'll tell the full story another day (it's funny)...basically a mattress fire. Here's a shot just before taking up.

One last note is that Gary "Fish" Fisher is back in the States and town. We posted earlier about seeing hits on the blog from Iraq and that we figured them to be either my future son in-law or Fish. Well, he called the station tonight and let us know he's in. He's here for about a week, back to Iraq for about another week, then home for good. We're glad you're back safe and WELCOME HOME brother!
OK, I'm done. Off on 4-day in the morning, back on Saturday. Until then, stay safe and in house. Capt. Wines

Day 1, C-shift

Where does a 4 day break go? Holy cow this one flew by! Our last day was Halloween night and luckily, we didn't have any fires but did catch a bad looking MVC. Single vehicle, with major impact, and a high MOI (mechanism of injury...my Doctor term for the post). Luckily, and just as unbelievably, the driver walked away..literally walked away as in left the scene and returned later. Anyway, here's a shot of what happens when you run a Lincoln into a steel I beam.


Scariest part was the child safety seat buckled into the passenger seat .. glad the driver was alone. Anyway, that wound up last cycle. Today is our first day of this cycle and it's been busy busy all day. Tyrone has the day off hunting so at least it's a little quieter around here at the house. We started the morning helping out a good friend of the Melrose Misfits Roy Lane. I've posted several times about Roy and his work with the Kazim Temple's Fire Brigade. Well, they recently acquired a new Ladder truck for their fleet and needed a place to temporarily house her. The truck came from Clifton Forge, Va. and is in GREAT condition. What's even better is that she's an Oren! Chief Tartaglia and our Dept. graciously agreed to let the Shriners park the truck in our Historic Station #1. I had the honor of driving her down and backing her into the station and it wasn't until we were done that we realized exactly what we did. You see, their new ladder is an Oren, station #1 also houses our Local's 1937 Oren as well as a retired piece from our City fleet, Squad 1 which is ALSO an Oren. When we finished up, Station #1 had 3 Orens in her, nose to tail. I know some old Jakes who would love to see that. Oren has a pretty rich history here in Roanoke and most any of our retirees hold fondly a few stories involving one of the "Grey Ghosts". Anyway, we didn't get a picture of all 3 together (we'll post one soon) but did manage a few shots of us getting em in. I'll add too that Rhett has been corresponding with a retired Brother from Richmond, Va. (Tommy Herman)who is just completing a book about Oren Fire trucks. He said the book contains some really good photos from Roanoke and as soon as I can steal the link, we'll get it up. So, here's a few shots of the Temple's new ladder and Old Squad 1.



Here's a pic from Tommy as well. I'm not sure if this is one that made his book or not. It's one of our Grey Ghost sitting in front of "The Deuce" aka Station #2.

I'll do more on the Orens soon and I'm sure Rhett will have a piece on one of his sites in the near future despite the fact that you heard it here first ;-)
Ok, so after taking care of Roy and our Shriner brothers, it was normal runs and house work. Later in the day we had one of our bi-annual "cluster meetings" with our Chief. No real surprises other than getting to see Chief Barker in a tie. I made the Misfits wear eye protection just in case one of those buttons cut loose LMAO

Our War Wagon is still sick...think she has that pig cold or whatever it is going around, either way, it ain't good. One of our little fretters from over at the Hippie Hotel sent me this pic of her on the operating table down at the City garage today. Them County boys done her in good...Poor girl....hope we get her back soon

That's about all for tonight. Sitting on 6 or so including a GSW and kitchen fire out on arrival. Oh yea, we check our stats pretty regular (you can too at the very bottom of the page) and we notice the hits from Iraq (click the "view my stats" then find "map" in the left hand bar). We have 2 guys over there that are close to C-shift. Gary "Fish" Fisher who resigned from the Department to go and my future son in law (David Downing)who was pulled from VMI for his 2nd tour. Here's a shot David sent me the other day of him in a Black Hawk. We wanted them to know that we see them checking in on us and that our thoughts and prayers are with all the men and women over there fighting for our freedoms. THANK YOU, keep up the good work, stay safe and hurry home guys!

I'll close with the note that we are working on adding some fancy high tech "RSS' or LMNOP feed thingy or something so that you guys can follow us on "picture book" aka Face Book and that chirp chirp thing... twitter or whatever it is. Anyway, hopefully we'll have it up soon, Coon says it's "the bomb". Stay safe and in house, we're back on Saturday.
Capt. Wines