Update

Hello all;

Yes I know it's been since June, time sure does fly right by.

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holidays. So I thought this is one way to do just that.

A quick udate on Cip- He will be home for X-Mas and New Years. He will be in Towner on the night of the 22nd leaving on Jan. 6th.

Anyway, the house thing is coming along..... almost done. Come visit to those people that live out of state, and you know who you are.

The kids are all doing just fine and missing their daddy. Tanner has his first BB game today in Harvey and weather permitting he will also play in Surrey tomorrow. We will be in blizzard conditions tomorrow afternoon. Not going to be very nice. Cold and anywhere from 2 to 6 more inches of snow. yuk. Like we don't have enough snow. This picture was taken in the first part of Nov.

OK enough of that. Happy Holidays to all and try to stay warm. lol....

Miss you all

Dawn

Reborn III (the conclusion)...

To end the previous chapter, I spent eleven days in Baghdad. After two or three days of trying desperately to get back to Ramadi, I decided to quit fighting and accept that I have little to no control over this aspect of my life for the time being. This realization (combined with exhaustion) allowed me just to let go of my immediate destiny, and a quantum shift seemed to occur in my being, or at least, who I could be. I've seen these guys (and gals) roaming around this shattered country doing amazing work in an unimaginable environment. I never thought I could be one of those people. Now, I think I am.

Re-born...(Part II)

With only one meeting out of several postponed (a banking work group), we felt the trip had been a total success. Now all we had to do was get back to Ramadi and report our victories. To accomplish this we had two flights booked - one on Monday and the other on Tuesday. As it happened, the Monday flight was actually the back up (in case we finished our work early or if the weather was forecasted to be a problem for the Tuesday flight). Our desk officer at the embassy who had arranged the Tuesday flight requested that we drop it to give the crew a rest and the since the Fallujah leg had dropped off it would be helpful if we took the earlier flight. Not anticipating any problems with the Monday flight we agreed to take ourselves off the Tuesday flight. Big mistake. When we arrived for the Monday departure a large group had gathered at the flight line. We were to share our flight with a VIP contingent from Anbar headed to Ramadi. When the birds landed, the Governor and his staff jumped on one of the helicopters (Marine Corps - which can seat around twenty). The other bird was empty. When we tried to board the aircraft we were stopped and asked if we were with the other group. Unfortunately we told the truth and were denied boarding. The helicopter's wasted no time in taking off and leaving us wondering what the heck just happened. The next day we had to endure several of these incidents of almost getting on a bird and then being denied at the last minute. Additional flights were booked during the week only to be postponed and then eventually cancelled due to the weather.

To be continued...

Re-born...

No, I haven't converted to Islam. Something hit me this week, and it felt rather nice. What is was - I guess - was a realization that something inside me had changed, or flip (as in a light switch).
I was racing back from the Post Exchange (remember mini-Pamida) with about forty bucks worth of crap that I didn't need (only needed ten bucks worth of crap, but apparently I justified a few comfort items on my way to the cashier).
The day before, the entire week seemed to almost be a loss. It started out fine - a trip to Baghdad to fine-tune a few projects, and to give my team some well deserved time away from Camp Ramadi (where we had been choking down our fair share of the powder they call sand, due to the desert breezes that can last up to a day or two). Mainly they earned it by putting up with me for the past six weeks or so, and making nice progress in their assigned areas.
Baghdad provides an opportunity to expand and explore those assigned areas in ways you are typically unable to from our remote site. So, basically their reward for hard work was to find even more and harder work for them to do (and take a dip in the Embassy/Palace Pool)!

(to be continued)

Another Planet

Hello, Hello,

The dust kicked up big time today. We were in Ramadi at a meeting when the sky started turning orange. It does this every once in a while. It's like those movies that have people living and working on Mars. Really feels like another planet sometimes. Good news is typically this means the temp drops a few degrees. It's pretty much been 100+ this week, but today must have dropped down into the eighties.

Ya, the excitement is picking up here a bit with the Brigade leaving and more pressure being put on the bad guys in other parts of the country. Path of least resistance. I believe the Provincial team next door will be standing down for the weekend, however, I don't believe that will be the case for us. Everyone is definitely paying more attention to movements and security. We have fresh Marines watching over us, so don't believe they will let us down.

Glad to here everyone is doing good. So am I. I've got more things to read than I will ever get around to and have movies stacking up as well. Nights have been getting later since the new Team Leader arrived (just trying to get him up to speed). Plus I have three new team members to train in, so the work goes on...

AMANDA

For those of you who don't know---Amanda W-- my mailing address is
Dawn Jungberg
PO Box 373
Towner ND 58788

So things are going good. The house is coming along. We are still not in the house. Soon... The kids are ready for school to be out and summer to be here.
Not much else happens in Towner, so nothing new to report.
The report on Cip is that he is safe. Can't wait for him to come home and spend time with the fam. And play some cards.... He is putting in alot of overtime, working very long days, with very little time off.
So I will type more later when I find the time. LOL!!!!!
Dawn

Imagine you are in a development office for a medium size city with a staff of less than ten people. Now imagine a state-wide development office located right next door with around 50 employees. Now imagine the city police commissioner sending 40 of his most qualified troops to support your development effort, meanwhile the state law enforcement office takes over the primary task of economic development in the state development office.

Welcome to the "Civilian surge" - minus the civilians...Last week we finalized our agreement with our new partner in crime - Task Force Ramadi. This is a curious bunch of 0-5s and 0-6s (approximately 50 of them) who's main task is taking over the management and daily operations of Camp Ramadi in the wake of First Brigade's departure. They hold down the fort until RCT1 (Regimental Combat Team One) of the First Marines Expeditionary Force (1st MEF) is ready to assume these responsibilities.

For the ePRT, this means my economic team went from one (me) to four! This has actually been a very welcomed event for me, however, others are a little put off by the pure numbers. My only concern is that when they leave in September, the volume of projects may exceed my capacity for adequate monitoring and follow-up...