Talked to David!!

These next 15 months are going to be full of "firsts" for all of us! Today I talked for the first time to some one in Kuwait! David called about 2:45CDT and Jessica, Ben, Craig and I got to talk with him. He said it was about 10:00pm local time and he had to use a calling card since his SKYPE phone won't work until he gets into Iraq. He sounded well and said that they have not really done anything yet, but that "training" would be starting soon. We were all very excited to hear from him and we hope that the good news will continue.


Everyone at the office is praying for David and all of the troops currently serving our country. Many of our colleagues (at the office) are former or retired military or a spouse so they understand what we are going through. Today I put up my "Blue Star" banner at my desk and I also have a yellow ribbon magnet for my car that says, "Keep My Son Safe". Tonight we will post another "Blue Star" banner in a front window here at home. Hopefully all who see it will say a prayer for our troops.

Today is Halloween and we had quite a potluck lunch at work. Jessica will post some photos when Diane gets them sent out to us. The food was delicious in spite of how it looks! Hope there is some good food in Kuwait!

Well - I must get ready for all our Trick-or-Treaters tonight.

Stay safe and well.

Love you lots and miss you.

The Mom

The Eagle has landed

Well, 'Scooter', 'Crash', 'Lil Dave', has made it to Kuwait. After a 7hr flight from Hunter AAF, I arrived in Germany around 0400 EST, and after a 3hr wait, we boarded and left for Kuwait. Germany was cool. Got to see my first 5 EU bill, as well as a real-life German Sniper. ;) And when leaving Germany, I got to sit up in the cockpit with the pilot/co-pilot as we took off. That was friggin awesome. I took some nice pics of it and should have them up within a day or so. After another grueling 6hr flight (in which I was able to watch Harry Potter OOTP and Ugly Betty and ... (drawing a blank)... We got into kuwait around 4 this morning and after unloading bags, having a safety brief and finding a cot to sleep on, I was able to get some real food in me (Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza, courtesy of Sgt Brian Boutin ;). ) I went to bed around 0530 and was woken up around 1015. I then shaved and got ready and was told that we didnt have anything on the training schedule for today. I then went to the Chow Hall (DFAC), and had a nice lunch (Meatloaf, Potato Salad, Carrots, noodles w/ gravy, A coke and Mt Dew.) Also, I have saved some of my used bottles during my trip (One coke bottle from Germany and a water bottle from Kuwait.) Unfortunately the only net access is through a Net Cafe (too much bandwidth was tied up for wireless...) Well, my time is about up on this pc. But I will be stopping by the PX to pick up a power strip and power converter so that if and when they get wireless back up, I can take advantage of the skype phone and my other electronics. Much love to all the family and Chelsey. I love you so much and miss you dearly and know that your soldier is safe (and sweaty) and will talk to you when I can. I LOVE YOU!!

SPC McCarthy
Serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom V

Germany

Heard from "the Mom" this morning that you had arrived safely in Germany. I bet it felt good to stretch those long legs.

As Grandma would say, "Behave!"

Love,
Shennie

From the Wife

David got on the bus at about 1445, thirty minutes ago. We had to wait almost 4 hours for it to get there, but once it did they were gone in about 15 minutes. Breathing's a little difficult at times, but otherwise I'm surviving. It's hard to know what to say right now. Logically I know that I'll see him again in 7 months or so, but I still feel ripped in half, like the best part of me is gone, the part that makes me complete. I already miss him so much.

Godspeed

Just heard from David one last time today before he officially deploys.

Love you buddy! Can't wait to hear back from you that you've arrived safely in Kuwait.

From the Soldier

I know a lot of people have questions and concerns about my deployment (when I leave, where I am going, etc). So I figured I would go ahead and lay it all out for everyone. My unit is 'scheduled' to leave tomorrow (Oct 29th, 2007). We are meeting up at our company area at 1100 hours, where we will draw our weapons (hope my artistic talent kicks in...cough cough). We will then have time to spend with our family while we mark our bags with our Battalion colors. From our Co. area we will head to the gym where we will manifest all the soldiers who will be flying out that day. From there, we will head to Hunter Army Airfield. Once there we pretty much sit around waiting for our plane to arrive. We'll be flying on a 767 commercial flight. I don't know where we're stopping in Europe, but it could be Ireland or Spain, possibly Germany. Once in Kuwait we'll be sleeping in a tent big enough to hold our entire company (74 soldiers). We'll be completing cultural classes and other training to prepare us further for Iraq. We're scheduled to stay in Kuwait for 14 days, after which we head into Baghdad on a C-130. The funnest part of the trip will be doing combat maneuvers as we descend in Baghdad, making sharp banks to prevent us from becoming a potential target for hostile fire. From Baghdad we will travel to our base by means of a Blackhawk (no convoys for us). I will let everyone know my address as soon as possible. Myself of Chelsey will call or email everyone to let them know what it is once I have it. According to people over there there is wireless internet, though they say it's slow, so that may dictate how often I am able to get online and call people. I am going to be using Skype, and even if you don't want to buy a phone, you can download it for free onto your computer and we can talk there through text messaging and webcam. You don't need a number, you just need a username, and that's free, so please download it and let me know what your username is so I can add you to my contacts. Rest assured I'm in good company with people who know their stuff and will keep me safe, and I promise to do my part and keep my head down. I'll see you guys on mid-tour leave, which should be around summer of next year, and then I'll be back shortly after next Christmas. I love you guys very much.

Prayers

Skype Phone?! I'm still trying to get used to my cell phone. I plan on calling Scooter this afternoon before things get hectic.

During prayers and concerns in church this morning I asked folks to pray for DavidAndrew and everyone in his unit. I have to admit, I got a little teary when I spoke about it. I can't believe that little imp that I schlepped through Disney World is now going over to help defend our right to schlep through Disney World peacefully!

Sorry David's mom, I didn't make it down to Ct. this weekend. I'm glad you had a great time at the reunion. I can't wait to see the pictures. I did the reading at church this morning and I have knitting to do up the ying yang. The theme this morning was prayer and I asked the minister if he could arrange to have God answer our prayers a little earlier tonight! Actually, I completed 2 hats while watching the World Series last night. I'm digging up yarn to do the same today - I've got the Pats at 4:00 (and Richard Seymour has been reactivated) and then the

at 8:30 tonight. I hope to get a nap in sometime. I do so hope that New England beats the pants off the Red Skins. They're even worse than the Cowboys! (sorry, Mike).

GOD SPEED, SCOOTER! Love you! Aunt Sher

What fun!!

Greetings from The Mom (in CT)! Well - the 40th reunion went really well! I was surprised at how many people I remembered (thank heavens for picture name tags), but I was even more amazed at how many people remembered me! I took a couple of pictures with my best friend so will post those later.
We will call David after dinner this afternoon when most of the extended family will be here. They all want to talk with him befroe he heads to "the sandbox". I received an email from a dear friend whose boss's son is a Marine and heading to Iraq for his second deployment. These troops are dedicated and part of the best military in the world. We are very blessed to live in this great country and we have got to support these guys and gals in every way possible.

OK - today is Sunday. Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?? I am! GO COWBOYS!!!!!!!!! I'm a CT yankee who is a Dallas Cowboys fan - go figure!!


Bye for now.....
The Mom

Skype

Here is the phone that David and Chelsey have purchased for Chelsey to use while David is away.

Skype Phone SMC Wifi

I think that we should all try and get one so David can call us all whenever he likes.

Have a good weekend

This weekend the Dad and the Mom are heading "home". Though we live in the midwest now, we are CT Yankees! This weekend is the Mom's 40th reunion from grammar school. What a hoot that is going to be. Maybe I'll post some pictures next week if one on my techie kids can show me how!! We will be staying and visiting with the grandmother. I'm not sure she will let us take any pctures of her, but since y'all just saw her in August, that will be OK. It's possible we will see Aunt Shennie - not sure if she will make it down on Sunday. If she does, I will be sure to get some pics.

We WILL call David on Sunday to say goodbye and wish him well in his deployment. Also want to make sure that Chelsey knows we are here for her while David is "in the sandbox".

Until then - have a good weekend and be safe.

The Mom

Talked with David today

I made sure that I talked with David today while I was home sick. (I've got a yucky cold)

We got to talk for about ten minutes. He told me about what he knows of his first fews days that he'll be gone, including hid flight. I could've sworn he said he'd be on a 757, but who knows, I'm sure it always changes.

He and Chelsey have ordered Skype phones, so we all will be doing the same. I told him that we'd e-mail him our Skype numbers so he can call us anytime. He ordered an uber Skype phone, one that will allow him to contact multiple numbers. Chelsey and all of us will be getting simple phones since David is the only number we'll be calling.

I told him I love him and he said that same to me. Seriously, ten years ago I never thought that we'd say those words to each other and actually mean it! Ha!

Correction

Greetings from the Mom! - OK - So David is not leaving on Sunday. Ft Stewart decided they could not live without him for one more day - he is leaving Monday now. Oh - and he will not be on a 747 but a DC10 instead. Still a whole lot better than a C5. This is always subject to change - will keep y'all posted.

We really had a great time in GA - though I am a bit concerned. NO ONE spoke with a southern/GA accent. Everywhere we went - I could understand what they said - even the German lady!! I knew we should have eaten at A Lady and her Sons restaurant! I bet they spoke southern there!!

Oh well...gotta run. I'm on my lunch break again!

Till next time, The Mom

Pics from our weekend together

We had a really great time in Georgia last weekend.

Here are some pics from then. Enjoy!

I'm the Mom

Ok - this is going to be interesting as this is my very FIRST time blogging!! This one will be quick as I am on my lunch hour.

By way of introduction - I am the Mom (also know as the BOMB!). David is # 3 of 4 kids...and I am very proud of him. He has really turned his life around for the better thanks to the USA and his beautiful wife Chelsey.

There are several "favorite" stories I could tell, but I will have to think about it for a while.

For today....we just found out that David will be deploying this Sunday (Oct 28). Initially he thought he would be flying overseas in a C5 (military cargo plane) with no real seats, but as it turns out he will be in a 747. A much better deal for an 18 hour flight. Though we are from military families, it is still different when it is your son who is leaving. I wish him and all the other brave men and women in our military Godspeed and safe travel & keep your head down!!

Until later...the mom

My favorite time was....

I'm Jessica...or "#2" as I'm known.

I have two favorite memories that come to mind about David Andrew....

One is all of the sound effects he made when he was a kid (I think he still makes some of them). He's be eating dinner at the table with the rest of us and as he was gathering food on his fork, he'd be making plane sounds. He'd also make gun noises as he formed a pistol with his hand and took aim at any of us girls in the family. I also used to crack up whenever David was playing video games and he would make his own sound effects...."David shoots and he scores and the CROWD GOES WILD! Ahhhh----aaahhhh!" The sound effects used to drive JJ crazy!

My other favorite memory was when we lived in North Dakota and when David was only 8 years old, he had EA Sports on the phone trying to get support for a game he bought. At one point, he had several EA sports techies on the phone offering him a job because he bought a game that should not have run on our PC and he got it working. I could have told you then that 18 years later, the government would trust him with a multimillion dollar video game (UAV) :)

We had a fantastic weekend in Georgia with David and Chelsey. At some point, I'll post pictures. A good time was had by all!

Hi, I'm Shennie

I'm DavidAndrew's (Scooter's) aunt! At one point in time - probably for not very long - I used to be taller than he!

My favorite story - hmmmmmmmm - let's see. I think it had to be our trip to Disney World. When he was 9, I took him for 4 days to the Magic Kingdom. Two stories come to mind. I had planned to take him to the Electric Light parade down Main Street one of the nights we were there. However, that afternoon we had gone to one of the Star Wars "rides" and he had purchased a laser sword (please forgive me if I get these terms wrong, but sci-fi is not my forte). All DA wanted to do was to go back to the hotel and play with the sword. I agreed to do that for about an hour so I could put my feet up - then we'd go back, have dinner at the Coral Reef then go to the parade. He fought me every step. "Let's just eat here at the hotel, " (I hadn't traveled 1500 miles to eat dinner at a Best Western) or "I wanna take my sword with me." Now, for those of you who knew/know DA, if he took that sword with him, he would have lost it at least 5 times before we got to the parade, so I made him leave it at the hotel. So off we go to dinner and then the parade - sullen and forlorn. When we finally got to the parade - we managed to get 2 seats on the curb right at the rotary at the end of Main Street - there was another boy about David's age sitting right next to us. Make a long story short - David was upset when the parade was over and he had to say goodbye to his new friend.

The other story about WDW is about his dinner eating habits. We were there 3 nights. The first night we went to the Coral Reef over in the Polynesian Village and he ordered fried shrimp from the Children's Menu. He ate every last morsel. The second night we went to the Japanese restaurant in EPCOT and it is served Teppanyake (sp) style. Again he ordered a fried/grilled shrimp dish. The last night he had his choice as to where he wanted to eat so we went back to the Coral Reef and he again ordered the fried shrimp.

When we got back to my apartment in Virginia where the rest of the "tribe" was staying, I was commenting to his mom about how much DA liked fried shrimp. She was shocked and said I had to be wrong because he never ate fried shrimp. But I sat for 3 nights and watched him devour fried shrimp like it was going out of style. Who knew?

Over time, I may get to tell you all my favorite stories about his siblings - and even his parents. I'm open for bribes!

Scoots - keep your head down and DON'T volunteer for anything - unless it's to come home!

God speed.
A.S.

Pictures from Tybee Beach Day

Dear all,

It's late, I'm tired, but I have posted some pictures from today at Tybee Beach on my blog.

See them HERE.

By the way, if you are not using Bloglines to keep up with all these blogs, I recommend that you make yourself an account and use that to keep track of when each blog is updated and posted to. Get a Bloglines account HERE. It is a simple and easy process. E-mail me with any questions.

Deployment

As many of you are aware, I will be deploying to Iraq at the end of October. I will be there approximately 15 months in which I will be on a FOB that is 40 miles South-Southwest of Baghdad. I know a lot of you will be worried, and that is perfectly normal. Be rest assured that I am in good company with my fellow UAV Operators, and that we will be moderately safe (since we never leave the base except by Blackhawk), especially when compared to most other MOS (jobs) in the Army (or entire Military for that matter!). Internet availability is looking good for where I will be and hopefully will be able to not only blog about my time in Iraq, but also have Skype w/ Skype phone so that I can call people for free (and vice versa). Well, not sure what else to say except that its great having my mom, Jennie, and Jessica down here in Georgia before I deploy.! Love you guys!

Jennie

Hello! I'm Jennie and I am David's oldest sister. I am married to Ben.

My favorite story to tell about David..... hmmmm.... When we were kids, my parents bathed us all together to save time and water. Well, one night it was Dad's turn to bathe us, and he sat Jessica in front, me in the middle and David in back. I was about six, so that made Jessica four and David two. Dad was using of those hoses that you can connect to the bathtub faucet to rinse us off at the end of our bath. I felt a warm stream and didn't think any thing of it until Dad announced that David was peeing on me!! EEEWWWWW!!!! I made Dad give me another bath, in my 6 year-old mind rinsing was NOT enough to get that boy pee off me.

Welcome!

I'd like to welcome all who will be posting and reading this blog for the next year or so. This blog is primarily meant for the Mac Family to stay in touch with our beloved Army of One, David. Mom/Sue, Jennie, Jessi, Katie, David & Chelsey will be posting as a simple way for us all to keep in touch when we can't speak. Friends of the Mac Family are welcome to read and post comments as well. I'm sure that David would like to hear from you all as well.

We'd like to encourage you all to read regularly and post, and if you are so inclined, to send care packages while he spends the next 15 months on his deployment.

Although, I think it might be beneficial to establish some rules for posting...
1) For the safety of all of us, no last names are to be used. We are the Macs.

2) Again for our safety, no addresses (snail mail or e-mail) will be posted. To get the address for sending care packages, please post and we will e-mail you.

3) Positive comments as much as possible. These 15 months will be difficult for us all, and it will be nice to have a positive place to exchange stories and "converse."

If you have any further rules that might be a good idea, please let us know.

For the first post, why don't we each introduce ourselves and tell a favorite story about David... I'll start us out.