All righty,,,,, Things arent to bad off here now. All the texas guys have gone, and thier back home now. The missions for us have been pretty heavy so far. Main reason being the up-coming elections. Things have been a little on edge but still calm. So far the guys are doing well and working hard everyday, for me the paper work is a donting task everyday. When I think i have it caught up, more comes but i am guessing thats life. Umm we have had a small break in the cold the last two days it only got to around 20 degrees so thats been warm. Right now the boys and I are on nights, i think we'll be switching back soon to days. i hope everything is well at home with everyone. Thanks to everyone for the gear and socks that i have gotten so far its been a major help. Its strange no matter what you wear or how much or it,,, the wind will cut right through it. Anyways I hope everyone has got the hectic christmas shopping done, i am kinda glad i missed that part of this year. Mainly cause i hate shopping!!! But I hope everyone has a good christmas and a very good new year. Well I am getting ready to head out for anoughter long cold night in the woods love you all and more to come soon. NATHAN

WoW

Sorry for the big gap in time here. There has been a hole lot going on around me right now. To start off with we got some time off before we left Germany so we went to Munich for 2 days. I must say Germany is a abundances of history. The churches and the clock towers are amazing. I have never see anything like it. There almost 15 stories high and built out of stone and mortar its amazing there still standing in perfect condition, and the thing that baffles me is that the build new stuff all around on all sides. We went to the Maximilian street there version of a shopping mall, and I saw my figured Austin Martin and a Farrie dibble. Every thing is way way way expensive their I could by much of anything. OH almost forgot this,, in any building restrain, store, or coffee shop you can bring your dog in and they sit with you. I thought that was cool. I imagined Jake running circles smelling butts and chasing a stick. Anyways Germany was a amazing experience to say the least I cant wait to go back.


So now to Kosovo, its a eye opener to say the least. We have been out on patrol 4 times now. Not a whole lot to speak of. But the site of a brand new building sitting right beside a bombed out one is weird to me. The citizens of the country walk around in nice clothes carrying cell phones I cant afford and wearing nikes. I saw a young girl carrying a Prada purse the other day. But they all live in mostly sheepish conditions and their power goes out sometime after dark every night. It just seems to me thier priorities are just way outdo wack. The kids love us and most the middle aged do to, the parents are i different story. They want us gone so they can carry on but as soon as well turn our back something gets bombed or blown up. I think to myself is a never ending revealing door. But we will do what we can to help and when its time to go I'llbe glad to come home and stay their. And enjoy everything we take advantage of now at home. Till the next time lots of love and happy turkey day everyone.

Well were to start, it has been a while since I have been able to log on as you can tell. For the most part the last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. Right now we are in the Battalion level training; really it’s just a simulation of the real Kosovo only in Germany. Early mornings have been around 4am and the nights for me last till around 12am so theirs not much sleep or personal time to be had right now. Most of the guys have gotten used to the climate change now, and it has gotten really cold the last week. This morning has been the coldest here so far it was around 20 degrees; the high was around 35 degrees this afternoon and it started to sleet around lunch time. Just to make the training even more realistic it has started to snow now. We haven’t gotten a lot but the weather man says it’s supposed to dump about 8 inches on us by the weekend, with a cold front right behind the one were in now. It has been funny to watch the guys who haven’t ever seen snow! They look like little kids running around outside hurling snow balls at each other. Anyways the dates we are working on now are around 15 of Nov getting on ground in Kosovo. That’s really all they will give us to go on.


And I must say sorry to a lot of the family for not being in contact as much as I would like but the time is stretched so thin around this place is starting to drive me a little nuts, but I will say it will get better in Kosovo once were settled in. Right now the only thing I know is that I miss you all and love you very much. The lake house sounds like a little peace of heaven compared to the cold and wetness here. And the thoughts of drinking my self silly in 0 degree weather watching VA Tech kill UVA one more time, runs through my mind when I am standing outside with a rifle in my hand trying not to let my feet freeze off. The places I would rather be in this world are many, but oh well make the best of it and dress warm for a few more months. Well I got to run the work never stops, love you all and talk to you all soon.

Ok well to start this off, I am Sgt Pettway but to most of you I am just Nathan. I have been selected to serve my country once more. My unit along with others from Virginia has been selected to mobilize and head over to the small country of Kosovo to give them a safe and secure environment for them to live their lives as we do in the US, which most of the time we take for granted every day. In my Platoon theirs 36 of us from mainly southwestern VA and most the others are from the Richmond VA area For my Squad theirs 7 of us now and they all remind me every day that I am not as young as I used to be,,, most of them aren’t even 21 yet so that’s were it comes from I guess.

From Aug 5th through the 17th of Oct we have been in on a small base by the name of Camp Atterburry. It was needless to say Camp Atterburry was not ready for the unit size that we brought to train their training areas. Oh sorry I forgot our whole Task Force size is around 3,600. Anyways we endured a lot of hip pocket training from that base do to the size we brought. Although the training a lot of info we already knew it gave us a chance to hone our skills to be better at our mission we will have to perform over in country. Their was some good training that did take place we received many hours of IED (improvised explosive devices) you’ve heard of them on the news from Iraq. Let me see, of course can’t forget this one now the army has decided that it is a requirement for us to be sprayed with OC spray, which is a combination of pepper spray and tear gas. It makes mace look like drinking water. I really thought my life was over when that stuff hit my eyes. But we all made it through it, not to say we would ever do that again!! Of course we had to qualify with our rifles and pistols, that’s a given I guess. The physical fitness test was not much fun as usual but it’s over now. The select guys who qualified expert with their rifles got to attend a Designated Marksman Course (shooting way out at small targets) I was won of the lucky ones who got to attend that course and it was actually a learning experience for me, and a lot of fun on top of it all. The ARMY standard is to shoot from the prone (laying down) at 100 meter, 200 meter, 300 meter targets.
Well on the DM course we shot from 100 m all the way out to 800 m, and shot from the prone, kneeling, sitting, and then from standing. All in all I am very confident in my rifle and my own abilities to knock a target down form 800 meters away now, with out a second guess or thought in my mind.

In our last week and a half at Atterburry, we went through our STX lanes (squad training exercise) it made for a long week and a half that’s for sure. My squad got a lot of time to show their skills as a team and as a cohesive unit. And not to brag but wow they made me look good they did it all in stride and never looked back once For me it wasn’t bad but above my level their was so bad planning that had to be corrected so it made the hours even longer for me, but we made it through it. At the end we received excellent scores for all of our task, and the missions we ran. So the OC s (observer Controllers) check our blocks for everything, and cleared us to move on to Hoensfeld, Germany to be exact. We will be going through a lot more in country specific training here that we couldn’t get in Atterburry.

What a day we had, a plane ride 8 hours in a DC-10 is not a lot of fun but we are here, the jet lag was really bad the first day but we are getting out of it now. And I will say from what I have seen thus far Germany is a beautiful country. We are about an hour and some change North West of Berlin from the road signs we passed on the way here. On a funny note the bus driver we had was an older gentleman listening to American rock and roll it was a site to see to say the least. All the German’s that work on the base here seem to speak English well but with a thick accent to it. They love our country twang in our voices; they say they have never heard English spoken like we do. Getting to a phone is hard over here is tough and the net is not readily accessible to us. But we are learning how to adapt on what we do have and it only for 3 weeks, so we can survive I think. Oh for everyone at home we are 6 hours ahead of you here. All that we have gotten so far is the first few days are going to be a lot of laying around then the briefings will start. Before we leave here, we will have more STX lanes to go through I think their about a week long here to.

That’s about all I have now so I’ll end this posting. But I love, and miss you all. Keep us in your prayers and we’ll be home soon.