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12/09/08 07:42 PM	#1469
Joseph Ales sorry Jeff I thought you were passed out.

12/09/08 07:48 PM	#1470
Jennifer Schwab Wouldn't be the first time I saw that in a cab in Chicago.

12/09/08 07:51 PM	#1471
Michael Theut No problem Jeff. I learned an important lesson on Sunday night. Never surprise your wife with concert ticket to bands she doesn't know or doesn't like. I was smiling and grooving through Wilco and loving Neil Young. She sat with her blackberry looking up periodically asking if we could leave.

12/09/08 08:21 PM	#1472
Joseph Ales Glad to finally be home. I must have missed 90210 last week and I'm having a hard time keeping up on what is happening

12/09/08 08:22 PM

#1473

Kevin Duke

Couple days behind. Alfred E. Newman. When I was 15, I worked at Custom Craft Collision. When I smiled (didn't talk much back then) someone thought I looked like the Mad Magazine character. Later was just Al or Kid.

Jenn-Rabbit Hash, interesting, going to have to rent it. I take it is a Sportster? Gotta be a bit rough on long rides. I go for 3 to 5 hrs and that's enough.

Ron- you must be C.C. Rider to go to all those states.

Contest- I was going to say in, but Carl took it.

12/09/08 08:26 PM	#1474
Nicole Cassisa (Prevo) YIKES!! You guys are naughty! I'm so offended! That's it! I'm out of here!

12/09/08 08:40 PM	#1475
Kevin Duke Nicole. What'd I say?! Damn. I'm always chasing the girls away. Shucks

12/09/08 10:02 PM	#1476
Sarah Riley (Goemaere) Chris Love your pictures thanks for keeping us safe.

12/09/08 10:05 PM	#1477
Jennifer Schwab Kevin, yeah it's a Sportster. And I highly doubt you'll find "Rabbit Has is the Center of the Universe" at your local blockbuster. Lol. We can burn you a copy of it if you're interested though. It's a bizarre (but oddly fascinating) slice of Kentucky.

12/09/08 10:18 PM	#1478
Nicole Cassisa (Prevo) Alright Kevin you convinced me to come back. But Joey- you're out already. Now you're just bragging. Btw, I'm out too.

12/09/08 10:31 PM	#1479
Nicole Cassisa (Prevo) Jen-I love pandora. I have it on my iPod. It's like my own little radio station only without the commercials and the radio. Chris- Your photos are great! Thanks for sharing them and including the captions. I was wondering what your mission was. Can you tell me without having to kill me? Also, do you and President Karzai still keep in touch?

12/09/08 10:44 PM	#1480
Michael Thompson Geez Nicole. I had you in until at least the spring! The Queen is dead.

12/09/08 11:11 PM	#1481
Nicole Cassisa (Prevo) Just kidding Toast. I'm still in. I think I'm pretty funny though.

12/09/08 11:17 PM

#1482

Christopher Gellasch

I am glad everyone likes the pictures. I was the commander of the 71st Medical Detachment (Preventive Medicine) and we were based at Bagram Airfield. Our mission was to keep Soldiers healthy by ensuring the food and drinking water were safe; the air, water, and soil were not contaminated; base camps had sanitary living conditions; insect populations did not have diseases like malaria and leishmaniasis (AKA Baghdad boil); and tracking reportable diseases for trends. We then made recommendations to commanders in the field on the medical threat and measures that would minimize the risk to Soldiers. In addition to being in charge of the unit I focussed on groundwater supplies and water quality issues. Overall we were very busy and went out to remote base camps on a regular basis.

I didn't get to meet President Karzai...he was out of town when I checked the palace water supply but I got a tour.

12/09/08 11:41 PM	#1483
Nicole Cassisa (Prevo) That must have been a challenging but interesting assignment, Chris. How did you find the conditions there? Were the troops pretty well equipped to protect themselves from water/air/soil quality issues, nasty afghani bugs and what not?

12/10/08 12:00 AM

#1484

Christopher Gellasch

We spent a lot of time before Soldiers deployed educating them about medical threats and doing things like treating their uniforms with permethrin insect repellent and showing them how to build hand washing stations. Once we got into theater we did a lot of routine inspections of the water storage tanks, dining facilities, etc. to ensure there were no problems. Overall we had a relatively low number of Soldiers getting sick. Cold weather injuries (hypothermia, frostbite, etc.) were another concern but education and good equipment were responsible for keeping those numbers low. We also did a lot of air, water, and soil sampling to get a comprehensive picture of what Soldiers were exposed to so that another mystery "Gulf War Illness" did not occur. The problem with preventive medicine is that it is difficult to tell someone how many cases of X disease or injury you kept from happening.

Most of Afghanistan is mountainous desert so we did not have a lot of insects to worry about. General sanitation in the country is poor. Bagram was a large base camp so we had decent food, gyms, and air conditioning. Smaller base camps were much more primitive with less desirable living conditions. Even so, we had it much better than the local population. Unlike Iraq, there is no oil money in Afghanistan and 30 years of warfare has destroyed anything resembling infrastructure.

The worst part for me was sending my 18 and 19 year-old Soldiers out on missions and not being able to sleep at night worrying about them. That experience will probably prepare me for when my son is in high school and staying out late doing the things people talk about on this forum...lol

12/10/08 08:51 AM	#1485
James Belt Anyone remember the Hauswirth family from New Baltimore. Jessica, Van, and Ben. There family owned Dandellion Plumbing. They lived on the lake behind Gendernalik (?) funeral home. Just heard that Ben was arrested for a murder for hire plot. New Baltimore, over the last 10 years is becoming a murder capital. Can't believe it.

12/10/08 09:25 AM

#1486

Nicole Cassisa (Prevo)

Very interesting Chris! Thank you for sharing your experiences. I had images of what parts of the experience must be like largely based on info presented in the media. I appreciate the different perspective you've given from your personal experiences.

Do you mind a couple more questions? I hope I'm not getting on your nerves. I was just wondering what prepares a geologist for those responsibilities? Did your education and work in geology prepare you? Or have you studied and trained in other fields, as well?

12/10/08 09:26 AM	#1487
James Belt They did not go to Anchor Bay. They went to I.C. for grade school and then to private high school. The family still lives in there same home on the lake in town.

12/10/08 09:32 AM	#1488
Jennifer Schwab Jim, I remember about 15 years ago, my mom decided to have a security system installed in my folks' house. Everyone laughed at her, saying that New Baltimore is safe. Nothing happens there. Now, they're not laughing. There's been too much happening there lately.

12/10/08 09:34 AM	#1489
Wendy Corneille (Lincoln) Jim I heard about that. Someone involved owns a business in New Baltimore but they didn't say which one.

12/10/08 09:44 AM	#1490
Nicole Cassisa (Prevo) It's sick, isn't it Jim? What's up with NB? I was furthered sickened to learn he intended to pay $500 to take the lives of 3 people. It's horribly wrong at any price but that makes it so much more despicable and frightening to think it might actually be possible to hire a murderer that cheaply.

12/10/08 09:46 AM	#1491
James Belt I am not sure anymore what businesses the family owns. I believe they owned the srtip mall and a mini storage at 23 and Jefferson. The one right by Grillo's.

12/10/08 10:18 AM	#1492
Jeffrey Murphy that number doesn't even make sense... who charges 166.66666 per person... at least make it a round number... or maybe he was running a special, 250 per... buy 2 get one free... ugh...

12/10/08 11:02 AM	#1493
Jennifer Schwab Hi all. For all you facebookers, I wanted to let you know that Rai Ann has started a cause for Juliana's Toys for Joys Toy Drive. It would be great if you could all join the cause and help get the word out.

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