In memoriam

Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Darren E. Tate, an individual augmentee assigned to Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan, died of pneumonia on July 8 at Bagram.

Another sailor was assigned the duty, but Darren accepted it instead because his friend’s wife was experiencing complications from pregnancy and Darren told him he would take his place. ... He persuaded his mother to mail about a dozen boxes of clothes to him in Afghanistan so he could distribute them to farmers he had befriended.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star. Godspeed, AOAN Tate.

Update: July was not a good month for CSTC-A: on July 6 another IA to CSTC-A, EOD2 Tony Michael Randolph, was killed by an IED.

Another way to stay in touch

This sounds promising. Google Voice is available by invitation only. But they are letting anybody with a ".mil" e-mail address get a Google Voice account invitation. According to SGT Dale Sweetnam, who is working with Google as part of the Army's "Training with Industry" fellowship:

When you deploy, your life is put on hold. While you live and work in a different world, everyone else moves on with life back home. Your family and friends keep moving, and this sometimes means it's just not possible for them to stay awake until 2 a.m. to receive a phone call. Calling Iraq or Afghanistan is seldom an option.

Google Voice provides a solution to some of these problems. Service members can set up an account before they deploy. Or if they're already deployed, families can now set up an account for their service member. Loved ones can call to leave messages throughout the day, and then when that service member visits an Internet trailer, all the messages are right there. It's like a care package in audio form.

I signed up for an account when I came to Google, and it's already making communications much easier here in the States.

I just applied for an invitation. We've been planning on using skype to stay in touch, but free calls and free voicemail over the internet sounds like a good plan too.