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Husband, Father, Son, Friend, Soldier, Nurse, Hunter, Fly Fisherman, Motorcyclist, Telemark & Cross Country Skier, Mountain Biker, & just trying to stay young in my 40's

Galleries

2012 NH Hunting season :

2012 NH Hunting season

Updated: Dec 09, 2012 7:46am PST

Misc :

Misc

Updated: Nov 30, 2012 11:36am PST

2012 Maine Hunt :

2012 Maine Hunt

Updated: Nov 26, 2012 3:22am PST

2012 Fishing Season : 21 April 2012-evening outing Blood Brook Wilton NH. Three Rainbows total: two 13", one 11". First on #16 Dark Hendrickson dead drift, next two #14 Muddler Minnow stripped. Water was low and slow moving, far bank of above damn pool.

2012 Fishing Season

21 April 2012-evening outing Blood Brook Wilton NH. Three Rainbows to ...

Updated: Apr 29, 2012 5:30pm PST

Skiing Utah March 2012 : Utah ski trip 2012. Stayed in Park City. Skied Deer Valley on Sunday 4 March, beautiful day, great snow. Monday skied Solitude, another beautiful day. Tuesday Alta, windy, overcast with storm heading in to the area so visibility was really tough. Wednesday skied Park City Mountain Resort, started cloudy and only had gotten about two inches of snow the night before. Snow was really nice on the upper mountain, a little hard lower. Sun came out in the afternoon and turned in to another really nice day. Great trip overall we can't wait to come back.

Skiing Utah March 2012

Utah ski trip 2012. Stayed in Park City. Skied Deer Valley on Sunday 4 ...

Updated: Mar 09, 2012 7:03pm PST

Sage :

Sage

Updated: Feb 07, 2012 6:25pm PST

Caiman MRAP : Some pics of a Caiman MRAP. Excuse the black spot on the labeling as I originally spelled Caiman with a "y" which was wrong. Anyway, this is the vehicle the Convoy Escort Teams (CET's and also know as our Squads) will be driving in Theater. Here is a description: Description: The Caiman is a family of mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles based on reliable Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) platform and the combat-proven Low Signature Armored Cab (LSAC). The highly survivable Caiman platform in 4x4 and 6x6 variants is manufactured by BAE Land Systems for the US Army and US Marine Corps MRAP program under the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Their parts commonality with the 80,000+ FMTVs ensures high levels of readiness, mobility, serviceability, and worldwide support. The Caiman 6x6 is a wheeled mine resistant, ambush protected tactical vehicle developed by Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems, an Armor Holdings division, for the United States military. Armor Holdings was acquired by BAE Systems in July 2007 thus becoming part of BAE Land Systems. The Caiman 6x6 is based on MTV 6x6 platform having 85 percent of parts commonality. It is powered by a 6-cylinder Caterpillar C7 diesel engine developing 330-hp. More than 1,700 Caimans have been produced for the United States Armed Forces as MRAP Category II vehicles. Specifications Accommodation: Crew 10 Dimensions: Fuel Tank Capacity 280 l (74 gl), Ground Clearance 584 mm, Height 2.8 m, Length 7.3 m, Wheelbase 4.1 m, Width 2.5 m Weights: Max Weight 18 t, Payload 2,450 kg (5,401 lb), Towed Load 5,443 kg (12,000 lb), Weight 16,825 kg (37,092 lb) Performance: Approach Angle 43 °, Departure Angle 50 °, Fording Depth 915 mm (36 in), Gradient 60 %, Max Range 645 km (348 nm), Side Slope 30 %, Top Speed 105 kph (65 mph), Turning Radius 20 m (66 ft) Power: Max Torque 1,166 Nm, Power 330 hp Other: Wheel Drive 6, Wheels 6 Pretty cool vehicles; very safe against IED's and much more so than even the most armored Humvees. While capable of 65mph, guidance is to stay at 45 or less due to the high center of gravity making them a bit top heavy and easily rolled. Our Company is aggressively getting everyone licensed on these before we leave Ft. McCoy so we don't have to worry about that when we get over there. Guys are doing well with the drivers training. Some other cool features; electrically operated turret, 5-point seat restraints, actually comfortable seats, thermal camera with drivers display for black-out night driving, rear seats are removable and litters can be carried as well. We are pretty excited to be falling in on these vehicles for our mission, it is a safe and impressive beast.

Caiman MRAP

Some pics of a Caiman MRAP. Excuse the black spot on the labeling as I ...

Updated: Oct 31, 2010 4:28am PST

STX Training Ft McCoy WI Oct 2010 : STX (Situational Training Exercise) Lanes were conducted over a 5 day period the end of Sept to beginning of Oct. the first two and last days were mostly classes with the 3rd and 4th being combat patrols with blank ammo. The pics here are from the first day of patrols while two of the squads were prep-ing their trucks (mostly POS, beat up drawn here from the post), while 3rd Squad prep'd in the chow hall rehearsing their battle drills with paper plates as trucks. The Squads worked on battle drills (vehicle recovery, evacuate causalities, react to IED, react to contact, react to ambush) during this phase of training. Again they did great. The execution improved with each iteration on the lanes. Squad and Team Leaders really stepped up as did the men; all working together making it happen. Weather was great too.

STX Training Ft McCoy WI Oct 2010

STX (Situational Training Exercise) Lanes were conducted over a 5 day ...

Updated: Oct 15, 2010 6:44am PST

Gunnery Lane Training Ft. McCoy, WI Sept. 2010 : Gunnery Training; 4 days of team and squad gunnery validation. The focus of the training was on hitting targets with the truck mounted crew served weapons and communication within the teams and the squad. I was with 1st Sqd (SSG Hannan-Sqd Ldr) these days. 2nd and 3rd were doing the same training on another range with LT Curtis following them. These pics were from the 3rd day of the squad portion of the training. Rained for the first two then it was nice. Long days,as there was a night fire portion to them, 20+ hours on a couple. But the guys got to do some sleeping in the 5-Ton truck in between iterations on the lane. They went through the lanes 3 times each day and night; dry fire, blank fire, and then live. It was good training and they guys did great. Gunners did well, and communication and execution improved with each iteration. 1st Squad was easily the class of the ranges they were on, and reports were that 2nd and 3rd were as well on theirs.

Gunnery Lane Training Ft. McCoy, WI Sept. 2010

Gunnery Training; 4 days of team and squad gunnery validation. The foc ...

Updated: Oct 13, 2010 5:00am PST

Motorcycling VT 2010 : What can I say; just and incredible weekend with 2 of my most beloved friends. Ike and I hooked up on Friday morning at my house in Temple and headed north from there. Ike on Hotti; Heidi's 2010 BMW F650GS as he is currently bike-less. I on my 2009 BMW F800GS.We head to Keene, made a couple of stops there, meet a nice couple interested in Heidi's bike, and then worked our way north. We took Rt 12 up to VT then RT 5 to 103 to 100 up to Stowe then RT 108 through Smuggler's Notch to Pat's in Jeffersonville. In Stowe they were having a big antique car show and we ran into this 40's vintage and well restored military motorcycle. Friday evening we had a great BBQ dinner and my Brother Wes and his family come over from Richford too. Saturday morning we got off to a good start around 9:30am despite our staying up to 2AM drinking beers and shooting the shit around the bonfire. Pat on his 1984 (I think) BMW R100GS. We headed west, had nice breakfast as the VT Breakfast Factory, then continued to Rt 2 up through the islands of Lake Champlain. From there we turned east on RT 78 then to RT 105 along northern VT. We headed to Jay Peak and had lunch at the base lodge there, continued south to RT 58 turning east again through Hazen's Notch, terrific dirt roads, and then to Lake Willoughby to camp for the night. More beers, hot dogs over the fire, and conversation was the order of the evening. In the morning we continued east to Island Pond over some great dirt roads for another good breakfast. From there we continued still east to the VT/NH border via Rt 105 and then headed south on RT 120 to check out Maidstone Lake State Park. The park was great and I expect we'll be staying there some time in the future. Back out to RT 120 for a short bit, then we turned back east for some incredible dirt road riding on the Granby Road all the way to East Burke. From there south to Lyndonville where Ike had to head home to work the next day. Pat and I continued east on more dirt over Stannard Mountain to Greensboro Bend. From there is was all hardball again to Stowe; we took Rt 16 then 15 to 100 to Stowe again, where Pat and I stopped and switched bikes for a bit for our final leg through Smuggler's Notch on RT 108 then to his house. The clutch on mine had been acting up (in fact warranty service directly after this weekend ended up replacing it) and he had some trouble in the Notch and had a zero speed, zero damage drop at a turnout where we stopped to try and let the traffic get ahead of us; no harm to anything. That evening we joined Pat's family out to dinner. Monday morning rained incredibly hard but cleared off in time for me to head back home, taking the same route Ike and I had taken north. Everything we rode all weekend, the dirt and hard ball were great. The bikes did fantastic, the scenery couldn't be beat, and the company was the best. The weather Gods were with us because a lot of the weekend it looked like we might get wet but never did. Ike and I did over 630 miles over the weekend. It was all of our first real long distance motorcycle journey and we all loved it and looking forward to our next. The only thing that could have made this weekend better would have been Scott making it too.

Motorcycling VT 2010

What can I say; just and incredible weekend with 2 of my most beloved ...

Updated: Sep 12, 2010 12:04am PST

Zip Lining 2010 :

Zip Lining 2010

Updated: Aug 19, 2010 6:58pm PST

HIMARS Certification LFX FT Drum 09 :

HIMARS Certification LFX FT Drum 09

Updated: Jul 23, 2010 8:10am PST

Ft Huachuca AZ, May 2010 :

Ft Huachuca AZ, May 2010

Updated: May 25, 2010 5:09pm PST

Maine 2010 :

Maine 2010

Updated: Apr 28, 2010 5:27am PST

F650GS : Heidi and her new BMW F650GS

F650GS

Heidi and her new BMW F650GS

Updated: Apr 20, 2010 7:35pm PST

Tags :

Tags

Updated: Mar 17, 2010 11:35am PST

F800GS :

F800GS

Updated: Jan 31, 2010 4:00pm PST

NH Hunting Season '09 : So here is the story. Sat in my climbing stand from first light Sunday to 1100h; might have saw one but the fog was so thick in the early morning I can't be sure. I moved to a nice rub line area for the afternoon and was settled about 1320h in the stand. It was warm, about 70*F, and I didn't think anything would be moving until close to sunset. So I sat up there in my tree stand fighting the “Z Monster” and he was winning mostly. On and off I was nodding when I looked up and saw this buck walking up towards me. I readied myself and when he stepped in an opening about 40 yards away I shot. He ran about 40 yards and I saw him pile up, it was 1420h. I climbed down and went to where he lay. The shot was perfect, just behind the front shoulder, through both lung and caught the top of the heart. I packed up my stand and hide it, then dressed him out, and started dragging at 1530h. It took 3h20m to get to my truck due to the thickness of the forest and debris from the logging about 5 years ago and last years ice storm. I went to the checking stand and then to Josh's to hang him in his cooler. He weighed in at a surprisingly light 164lbs especially given his impressive 10 point rack. We will get him processed Wednesday evening. It was incredible satisfying since I have missed a nice buck in this area each of the last two seasons; thinking this might be the same buck as two years ago, similar sized and shaped rack on this one as that one had. Gun used: Remington 7600 carbine cal. 30-06 w/ Nikon Monarch 2-7 power scope; Remington Core-lokt bullet

NH Hunting Season '09

So here is the story. Sat in my climbing stand from first light Sunday ...

Updated: Nov 16, 2009 3:11am PST

My Smug Mug :

My Smug Mug

Updated: Oct 29, 2009 12:45pm PST

'09 Wood Weekend : Wood Weekend 2009. Dave, Ed, and Cliff headed up to camp on Thursday morning, scouted out some wood to gather, and collect one load. I headed up after work Thursday afternoon. Friday we collect 3 more loads of wood and Ike arrived shortly after we were done in the afternoon. Saturday morning we got all the wood split and stacked, Ike and I went on a good ride out towards Moxie Pd. Weather started to turn so we did as well. We did take a detour down to Robinson Pd which was a challenging trail. Sunday morning clay bird shooting in the afternoon Ike and I went on another ride out to Deer Bog. Evenings were spent enjoying some adult beverages and playing Skat. Weather was decent and we got a lot of work done. Besides the wood we got the dock in, hand-pump pipe in, and gas filled. Monday morning we cleaned the camp and were all on the road by 9am. It was the best Wood Weekend ever; great friends, good rides, good weather, good times, and good work.

'09 Wood Weekend

Wood Weekend 2009. Dave, Ed, and Cliff headed up to camp on Thursday m ...

Updated: Oct 14, 2009 6:18pm PST

Ice Storm '08 :

Ice Storm '08

Updated: Mar 30, 2009 7:25pm PST

Maine Hunt '08 :

Maine Hunt '08

Updated: Mar 29, 2009 5:36am PST

Iraq 2004 :

Iraq 2004

Updated: Jan 30, 2009 7:41pm PST

Fall Foliage Birthday Ride Report :

Fall Foliage Birthday Ride Report

Updated: Oct 12, 2008 9:27pm PST

Camels :

Camels

Updated: Jul 16, 2008 7:21am PST

TW200 :

TW200

Updated: Jun 30, 2008 7:10pm PST

BMW Demo Ride '08 :

BMW Demo Ride '08

Updated: Jun 28, 2008 4:26pm PST