Another rumble in A-stan (and some sad news) . . .

Another 6.0 earthquake hit yesterday in Afghanistan, about 42 miles southeast of Kabul. Josh said that everything and everyone in their group was fine, but that it did wake him up around 3 a.m.

Locally, some of you may have seen in the news where another member of the Jamestown Unit was killed in action on October 2. The incident is still under investigation. Spc. Jason E. von Zerneck is the sixth member of the Jamestown Unit to have lost his life in Afghanistan. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and unit.

Orange Pride in Afghanistan!

Our neighbor Nan is in a doctoral program at Syracuse University and receives a daily "SU Today" e-newsletter. Today's version included a picture of some of Josh's Unit in Afghanistan!!

The 27th Brigade Combat Team Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VII, in Kabul, Afghanistan, shows their Orange pride.

This is not just the 27th BCT, but at least some, if not all of the individuals are from the Ithaca Unit!

When you don't want to connect the dots...

When Josh called last Thursday and indicated that he was fine and the unit was fine, I knew that something had obviously happened to one of the other units; however, Josh could say no more. Late yesterday, the news of two more NY Guard troops killed in action was released - both of which were killed in the attacks that Josh "referenced" in the phone call, but could not share details about. They were from the Jamestown Unit in Western New York and fell under the 2nd Squadron, 101st Calvary Unit, same as the Geneva Unit. Ours thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends and fellow soldiers of the fallen.

Here is a breakdown of the 27th Brigade Combat Team and where the soldiers are from. You will see the Ithaca Unit listed as Company D (Delta Company) under the 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry. Hence his mailing address, Delta Co 2-108th INF.

Another "I'm fine"!

As you may have read or heard in the news this weekend, there was another IED attack in Afghanistan which killed five soldiers this weekend. While the nationalities of the soldiers have yet to be identified, Josh's task force - Task Force Phoenix - was identified as the U.S. led coalition that was affected. Thankfully, after a few hours of seeing this news myself on Saturday, Josh called. He is fine! We expected this time of the year to be a bit rough, but it seems as though this month has been especially busy over there.

In other news, Josh continues to appreciate all of the goodies and items that everyone is sending his way. He did indicate that he is well stocked on many items and I will post his "overstock" list as soon as I get it from him.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and support.

Task Force Phoenix VII

I was on YouTube tonight and found this video that was just added of the 27th BCT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZEv4J8iAKM&feature=related

If you click on More Info in the gray box to the right of the video, there is a pretty detailed description of the video and Task Force Phoenix.

As noted in the above mentioned description, there are weekly updates on the NY Army National Guard site. (*Note: the link provided here is correct.)

The Task Force Phoenix site has also been updated to reflect the deployment of the NY National Guard.