Merry Christmas to all the families who have warriors deployed.

This is Bluestardad over,

Merry Christmas Dad! Merry Christmas son and to all of your battle buddies. That was the conversation I was privileged to have with my warrior today. It was 0030 hours his time just coming off of guard duty, tired and weary. We chatted about what he needed and about the conditions he is operating under. He is the section leader now and now that they are at the COP they are using that time to train up up some of the new guy's in his section before going back out on patrol. In all he sounded pretty good and upbeat regardless of his minor injury.

I have had several people that have commented on my last posting and I would like to address two of them. Judy, who's son has served with the 173rd on multiple deployments in both Theaters of operations. You are feeling me on that call I got. I can only imagine what you went through.

To J who commented about her newly deployed son with the Herd. First let me tell you that your warrior couldn't be with a better unit in my opinion that performs airborne operations. As a former warrior from above, the 173rd rules the sky's hand over.

First what to send them, Letters is the first thing they need, lot's of them so get his address and give it to his friends family alike. Go to the post office or go on line and order a box of 25 flat rate cartons FOR APO'S as you get to send a larger box and you save $2.00 for each box. Send him things that remind him of home. For instance my warrior played ball for a number of years and loves Sunflower seeds. Only send enough that will last only a few days as you don't want them to hump all the stuff you send all over Afghanistan. Batteries are huge, both A's and D's. J, if you write me at my personal email I can get more in depth depending on his unit and what he does. You can reach out to me that way I can find out what your soldier really needs based on his mission. We also have a awesome support base that you can join but I need to know what exact unit your son is with so I can provide you with the proper info.

Last but not least, whenever your cell phone rings and the ID shows only 4 or 5 nombers, take it. It's your soldier or even a area code you are not familiar with. You can contact me direct at larryarnone@gmail.com. I am always available to my son's brothers parents. I will be happy to provide my cell via email. We have many sites for support and Blogs by our warriors themselves. Stay tough J, you are not alone.

This is Larry Arnone
AKA Bluestardad ( and I want to keep it that way)
San Francisco, Ca
OUT

I just got off the phone with an old MSG friend

I was speaking to an old friend on how the DOA called parents during the last deployment about injuries, and once I hung up my phone rings.

Sir! My name is SGT Johnson and I am with the Dept, of the Army and I am calling to inform you that your son Sgt Arnone was injured today during an attack on his position. While under fire by Mortars and light arms fire he went to take cover and under the process tripped and split his chin and suffered a non-life threatening injury.

I think I lost 20 years after hearing the first 12 words. I only pray that my warrior is well and returns to his men soon. They have only been there for only 1 and 1/2 weeks and they are already being hit.

Give them hell troops!

Blue Star Dad (and I want to keep it that way)

Out

Ring Ring

"This is Blue Star Dad go ahead"

Hey Dad it's me. "Hey Son how are you? I'm good, I am just checking in with you to let you know that my team and I are at the jump off point for our next deployment. (rest of conversation omitted)

That was a week ago and now they are in country waiting to move to their AO. For OPSEC reasons I will not reveal their AO but no matter where their AO will be I know one thing for sure, It is cold so I went to the store to start stocking up on materials for the care packages I will be sending to my warrior. I have to laugh though, the first thing on my list to buy some good old Panty Hose to send for the cold days facing him. At this point I am wondering how many of you are confused as to why I would send Panty Hose to my warrior. Well, many of you may not know this but Panty Hose can really keep you a bit warmer. Yep, cheap, light weight and so much warmer.

So here we go again, another deployment knowing that my son and his fellow warriors will be facing the enemy 24/7 365. Our guy's have it real rough especially after I just reviewed the new R.O.E. that have been established for them. Thanks to a couple of wonderful people that gave me a heads up on the new R.O.E. Cheri and M.S.G., I am with you all the way though out this deployment. Keep your chin up Cheri.

There are some new members on my warriors team that I am not familiar with but if any of you are reading this hit me back with your address so I can send you a package or two. So you know who you are with my Warrior is SGT Arnone with Battle Mortars. That should help some.

I hear there has not been much chatter with the FRG but am sure that will start to change. As I said before there are many new members in the unit but I hope over time many people will be googleing their warriors unit and will stumble onto this Blog. If you do, feel free to drop me an email and we can exchange contact information. Believe me when I say this, it does help being able to communicate during a tough deployment. Also if you are called a brother by my son you are always a son of mine, reach out to me so I know who you are.

I know it has been a very long time since I last posted and I am sorry for that but many of you that follow this Blog already know that I use this Blog as a tool to help vent my frustrations during deployments, we are now deploying and I am back.

I want to take this time to thank some individuals and organizations for all their time and effort in supporting not only OUR unit but all the others as well. Leta (Tankerbabelc) Mary Anne, Uncle Jimbo, Blackfive. A huge thank you to Soldiers Angels Germany and the many Veterans Hospitals serving our military. I also would like to thank I.A.V.A. for their continuing fight to help our veterans.

Digging in,

Blue Star Dad (and I want to keep it that way)

Out

And then they got into action

Hello all!

I was searching the internet for video's of our guy's (173rd ACBT) hoping to find something new that i have not seen yet and low and behold I came across two. It seems the first one here is an uncut version and then a second that has been edited and posted by Blackfive. I like the later as it has my boy in it scanning with his M-4 which really surprises me as he is the one that usually runs the tube gang under the direction of SSG Upp. Well you decide which one you like so here goes. The unedited can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJHBq8aX-4Q and the one I think is cool is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmEDe-UOGOE

Life after injury

Hello everyone.

It has been awhile since I last posted. The 173rd have are training pretty hard getting ready for there next deployment. I am sure they are getting the best possible training available. I attended a business event this past weekend and they had an awesome speaker there. Ron Heagy really moved me and after watching a video on him supporting our Military. Please support Ron in all he does. You can see his video supporting our soldiers here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGmG8TQV098

You all will be hearing a lot more me in the very near future.

National Medal of Honor Day

Hi all,

A fellow blogger recently sent me her blog update and I am in agreement with her. This is just a copy and paste of her blog site. You can find her site at www.tankerbabelc985.vox.com the following is from her blog.

A couple of days ago when I posted this story about Sgt Walter Singleton, MOH Recipient I had no idea that National Medal of Honor Day was this week.

My friend, Major Pain at One Marine's View posted this story recently about a flight attendant who asked the passengers to ring their call button if they could name one of the Medal of Honor recipients from the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Only one man rang his call button and was able to do so. The flight attendant then asked if any of the passengers could name an American Idol winner. The call buttons went off like crazy. I don't know about you all but when I read the story it made me sad, angry, disgusted and bewildered at the state of our nation.

Defenselink has a great site honoring Army SFC Paul R Smith, Marine Corporal Jason L Dunham, Navy Lt Michael P Murphy, Army Specialist Ross A McGinnis and Navy Petty Officer Second Class Michael A Monsoor. Medal of Honor Recipients from Iraq and Afghanistan engagements.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society site is probably one of the most comprehensive sites I've found with information about all recipients. Did you know there have been 19 Double Recipients of the Medal of Honor? I had no idea until I spent time at the site.

I doubt any of the major media outlets will make a big deal - daresay even mention it at all - about Wednesday being National Medal of Honor Day. But I'll sure take a few minutes to revist the sites about and to say a prayer of thanks for these great American Heroes.

Just sharing another friends work,

Larry Arnone

San Francisco

AKA Bluestardad (and I want to keep it that way)

A recon Marine in Afghanistan

This is a post that a friend sent to me by a Marine in Afghanistan. This soldier definitely has a way with words. I know it has been awhile since I have posted but I want you to know I have not given up and I will not be going anywhere. Our fine soldiers are off in Germany preparing to take the next fight for them to take to the enemy. They have conducted some successful airborne operations recently and I know that my soldier had some hair raising experiences during these jumps. I promise to stay in touch with each of you through this Blog but it just may not be as often as before until the actual deployment begins.

Bluestardad Out!



It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and
shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar 'yoi Pomir
River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake
out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.

I also glance at the area around me every ten to fifteen seconds
to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the
chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle
prod. Hurts!!. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid
but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.

The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not,
they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water.
That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me
comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and
storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates
up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the
hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new
movement.

It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers
yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but
days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to
begin.

I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my
boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel plated
Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me. I'm a romantic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This country blows, man.
It's not even a country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure,
there's no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit ruled by

eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know
jobs.

Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join
the opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I
forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened,
crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if
that's your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the
walking dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully
scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.

I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a
couple of Pashtuns for over a month and a h alf now and this much I can
say for sure: These guys, all of 'em, are Huns Actual, living Huns. They
LIVE to fight. It's what they do. It's ALL they do. They have no respect
for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves.
They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves
and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the
family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on
each other's barbarism Cavemen with AK47's. Then again, maybe I'm just
cranky.

I'm freezing on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is
running out of juice and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a
few hours

Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre.
Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful,
sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart.' They
are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are
looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and
hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted,
cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and
destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they're really smart.

They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a
very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be
products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic
lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is
like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets
frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.

OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon so I have to get back to my
hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I'm good
at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and
Move on with your lives.

The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is
designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you
glued to the screen through the commercials. We've got this one under
control The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around
analyzing what we're doing over here because you have no idea what we're
doing and, really, you don't want to know. We are your military and we are
doing what you sent us here to do.

You wanna help? Buy Bonds, America.

Saucy Jack

Recon Marine in Afghanistan

Semper Fi