The U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

https://www.yolascafe.com/f07abr9os4 The U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

https://paradiseperformingartscenter.com/qsn1kxpof Lots of briefings and meetings today.  We started the morning in a meeting room in the U.S. Army Command and General Staff college.  After the first briefing with Mr. Kirby Brown, the Deputy to the Commanding General U.S. Army, Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, we were quickly and professionally escorted from the building, informed that a suspicious package had been found outside.  As a visiting Chinese delegation was due in at any moment, the matter was being dealt with delicately.

follow url I love being around people who can handle any circumstances.  I fell in with several officers as we left the building, and had the most pleasant conversation as we vacated the area of a potential explosive.  I’ve seen civilians panic at the prospect of an icy road.  Several of the journalists today were pretty damn unhappy.  These men and women just roll with it.

go site I had the pleasure to meet some of the most incredible officers today, including Colonel Steve Leonard, Operations Officer for the Combined Arms Center, shown in this photo making his points in an effective, entertaining way.  The Colonel had, as he put it, “no filter,” and it made for some interesting conversation.

Tramadol Mastercard Overnight We have a number of briefings tomorrow morning before leaving for Ft. Leonard Wood to experience new recruits being… welcomed into the U.S. Army.  Amidst other hot topics, PTSD has been a subject of much contention among the little group of journalists, and we’re going through a formal presentation on it tomorrow.

Order Cheap Tramadol Cod Colonel Leonard had this to say on the subject.  “If you could take a pill and forget a traumatic experience, would you do it?”  He spoke about learning from our experiences, through our mistakes.  If we could magically forget the hard times, would we simply go through them again, having not learned our lessons, and, in the case of the magic pill, would we then be doomed to repeat?  It’s an interesting train of thought…

https://www.elevators.com/eyoqq6upp58 We also had the opportunity to walk through one of the cemeteries on base, the resting place of approximately 22,000 men and women.  To me it always seems like graveyards deserve a mighty moment of silence, a sense of place.  It was haunting and mesmerizing to walk through the gravestones and see dates from the Civil War all the way through our wars today.  It was a heavy place.

follow url We met with several officers and their families to discuss the unique challenges military families and relationships face.  This was one of my favorite topics, and I loved being able to sit down and hear how families cope, what they like and don’t like about the life and how they make relationships work.

https://www.brigantesenglishwalks.com/ccbb750gx I’ve been told that we will be able to do PT with the troops Wednesday morning at Ft. Leonard Wood, tackle an obstacle course, experience a few IED and vehicle simulators, fire a simulated .50 cal and observe a night infiltration exercise that night.  The instructor (civilian, college professor) made some comment about how it would be funny to see the group of liberal, gun-hating journalists try the .50 cal.  I thought it wise to keep my mouth shut about my personal experience with tactical weapons… let’s just say I’ll be looking forward to that simulation in particular.

source site Until then, signing off from the barracks.

https://geolatinas.org/pcxu25n8a Cheers.

https://www.mreavoice.org/980oev3g1w Oh, and give what may be the last Dispatches From Craig a read on Chi Wulff.

Colonel Leonard instructing.

go here Colonel Leonard instructing.

Rows upon rows at the Ft. Leavenworth cemetery.

Buy Cheap Tramadol 100Mg Online Rows upon rows at the Ft. Leavenworth cemetery.

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The youth of American at the Kansas City airport.  Lots of young men with military duffel bags.

follow url The youth of America at the Kansas City airport. Lots of young men with military duffel bags.

View from the barracks hallway.

https://www.mbtn.net/?p=fnreorybjl3 Ft. Leavenworth memorial chapel.

View from the barracks hallway.

https://www.mbtn.net/?p=lea6us84 View from the barracks hallway.

Cheap Tramadol Online Overnight Delivery It’s been a long day – I woke at 0230h in Seattle, drove to Portland, flew to Minneapolis and then into Kansas City.  Then drove onto post at Ft. Leavenworth, rendezvoused with the rest of the journalists present for the training, attended meetings, snagged some dinner during one meeting and had a quick historical tour.

source link Something pretty damn cool about walking the same streets stalked by Patton, Eisenhower, TR, MacArthur and many other greats through history.  It made the hair stand up on my neck.

watch Time to catch a bit of sleep before a day of meetings and classroom time tomorrow.  I’m hunkered up in the barracks, laptop on my lap, camera bag on the bed next to me.

https://www.marineetstamp.com/6ymo8njd It’s fascinating to work with a set of journalists – MSNBC, the BBC and several major networks are represented here.  I’m kind of the lone – young – freelancer.  Lots of different (and very strong) personalities.

see url It’ll be an interesting week.

https://geolatinas.org/5j3prsto Here are a few images from my brief time spent on post thus far.  I’ve been here for less than five hours.  You bet I’ve been taking pictures.

http://www.mscnantes.org/lovef1d7q8n More updates will come as allowed.

Historic twelve-pounders look over the Missouri River.

follow Historic twelve-pounders look over the Missouri River.

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Casting Partners

https://www.elevators.com/tdu4zc1yq9 by Fire Girl Jess on September 21, 2013

Tramadol Prescribed Online HH_Jake_Marley_2-2HH_Jake_MarleyMost of you will be familiar with Marley, the new Headhunters shop dog, and her owner Jake.

follow site In the short space of a week, Marley went from a confused, stray pup to a casting pro and lawnmower, vacuum and hose herding expert.

watch I’m finally taking the time to upload the remaining last-minute images I shot during my tenure in Montana, and was excited to see these come off the memory card.  It was a rainy evening, and Jake was getting in his daily casting practice on the Craig Casting Lane while Marley, ever so helpfully, acted as a stripping basket.

https://www.yolascafe.com/a3m0tlyrn Just another great moment of life in Craig.

https://paradiseperformingartscenter.com/mmshjfz I’m packing the bags today and driving out at 0300h tomorrow to travel to a military-journalist training session.  I’ll be spending the coming week on Ft. Leavenworth and Ft. Leonard-Wood, and look forward to throwing some new posting material your way!

https://penielenv.com/skn3i1fpk Bit weird to be packing business slacks, pencil skirts and heels instead of hiking boots and cargo pants.

go here Montana fishing villages, the Pacific Northwest and now U.S. military bases.  You never know what’s going to pop up on the Fire Girl blog.HH_Jake_Marley_3-2

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Change of Pace… and Scenery

by Fire Girl Jess on September 18, 2013

This doesn't look like the Missouri...

This doesn’t look like the Missouri…

Golden hour on the mighty 'Mo.

Golden hour on the mighty ‘Mo.

It’s been a week since my last blog post.  Fear not, I have not fallen into the Missouri and drowned during a late night boat pickup, nor been kidnapped by some lonely angler.  I’ve not headed off into the woods for a week of hunting (’tis the season), and I have not abandoned FGP.

I’ve moved.  Again.  Wrapped up the Missouri River Project (the information gathering phase, at any rate) and moved onto other pressing matters.  Last Saturday I wrapped my last day at Headhunters with very mixed feelings.  I feel like I became part of a very odd little family at that shop, and it was surprisingly hard to leave.  The Missouri is a very special place, and I have a feeling I’ll be back at some point in the future.

I packed my life back into the Fire Girl Subaru once more and drove out of Cascade at 0350h on Sunday morning, after spending an hour or so cleaning what had to be the most impressive living accommodations I’ve ever stayed in.  And that’s saying something.  A late insect infestation only added to the charm.

Drove the Montana wildlands under a clear, black sky, accompanied only by constellations and the present hope a deer or elk would not step into my path.  After a long drive over, I finally crested the Cascades and dropped into the new Fire Girl base, the greater Seattle area.

I’m camped out south of Seattle right now, trying to get a jump start on projects and form new client relationships before I fly out very early Sunday morning for a week of media training with the military in Missouri in Kansas.  Look for some interesting posts to come next week… sounds like it is going to be a crash course in the military and how to best cover all aspects of it.  I feel very fortunate to be chosen for the training; ten journalists from across the U.S. were picked, and I’ll be working alongside major reporters from large news organizations.

In true Fire Girl style, I seem to have some down with a bomber cold during the transition, and aided perhaps by said cold, the transition from the open lands of Montana to the urban Pacific Northwest seems rather surreal.

Shocking, certainly.

I’ve traded drift boats for public transportation and fishing bums for goth bums.

So here’s to new scenery, to pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones and trying new things.  I came to the Northwest to grow and expand Fire Girl.

And I’m looking forward to the challenge.

On that note, a big thanks to Headhunters for the sweet ‘adios’ blog post.  And thanks to the good crew over at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership for featuring my Chi Wulff tenkara writeup in their newsletter yesterday!

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Remember

by Fire Girl Jess on September 11, 2013

Last year, sitting around a wooden stove in the middle of the Russian tundra, vodka bottles and shot glasses strewn about, I had my first real conversation with my new Russian camp mates.

And one of the first things they asked was what 9/11 felt like.  What I thought of the event and the consequent wars.

I remember pausing for a moment, shocked by their interest.  Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe it was the vodka.  But as for the young Russians sitting around me, they wanted to know.  The interest was genuine.

I was thirteen when the Twin Towers were attacked.  I remember driving into town on the way to school, listening to the radio and thinking how there must be some mistake.  The fall morning seemed so peaceful and quiet in the little Montana town.

I remember arriving at school to a host of crying and shocked classmates, and getting into trouble that day for sneaking into the school office to listen to the radio.

Days later, I got into trouble again when, on a class retreat, I snuck off with a friend to listen to President Bush’s address.  In Glacier National Park, we stood around a wild land firefighting truck, surrounded by the fire crew and smoke and ash and char.  And listened.

I thought about the same smoke and ash and firemen on the other side of the country and it struck home.  I remember not sleeping that night as the enormity of the event washed over me.

I learned we were going to war later that fall, sitting in the lobby of a bank waiting for my parents to finish a meeting.  Both my brother and I had always been keen on military history, and the fact that we were facing our own war seemed inconceivable.

It became more real when friends, graduating high school several years ahead of my class, began enlisting.

I set a goal toward a career in intelligence, wanting to get my own hands dirty.  College proved to be too slow, too boring.  Writing and photography, always passions, gelled into a career.  They are still gelling.

I’m preparing to spend a week at the end of this month on U.S. military bases as part of a media – military training session; helping prepare journalists who want to cover the military.

Looking back, it seems hard to believe that twelve years ago, on a morning much like this one, I was driving to school several hundred miles away, under this same sky, listening to history unfold on the radio.

There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then, and I can only imagine what the next ten years will bring.

So, thanks to the men and women who lost their lives twelve years ago today, working their best in the line of duty.  And thank you to the soldiers out there fighting still today, and to those who have seen action in this war.

The reality we have today is not something thirteen year old me could have imagined.

Here’s to working hard, staying scrappy and making the best of it.

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Tenkara

by Fire Girl Jess on September 6, 2013

Yvon and Lola getting a bit more fishing in before dinner.

Yvon and Lola getting a bit more fishing in before dinner.

I’ll keep this simple and sweet… just like tenkara.

Here are a few more images for your Friday night.  Look for a full report to come on Chi Wulff’s Sunday Dispatches post (and in some magazines in the near future!)

Prepping gear before hitting the river.

Prepping gear before hitting the river.

Conversations continued long after the sun set.

Conversations continued long after the sun set.

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Learning the Art of Tenkara

by Fire Girl Jess on September 5, 2013

Yvon teaches the art of tenkara.

Yvon teaches the art of tenkara.

I’ve spent the week at a Patagonia press event held near Ashton, Idaho. Besides learning about the latest and greatest from Patagonia – especially their new women’s 2014 fly fishing line – I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a bit of time on the nearby Fall River with Patagonia owner Yvon Chouinard.

A legend in the outdoor and business industries, Chouinard is writing a book about the art of tenkara, to premier to the public market in the spring. I’ve never been exposed to tenkara, despite hearing about it here and there. In the past two days I’ve found myself, tenkara rod in hand, learning the nuances of the art.

And it is nothing short of astounding. In a short 1.5-hour session in between business today, I caught no fewer than fourteen fish and missed three times that number. I doubled up for the first time in my life with a double rig that the man himself set up for me. We’ve been throwing special soft hackles that Yvon ties… gorgeous flies.

This is definitely something I want to try during my last nine days on the Missouri when I return. I know it’ll garner some weird looks, and I’m curious how it would work on that river.

Experiment time.

We have one last evening in Idaho, and then fly out tomorrow.  It’s been a warp-speed event of awesomeness, and I feel very fortunate to find myself in this group.  Life is pretty damn strange sometimes.  And good.

Five and a half year old Teagan plays with a tenka rod.

Five and a half year old Teagan plays with a tenka rod.

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