OinK

In Balad, Iraq with Vanessa

Wow has it been a while since I've gotten on here....much to my dismay I might add. Well now I'm back which I know some of you have been waiting for, so here we go!

As you, my faithful followers, know, my last blog was a deployment roll up of everything that had happened wrapping up yet another year in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. That was March....its Christmas day '12 here in Korea (which one year ago today I was heading from Kuwait into Afghanistan) so that means there is quite a gap since I last posted. I'll do my best to bring you all up to speed on what's been going on so lets get started!

Rugged Manic

Rope swing

I got back to the states in last March of this year, was able to head back to Minnesota to visit friends and family there. Spent about a week in Minnesota, then traveled to California to visit Vanessa and after that, went to Hawaii to visit the Barnes family for a few days before heading back to the east coast. I spent the next 5 months at Fort Lee, VA for the Combined Captain's Career Course, a required career progression course that retrains captains with all types of experiences back to the basics for how the Army is organized and operates. I could go more in depth but I don't think that's something anyone wants to really read about. Those 5 months wasn't all training though, I finished a 5k Rugged Manic Race which I highly recommend to anyone. My finish time wasn't all that great since I was on a team and even though my foot was giving me a hard time, I had to keep waiting at every obstacle for everyone else to catch up. Kyle came up a few times and we floated/kayaked/fished/snorkeled a local river with some friends a few times, Ginger too of course. Along the way we found a rope swing that went right out into the river. Had a great time with that. There was one strange encounter we had though, and oddly enough, it wasn't with a person....it was with a Scuba Dog.

Kyle, Ginger and I

Fishing and floating

Queen of the raft

Outer Banks, NC

So there's this girl I know, her name is Vanessa an Air Force Captain I met during my last deployment. Without going too much into my future rehearsal dinner speech, we started seeing one another when I got back and things really took off. She and I went up to Boston for a wedding where I asked her dad for his permission (fortunately he granted it) and on a trip to the Outer Banks later that summer, I asked her to marry me. On July 5th, 2012 Vanessa and I got married in the Japanese Gardens at Maymont Park in Richmond. My sister, mom, Kalaya and Micha drove down from Minnesota just in time to be there for the ceremony. Our official family wedding is set for next September in Boston with the reception at a pretty awesome place (yet to be disclosed to anyone).

Wedding Ceremony

Pool party at Joe's

Unfortunately the summer wasn't all fun and games....like the saying goes, someones going to get hurt....which was something I was battling with for a few years. In 2009 I was seen by a podiatrist after experiencing excruciating pain in my left foot. The doctor diagnosed me with early onset Haliux Limitus and spurring in my great toe. Based on what he could see in the x-ray, the joint had deteriorated to the point of bone on bone contact which was causing the pain. However, he stated that the spurring wasn't far enough along for anything to be done. Fast forward two years to my last deployment, the pain had increased and on nearly a daily basis instead of after running/sports. While I was at Fort Lee this summer, I was able to see another podiatrist who asked how long I had been experiencing the pain and after learning it goes back to 2009, he said I should have gotten surgery on it back then. So on 6 September this year, I went under the knife. The doctor shaved down 3mm of my big toe on my left foot, made a V-cut in my metatarsal to reset it in itself (it was out of alignment) and put three screws in my foot. When all was said and done, I wasn't able to move around much but because I was in school at Fort Lee, I had to attend class the very next day (fortunately it was a Friday). I spent the first weekend trying to move around as best I could with no crutches. Yea, that's right, they didn't give a guy crutches. Took me a little asking around but I eventually got a set from my neighbor. It's been almost four months and I am itching to go running but still have some room for healing.

Finally it was time to finish my classes at Fort Lee and move somewhere new, somewhere different but first I had to pack up all my stuff and move it to Minnesota...right as Hurricane Sandy was screaming across the east coast. Vanessa, Ginger and I left Petersburg on 29 October, the day Sandy was pounding at the front door of Virginia. Pounding so hard in fact that my apartment manager who was going to meet me to do my final inspection opted not to make the drive down from Richmond because "It's too dangerous." After hearing that, we loaded up into a 16ft U-Haul truck and drove to Minnesota (through Richmond by the way). Too dangerous. Ha. It was a little windy and in West Virginia we caught the front end of what ended up being 21" of snowfall as we passed through the mountains with gusts up to 80mph. That was quite the first 12 hours of driving, trying hard to keep the truck on the road. You know in TV shows and bad movies where people are driving cars and their hand on the steering wheel moves left and right so fast as though they are trying hard to avoid lava as the ground beneath them breaks up? That's sorta what it was like.

Zombie, Werewolf and Headless Horseman
Halloween 2012 in Minnesota

Vanessa and I spent a week in Minnesota where she got to meet my dad and mom's families and spend more time with Kalaya and Micha. I took her to the Mall of America, which I was uncertain of it was such a good idea at first, but I ended up being the only one to buy anything, which was probably the least expensive item you could find in the entire mall, a wine bottle decor that was made in Germany and had "Mosel Vineyard" on it for $1.25. I think I married the right girl!

After spending time in Minnesota, it was time to head to the west coast once again where Vanessa and I worked on the house. One of the bigger tasks was doing what Drew and I did on my house in Virginia, adding heavy duty shelving to the garage. Took some time but I'm pretty sure you could put a VW Bettle on those shelves!

Anyway, after just over a week in California, it was time to say goodbye to Ginger, Lex and Vanessa. Unfortunately I was not able to take Ginger with me to Korea just yet but they'll all be here next spring!

My assignment was to Camp Humphrey's, Pyeonteak, Korea which is just under an hour south of Seoul. I spent the first week 12 miles from the border of North and South Korea at Camp Hovey/Casey where I in-processed. Fortunately we were able to finish everything the day before Thanksgiving and was bussed four hours to Camp Humphrey's. I was fortunate to have a great sponsor who met me when I arrived and got me set up at the hotel, hit up the commissary to fill my small fridge and showed me around post. Camp Humphrey's is growing at a rapid rate. Turns out, all the bases in Northern South Korea are on land that is extremely expensive and the Korean government wants it back. So, there's a trade being done; the Korean government will build new buildings, 600 of them at Camp Humphrey's, to move the personnel and equipment out of the north and further south to give the land back to the people of Korea. That being said, there is a new high school, middle school and grade school being put up here, a brand new "Super" Gym that has an indoor pool, indoor track, combatives room, 3 full length basketball courts, sauna, locker rooms, conference rooms, multimedia rooms and 3 levels of free weights...its crazy big. So big I avoid it by going to the older, smaller gym. Saturdays, however, I do laps at the pool.

Car after snowfall

The next day he and I went to the dining facility on base to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the Soldiers here. After, we headed to his friend Lee's place where he and his wife made a delicious meal. Had a great time. As my luck would have it, Lee used to be a mechanic so I asked him to help me find a car out here. He recommended a small used car lot where I narrowed down my choices of 6 cars to 1 (easily too after finding out that 4 of those cars were employees and another was $3,000 over my budget). The one I landed is pretty sweet. It's a 2003 Hyundai Sonata, which I would have never seen myself driving EVER. But this thing has more features than my 2006 back home! It's crazy. First, it's a push start, so no keys (which caused an issue just a few days ago actually...I'll tell that story in a minute) and it has this FOB that allows me to remote start it as well as a proxy sensor so when I get within a short distance to the car, it automatically unlocks and mirrors fold in/out. The guy who sold it to the used car lot had just put in $4000 worth of new interior to the point where if I were to get into an accident, it'd feel more like I was bouncing off the walls at an insane asylum than in a car wreck. Anyway, great car.

I got settled into my apartment on base shortly after arriving (can't live off base unless you have family here) and met my boss and everyone I'll be working with. I have been put into the Support Operations office once again only this time I am the Brigade Maintenance officer of 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade. There are a lot of things I have to learn but I'm getting there.

AJ and Shelley; teaching the future of Korea

When I was in high school, I knew a guy AJ Dewees and his girlfriend Shelley. After we graduated from college, they got married in Missoula, MT which I was a groomsmen. That was the last time I saw him....until I moved across the world to KOREA. Turns out the two of them landed teaching jobs out here last spring. So of course I have hung out with them a few times and will do plenty more of that over the next few years. Oh, right, I'll be here for at least 2.5 years. Forgot to mention that didn't I? Sorry. So my orders to come out here were for only me, not Vanessa or the dogs. Just last week 9 slots opened up for her to come over here to Osan Airbase which is 30min away from Humphrey's. Sadly, those slots don't become available until next spring. My current orders have me being here in Korea for only 12 months, after which I head back to the USA. If I were to do just one year, I would end up heading back to the States as a Senior Captain with no Company Command time. On top of that, Vanessa wouldn't be able to come out here because the Air Force can't justify sending her out here in June when my orders have me leaving next November. That being said, I have opted to extend here for two reasons: 1) So Vanessa can get orders here and bring the dogs 2) So I can take command of a company.

Two weeks ago I interviewed for a Forward Support Company in an Aviation Battalion, and according to a source I know at the Brigade, it looks like I was selected from the pile! It's not exactly official since I have not been notified of my selection yet, but I should be taking over as company commander in mid-late February 2013. Very excited!

Snowboarding at YongPyong

Slightly foggy at the top

View from the top

The lift up

Re-do Christmas photo....

Ok, so early I had mentioned a story about my key fob for my car. Sunday, I drove to about 10 miles to Pyeonteak Station to take the subway (which is an incredible system) up to Seoul to look for a snowboard, boots and bindings. See before I knew I was coming to Korea, I sold my board, boots and bindings because I hadn't used them in the five years I was stationed in Virginia. But then I went snowboarding at YongPyong Ski Resort (where the 2018 Olympics are being held), and had to rent....the board was ok, but it was in need of a good waxing and I ended up catching a few edges pretty bad and knocked my head a few times. Back to the story. I spent most of my Sunday walking around Seoul looking at various boards they had a small shops, unfortunately everything is much more expensive here due to the import tax so I couldn't find anything I could justify the price for. After the two hour subway ride back to Pyeonteak, I remote started my car from a distance when suddenly my fob made a noise it had never made before. I looked down and much to my dismay, the flashing red bar of death was staring back at me. My battery was about to die! At this point I started to jog (remember my foot surgery) to my car. As I approached, I could hear it running...whew! I get closer and the doors unlock. YES! I get in and just as I am about to plug my fob into the car charger, the fob dies and my car shuts off. Yes, SHUTS OFF and won't turn back on. This wouldn't be such a big deal during a warm summer's day, but it was 6pm on a Sunday and it was already 10* out. I quickly weight my options; call a taxi, call a friend, somehow charge my fob. I opted for the last to avoid any sort of embarrassment from calling a friend and headed back to the subway station (also known as AK Plaza). The station is also part shopping mall so I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find an electronics store. I have been taking Korea the last two weeks but although I can read characters, I still have no idea what they translate to mean. Eventually I found a cell phone store who wasn't of much help because they didn't have the right size USB. I left the mall and started walking down a street when I saw a LG sign. I stepped in the shop and tried to explain my situation. This is where I had my first encounter with a non-English speaking Korean. It took me a few shaky minutes but Google Translator really pulled through  and in the end I got what I wanted.

Ginger and Lex

Random Facts about Korea:
Police are nearly invisible, no speed traps just speed cameras. Get ticket in mail
Korea population: 50 million
Seoul population: 25 million
New York City population: 9 million
CCTV cameras: 40 million (can't do much without someone seeing you!)
Driving here makes sense, stop lights don't mean stop. What I mean is, if there's no one coming, why sit and wait for 5-10 minutes till the light turns green? Just go. Love it.
Street vendor food is cheap
Have yet to try food or pull a random drink off a shelf at a shop that I didn't like

I'm coining a term "OinK" or Only In Korea because there are so many odd things that happen here, I'll be sure to note them as I continue to update my blog.

The people here are very nice. On more than one occasion random people have come up to me when I look confused or lost and offered to help in any way they can from ordering food to finding my way around the subway. So far it has been a great experience and I'm only a month in! Can't wait to explore more with Vanessa and travel around the region! Stay tuned!!!!

365 Rewind

As I had done for my last deployment, I have thrown together a list of things I would and would not miss from this deployment. It's a simple list that includes a few highlights;


15 days in Australia
11 C-130 rides
7 C-17 rides
1 DHC-8-200
7 months in Kuwait
4 months in Iraq
1 month in Afghanistan

Things I will miss (I actually have some this time!):

Working with Air Force
Serving as the Commander of the Steel Scorpions and the 191 Airmen and Soldiers I went on convoys with
Seeing F-16s taking off in the dark at full afterburner. Awesome sound, amazing sight
Sunrises over Diamondback

Things I won't miss (slightly longer list):


Watching people waste water while shaving and brushing their teeth by leaving the faucet running for no reason
Small shower and bathroom stalls in Al Asad when I visited Kyle there
Male/female voice announcing an incoming rocket attack at any base I've been to in Iraq and Afghanistan
Cess pool behind of office. No joke, the sewage system ended out back of my office in Iraq and the tank was constantly overflowing into the ground. Lovely smell and fun to walk through.
Chicken Fajitas MRE and Blueberry Pop Tarts. I ate too many of these in the final month in Iraq.
Windows with sandbags
Constant hum of generators
Picking bathroom which stall to use based on the following criteria:
             1) Working 
             2) Not stuffed with crap n paper 
             3) Has toilet paper
             4) Does not overflow after 'test' flush to ensure pipes aren't clogged
             5) Has water in the tank as well as the bowl
Drinking orange juice juice boxes under the amber glow of whoopie lights (orange flashing cop lights) at 3am watching cargo being off loaded after driving for 18 hours
Multiple 20 hour work days back to back to back to back
Dusty/dirty water bottles
Dust filled air in staging lanes waiting to roll out
Crammed in a M915 for 16 hours bouncing around like a rag doll banging my knees against the steel kick plate the Army calls a dashboard.
Mango juice at Marez dfac
littered living area in marez
'Short halts' that turn into long halts on the road exposing us to an increased chance at taking hostile fire
Iraqi Police checkpoints, what's the point?
Dead dogs on the road
Traffic in Tikrit
Burning fields/tires
UXO (unexploded ordinance) blocking traffic
Heading to the showers only to walk in on a guy nude, facing the door, toweling off in the Captain Morgan pose. Thanks guy.
Wearing my lightweight desert combat boots in Bagram, Afghanistan after a snowfall and subsequent melting and refreezing of slush resulting in freezing my boots being soaked and my feet frozen for 3 days straight
AFN (Armed Forces Network) Commercials on TV....GIVE ME REAL COMMERCIALS!

Lastly, I wanted to share with you all my final speech to the Steel Scorpion Family:

"There are going to be a lot of speeches, a lot of praise to be given, a lot of 'job well done', mission accomplished and news coverage of what we've done over the next few months to a year. Some of you when you go home will be asked what it was life and they'll try to sympathize about your eating habits here at JBB. They'll try and understand what it's like to willingly leave the safety of a base to drive along the most dangerous roads in the world where people are intentionally looking to bring harm to you. But they can't and will never know what that's like. You are a privileged few to have deployed and faced the enemy daily. No one can truly comprehend what that's like, except your brothers and sisters to your right and left. Never forget what you've done here, I know I won't."

Afghanistan Bound #2

48 hours. That's how much time I had after I was notified. Having been back in Arifjan for nearly a month and having only a little over a month left on my deployment, I figured my travels would be done. No such luck. I say this not because I didn't want to go to Afghanistan, I say this because the week before I was told I was going back, I had packed all my cold weather gear and shipped it home. Perfect. So I spent a day scrounging up a sleeping bag, fleece jacket, gloves and anything else I could in an attempt to prepare for the mountains of Afghanistan.

This trip was different than the last though. I was asked by my battalion commander to go with him to visit the unit I had deployed to BAF to see how they were doing and to go on a convoy. Yes, go on a convoy. My second trip to Afghanistan I chose not to inform my family back home about this event simply because I didn't want them to worry. Flying is always safer, a convoy that took us on the outskirts of Kabul a few days after the Quran 'burning' started riots probably wasn't something my family would want to hear. They also probably wouldn't have wanted to hear that the night before I left on this convoy there was an operation conducted by an air weapons team that had spotted insurgents setting up an ambush site. The Apaches and fast movers (F16s) in the area engaged them with 4 hell fire missiles and a 500lb bomb killing all 21 insurgents, and ultimately saving anyone traveling along that route. The convoy took roughly eight hours, entirely at night, through the mountains between BAF and Jalallabad Airfield (JAF) also known as FOB Fenty. The roads here are completely different that the roads of Iraq, especially through the mountains. With sheer cliffs on one side of the road, we hugged the inside lane as best we could. Plenty of times we would pass civilian trucks within inches of each other with hairpin turns pushing on coming traffic closer than you'd want it to be. One of the more intense moments was when we came up to the switchbacks. The vehicles we were driving couldn't make the turn without having to back up a few times....but when you pull as far forward as you can before the road ends and you know that if you go another inch you'll end up tumbling down a mountainside, you learn to trust your driver! We got to FOB Fenty with no issues and the following night we left Fenty to head back to BAF. However, about 3 hours into our drive we were told to turn around and head back because the mountain passes were too icy and the risk wasn't worth a life. One of the cool things about Fenty was the location of the transient tents in relation to the DFAC. Every day I got to cross the flight line to go eat or do anything at the MWR so I got to see all the aircraft up close and see them take off and land. I kept thinking to myself that I missed my calling, that I should have been a pilot like my grandfather and uncle.

We got back to Fenty around 3am and made it into our tent by 330am. I woke up around 615am to the loudest explosion I had ever heard. The alarm went off and everyone scrambled for their gear. As I made my way outside, I saw a plume of black smoke billowing from where one of the gates to the base was located. Eventually I learned that there was two suicide bombers driving two cars toward the gate. The first was to detonate to blast a hole in the gate and the second was to drive as far into the base as it could and detonate. This same thing happened at another base not too long ago. Depending on how you look at it, we were fortunate that these terrorists were not too bright and the second car followed too closely behind the first so when the fist detonated his car, that explosion caused the second to go off as well. Sadly there were a few Afghani Soldiers who were killed in the blast.

Because of the protests outside of BAF and the bomb that hit the gate at JAF, we were put on water rations, to include not being allowed to shower. This was done because not 100% of all water treatment can occur on base since there isn't enough room. So instead there is a facility not far off base that takes care of the water. Because of the protests and bombing, the hired individuals (Afghani) were not allowed on base for a few days causing a backup of blackwater. What did this mean to me? I didn't have a lot of clothes so add that to not being able to shower for 4 days.....I smelled like fresh roses.....

Afghanistan Bound

Shortly after returning from Australia I was informed that I would be heading to Afghanistan to integrate a unit moving from Kuwait while at the same time, meeting various figure heads to discuss my experiences during my mission in Iraq, specifically the draw down of forces and equipment.

My first stop was Kandahar Airfield (KAF) in RC-East, elevation 10,500 feet. I didn't spend much time there the first time I visited but was able to soak in the terrible air quality, walk around in the moon dust that coated the entire base, enjoy indoor plumbing, and gag at the smell of fecal matter from the nearby sewage treatment pond.

After about 18 hours in KAF I was headed to Bagram Airfield (BAF) situated just north of Kabul. As soon as I stepped off the plane I noticed a big difference in air quality and the drop in temperature, mainly due to the mountains that surround the base. I was put up in what was called a "B" hut....and I know why. These buildings are made of plywood with no insulation allowing one to see outside through the cracks between each piece of wood. Walking inside it didn't seem too bad until I was shown my room....or in this case, the janitor closet with a mattress on the floor. I was literally given a closet to sleep in. Outstanding. At night, it dropped to about 20* outside which is exactly how cold it was inside as well since the small space heaters couldn't keep up. To make matters worse, it snowed for three days straight but every day, it would warm up just enough to turn the snow to slush. Sadly I only have one pair of boots and they are designed for desert wear and therefore are lightweight, minimal insulation and are NOT waterproof. My boots got wet and that was the end of it. For three days my feet were ice cold and my boots could never dry at night because it never got warm enough in my living area to try and dry them.

There were tons of civilians all over the place, mostly Russians and everywhere I could see, the Department of Defense was losing money on bogus contracts. I had thought that the way things were in JBB was bad, this place is much worse. Yards full of destroyed equipment, mangled metal, unused containers. Ridiculous. I did get a chance to visit the prison on BAF. Met with the Fire Chief and ran into one of my old NCOs' father who was a Sergeant Major at the prison. Small world.

While I was there I was able to sit in on some training the Soldiers were going through on a system called CROWS. It's a mounted weapon system that sits in the gunner's turret on a vehicle. It is operated by joystick with multiple cameras that allow for night vision, heat signatures and the like. The idea behind it is that it keeps the gunner from being exposed outside the truck. From the simulations and the hands on training, the system is pretty phenomenal.

After spending a few weeks in BAF, I went back to KAF which was a nice change as it was much warmer there! I was finally able to hit the gym again as I had a little more free time but had to take it easy. Walking around base you don't really feel the altitude but working out, my heart rate shot through the roof while I was doing cardio. I discovered a DFAC (Dining Facility) called Far East that served Thai food....delicious!!! Went there every night for dinner after that.

KAF is a NATO base which was interesting to see the various military's from around the world; Romania, Poland, England, German, even Australian. After being in KAF for a few days, I headed to Camp Leatherneck, a Marine base in RC South. Not sure if the Marine pilot did it on purpose but at one point we plunged rapidly and went to zero gravity for about 10 seconds. I didn't have my seatbelt on at the time and had to grab onto my seat to keep from being ejected to the ceiling. Everyone on board looked around afterwards with the same 'what the hell was that?' expression on their face.

I spent the day at Leatherneck talking with the Marines there about the retrograde operation they were conducting and about my experience in Iraq last summer and headed back to KAF. The day after I got back to KAF, we received an indirect mortar attack that impacted on the base. I later learned that a civilian was killed and three more were severely wounded. Puts it all into perspective.

Year of the Travelin' Man

Looking back on this past year, as many people and news stations seem to do annually in late December, I have been fortunate and blessed. Although I am once again deployed keeping me from friends, family, missing birthdays, holidays, graduations, I still count myself as lucky for being able to do the things I have done over the last 12 months. As the title eludes to, this was another year of travel. Back in 2005 I traveled to eight countries on five continents, the most traveled year for me ever. Four years later I made a run at that by traveling to Europe during my last deployment visiting four countries and again in the spring of 2010 going on a cruise with my grandparents, father and little sister sailing to five counties in the Carribbean.

2011 was no exception to traveling to new countries but it's not just traveling to other countries that I've done this year....it all started last January when my Christmas leave in Minnesota ended and I began the 1400 mile journey back to Virginia. Shortly after getting back, I flew with Anthony Joyce to Las Vegas to meet up with friends and his brother for his bachelor party. That's about all I can really say about our time there. In mid-February I had the fortune of being invited to and attending the wedding of Anthony and Jennifer Joyce. Sadly, one, who shall not be named, was/is not a fan of flying so the three of us drove down to Miami for a long weekend. February rolled into March when I flew to Scotland and drove around the entire coastline of Ireland. Finally April was upon me and the long flight to Kuwait began yet another deployment. But this deployment would be different than the last. The position I held opened up the door to spearhead a high visibility mission; design a plan to shutdown the FOBs in northern Iraq to get the troops out. This led me to wishing the Army had a frequent flier miles program as there were seven flights I took in and out of Iraq during the planning stage of this mission. Once I was in Iraq permanently, I was able to hop a flight over to FOB Al Asad where my brother Kyle was deployed to and spent a few days with him. Of course these flights were lacking the amenities even Southwest would have, the military spares no expense on C-130s. On one flight, I sat in the cockpit for the duration of the trip. Once we took off, it wasn't until around 11,000 feet that we finally punched through the dust that hovers over the entire country. It was on this flight that I got a front row seat to watch a combat landing in action. When in a combat zone aircraft are a valued target to shoot down so they stay at a high altitude until the last possible second. Instead of those nice coasting, gradual, nose pointed up landings civilian planes do, typically in decent weather, clear skies and no anti-aircraft fire, the pilots here must nosedive the final few hundred feet to the point where it seems there's no possible way it could end well. I spent the next four months living in Balad, just north of Baghdad and did plenty of traveling between there and four other FOBs ultimately chalking up another 5,000+ miles on the road. After leaving Iraq the end of October, November added the fifth country of the year, Australia, which I spent two weeks traveling around for my R&R. Not only was Australia the fifth country of the year, but the sixth continent I have set foot on, something I have waited patiently over the last few years to accomplish. Hardly two days after being back from Australia I was tasked out with heading over to Afghanistan and left in late December in a C-17 rounding up the end of the year.

Just today I was asked what my New Year's Resolution was and although at the time I couldnt come up with any, I now know. I resolve to travel. I know this year I've seen more than most will ever see in their lifetime, but my thirst has yet to be quenched. Six countries in one year on three different continents might be enough for someone, not this guy. Besides, three of those countries are in the middle east and let's face it, they were 1) not by choice and 2) no where on my bucket list. Sure I'll try and eat better, watch my weight, workout more and maybe at some point be able to say that I don't text and drive (last years resolution), but let's face it, seeing the world is much more fun!