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94th BSB

NEWSLETTER

“STRENGTH & HONOR”

January/February 2011 ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

~~~ Happy New Year!~~~

We had a great holiday season with minimal incidents and only a little snow. We

had a special visitor for our Christmas Eve service. General Petreaus attended while Chap-

lain Bernard preached and the St Michaels’ praise team (SSG Brumagin on keyboards, CPT

Michel and CPT “Doc” Spenn on vocals, and me on guitar) played. We had a beautiful can-

dlelight service that we will all remember. On Christmas morning, MAJ Brown and I deliv-

ered over 300 packages with food and drinks to the Soldiers at our most remote locations.

The SPO coordinated for a contracted helicopter and crew for six hours to help us deliver to

12 different combat outposts (COPs) that often do not get mail or many visitors. Obviously,

the Soldiers were pleasantly surprised!

Our Soldiers continue to do amazing things every day. I’m very proud of them. Our

EML leave is in full swing, and I ask that you take good care of your Soldier when he or she

is home on leave. Send them back to us on time and safe! We will continue to do every-

thing we can to reciprocate!

Strength and Honor!

LTC Coston

:

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From the Desk of the 94th

BSB CSM

Hello to all from Afghanistan. This newsletter will span a two month time period so I will try to cover all the

amazing feats the Soldiers have accomplished. There is just so much to cover and I don‟t know if I can fit in

all in but I will try.

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas. We started the month of December strong and culminated

it with a Wonderful Christmas. There were so many elves in all of the companies preparing their Soldiers to

have the best Christmas they have ever had deployed. We cannot express our gratitude for all the tokens of

your love that was sent from home to our Soldiers here. We had so many Christmas parties that it was hard

to decide which one to attend, so a lot of us attended them all. We had a Senior NCO and Officer Hail and

Farewell/Christmas party which was awesome. A good time was had by all. Charlie Company celebrated

Christmas for about a week with an event a day, culminating in Santa and some elves on a gator riding

around the FOB delivering gifts. HHC had a few different parties spread throughout several nights before

Christmas hit and I was beginning to think the Soldiers were partied out. Bravo Company had a cook out, of

course, maintenance style and right outside in the maintenance area. They were playing some loud music,

eating good food and enjoying the decorations and Christmas lights. Alpha Company also had a cookout and

mustered stockings for all the Soldiers with their names on them. It was a wonderful time for Alpha to do

some bonding, card playing and some friendly smack talking. It was such a great Holiday Season for us in

Afghanistan; I surely hope all of you know we wish we were there with you. We also hope you all enjoyed

your Holiday Season also. I almost forgot the Christmas meals at the dining facility. Our senior leaders all

took a turn feeding our Soldiers with lots of Christmas spirit. It was a good time had by all.

January what a busy month it was for all of us. We rang in the New Year with a joyous and relaxing day. The

Soldiers were able to get in some down time on New Year‟s Day which was well deserved and needed. The

dining facility prepared a wonderful meal with all the traditional food like black eyed peas and ham. During

the month of January, all the units have started partnering with the 5th Combat Service Support and 4

th Garri-

son Support Unit of the 4th Brigade, 203

rd Corps of the Afghanistan National Army. The Soldiers have trained

the units on basic combat lifesaving steps, convoys procedures and reacting to contact, maintenance of vehi-

cles and recovery procedures, garrison operating procedures, communications and overall Soldier and leader

skills. The Battalion is working hard with our partners to ensure that the when we leave they are self sustain-

ing. Our Soldiers are simply amazing and you should all be very proud of them. The OPTEMPO has picked

up and the Soldiers are keeping pretty busy but enjoying it. R&R leave has started and that is going well

across the battalion.

Thanks for all you do to support us, we really appreciate it. It‟s wonderful to know that the Soldiers receive so

much support from home! It really keeps everyone going on those long cold days.

CSM Judkins

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GEN PETRAEUS ATTENDS

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE

WITH THE 94TH BSB

The US Forces in Afghanistan

Commander, International

Security Assistance Force

(ISAF) and Commander,

U.S. Forces Afghanistan

(USFOR-A) General David

Petraeus attended the

Christmas Eve Candlelight

service last week at St Mi-

chael‟s Chapel on Christmas

Eve.

The service began with introductions which led to a somewhat dramatic

and unexpected „shutting off of the lights.‟ In the darkened tent/chapel,

Advent candles on a makeshift Advent Wreath were lit while CH Bernard

of the 94th read the first five verses of the Gospel of John. The lights

were turned back on, and the congregation sang “O Come All Ye Faith-

ful.” Different readings of the Christmas prophecy/story in Isaiah and

Luke were read from the Bible which were each followed by Christmas

hymns/carols pertaining to the reading. Three solo performances were

performed throughout the program, and a sermon on the Christmas

miracle was given. The lights were turned off again, and individual can-

dles were lit from the Christ candle at the center of the Advent Wreath.

The congregation then sang Silent Night to conclusion (all four verses)

which was followed by a Benediction given by Chaplain Raiford of the 5-

25 FA. After the service, people had fellowship and exchanged thank

you‟s with photographers snapping photos. It was certainly a Christmas

Eve service to remember by all present .

CPT Renee Michel, LTC Tony Coston, GEN David Pet-

raeus, CH Bernard, CPT John Spenn, SSG Sean

Brumagin

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Mayor Cell

HHC Company

J a n n

Goodbye 2010…...WELCOME 2011!!!! Our LOGCAP Contractor

has switched subcontrac-tors, so there are new peo-

ple providing our laundry, trash, and DFAC services. It began as a difficult turn-over, but we have prevailed. It was a rough start, but every-

thing began to flow smoothly.

A new restaurant has been brought to the FOB named the Oasis. There is an Afghan restaurant that serves traditional Afghan food. The Oasis serves a variety of food that ranges from Afghan to Chinese to American.

We had a great Christmas! The Mayor Cell had a Christmas Party at the local coffee shop, King Coffee.

We had food catered for the event and pre-sented our Secret Santa gifts. It was a great time and felt like a family Christmas.

The battalion also had a Christmas party that included all the Hails into the unit and the Farewells for all those leaving! It was really nice. The entire coffee shop was decorated and reserved for 94th BSB’s E7s and above. Even Santa stopped by to visit!

That was not the only celebrations here on the FOB. For New Years, there was a party at the MWR facilities and many Watch Night Church Services. There were many partici-pants for each event. Everyone had a good time and happily brought in the New Year!

The Mayor Cell is mov-ing right a long progress-ing FOB Shank. In this past month, the Mayor Cell has contin-ued to progress in the creation of Phase Three of the FOB. It currently con-sists of a lot of gravel and dust, but slowly and surely, structures are pop-ping up and coming to life. This will be the area where future US Army members will be living and working. New con-struction projects are de-veloping everyday!

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Dear Marcus and Christopher,

Just a few lines to say hello. Besides missing you guys, I’m doing fine. Hopefully, now that we’re in a new year, the time will go by quickly.

Marcus, I hope you’re doing your best in school and be sure to listen to your big brother. And make sure you guys take good care of my dog, Roci. I look forward to coming back home to spend some quality time with you and the rest of the family. We’ll definitely have to take a vacation when I return, so start thinking of where you want to go.

I’ll be in touch soon. You guys take care.

And remember, no house parties!

Luv U

Mom

Aracelis, I love you so much and think about you ever single day. I look forward to seeing you in June so we can have some fun. Matt.

SSG Powell

SSG Chatman

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Alpha Company

OUTLAWZ 9 4 t h B S B 4 - 1 0 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 0

Christmas Christmas Party Party

Yes yes we said it

twice twice. This

year many of us

attended multiple

Christmas parties.

Charlie Company

kicked off

Christmas in Afghani-

stan with a week long

party full of who

knows what kind of

shenanigans. Those

crazy medics were all

over the FOB with

Candy Cane People,

funny

hats and other craziness.

Battalion hosted a Christmas

Party at King Coffee with

music, hails and funny sto-

ries. The Chaplin even led

us in a new rendition of the

Twelve Days of Christmas.

General Petraeus even came

down to visit us at Shank

and share in our Christmas

Service. At the Outlaw Head-

quarters we threw our own

Christmas bash. Complete

with all sorts of Christmas

cookies, BBQ kebabs and mu-

sic. With our friends in-

vited from HHC, B CO, C CO

and even our new Pathfinder

Friends, we overflowed and

took up our Gym, War Room

and even the CP.

Oxygen Games Last month we told

you about our Cave-

man Gym, and now we

are pleased to an-

nounce that we

opened our new work

out facility with an

event called, The

Oxygen Games. Out-

lawz were split into

various and the tor-

ture, uh, workout

began.

The teams drug Ana-

conda ropes, flipped

MRAP tires, ran laps

various teams and the

torture… uh, workout

began. The team, ran

sprints, and carried

boulders. In all, the

opening day went well

with only three

soldiers throwing up,

and only two feeling

like they were about to

pass out. Good times…

Good times

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Page 2

Hello From Afghanland In a new article

series your Out-

lawz will be

sending home

personal mes-

sages in the

newsletters. So

keep watch and

you may find a

message from the

one you miss.

This month will

feature 1LT Adam

Holt and SPC

David Ross.

Outlaw Air OIC

1LT Adam Holt: “I

would like to say

hello to Sandy,

Austin George and

Megatron! I miss

you guys all a

ton. Stay safe

and I will be

home before you

know it.”

SPC David Ross:

“To my wife

Dana and my son

Michael, I miss

you and love

you. All is

well and I will

be home soon.

Wish you all a

happy new

Years!”

Outlawz will be

sending home

personal messages

1SG Harvey Getting

into the Christmas

Spirit!

SSG Wainwright re-ups 1LT Perkins feels what it’s

like to get promoted

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N e w

P r om ot io ns

CW2 Heath Lotz

SGT Derrick Evans

“The combat patch symbolizes not only serving with a specific unit during combat, but also symbolizes Soldiers of

the unit are forever bonded to the past and now share a visible statement of shared commitment, value, and

hardship.” -Words from the Bulldog Patch Ceremony

B Co Bulldogs

R e en li st ee s

SGT Xavier CostaRosa

SGT William Daniels

SGT James Little

SGT Daniel Williams

SPC Brandon Arwood

SPC Robert Morgan

P r om ot ab le

S o ld ie rs :

SPC (P) Shaina Cowan

W e lc om e to

t h e te am :

SGT Jerome Dingle

SPC Thomas Broadhurst (back from HHC)

SPC Brian McCord

SPC Samuel Njau

PFC Araceli Valero

PV2 Russell Miles

PV2 Jeremy Rolon

Family and Friends,

On 2 December 2010, B Company marked our shared commitment through a short ceremony. All Bulldogs are authorized to wear the 10th Mountain Division patch on their right shoulder, indicating combat ser-vice. For half of the company, this was a newly earned right because they had never deployed before or they had deployed with other units. The rest of December was filled with promotions, reenlistments, and inte-grating our late deployers who are all mentioned on the left.

Your Bulldogs continue to amaze. For Christ-mas, the S&R section surprised 1SG and me with a

new guidon stand. The guidon is a flag and symbol of the company, and it always sits proudly outside of the Command Post. 1LT James, our Base Defense platoon leader, spent much of December col-laborating with 1SG Rumph, SGT Ezell, SGT Marzett, and SSG Johns to plan our company Christmas party. We had Af-ghan food from a local restaurant and S&R grilled. Soldiers spent much of the day playing card games, dominoes, darts, and enjoying much-deserved down time.

Lest you think December was only ceremonies and parties, know that your Soldiers work hard. They completed 244 work orders in December, and the base defense Soldiers process hun-dreds of vehicles and personnel into and out of the base daily. The automotive section recently grew to 8 Soldiers, and SGT

James Fink, SPC Broad-hurst, and PV2 Miles began installing Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) nets. Their teams work with civilians to install two per day and the nets prevent RPG attacks from damaging vehicles thus keeping Soldiers safe. A dedicated Soldier, SPC Chevalier of shop office, spent Christmas on COP Carwile to fix the maintenance computers for 2-4 Infantry Battalion, which is an-other example of Bulldog commitment to the mission.

SPC Cowan and 1LT James check out holiday care

packages from the Edmonds family.

SPC DeFelice receives a Certificate of Achievement

for winning the MWR weight lifting completion.

SGT Rodriguez and PFC Autele show their 10th Mountain com-

bat patches after the ceremony.

CW2 Fredmonsky, SPC Wells, CPL Myers, SGT Lit-

tle, SGT Smith, SSG Johns, and SPC Njau unveil the

new guidon stand at the Company Christmas

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Looking ahead, SGT Dingle, SPC Bock, SPC Glenn, SPC Tinney, and PFC Glover have studied all month for January’s NCO and Soldier of the Month boards. We are deter-mined to take at least one honor from C Company this month. In February, we say good-bye to our longtime Executive Officer, 1LT Johnson, as he moves to the Brigade S4. He has been invaluable during the deployment, working with SGT Rodriguez, our supply ser-

geant, to process and replace equipment that was stolen en route to Afghanistan.

Finally, I thank you for all of your support during the holiday season. Christmas is an especially difficult time to be away from our families, and the many pack-ages you sent were generously shared among the company. Thank you for your sacrifices, and many blessings to all of our Bulldog Families.

-CPT Michel, Bulldog 6 SFC Nichols, the base defense NCOIC, with the Presi-

dent of the Afghan Security Group (ASG). The ASG is

a private security company that works with U.S.

Soldiers to secure our base.

SGT Evans, SPC McCord, and SSG Fink enjoy their Afghan Christ-

mas meal.

PFC Partin, SPC Dominguez, and SPC Reed stop by the Christmas

party for chow before proceeding to their guard shift.

SFC Beaput takes a break between domino games.

SPC Haas who recently

visited brother at a Ma-

rine Corps base in south

Afghanistan says, “I just

want to tell my family

that I love them.”

SPC Chevalier says

“Happy Birthday and

I love you, honey!”

to her husband.

Though hard at work, SGT Aunu says to his wife, “I’m

still here. Be home soon!”

Messages Home

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Scalpel, Let’s Do

This!

New So ld iers :

1982nd FST from New York

CPT Alan Wu from Tripler

SPC Jason Leetch from Mon-

tana

PV2 Kofi Asiamah from Vir-

ginia

Re-en l i s tments :

SGT Amber Almeida for

two years stabilization

SGT Reginald Edmond for

needs of the Army

SPC Daphne Young for five

years at Fort Benning

SPC Tiffany Chadwick for

Stryker Mechanic (MOS

change)

Promot ions :

1LT Leon Warner

SGT Tabatha Freeman

Another month down! From

Thanksgiving to the New Year Scalpel’s

had a full month. Since the last newslet-

ter we have had a FOB wide MWR

weight lifting competition, the Combat

Patch Ceremony, re-enlistments, pro-

motions, new faces and a week long

Christmas celebration!

On Thanksgiving Day there was a

weight lifting competition in which we

had six participants and three first place

wins! Specialist Daphne Young won first

place in the bench press with 100 lbs,

Private First Class Jamie Maple won first

place in the dead lift with 180 lbs and

Staff Sergeant Anthony Nelson won first

in the bench press with 300 lbs. From

the weight lifting competition all the

leadership went to serve Thanksgiving

Day Dinner in the Dining Facility.

On the 1st of December, Charlie

Company conducted their patching

ceremony. This means that all the Sol-

diers deployed with 10th Mountain are

now authorized to wear this combat

patch. The day was a huge deal to many

of the Soldiers who have never de-

ployed before or hadn’t deployed with

10th Mountain. The patching ceremony

marked our being officially “in charge”

for one month.

Over the rest of the month the Scal-

pel family had many great moments in-

cluding promotions and re-enlistments.

The Army also succeeding in retaining some amazing

Soldiers with our re-enlistments this past month.

Sergeant Amber Almeida, Sergeant Reginald Edmond,

Specialist Tiffany Chadwick and Specialist Daphne

Young all re-enlisted in the month of December.

Please see the side panel for what each Soldier re-

enlisted for.

Along with keeping some of the great Soldiers,

we’ve also received a few new faces! We have a new

Provider who has been attached to us for the de-

ployment and two new Medics. Currently Captain

Wu is covering down for a Provider at another loca-

tion so that they can go on Environmental Moral

Leave. Our two medics, Private First Class Asiamah

and Specialist Leech, have been integrated into Char-

lie Company are doing great.

The Christmas Season wasn’t the same as it is at

home, but First Lieutenant Deena Willis went above

and beyond to make it a memorable Holiday for all

those here at FOB Shank. We had a full week of fes-

tivities! There was the National Lampoons Christ-

mas Movie, Candy Cane Animal Competition, Skits, a

White Elephant Gift Exchange, Christmas Jeopardy

and our very own Santa and his two elves giving out

gifts all over FOB Shank.

Captain Stephanie Stressman re-enlisting Specialist

Daphne Young on the Charlie Company helicopter

pad at FOB Shank

Captain John Williams re-enlisting Sergeant Amber

Almeida on Glory Mountain at FOB Shank

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Page 11

Scalpel, Let’s Do This!

The Soldiers enjoying the Christmas Party in the

Charlie Company Classroom on FOB Shank.

(Left to Right: First Lieutenant Leon Warner, Sergeant

Michael Patnode, Corporal Richard Moya, Specialist

Antonio Aguirre, Specialist Jason Leetch and Special-

ist Danielle Langer)

We had costumes made for Private First Class Amanda Shaver

(elf #1) and for Staff Sergeant Chris Boor (elf #2)! They both

looked awesome! Due to all the extremely generous boxes from

all of our loved ones back home we were able to provide a Santa

Gift Bag full of little goodies to give out by our very own Santa

(Specialist Simon Ebeling)! Not only were we able to fill the

Santa Bag with goodies, but every Soldier in Charlie had a blanket

and a full stocking as their Christmas Gifts. It was really a won-

derful time.

Even with all the fun, Charlie has still been hard at work. We

have four female Medics attached out to the other Battalions.

We have been getting great feedback from the units about our

Soldiers and each of them have mentioned how much they are

enjoying their tasking. We also have a provider, Major David

Eigner, down at COP Tangi, who has even stood up a new aid sta-

tion! Captain John Williams along with his Preventive Medicine

team (Specialist Kathleen Wittenberg and Private First Class

Brandi Brown) have helped to improve our Soldiers lives one lo-

cation at a time, from ensuring the locations have water for

showers and laundry to the seeing how the dining facilities cook

first hand! Captain Jonathan Spenn, Captain Krystal Anderson

and Captain Daniel Pelton have gone out to various locations to

see patients and do what they can to improve the quality of life

wherever they go.

We are truly blessed with a wonderful, tight-knit team. As al-

ways, we miss and love you all. Thanks again for your support –

we couldn’t do it without all of you!

“Let’s Do This!”

Captain Stephanie Stressman, Scalpel 5

Charlie Soldiers forming up for the patch ceremony

on the Charlie Company Helicopter Pad

Private First Class Jamie Maple’s winning deadlift!

She didn’t even know what a deadlift was before

this competition.

Messages Home:

Amelia, I miss you my little Peanut I hope your first Birth-

day went great. Laura, I miss you a lot and love you more!

~Dad

Jeri, Bailey and Carson– Can’t wait to get home and see

you girls, I miss you and love you tons!! -- Me