Army Post Road

NO!!!!!! The University of Iowa has slipped from #8 to #9 on Princeton Review’s list of the Best Party Schools. However, they did complete a major coup this year. Iowa UI ranked No. 1 nationally in the “Students (almost) never study” category. Heck Yeah. Nothin’ else to be said about that.

     Oh the joys of moving around Fort Riley just because the Army says so. The new quarters they’ve moved us into don’t have any cable tv, telephone, or internet at all. Our only connection to the outside world while we’re in our buildings are our cell phones.
     The buildings they’ve moved us into are so new (and so unknown to just about everyone on post) that the government hadn’t even begun in earnest discussions with the cable company (Charter Communications) and the phone company (Sprint) about extending their services to our portion of the post. Now, the town of Ogden, which is only about one mile or so from our buildings, has all these services from different companies (Cox Cable and AT&T respectively) and the people of Ogden are smitten as kittens about all of it (other than they live in Ogden, Kansas). Now, just because we live in the warm and comforting buesome of the security of the confines of a federal military reservation, we have to wait until the government authorizes Charter to extend their service from the rest of post out to our area (atleast 6 miles from the next housing area) and no one can tell us conclusively whether the physical connections are there and they just have to be authorized by the military to flick on the switch or whether they actually have to build out to the area.
     All this is on top of the frustration of having to continue to live on post. The people in our unit who live in the hotels in Junction City get paid additional money because they live there. The people in our unit who live on post have to pay additional money because we live there. Those soldiers who live off post: higher ranking and thus get paid more. Those soldiers who live on post: lower ranking and thus get paid less.
     The topic is a little too frustrating for me to go on about any more at the moment. I’ll let you know more once the government has finally afforded me the opportunity to pay for internet again.

     The following article was published on the Des Moines Register’s website today.

Police: Teens had White House radios
2nd-degree theft charges for 2 boys in Bettendorf

By JEFF ECKHOFF
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

August 12, 2006

Two teenage boys were charged with second-degree theft after Bettendorf police found them in possession of radios and other equipment reported missing from a White House agency.

Matthew Bradshaw, 13, and Angel Luis Reyes III, 14, both of Bettendorf, were arrested July 30 when police discovered them with communications equipment that belonged to the White House Communications Agency.

The equipment, described by the Associated Press as three radios and more than a half-dozen “earpiece/wrist microphone combinations,” apparently was reported missing less than a week before a July 17 visit to Bettendorf by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Officials said the radios couldn’t be operated without a special code. No White House or Secret Service officials would comment, however, about how the radios disappeared in the first place.

Bettendorf police did not return multiple telephone calls from a reporter Friday.

Pat Hendrickson, juvenile court officer for Scott County, said the boys were apprehended without incident.

“I think they were just walking down the street and the officers saw them with what they knew to be expensive radios,” Hendrickson said. “They then were found to be stolen.”

Reyes’ mother did not respond to a phone call requesting comment. Bradshaw’s mother could not be reached.

Scott County court documents show Bradshaw told authorities that he found two of the radios and their earpiece/wrist accessories, according to the Associated Press. Another radio and seven earpiece/microphone attachments were found in Reyes’ bedroom on the same day.

Both teens have previous juvenile arrests, including assault and fifth-degree theft for Reyes and assault and third-degree burglary for Bradshaw.

Second-degree theft, which applies when the stolen merchandise is valued at between $1,000 and $10,000, is punishable by up to five years in prison.

     The Secret Service can’t stop a pair of teenagers from stealing a bunch of their radios????

     We’re finally moving into our new barracks. They told us this morning at 0600 that someone was going to sign for them today. After lunch they told us we needed to start moving into them immediately. It’s a bundle of fun. We’re further from where our offices are now. We’re even further from where our potential new offices are going to be but we’re closer to Manhattan. Not by, comparatively, a lot but it reduces how much road on-post we have to drive on past MPs on our way back from Aggieville. They’re not bad accommodations, they’re just still on post and we still have to pay for cable and Internet. Speaking of, after tomorrow I probably won’t have Internet in my (new) room for around a week. This is all going to be an adjustment.

     I suddenly, at 1130 at night, have a roommate. With no warning. A guy returned from Texas a day before he was supposed to and is staying in the other half of my suite. I didn’t even know he was going to be staying in here. This is not a situation I particularly care for.
     The housing situation here is becoming quite frustrating. Essentially, because of the services I have to pay for, I am paying to stay here in the barracks while people who outrank me (who already get paid more because of that fact) are getting paid to stay in the hotels because in addition to free cable TV (with a TV provided) and free Internet, they are receiving a per diem for food costs they, by and large, aren’t incurring and are agitating to get paid even more. In less than a month they are going to move us out of the present barracks and into new ones and the status quo won’t change. We’ll still have to pay for TV and Internet and they’ll still be getting it for free and be getting paid extra for living in hotels. If they don’t move us out to hotels, I’m going to file concurrent Inspector-General and Congressional complaints about the situation.
     Additionally, the ‘u’ key on my keyboard isn’t functioning properly.
     I have to get to sleep. I’ll discuss it more tomorrow.

     Yes, I’m still posting. My Internet was down for a few days and then I was out of town and have been busy, busy, busy.
     My birthday came and went last week. I met my parents and sisters in Kansas City and we hung out there for two days. It was nice. Short, but the Sox beat the Royals when we went to the game on Monday night.
     Right now I’m sitting at the CQ desk since Dustin and I stretched the cable Internet out to the desk.