Category: Army

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Heineken in Iraq and franchise available?

Going Dutch in Iraq!
Going Dutch in Iraq!

Remember when you heard about the ‘2 beers’ for our service people in Iraq watching the 2009 Superbowl? I thought it was very cool.

However, I did wonder what kind of beer they were drinking? Although my powers of observation are without question… this may be a single soldier with a single beer… so I expanded my search and found more pictures.

Heineken everywhere!
Heineken everywhere!

Although Heineken’s Superbowl ad was… let’s just say… a snoozer,  someone managed to get this great beer into Iraq and to our men and women serving there. Thanks.

Next time, make mine a Heineken!

Roger Freberg

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Watching you in Iraq

American Fast Food in Iraq
American Fast Food in Iraq

Oh, my adult daughters do worry that I watch over them… it seems funny to them but I do like to see what they are up to once in a while. They have a common fear that I will be watching with a ‘leafy hat’ hidden somewhere and spring out with some commandment that they ‘can’t mix their creamed potatoes with their peas’… or some such thing.

When my eldest daughter was in Iraq the first time, I was able to keep track of her by following the on-line musings of an embed reporter. She would say, “I can’t tell you where I am…” and I would interject that I knew exactly where she was and list a casual — although deliberately  vague — location that was good enough to elicit an ‘oh my god’ from her. This was priceless to me because it is not often that I can impress her.

Thanks to Google Earth. I can keep track of their general travels… the above three pictures came from Google Earth and I am sure Kristin will recognize them from her travels! 🙂

I did joke about having a subcutaneous transponder inserted into each one of them… they didn’t laugh. funny

Roger Freberg

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Mise en bouteille au Château

Bringing you all up to speed, last fall before my daughter Kristin was deployed to Iraq, the two of us decided on something that would take about a year to develop and we could enjoy on her return. We decided to make wine.

The idea came to me after thinking about my grandfather who — with his buddies during WWI — bought a rather expensive bottle of wine that would be consumed and toasted by the ‘last man’ left standing. Well, as it happened my grandfather enjoyed the wine late in his life and reflecting on how much the world had changed since they all made this little wager. As a homage to Pops, I thought it might be fun to make some wine!

So, armed with nothing but raw materials and books, Kristin and I set forth on this fun journey. Obviously, there was much to do after she left… but it has been a fun seeing what the real ‘pirates’ of wine making are up to!  30 plus years ago, I was first involved in wines through a national organization called “Knights of the Vine”… a fun group whose sole purpose was to educate, promote and enjoy wines in America. However, in talking more to winemakers and after a lot of reading… my eyes were re-opened to the wonders of this experience.

After wrestling with a bunch of ideas, I labeled our ‘product’ today and I believe it may just earn my coveted 12 stars designation ( one for each month of aging!) when it’s finished ‘aging.’ I used the colors of Kristin’s Alma mater “West Point” capped with an engineering symbol.

Thinking of you Kristin.

Dad

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4 star General Anne Dunwoody

General Anne E. DunwoodyCongratulations to General Dunwoody!

I  wrote about her nomination  to become the first four star general in the United States military.

Here is a  nice article  on General Anne Dunwoody.

General Dunwoody had a couple of things that made me smile:

“This nomination only reaffirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career—that the doors continue to open for men and women in uniform.”

and

“There is no one more surprised than I—except, of course, my husband. You know what they say, `Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.’ ” 

So, Congratulations and make us all proud.

Roger Freberg

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Remembering Veteran’s Day with Humor

Veteran's Day

I always like to remember special occasions with humor. I received today an email ( as did hundreds of thousands of others) from our good friend Dilbert offering some real life butchered quotes from inDUHviduals… here are a few:

“I wish life was in 3-D.”

“You shut your mouth when you’re talking to me!”

“I have to go drop a kidney.”

“I’ve already forgotten more than I’ll ever know!”

“I’d rather be safe than sore.”

“He smokes like a fish!”

“He’s not the sharpest hole in the wall.”

“My sister gave me a cream-colored couch, and honest-to-god I hate it as much as life itself.”

“I’m running around with a head like a chicken.”

“It’s going to be bad around here when the cows come home to roost.”

Thank you, veterans and our men and women serving around the world… I hope if & when you see this… it makes you smile.

Roger Freberg

here’s the latest from DILBERT