A Soldier's Perspective

CJ [Update] My 13th Birthday

[Update: I've added a few pictures that were in folders I forgot to check at the bottom. Additionally, I consider it a highlight of my career to be able to meet many of you as I've traveled or you've come to me. But, I don't want to publish those pictures without your permission. So, I have a request. If we've met (and a photo exists), send me an email with permission to publish it. Or, if you have a favorite photo of when we've met, send that and I'll add it to my list. I haven't met an ASP reader I didn't like!!]

Something very life-altering happened on January 18, 1995. It changed the way I would look at life, live MY life, and what my future would look like. On that date thirteen years ago, Private CJ Grisham joined the Army and shipped off to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Yup, Missouri in January. Push-ups in more than a foot of snow!! Come along as I take you through a chronologically arranged, pictorial journey of my last 13+ years (prior to blogging)…

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW!!

Before there was the Army, there was Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. Here I am as a Cadet Captain. I was the Headquarters Company Commander during my senior year of high school.

Emily and I while we were dating. Emily is the cute one on the right! And, NO! That's NOT a mullet, Hilary!!

And then I graduated. This picture was actually taken the week prior to shipping for basic training, believe it or not. Some of you have already seen this picture.

Can you pick me out of the lineup from this basic training yearbook page?

Here's a color version of the same photo.

While I was in Basic Training, Hawk, from the Legion of Doom, came to visit us. Leadership was in my blood. Notice the SGT stripes on my shoulder which denote my position as Platoon Guide. I held the position longer than anyone prior to me – week five through graduation!

Here I am as a Platoon Guide at my Basic Training graduation.

PV2 Grisham after a hard morning of PT at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey in California where I studied Spanish for a year. Emily says I look hot in this picture. I WAS hot in this picture. Notice the sweat?!

Sporting the cool Class A uniform as a Private2 at DLI with some friends.

My wedding to the most beautiful woman in the world. It was actually at the justice of the peace because we had to rush it or be separated another six months while I continued my training! I still owe her a honeymoon.

Me and my Spanish class just before graduation. Here I am a Private First Class.

My official photo as a Specialist. The only reason I really got to take this was because I was putting in a Warrant Officer packet for flight school. I scored very high on the test, but my arms were supposedly too short to be considered.

I think this is the only other picture I have of me as a Specialist in uniform. I'm a little difficult to…um…find in this picture. You'll have to look hard. This is my Collection and Jamming platoon back in my SIGINT days. Squatting down in front is the man that taught me how to be an NCO, then-SFC Miguel Millet-Ocasio. I'll never forget him and his outstanding leadership. He was hard on me, but treated me fairly.

A very pregnant Emily pins on my Sergeant stripes. That's Chris in there!!

Chillin' on my cot with the contact team. They were sent to fix my truck which broke down on a mountaintop somewhere in the desert. This was sometime in '98 or '99.

My official Sergeant photo. Take for the NCO of the quarter board.

Freezing my tail off on a mountain somewhere in the desert.

Emily pinning on my Staff Sergeant stripes in 1999.

At the National Training Center in California, we used to replicate a traditional Soviet-bloc force to train the rest of the Army. Here, then-Col Rosenberger awards me with another "Hamby" for exemplary performance on the battlefield. There are three levels of the award. From highest to lowest: 1st Class – Gold, 2nd Class – Silver, 3rd Class – Red. The right side is individual awards and the left side denotes team awards. These awards no longer exist at the NTC.

Being NCO of the quarter has its advantages. I was invited to attend a Medal of Honor ceremony and reception and had the opportunity to meet then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen. But, more importantly, I got to meet many Medal of Honor recipients and actually salute them!! I was too star struck to actually get pictures with them. Bummer. Those are my role models!!

Playing quarters between training in the platoon office. I bought many a burger off the back of my fellow NCOs. All luck of course.

Before there was blogging, there was the "Munch and Crunch Lunch Hour". My good friend, and fellow NCO, Lance, and I had a radio show that we aired on Fort Irwin every day to joke about the topics of the day and just play some good Rock and Roll!! This was a difficult show to do because it was the same time as the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, but we weren't allowed to make fun of Clinton or the policy since he was our Commander In Chief and we were on a military radio station. We came up with code words to get around that. For example, "gays" became "shiny happy people".

One of my favorite activities is to DJ at military functions. I love the tradition and history that goes into these things. And, I love wearing the Dress Blue uniform too!

My first of only two reenlistments by then-MAJ Kathleen Gavle. She was one of my true mentors and treated me fairly, whether I was excelling or screwing up!! I recently called her to congratulate her for being selected for Colonel!!

Here I am on the border of Iraq and Kuwait prior to the war.

Prior to crossing the border, Saddam launched a bunch of SCUDS at us in the desert and we had to don chemical masks until the "all clear" was sounded just in case. Our biggest fear was that he would use chemical weapons against us.

But, we tried to make the best of it. Here I am strutting my stuff after one particular strike! Nyah, nyah, ya missed me!

Me and my team in Baghdad, Iraq at one of Saddam's palaces. We took the Mercedes symbol off one of the trucks we destroyed that were carrying "technicals" (civilian-clothed combatants).

Here is my promotion to Sergeant First Class in 2003 while in Fallujah, Iraq. 1SG Haus pinned on my stripes. Coincidentally, he used to be my drill sergeant and also pinned on my PFC rank. I didn't get a party. Instead, I got to go back out and hit the streets fighting crime and terrorism!!

Never fall asleep in a combat zone…on a hot day…thinking of your wife!! For the record, this was staged. Notice the expression on Larry's face in the background. Priceless.

However, I did find time later that night to cool off and have fun in a man made lake nearby!!

There is a tradition in the Army that when a Soldier fights in combat with the Cavalry he is presented with his golden spurs. The spurs are not just handed out, they have to be earned. The tradition is to present the spurs on horseback, but Fort Stewart didn't have any horses, so we had to "ride" a chair. It was demeaning, but I got my spurs!! Gary Owen!! "If you ain't Cav, you aint $#!+". It's a Cav thing; you wouldn't understand.

Here I am after reenlisting for life into the Army. This would be my last reenlistment I qualify for and from that moment I have to ask for permission if I want to leave the Army.

This is my official SFC photo.

Taking Hannah for a ride on my Yamaha YZF-600R in 2004 when she was 2.

This was my promotion to Master Sergeant.

This was taken at this past Christmas formal. Unfortunately, I had to take a picture by myself this year. Emily wasn't able to be there because the Ball was held in Maryland and my commander wouldn't take a picture with me. Wonder why?

Updated photos:

I met Rob Schneider when Jay Leno invited us to his show and treated us a WONDERFUL dinner. He's a very down to earth guy, just like he appears on TV and the movies. The shirt he's wearing is from SSG Carrasco who literally took off and gave it to him while Rob was visiting troops in Iraq.

Idalis, of MTV fame, interviewed me for a new show she was doing on Spanish language SI TV called Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. We talked about the war, the "support" for it, and how it affected us (there were two other Soldiers present).

Diana Irey tried hard to unseat Murtha-focker from his throne of idiocy. Unfortunately, Murtha has money in places people don't want to go and defeated her. However, she was recently re-elected as County Commissioner at her home in Pennsylvania. I got to meet her during one of my frequent trips to Walter Reed while I was in DC. Oh, and Smash was there, too!!

Some of you may know that I was privileged to be invited to the White House to meet with President Bush and discuss ways to defeat trolls in the blogosphere!! No wait, that's what I HOPED would happen. A few bloggers were invited by the President to the White House as a way of thanking us for what we're doing telling the story about the war and our military. Somehow, my name fell off the persona non grata list after a disgrunted fired staffer switched the lists and I made it in. We sat down with the President for an hour, got a tour of the Oval Office, and were invited to the garden to watch him take off in Marine One. We had better seats than the press. I have a signed picture shaking his hand in the Oval Office, but I keep that one to myself on my desk. Guess you'll have to come visit me to see it!!

If you'd like to see some of the pictures that didn't make the cut, click THIS link to view my online photo album. There are doubles of each photo, but the one you want to look at will be the second photo. Those have better detail and a description of each picture listed.

Here I am with one of our loyal readers, Tracy, outside Walter Reed. The picture was taken during a rainy September 2007.

Here I am with Sherri's husband somewhere in the middle of Arizona in 2007. He's not really that tall. I'm just that short!!