Today I'm going to send in the first installment in my series, "A Day in the Life!" My friend CPT Simer took pictures of me going through a typical day's activities. All of my days here are different so it's tough to say what a typical day is, but I think these pictures tell the story well.

1. CPT Simer opens up the door to the freezer and wakes me up at 0500. I am NOT a morning person. A few weeks ago, I was in such a bad mood that I accidentally mauled him when he woke me up too abruptly. He is much more careful now:

2. We go to the gym to work out. Even polar bears have to exercise:

3. I'm VERY disappointed that the gym does not have 4-legged exercise bikes:

4. After working out, it's time for "personal hygiene." Here I am on my way to the showers:

Posted by Stone Cold at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Many of you probably wonder what a polar bear eats in Iraq. As I mentioned earlier, the chow hall does not serve seal or walrus, and KBR wanted to charge wayyy too much money to make special deliveries for me. Still, I manage to get by. Most of you probably don't realize this, but polar bears really like grilled cheese sandwiches.

You see, in the summer months, we can't hunt seals or walruses the way we're used to. Without sea ice, we can't go and wait at a hole in the ice for seals to come up for air. Instead, most of us just scrounge whatever we can, and live mostly off of body fat. We're one of the few animals who fatten up during the winter to survive the summer!

Fortunately, in recent years we polar bears have discovered grilled cheese sandwiches. We love them! I can still remember my mother making grilled cheese sandwiches for us cubs during the summer when I was little. Of course, I had to fight with my siblings to actually get any, and I often lost - but when I was able to grab a couple, it was great.

My mother would go into a nearby town to get the ingredients. She would walk into the store and grab a few loaves of bread and as much cheese as she could carry. When she went to pay, the cashiers would usually hide, and let my mom take all that stuff for free. I really appreciate their generosity. It can be tough for a mother with three cubs to make it through the summer!

So anyway, I like grilled cheese sandwiches. Unfortunately, the chow hall here limits everyone to two. What's up with that? I understand limiting a human being to 2, since they usually weigh 120-200 lbs. But I weigh 1100lbs. I need at LEAST ten. I'm always left hungry, and that's really annoying. I need to figure out a way to get around that rule...

Posted by Stone Cold at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Today was another fun day for me. My friend, Sergeant First Class Montero, travelled down here from Balad to teach a bunch of us how to be snipers! I've always been fascinated by snipers. Up in the Arctic, there are a lot of wide-open spaces, so being able to shoot your target at a long distance is a real advantage. Since most polar bears prefer to get up close to our prey and swat them with a paw, not many of us are very good at shooting, so it was good to have SFC Montero come and teach us a class. I'm sorry some of the pictures are blurry - I have a tough time holding the camera in my paws.

Here is SFC Montero showing us the .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle:

Wow, that's a big rifle! SFC Montero taught us that being able to shoot very accurately is only one of the skills that a sniper needs to develop. You also have to be able to conceal yourself very well, move quietly, and estimate ranges well. You need to understand your enemy very well, too. All of this is necessary to get into position for the right shot. Only then does your shooting accuracy become important!

SFC Montero also told us that snipers are often used just to watch things. Because they are good at getting into a good position and concealing themselves, sometimes it can be more useful just to have them watch and report. For example, if a sniper is in a position and sees six bad guys doing something, it might make more sense for him to call up an Apache helicopter than to try shooting all six of them.

This is me practicing with the .50 caliber sniper rifle:

I don't have the scope mounted on it yet. This rifle shoots a really big bullet! I certainly wouldn't need a rifle like this for hunting seals or walruses. However, during the summer, when there's no sea ice, I usually can't hunt seals or walruses. So, sometimes I try to grab a Musk Ox, but usually they run away from me. I think a rifle like this would come in handy at those times.

Here SFC Montero is showing me how to use the weapon's iron sights to estimate the range to a target:

Snipers sometimes shoot at very great distances, so geting the range right is important. SFC Montero said that snipers can sometimes hit a man from a mile away! I wonder how far away I could hit a Musk Ox?

Once again, though, I didn't get fully qualified as a sniper. The US Army has a special school where soldiers go to learn all those skills, and it takes several weeks. I don't have that much time, so I just got to learn the basics. Maybe when I get back, NORTHCOM will send me to the full course!

Posted by Stone Cold at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Today I got to meet the Brigade PAO (Public Affairs Officer). I went to warn him that he needed to have his affairs in private. Ha ha ha. Actually, his name is CPT Mark Lappegaard, and he explained to me what the PAO does. He is responsible for managing all of the brigade's dealings with reporters! He arranges for soldiers to do interviews with newspapers and radio stations back home, he publishes the brigade's newsletter, he makes the content for the brigade's website, he makes arrangements for embedded reporters - wow, he's a pretty busy guy!

SFC Wood has a lot of photography equipment! He explained to me that the Army has a lot of enlisted soldiers who work in media relations, and also a lot of soldiers who are like reporters themselves. They take pictures for brigade and division newsletters, they write articles, they manage radio stations - some soldiers even get to be DJs on Army radio stations! I asked how I could get involved, and he said he would look into it. I've always wanted to have my own "growl radio" show (that's like talk radio, for bears).

Posted by Stone Cold at 10:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)