Meet the team

I must admit that the days here tend to blend together. Before you know it, it's been four days since a post and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I was planning on trying to update this every day, but it looks like every 3 days or so is a more realistic goal. Anyway, I took a few pictures of the people I work closest with here and thought I'd introduce them a bit.

Thomas, officially Captain Kortenbrede, is from Team Germany. He's the one standing by the vehicle with the first aid kit (with red cross) in front. He's what we'd refer to as a 'Limited Duty Officer' (LDO), meaning he has prior enlisted experience in logistics. He achieved the equivalent enlisted rank as a GySgt (E7 on an E1-E10 scale) before switching over to the officer side. I think he's been in about 19 years now. Originally from Munster, Germany, he's married with one daughter.

Next (if this thing formats correctly) is Gordon (standing by vehicle with sunglasses). Gordon, or Major Cooke, is from Team UK. He's also an LDO type, having achieved the highest enlisted rank (SgtMaj or E10 equivalent) before going the officer route. He's originally from Scotland and is also married. He started his military career 28 years ago with the equivalent of a junior ROTC (high school training) program. Gordon arrived just 3 weeks before me, so we're pretty much on the same rotation schedule. He drinks a ton of coffee and we have a running inside joke that he's really a German spy (he's obviously not).

Finally, there's Leo from Team Netherlands. He's the equivalent of a SgtMaj (highest enlisted rank). He (along with Thomas) are from the 7th German/Netherlands Corps, which is the main unit here commanding the Headquarters. They all arrived in August and will be departing in February; being replaced by a unit from Poland. Leo's a funny guy, fluent in English, Dutch, German and who knows what else. We joke that he's more German than Thomas since he lives there and has done more German things (i.e. festivals, sightseeing) than Thomas. He's also a big American Football fan. He's been in the Army for 26 years now, with another 14 or so to go.

Couple other quick comments...US military almost always get out at the 20 year mark (i.e. at age 38-42) because you can retire at 50% pension at that point. Other countries (i.e. Germany, Netherlands, UK), if you're career military you stay until age 56 or so, completing close to 40 years of service, but still retiring earlier than most. It's hard for some of us (US military) to fully comprehend.

Finally, just want to add, that I type these posts as I think about it...there's no spellcheck option and I don't even re-read for accuracy. So apologize if there's grammatical errors and whatnot. I did go to a technical college after all. Anyway, that's it for now.