It is almost time for the greatest rivalry in College Football (at least that is my opinion), the Army-Navy game is this Saturday, December 1st. Editor's Note: The Army-Navy game is on CBS at 12pm est. However a really important football game starts at 1pm est on ABC - the ACC Championship game #11 Boston College vs #6 Virginia Tech. Thank goodness for Tivo, I can finish watching Navy after the BC game. I am sure you all remembered. Also, don't forget to watch the commercials, there should be some pretty good ones from all over the world where Army and Navy personnel are serving. I don't count the one I did as part of the good ones, I saw it and it is a bit lame. I blame the writers strike, it is difficult to get good writing these days... we thespians are the ones who must suffer.
Here is a little history of the game:
The Army-Navy football game is one of the most traditional and enduring rivalries in college football. It all started in 1890 (Army won that one). Navy currently owns the bragging rights as they have beat Army 51 times over the 49 Army wins (there were 7 ties). The Army-Navy Game, pits the football teams of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (Army), and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland (Navy), against one another. The 2007 game will be played on December 1st at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. It was in the 1963 Army-Navy game that instant replay made its debut. Navy won the most recent contest on December 2, 2006, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and with the win broke a Naval Academy record for consecutive wins against the other Service Academies with four winning years against both Army and The Air Force Academy.
And now for the news... This past week was Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We celebrated here by actually having a day off. I of course only worked a few hours thinking I could do some catching up, but alas it was a futile effort as the next day reality struck me and I was bombarded with too many things to do. One of the military traditions is for Officers to serve the Thanksgiving meal so I did my part and became a server. I was the ice cream man, so everybody like me. I wish I had my summer whites so I could really play the part, but I was dressed in my DCU's with a smock and white paper hat. It worked for me. After I was done with my shift, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving meal of real turkey, we usually are served pressed turkey. I forgot how good real roast turkey really is.
During the day, we had a chance to play volleyball in a dirt volleyball court. I say dirt because it wasn't so much sand as it was the fine powdery dirt that covers most of Afghanistan. The dirt is so fine that you actually have to hose it down to keep it from filling the air with dust as you play. Well the game was close, but our team lost in the first round 21 -16. It was still a good time, although I wish we had practiced a little so we could have honed our skills a bit.
We were also fortunate to have some entertainment from two comedians from the states who put on a very funny standup show. It was a nice diversion from the normal routine.
The rest of the week was filled with meetings, e-mails and providing reports; the usual stuff.
Back on the homefront, Rebecca and the kids celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Dallas.
I was able to get on a webcam call 
with them all and see how it was to have a party and consume mass quantities of alcohol. I can almost remember that. 
Go Navy Beat Army!
Peace to you all,
Pat
Here is a little history of the game:
The Army-Navy football game is one of the most traditional and enduring rivalries in college football. It all started in 1890 (Army won that one). Navy currently owns the bragging rights as they have beat Army 51 times over the 49 Army wins (there were 7 ties). The Army-Navy Game, pits the football teams of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (Army), and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland (Navy), against one another. The 2007 game will be played on December 1st at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. It was in the 1963 Army-Navy game that instant replay made its debut. Navy won the most recent contest on December 2, 2006, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and with the win broke a Naval Academy record for consecutive wins against the other Service Academies with four winning years against both Army and The Air Force Academy.
And now for the news... This past week was Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We celebrated here by actually having a day off. I of course only worked a few hours thinking I could do some catching up, but alas it was a futile effort as the next day reality struck me and I was bombarded with too many things to do. One of the military traditions is for Officers to serve the Thanksgiving meal so I did my part and became a server. I was the ice cream man, so everybody like me. I wish I had my summer whites so I could really play the part, but I was dressed in my DCU's with a smock and white paper hat. It worked for me. After I was done with my shift, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving meal of real turkey, we usually are served pressed turkey. I forgot how good real roast turkey really is.
During the day, we had a chance to play volleyball in a dirt volleyball court. I say dirt because it wasn't so much sand as it was the fine powdery dirt that covers most of Afghanistan. The dirt is so fine that you actually have to hose it down to keep it from filling the air with dust as you play. Well the game was close, but our team lost in the first round 21 -16. It was still a good time, although I wish we had practiced a little so we could have honed our skills a bit.
We were also fortunate to have some entertainment from two comedians from the states who put on a very funny standup show. It was a nice diversion from the normal routine.
The rest of the week was filled with meetings, e-mails and providing reports; the usual stuff.
Back on the homefront, Rebecca and the kids celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Dallas.
I was able to get on a webcam call with them all and see how it was to have a party and consume mass quantities of alcohol. I can almost remember that. Go Navy Beat Army!
Peace to you all,
Pat
to Gardez, which is a city East of Kabul, for a meeting.
It was great being able to see other parts of the country. It seems I am constantly writing evaluations and awards as people are leaving and others are coming. We are doing great work, although sometimes it is frustrating trying to get things done with the Afghans as they move at a slower pace than Americans. We also struggle with a society that has a culture of corruption and it is difficult to know who to trust. We press on and make change where we can.
now they have won two in the last four years; Cal Ripkin's 2,632 consecutive games played and then he sat out; (how about basketball?) the longest losing streak in NBA history was the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1982 with a stretch of 24 games without a win and finally for college basketball the dynasty of the UCLA Bruins won 88 games without a loss.
Either way, they played tough and beat the Irish and ended the streak. 
Unfortunately for Rebecca and the other Boston College fans, BC lost a tough one to Florida State ending their own winning streak of 8 games.
and Madigan was an ice cream cone. They both won the costume contest at school.
They got a fair bit of candy from trick-or-treating, but not their biggest haul. Probably a good thing since we have plenty of treats in the house already. We may even have candy leftover from last Halloween. 
