From the Battalion Commander To the Family and friends of the 1-103rd, Well, we‟ve passed the half way point. Leave cycles are ongoing.

Many of our members have come back from leave reenergized

and ready for the downhill slope, while others are eagerly await-

ing their opportunity to get some time off. We‟ve come through

some challenging operational support activities with very large

troop movements passing through here as they transition home. The team is still

functioning in an exceptional manner. Our customers are providing feedback that

we have shown them support beyond their expectations. I am very excited that this

team continues to do great things here. LTC Parente‟s baseball team is quite the

field of dreams. He has worked with members of our team and our tenant battalion

here to develop an extremely motivational MWR activity. 1LT Baysah still wants

us to get some grass for his soccer field but I‟m not sure how we can accomplish

that.

Our DFAC team under SFC Deslauriers runs the best mess hall in all of Kuwait.

CPT Smith and SFC Pimental keep the customers satisfied with their top notch

PADs team. SGM Jordan runs an EOC that is recognized for outstanding customer

support. Our S1 section under CPT Helton and SSG Harding continue to manage all

Soldier issues whether here or elsewhere in theater, an incredible challenge. Force

protection, S2, Supply, Maintenance, Safety & Environmental, S6, Contracting,

Billeting, Service & Support, the Drivers and the Chaplain team are all running in-

credible operations. Every Soldier is pulling their weight and more. There are too

many names to mention. But I want to ensure you that they are all striving for suc-

cess.

As you all may have heard, we experienced a little “made for the movies” sand

storm. One minute the sky is blue and the winds are calm. Then it comes rolling

in, a giant wall of sand, resulting in complete darkness. I‟m sure you have seen the

pictures and videos on our Facebook pages. An amazing environmental phenome-

non that I am happy to have experienced, once. We were fortunate that everyone

made it through fine. However, it rained sand and the cleanup still continues.

Some had to use shovels to clean out their offices and living spaces.

We continue to learn, day by day. Our priorities shift and now we prepare for our

demobilization and build a relief plan to allow our relief team to be successful. I

am proud of your Soldiers work here and you should be as well.

“Play the Game”

LTC Philipp Baumann,

Commanding

Volume 5

March 2011

Inside this Issue:

From the Battalion

Commander

Notes from the Command

Sergeant Major

HHB Commander‟s

Corner

News from Top

This Month’s Events:

Kuwait 50/20Celebration

MWR Events:

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Camp Buehring Half

Marathon Runners

Camel Rides

Softball game

Kuwait 50/20Celebration

5k

Photos: CW2 Stack

Editor: CPT Helton

Shifting Sands

TF 1-103 Sustain the Fight, Shape the Future, Play the Game!

Members of “Red Jumpsuit Appa-

ratus” from Middleburg, Florida

visited Soldiers and rocked the

stage at Camp Virginia, Kuwait

on February 4, 2011. Members

include lead singer Ronnie Win-

ter, guitarist and pianist Duke

Kitchens, guitarist Elias Reidy,

bassist Joey Westwood, and

drummer Jon Wilkes.

Notes from the Command Sergeant Major Greetings RI !!Another month down!!

Here we are mid March, heading into spring. We've had some crazy

weather here as you have in RI as well. Soon enough the hell heat will be

here and we can hardly wait. 103rd soldiers continue to do their jobs every

day in a professional and enthusiastic manner. You can be proud of them

all. We had quite a list of "guests" here recently with the French Foreign

Legion among them for the 50/20 celebration. In case you're un-

aware...that's 50 years of independence for Kuwait and 20 years free of

Saddam Hussein's reign of terror. Other than that, it is business as usual here on Camp Virginia. Stay

well. Until next month!

CSM Richard H. Lafond

Camp Virginia Celebrates 50/20

What is 50/20? This year throughout the month of Febru-

ary, the people of Kuwait are celebrating the 50th anniver-

sary of their independence from Great Britain and the 20th

anniversary since the liberation from Saddam Hussein‟s

invading Army by U.S.-led Coalition Forces. The occasion, which Kuwait has designated its

“Golden Jubilee” anniversary, is an opportunity to reflect upon and honor all that the people of

Kuwait have achieved as a nation over the past decades. It is also a chance to recognize the im-

portant strategic alliance between Kuwait and the U.S.

HHB Commander’s Corner Dear Family Members,

February passed as quickly as it arrived. I‟ve heard that you‟ve had some warm

days; warm enough to show portions of grass on lawns. Hang in there, spring is

just around the corner. You made it!

In keeping with TF 1-103‟s magnificent work ethic in theater, February was an

incredibly productive month. We‟re really raising eyebrows in how much we‟ve

accomplished in just 3 ½ months. It is unprecedented.

One aspect of Camp Virginia that really keeps service members morale high is the

camp‟s overall cleanliness and order. Fortunately for our soldiers, we‟re only re-

sponsible for ourselves and our own areas. Third-Country-Nationals (TCNs),

however, arrive on camp every morning to do just that, maintain the cleanliness of the camp‟s grounds.

Of course, our friends are supervised while they‟re on camp. I‟d like to recognize the soldier‟s who

oversee the workers and ensure they are kept busy keeping the camp clean and many other responsibili-

ties. Our Service and Support Team, or S&S team is led by CSM Richard Lafond. His staff includes

SSG Vladimir Telus (a new father as of December), and SGT Tommy Taylor. CSM Lafond doesn‟t ac-

tually oversee the work in progress, but he delegates the tasking. SSG Telus and SGT Taylor make it

happen. Through their leadership, all bunkers have been fortified with sandbags, which make us safer,

and the camp‟s grounds have never looked better. Their crews are very hard workers and quite diligent,

but they wouldn‟t be as successful as they are without our soldier‟s leadership.

The second section I‟d like to recognize is our Force Protection Team which is led by 1LT Jim Sykora.

His team consists of SFC Roberto Matos and SPC Sean Murphy. Together they ensure that all aspects

of Force Protection work cohesively as a unit, and not individual parts. I can‟t give away the secrets, but

it‟s a burdensome task. Force Protection is ever changing with the times. With this present day volatility

that many areas of the Middle East is experiencing, FP needs to be at the top of their game. They put in

long hours to keep us safe. Their time management and attention to detail is vital to the camp‟s every-

day operations. As long as we feel safe, day-to-day operations flawlessly continue.

RI soldiers on Camp Virginia are making incredible upgrades and are improving the quality of life for

all. This should make you even more proud. TF 1-103rd doesn‟t receive the recognition that is deserves,

but we‟re fine with that. Actually, we prefer it that way. Camp Virginia continues to flourish because of

the hard work and dedication to duty your soldiers bring to the table each and every day.

6 months down 6 to go.

CPT DeCristoforo

Pad Guys

So, who or what is a PAD Guy? Here on Camp Virginia a PAD is a housing area with trailers or tents. PAD guys

are the ones who take care of their assigned PAD. Some of their responsibilities include maintaining ice and water

points on the PAD, pre and post-occupancy inspection, inspect and monitor PAD facilities (tents, generators,

showers trailers, latrine trailers, laundry trailers). They play an important role in life here on Camp Virginia and

each week the PAD team selects the PAD Guy who went above and beyond their normal duties as the PAD Guy

of the week.

SPC John Sargeant

SFC James “That Guy” Pimental

SFC John Santiago (FLARNG)

Camp Buehring Half Marathon Runners

12 Feb 2011

News from Top Well time is moving right along here at Camp Virginia. We‟re half way through our

deployment and believe it or not they are planning our movement back home. Every-

one here seems to be in good spirit and health. We have been pretty busy the past

month with the 50/20 celebration in Kuwait and the 4th ID filtering through on their

way home. We had the French Foreign Legion, The Old Guard, & The Marines also

paid us visit. At one point we had 1600+ transient soldiers here on camp. Everyone is

very professional and I haven‟t heard of any incidents. The only negative is that The

French beat our team in volley ball.

Soldiers are going and returning from R&R leave. They are real happy about being home with their families, how-

ever so far no one has a good word about the travel home and back. It‟s very long and tiring. On the norm, they

leave Camp Virginia on a Sunday and get back to Rhode Island on Tuesday night. The whole process is a lot of

what the Army is known for “Hurry Up and Wait”. Some have stories like the one told by SPC Michael Petrillo.

SPC Petrillo is very competitive as far as sports go (always going for the gift cards). He saw a flyer for a “Kick-

Punt & Toss Tournament”, so he said to SPC Joshua Connolly lets go for it. As the story went SPC Petrillo took

first place and SPC Connolly took second. After a little investigating I found out that they were the only two that

competed. Hence the rest of the story.

The Dining facility suffered a loss when CW 2 Gregory Stack (AKA the DFAC Nazi) was reassigned to be the

unit Historian, if you don‟t believe it just ask him. I have been keeping him out of trouble as much as I can, but it

takes a lot of time and I should get more money. I drive him around camp in our Jeep Cherokee for his “photo

shoots” and he won‟t even kick in a dime for gas money.

Thanks to the efforts of MSG David Taillon and under the direction of LTC Peter Parente we have a baseball

field. MSG Taillon who has a lot on his plate and is nonstop with the MWR, was so busy that CW2 Stack and

myself decided to give him a hand. I think the best day was when he saw CW2 Stack behind the wheel of the 5

ton with a shed that we re-allocated on the back. His jaw dropped down to his knees, and he was in awe. I hope he

doesn‟t run over a land mine he said as Stack drove by.

I have been pro active and training the pigeons. It‟s only a matter time before our communication section consist-

ing of SSG Glen Hassard, SGT Bryan Leveillee, and headed by 1LT Albert Baysah, crashes and we have no com-

munication. Please heed the warning and save your string and cans. I‟ll come to the rescue with the pigeons for

long distance communication.

Please Take Care of One Another

1SG Hubert J. Cardinal

Camel Rides 13 Feb 2011

Camp Virginia Ministry Team Reciprocal Conversations

by Chaplain (MAJ) Wolf

People don‟t like one sided conversations. There are rarely times when it‟s important

to have fairly one sided conversations. With children and subordinates, one sided lec-

tures may be helpful on occasion. But even then, they‟re not healthy on a regular ba-

sis. When our contributions to a discussion are ignored, people often feel unvalued by the other person,

and it blocks the fruitfulness of potential future interactions and creative discourse.

Active listening includes body language that expresses to another that we feel that what they‟re say-

ing is important to us. It also involves tones of voice that let them know we‟re really considering what

they‟re saying. Spacing out or thinking about our response will be obvious after not too long. You

can‟t fake the appropriate tones of voice too well over time either.

Reflective listening is important as well. Repeating what they have said, in your own words is a

great way to let him, or her, know that you‟re really processing the information that they‟re presenting.

Verbatim (word for word) replays must be avoided though. Paraphrasing their info in your own

words makes it obvious that you‟ve cared enough to think about what they‟ve said. It‟s also a good

way to keep ourselves from thinking about other things. It‟s about focusing on what‟s important to the

person speaking.

Additionally there are other aspects to effective communication that can help immeasurably; such

as trigger words. „Trigger‟ words and terms should be avoided in verbal exchanges. Some examples

are as follows:

Starting a sentence with “You…”

This could be replaced with “I feel…”

or “When this happens, it seems…”

Using infinite terms such as “You always…” “You never…” or “Every time you…”

“You always…” could be replaced with, “I feel that you often…”

“You never…” could be replaced with something like, “I believe that you have rarely…”

“Every time you…” could be replaced with, “I feel that a lot of the time you…”

These infinite terms are almost always an exaggeration (which is often perceived as destructively

critical dishonestly), and will usually leave the other person feeling defensive.

Friendship, romantic, family, or workplace relationships are important to all of us somehow. It‟s so

crucial to be a good listener and show that that we are concerned about the other person‟s feelings or

opinions that they‟re sharing. It doesn‟t matter if we agree. What matters is that they‟re being heard.

We Soldiers and Military Family Members can build stronger relationships by merely applying and

regularly practicing the above ideas to our skill sets.

Blessings from what was previously in or near the Garden of Eden.

Sincerely,

Chaplain Wolf

Softball Game 12 Feb 2011

Kuwait 50/20 Celebration 5k 25 Feb 2011