MICHAEL J. DURANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, and children of all ages; tonight I have heard from a True American Hero!!!!!! Michael Durant was AWESOME. For folks that don't know he was the BlackHawk Helicopter Pilot that was shot down in October of 1993 in Somalia and was held as a prisoner of war for eleven days. I don't have the time to tell you the story of the event on the blogger but he went through step by step what happened before, during and after the incident. He related what happened to him and what was learned into things that everyone could get something out of, from war to being a better father. We saw the actual crash site photo's of the helicopter and the video of him in custody that was taken by his captor's, trying to get him to talk on camera about killing innocent people as an American soldier. WOW!!!!! Can you tell that I'm pumped up??? It was Good stuff.

Tuesday Night

Well in the Morning we run the "Lion's Leap" as a part of the Yellow Brick Road Challenge. It is only 3.1 miles so it shouldn't be too bad. Tonight we watched the movie BlackHawk Down in the auditorium. It is a motivational movie for me. I knew a guy that was a Ranger over there for the conflict. He never talked a lot about it, but just enough. Tomorrow night, the BlackHawk Pilot that was taken as a hostage, Michael Durant, is going to speak to us as a session about BlackHawk Down. It should be very interesting to hear from him, about the incident and his time as a prisoner of war.

I still miss everybody a lot. It was good to hear from one of my teenagers beside Kris. I was beginning to think that Kris is the only one that knows how to work a computer. Good to hear from you Nick and tell Nathan I said hello also. I hope that Nathan and Lacey are keeping the store straight.

Everybody be in prayer for Tonya and the kids as they come up here to see me this weekend. Red told me tonight on the phone that the van got hit again today. I think that she is trying to completely wreck it so I'll have to trade it when I get back!?!?!?!?! I miss everyone and can't wait to see you all.

Pictures from DC

Here are some of the pictures from sight seeing at the monuments in DC. The top picture is the Washington monument, the middle is my friend from Romania taking pictures of the ducks and the bottom is the Lincoln Memorial. I have Monument and Duck story that is funny and meaningful all in one. I'll tell everyone about the ducks when I get back into town. I think that I learned more on this one day adventure then the whole week of class. Throughout the day my friend from Romania was telling me about the history of the monuments we were seeing. And at the end of the day he said something powerful. I told him that I was impressed with his knowledge of World History, and he stated that History is important because you cannot find the future until you know about your past and where you have come from. This made me think about how many times we seem to only live for today and forget about looking at the past to help us go toward the future. I miss everyone and can't wait to see my beautiful wife and children this coming weekend.

The Police Officers Memorial

On Saturday we did some sight seeing again. We went back to the Police Officers Memorial in the day light. I took some better photo's and just looked around a little more. And yes, that is a World Wrestling Entertainment Truck in the back ground. I was going to run up to the guys in the truck and give them a big Rick Flair Yell!!!!! Lucky for them they were all inside setting up for the event. It is probably for the best, they might have wanted me to perform in the show or something. :)

Ending of Week Four

Hello All, we are coming to an end of week four. This week has not been to bad. I'm still just staying busy working on finishing the book that I'm reading and doing some papers. Me and the guy from Indiana are going tomorrow night to see Joel Osteen in Balitmore. Saturday I'm going to a White House tour and mess around in DC some, then the plan on Sunday is go to morning service and then work on papers all day!!!! Big fun. I've gotten more comments from my youth leaders but the teenagers are still slacking on me!?!?!?!? Any way, Jessica thanks for keeping Tonya straight this weekend. I know how she is when she is in public without her husband. :) Well everybody take care, I'm only about one and 1/2 weeks from being half way done. Jamie and Jacob I love you and be good this weekend.

Monday P.T.

Today was a normal Monday except my PT instructor tried to kill us or something. I knew that I was in for it when he said, "we'll go and run four sets of stairs and be done, I don't care how you get to the top just keep going and get up there." Something about this seemed to easy?!?!?!?! He called it the Garage, because after we ran over to it; it was the four level parking garage. The mission was run to the top and do 15 squats, run to the bottom and do 15 push ups, then run to the other three corners with stairs and repeat this process. By the third set of four levels of stairs my legs were on fire. But you know the saying if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger. TJ, I thought that when they finish the parking deck at CCC&TI this would be a good one for the BLET students!!!!!

Where are my teenagers, the only one that has been keeping up with me on a regular basis is Kris. I know that you guys haven't forgotten me this early???? I would hate to have to come back and start doing PT for our Youth lessons! I'm sure I could find some scripture that would relate like building your house on the rock. I heard from Tonya that Jarrett has injured his leg again. Man, I'm sorry to hear that and I'll be praying for you and the knee.
Well, I better go for now. Tonya, Jamie, and Jacob I Love you guys very much and I can't wait to see you when you come up here in a couple of weeks.

Sunday Warfare!!!!!!

This morning we had a new Chaplin for the morning service. He is from Reno, Nevada. The music he picked was more up my alley. It was more contemporary, and several of the songs we sing at The Grace Place. His message was from Matthew Chapter 7, when Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus used the parable of building your house on the rock or sand. The Chaplin talked about when our storms come where is our foundation at, because the storms will come. I enjoyed the message but I sure do miss my church family.

Tonight, Tonya called while she was with the youth group. I sure did enjoy talking with my teenagers and some of my crazy youth leaders. Sometimes I think that the youth probably help keep the leaders in line, with guys like Junior and Brad running around. I do miss everyone, but I know that God has a plan. It is my job to seek his face and stay focused on his guidance.

Tonya, Jamie and Jacob I love you and miss you.

Photo's

Here are some more Photo's from the Marine Corps Museum and the Air and Space Museum. The plane below traveled more than 2,000 miles per hour when it was in use. It could travel from LA to New York in a little less than one and a half hours!!!!!! Pretty Cool Huh!!!

To the Moon Alice!!!!!!!

Well I got out and did some more site seeing this weekend. Although this may look like I'm just out goofing off, I'm actually on a Class Mission. I'm on the Newsletter staff for writing the Session newsletter, so I had to go suffer through all of this to get some photo's for our Newsletter. Somebody had to do it, so I stepped up to the plate and took one for the team. This is at the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport. They had all kinds of planes, and spacecraft. They had the actual plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, "Enola Gay". This place was huge.

Thursday Evening

We went to the Hockey game in Washington last night. Catalin was amazed at how big the stadium was. It was fun seeing him with our America culture. We were on the Metro train and the lady came over the loud speaker and was telling about the next stop, Catalin looked over at me and Keith and stated "was that English?? What did she say?" I laughed a lot at his sense of humor. The hockey game was fun, but I think I enjoyed hanging out with him and Kieth more than the game. I learned about about how police are different in America than in other countries. Catalin and I were standing in the breezeway letting him eat his first America Pretzel, and he stated "It is true, America is the land of the free." I asked him what he meant, and he said look at everyone they are doing what they want to do. His country was under the control of Russia for a long time he says, last night was a learning experience. The picture above is of Catalin and me.

I miss my wife and kids a whole lot, but it really seems to be speeding up a lot.

Trade Tower Memorial

This is between the library and cafeteria in a courtyard at the Academy. I think that I've got this video thing worked out!?!?!?!? I love and miss everybody.

Police Memorial Service

Tonight was the Police Memorial Service. It was very cool, I felt like royalty riding into DC on the Bus. When we got to DC a group of Police Motorcycles picked up the buses and escorted us into down town with lights and sirens. There were a lot of guys that read names from there departments and you could tell that it was emotional for them. I traced a name off the wall from a friend of mine that died in the line of duty. It was a neat trip. I'm trying to put a video of the bag pipes playing on this blog, not sure if it is going to work or not.

Tuesday Evening

Hello All, Monday and Tuesday have flown by. Finished all my classes, did some laundry, ate supper, and had a Newsletter Rep. meeting all on Monday. It was about 8:30 pm before I slowed down. Today was about the same way. We had PT on Monday and Tuesday and I've come to the conclusion that our PT Instructor is warped in the head. I think he gets to much enjoyment in watching us about to die. Tomorrow morning is our second Yellow Brick road challenge run of 2.6 miles, I'm sure the muscles in my legs are going to feel great in the morning.

Tomorrow evening we are all going to D.C. for a special service at the Police Officers Memorial. It should be very neat experience, but probably a little sad. Many guys will be reading off names of there friends or coworkers that have been killed in the line of duty. I'm sure it will be a very sobering event. On a lighter note, my room mate is going to take me and my buddy from Romania to a Hockey game on Thursday evening. Catalin and myself have never been to a Hockey match and it should be a neat experience. Classes are going well, the Stress Management class may be my favorite. Some of the discussions have gotten pretty deep so far and been very thought provoking. The instructor is a FBI agent and I think that he is a minister also. He may be a good resource for me! All in all things are well, hopefully I'll get some good pictures from the Police Officers Memorial Service tomorrow night to post on here. Tonya, I love you and miss you more and more each day. Jamie and Jacob I miss and love you guys bunches and bunches.

My Sunday

Today was ok, but I sure do miss home!!!! I went to the service this morning at the Chapel, the music reminded me of days of old. I sure did miss the praise and worship music and having Dawn set the stage for the message. I did enjoy the message, the Chaplain preached on not losing your heart or focus as a believer. He did a good job and had a great story that really made you connect to his message. I then did some homework, watched a little football and got to talk to Tonya, Jacob, Kris & Nick while they were at the colletsville park. I enjoyed talking with you two knuckle heads a lot. Then me and a guy named Mark from Michigan went and ran four miles. I then went and swam a mile and a half, and as I was leaving the pool one of the guys from North Carolina was hitting the heavy bag and asked me to hold it for him. This turned into me sparing with him and me hitting the heavy bag also. This guy is a Captain with Charlotte Meck and he is a workout machine. When we did the body fat his body fat was 5%!!!! Do I need to explain that when we finished the boxing workout, I was worn out!!! I'm going to do a little more reading and then probably go to bed early. Tonya, I'll try and get you a picture of my pretty face in the next day or so. I love you guys bunches.

National Firearms Museum

We also stopped by the National Firearms Museum and looked at guns. They had everything from old to new. I thought that this was cool, this was the pistol that Clint Eastwood used in Dirty Harry and Magnum Force. It is neat to be up here with other cops because today my wife and two kids would have gotten very bored very quickly. But I sure enjoyed the site sighting.

Tonya, Jamie and Jacob, I love you guys!!!!

Site Seeing on Saturday

We went to a couple of places today. The gun show was ok but we didn't stay there long. Todd did lock the keys in the car so there we were breaking into his patrol car in the parking lot with a wire coat hanger. Boy are we super high speed Law Enforcement officers or what?? The guy in orange is Todd from Kentucky, and the guy in blue is Keith my roommate.

We then went to the battle field of Manassas or known in the South as the battle of Bull Run. It was cool to walk the battle field and see how the North and the South fought at the particular battlefield. This is a picture of General "Stonewall" Jackson. This was the battle that General Jackson got his nickname "Stonewall" Jackson because the opposing Union General made the statement "There stands Jackson like a Stonewall". I thought this was pretty cool, but I get into some of the history stuff.

Video Problems

I've been trying for two days to get a video to upload, but for whatever reason I can't seem to make it happen????? Things here are good, today. I'm doing homework, assignments, and trying to stay ahead of the due dates for work. I think that I'm going to go to a gun show in the area on Saturday with my room mate Keith and another guy from Kentucky named Todd. Todd is a class 3 firearms dealer so if I see some really cool fully automatic weapons I could purchase it through him!!!!!! Don't worry about the money Tonya, we'll talk about it when I get back. Ha, Ha just kidding. Sunday, I'm going to go to the chapel here at the academy for a service at 9:00 am. I think that the chaplain is from Seattle that is doing the service. Later in the day me and a guy from my section are going to go on a 3 or 4 mile run.

I thought that this was cool, a guy who is a Lieutenant with the Indiana State Patrol came up to me tonight and asked me if I'd like to go with him to listen to Joel Osteen at the end of this month. He said he had an extra ticket and just thought that I might like to go. I'm not the biggest Osteen fan but I think that I'll go and hear him. To all my youth, you guys stay on the right track, you know that I know people that can come check up on you!!!!!! Thanks for all the comments from everyone on the page, when I check it, it is like getting mail from home. :) Jamie and Jacob, I miss you guys and be good. I love you Tonya!!

Middle of Week 2

Hello everyone!!!! I've been trying to up load a video for about the last thirty minutes and for whatever reason I can't seem to get it to work right now. This week has been a lot busier and seemed a lot faster so far, that may have something with the fact that I was off on Monday??? Well, on my drive back to Quantico, Tonya called and let me know that she had "wrecked the van a little". This event I missed by about three hours. Some of you guys are not praying hard enough!!! Ha, Ha!! I weighed in at 2% under the body fat % and as of Tuesday I've lost about 34 pounds so I was happy with that so far. My room mate says that operation Slim Jim is now in effect, no more operation Grande' for us. However we did go and eat ice cream last night, because I had it on the brain. Today I went to an hour lunch time service that one of the guys in the session put on called "can a cop be a believer?" There was only about 10 of us out of 303 but it was cool to sit and talk about serving God and serving the profession of Law Enforcement. I closed the group in prayer and we all went our separate ways for the day. I'm missing everyone, and kids be good for Mommy. Tonya watch out for the trees!!! I love you all, B.

Friday of 1st week

Hello everyone, thanks for all the comments this week on the page and emails. They have been helpful and special to know that people are thinking and praying for us. I had to keep Red happy so here it is. :)

Day Five

Today was a little boring. We had a meeting in the auditorium for about two hours dealing with the Behavioral Analysis unit of the FBI and how they can help local officers. It was pretty interesting on the services that they can provide. Then the rest of the day was open due to my classes starting on Thursday. I went and swam a 1/2 mile and then ran four miles. I was a little tired after the PT but hopefully it will make me sleep better. My room mate and I went out scouting this evening and found the National Marine Core museum on base and it is free and really nice. We did a quick walk through but we are going to go back when we have more free time to spend there. I thought about my father-in-law and him being a former Marine. I think Roger would enjoy see the museum. Tomorrow classes start and I'm ready for it. It has been a couple of slow days getting started and I'm ready for the daily routine. The digital camera thing is not quite as easy as I was hoping. The FBI is a little strict on just walking around video taping the facilities. There are new agents here and many of the folks in the National Academy with me work Narcotics back home, so I can't just walk around videoing stuff due to the blog page being set up so anybody can view it. But I'll get some more stuff video stuff and put on here. Tonya, I enjoyed talking to you guys on the phone today, I love ya'll and I'll talk to ya later.

Day Four

Hello Everyone, today was some of the same getting started stuff. We had photo's for the yearbook, an orientation in the library and the they went over the fitness challenge called the yellow brick road. It consist of multiple runs starting with a 1.8 mile and ending with a 6.1 mile run over obstacles at the end of academy. It should be pretty cool. If you complete all the runs and the last run called the yellow brick road you receive a yellow brick with your session number on it. It is kind of like the trophy for your hard physical work. Also I'm going to try and get a blue brick for swimming 34 miles while I'm here. I went and swam 1/2 mile today in the pool instead of running. It took me 32 lengths to get to the 1/2 mile mark. Tomorrow I'll have to swim and run. Sounds fun doesn't it? Tonight we had a section social at a spot called "The Grove" which is just some trees and picnic tables around a fire pit. While we were hanging out two of the guys started playing the bag pipes while I was on the phone to Jamie and Tonya. Tonya asked it I was about to cry, of course I said no but a lot of the guys were just standing quietly listening. For the folks that don't know, it is tradition that when an officer is killed in the line of duty Amazing Grace is played on the bag pipes. I know a lot of the guys were remembering funerals of Brothers in Blue when they started playing Amazing Grace. Jamie and Jake, I love you and be good for mommy. I love you to Red!!!

Shout out!!!

Hey guys I was just checking the blog page because Tonya had said that Jamie had written me a response on it. I love seeing Jamie's messages. But I was suprised and encouraged by Nathan and Kris. Just seeing that you two knuckle heads are keeping up with me was very cool. And Kris I have been hanging out with you two much. Nathan thanks for the note, it meant more than you know. The last week or so I've been over whelmed with the love shown to me and the family. Well I'm going to go for now, take care everybody.

Day Three

Hello Tonya, Jamie, and Jacob. I have a few hours to kill before my section goes to the section dinner tonight. I'm probably going to take my big ol' country biscuit eating self out to the track and jog a mile or two before supper tonight. Day Three has been ok, just more orientation kind of stuff and getting classes switched around. My section leader is a FBI agent from Atlanta Georgia and he is a nut. He is a very funny guy and our section has been laughing like crazy at this guy. He has made it fun so far. Well I guess that I'll go for now but, I love you guys and I'll talk to you tonight on the phone. Love, Daddy.