Photos courtesy of Henry Bass

Henry Bass hoisted his own flag over division headquarters in Basra, Iraq, at 7 a.m. July 29 to honor his wedding anniversary.

Henry and Lisa Bass met in Garmisch, Germany, at the Army's recreation hotel, the Edelweiss, in June for mid-tour rest and relaxation.

Bass' office in Basra, Iraq, is marked with a patriotic banner made by Cub Scout Pack 145 from St. Paul United Methodist Church in Christiansburg.

Oct. 5, 2008, Farewells

Thursday was an ACI covered dish lunch, Friday the President's Council hosted what may have been the first gathering of all three groups for a send-off lunch. Both days were interspersed with "final" client and employee meetings, since there's always just a few more things we need to take care of. Kevin Litten's article about this deployment and its effect on our business appeared in today's Virginia section of The Roanoke Times. The online edition put it under business. It was a great ink, got everything right, and captured our sentiment: This is a challenge, but we're up for it, and all of us (family and employees) see this as a patriotic responsibility.

Saturday's swan song was at the Virginia Tech tailgate: not a celebration tailgate, but our golden opportunity to sell Cub Scout popcorn! We piloted a popcorn sale last year, visiting our well-to-do tailgaters and found them very supportive. It helps that our Cub Scouts are enthusiastic, pull a red wagon full of caramel corn tins, and tell the fans about the great activities we do in our pack. Plus the cuteness factor. We managed to sell over 28 cases, 12 cans/case. As overpriced as Cub Scout popcorn is, many fans supported our boys with tips and donations.

Sunday we made waffles at home, a delicious family tradition, and I zipped through a quick IASO course (information assurance/computer security), some reading I had been doing over the last two weeks. The boys and I enjoyed some horseplay, helped me put on my uniform and we headed out. While traveling in uniform wasn't required, Lisa suggested it would help the boys understand that this is no ordinary business trip. Message received! We stopped at the new R/C flying field on the way to the airport: the radio-controlled airplane club was hosting a fun-fly and cook-out. The weather was great. We enjoyed a few flights for me, Eric and Ethan, then had a burger before continuing to the airport.

Goodbye was certainly tough. Eric was stoic, Ethan was emotional, and Lisa was wonderful, supporting both boys and me.

Nov. 22, Going for 300

Lisa and I made a promise before I left: we'd each try to lose 10 pounds. I've got a lot more than she does to lose, and I've gotten right to work on it.

One of our briefings on "battle mind" (or as a football coach would say, "getting your head into the game") was about coming back as a 300. It's your choice whether that's a 300 on your PT test (perfect score on Army Physical Fitness), or 300 pounds. Because there's considerable discretionary time, and lots of really good food. See an online calculator for the Army's PT test

So I'm working on my weight goal, and hopefully improving my PT score in the process. I started at 226 pounds on Oct. 5. I was within Army standards, but have to be body-fat measured. My goal is to be below the screening weight for body-fat testing ("tape test" -- because they measure your girth and use various look-up tables to guesstimate your body fat percentage). So my goal is under 214 pounds. Right now, I'm 218! I was pretty frustrated last month as I was eating right, exercising more than most of my peers, and still not loosing anything. Well, I took a dramatic step last week: I stopped all caffeine and artificial sweeteners. No Diet Coke, my favorite beverage! And within a week, about 4 pounds have come right off. ...

I'm pretty excited about my progress, though, and I look forward to the benefits of dropping this extra weight: faster run times, easier to do push-ups, less stress on my knees, and above all, looking good for my Lisa!

Dec. 25, Merry Christmas from Tallil

To all my family and friends, Merry Christmas! Santa came eight hours earlier here than the East Coast of the U.S. ... He brought me a stocking filled with beef jerky, shampoo, socks, stationary, Pringles, candy, a cookie, some candy and several toothbrushes!

We have several wonderful boxes of "any soldier" type care packages because the mail hasn't caught up with us yet. I only posted the APO address a few days ago, but don't lock that in yet! I'm in Tallil right now, but my job is going to be in another camp, serving as the liaison officer to our sustainment brigade.

I'll post more info once I'm safely there. ... So let's do a quick review of the hops so far:

1) In-processing for two weeks at Fort Jackson, S.C.

2) Ordnance refresher for two and a half weeks at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md.

3) Join the Kansas 287th already mobilized at Fort Lewis, Wash. Six weeks there.

4) Fort Lewis to Germany to Kuwait, where we stayed at Camp Buehring for four days (most units stay 10-14 days).

5) Buehring to Tallil, Iraq. Met the commander and the support team here, and got my duty orders.

Five hops in 12 weeks. And No. 6 is coming!

The Internet is super busy tonight, as you can imagine on Christmas. I'll circle back with more photos and hopefully a quick video on living conditions ... and an ingenious way some soldiers are rocking out!

April 14, Small World

Last February, I sat down to dinner, started talking to the soldier next to me, and found out he was from Christiansburg, the same town as me! Population is around 11,000, so that's no small feat! I found out that he belonged to a unit that just arrived from Virginia National Guard Military Police.

By meeting Sgt. 1st Class Phoenix, that's how I learned that a unit from my home state was right here in our little Coalition Operating Base. Later, this Military Police (MP) company were the ones nice enough to share Maj. Gen. Newman to promote me to lieutenant colonel.

I've seen Sgt. 1st Class Tazwell Phoenix many more times around the base, and thought I'd give another Christiansburg resident here in Basra the chance to say hello!

He says hi to his family, his two sons (Kyle & Cameron), and a huge hello to his girlfriend Amy Fleet who works at the VT College of Science.

Way to go Sgt. 1st Class Phoenix, and all the rest of the 266th MP Company!

May 16, How's Business

Many folks have asked how ACI, my custom software development company, is doing, and whether the recession and my deployment have affected us.

Certainly the economy and a deployed owner affects the company and interrupts our rhythm. But ACI has an outstanding team of dedicated professionals, and I'm very proud of several great initiatives they have cooking. We continue to make very good progress on the Web-based refrigeration control and energy management for supermarkets that I was talking about last year.

We have a couple of developers serving with Kronos Federal Systems in Blacksburg, and SAIC has grown in Blacksburg. I helped a good friend become part of their management team recently, and prior to deployment, ACI worked on two separate Web-based software development proposals with the SAIC professionals.

With me gone, our advisory board has done a fantastic job, and now Jim Wyers is on our team as interim president. He has been a good friend since working with him at Virginia Tech Army ROTC, and in 2005, he became an ACI employee working on our Army software contract. He was delighted to come back and is overseeing daily operations as well as business development.

The MatWeb material property database and search engine continues to thrive with steady growth and continued improvements to both the search engine and underlying data. Dale, Nils and Rob have recently added new premium features and are ramping up for summer engineering internships.

PC Drafter is about to launch its 10th year, and our new Fantasy Draft Software comparison matrix shows pretty clearly that we've got one of the best packages, yet very reasonably priced.

The bottom line remains strong. We have observed that customers are taking longer to commit, and some projects are on hold, but by and large, our team is fully engaged, and business is on the uptick. And when our team is not working on our projects, they are often undertaking education and self-improvement. We've also been brainstorming some new applications and have a few exciting things cooking!

Personally, I've gone from about 90 hours a week to something around 75 and feel like life is suddenly much better! I've started an application for Systems Engineering certification through INCOSE, and am working on an improved security clearance. Both items should help our marketability after I return.

June 6, Kelly Ryan

Wow! It's been a long time since I've updated. I hadn't realized that time had flown by so quickly. Normally, that's a good thing, but in this case we've been wrapped up in the particularly difficult situation of one of our Cub Scouts, Kelly Ryan. I am saddened to say that Kelly had a rare illness and passed away last Sunday at the age of 10.

Truly, Kelly was an exceptional boy who was always smiling. He was blessed with a loving family, and I believe they did their absolute best to make the most of their short time with Kelly, not even knowing he was not to be with us long. God bless Kelly and the Ryan family.

June 14, The End of Another School Year

July 14 -- the Army's 234th birthday, and my boys' first weekend out of school. I miss them a lot, especially now that they're starting their summer Scout programs and what would have been a few months of family time before Eric starts high school and Ethan moves into his final year of elementary school. ...

This week marks my sixth month in Iraq, and coming up on nine months of mobilization. Personally, I'm on the downhill leg, and with the president's plan to be out of Iraq by 2011, I know the United States is in a similar stance. There's still a lot of ground to cover, but it's easier, I think, when you can look back and see how far you've already gone.

June 27, Midtour Leave

The Army will fly a deployed soldier anywhere in the world for 15 days of rest and relaxation. They try to make about the middle of the tour, and it's definitely something I'm looking forward to. My midpoint was early last month, so my leave is coming up soon. We've decided to meet in Germany, at the Army's recreation hotel, the Edelweiss. It is in Garmisch, where Lisa and I visited several times back in the early '90s as a young lieutenant. Almost 20 years later, we'll get to show it to our children! Ethan was so nice about it, too: "Dad, it's OK if we go to some museums and stuff. I'll still have fun." As it turns out, there's nary a museum in our plan. I'm thinking along the lines of whitewater rafting, mountain climbing, seeing the famous Neuschwanstein castle, and going to the pool a lot!

June 29, Happy Anniversary, Lisa!

Today marks our 20th anniversary. Lisa and I are enjoying a fantastic marriage, but certainly this deployment will be an interruption we won't forget.

On our 10th anniversary, Ethan was just 5 months old, so we mutually decided to postpone a celebration vacation until our 11th anniversary! So now on our 20th, the decision to postpone a vacation has been made for us.

There were two small things I could do to celebrate my wonderful bride. In Christiansburg, I rented the local flower shop's sign.

I sent her flowers, too, but I couldn't hang those on the sign!

In Basra, I made coordination back in June to fly my own U.S. flag over the division headquarters in honor of the occasion. They have a program for this, and Maj. Gen. Nash provided a very nice certificate recognizing our anniversary. I coordinated to be the one to hoist it, so my day started at 7 a.m., raising this flag over the 34th Division Headquarters, Coalition Operating Base Basra.

Notice I'm squinting: the sun's up at 4:30 a.m., so by 7 a.m., it's not only bright, but hot!

So, to Lisa,

It has been the best 20 years a guy could hope for -- and more. It still feels like the beginning of our marriage, because there's so much more ahead of us. I love you deeply, and I owe you one heck of a great vacation! How about we go someplace with lots of water?

Sept. 13, In Tallil and Grandmother's Birthday

I've now relocated to Tallil, Iraq, with the brigade headquarters. My new job for the next month and a half is to help prepare the way for the next phase of this operation, continuing to advise and assist the Iraqi people while concurrently shrinking U.S. forces. This job will largely be borne by our replacements, the 36th Sustainment Brigade, another National Guard unit out of Fort Hood, Texas.

Speaking of Texas, my grandmother celebrated her 95th birthday in Abilene, Texas! She is a wonderful woman who has accomplished much, including exhaustive documentation on our family ancestry, publishing two books. Most of her friends and family were there to share in the celebration, including my brother Charles and his wife, Mary Kate. For my part, the 287th Sustainment Brigade was nice enough to fly a U.S. flag in her honor, with a certificate signed by the brigade commander. That's me under the flag pole: Happy Birthday, Grandmother Mary!

The author

Henry Bass is an Army reservist from Christiansburg and the owner of Blacksburg technology firm Automation Creations.

He found out about his 13-month deployment, assigned to support a medical unit in Iraq with logistics, in August 2008.

This is the first time Bass has been on active duty since the Gulf War.

Back in the New River Valley, a committee of employees is overseeing Automation Creations. The company does much of its business creating Web-based software applications for companies looking to enhance their online operations, but its bread and butter is a searchable materials database for engineers called MatWeb. His wife, Lisa Bass, and two sons, Eric and Ethan, remain in Christiansburg.

Bass has been blogging at www.henrybass.com/blog since he received his deployment orders. He is scheduled to return home in November.