No Name Restaurant, Caracal, Romania

     Bună seara și vineri fericit - Good evening and happy Friday.  I'm celebrating my first full week at my new job and in a beautiful country no one I've known has visited (frankly, most thought it was a fairy tale land where Dracula lived).

     Anyway, I decided when I got here, I would spend the first week learning about my new job since that's what I came here for.  Forty-one years, five months, and eleven days after joining the Air Force, we parted ways to see if the world people had told me about outside the AF really existed.  You know what - it does!  There is a whole new reality out here I forgot was here.  Beware though,  sometimes God is a prankster.  I joined the Air Force, not to be a Security Policeman, but to be in the medical career field.  Well, anyone who knows me realizes it never went down the way I planned.  I spent my entire active duty AF career either standing posts and riding patrols as a uniformed SP or working as a contractor and eventually a government civilian computer engineer for the Security Forces.  For over twenty years after I retired, I supported nearly a generation of Security Forces personnel through a twenty year war in the Middle East.  I watched SF troops come in as Airman Basics at Lackland AFB and eventually retire as Master Sergeants or greater after traveling the four corners of this planet.  I made friends with fine young officers whom I met as young Lieutenants and Captains who have now either retired or are leading the more than 30,000 SF men and women.  I've also met some people who never deserved the honor to be amongst these proud Defenders and we all know who that person is.

     This is where the prank part comes in.  I travelled nearly 6,500 miles from everything familiar to me and I land smack dab in the middle of - the Navy Security Forces department here at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Deveselu, Romania.  My primary duty is providing support to the men and women SF sailors here.  My office is smack dab in the middle of the same staff support facility as the Navy SF warriors.  Where do US Navy Masters-at-Arms get their training?  That's right, Lackland AFB.  Who gives them their training?  That's right, AF SF.  It's as if I never left.  I used to watch them on the "training" side of the base receive their SF training.  They are a great bunch of people and have welcomed me with great respect.

     Last night my IT team took me out to dinner at what must be the most popular eating establishment in Caracal, the "No Name Restaurant".  It's not just the most popular eatary but I hear the owner, Aurelian Andreescu (pictured below in the Patriots jacket) is the biggest Patriots fan in Romania.  He's got some real competition now!  Anyway, I had the polenta appetizer with fresh cheese and a fried egg then ordered Tochitura Dobrogeana with french fries.  This kinda translates to "pork chunks" but is a very tasty braised pork in a well-seasoned velvety brown gravy.  It was all delicious and I want to thank Matt Phipps for taking me there and all he's done to get me settled in.  Matt is a Navy IT guy like me who was holding down the fort for five months last summer until I arrived.  Matt is actually stationed in Washington state and came here TDY for two weeks to make sure I was going to be ok.

     This weekend I'll be venturing out on my own to Caracal once again to get a new cell phone so I can call back to the States and then on to Craiova to visit the local mall and the Romanian version of Walmart.  More to follow soon folks.  The country is beautiful so far and everyone I've met has been very welcoming - this is a fantastic escape from the rat race.