I am halfway back from the furthest reaches of Helmand Province Afghanistan, the deadliest Taliban stronghold, and despite being out where we didn't get showers for 5 days and hot food was a pipe dream, I still found a way to move the project forward. Even got to spend almost a full day with my Marine Corps Corporal brother, granted I made him patrol back from an Observation Post to the Patrol Base to hang out, I think we both got some motivation from seeing each other out on the very front lines of the war. Amidst mortar rounds and machine gun fire we played a game of catch with a football in the small center area of the PB in honor of the recently started College and NFL football season.

As soon as I get back to Kabul I will post the pictures I took, and an exciting update to the project!

Hope everyone is safe out there and enjoying football season!

Cheers,
George Hartwell

Thank you for all that you do and Stay safe !!

An excellently worthy project!

Good luck and I hope it goes well.

Thank you again,

~Eric

Mortar rounds and machine gun fire and you worry about updating us? Man, keep your head down and fill us in from a safer location. Lol!

That is really cool you got to see your brother out there. I hope you both are safe and come back soon.

X2.Please say THANK YOU for me to your other Brother's in ARM's.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :cheers: This Bud's everybody in the Service of this great Country.

Back from visiting the real warfighters in Helmand Province, spend about 12 hours with my youngest brother Ted at a Patrol Base in likely the nastiest place for Taliban, the Patrol Base and outlying Observation Posts (one of which my brother was manning) were attacked at least 6 times that day. These Marines spend 210 days straight manning these. I was amazed by their positive attitudes and demeanor, they motivated the heck out of me. Add to that the professional manner with which they work, while living in dirt, it was nothing short of amazing.

Big news coming up for the project, standby!

The below pics are from my trip out to Helmand last week, got to visit my youngest brother Ted and some seriously tough Marines. It was a good trip. The first pic is Ted and I, The second is Ted and I playing football while the heavy mortars are engaging Taliban attackers about 100 meters away, and the third picture is me taking a break from football to smoke a cigar (they wanted me to, it was peer pressure) with some seriously tough Marines, the nearest Marine was shot through his upper right thigh, got patched up and came right back out! The scar was awesome!

Stand by, rendering artwork to be posted shortly, I also have a few interesting pots and pans in the fire right now. Should have more info soon! In the meantime check out the renderings when they get posted and let me know what you think!

George I just went through your thread, first let me say I'm sorry for the loss of your brother Zac and his friend.. I'd also like to thank you and you whole family for your service to this county and for protecting me and my family.
You've got a great project going here and for a great cause.. Good luck with it, and God bless and keep your family and all our troops safe.

Thanks Wayne, I hope when these two are finished they live up to my vision and that the project gets through to at least one person, my message of responsible drinking is more moderate than many organizations and so I hope that by taking a middle road I can reach more people who will put just a few seconds of thought into their decisions when going out. It is such a waste when you realize just how fast people can disappear from this earth the way Zac and Ryan did.

Thanks again and believe me, the Hartwell's really enjoy our jobs in the military, and we appreciate your support!

Also, I'm adding new pictures to the first post right now, check them out and let me know what you all think!

Regards,
George

The renderings look good, and I like the design on the badges.