Four days and counting!

Here we go again - another crazy couple of days. Yesterday, we had what I consider the first real, quality training of the course - Medical and Land navigation. The medical was taught from a real world input, but once again, the army tends to issue gear, then have you add on. It's nice to know that the kits are high quality, but the corpsmen had many things that they thought we should add - facemasks, non latex gloves, and tampons..... yes, tampons. Apparently these things can be used to stop blood, and are great for bullet holes. So the next time you see a big, hulking mean looking Army Ranger buying a box, either he is going to war, or running his wife's errands!!!! The map exercise was good. We go out into the woods and get lost here soon - a half day nature hike with 65 pounds of our favorite gear. Hopefully it won't be raining. Hey, at least now I know how to call in gunfire support. Hmmm.... that could be useful with a couple of former CO's...... lol

Today was a good day - we got to fire the big guns! Ma Deuce - M2 - 50 Cal automatic machine gun, the Mk 19 grenade launcher, and the M240 Machine gun, and Squad Automatic Weapon. A solid couple of hours of lead downrange. This would be the kewl part of being a grunt - but not the hikes, carrying the equipment, cleaning, maintenace....... just get me in there for the shooting part!!!! Other than that, and a typhoid shot (yaaaaayyyyyy) that is all the news that is fit to print. Tomorrow, and Thursday are training days, and Friday is admin. I'm told that we take off on Saturday morning via chartered flight, grab a layover on the way, and by Monday, I should be in Kuwait. From there, it is a 2 and a half day class involving camping out in the desert, then get in line and wait for a flight into baghdad. Something tells me, that won't take long. With the President's speech last week, and the indiciations I am getting, this tour won't be just a small desk job pushing papers, and hiding in a bunker. With any luck, I will be coming home next year along with A LOT more kids that otherwise would have been blown up, twisted, or mangled. One can only hope!

Well, that is all for now - I will try and get one last post off before going in country. Hopefully the internet is wide open and plentiful!