Sunday Sports Break

With the soldiers running, passing, and catching the football like middle school kids--I get a few passes and start joining in.

"LT's got an arm! I want him on my team!" SPC Short said.

When they gather the teams, I hear some talk of "LT is one of the team captains."

Knowing I would just be following the will of the first person I pick anyway--I jokingly say, "One of you go, I don't want to be a captain, I'll be a Captain in two years anyway."

No need to be in charge all the time.

With every down, marching towards each glorious end zone marked by rocks and engineering tape, we play with effort and schoolyard frustration. Even with helicopters flying overhead and a myriad of mismatched PT gear that is only typical of unorganized events, we are somehow away from here.

Set. Hike.

The dust fills the lungs with the feeling of a tough swim. The deep inhale brings the endorphins out and the dry cake of sand layers the skin with toughness.
Run, get open, and make the catch.

Drop back, cover your man, rush the QB. Make jokes about each other. Congratulate a good throw, a good catch, a funny mistake.

“SFC Grump. All-American Class of 1865,” SGT Bucks shouts as my PSG gets set to drop back as QB on the opposing team. We collectively laugh even as the play begins. SFC Grump completes the pass and shouts back an insult at SGT Bucks.


My team gets a few points down. I make a few catches, a few touchdowns, and --feeling a flash of confidence--I ask to take QB from SGT Bucks. Down the dust field, he's open and I launch it right to Bucks. Touchdown.

An interception, a pass completion, a touchdown catch, a nice play by a teammate. The feeling of victory from these small triumphs far surpass the monotonous task completions of a SITREP, a Power Point presentation, or an inventory.

Taken together, the victories make a true break from the grind with my company’s soldiers. These are the moments a man stays in the Army for.

The sun sets on another Sunday in Iraq.

Music Talk at the DFAC

There was music in the chow hall tonight. The military band spread some tones of home our way. They had a full band up there... guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and a horns section. The music selection was nice and varied too. Included Santana, Cake, and all kinds of variety that I wouldn't normally expect from a cover band in a good way.

CPT DD, SFC Grump, and SGT Levelhead and I went up there and had a nice relaxing dinner--one of the five or so times I've actually spent at the DFAC since I got here. We talked music, movies, and normalcy for long after we had finished our food. My makeshift "Chipotle" bowl went just fine with it.

Turns out CPT DD is really into music and used to play tuba in college. I kept telling him we'd start a Company band when we get home. He even has a banjo... hope he knows how well tuba, banjo, and acoustic go together (no joke). In talking about various instruments I got a little peeved to think that I didn't bring my harmonicas along. Will have to get them sent to me and possibly a guitar too if i can't find one here.

I found out from SGT Levelhead, an obviously level-headed and amiable soldier from the motor pool, that some of the soldiers have guitars they don't use and some of the Air Force members in our LSA are due to leave soon. Hope I can knab a guitar to pass my off time! He also has a guitar here and I offered to give him some lessons.

First Sand Storm and Steps Forward

Today brought us the first sand storm since I arrived. Pretty wild stuff. One minute I was in my office, thinking it looked like it might rain, it was like a cinnamon fog.

My PSG was saying "This isn't the half of it! Last deployment you couldn't see your hand stretched out in front of you!"

After a DBPP (Death By Power Point) range safety class, I had to head down to inventory my SSS Shelter (a big truckback full of shiny computer things for you normal humans). Thankfully, I actually had a well written component listing so it went by in a short time.

More training slides, and standing in for XO duties kept me occupied the rest of the day. I thought to myself at one point, "God, this is better than not knowing what's going on."

At least by being busy time goes by faster in this strange setting.

Just now I was talking to my brother and told him how I can't wait to come home and be normal again.

"You become accustomed to it," I said, "so it's not really bad anymore. But it's not normal."

The tasks I knew I had to get done when I first got here are now on there way though, and the coming months should fly on by. Guess that means a step towards progress.

One Month Down

One month since my Kuwait stomp date.

The past month has dragged on in some ways, but a month in Iraq is behind me. Being away at war is an experience I can say I’ve felt in the past tense now. I still have a lot of time left, but future tense is going home now. This, my friends, is good news.

Much of this morning was spent with SFC Grump preparing some training and getting things done. In spending more time with him, I have a better impression. We actually seem to mesh well together. I believe it helps that I am eager to hear his point of view and talk out the issues. I even had him draw me certain explanations of our company on the marker board.

Tomorrow he and I will be doing an initial counseling meeting after our BUB (Battle Update Brief). It will be a helpful start for both of us, and I hope that it goes beyond just being an Army formality. After that we’ll be off to start my first inventories.

-

At lunch I started a new bench press routine that I read about in The 4-Hour Body. It is a program tailored to increasing the bench press max of an individual in four months—which should work well with the timing of my deployment. For the first module of it, I will be benching once a week with three grips—power, wide, and narrow—with two sets of each but power. Each week increases in percentage of related to overall body weight. Should be fun!

I’ll track fitness stuff here soon along with some results in my change in overall body weight (since the 193 I started at when landing in Kuwait and haven’t weighed myself since), body mass, body fat, etc. It’s easy to spend time getting in good shape out here! Feel free to ignore those posts, but I’ve read that by making your goals public, you make them harder to break.

-

Towards the end of the day today, CPT DD asked if I wanted to go to the DRMO yard (I still don’t know the acronym’s meaning. Google it for me, as I’m writing this post during a usual civilian internet outage). Basically this place is a dump with the value in the hundreds of thousands.

Instead of paying for shipment and repair, the units bring what equipment they can gladly remove from their property books and conscience. What is left is a ton of equipment that the Army no longer cares about, since it’s not being officially tracked. The equipment is officially wasted. Without logistical support, the junk is made junk.

I could not believe that yard. So much stuff! Included in the DRMO yard were piles of cable, refrigerators, monitors, military instruments, musical equipment, and even a fooseball table. CPT DD and I were equally appalled—and acted essentially like the guys on American Pickers for about thirty minutes. It was a cool moment, and a nice break from the norm. Hopefully we can salvage some cool stuff for our company eventually (especially the fooseball table).

Super Bowl and Festivities from Iraqisthan

Up far too late watching the Super Bowl, I thought I’d write a post. I have time during the commercial breaks because I can’t enjoy the American commercials like everyone back home. Right now, in fact, I’m learning about “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness” via an always-corny AFN commercial. Apparently an airmen sling-shooting himself in the air and landing on the windshield of a jet has some relevancy to something? I digress.

So right now, it’s about halfway through the first quarter and I still cannot stop thinking about that National Anthem performance by Christina Aguilera. I feel embarrassed over it for some reason. I mean seriously!? I thought some rap artist was going to break in with the turntables scratching, yelling, “REMIX!” Maybe if she wasn’t spending so much time trying to sing it all different and original she’d remember that it’s the words that count!

So now for blog stuff. After getting into the battle rhythm a bit and getting an understanding of how I will spend the rest of the deployment, I can now breathe a bit easier throughout the day. All of the routines of work, gym, downtime, etc. are beginning to feel less forced and more natural. The rain finally ending helps.

Being more “part of the group” has helps too. On Friday, SSG Phoenix and 1LT Glitz shared their coincidental birthday and we celebrated by grilling some hamburgers and drinking some near-beers. It was nice to pretend to feel normal… We kept shouting, “Birthday Bash Oh-Leven” like some truly stoked college kids. We even wore some very masculine and in-no-way-goofy looking birthday hats while we sat around and watched some TV. We have a self-deprecating but happy attitude about letting loose in small ways when we can.

The same went for tonight when we were able to go up to the DFAC for a few ACTUAL beers. Stories of home flowed just like the beer from those two little cans. It was a privilege as much as it was a tease of normality. It reminds me of the scene from “The Shawshank Redemption” when the main character is able to get a few beers for his fellow inmates in exchange for doing some tax work. Except it’s not prison, it’s Iraq.

All the better though, it was fun. Some of our soldiers also played some football earlier today to unwind for the game. It’s great to see soldiers try to be normal Americans over here in the desert. We were going to watch the game over at SSG Phoenix’s but they tired out and I’m sure I will soon too—especially if Green Bay runs away from their 14-3 lead. Well, I suppose I have to watch the halftime show at least. (Update. Halftime show was a trainwreck and yippee the game is close at 21-17 packers. No sleep for me tonight.)

I got a package from home today. Highlights include a few Nintendo DS games (awesome) and a 4-pack of my beloved Sugar Free Rockstar. Just in case you are reading this and don’t understand, Sugar Free Rockstar is like crack to me. If you are reading this and have any means to send me some Sugar Free Rockstar, please do so. Smiley face. But in all seriousness, getting a package is a true boost to morale. It could’ve had toilet paper, pencil shavings, anything, and I would’ve loved it.

As for events coming up, I will be doing an inventory of my equipment here and at my platoon’s several out-sites. It should be a good start to working with my PSG, SFC Grump, who arrived on Thursday. We haven’t gotten to work together much yet, but I can tell he knows his stuff. He is a bit jaded, but I think we will work well as a team. My bright-eyed, idealistic notions of the Army are contrasted by his salty discontent with some of its ways. I think he can give me an idea of the realities of certain methods while I hope to wake him up to the realization that he’s not retired yet and should try not to be such a grump all the time! His humor reminds me of one my uncle’s and in that way I am able to relate to him (he’s married and has kids so there really isn’t too much to start with!) Apparently he’s a fan of my alma mater though. Good in my book! More on SFC Grump later.

For now stay tuned for a couple pictures of my settings here at COB Home.

Happy Super Day.

Settling in at COB Home

As I showed already in my last post, I was pretty reluctant to recap everything about getting here. Guess it will only get worse with time, so I'll lay out the basics. Rather than just recapping, soon I hope to do more anecdotal posts--telling a story, not a summary.

-Transit. To use some fanciful language, I will say the chopper flight here was freakin’ awesome. Despite the fact that we were packed in like sardines, it was a humbling experience flying over this country. The landscape was sand and dust. Grids and crop circles. As we touched down to drop off passengers and refuel, I was able to see another small part of our footprint here.

There was a moment that I will never know for sure was my imagination or not when there was a “tink-tink” on the back of the helicopter that I could’ve sworn were rounds. There was a reaction by the gunner, but he did not return fire. The civilian gentleman across from me looked as bug-eyed as I probably did at this sound, but in the shuffle of movement I never spoke to anyone about it before getting picked up to be taken to my new home.

-Settling in. Upon arrival, I was taken to our company HQ and my new room by LT Glitz and SSG Phoenix. After seeing the trailer-like CHU’s when I was down at HQ with LT Bro, it was definitely different seeing these wooden structures with plywood insides. Along with the long porches in the front and the desolate desert surroundings, it looks a lot like the old west.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I have my own room and after some scrounging, was able to put together a nice set up. A plywood desk, two closet-cabinets, a side table, a fridge, a TV, a bed, and of course my alma mater’s flag up on the wall is the near the entirety of my new home. The real plus is I can get on the internet right from my room and can Skype no problem with family and friends back home.

I arrived on the weekend and Sundays are very low op-tempo, so much of that first day was spent unraveling and unpacking all the crap the Army deemed worthy of lugging here.

-Grasping Company AO and PLT property and personnel. This will continue through my deployment I cannot divulge much detailed information here but let’s just say that my signal company is widespread. Command and control, even at the platoon level, is spread over hundreds of miles. It is a challenge to keep updates up remotely and lead remotely. All in the name of keeping our separate sites around Iraq connected. My location here at COB Home is just a small piece of my platoons AO (Area of Operation).

The real difficulty to come soon will be moving all the very expensive equipment back to be reset back to the states… that’s only after heading out to EVERY out-site in my company to inventory and sign for the equipment. Yippee.

The members of my PLT here are very efficient and I am glad to have fallen in on them. After some weariness at first, I am starting to settle in with the confidence to speak to individuals by name and like to think I’m beginning to get some respect for my willingness to learn. No need to reinvent the wheel yet with my platoon’s functions, so I’ll be continuing to evaluate for the next few weeks or so. I should be interesting when my PSG gets back from R&R too. By reputation, I already know that he will have a much different in demeanor than SSG Phoenix.

-Working out; running. PT with the unit has largely consisted of running and sprints and a lot of adherence to the new Army PT Program, “PRT”. Over lunch, I’ve been doing a lot of lifting with my XO and stand-in PSG . Today we even did an extra run over at the track. Scatterloot: the track arena, soccer field, and gym area here is awesomely dilapidated and dates back to Saddam’s rule. I hope to bring home a few pieces of the ruins for the ole’ bar wall..

-Briefs. The one thing I am glad to say I have been able to jump into without much problem is briefing. On our Adobe Breeze meetings (conducted online within our company and with battalion) I have had little trouble confidently briefing my PLT’s situation. Did I know what the hell I was talking about the first one I did last week? Hell no. But I trusted my soldiers to get me up to speed beforehand. After working out the locations and missions of my PLTs equipment and ops, I have been able to grasp the material and answer questions from the XO with no problem.

- Off time (outside of going to get food or working out). Since initial settling, when it comes to my own little personal hut, I have been watching a large amount of movies and television from one of my soldier’s shared hard drive—especially “Breaking Bad”. No joke, I already watched the entirety of the show’s three seasons. The show is very edgy, has great acting, and is just plain addictive! I couldn’t just watch one episode at a time.

Other time-eaters include “Black Swan”, “Easy A”, “True Grit”, and for some unknown reason “A Bug’s Life” (lolz). I haven’t gotten into a groove of being productive in my off time yet, but I hope to replace some mindlessness with some GRE prep, master’s classes, and some certifications. Or maybe I'll take up knitting.

Methodical Boredom…

24JAN10 – Mon

Here I sit in my plywood hut at COB Home drinking a St. Pauli N.A. and ready to make a rambling recap of the past ten days. The first week (15JAN-21JAN) was long but easy to sum up due to the daily monotony. The last three days are hard to even feel like explaining since I had little time for notes: my movement and settling into COB Home with my new platoon.

As shown in my previous post, "Notes and Quotes", I began to have a surplus of time sitting at the computer researching various things and trying to find information that could help me with my time as platoon leader. Other than a brief property management class that I took with the help of the S-4 shop and reading on the platoonleader.army.mil forums, there was very little I could do until getting to COB Home.

So along the way I became a master in the art of self-centered research.

This included checking out how my GI Bill entitlements will work, looking at different master's degree programs, drawing out the next 10 years of my life (no really, I did get this bored), and e-mailing my branch manager to see about the possibility of getting special schools when I get back from theater..

None of those things really got me anywhere, but when will I really have time for that kind of research for THAT many hours a day in the future?

Not often. So all is fine in the universe.

Anyway, I eventually got away from spending time at the BN HQ and got to going to the gym during the day. Basically, I just kept on a different schedule during the day than LT Bro just so I wouldn't have to sit in the office for hours. In doing so, I also was able to check out more of the base and take it in for what it is, and for what it will never be again.

The roads will no longer be called "Heidelberg St.", "Arizona Rd.", or "Victory Blvd.". There won't be reflective belts everywhere at night and soldiers jogging in PTs during the day. There won't be daily helicopter passes. There won't be tons of up-armored GMC, Ford, and Dodge Trucks driven by KBR contractors. There won't be loudspeaker announcements about controlled ordnance disposals, "There will be a controlled detonation in 15 minutes. I say again, there will be a controlled detonation in 15 minutes."

I digress.

I also feel this post has gotten long enough for now and pretty pictures should help make it better… so more on the movement here, arrival, and first impressions tomorrow. Or when I get to it. Maybe. Just kidding, I really will write about it eventually. Or not? The end.

 

 

    

Notes and Quotes

Friday

In the BN Ops room again. Today is a day of random research. This includes, reading "The 4-Hour Body", various military websites, and training material. My written notes have much, much more crap.

4HB

First off, I really recommend this book. I first read Tim Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Workweek" while at SBOLC and loved it. This book makes points about health and exercise I never realized. His narrative style is also very informal, humorous, and interesting.

While I'm deployed I plan on getting in good shape, so this book was a good supplement to the professional reading (Army stuff) I do on a regular basis. More "me" reading.

What he has to say about eating is very insightful (i.e. showing how much more efficient your metabolism is if you eat within 30 minutes of waking) and other practices are just plain strange yet make sense (how taking cold exposure increases your standing body heat, therefore causing you to lose fat). Here's a little bit about exercise I found cool:

-Kettlebell swing - shown to be extremely effective in losing weight; gaining muscle. Do at least 75 reps. Note: I did this the next morning, and yes it is an ass-kicker.

-Two most effective ab exercises – 1) Myotatic Crunch. Stretches out and involves all of core. 2)Breathing exercise (Tim calls it the Cat Vomit). Involves important horizontal muscle in the abdomen otherwise generally neglected (the muscle that hurts when you laugh really hard).

-Principles of a good workout: One set-to-failure of each exercise. 5secsup/5secsdown cadence. Only 2-10 exercises per workout (at least one multi-joint, one pulling, one pressing, one leg).

Some cool quotes:

"Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness." – Dean Karnazes, ultra marathoner who did a marathon in each of the 50 states in 50 consecutive days

"Often the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of." – Mark Twain

"It is vain to do with more what can be done with less." –William of Occam

"It is the lieutenant's privilege to live close to his men, to be their example in conduct, courage, and in devotion to duty. He is in position to learn them intimately, to help them when in trouble, often to keep them out of trouble. No matter how young he may be nor how old and hard and boild his men, he must become their counselor, their leader, their friend, their old man." –Dwight Eisenhower

Barriers to Situational Awareness:

These are from some of my training. Despite the fact that the context of these things were for POW's, I feel that they apply to soldiers who are deployed as well:

-Stress, Denial, Past Experience, Complacency, Insufficient Communication, Task Overload, Health, Haste, Group-think

I'm pretty sure one could point to one of these as the cause of any problem encountered in a unit.

http://www.fourhourbody.com/

Passing Time: Recap to Iraq

Thursday

Written while passing time in the HQ upon initial arrival:

After a long trip yesterday, I am here in Iraq. I had to be up at 0315 for a 0430 show time at the Space-R (required) tent. Hours later I was in the air on the C-130 (somehow I was able to sleep for about half the flight even as I sat knee-to-knee and hip-to-hip with other passengers). Not really anything of note happened that morning until the flight… just a boring, limbo-like wait with all of the other transients.

When I touched ground, I got outside the terminal and waited for about an hour before taking it into my own hands to make contact for someone to pick me up. I felt like the kid whose parents forgot to come get him from school. It was a bit disheartening but it matched my prior "welcomes" in the Army—whether at BOLC or with my initial entry to the unit back in AZ. So I can't really say I was that surprised.

Eventually SGT R picked me up and brought me to LT Bro's CHU (Centralized Housing Unit) where I racked-out for a good 3 hours, post Taco Bell coma.

LT Bro came in from work at around 1700 and we talked about the unit and his experiences for about an hour or so and grabbed some chow, came back to the CHU, and got to bed nice and early. LT Bro is a good guy, expressive about his opinions, and helpful with getting me acclimated. It's nice to have a peer to help me settle in. Although I won't work with him much directly (he is the BMO, Battalion Maintenance Officer), it's good to know I have someone close in rank that I can relate to.

Spoke with the BN commander for a few minutes as will be shown in some of the notes to follow:

SFC I and CPT DD: Battalion Vets

LT Glitz XO and the other PL is LT Spurs (both WP grads, same year-group)

Key sites in C Co.

Advice:

-Inventories, meet troops (many young), learn system, understand signal flow. Stresses LTs are not operators. Be open, honest with soldiers. Listen to NCO's but ask questions.

-Embrace Additional Duties: Supply, OPS, Maint, even Voting

Past problems in C Co.

    -Behavioral health: lost SGT H before leaving from suicide

    -Spouses: some aren't taking good care, separated (still require BAH)

C Co is diverse and has all sig systems but JNN (SSS instead, described as JNN on steroids).

Young NCO's have a lot on their shoulders from being promoted early.

BN had 13 months dwell time before this deployment, after a 15 month deployment. Unit is "on tap" to redeploy back or to AFG a year from return.

COL Pet Peeve: "Last time"

First 3 mos. Back home

    -honeymoon phase, eventually going to go down-hill a bit. Watch for domestic problems and DUI's

After asking my major, LTC mentions a program through the Pentagon allowing for an internship with the Joint Chiefs along with attending Georgetown. Post Command. Look into for later.

Don't take service from someone without justification.

Individuals to seek advice from: CW4 D, CPT T, CPT Hern and H. SGM.

When in doubt, ask self is it immoral, illegal, or fattening.

 

Anyway, it's been interesting settling in here at our HQ home. The meeting with LTC Dug was about thirty minutes long and it felt productive. He has a laid-back demeanor but seems very goal oriented. A good note for me was that he had nothing but good things to say about my company and its leadership.

Walking around and talking with LT Bro has been cool as well—I sat with him after chow and watch SPC Fisherman try his luck at one of the many man-made lakes here. Even got offered a nice cigar by SFC Laugh, one of the NCOs at LT Bro's shop.

On another random note, I tried a "Rip-It"—a cheaper-than-dirt energy drink this is common down range—and believe I have found my new "Sugar Free Rockstar", my crack of choice. That is until I can somehow get it sent to me!

Since the subject of randomness came up, I'll add a few strange or interesting sights and discussions of the past few days. Scatterloot.

-SGT Littleguy – Very cool and young SGT who has seen a lot of combat and only has use of one lung! Met him while we drew equipment back at Camp B. Had lunch with him afterwards and he seems to be one of those rare "good guy" (read not battle-hardened) experienced NCO's. He has a good life outlook and had nothing but good things to say about his wife back home. Also he was very, very respectful and that's a plus in a world where my rank is about as good as a Private's in the eyes of many.

-Movement back to Camp A – Camels, camels, everywhere. Even less than 10 meters from the road.

-The flight here – Strange to see more civilians than military on board. LT Bro tells me civilians outnumber military in Iraq 2-to-1.

-After landing at the AF terminal – What they call "Third-Country Nationals" wielding AK's as security guards. Many from Uganda/random African countries. They also guard the DFAC, PX, etc.

-"Hummingbird" – LT Bro and I witnessed some large bird that was actually flying in place to try to snatched prey from the water. I had no clue larger birds like that could do that.

-Huachuca-blimps – A common sight back in AZ is the AF weather balloon that can be seen all throughout town. There was also one at Camp A and here. Pretty cool seeing something that's become common to me in a foreign country.

-CHU's. Overall the places are small but have AC and internet access (if you buy it). Also indoor showers and latrines are right close. We'll see how COB Home CHU's compare. If I could get my own—without a roommate like LT Bro—I will be able to make the 10 x 12 space (or whatever it is) very comfortable. The huge cement walls surrounding these things would ease my mom's mind a bit.

-The Palace – The one thing that makes this all very imperial is seeing all this old Saddam-era architecture. I wonder often what the Iraqi's will do to this place when we hand it over. The palace—and even my unit's HQ—are in ornate buildings with marble, decorations, lakes, and palm trees. Note: LT Bro later brought me by the other side of the palace and the old bridge leading to it is still decimated from 2003 when we took it out. Very wicked looking.

-HQ – As I said, the building is very ornate, but it's hilarious to see the building juxtaposed with sterile looking office additions. The work stations are high-speed and they have a constant monitor of the networks within out BN AO. LT Bro says he's jealous I'll be further from the flagpole at COB Home, because the HQ is full of officers CPT and above.

-Training – The HEAT training back at Camp B was fun and thank God for it because I never would have been able to figure out my IOTV (tactical vest) on my own for the flight up here. One of the LTC's helped me get it squared away before we got spun around in an MRAP. When I got here the S2 shop also found out I wasn't properly handled back in AZ for finishing some training, so I've spent some time working on that since I got here.

Well that Scatterloot will do for now. Going to try to make calls back home and relax later today. For now I'm just going to hang out with LT Bro in the Ops room and learn a little.

Conversations from the USO

1130 am Monday

Just spoke with my PSG from the USO here in Camp B. Contrasted with the hour-long conversation I had just had with a talkative and intellectual USO rep/Vietnam Vet named Malcom M, it felt like I was going 1,000 miles an hour with this guy. This was a good—and terrifying—feeling thing.

The above notes (not replicated for OPSEC) are the scribbles I was able to take while probing for some info. I was calling on a NIPR line, so there was only so much to be said. Although he sounds like a confident NCO it is a little unsettling and intimidating that our conversation was in such stride. This may be me wanting things to be more glamorous than they are in reality—probably due to conditioning from ROTC about first contact with your PSG being so important and vital. I'm sure when I meet in person with him it will be better, but unfortunately he goes on R & R tomorrow.

This detail also is an additional obstacle because I will not be getting to my unit without my commander (who is also on R &R) or my PSG. I will be left very much exposed as the rookie that I am in front of my soldiers. Note: I would find out later that my commander understood this risk and delayed my movement to my unit until the CO was soon to return.

SFC I mentioned I would be exposed to a high op-tempo and a lot of briefings and SLIDES. Oh, God how I dislike military measurement of product by slideshows. Should be a joy!

The one fortunate thing is I believe my entrance will be more gradual. I gotta go to lunch/back to finishing training… The IED training was depressing this morning so I hope getting rolled around in an MRAP will make my day.

marsonmg@yahoo.com : Email for Malcom M. Gave me the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. The book is in excellent condition and is leather-bound and all. He told me that I should read it and could pass it on as he did. Guess I have my first little story-relic from my deployment. After our long conversation about the Civil War, Vietnam, Iraq, and each other's backgrounds (his being more interesting than mine), I was humbled by his departing comment, "You carry yourself very well, lieutenant."