The Navy graciously allowed me to attend my daughter Cristina's graduation from college last weekend. I left Norfolk 2 days before the others and headed to Boston for the big day. US Air then got me to Kansas City in time to miss the Roadrunner to Fort Riley. Several other military were in the same boat so we persuaded a local shuttle to take 7 of us to Riley. We spent the next 3 days getting (literally) hundreds of pounds of gear. The prior week, the Norfolk facility had issued 4 sets of DCUs (desert camoflage uniform), a set of boots, t shirts, PT gear, etc. Now, Riley issued 3 more seabags worth of gear, including much that was redundant, such as 3 more pair of summer boots, 3 different sets of rain gear, etc. We also got helmets, night vision goggles, gas masks and body armor. Today, we were ALL issued M4 rifles and M9 pistols. Whew!
Today we moved from the main part of the base to Camp Funston, aka, Foward Operating Base Army Strong (FOB Strong). It is set up as a FOB in Iraq with actor locals, insurgents taking potshots with paintballs, and random explosions.
This weekend is a 4 day weekend since the Army celebrates its birthday. So, we spend 4 days here, then 4 days off. Then we train for 2 weeks and take 4 more days off for the 4th.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
OK. Let me be the first to post a comment. Sounds like you are really being buried. I passed the blog address on to Chris and Lena and Steve and Mary. I think you had already sent it to Steve at his gedeyenite address. We really enjoyed following Steve's year in Iraq on his blog. Do you know where you are going to be in Afghanistan or is that something we don't need to know yet? --- Roy
I will likely be going to Herat in west A-stan, about 80 Klicks from Iran. A stable, secure area. We'll be working with the regional hospital.
I Google-Earthed Herat. Looks rugged. ---Roy
Post a Comment