Shown is the Navy medical embedded training team (plus one airman) loading brand-new backpacks with school supplies and toys for local students. The kids are on their long break now; they take the winter off so they don't have to heat the schools. They resume in February. So, assembly-line fashion, we loaded them with notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, scissors, erasers and toys. The backpacks bear the Afghanistan flag. A very conservative guess would be at least 4000 backpacks.
On a humorous(?) note, our team received an email soliciting interest in extending one's deployment for and extra 9 months. Back home, the Bureau of Medicine for the Navy is firming up plans for our replacements. They would have to be selected within the next 4 months to allow lead time for training and the deployment. We've been here only 3 months and would normally head home August '08. They want volunteers to stay through May '09. I am unaware of anyone interested: Normal Navy deployments, even ones of our kind, usually last 6 months or so. We are here for a year and total time will be 15 months when you include mobilization in Norfolk, training in Kansas and the redeployment procedures home. 9 more months would mean a total of two years with the Army. I look forward to getting back to Pensacola and seeing my family.
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