23-24, A Year Like No Other

Well folks, I turned 23 on tuesday. I had wanted to at least go out to dinner that night to celebrate, but training didn't allow us the luxery to. We had Humvee night training where we drove with the lights off and wore night vision goggles. However, I did have a great suprise in store for me. Marcy my wonderful girlfriend, had ordered a cake for me and got a hold of one of the guys down here with me to go pick it up. So, despite not being able to leave, I was still able to celebrate with a good chocolate birthday cake. This picture here is me about to cut the cake with my Ka-bar fighting knife.

Lately, nothing really entertaining has been going on. We typically sit in various classes all day and then work out at night. I believe next week we finally sign for vehicles and start doing field work. Thank God. All of us fall into the combat arms group and all this paper work/power point is slowly and painfully draining the life out of us. Getting out and actually working on weapon systems and tactics will actually be the enjoyable part of our mobilization.

I came to the realization a short while back that I will more than likely be spending not only this birthday, but my 24th also on this deployment. With that being said, the 23rd year of my life is going to be like no other year I will ever have more than likely. I'm dissapointed that I won't be around to share the next year with many of you, but I am proud to be able to come here and to do what few people can and choose to do.

Down here at Camp Funston, it is officer city. You can't walk from the barracks to the chow hall without saluting at least 4-5 officers. This is because the transition teams we are on are typically officer heavy. I'm not just talking LT's, there are a number of Lt. colonols and full bird colonols running around. The officers made a big fuss about saluting at first when we wouldn't, but now I see them do a 90 degree turn to avoid a large group of us to have to salute each individually. Well, that's it for now folks, time to go play some volleyball against some other teams.