Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Training or lack thereof

It's become apparent that we are here not to train but to get used to being away from home, since today our training in whole consisted of about an hour and 15 minutes. Worthwhile, but still a whole day wasted for 75 minutes of training. We even missed lunch and had to eat MREs. If they had done two things, one, stagger start (or as they say in golf shotgun start) 4 teams (there were four stations) at 0830, then have the other 4 teams come an hour and a half later at 1000 and again stagger start, all could have been done by 1130, and we all could have made it back for lunch. And we could have done another half day of training this afternoon, as it was we did nothing. Tomorrow, we have half day plus and hour in the afternoon. So far in about 5 weeks, we have wasted 9-11 days according to the boss' tracker.

This weekend I will be headed to Oklahoma City again to see my son again, and hopefully spend some quality time with him. Next week, I am going to my mom's house in Illinois for Thanksgiving, which will be nice because she just moved so I get to see the new house. After Thanksgiving, it's only two weeks until we are done here. We still don't know when we'll be back, but we're thinking due to our downrange guys return date we won't fly out until after the first of the year. Well, that is all for now, will update when something exciting happens.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Relaxed Grooming Standards

Today we got called out by a 1 star General (who turned out to be the division commander) about our haircuts. My SF boss says "relaxed grooming standards" and the CG says "not in the 1st ID!" Interesting. Didn't ask how the training was, nor anything important, just that we needed haircuts. Long time since last update, the only thing I have to say is I saw my son Casey last weekend, great time as usual. I plan to see him in 2 weeks, between going home for Veteran's day weekend and going to my mom's for Thanksgiving. Could be my last chance to see him for a long while.

Today we picked up our vehicles and weapons, what we will use for training while we are here. We won't take any of it with us, just use it for training. The only thing we take is our small arms (M4 and M9).

This weekend I get to go home for the first time since 26 September, and that will be very nice. Other than that, not much else to talk about. Will probably not update until next week after I get back.