Land Navigation

Today we had a great class on land navigation. I was surprised how much of I rememebered from my old infantry days, but I am sure I will be equally surprised at how much I forget tomorrow with the ailing short term memory of an old man. Regardless, it was a great class taught by a charismatic instructor who was also entertaining. Gotta love that. We learned a huge amount of information in a short period of time. I just love looking at Army maps. They identify every terrain feature, topography etc. The detail is amazing. We use an 8 digit grid coordinate to navigate to anywhere within 10 meters accuracy. Later this week we will put those skills to the test when we take an land navigation test in the field both day and night. My biggest disadvantage will be my eyesight. That map will be mighty hard to read with bifocals at night with a red lens flashlight. I wonder if I can just shout "Marko"...and wait for the response if I get lost. Anyway I am sure it will go just fine. I am looking forward to it. Tomorrow morning we draw our M-16s in preparation for the FTX. I have had plenty of experience with the M-16 so I hope to be a good resource for the nurses and docs who have never even seen one. Hope nobody gets shot.

First Sunday

Last night we got off around supper time so a few of us went for a nice run and then split a cab ride to San Antonio. We went to the River Walk We ate at a nice Mexican Restaurant and walked around a bit and headed back home so we could get our duffel bags packed for next week.

There isn't much going on at Ft. Sam this morning for me. I slept in until 7 am and rushed out to get my chance at one of the 2 washing machines available in this building. It seems like they run non-stop. I got lucky and got to do a load of laundry but just one so I threw everything in together..nothing faded or bled so I got lucky other than that fact that I had two casualties left on the battle field..a lowly pair of socks goes MIA. I will hold a memorial service for them later this AM.

Later today we will meet up with our platoon, draw our weapons (M-16s) and get our duffel bags loaded on a truck that will deliver them to Camp Bullis where I will spend the next five days doing field exercises, land navigation, and weapons qualification. We will do a PT (physical fitness...another acronym uggh) while we are there too.....Good news, my roomie just walked in with one of my missing socks so the memorial service will just be for its fallen comrade.
They encourage us to take pics on FTX (Field Training eXercise) so I should be able to post some cool pics later. I'll close with an interesting little factoid regarding all of the Army acronyms that I had mentioned in an earlier post. It seems that there are 385 pages of them on the official list. Insane isn't it?

Hearding Cows

Here we are lined up to draw our gear like a bunch cattle being herded by our capable and patient cattle drivers. They speak so nicely to us and are very patient as they kindly point us in a new direction. It's so different being an officer than when I was an enlisted puke, as the cadre used to call us as they screamed and yelled at us in the old days, dropping everyone for push-ups. The staff here is very good at getting us where we need to be and keeping us informed. We are getting ready to move to the field for some REAL Army training next week. It must be real because they just issued all of our TA-50 which is just our combat and field gear...I never knew why they called it TA-50. I guess I will have to add that to the very long list of acronyms that all of us speak in but only know about half of. There are just so many. I will find out what it means and post it later though....Hey good news! We might not need the baby wipes. It seems as though they have showers in the field now, but we only get to use them maybe twice a week or so. I will probably appreciate them even more as a result.

Flying Away to Texas (posted a day late)

My little William was such a sweetheart saying goodbye in the airport. He loves to go anywhere new. The day before I left he asked if I was flying away on an airplane and when I told him I was he said he was going to break the airplane...aww so sweet that he didn't want daddy to go.

It was an uneventful smooth flight to Texas. The airline folks are so nice to men and women in uniform. I really appreciate their support and encouragement. When I made my connection in Chicago they upgraded me to first class, a new experience for me. It was great. They gave me a little bowl with warm cashews and almonds followed by a beautiful salad served on real, glass dishes with cloth napkins....can you tell the ole' boy from Southern Illinois is still pretty much a hick that's easily impressed? That's fine by me as I am sure many more surprises lie ahead. Anyway, I arrived safely and it seems like I am in for a lot of excitement with some great soldiers.

One More Day and a Wakeup Then off to Ft. Sam

I can’t believe the amount of stuff we have to pack for OBLC. I need to call the Airlines and tell them to bring a trailer for the plane. It’s a good thing that they don’t charge military people for the extra baggage when they are traveling under orders. Anyway, I have spent the past weeks on the this strange scavenger hunt to gather stuff for which there is not purpose in the civilian world like a flashlight with red, blue and green filters which I am pretty sure is for disco night when we are out in the field. No actually it, like every other item on the strange list, has a special purpose another example of which is baby wipes since there are not showers out in the wilds. That is apparently how we will maintain our hygiene. Back in the old days we would fill our helmet up with a couple of canteens of water and take what we called a whore's bath (excuse me if I offended any whores) and next use the water to shave. The helmet, called a “steel pot” back then, had a removable liner which, when removed left the helmet a nice empty bowl. Some folks actually cooked in it…Yes you heard me right, bathed in it and cooked in it. We were hardcore, young, infantry men who just didn’t give a damn. So now in contrast, I find humor in the idea of using baby wipes to replace the process I once knew as a whore’s bath in the field. What can I say…things change, so you just go with it. Anyway…one more day and a wakeup and I am Texas bound.