Time to pack your bags

12 OCT
If you hold any resentment against your parents for not buying you a bunk bed as a kid; don’t. Bunk beds suck, especially if you’re the guy on the top.

Well, I found out today that my misery on the top bunk will soon be coming to an end. We now have the official word on our travel plans. Thursday morning at 1:30AM, we’re boarding a bus for the airport. I’m not sure who our travel agent is, but they should be fired. I don’t want to go into much detail except to say our next destination is Kuwait where we’ll spend 5-to-9 days living and training in one of the worst environments on Earth. The temperature is over 100 degrees and the base doesn’t have any running water. We’ll be sleeping on the floor in tents, eating nothing but MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and wearing body armor and shooting all day. Sound like fun? Actually, I’m sort of looking forward to it. Trust me, I’d rather be home with Susan and the kids (I miss them VERY much) but someday my children will be studying this in History class and I’m seeing it first hand.

Best of all, once I put boots on the ground in the Middle East, my paycheck is Tax Free baby. I love the military.

While that’s a nice benefit, it comes at a cost. Today in class, we got a very honest lecture from Drill SGT Bowers on the dangers of traveling in convoys and spotting IEDs or roadside bombs. These bastards we’re fighting are very smart and constantly changing their tactics. They’re also very sophisticated in the detonation devices they are using. When in a convoy, you have to be 100% in the game, ever vigilant and knowledgeable of the battle plan. This Wednesday, Alpha Company will coordinate our own convoy. We’re told to keep on the lookout for anything and everything. I have a pretty good feeling the instructors will be coordinating an attack. The convoy training will be the final exercise of our training here at Camp McCrady. This place has been long and grueling, but I am 1000% better trained for this mission than when I deployed to Bahrain in 2005.