Step 1: Pre-mobilization

So far, we have been gone for nearly 2 months. Being in the Army National Guard, we are required to do pre-mobilization training, a crammed version of everything we need to know, to prepare of us for anything we might see in Afghanistan. We have done this training out of Fort Bliss, Texas. And so far, it has been a looong, hot, 2 months.

It’s a far cry from my daily life of writing code and designing graphics all day. But anyone who knows me best, knows I would rather be outside any day, getting dirty and sweating. We’ve done all sorts of training, ranging from hooking up vehicles to taking apart hydraulic winches on the back of dozers. If we’re especially lucky, we’ll loose a socket or 2 and have to fetch it out of the belly of a dozer. Not saying that happened or anything 😉 You know, the Army is making spending cuts and losing sockets is an unauthorized kind of thing. We also have done classes, simulations and of course packing and repacking gear, because apparently you never know when you’re going to leave.

I’ve met an interesting group of people that I may have never met if it weren’t for this deployment. You don’t always get along with everyone, in fact when you’ve spent 2 months with each other, getting along is nearly impossible – but we manage.

So what do we do on a daily basis? Well, hurry up and wait is an understatement. The military teaches you a lot of patience, and I don’t think it’s always on purpose. Wake ups can be really early, or occasionally moderately late (0730). Some people wake up and go to chow and eat, while others use that time to sleep a little bit more. We generally get back and prepare for training for the day. Grab some lunch halfway through the day and then look forward to some dinner chow 5 – 6 hours later. In the evenings a lot of us will do some sort of exercise. I prefer to hit the weight room, track and play basketball. When there’s time left we’ll hang out in the MWR and play some pool, games, or  I’ll read a book. Then we get back to our barracks and watch a movie and crash for the night. Game of Thrones has been the show of choice lately.

So where are we at now? Well, it’s hard to say without breaching security stuff but we’re close to being ready to leave for Afghanistan. We’ve put a lot of work into preparing to go, and a lot of us are anxious to leave Camp McGregor and get into theatre. So far it’s been a great experience and I’m glad to serve with this group of guys, but we’re all ready to get our 9 months started and count down the days till we get home.

It was a slightly crammed update, but hopefully that covers all the bases for now. Hope everyone is having a great summer!