Time to Go!

We finally have a firm date for our flight to Southwest Asia. I should be in position in Afghanistan by this time next week. The folks there are very anxious to see us. They can't leave until we get there.

I may get to post once more from Fort Benning - and then there will be a pause until I can find a computer somewhere in theater.

Marking Time

Sadly I have no photos of our golf outing on Thursday afternoon. Those who know me know how much I like golf, but doing something is better than doing nothing. If we had kept score, I'm sure it would have been huge.

Pilgrimage

Here I am, standing in front of the Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning. This was cool. Inside are the trophies and photos of the Army's greatest shooters. I didn't have much time to tour and see everything, but then my plane should have left two days ago.

This was the high point of my stay at Fort Benning.

Fort Benning

Here I am at Fort Benning. I'm ready to go - as soon as the plane comes.

We've been here a week. In that time we've done all our paperwork, been medically cleared, trained on basic soldier skills, and (joy of joys) gone to the range and qualified on our weapons. It's been an occasionally frustrating time, but there are just some things that are hard to streamline.

Premobilization Training

Tuesday was family day. We sat through briefings on Tricare medical coverage, pay, coping skills, and other family type subjects.

Today (Wednesday) was filled with briefings about our unit, it's higher headquarters, and the global mission. It was interesting stuff, but a consistent feature was a torrent of acronyms that left us all wondering what we were talking about.

The family came over with me on Monday. They sat through the briefings on Tuesday. This morning, we woke up, showered, and came down for breakfast. After breakfast I said goodbye and went off to the briefings. The family returned home.

I went on an unaccompanied tour to Saudi Arabia for a year in the mid 90's. The kids were little then. I thought that was hard, but it's much harder now. The oldest will graduate and start college this year - and I'll miss it. The middle one will be close to graduation when I get back and the youngest will have his driver's license.

I love them all and miss them already.

Departing Home

Well, this morning the family and I leave for Rock Island Arsenal, IL. It'll be about 7 hours on the road - not making allowances for side trips to Cabela's. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is family day. We'll be getting ID cards made and filling out all the forms that make Army life the blissful existence that it is. It will also give the family a chance to meet some of the folks I'll be with for the next year.