Here I sit on a lazy Saturday afternoon in my room with the A/C blasting. It is a hot 93 degrees outside and a thunderstorm is moving in from the southwest. I can hear the thunder rolling but it is still off in the distance a ways. Soon it will move over head and no doubt bring with it the usual torrential downpour. I am getting used to these thunderstorms and actually enjoy them. They put on quite a light show in the evenings and have a life of their own. Good thing I did my grocery shopping early because sometimes you never know if it will ever stop raining.
I am enjoying the last weekend of not having a room mate as the battalion will start to trickle back in from the field training next week. It has been a very nice gentle pace around here with school and not having to attend evening classes at the battalion headquarters three nights a week and even having both Saturday and Sundays off. As times is getting closer to shipping out I wonder what the days will be like in the next few weeks. I graduate from Cable Splicing School on Friday and will return to my battalion and my platoon. I do have one more two week school scheduled though so I won’t be stuck on watches all day and trying to fill my time productively. I am still very thankful for not having to go to the field training exercise. Due to the extreme heat and humidity there have been hundreds of heat casualties ranging from dehydration, heat exhaustion and even a couple close calls with heat stroke including one troop from the Portland unit. I was told that his core body temperature rose to 106 degrees and he had to be air lifted to the hospital. That is such a scary situation but I am glad he is okay. They sent him back here to Gulfport to recover on his own. We will all keep a close eye on him from here on out. There is nothing worse then losing a fellow ship mate but what is worse is losing them before we even hit the war zone!
Someone asked me the other day if I was scared of going to Afghanistan. I guess I never really put too much thought into it in the past but as the time draws more near I find myself thinking about it more often. I told myself that I was not going to think about it too much until I am actually over there. But how can you not think about it? I find myself thinking about it more often now, thinking about how I don’t know what to expect. I know things are heating up a bit over there and where I will be or where I was told I will be is kind of a hot spot right now. I won’t be out on the front lines breaking down doors and hunting terrorists but I will still be in a war zone, on a base that gets mortared and shot at at least every other day. So yea I guess in a sense I am scared. I am scared that I will be in the wrong place at the wrong time, injured to where I can t come home and enjoy the things I enjoy the most like hiking. Scared that I won’t come home at all and that when I said goodbye to my family and loved ones that would be the last time I saw their faces, scared that I may see something that I wish I hadn’t and scared to have to even think about being scared. All of these things are natural thoughts and emotions and even though I tell myself that I am going to be just fine, which I believe and know, I still have that fear deep in the back of my mind. Who wouldn’t? Until then I am just a little bit nervous but I will take advantage of the time I have here like yesterday, the entire class went out bowling and we all had a great time goofing off and just being who we are.
I have one more long four day weekend over the fourth of July and Jon has decided to come visit once more before I head out. I am so happy and grateful for that and I can not wait to spend another wonderful long weekend with him. Just one more thing to look forward to besides actually coming home for good.
Well now the rain is falling so that gives me an excuse to stay in. Maybe I will find a good movie on TV or just take a nap and enjoy the sounds of mother nature. Either way it’s all good.
I am enjoying the last weekend of not having a room mate as the battalion will start to trickle back in from the field training next week. It has been a very nice gentle pace around here with school and not having to attend evening classes at the battalion headquarters three nights a week and even having both Saturday and Sundays off. As times is getting closer to shipping out I wonder what the days will be like in the next few weeks. I graduate from Cable Splicing School on Friday and will return to my battalion and my platoon. I do have one more two week school scheduled though so I won’t be stuck on watches all day and trying to fill my time productively. I am still very thankful for not having to go to the field training exercise. Due to the extreme heat and humidity there have been hundreds of heat casualties ranging from dehydration, heat exhaustion and even a couple close calls with heat stroke including one troop from the Portland unit. I was told that his core body temperature rose to 106 degrees and he had to be air lifted to the hospital. That is such a scary situation but I am glad he is okay. They sent him back here to Gulfport to recover on his own. We will all keep a close eye on him from here on out. There is nothing worse then losing a fellow ship mate but what is worse is losing them before we even hit the war zone!
Someone asked me the other day if I was scared of going to Afghanistan. I guess I never really put too much thought into it in the past but as the time draws more near I find myself thinking about it more often. I told myself that I was not going to think about it too much until I am actually over there. But how can you not think about it? I find myself thinking about it more often now, thinking about how I don’t know what to expect. I know things are heating up a bit over there and where I will be or where I was told I will be is kind of a hot spot right now. I won’t be out on the front lines breaking down doors and hunting terrorists but I will still be in a war zone, on a base that gets mortared and shot at at least every other day. So yea I guess in a sense I am scared. I am scared that I will be in the wrong place at the wrong time, injured to where I can t come home and enjoy the things I enjoy the most like hiking. Scared that I won’t come home at all and that when I said goodbye to my family and loved ones that would be the last time I saw their faces, scared that I may see something that I wish I hadn’t and scared to have to even think about being scared. All of these things are natural thoughts and emotions and even though I tell myself that I am going to be just fine, which I believe and know, I still have that fear deep in the back of my mind. Who wouldn’t? Until then I am just a little bit nervous but I will take advantage of the time I have here like yesterday, the entire class went out bowling and we all had a great time goofing off and just being who we are.
I have one more long four day weekend over the fourth of July and Jon has decided to come visit once more before I head out. I am so happy and grateful for that and I can not wait to spend another wonderful long weekend with him. Just one more thing to look forward to besides actually coming home for good.
Well now the rain is falling so that gives me an excuse to stay in. Maybe I will find a good movie on TV or just take a nap and enjoy the sounds of mother nature. Either way it’s all good.
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