I haven't written anything of real substance for a while, due to various reasons that when combined together still don't justify anything. The biggest reason is that I've been on leave in Colorado for a bit, as it will be my last chance to really get away from Carolina before we deploy.
Yeah, I'll be in Iraq sometime between October or November. My unit is performing exclusively convoy escort duties for a group of units- part of the hired muscle in the area. Think Mad Max in the desert with Humvees. My official function is platoon leader, and I'll also be a convoy commander when tapped to go outside the wire.
In the meantime the unit has been training as much as possible. Next week we're running a certification exercise to see how much we all know about running convoys. I'm spending this Sunday reading up on everything available so I don't look too stupid next week. Even though the chance of our unit making a combat jump anywhere but in a WWII re-inactment is 0.003%, we still throw ourselves out of airplanes on roughly a bi-weekly basis. Jump days are pretty fun, and it's almost like having a day off from work. Jumping makes a young guy glad he chose to be a paratrooper instead of going to some leg (Non-Airborne) unit.
I'm still adjusting to life in Fayetteville. I made the desicion a while back not to buy too much stuff to furnish my apartment, as I will just be moving everything into storage in a couple months. So I've got this empty place when I'm home. I live in a quiet apartment home complex, and almost never see my neighbors. There are quite a few military types that live around here, as with everywhere else in Fayetteville. We all leave early in the morning for PT (around 5), and don't often get home before 6 or 7 in the evening. On weekends people sit by the pool or hang out in the weight room. I try to get out with the other LTs that I know from Oklahoma or my battalion, or my buddy from CU who is in the Special Forces pipeline (training). Going from knowing a ton of people in Boulder to not many in NC is disconcerting, but fairly normal I'm sure. I'm finally getting used to the humidity, some days are still pretty ridiculous. Despite some of the obvious differences, Fayetteville feels like Boulder in the sense that most people are very active and fit. More to come.
