Hello March!

One month down!!! This morning about a dozen of us stood around as we had a count down to flip a month on the calendar. This calendar happens to be the fun one Brian gave to me before I left. In addition, he gave me a calendar with works of art by Gustav Klimt. Klimt happens to be one of my favorite artists and The Kiss is my favorite work of art. Anyways, I've never been so happy to see a month go by. Well, maybe when I was at basic training or better yet when I went to Officer Candidate School (OCS) and thought I was in the pits of hell. I know Class 42 will agree with me.

In some respects, I feel like I'm back at basic training. Some of the training events require transportation and the vehicle they use to transport us looks much like a cattle truck. These are the same types of vehicles that I was carried to and from the range back in 1990. More recently, the leadership is concerned with Soldiers washing their hands so now we must post guards at the hand washing stations to ensure Soldiers wash their hands prior to entering the dining facility. There is always a few that ruin it for the rest of us. At our meeting tonight, we received a diagram of how our bunk areas need to be set up. Everyone has to have their gear displayed the same way. This too, reminds me of basic training and OCS. I just hope the TAC Officers from OCS don't show up...

I went to a meeting for the Soldiers who are leaving on the Pre-Torch and Torch parties. I don't know what the acronym "Torch" stands for other than it means I'm leaving early. If one of my smart military friends could help me out, that would be great. Anyways, I'm looking forward to leaving here and starting the next part of this trip. There is still so much to do and pack and pack and pack. I'll be taking my 3 duffel bags, 1 ruck and 1 carry on. I'll have 2 duffel bags waiting for me in Kuwait a long with my tote. Speaking of, I better go and start organizing all this "stuff" since I'm being issued more "stuff" tomorrow. Luckily, I get to turn some of the old stuff back into the warehouse, tomorrow.

The new month!


The Kiss by Gustav Klimt