Tony and I have had a relationship based on countdowns. As hard as it is being away from each other, I love that I will have an everlasting appreciation for being under the same roof again someday. And that day being very soon.
22 more days until I see him 75 more days until the wedding 95 more days until he checks in at Camp Hansen in Okinawa 112 more days until I get to Japan (give or take a few days)
These all seem do-able. Tony told me that when they were deployed, the countdown of returning home was based on how many more haircuts they had left. Since this is a 1x/week appointment, "5 more haircuts" sounded better than "5 weeks"
so in Tony's word:
next time we see eachother = 3 more haircuts (AWESOME) wedding = 10 more haircuts Camp Hansen = 13 haircuts Tara in Japan = 16 haircuts
* I think I should start getting my haircut once a week.
Time has been flying out here and I truly cannot believe that graduation is 30 days away! Since the last time I wrote the weather has swung to the opposite end of the spectrum and it is finally pretty nice with everything growing and turning green.
Our last week-long field exercise averaged in the high 80’s with some humidity! During that exercise we spent 2 days in the defense digging primary, alternate, and supplementary positions as deep as we could. There was not a moment of rest throughout the day and we averaged about 2 hours of sleep a night because we pushed out security patrols, manned the machineguns, and conducted resupply missions. On Wednesday we pushed the dirt back in our holes and spent the next 2 days on the move conducting day and night attacks on other platoons defenses. To say it was hot with all that gear on was an understatement and because of it we had many go down for heat exhaustion. After a long hike on Thursday through the smoke caused by a large fire on base we stopped at the platoon fire and maneuver range to bed down for the night. Right before going to bed they gave us a surprise written exam where they test our concentration under stress. They read us “Fox in Socks” over a bullhorn while flashing lights in our face and yelling loudly…it was pretty tough to concentrate on mapwork and formulate a plan to conduct an attack on the enemy. There was supposed to be a pretty big thunderstorm on Thursday night but it held off until 30 mins before we woke up on Friday morning, yay! (Friday I took over as the Platoon Commander and was in charge of everything that happened on the range for my platoon (one of my field billets for evaluation). It down-poured worse than I have ever seen right before I gave my hour long brief of our attack on the enemy soaking us to the bone, but I got through it pretty well considering. Our dry run on the range didn’t go too well but after some extra rehearsals we preformed great on the live fire event and I received really good feedback. We capped it all off with a 9 mile hike home to clean weapons for a few hours and crash out in our rooms.
Besides the week in the field we have had the following and much more:
2 important written exams covering: tactical fundamentals, day/night optics and observation theory, communications equipment, rifle squad tactics, principles of fire support/planning, call for indirect fire, helo capabilities, patrol order and overlays, scouting and patrolling operations, ambush patrols, EPW/detainees, combat lifesaving, prevention and treatment of heat injuries, causality evaluation and evacuation, rifle platoon in the offense/defense, machine gun employment, crew served weapons, heavy machine guns, aviation employment considerations, and developing training plans!
Final day and night land navigation: Day-finding 10 small red boxes (8 digit grids) in 8 hours over a 22km area using a compass and map. Night- finding 6 small white boxes (8 digit grids) in 6 hours over a 7km area using a compass and map.
Final obstacle course: Have to be under 2:00 to pass and under 1:00 for 100%. I got :58…example o-course video below.
Final obstacle and endurance course: Same obstacle course then 5 miles though the woods with 40lbs of gear and weapon with challenging obstacles along the way. 80 mins to pass and 60 mins to get 100%. I got 61 mins.
Well, I have yet another test to study for so I should probably get to it. Next time I write I will only have a couple of weeks left here! Thanks to everyone for their support!!
Shooting the MK19 grenade launcher!
Posting rear security moving to our defensive position.
Starting to dig our primary position.
Getting deeper (armpit) and concealing it with pine needles...not done though!
Finally got my blues back from being tailored! Ready for the graduation and the wedding!!
I've been able to spend a lot of time with Olivia & Grace lately. It's been pretty nice to just walk down the street and barge into the house asking the girls to play :) We've been on bike rides, runs around the block, couple of trips to the whippy dip, and to the park. They have been so much fun the last 3 months and I'm really going to miss them. When I have kids someday, I hope they get along as well as these two do! They are inseparable - and that's an understatement. They love their movies and shows, fruit snacks at Grandma's house, and creating their own "oliviagrace" language. Here are a few pictures from our 3 months of fun :)
