Update

Well, I'm here. Fort Dix. Sorry I haven't posted lately -- I have had the time, but not the energy. The training is good, but tough. The weather is anything but friendly -- often near 100 with a high 80% humidity. Obviously I can't talk in any detail about what we are doing here, but we are doing some cool training. We did reflexive fire with the M-4's, and unarmed combatives. Tomorrow I get to go shoot .50 caliber machine guns.

We got issued all of our equipment, and my gear including body armor and technical equipment for photojournalism weighs in the neighborhood of 105 pounds. I really wouldn't care if the body armor weighed 400 pounds as long as it did its job when it needed to. Let's all hope that it never needs to.

Supposedly we are going to have a 4 day pass at the end of this, before we leave for the suck (Iraq.) Unfortunately, it is not really economical for me to try to fly back to Oregon. The good news is, Ajay is stationed at Dover for a while, and I will be able to go hang out with her for a few days before leaving. That should make my whole deployment, at least until mid-tour leave, bearable.

Anyway, I need sleep now, so please keep reading. Keep us soldiers in your prayers, and hope this thing ends soon.