It's NARMY Training!

Yesterday, Saturday, 4 April, I mustered at 0700 at the NMPS site, said goodbyes and gave hugs and kisses to Theresa and Sarah, loaded a bus and rode seven hours south to Ft. Jackson, SC where I will spend the next two and a half weeks doing Army Training.  I am one of about 300 sailors who have been sent here from all over the country to learn how to shoot, move and communicate in a war environment.  Given we are all Navy sailors undergoing Army training, the training is affectionately called NARMY training.

Interestingly, I met one man wearing an LSU shirt who is from Rayville, Louisiana and another man from Tennessee who is an LSU fan even though he graduated from Arkansas.  There are also quite a few folks from the DC area, some who I've known for a while, and one person from Florida whose family who owns a company that does business with the military resale community.  So I'm having a good time getting to know a lot of new folks.

As difficult as it is to deploy (there never is a perfect time to do so), I have met a few folks whose deployment comes at a very difficult time.  There is one LCDR I've gotten to know whose wife just delivered their second son two days ago.  He wasn't there at the delivery and, because he received a smallpox vaccination, he will not be able to see his newborn son before he leaves for his seven month deployment to Djibouti.

I've also met a few folks I will be working with over the next year, so in a sense we have become battle buddies as we prepare for the road ahead and that preparation begins at 0500 tomorrow.