Phase 2 complete

My second round of training is complete and tomorrow I'll be headed to Army boot camp - joy.

This week has been very interesting (for the most part) and now I have a much better idea of what I'll be doing in Iraq in working to counter the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) threat to our forces. Please don't confuse this with EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal); those are the brave (crazy?) troops who go out and disarm explosives once they are found. I will NOT be doing any of that nonsense! I will be working on ways to counter the IED threat so the EOD guys stay employed by defusing IEDs before they explode and hopefully putting the MEDEVAC guys out of a job.

But first things first, my next stop will be basic infantry training. Those of us Navy folks who are sent to Iraq and Afghanistan have to spend a few weeks getting familiar with basic infantry tools and employment. We have to qualify on our personal weapons and get some sort of training with other Army small arms and tactics. I say "Army boot camp" because our training is at a base where the Army conducts their normal boot camp for recruits, however, we get a much abbreviated version. Also, since many of us are senior officers and enlisted, the atmosphere is a little different than that of normal boot camp with a bunch of sergeants yelling at a bunch of recruits (at least I'm told that's how things are - we'll see). The up side of this training is at least I'll get some practical idea of ground operations. The down side is that I will be out of contact on my blog and e-mail until I get to Iraq and get established. Apparently, the Army doesn't see the need to provide internet connectivity to its barracks rooms while it has troops in a training status - how very 20th century! So, this will be the last entry for a few weeks as I get trained, transported, trained again, more travel, and finally imbedded with my new Army unit in theater.

I want to thank those of you who have been keeping up with this early phase of my IA assignment. I hope to have things running again just as soon as I can, however, once in theater I'm not sure what kind of availability and official restrictions I will have. But, I have every intention of keeping this forum open so folks back home can have a window into the day-to-day life of a deployed Sailor. I'm sure you understand I won't be able to talk about my job in any specific way, but I do want to be able to share the normal parts of everyday life while deployed. Keep checking in - I might be able to surprise with a quick update along the way.

Cheers, Pearl