One Week Down

I'm in a pretty giddy mood, and I'm not sure why. I am battling a cold. I haven't really gotten a lot of sleep, and the sleep I am getting isn't a good, uninterrupted slumber. But with all that, I've completed my first week of Army training (yes, Army training for the Navy guy). And, I've been told that the rest is down hill from here.

The training has been interesting to say the least. The most fun has been training on the M16 semi-automatic rifle and the M9, which is a 9millimeter handgun. It is mandatory for me to carry the M9 once I get to Iraq.

A couple of days of training consisted of firing the M16 from different positions at several targets at varying distances - anywhere from 50 to 300 meters. I was nailing the tiny, blurred target at 300 meters but had trouble hitting the ones at 50 and 100. I don't know why. I just did.

One of the toughest parts about being here is not being able to spread all my stuff out and get some "permanancy." Everything is basically jammed into several duffel bags since I will be moving on to another location at some point.

More training is coming up, including Urban Assault. You can read a really good article about what I am going through clicking the link "The making of a 'sand' sailor: individual augmentees get 'basic training' at Fort Jackson. It is from June of last year. But it still rings true. Feel free to comment about what you thought about the article. Also more photos can be found here.

Otherwise, I'll keep you posted. I have to go nurse my cold!!