Here we go!

Crazy! Leaving Michigan in October! I'm glad that plans got sorted out for now, and I'm sure every soldier who's never deployed before goes through this, but I just have the full spectrum of emotion going on - excitement, caution, contentment, cynicism, regret, etc.

First week of Fort Dix

Quick summary:

Two weekends ago I was at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, got to go to the Mall of America which was pretty cool. Got to Fort Dix on Monday. Been doing some miscellaneous Army classes, haven't really gotten to the fun part yet. It's been hot.

Avenged Sevenfold - Gunslinger

I just found this song courtesy of one of my Army buddies, I don't really like heavy rock that much, but it's quite relevant I think. Some guy made a music video of this song to clips from Jarhead, I think it's decently well done.

"I reach towards the sky, I've said my goodbyes
My heart's always with you now
I won't question why so many have died
My prayers have made it through yeah
Cause with all these things we do
It don't matter when I'm coming home to you"

And really, I think that was my attitude last summer, making it through training to return to the people I care about most. It kind of sucked when I didn't get to see them until towards the end of the year, but that's life - you don't always get what you want and things fade away, so I try to count the blessings I do have.

I feel like this Army thing has been going along in slow motion, but it's about to speed up dramatically. It'll be fine, I'm not complaining and I'm looking forward to the challenges and rewards, it's just interesting/weird how the tempo has been and how lengthy a period of time I have to set my personal business in order.

Iraq

I wish I didn't have to wait so long to deploy - found out last September, still won't be going for a while though I do have a bit of training coming up.

There are two viewpoints about Iraq - one that it's going to recover and reclaim the prosperity it had in the 50's and 60's, the other that insurgent groups and other terrorists are going to exploit the withdrawal and the country is going to devolve into complete chaos again. It'll definitely be an interesting time over there.

One year

It's been a year since basic training? wha?