Day 20

Today didn't start out so hot.  We were told to eat in the dining facility at 7am, and then meet up for formation.  However, we ended up having to eat the powdered eggs and bread when we were sent away from the dining facility.  I'm guessing people didn't communicate the change of plans to the food people clearly, or at all.

Then we hopped on the bus, and our Drill Sargeant proceeded to get lost trying to get to our destination.  So what should have been about 20 minutes turned into an hour. But!!  We were treated to his demo cd on the way.  Let me clarify.

All of the Army people leading us seem to be South Carolina Army National Guard.  So these people are weekend warriors, and this is their required 2 weeks of service for the year.  They all have real jobs, and for some, it's hard to picture.  The majority seem to be policemen, either local or state troopers.  But we have a prison guard, two people who work at banks, a postal worker, and one who takes the cake.  Imagine the Drill Sargeant from Full Metal Jacket.  He's a crotchety old man who uses swear words as a completely reflexive part of his vernacular.  Add a deep southern accent which makes it nearly impossible to understand him.  Now, imagine this man selling real estate.  It boggles our minds!  I picture him at the rifle range the other day yelling out loud about how "he loves him some titties!" It's a truly hilarious image for me, anyway.  Long story short, our bus driver does a DJ job on the side.  His radio name?  The Sharminator.  Priceless.

The morning's training was all about IEDs and how to spot them.  I'm sure it was fine training, but if we find ourselves looking for IEDs, we have other problems going on.  In the afternoon, we learned how to barge into a room and clear it.  I disagree with the policies we have to use, in terms of the force required.  For instance, each family in Afghanistan is allowed to have one AK-47.  Any kind of RPGs are illegal, so if we see one, we are supposed to kill that person.  The scenario that bothers me is this:  if we enter a local's house at night and they come out with their AK-47 pointed at us, we are supposed to kill them.  I object to this policy, but I can't figure out a more appropriate tactic, other than not going in their house.  If someone was breaking into my house, I'd come down the stairs ready to shoot.  But we have apparently trained them to not react this way, which is sad to me.

But then we learned about how terrorists hate our working dogs, so they are a valuable asset to us.  Of course, I asked how many dogs a base might have to work with, and as for most everything we ask about, I was told it depends.  So helpful.

Then we played convoy.  I'm a gunner, but didn't make it into a humvee yesterday.  My team ended up riding in the super well armored personnel vehicle.  Not terribly exciting, but ehh.

We came back, turned our weapons in for the short weekend, then we hopped in Aaron's rental car and 4 of us headed to Columbia for an overnight.  Jon Berger and I got a room, and it is amazing.  The water is normal (not soft) so we can actually feel clean after a shower.  Oh yes, and in bed I can spread my limbs farther apart than 1 foot.  So it's pretty nice.

We showered and got dressed, and then went across the street for sushi and sake.  I realized, however, that sushi is fine but it is mostly just a vector for delivering soy sauce with wasabi.  But it was fine.  Then we wandered just 1 block to a place that sells alcoholic slurpees.  I had blue, which apparently had Everclear in it.  I didn't finish it, which I think I'm glad about.  Aaron finished his, and he didn't look so hot.  But then I came back to the hotel and talked to the most wonderful girl I know!  Emili had volunteered at the Baltimore TNR clinic all day so she had neat stories too. 

Tomorrow I will have a complimentary waffle and life will be good.  That's all for now folks!