Merry Christmas!

This is the first chance I've gotten to sit down at a computer with the internet in a few days. Isaac and I had terrific flights out here to Tennessee. The flight from Killeen to Houston was not as rough as I had feared it might be. Isaac took a bottle as we ascended and descended, so his ears didn't stop up. I didn't realize what a potential problem the ears thing was until some friends of mine asked me what I planned to do to prevent it. On the flight from Houston to Nashville, we experienced only a slight bit of turbulance as we descended into Nashville. It was fairly bumpy, but Isaac slept through it (with that being the only portion of our travels when he napped!). Thank you to all who helped to bathe our flights in prayer. Please pray that the return flights on Tuesday 30 Dec are as smooth.

Justin seemed to be doing well when I talked to him this morning. He said that the day had not varied much from other days, except that most people greeted him with "Merry Christmas." I really wish he could be here, but I am thankful that he is hopefully able to make Christmas a little brighter for some of the men and women serving our country. I am going to post some pictures below this post of our time here in Tennessee. I will update again as I have more time and pictures.

For some reason, it (the Blog program) has decided to post my pictures in reverse chronological order. It took a while for the pictures to load, so I'm just going to leave them in this order.
Christmas morning: We were opening presents at my parents' house, and Isaac decided he wanted to help out. He did manage to pull the tissue paper out of his gift, shown above. My brother got him a onezie embroidered with, "I love my Uncle Z." Isaac grinned and cooed when I showed it to him.

Christmas Eve: For years, my mom's side of the family has gathered at Ninnie and PawPaw's (my mom's parents) on Christmas Eve to eat, visit, open presents, and remember the true meaning of CHRISTmas. My grandparents love each other so very much, so I just had to post the picture above, one of those pictures taken at just the right (or wrong!) time. It looks as if they are upset with each other, and they weren't at all. My mom accidentally took a video clip with her camera immediately after this as she was showing this picture to me!

22 December: Isaac and I had gotten ready to go with some friends to meet another friend in Franklin (basically, Nashville) for lunch. He just looked so cute in his overalls that we had to snap a quick shot! He has gotten pretty good at holding up his head, so it is really fun to sit him on a couch or chair and take his picture.

22 December: Isaac is captivated by Grandpa's shadow puppet show. We noticed him looking at the spot of light streaming through the door onto the wall. My dad decided to make shadow puppets, which resulted in one of Isaac's oh-so-cute grins.

Up, up, and away!

It's hard to believe Christmas is already upon us! Isaac and I are flying out of Killeen to join family in TN for Christmas. I agree with my sweet friend, Jessica, whose husband is also away this holiday season (and who is also traveling home, with small children): it will definitely be bittersweet to not have our husbands with us at this time, but if they have to leave, it's good that it's at a time when we will be surrounded by family. God has surely blessed us with wonderful friends, family, and the capability to travel long distances in short times to see them. Isaac and I fly out in just over five hours. While I'm excited about being with family, I am less than thrilled about flying. I think the part I'm most anxious about is flying with Isaac and keeping him from having painful ear popping. I'm also a little anxious about the fact that the temperature is supposed to drop about 30 degrees while we're in the air (and that's due to weather, not just location change.), which tends to make for a bumpier ride. Oh well, the airlines won't take off if they see the air is not suitable to travel. Please keep us in your prayers as we are traveling and spending time with family. I will try and update you upon our arrival in TN, hopefully posting some pictures. I am taking my video camera, so I may attempt to post video clips, assuming I'm able to take some. Have a happy holiday season, and Merry CHRISTmas!

Update.

Justin was able to email me today! I am still amazed at the amount of communication we've been able to do. I realize it will decrease once he's in country. He was pretty tired when he was online emailing me earlier, so he didn't trust his editing of what he'd typed. I've looked it over and am pasting it below.

From Justin:
I realize that I have told you very little about Kuwait. Where we are has pretty nice accomodations. This FOB has a great gym, phone trailers, Internet trailers, and several fast food places and a pretty good size PX (not as large as on an installation on US soil). The Internet is really, really slow unless you pay to get high speed, which I am currently doing. The tent I sleep in has heat and a wooden floor. It sleeps up to 90 people, and we have about 60. Its not horrible, but sleeping in a room with that many people makes it almost impossible to get a few minutes of solitude. The food is fine. The training is OK. Today we were put in a Humvee simulator and spun around a couple of times. We were simulating a rollover accident. There are your normal briefings and such, but most of my time is still spent checking up on the soldiers of the battalion. There are several chaplains stationed permenantly on this base, so they already have sufficient worship services in place. The air temperature is not too cold, but the wind blows constantly and freezes you most of the day.

Card Trick

As many of you reading this probably already know (due to involvement), I gave Justin a deck of cards at Thanksgiving during our Pickering Family Christmas, which we held out here. I know a deck of cards doesn't sound like much; however, this deck is special. I covered the backs of a deck of playing cards and sent them to friends and family to write a note of encouragement, favorite scripture, etc. for Justin to have during deployment. A deck of cards was used because there are 52 cards in a deck and he is supposed to be gone roughly that many weeks. He can post a different note of encouragement each week, putting the previous week's card back in the box. This will help him to track time spent away from home. Justin was very grateful for the gift and refused to look at any of them early. These cards, along with your continued prayers, mean a great deal to both of us. Thank you again to the ones who helped with this!

Day of Departure

I am just now able to sit down and make myself look at pictures from the day Justin left. I tried especially to document the time shared between him & Isaac, as Isaac will be much different when Justin returns. See the captions below each picture for explanations.

Daddy & Isaac using Isaac's first Christmas present, pictured below.
Justin bought Isaac his first Christmas gift once we had discussed it, a chalkboard designed to count down the days of Daddy's deployment. We do realize he has no idea what a number is (and probably can't even see the funny white squiggles very well), but it is a great tool for discussing "Daddy," in hopes Daddy will be familiar when he comes home. **Note: The count of days is only approximate.

The boys are enjoying some cuddle time while watching television.

Justin just finished loading the car with everything necessary for deployment that had not already been shipped.

Justin is giving Isaac his last bottle of the night, also being the last bottle before he left. This was a very sweet moment. Before taking the bottle, Isaac babbled everything to Justin that was on his little heart. At least that's what it sounded like.


Continue to keep Justin, his soldiers, and fellow chaplains in your prayers. As horribly as we miss him, I do realize that he is following God's will. What an awesome God we have!

Waiting to Leave

I have set down 2-3 times this week to write about what all I've had going on, but never really got started. A lot of that is because I still am stubbornly refusing to begin emotional, philosophical, or other ramblings online. As close as I came was putting a lot of pictures from Thanksgiving and mine and Em's Christmas celebration in my photo albums (there's a link on the right side of this page). That said, I finished packing my bags a couple of days ago. I think every other person I know has called at some point this week (thanks everyone). We've videoed several story times with Isaac. Sorry Mom, I think I enjoyed "Hello Colonel Rebel" more than Isaac did. He preferred looking at the window. He'll come around I'm sure.

Em and I have gone to dinner more than we've cooked this week. Neither of us really felt like doing a lot. That's pretty much been all we've done. I think she is getting extremely tired of me repeating information about insurance, banking, the dog's medication, changing oil in cars, and all of the other things I am obsessing about far more than she is. She says her days of obsessing about those things are coming soon enough.

For the moment, we're simply bored and waiting for my time to report. She'll be more or less taking over the blog for the time being. She'll keep everyone updated on what is going on in all of our lives. She'll be posting my address sometime soon.

Great Sat Morning

I think I did well on gifts for Em last night (I also irritated her, but we won't get in to that). Her back has been tight all week. (She had an observation at work yesterday). Since I have already bought her anniversay, birthday, and valentine's gifts I convinced her to open the birthday gift a few months early. OK, so its a lot of months early. I'd gotten her one of the mats that you sit in a chair and it warms and massages your back. I'm a little surprised that she didn't sleep in one of the recliners.

Isaac woke us at 6 this morning, which is what he is supposed to do. Since this is one of my last weekends before heading out, I got up to feed him and let Emily sleep in. He's always in a great mood in the mornings. He'll laugh, or come as close to laughing as he does at this point. He doesn't really get upset (at least after he finished the bottle). He's just happy to have someone around that talks to him. He goes back down for the first nap of the day around 0730, so I now have a good 30-40 minutes to relax before Em gets up.

Christmas Pictures

I thought I would post a couple of pictures from our Christmas this past Saturday. I am waiting to get some pictures of the entire family from other people. I didn't think to get the camera out when everyone was still here. The top picture is Isaac's first Christmas gift. This is one of the few pictures with his gifts where he isn't screaming. He didn't mind laying in his bouncy seat while everyone else opened gifts, but he was not a fan of us tearing paper and cutting tape with him in our laps. After months of complaining that clothes don't fit (for obvious reasons), Emily got a lot of clothing.

The last couple of days have ben spent getting the house back in order. I've also rearranged the garage to make sure Emily can easily get to any tools she might need while I'm gone. Finally, I finished my packing yesterday. I have to pick up some personal hygene things and load them.

On a side note, I just saw my little brother in the crowd at the Today show. He and his wife took a trip to NYC for their Christmas gift this year.

After Thanksgiving Exhaustion

Its been a busy couple of weeks. Last week, my entire family was here for Thanksgiving. My Aunt and Uncle from Houston also came up for the day. In all, we had twenty people eating at the house. My oldest brother and his family arrived Tuesday. The next brother and his family arrived on Wednesday. Everyone else came in on Thanksgiving morning.

Emily and I crashed yesterday. We got home from lunch, fed Isaac, and both slept the rest of the afternoon. By Saturday night, everyone but my parents had gone home. Emily and I did our Christmas while they were here. We just didn't want to exchange gifts with just the two of us. Em surprised me with a handheld GPS. She had convinced me that she'd gotten something else. Em had another great gift she gave me. She had contacted a large number of my friends and family and mailed them a playing card. They wrote messages on the cards and sent them back. This gives me a thought or message from someone for each week of deployment (approximately). I flipped through to see who she had contacted, and I'm thankful for all who've participating. I am waiting to read them throughout the deployment.

This morning, I'm watching Isaac kick and play before he goes back down for a nap. I am going to the office for a couple of hours later today, but I still have a lot to do around the house to get ready to be gone.

APFT

OK, it was definately not my best score, but I finished another PT test. Considering how much PT I've missed due to classes over the last couple of weeks, I am not complaining.

I have not talked a lot about the next few weeks, but most people know that I will be deploying in December. This has made the week an interesting one. Most soldiers in my battalion are getting read to spend the next couple of weeks on leave. This has decreased my daily counseling appointments considerably. Most of them are looking forward to time with family or at least away from post. I don't know if counseling will pick back up after block leave is over.

Otherwise, life is good. Isaac is growing. He got a bath tonight and seems to enjoy the water. He's still sleeping through the night most nights. We're getting ready to host Thanksgiving, though we're unsure how we're going to seat everyone. Apparently, the dining room table we ordered will not be in by Thanksgiving. Em is less than happy about that one.

Christmas in November

Today, we decorated the house for Christmas. We put greenery with lights on the mantle, a Christmas village on top of the entertainment center (which Justin has been threatened to NOT invade with his little green army men!), set up a nativity scene, and decorated the tree. Everything looks beautiful. Keeping in the theme of Christmas, we are posting a shot of Isaac taken in a Santa hat during our family photo session this past Tuesday. Isaac did really well, even smiling for the camera! In this picture, we caught the beginnings of one of his wide, toothless grins. Justin is making me (Emily) mention that I am typing this blog, as he thinks most things I say are cheesy. Merry Early Christmas!

Veterans Day & Suicide Prevention

I know its been a while. I would offer excuses, but the truth is that my life just hasn't been that interesting over the last couple of weeks. I spent last week in a certification class to teach the ASIST suicide prevention class. This is one of the programs the army has adopted to combat the high suicide rate among soldiers. Eight hours each day studying suicide intervention and training is a bit tedious, but the program is a good one.

With Veteran's Day, I had a day off today. Em and I took Isaac for his first family portrait. Ironically, getting a two month old bathed, fed, bathed again, dressed, and in a good mood for the photographer turned out to be easier than getting my wife dressed and to the photographer. No, the pic is not from the photographer. I took it this week. I was too lazy to upload one of the professionally done pictures.

Other than that, the weekend was spent getting ready for Thanksgiving. Em & I are hosting my entire family. That'll mean 20 people having Thanksgiving here. The next week or so is going to be hectic enough that we wanted to get ahead where we could.

OK, that's the update on our lives. Tomorrow night is a hail and farewell event with my battalion. Thursday night is a predeployment briefing for families. Hopefully, Em and I will have something to post from these.

New Pictures

My parents have told me that they do not want to see pictures of Emily and I. They want pictures of Isaac. Last night, I removed all pictures of them from the house, but I am slightly afraid of not providing them more pictures. This is his halloween outfit, not that he's going trick or treating.
This week has been hectic. I've had my actual chaplain responsibilities along with having to draw more gear for deployment and going through another round of medical exams and vaccinations.

I'm at home with Isaac today, and Em is at work. Its kind of an interesting change from the last six weeks. Isaac is going to be waking up soon, so I need to finish this up so I can fold laundry.

Well, he does live in TX

OK, this picture really doesn't do justice to what I'm going to talk about. Isaac has a mullet. In case you don't know what a mullet is (Mom)...a mullet is a haircut that is longer in the back, but short on the top and front. Isaac's hair is noticeably longer around his collar. I'm guessing this is because he moves his head around a lot while sleeping, but it could also have something to do with the fact that his mother liked Billey Ray Cyrus circa 1994. For those who have no idea what that means, google it.

Otherwise, today was a large step in Isaac's life. Emily returned to work, and he had his first day at the babysitter's house. She said all went well. Emily seemed to enjoy her new school, and she handled her first day apart from Isaac fairly well.

Sick of being sick

We're home from the hospital...again. After approximately 3 days of Isaac being a little fussier than normal and a little less playful, he got sick. He'd been sneezing for a while, but Monday afternoon/evening, he began to run a fever. At the advice of the emergency room nurses, we took Isaac in late Monday night. The poor little guy had to go through all kinds of tests, including a spinal tap. All of the tests, except for one that got sent to the wrong lab, have returned negative. We were able to bring Isaac home today and were told to keep a watch for fever, appetite loss, etc. Your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated as baby (and parents!) recover.

New Pictures

OK, I finally got around to it. Everyone can take a break from griping about no new pictures of Isaac. No, he does not sleep in the bed with Emily and I. I fed Isaac his early morning bottle, and we both fell asleep while Em was in the shower. There is another picture of Isaac witnessing yet another Ole Miss loss. I should be ashamed of myself for trying to teach him to be an Ole Miss fan. Another picture is after Isaac's first day in the nursery at church.

Comparing Experiences

Much to the disappointment of some friends, and at least one family member, I've not done a great deal of gushing about Isaac. At least one of the reasons is that so many people I know speak as though no one else has ever loved a child like they have. I just don't want to be that guy. There is one comparison that I realized this week. When my wife and I began dating I bored everyone I knew with descriptions of her. I described her personality, appearance, goals, personal history, and every other little thing about her. Isaac's arrival has actually had the opposite approach. When people ask about him, I normally just say that he eats well and sleeps through the night. I don't mind the questions. I appreciate that people want to celebrate along with us. For whatever reason, I just don't find myself as verbose about Isaac. Its not that I am not excited, moved, or any of those things. Perhaps those are just the differences between the two types of love. Maybe its just a different point of life for me. OK, I think that should complete my rambling for the evening.

Getting busier.

If I don't update on the baby, I'll get all type of nasty emails asking for another picture of Isaac, so here we go...This picture was taken last weekend when Mom and Dad came to visit. They don't even claim to have come to see Em and I. From the very first mention of coming, they readily said they were coming to see Isaac. Some nights he wakes up for a feeding, but most of the time he sleeps all the way through the night. He's adjusting well to the schedule. He had his two week appointment yesterday and has gained almost a pound and 1.75 inches. I think the length is a little much. I tend to think his first measurement in the hospital may have been short.

My battalion is mostly back now, which I'm excited to see. I'm trying to get to know the companies right now. My assistant's flight came in yesterday afternoon, so I finally have meet the other half of my Unit Ministry Team. He seems like a really great guy. I'm now back to doing PT with a group instead of alone. This Monday should be an experience. I'm doing PT with my commander. He ran track in college. This could hurt a little.

I need to go. Emily has someone coming over to see the baby, and I suppose I should shower and shave (Yes Mom, I mean my head when I talk about shaving).

First Saturday of Football

This past Saturday marked an important milestone in Isaac's young life. This was his first day of watching college football. Unfortunately he had to see Ole Miss lose and LSU beat Augurn. Neither one of which makes his father very happy. To make things worse, he got to see the Saints lose on Sunday. Not a good weekend for football. I suppose it can only get better for Isaac as a football fan. At least that's what I'm hoping.

There are more pictures of him in my web album (link on the right of this screen). There aren't any new ones of Emily with Isaac. She's been playing with the camera more than I have this week.

Everyone is Home

We finally got home around 2100 tonight. Isaac and Em are both doing well. I put a few pictures on the web album link to the right. Otherwise, there's nothing to really add.

Finally Arrived

Real quick b/c I need to get back to Emily...

Isaac arrived this morning at 0546. He was 8 lbs 8 oz, and 20 inches long. He is eating well and appears healthy. Emily is recovering well. I will try to post some more pictures tomorrow night when we get home from the hospital.

Also, our phone numbers have changed. You can email us for updated numbers.

I told you

For those who have been requesting a picture of Emily...this is it. I told you she is freaking huge.

No Baby Yet

Well, another day down. Emily's due date is coming in the next few days, and I thought I should give an update on how she is. We're anxious for the baby's arrival. I fell a bit bad because I am missing training over the next few weeks in order to be here for the baby's birth. My commander was gracious in allowing me to stay here for the birth.

Emily is still teaching. She actually found out this week that she's being switched to another school. This one is actually closer to our house, but it means her first day teaching at the new school is also the day she is due to deliver. She's working all of that out. Her belly is freaking huge. She hasn't gained weight all over, just in the stomach. I have no idea how she stands without falling face first on the ground. I would post a picture, but I actually don't have one on my computer.

Home

Here is the last three days...On Wed. morning, the course manager walked in and announced that our graduation was going to be on Thurs. instead of Friday. The decided to get us out of SC before whichever hurricane in the Atlantic arrived.

That night was our graduation banquet followed by packing an loading my car. Thursday was a final round of briefings, issue of chaplain kits, and a few other administrative things. The graduation ceremony was ok. Basically, its like any other graduation ceremony except people actually refrained from applauded and cheering during the times they were asked to do so. As soon as the ceremony ended, another Will (the other guy in dress blues in the picture) and I left SC headed for Ft Hood. Dad met us in Jackson and drove my car the rest of the way. Will and I alternated driving his car and napping. This got us home by 0830 on Friday morning.

0300 pt

I woke up at 0230 this morning. There's absolutely no reason. I just woke up and laid in bed for about 40 minutes. I hate laying there doing nothing, so I got up a little after three to go running. Thus blogging at the unholy hour of 0445.

I spent last weekend on at St Simon's Island, GA. Because of Labor Day, we had Monday off. The picture is of one of the guys that I went with. Tim isn't a golfer and I wanted public proof that he played golf over the weekend.

There's nothing new. I finish at Fort Jackson in a couple of days and will be heading to TX as soon as possible thereafter. I'm afraid roads will be clogged with people fleeing whichever hurricane is in the Atlantic, but I should be well west of here before any of the bad weather arrives. Anyway, I need to get a few things done this morning before training begins.

Staff Ride

Monday was a staff ride. Here's the short version of what that is...a unit's staff officers go to a historical battlefield. Either an individual or a number of staff officers are responsible leading various sections of the trip and teaching about the tactics used or available in a given battle. Basically, it's an educational event for staff officers. Chaplain's are part of a unit's staff officers, so this was a training event for us. We went to two of the old forts at Charleston's harbor. Most people know Fort Sumter. Ft Moultre is a few hundred yards from Fort Sumter and was used in both the American Revolution and the Civil War. Anyway, that was Monday. The rest of the week has been spent with a very, very tedious certification process for a family wellness program. I will probably use a little of what we are learning. I'm looking forward to a three day weekend at the beach for Labor Day.

A couple of updates

Emily pointed out that I had not posted one of the pictures of our baby on the blog, so here you go. She's due in three weeks. I'm supposed to finish CHBOLC in two weeks. Needless to say, we are hoping he does not come early. I really have nothing to say. Its been a great weekend. I've gotten some time alone. I've played golf. I've laughed almost constantly with some of the guys from my platoon. This is what I've needed.

For those who have asked about pictures, there are several new folders on the "My Pictures." Its on the right side of the page somewhere.

Capstone

Capstone is the week that we begin putting a lot of our training together. At least I think that's the purpose. We are on a simulated Forward Operating Base. This means that our quarters are better than they were during our last Field Training Exercise. You can see where we stayed in the picture on the left. The training was good. The weather was as good as you can reasonably hope for in August in South Carolina. The least inappropriate story is a mock memorial ceremony. A member of my platoon that I will spare from naming went to sick call because of a reaction to an insect bite. When he returned, my platoon held a memorial ceremony for his manhood. The rabbi in my squad asked if the ceremony would be cruel and in bad taste. I assured him that no one (including the subject) would be upset or hurt and that the cermony would not be even close to in good taste. He immediately agreed that good taste could not possibly be a part of such a ceremony. I think members of other platoons were extremely unsure about what was going on, and kept their distance. All in all, this was the second funniest thing I've seen at CHBOLC. The funniest is entirely inappropriate to share, and I am desperately trying to supress the memory of it. I'm sure I'll end up in therapy over it.

Sorry there aren't better pictures, but most of mine did not turn out

Funeral services

Last week we were briefed about military funerals, memorial services, memorial ceremonies, and graveside services. Today a few of us had to actually perform the tasks. I volunteered because this replaces another assignment that would have been due next week (field services). I happen to get a graveside service. This is a remarkably short service. It takes place after a funeral service, so very little is required. Basically, I read a psalm and offered a brief word of comfort. The most difficult part was keeping the drill and ceremony straight. I had a minor error, but nothing that will normally apply to me.

This picture is up mainly because Emiliy kept asking why I hadn't put up any pictures of anything other than my ACUs (camo pattern). This is honestly the first time I've worn my Class A uniform. I still have not worn the Dress Blue uniform. That'll come in a couple of weeks.

I am getting to the point of counting the days until I graduate. I'm looking forward to getting to my battalion and getting started with ministry. Of course, I'm also looking forward to being back with Em and Isaac, whenever he decides to make his grand appearance.

I better go. Tomorrow morning, we are back in the field for Capstone. This is supposedly where a lot of the classroom training is implimented. Regardless, I won't be posting again until Friday or Saturday. At least there should be something interested to say.

Emily loses her mind

Let's do some math. Not a phrase you normally hear from me...I know. She is due to deliver our first child on September 15. She managed to get a job with Killeen Independent School District last week. She has passed the required exam, so the job is official now. She'll be teaching a class of 1st graders. Here's the math...September 15 minus August 12. That's just over a month before she's due. (I never said the math would be complicated.) How many woman get a job at 8 months of pregnancy. Most of us knew she was crazy due to her choice of husbands, but this one has to solidify her insanity.

In South Carolina, the weather is better. The classes are pretty much the same. Next week will be Capstone. This is a week in the field where we practice implimenting the things we have been taught this summer. I'll post again sometime this weekend.

Weekend Retreat

This weekend has been a training event at Ridgecrest Conference Center. For those who may not be of my denomination, this is a rather large retreat center in western North Carolina. This supposedly serves two purposes. The first was training in a program that the army frequently uses to help soldiers make good choices about spouses. Basically, we were given instruction on teaching this class. Overall, it seems to be a really good program. The second purpose was to give us an example of doing a retreat. I'll put some pictures up from our free time sometime over the next few days.

The weather today was absolutely perfect. The air was cool when I was running this morning. The temperature never really got too hot all day. I'm sure it'll be back to the semi-Hades temps by the end of this week.

For anyone who didn't know...Em was hired to teach first grade this week. Her contract depends on her ability to pass an exam tomorrow, but that won't be a problem. I guess this year, she won't be mistaken for a student as she waddles/rolls around. OK, I need to get some sleep.

30 Something days to go...

OK, this stuff in the picture is what we use in field worship services. Each person will lead one 20 minute service. Twenty minutes is all a lot of commanders will give when you're in a combat zone. Luckily, I have previously been accused of preaching short sermons in order to beat the Sunday rush at restaurants. The radio is for those of us that desperately need help singing. Under the green towel is a common cup that holds wafers & wine. The cross doesn't show up, but it's being the communion cup.

As posted previously, we spent Monday on one of the live fire ranges. We went through a convoy operations course with a group of basic training soldiers. This is training for when a convoy comes under enemy fire or is hit by a roadside bomb. With twenty 18 year olds with live ammunition in their M16, I quickly learned to glance over their shoulders to see if the safety was activated. I'll sum up what convoy ops training is for chaplains...stay out of the way of those with guns...find cover quickly...keep your head down.

Other than that, I've learned that the US Army cannot communicate without a powerpoint presentation. I've spent most of each day listening to endless briefings. After six hours of briefing on suicide prevention, most of us were becoming suicidal ourselves.