Just in case you didn't know

Most of those who read this already know that Em & I are going to Ft Hood. If you didn't know, I'll be serving in the 1st Cavalry Division. I only point this out because I finally got my revised pinpoint assignment last week. We knew that was coming. I'll be part of the 3 brigade combat team. The specific battalion I will be serving as chaplain will be deploying to Iraq in Dec.

None of this is a surprise. We've been making the preparations we know how to make. Em has completely taken over handling our finances. She's the one that deals with utilities and all of that type of thing. As usual, she has the hard part.

This is probably old news for most of you, but I thought I would pass that on to anyone who may not have heard.

Oh yeah, I will be in trouble if I don't put a link to the countdown to due day for the baby. Em could put this on here herself, but here it is...http://bd.lilypie.com/V9oam5.png

Finally, a break

Another week of classroom work is out of the way. I've been told I have about 43 days left, but I haven't counted them up myself. This week focused on chaplain-specific material like counseling, preparing for deployments, leading worship in a combat zone, etc. Its been very tedius. I basically listen to a 50 minute briefing. Take a ten minute break. Listen to another 50 minutes of briefing. Take a ten minute break. This continues all day. After two weeks, I'm sick of the classroom. Monday will give us a little bit of a break. We'll be getting training on responding when a convoy has been hit by an IED. This will put us back out in the field for a day. Anything to break the monotony.

This week was also the first Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) that actually goes on my records. The test consists of two minutes of pushups and situps. There's also a two mile run. You cannot get out of position or use incorrect form with the pushups or situps. I did 62 pushups and 60 situps, which was an improvement. I still want to add 6 more pushups and 12 more situps to get a 90 in those categories. I ran the two miles in 13:58. This isn't as fast as I was hoping to go, but I have no real complaint about that one.

Charleston

Since we had no training this weekend, a few of us went to Charleston, SC for the day. We had no realy plan. We wandered around the historic district, ate seafood, and acted like fools at battery park. Its a really pretty town. The weather was great. It was overcast and cooler. My parents tell me there's a tropical storm off the coast. There really aren't a lot of stories to tell. Nixon posed with the girls selling Italian Ice. Shirkey climbed a tree, which I'm fairly sure he wasn't supposed to.

Otherwise, today has been remarkably dull. I went to the last of the chapel services that are required as part of my training. It was the gospel service, and I enjoyed it as much as any other service. Next week, I'll probably attend a service off post at a local church.

I begin Phase 2 of training tomorrow. This won't be a major shift from what I've been doing the last two weeks. The briefs will focus more on chaplain-specific material. It'll still be a lot of time spent staring at a screen.

Phase 1 is almost over

Today was Rivers' birthday. (He's the one that appears to be growling at the camera). The cake has strawberry shortcake on it. I'm still not entirely sure why. One of the guys in the platoon brought it to him after lunch.

I've been really vague in updates for the last couple of weeks. Its mostly laziness. Here's kind of what is going on. We're getting briefs on such exciting topics as how to write a memorandum for the army, how to present a brief, the army Field Manuel 3-0, and countless other topics that are equally numbing to the mind. The highlight of my day is normally 0530 PT (Physical Training) if that tells you how exciting it is.

Yesterday, the division chaplain for 1st Cavalry took those of us assigned to that division to lunch. I was impressed with her. Hopefully, we'll get pinpoint assignments soon. The pinpoint assignment is the specific battalion I'll be serving in.

CHBOLC Video

The link below takes you to a video that was put together by one of the cadre we had during CIMT (Chaplain's Initial Military Training).


http://media.putfile.com/CHBOLC-Jun08

Another Week Down...Eight to go

Well, another week is on the books...eight more to go. There's nothing signficant to report from here. I'm slowly going blind starring at a projection screen. I've learned about getting evaluations, giving evaluations, ethics of war, interaction with a chaplain's assistant. I'm sure there's more. I can't remember anything else at this point on a Friday afternoon.

Em has gotten settled in the house. The furniture was delivered a couple of days ago. All of the utilities are hooked up and going. She seems to be excited. I know she's excited to have her own space again. One of my classmates has recommended a church to us, and I think Em is going to visit it this Sunday.

I'm going to try to get a few assignments completed before heading to dinner.

Beret Ceremony

This picture is my platoon. It was taken immediately after our beret donning ceremony. There are some other pictures from this in my photo albums.

Afterwards, I spent the weekend with Emily at Hard Labor Creek State Park in Georgia. Basically, we looked around the town of Madision and spent a great deal of time laying around. I'll pay for a weekend of laziness tomorrow. From this point forward, there will be a lot more paperwork. There are a lot of lectures and a lot of homework.

The Powerpoint Begins

This is my last couple of days my initial military training. All this means is that we're going to begin learning chaplain specific skills. This also means almost all day is spent in the classroom. After PT, we're in the classroom listening to briefings and staring at hours of PowerPoint. Today was legal issues. Tomorrow, we'll have several tests on some of the basic army structure and doctrines. On Thursday, we'll have our beret ceremony. This is when we begin wearing the army beret. I'm not really that excited about that. Personally, I prefer the way the patrol cap looks. I think there is more signficance than I am giving this particular event.

The picture I've put on this post is from last week when we were in the field. We actually got to go through this course with some Basic Training soldiers. I'm practicing moving through an area using cover provided by an armed soldier. Basically, I followed an eighteen year old soldier with an M16 as he moved from cover to cover. As if keeping up with an 18 yr old isn't hard enough, they didn't have to wear body armour. That makes running much harder.

I may or may not post again this week. After the beret ceremony, we will have a training holiday for the weekend. I'm going to meet Em in north Georgia for a couple of days. I'll post some more pictures soon.