Easy Money

So I could have written this post from many different points of view.  The fact of the matter personally is that I now have the most modern equipment of any army to conduct war with once I arrive in Afghanistan.

On the downside, I'm not sure how much more effective the equipment will make our forces at winning over the Taliban or Al Queda to a talking solution to bring peace to the region.  And if the new equipment I am wearing does not do either of those two things and it does not give me significantly more protection than what I was wearing already...it goes into the wasteful spending fund that seems to exists to keep retired Army folks employed....mainly at Fort Belvoir, Aberdeen, and Huntsville.

So our morning began at 3am local time here in sunny Germany.  I started the day off with a PB&J and a coke, a quick shave, a hot shower, and a quick run down to the assembley area where we met the friendly German bus drivers who were no doubt peveed about working on what is know as German father's day.

We bused down to Schweinfurt and formed our ranks outside of a makeshift warehouse.  A "contact team" of sorts was there to fully equip about 300 soldiers with the latest and greatest from the Program Manager Soldier office out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  On my list of new equipment was:
1.  Danner Hiking Boots:  2 pair.  (Very nice for hiking)
2.  More sunglasses.  2 pair.
3.  Four new uniforms in the OEF camo pattern.
4.  Nice infantry fighting gloves
5.  All new hats, rank, and patches
6.  Two new Ruck sacks with all of the trimmings
7.  Brand new bullet proof vest with all of the trimmings

That pretty much rounded out the fun equipment that the Army was good enough to pass out to ensure our safe return.

Break Break Break:

For some reason today I'm feeling a little low again.  I'm not sure if it is the move into the barracks that occured yesterday that has me down given a few missing creature comforts over here, or if I'm just slipping back into a sullen feeling for a few days.

I got to see Karen, Sofia, and Bubba-town today on Skype which made things nice.  It looks like I'm going to get a solid night of sleep here on Graf as it approaches 10pm.  Tomorrow is another day of predeployment screening...medical...dental...vision...wills...legal stuff.

Well friends.  Thanks for reading.  Thanks as always for the emails during the week....they do help...I hope I'm not whining too much.

Wishing you all the best wherever you are tonight.  Welcome home to missing husbands; and my friends Purple D, Sprinkles, Buck Wild, Dominoes, and Gina.

S.