Our Last Leg of Training

Well, we are now beginning our tenth week of training. It's gone pretty fast looking back. At times it is slow, at times it goes by fast, it is all relative of course. Starting this week we move to a different part of the base, yes more desert, more sand, more MRE's and will be living in quansat huts. Anyone see "Heartbreak Ridge"? Those half moon shaped roof buildings the recon unit of Gunny Highway lived in? Those are what we will be staying in. Yes beautiful quarters. Almost like suites at the Holiday Inn. No, not really.

So, I have found that after many weeks of the same old MRE menus, I have one standby favorite....tuna. It is the only one that has an actual name brand food in the package. In the package comes Sun Kist tuna with fat free mayo and tortillas. Great meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The worst MRE? That would be the ham and cheese omelet. Yep, it is as bad as it sounds. Heating it up doesn't help any at all. So tuna for me please.

Things are well here. I am still moving along and there are only a few moments or days here and there that are obstacles. I just keep pulling myself forward, thinking of what lies at home for me and the job at hand. The majority of us if not all believe highly in what we are doing and are ready to do what is asked. I work with a bunch of good hearted strong warriors and it's awesome to be working with these guys. The heart these young kids have amazes me. They are a different generation then what I grew up in. What is funny is that these kids grew up with computers, internet, cable,cell phones etc. I tell them that my first video game was Pong and they just laugh. Doc, the old guy. It's good.

Our leave, or vacation time has changed. They are giving us a few extra days before we leave the country. I will be home from the eve of the 27th of December until the eve of the 6th of Jan. I will spend the majority in Chicago and a couple days back in Michigan. It will be rushed unfortunately but will be nice to be home a few days. Once we return to the great spot of 29 Palms, we will pack up and prepare to deploy. Sometime the end of January we should be headed over the big pond for our seven month deployment. The intel we get so far is that things are really turning around. A lot of the guys in my unit were there during 04-05 during the elections in the Sunni Triangle and have mutually said that things are very different. There are strong signs of growth, cooperation and positive movement throughout Iraq. Our mission will be more of training, turnover and stabilization at this point. Once we roll into our FOB, forward operating base, things will pick up time wise. What I mean is that training is always harder, tougher and more tedious than actual missions or work. We will be on the job once we arrive so our concept of time will change and things won't drag as much as they do at times now.

Other than that nothing really else going on. The combat trauma course was very good. The instructors have at least one if not two or three tours in Iraq/Afghanistan. They had a lot to bring to the table. Even with being a paramedic/fireman for Chicago for quite awhile and feeling pretty confident in my skills for trauma, these seasoned combat vets really taught me some new ideas. They narrowed down what is truly important in patient assessment and taking care of life threats immediately. What I learned here will easily translate into trauma assessment back home in my real job. We learned things that will one day be standard of care in the civilian world. Military medicine has always been the proving grounds and ground breakers for civilian trauma medicine. Flight for Life came from Vietnam as one good example. So a very good course and glad we took it.

I have no idea if I will have any contact the next 28 days or so. I have heard the cell signal and internet connections are few if any where we are going. So no news will be good news. Once we get done we will be headed home for the holidays. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!!