It's a great day to be a soldier

Well that's at least what the sign says when entering the base at fort Bliss. Things are going slow here. The training is redundant and somewhat cumbersome but more than likely necessary. Most of it is a review of what I had done at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

Monday was weapons draw, and I was fortunate enough to receive the M4 which is a smaller version of the m16 machine gun you see soldier with so often. It weighs in at a pound less and is much more compact. Hopefully it isn't that much different to qualify with as we're scheduled to attempt that later this week.

The rest of the week was made up of night and day land navigation, minefield and explosive training, first aid, and radio operations. Today I was running around the desert learning infantry tactics and it was draining. I can't imagine what it's going to be like lugging around that body armor, kevlar, weapon and various other gear in 120 degree heat. It's going to take some adjusting that's for sure.

This week we'll be focusing on qualifying with weapons and then we'll be nearly done with training and ready to ship out. In a way I'm anxious to move on from this segment and on to my unit. Hopefully things will go well.