CAST TD-8: Pizza, Pizza

I once heard it said that the light at the end of the tunnel is really an oncoming train. That's about how I feel right now.  I think the reality of leaving behind my whole world for half a year just set in today. My trepidation has never been about the deployment in and of itself. I'm happy to serve in whatever capacity and in whatever location that's required. But up til now, I've probably taken a lot for granted. One way that this CAST training has helped me is to draw from those who've been through this all before. I've heard a lot of stories of families left behind, children of varying ages, homes around the country, home station missions impacted. So much diversity represented by 36 individuals, but one overriding commonality: we know what each other is experiencing, whether for the first time or again (or even yet again).

I've griped about not having my itinerary for the last 10 days or so. Well, it finally came today. I think it's what provided the dose of reality. See, I really don't get a break before flying off into the sunrise. I graduate CAST on Thursday, fly to Norfolk VA on Fri, then depart for the AOR at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. Then I'm there. I'll land in Qatar around 2 a.m. on Monday, 21 Jun. I'm supposed to be in Iraq on 24 Jun, but who knows. Many folks get stuck in Qatar as higher-priority personnel rotate in and out. I just hope I get there by the 24th so I have as much overlap with my predecessor as possible, perhaps up to 12 days...that'd be good.

Today was pretty intense, as far as the training went. We put all the pieces together in one big exercise. We drove on a faux mission to deliver goods to two drop points. All the while, we were getting hit by IEDs, helping injured personnel, taking small arms fire, and (after being dismounted due to an IED) trekking overland to finally arrive back at home base.

Our class was divided into groups, called "chalks," to allow the instructors to view all of our movements. We were Chalk Bravo, which was a convoy of three vehicles (I was vehicle commander of the third vehicle). In the after action briefing, we learned that everything Chalk Alpha did correctly, Bravo screwed up.Suffice to say, this is a training environment, and we were indeed trained. Physically, this was as tough a day as we've seen, and the heat was as oppressive as ever.

As a reward for all our hard work, we were granted permission to order pizza and soda. I know I'll be in the hurt locker tomorrow, but by God, I enjoyed my slices. We saw a most enjoyable, politically incorrect, thoroughly offensive, way cool guy movie, The Hangover. Uproariously funny. We were all in stitches and the comic relief was just what the doctor ordered.