Processing is going fairly well- I'm hurrying up and waiting.
So, aside from getting infected with a couple deadly diseases, having the leeches let blood a couple times, sweltering in Texas heat and humidity, and a piss-poor chow schedule, it's going great.
Actually, the Texas heat ain't so bad. It's incredibly green in El Paso right now. They're telling us that the past month has had more rain than geologists can discover in a similar period of time, for the last 6,000 years. Damn mosquitos are vicious though (gotta bitch about something!) and they've had two cases of West Nile virus in El Paso so far. DDT is your friend.
I didn't get the full checklist before I left (surprise!) so I had to go do a whiz-quiz when I got here, and get blood drawn for fasting blood sugar count. With the F'd up chow schedule, that means I fasted for about 20 hours today before I could go off-base to a local lab that does blood work. Everything else seems to be going pretty smoothly though. I'm up to #5 of 6 on my anthrax series- the lump on my arm from that is worse than the smallpox vaccination- so far at least.
Got my body armor today. That shite is heavy! I have Dan's 'Second Chance' with me- trauma plate makes it a class III armor, and it weighs maybe 8-10 pounds. The stuff they issued today is Class III or IIIa and weighs a frickin' ton. About 30-35 punds at a guess. I'll be wearing both when I leave the Green Zone. Maybe I'll sweat off some of my fat ass.
Speaking of fat; I thought I'd put on a lot of weight but there are some soldiers here who look pregnant, and that's just not a good look with the cheesy Army-reg mustaches. I guess you can't get out of deploying by being an ate-up fatass malingerer anymore.
The military tried to tell me that no civvies would get issued side arms. They're not going to issue, but I'll get my M9 when I leave the GZ- it's issued by my company when I go out on missions. My orders clearly state that I'm authorized to carry, and I won't leave the GZ without it.
Speaking of orders, the HR guy almost screwed me by not having my orders ready until Monday mid-day. Another 3 or 4 hours and they would've kicked me out to come back at a later date. That would've been joyful.
Only a couple of things to do tomorrow, including getting my ID card, and I'll be cleared to go, but won't leave until sometime Sunday.
Actually, the Texas heat ain't so bad. It's incredibly green in El Paso right now. They're telling us that the past month has had more rain than geologists can discover in a similar period of time, for the last 6,000 years. Damn mosquitos are vicious though (gotta bitch about something!) and they've had two cases of West Nile virus in El Paso so far. DDT is your friend.
I didn't get the full checklist before I left (surprise!) so I had to go do a whiz-quiz when I got here, and get blood drawn for fasting blood sugar count. With the F'd up chow schedule, that means I fasted for about 20 hours today before I could go off-base to a local lab that does blood work. Everything else seems to be going pretty smoothly though. I'm up to #5 of 6 on my anthrax series- the lump on my arm from that is worse than the smallpox vaccination- so far at least.
Got my body armor today. That shite is heavy! I have Dan's 'Second Chance' with me- trauma plate makes it a class III armor, and it weighs maybe 8-10 pounds. The stuff they issued today is Class III or IIIa and weighs a frickin' ton. About 30-35 punds at a guess. I'll be wearing both when I leave the Green Zone. Maybe I'll sweat off some of my fat ass.
Speaking of fat; I thought I'd put on a lot of weight but there are some soldiers here who look pregnant, and that's just not a good look with the cheesy Army-reg mustaches. I guess you can't get out of deploying by being an ate-up fatass malingerer anymore.
The military tried to tell me that no civvies would get issued side arms. They're not going to issue, but I'll get my M9 when I leave the GZ- it's issued by my company when I go out on missions. My orders clearly state that I'm authorized to carry, and I won't leave the GZ without it.
Speaking of orders, the HR guy almost screwed me by not having my orders ready until Monday mid-day. Another 3 or 4 hours and they would've kicked me out to come back at a later date. That would've been joyful.
Only a couple of things to do tomorrow, including getting my ID card, and I'll be cleared to go, but won't leave until sometime Sunday.
posted by Larry at
9/12/2006 09:29:00 PM
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