Monday, May 11, 2009

Christmas in May!

The rest of the unit arrived last night, and it turned the ghost-town barracks into a jolly mosh pit! It's good to have the team pretty much assembled...the rest will join us at our Mobilization Station in 21 days...So we got issued most of the clothing and equipment we will take overseas. Must be close to 100 pounds of stuff...combat helmet, various pouches, holster, optical sights for our rifles, rain and cold weather clothing, a "camelback" water bladder (way better than canteens, it holds more, and has a tube allowing me to drink water while on the move.), goggles, ballistic glasses (protects against most bad stuff flying through the air), and 3 big bags to hold it all. We'll each need a large luggage cart just to get through the airport! Plus, we have our rifles and pistols, which we will need to carry with us everywhere we go!
Well, not everywhere...We can't take weapons to sick call, the PX, or the club, so we'll have to leave 'em locked up and under guard.
Here's the tough part for some of the folks, me especially...How does all of this stuff fit together? We have a poster showing where all of the pouches are supposed to go, but that layout only works if we are 5'11" and weigh 160 lbs. For the rest of us, we end up resembling GI Joe Dolls put together by inebriated elves...and no Kung Fu Grip, either!
Sorry to report no photos as yet, due to the evil Vista operating system. Yeah, I know, I shoulda bought a Mac.

2 comments:

  1. Well... you mentioned a ton of stuff you were issued ... except bullets.....hmmmmmmmmmmm.

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  2. Wow! sounds like lots of stuff that I would have no idea what to do with!
    vista is ok, you just have to play with it a bit for the pictures part-we use photo fun studio, It may have come with our lumix camera-but it works great-even for me who has issues with the pics thing in general! Love you!

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