Day One

Our unit advance party (or in Army-speak, "ADVON") arrived at Fort McCoy this evening after a flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (I felt the overwhelming urge to hop while in this city...not sure why), and we picked up our rental vans outside of the airport. Since we flew in civvies, it still didn't seem like we were on duty. We checked in to the Army Lodging quarters for one last night of relative comfort (internet and TV, plus a private bathroom, which will really seem like a luxury by this time next week!)...tomorrow morning we report in to the Training Center Operations Section to begin setting the stage for the activities to come. We'll get assigned barracks, pick up everyone's body armor, basic office supplies, and fill out lots of forms to document what training our detachment has already completed. This will ensure that we don't have to undergo the same training while here, so we can focus on the remaining mandatory tasks. Lots of lightning this afternoon...glad we haven't started field training!