It has started...

Okay everyone. I'm going to begin this blog and see how long I can keep up with it. Let me first start with some background:

If you don't already know, I'm tasked to deploy to Iraq in November 09. I am tasked to be a part of a US Army Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT). That will require me to first spend about 5 weeks training with the Army, which is where I am now...Fort Dix, NJ. My hope with this blog is to sort of document my training for the next 5 weeks and then continue blogging about my actual deployment. I figured this was a much better way to communicate with everyone than sending out a hundred emails every week. It will also save me some time since the Army has us skipping and hopping all over the place at their whim...which is why we all having to learn to 'embrace the dix'.
Okay, so that is a very short synopsis of what's going on and why I'm writing this. I will backfill a ton of information as this goes on but if you have any questions, hit me up at mrearl@gmail.com ...so now on with the first post.

I've been here since Saturday. Nothing much has happened yet. I've met some really cool people and some not-so-cool people. Overall its been good. We haven't done any Army specific training yet except to attend some counter-insurgency training (COIN...you WILL see this again) and some Army 101 classes (learning army rank structure, slang, acronyms etc...). These Army guys are good dudes. I enjoy listening to most of it because EVERY one of the instructors has been there and done it. I am suprised at how much I respect what they've done and the fact that they are teaching us with their experiences. Unfortunately, not everyone has that same respect and, on more than one occassion, I've been embarrassed with the way some of my Air Force bretheren have treated our Army instructors. Its like they think that since the person speaking is from the Army, what they're saying isn't valuable. The truth is that the info is INVALUABLE, and could end up saving someone's life. Of particular embarrassment to me is how many people can sit and joke after hearing a story of how someone was killed in action or blown up. Anyway, I could go on and on about that, but all I'll say is that I'm VERY impressed with the way these men have held up and their willingness to share these personal experiences with us to SAVE OUR ASSES! That's really about it for tonite. I'll have some more pics and stuff to talk about tomorrow. On the agenda tomorrow is HEAT training. It includes putting on ALL of our gear (full battle rattle...you will see this again) and sitting in a HMVVE simulator while they flip us upside down. Then we practice getting out...fun eh? Anyway kids, that's it for
tonite. -OUT-