Ft. Jackson Day 13 & 14

The weekend at last. Saturday morning we did a formation run at 0530. It was only about 1.5 miles but Navy people are terrible at running in formation so it was amusing. I don't know how the drill sergeants can keep their cool.

We spent the morning working on an electronic shooting simulator. It was actually interesting. They were real-world scenarios and you had to decide when to shoot, and who to shoot, if you shoot at all. It was instructive to see how many civilians get tagged even when you are ready for the scenario and aiming at the bad guys.

We were released on liberty about noon. One of the friends I made here, Greg, got married in the chapel at 1300. We'll probably stay friends through-out my deployment. He was going to the same task force as me in Iraq, and like me he was redirected to Afghanistan to serve in the CTSC-A. All I know about the assignment so far is this website I found:

http://cstc-a.com/

This was probably my last weekend in America for a while. I had dinner Saturday night with a couple other friends I met here, Walter (the asian) and Jason (the LTJG) in the picture below. Turns out the World Beer Festival was in Columbia this weekend. Too bad we weren't allowed drink. We had dinner at an Awesome Tapas bar, called Gervais & Vine.

Wakeup tomorrow is 0500. I have to report to medical at 0545. That means I have to get my smallpox shot and my second anthrax shot. Not looking forward to either of those. I might have weapons watch tonight also.