A cold morning in Ireland.

It's been very hectic since my last entry. I spent the last week at Ft. Benning learning the Army way of deploying. There were over 400 people being processed together so it was like being in a herd of cattle most of the time. Civilians and contractors out numbered military 2 to 1 and of the military, there were only 4 people who weren't in the Army. Two of them weren't going to Iraq so that just left Navy Lt JG Bob (who is also going to work at JIEDDO) and myself as the only non-Army.

The training consisted of lots of briefings, medical screenings, and military training. We have briefings about Iraq, IEDs, first aid, weapons, tactics, and on and on and on. We fired the M-9 at and interesting range with multiple pop up targets, and we even practiced throwing hand grenades. It was a packed week with days that lasted from 10-12 hours. The accommodations were interesting. The Army has a different standard than the Air Force, but it was not too bad. We were issued all of the gear needed for the next year - uniforms, sleeping bag, body armor, and lots of other stuff. Bob and I are now stealth Army guys - we have Army uniforms so people think were Army officers until they take a look at the service tapes and see Navy and Air Force and then they generally just look confused. It's kinda fun.

We boarded a contract flight out of Ft Benning and we're currently on a refueling stop in Ireland. In a couple hours we'll load back up and head off to Kuwait were we'll switch to military aircraft for the final hop to Iraq.

Stay tuned for more after I get to Iraq and get set up.

Andy