After a long night and an early flight from NAS Coronado courtesy of the USMC, I have arrived at FT Jackson in South Carolina for Navy Individual Augmentee Combat Training (NIACT). I'm going to try to keep the acronym talk to a minimum, but you can see why it's easier to say NIACT than this course's actual name, which is about a 4 on the obnoxious military jargon scale... which goes to 11. Had an outstanding time in San Diego - actually got butterflies in my stomach when we hit Del Mar on the way back. Kind of miss it. It was great to see everyone I had a chance to touch base with and I'm sorry I missed some of you, but there will be an even bigger party when I get back. Of course I went out in style on Friday at the beautiful and prestigious Catalina Lounge, my favorite bar on the planet. They refinished the shuffleboard table so the raw spots are gone and it's not such a homer's field. Annalis destroyed me. Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar... well, he eats you.
Definitely thought I was already a casualty when we attempted to land in Manhattan, Kansas to drop some people off at FT Riley. Slightly windy; pretty sure we landed sideways. I managed avoid screaming like a girl. After about about thirty seconds of silence following our eventual touchdown it was a relief to hear the rest of the plane exhale and utter a collective "Holy Shit!" and laugh off our first close call.
Most people in my group of about 300 seem to be going to Afghanistan, but I've crossed paths with a few who didn't get the memo like myself. The other TF 134 hot fills are here, and allegedly the oncoming CO, who will be my boss in Baghdad, is somewhere in the crowd. Gear issue is tomorrow at about O-dark-thirty and after that the fun begins!
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