Lots of news ...

(The pics are from Kyle's trip home for my 50th Bday in March ... yes, boys will be boys)

Okay, after several months away from this, I am excited to be doing it again. I just got off the phone with Kyle and have LOTS of information to share. When I talked with him it was 5am his time and it was already 85 degrees. The good news is that he is on QRF guard duty and that means that he only has to wear ACU's, not his full Battle Rattle.

First, we learned a valuable lesson about sending food supplies to the desert. In the last care package Mom sent, Kyle had requested a pack of Flinstone Vitamins. So off to Costco we go. Mom decided that the "gummi" vitamins would be a nice change from those old chalky things. You can already see this coming can't you ...

The Vitamins spent two weeks in a shipping container in Iraq and the entire bottle turned into gone solid vitamin blob. He said, "It's okay Mom, I just get up every morning and take a bite and hope that is about the right amount. No problem!"

I found out that their outpost which is just outside Basra is kind of an important place. While I won't share the name of it, or the exact location (for security reasons), I think it would be okay to say that lots of important brass come in and out of his location. That is probably a good incentive to stay on his toes.

He also shared that they will be going back to the main base in Basra on Sunday. They are in the process of turning their outpost over to a unit of MP's. Over the last few days they have been meeting with their replacements to share logistics.

It sounds like sleep is at a premium for him. He yawned several times early in our conversation so I asked him, how much sleep he had gotten. He said, "About 3 hours and that's a GOOD night." That prompted the follow up question, "What does a typical day look like?" He decided that the best way to describe it would be to share his schedule yesterday. Hang on ...

4-6am guard duty
Shower and clean up
Breakfast
Police the area
Promotion ceremony

E.I.B. training - This stands for "Expert Infantry Badge". It is a test that the entire Battalion will take in the next few weeks. It will involve 35 tasks to be chose randomly (I think). Just to qualify to test you must first get a 280 or better of an Army Physical Fitness test, take a 13 mi ruck under 4 hours (I think - that is a really rapid pace for a very long distance), shoot expert on weapons test. If you nail all these, then you can test for the medal. He is very motivated to get it.

Then there was ...
A 3 hour nap in middle of day
Another 2 hours of guard duty
Dinner
A 1 hour meeting with a Sgt. to discuss on reintegration training (coming back home well).
Two hours in the gym and off to bed (that was the 3 hour nights sleep that he talked about).

He is looking forward to the E.I.B. test. He told me that his last APFT test in Diwanijah (sp?) he scored 60 push=ups, 60 sit-ups, and scored 15:30 on his 2 mile run. Two days ago he took a new test and scored 85 push-ups, 89 sit-ups and did a 13:50 2 mile0 seconds run. He said that he needs to shave another 5o seconds in order to get his perfect 300 on a APFT. He is sure he will make it (and in 120 heat no less).

He received unofficial word that his waver paperwork for early promotion has been approved. within a few days we will need to call him "Specialist" ... E-4 rank and a raise.

Finally (and I will end with this) he has tentative dates for redeployment to US. The last of their Battalion will be out if Iraq before Aug. 20th. The window for is unit to fly out is between 8/7 & 8/20. Yahoo!!!!

Shower Scandals ...

This week we heard from Kyle. It is great fun when we are all together (Mom, Sis and me) when the phone rings with a "private number" designation. The news of the day was that all computers had been confiscated and that, as a result, we would not be seeing much more from Kyle by way of Facebook posts.

In days of old it may fall under the category "boys will be boys." But in today's military (thankfully so) the activities of late on Kyles outpost were met with swift consequences. Allow me to be a bit less cryptic.

Kyle's unit is infantry, which means "no women." This has always been the Army's practice for the infantry. Other branches of military service, however, include women within the ranks. Such is the case with the National Guard. Recently a detachment of Guardsmen, male and female were assigned to Kyle's company. This presented some significant logistical challenges. As it turns out, the shower facilities proved to be one of the most snarly. The adaptation was that the two shower facilities would be divided up as follows:
- One unit would remain men only.
- The other would be divided in half. Therein lies the problem.

As it turns out, some of the men from the National Guard decided to surreptitiously video tape the women from their team while they showered. When news of this activity made its way right up the administrative gossip chain, the decision was made to confiscate all computers and video taping equipment ... at least until the National Guard group is redeployed, or Kyles team is moved.

So goes the "war on terror ..."