so they've shipped out to this tent city that's supposed to be close to what we'll see in iraq and afghanistan. of course it was largely planned by people who haven't seen either. it's incredibly realistic for an army-mock up though. the bad part of it is that in a short amount of time we'll actually be there for real. instead of sending us here six months ago so that people who haven't seen it could experience it and know what to prepare for, they wait until right before we go and stick us out here. talk about demoralizing. at this time we should be going into town, getting the last bit of gear we have, and doing what stupid army guys do. drinking beer. the young kids should be spending two months worth of pay at the strip clubs, half convinced that if they tip big enough she'll go home with them. buying books, arranging college courses, seeing movies, eating at good restaurants. heading out to the beach one last time. whatever. but instead we're sitting here with cold showers, sleeping in underheated tents, waiting in line for the understocked px to open and blah-blah-blah. i'm not complaining. it's really not that bad. for most of us we've just dropped into the old routines, and we just do what we do. but you see these units that don't deploy as much as we do and it just freaks them out and kills their spirit. and where we're only here for a couple weeks because we train so much and are really close to the top of our game, some of these are your "weekend warrior"/bumbling idiot types as reservists and guardsmen are portrayed in the movies. they're going to be here for MONTHS before they go.

someone asked me tonight how we're doing, if there was excitement for the mission. oddly enough, there really isn't. i had a friend who went to the army's sapper school 3 times. i assumed the first time would've been the hardest, that the next two would've been easy because he would've known how to prepare. he said it was exactly the opposite. because he knew what was coming up, and how hard/challenging it would be, there was no fun or excitement for him. he dreaded it, but because he was a leader, in a leadership position and his unit was going through as a group, he had to pump himself up and appear motivated for the troops. they had no idea what to expect and were excited, even though the training was kicking their asses everyday. kinda the same here. the guys who haven't deployed at all are kinda taking it all in with wide eyes, but the rest of us are yawning our way through some of this (don't take that to mean we aren't taking the training seriously, we are.). just kinda eager to get there and get it over with.