In-Processing

OK, I've been a little slack on posting. I arrived in LAX on Sunday night to find that there wasn't any arranged transportation up to Port Heuneme. I still had not received my Government Travel Credit Card, so I was left with paying for it myself. So, I went outside the baggage claim area and found a shuttle.

$90 and 2 hours later (~22:30), I found myself at the Officer quarters at Port Heuneme. I was so tired when I arrived; however I was even more hungry. While checking in, I met up with another Officer who was checking in and was also hungry. We ended up ordering some pizza. I finally ended up crawling into bed about midnight. You can understand then when I tell you that I was not happy to be wide awake at 04:30! Jet lag, time difference, etc... We had to report to the Navy Mobilization Processing building at 07:30, so I had some time to iron my uniform and get some breakfast (and much needed coffee).

Upon reporting in, I saw that there were about 100 of us there. Not everyone is going off to the same place. Some are off to Kuwait, Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. This week is just meant to be an assembly-line process of medical, dental, legal screenings and uniform fittings. We are being outfitted with about 4 sea bags worth of gear. Uniforms, gas masks, body armor, etc. Fortunately, these things will be waiting for us at our next training stop. We won't have to haul that across the country. YOO HOO....

My wife and daughter left Virginia on Tuesday for Germany. I am glad that my wife had that to keep her mind busy. It helped to deflect the anxiety of my leaving, which helped relieve my own anxiety. It was really difficult to leave them. I didn't appreciate fully how hard that would really be. Fortunately, I will have a couple of opportunities to see them before I ship out to Afghanistan.

The processing here can best be described as stuffing 2 1/2 days worth of stuff into 5 days. I can understand it though. They have widely varying numbers of people coming through every week. 100 people is relatively small and easier to deal with. It is easier for the whole process to keep a set schedule that can accommodate any group from 5 to 500 rather than changing it for every group. I don't mind the down-time (we call it 'white space'). I'm sure that I'll have little white space when I reach my next training phase and probably none when I get to Afghanistan.

Monday was taken up with a couple of briefs and uniform fitting. Tuesday was the Medical day and Wednesday was for Dental. I had nothing to do for dental, but my medical record was missing some stuff, so I had to do some things over again. Nothing too big. I had to get a full eye exam, pick up my Malaria medication, and a PPD shot.

I was a little frustrated with the eye exam because it too much time than it needed to. I ended up sitting around for almost an hour after the exam, only to find out that I was waiting for a doctor to sign off on some paperwork. No one could find him, so I told them I would be back the next morning to pick it up. I just couldn't see the use in sitting around waiting for this guy to get around to it.

I caught up with a few other Officers last night for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Ventura. One of the Officers knew someone here and we all met up with her and her husband. There was about 8 of us in all. It turned out that the husband of this Officer's friend was a classmate of mine from the Naval Academy. I knew him fairly well when I was a student, but I hadn't seen him in about 10 years.

It was good to see him again. One of the great things that I took away from going to the Naval Academy was the friendships. There have been many times in the last few years where something similar has happened and it's always the same. We are able to pick up as if hardly any time at all has passed.

Today, we have to meet up at the processing building at 13:00. I think that we have briefs all afternoon. We'll probably also find out then what our travel arrangements are for our follow on training.

My wife had sent my government travel credit card to me before she left. I received it yesterday. I'm a little nervous about having one. The Navy is supposed to have it set up for direct payment so we'll not have to pay 'out of pocket'. We'll see how well that works. Too many people have gotten into trouble with these things. I've been successful thus far in avoiding getting one, but I ran out of luck this time. It was in my orders to get one, so I was forced into it.

Anywho, I have to get prepared for this afternoon. Hope to write more tonight. I'll make more of an effort to be more regular with my postings.