Hello All,
Sorry for the delay. My parents came in last weekend for Mother's Day. It was great to see them. I last saw my mother in October '07 and it had been about 2 years since I last saw my dad.
We had our introductory lectures for the Counter Insurgency (COIN) training on Saturday until about 13:00. My parents arrived in town about 14:00, so it worked out nicely. We stayed at this Comfort Suites hotel in Junction City, KS. I do not recommend it. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a criticism of my parent's choice. 99% of the time Comfort Suites are decent hotels. This just happened to be the 0.1%. It was ok, just the construction was a bit shoddy in the rooms. They had a microwave, TV and small refrigerator in the room. They were all connected with this bright orange, heavy duty extension cord. A bit "Gheto-fabulous" :) Anyway, it served the purpose.
That afternoon, we went into Manhattan, KS to this district called: AGGIEVILLE. It's about 4 square blocks of bars. There are a couple of deli shops and 2 bookstores as well. We went into one of the book stores so I could buy a book for my daughter, Ella. She's almost 14 months old. My wife speaks German to her, so I bought a children's book of 1000 German words. It has all these cartoon pictures and the German words spelled under them. It was cute. Chances are, Ella will be more interested in trying to put it into her mouth.
Afterwards, we visited a couple of bars and talked. That evening, we went to a restaurant in Junction City. Nice place. Kind of a hole-in-the-wall, but the food was good. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and talked some more until we were tired. Not so exciting, but great because I got to spend some quality time with them.
The next morning, we went to Abilene, KS to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Abilene is about as small as it gets, but the museum was very impressive. They have an exhibit there right now that shows memorabilia from every President from Washington to our current President. We spent a good 4 hours there.
We went back to Junction City for lunch. We wanted to go to the Cracker Barrel, but the line was out the door with a 40+ minute wait time. We decided not to wait and went to the Family Buffet across the street. DO NOT EVER GO THERE!!! This place was horrible and the food was only marginally better. We should have spent the time to drive to Manhattan. Much better choices and quality there.
My parents dropped me off at FT Riley around 16:00. I had some studying to do and they had a 4 hour trip ahead of them. It was really great to see them. They might come up again in a few weeks. I really look forward to it. I also look forward to flying home to see my wife, Andrea and daughter, Ella for Memorial Day.
Today, we started our 6 days of COIN training. This includes lessons in a common language in Afghanistan, called Dari. I'm very glad that I have learned a foreign language in the past. German is no where close to Dari, but I understand the 'mind set' you have to have to be open to learning new patterns for language learning. We, obviously, will never be fluent, but it will useful to have some phrases, pronunciation and it really gives an insight into their culture and how they think.
The day started with retrieving our weapons from the Armory at 06:00. Then we had breakfast. Our classes started at 08:00 and continued until 12:00. We had an hour for lunch and then continued our COIN classes until 16:00.
We have to retain possession of our weapons until the end of training on Saturday. Tomorrow's classes start at 08:00 again. My team will be getting up at 05:00 to do some much needed physical exercises. We'll start at the gym for some weight training and then finish with a 2 mile run. Not too taxing, but we're just beginning. Each team is responsible for conducting their own PT. I found that nice of the Army. They could have been very strict and made us PT formally with them and their Drill Instructors. Then again, this isn't supposed to be Boot Camp. I've heard, though, that the other training bases make the Navy do that and have other very strict rules. We are allowed liberty (time off base) every night after training and we have 1/2 days on Saturdays and all Sunday off every week. We also get three 4-day weekends while we are here. I've heard that the other training sites do not let their trainees wear civilian clothes, have no liberty and cannot drink while there.
I've included a picture of my mother. I've also stuck in a picture of the rifle that I have to carry around. It's called an M4. It uses 5.56mm ammunition, has a collapsible stock, optical sights and laser sights. I also have an M9 Pistol. You can see it if you look close enough. It's above my M4 in a holster. The holster is bulky, so it's hard to make out.
OK, I have to finish some reading for tomorrow's class. Then, off to some much needed sleep!
Good night....
