Week 8- 1 more to go!!!

My platoon. Out of uniform...

Ha. 

My favorite picture.

EVER.  (Todd and O'Donnell)

My platoon.

Yay! 

My favorite ladies and I out to eat some delicious Mexican. Ruby and Jana :)

Read below about Six Flags :( 

It's been a while since the last post, and I wish I had a lot to say about it, however.........the last two weeks have been full of pretty boring classes. 

Last Friday was our OBLC graduation. A lot of the families came into town to watch their kids/loved ones graduate, but you all didn't miss a thing. We listened to a few speeches, recited the soldier's creed, sang the army song, and then all ran as fast as we could out of the auditorium to celebrate. It was bittersweet, sitting there, knowing we were parting ways into our separate AOC tracks, after all we had been through together. But, hopefully we'll run into each other down the road...

A few of us spent Sunday at military appreciation day at Six Flags. After a few hours we decided we're too old for roller coasters - headaches, body aches, and EXTREME nausea took us down and we headed to our last platoon social at BW3's.

We started Monday in our Nurse Track course. It's actually interesting now that we're into our speciality. We're getting Trauma Nurse certified next weekend, and a few of us have been mapping out our future Army nursing career. I figure after a few years I'll be heading into Nurse Practitioner school- it just all depends on when Todd decides to go to CRNA school. 

Well, I have to bail. I'm going upstairs to a Grey's Anatomy premier party- woo hoo!

Twelve more days til we're home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

9/11 and some pics

It is a soldier, not the journalist, who guarantees freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the politician, who guarantees our democracy.

It is the soldier, not the diplomat that becomes a tangible expression of a nation's willingness to extend its values and its ideals worldwide.

And it is the soldier whose flag-draped coffin vividly demonstrates the ultimate cost of representing our beliefs in difficult and dangerous places.

History teaches that a society that does not value its warriors will be destroyed by a society that does.

Here's a picture of the boys' tent from my platoon in the field. I'm not saying our tent smelled like roses, but I almost passed out from the stench in theirs after taking this pic...

A picture from our combatives training. Combatives was part of FTX II, so we had to get up and wrestle in these pits from about 0500 - 0630 every morning. At least we always got to see the sun rise.....

This was one of the last days out in the field. I was talking with my platoon-mates when suddenly I realized how diverse all my friends were. So we decided to take a picture to submit to the Army brochure campaign to show how cultured we've all become with all our ethnic friends....We've yet to hear back from them....

(left to right: MarcoPaulo Benito- Italian, Ruby Arcieri- Korean, Marqus Berry- African American, Moi, Jose Capellan - Puerto Rican, Harris Abbasi- Pakistani)

Update

Hi all,

Todd and I got our flights to Germany today- it's official! 

(If you want to know the dates, give one of us a call. I've since learned more than I ever thought I could about anti-terrorism and one of the key points is to keep your personal info off the internet...)

We get tomorrow of in respect for 9/11. Tim McGraw is giving a free concert here to soldiers and their dependents. We've been watching them build the stage for the past few days and start blocking off entrances to Fort Sam to keep non-military peeps from enjoying the concert. We all had signed-up for our free tickets until we were told we had to show up in our ACU's (army fatigues) and have a formation and march over to the concert. I think they lost about half the attendees just by saying we had to attend in uniform and have a formation. We figure we can just watch the concert from our building anyway. Apparently, Tim McGraw's making a music video out of the concert which is probably why they want everyone in uniform. 

I know I keep promising pictures but the days have been soooo busy I haven't been able to. Since we have tomorrow off I should be able to put some up.

xoxoxo

Updates

Just got done with another long day.
Jana and I woke up early to go cheer our friends on for PT retakes. and.....
TODD PASSED!!!! He smoked everyone, it was fun to watch.
We took midterms today and we both passed those as well :)
Since being back from the field about 400 out of 500 of us have fallen ill; most just have a heinous cold, but I have both a cold and strep, so I'm going to sleep now so I can be up for our 0500 PT tomorrow morning.
xoxoxo

AMEDD Ftx

Sorry for the delayed post, we spent most of this weekend catching up on sleep and letting our bodies rest.

Todd and I spent our four day weekend taking it easy. We went to Sea World one day because it's free to armed service personnel, but mostly hid out in our respective rooms trying to forget the 11 days of grueling work we had just experienced. This past Tuesday saw us off on another four days of field training exercise; this time around it was strictly a medical field training. Tuesday was a really challenging day for the entire battallion as it was hard to readjust to the field life after four days of glorious gluttony and laziness. It took awhile for everyone to get back into the swing of things, but once we were all on the same page, everything went smoothly. We spent each day at different levels of combat hospitals- on our Level 1 day we set up a medical "clinic" out in the wilderness that simulated the BAS (Battalion Aid Station) of war. Next was the Level 2 hospital located in the FOB where soldiers are then taken to be further stabilized until they are either flown out or can return to combat. The third level is a CSH (Combat Support Hospital) which is an intricate (and I do mean intricate) set-up of tents that include dental rooms, operating rooms, ICU's, x-ray rooms, etc...Patients from there are usually transferred to a Level 4 (Landstuhl- yay!) and then onto Level 5 hospitals (Walter Reed or here in San Antonio).
Did I mention during this week we got to sleep in until 0500? It was GLORIOUS!!!

One whole day we got to role play a day on the FOB. Per Todd's advice, who'd done it the day before our platoon did, we chose to be QRF (quick reaction force). The QRF sits around all day running to each tower when they need back-up while under fire. They even had Iraqi music playing over the loudspeakers all day to make it more realistic and bombs going off all around us. My ears always rang for awhile afterwards :( Of course, cadre had us running all around, but luckily I was never "killed."

We got back Friday afternoon and had a BBQ outside our dorms. It was good to finally get some good food and listen to music after all we had been through. This week we take our mid-term exams. It's hard to believe we're more than half-way through and we'll be living in Germany within 6 weeks. Time flies when you're having fun.....

I only have a few pictures to put up right now, hopefully I'll have many more within the next few days so keep checking.
Until then,
xoxoxo

Summing up the first month

Hey everyone!
Todd and I have just gotten back from 11 days in the field, and I realized we have so much to tell everyone I should just get on the 2008 technology train and start a blog and get the word out that way. I'll try to update it as the weeks come.

Week 1:
Todd and I arrived to blistering heat (100degrees+) and almost passed out as we got out of the car. We got our room assignments and luckily both ended up with pretty awesome roommates. The first week was all paperwork, weighing in, doing the physical fitness test (which I passed- yay!), and all that jumble. It was pretty nerve-wracking though since I felt I was floundering around not knowing what to say or do. I found out later, though, I was not alone and now I feel like an actualy professional military peep. We went out Friday night with some people to a dueling piano bar which was fun but had to make it an early night as the week's 0500 report times finally caught up with us.

Week 2:
More of the same: paperwork, pt, classes, a little more floundering. Energy started building as the whole batallion (500 of us) started getting ready for 11 days training in the field. I was assigned squad leader for our first week in the field which threw me into a flurry of activity making sure everyone had all their gear and the right mindset for MRE's and no showers. We spent the weekend packing and stuffing our faces with junk food in preparation for all the exercise we were told to expect.

Week 3-4: FIELD TRAINING!!!!
Well, we reported at 0315, loaded the buses, and drove out to Camp Bullis, aka. Home Sweet Hell. We spent the first day being issued our M16's (which we had to take with us EVERYWHERE the following 10 days, including spooning it at night and taking it into the latrines -portapotties :( - with us. i become so fond of mine i named it Rafaelo), gas mask, compasses, etc.... It rained the first few days which was pretty miserable until we realized we'd much rather have the rain than the blistering heat that followed. The first week included day navigation in which they released 500 of us onto 40,000 acres of wilderness to find four points in three hours. I'm inclined to think Dr. Scholl's got his money's worth out of all the blisters we developed that first day :( Over the next few days we did the Air Assault obstacle course, M16 and 9 mm qualification (which I qualified for!), assembling and disassembling our weapons, emergency radio calls, using GPS navigation, night navigation, and a lot of classes out in the field about rules of engagement, utlizing chemical/biological/radiation gear correctly. AND THEN, they surprised us leaving the shooting range Friday afternoon and said, "Oh, on the way back to camp we're going to stop by the gas chamber." I started laughing and crying at the same time. We all got gassed, which was pretty horrible. Just picture: snot, salive, and tears all over the place. Those pictures def speak a thousand words, but I just don't think they can convey exactly how horrible it was. Egh.
A few days later, I was sitting on my cot, laying out my uniform for the next day when I noticed a smushed cookie on my ACU blouse. I went to flick it away when all of a sudden it flared up and started doing circles- turns out it wasn't a cookie crumb but a scorpion. It only mildly freaked me out since I figured a scorpion sting wouldn't even hold a candle to all the fire ant bites I've received the past month. Luckily, the other girls in my tent took control and tossed the little critter out for me.

The second week in the field started out with a sigh of relief since we'd all been told it was the easier of the two weeks. For those of us that passed our PT, we got to start combatives training (of course at 0500 every morning). It was a lot of fun learning how to wrestle, and a few times I took on some of the boys because I thought it would provide me with a "real-life scenario." I pretty much got beat up. Badly :)
On Monday we got our one shower for the 11 days, and it was quite possible the best shower I have ever taken in my life. Though I have to admit, by the time we'd spent a week out in the field, I thought "What's the point of a shower now?" That was until I realized the shower area also had real toilets!!! Ah, the little things in life....
A lot of the "classes" this week were on running CSH and Level 2 hospitals in the field, loading the various military vehicles with injured patients. We even spent an entire day running a convoy, shooting at the "enemy," avoiding IED's, and when we were attacked, I had to play a casualty. I love getting paid to play all day :)
Well, Todd and I are heading out to dinner with some friends now. I realize this blog is hastily put together, so check back some time tomorrow- I'll go through it later and edit it and add pictures (oh, the pictures you will enjoy, I promise). Thanks to everyone for your emails, facebook messages, texts, phone calls, and prayers. We miss everyone loads and think about you all daily.
Lots of love,
Sarah and Todd