North vs. South

Today I saw two things I thought were just stories. First of all it snowed while we were out training today. Not a whole lot mind you, just about a quarter of an inch. Never would I have thought I’d see snow in the desert…however the mountains do look beautiful with their white capped peaks.

Second, I found out they really do close down the state when it snows. All that landed on our area was a light dusting, yet the way the staff spoke you would have thought we had a full-fledged blizzard on our hands. Being from up North like we are, most of us found the situation quite comical. To add to the humor was our briefing, given by a South Carolinian (I think that’s how you spell it), on how to operate a 4x4 Humvee in the conditions we had. Now I may be just a city boy with a Jeep, but even I know how to drive in a lot more snow than we had…especially in a 4WD. We were all polite and bit our tongues, but at times it was tough to do so. I guess when you don’t know what snow really is you tend to go a bit overboard. We completed our training before the snow started accumulating so it’s all good. I won’t say it did happen, but some of us may or may not have had some fun driving back to camp on a road with a lot of fun-sized puddles. ;)

Things haven’t been too bad here lately. Our relocation to Westbrook went pretty well and the place isn’t as bad as we were all thinking it would be. Most of us have cell reception all over, and I was happy to find I even have it on our tent so I don’t have to go outside to send a text message. The scenery is beautiful, our accommodations are about like what we’d have overseas, there’s not prayers on a loud speaker six or so times a day, and the showers always seem to have hot water in them. I’m actually somewhat happy to be here as there is an air of familiarity that is both strange and comforting at the same time.

I apologize for the delay in postings, but when KIMT was here the last couple of days I found out that the guidance given to me by my chain of command while good intended, was incorrect. It turns out I have to submit ANYTHING I intend to blog about to Public Affairs and then wait for approval to post it online. While this may lead to lag in between posts, it does not mean I will stop posting anytime soon. I just merely ask that you be patient while waiting for new material to appear.

Until next time, be safe.

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