More training in good ole' Ft Jackson...

From my blog June 24, 2009:

Days roll on here at Ft Jackson. There are days that I wonder why I am here: why I lug around an M16, an M9, and usually a 45 pound kevlar jacket when I won't be taking these things to Djibouti. Why I have to sit through a first aid class, or any classes that I alreay completed online, for that matter. It is fun shooting guns, but it is frustrating to be responsible for something you only fire 15-20 min on the range when you are there in the hot southern sun for 10-12 hours. I have earned a sense of empathy and respect for those who do this all the time, but now that I have, I would rather be excercising the training I have toiled through for the past eight years: helping others in my clinic.

This past weekend we were alloted a day of liberty. I decided to venture into Columbia, SC with a friend named Dave, who is a physician's assistant at the naval base in Sicily (nice). We rented a car and treated ourself to a room with our own bed, shower, and TV. It was nice to be away from an open barrack situation and its orchestra of snores and other fine noises and scents, if only for a few hours. We watch two movies (don't go see 'Year One' by the way, it stunk), ate ice cream and drank Starbucks to our hearts content. We also visited the downtown areas: Five Points, the Capital, and the Vista...sworn to sobriety by our employer, it made that pedestrian adventure less enjoyable. I was impressed with the Capital grounds and garden at night, and was amazed at the memorial to Strom Thurman, particularly what was said about him. He lived many years, but also accomplished so much in his lifetime that deserves recognition...if you don't know know what I am talking about, look him up.

We shot at the range with M16s yesterday to prequalify. It was about 110 on the hydrometer at its peak, and shooting in the sun demanded about 3 refills from my 100 oz Camelback and the unfortanate side effects that led me to the disgusting latrine, i.e. porta potie (think hot sunny weather), time and time again. We go to qualify today. I admit I am anxious; though it is not mandatory, I shot terrible yesterday after a week of shooting in the top 10%. In typical army fashion, we were involved in a dozen formations, ate MREs outside, and had to hurry up and wait...a lot. I again question the resource management of sending a physician to do this, for later this week we are focusing on firing tens of thousands of rounds from heavy caliber machine guns we are actually not qualified for (your tax dollars hard at work). Don't get me wrong, the firing part is fun and people pay to do this, but I cannot help but feel guilty when I could be seeing 25 patients a day in my clinic, not pretending to be Rambo, as it were.

I am taking it day by day, however, and know that things will improve once we deploy to theatre and get settled in. I miss my wife terribly, who is living it up in Argentina and having a great time with her family. I miss my ferrets too..one of them, Wolverine, who has apparently been sick and in pain with a UTI and has been to the vet twice this week, requring two rounds of antibiotics and painkillers (poor lil' poot).

We have a day of liberty again this Saturday. Though many choose to lounge around the barracks, Dave and I made a pact to get as far away from this place as we are allowed: Charleston. I look forward to what may be my last day of true freedom in the USA for the next ten months, which is overcast with the gloomy doubt that Dafne and I will be able to see each other one more time after she returns from South America.