SubscribeThe Air Force makes you jump through a lot of hoops for the privilege of going to Afghanistan. I’ve had to go to more places, see more people, and get stuck with more needles than you could imagine. I finally got my leave approved and got my combat arms training date, I talk about that more in a little bit.
My smallpox vaccine is slowly healing. It’s been about two and a half weeks since I got it and it’s still draining fluid and itching like crazy. I try to keep a regular band-aid on it as much as possible so it can get some air and dry out, but I’ve been PTing every morning to get ready for combat skills and I put a waterproof Tegaderm pad on it for that which doesn’t breathe so well. I took a few pics of it, they’re HERE. I’ll be adding more to the album every couple days as it heals. I got my second anthrax shot as well, it was much more painful than the first one. There’s a big red welt that’s sore and itches where I got it. I get to get another one in two weeks. Can’t wait.
So about my combat arms training. We have to qualify on the M4 Carbine and the Beretta M9 Pistol before we go to combat skills training. The deployment office for our unit is the only one who can schedule the training. They’ve known about the deployment for at least as long as I have, probably even a few days longer. Time’s getting short since I’m leaving on the 25th to head home, so I’ve been asking them twice a week for the last few weeks about getting it scheduled and they keep telling me they’re working on it. I’m not sure how involved it is to schedule, but I imaging a call or email to the combat arms folks is all it takes. Fast forward to today, we had a group commanders call at 1330 that finished about 1445 and we were released after that. At about 1530 I get a call from my supervisor who just happens to be working a 1400-2300 shift this week (we normally don’t have this shift, just started it on Monday) saying that the deployments office just called and I’m scheduled for M4 training on Monday and M9 training on Tuesday. This is great news, except I have to get to the readiness squadron to pick up a gas mask, body armor and web gear before the training. Training starts at 0745 on Medina Annex, which is about a 20 minute drive from the readiness squadron which opens on Monday at 0700, so not enough time to get it then. That leaves me 30 minutes to get back in uniform and drive to the readiness squadron today to get my stuff. I made it with a few minutes to spare, but I wasn’t happy about it. My troop that’s deploying with me got there at 1603 and had to convince them to let him in the door.
There was a minor fiasco involving getting my leave approved, but I’m not going to take the time to tell that story. It would have never been an issue except deployments told me I wasn’t authorized leave en route to combat skills, which turned out to be wrong. If they wouldn’t have told me that I could have put the leave on the assignment rip and it wouldn’t have needed commander’s approval.
So that’s all that’s been going on here, I’ll be home in NC on the 28th.
