Well I made to Houston and back for the weekend. Went down early on Friday and was able to head to Galveston and hang out on the beach and do a little fishing before I had to be at Drill early Saturday morning. We went over a lot of pre-pre mobilization training to get done which took all day on Saturday ruining any chance of me making it back down to the coast to do some more fishing. I finally left the office around 8:00 last night went and grabed some dinner then off to bed for another early morning today. Today we had family day and a lot of soldiers brought there families so they could learn some about our up coming deployment. First we had a Tricare brief which was very bennifical to us because we found out that we're now eligible for full Active Duty medical benifits so that means no more paying for insurance for almost 2 years which will save us a whole lot of money to put other places. My company commander was in Africa last week checking out where we are going to be living and working. Let me say this is going to be just like being back on active duty but just in a different country. First thing she said is that its ef'n hot over there, with the heat index it was about 130f. We found out about what kinda missions we could possibly be doing just not exactly which one. As far as living conditions we found out that I will have my own CLU which now has Free Cable, and they're in the process of putting telephones in all the rooms for local service. Internet in the room is kinda expensive but well worth it to be able to keep in contact with Chriss and the Perfect Head baby. They a have 24 hr gym which is nice since once the temperature gets to hot outside in the morning no one is allowed to do PT outside.
Going off the camp is a very regular thing and not just for work. Going on the town shopping, dinner etc is very common which is something we will have to get use to after being in Iraq my last 2 deployments.
Food is something that is very readily available with having an almost 24 hr chow hall oh wait sorry its a Galley, I have to get used to Navy terms. They also have a 2nd cafe open for all 3 meals a day.
We did find out that there will be a 96hr pass that is available to Paris, Spain, Italy, or to go on a Safari. So Chriss and I will be meeting in Rome, Italy at some time while I'm there.
Mail takes a long time to get there. On average its taking anywhere from 4 weeks up to 2 months to get there. But there is Fed Ex and DHL is moving in. Fed Ex will literally deliver to my CLU.
The last slide in the Power Point slide show was about the on camp bar. The soldiers got all excited when they were told the legal drinking age is 18 while in country. There is a 3 drink limit a night so hopefully there won't be to many incidents.
After all that the company had a great BBQ with hamburgers and hot dogs. They had a bounce house set up for the kids to enjoy and had a raffle for a couple prizes of which was half the pot of the raffle money. $420.00 were raised for the FRG of which $210.00 were raffled off which one of our young soldiers mother won and ended up donating all of it back to the companies FRG fund for future use.
Over all it was a great weekend and I'm ready for next month but I have a lot of work to do between now and then.
1 weekend a month my ass!!!!
