Training Phase 3 - Complete

We arrived in Kuwait Sunday morning around 11:00 local time and were taken to Camp Virginia in order to stage for our third phase of training. I'm not at liberty to talk about what we did, but I can kind of paint a picture of the living conditions.

Imagine light brown sand for as far as you can see, dotted with gentle rolling 4 foot dunes, bedouins, and camels. No kidding kind of Lawrence of Arabia looking stuff. In the middle of the sand, we had a plowed out compound where four 20x40 concrete pads held a 20x40 tent on it. This was both our classroom and sleeping quarters. This time of year, the temperatures range from 70 to 35 F. Each tent had a few folding tables and 50 plastic patio chairs. We had classroom instruction/planning and then practical application and execution out in the dessert ranges. We weren't allowed to eat inside our tents to avoid having critters come snooping for food while we slept on the floor in our Army modular sleeping system (aka sleeping bag with liner). The first evening was rather nice realizing I was in the middle of the desert, with clear skies above, and eating MRE's as if on a picnic. This interesting notion turned sour the next morning as we were standing outside in 35 degree weather at 4:00a.m. eating more MRE's. Thankfully, it warmed quickly throughout the morning and our ballistic goggles provided adequate protection from the sun glare off the sand. We did not have running water - only bottled water. Porta-potties were the only form of comfort as making a puddle in the sand was strictly forbidden. Our training lasted 3 days and 2 nights.

We find ourselves back at Camp Virginia and strangely pleased to sleep on our Army cots as if it were a treat. Sleeping bag or not, I'm getting too old to spend an entire night on a concrete floor. Tomorrow is admin day where we start our pay benefits of Hazardous Duty pay, Hostile Fire pay, Family Separation pay, etc. We should also find something about our transport into Baghdad in the next 48 hours.

I was able to do laundry upon our return, leaving weapon cleaning/sand eradication as the priority for tomorrow.