HIS LAST WEEK!!!!

I thought that some of you might enjoy a few excerpts from a letter I received from David today. The Lord has been SO good to him, and has answered several prayers for us...especially ones about David's biggest concern--his inability to see in the dark!
Hopefully, you can read this and see how your prayers have been answered.

David spent this last week on a 7-day field training exercise, sleeping in a tent, and playing with guns. :>)
Here's how he started his letter off...

"It's Tuesday morning about 0900. ... 10 days to go!
[Insert Hallelujah Chorus Here]" ...
(I'm still chuckling over that one!)

He went on to describe their nearly 10-mile march to their camp site, the process of setting up the tents, the digging of trenches, and then their 'late' bedtime of 1845! (That's 6:45 pm, if you weren't sure! LOL. Who'd have ever thought MY husband would be excited about getting to bed at quarter to 7! ha ha ha)

Here's what he said about the night exercises:

"Nobody here, including the DS's (drill sergeants) thought it was practical - not enough equipment for everyone to wear/use, so we had to pass it off to others which also meant that we didn't have time to customize it to us. My helmet was too big, so it would fall forward; my NOD (Night Optical Device) wouldn't stay positioned over my eye; and the lighting and focus wasn't set for me. I was holding on to the back of my buddy as we walked down the lane to our waiting position, but I let go for a second and couldn't get a hold of him again. The lane turned and I didn't! A couple of steps out of the lane and I was pulled back by a DS who started in about my vision. It didn't get any better as we were called in pairs to get into our foxholes. I got to it OK, but laid down behind it instead of in it, and was again corrected by a DS. As I went to get in it, I couldn't tell how deep it was (almost 12"-18") and fell into it. As the drill began, the SAW (Squad Assault Weapon-basically a light-machine gun) started firing, we engaged, flames were shot and tracers lit up the area. Supposedly, targets popped up that we were supposed to shoot at, but most of us never saw them!"....

"It's 2015 on Wednesday, 21 March 07. Last night was the first time I didn't do training with the group. After dark, we were supposed to do Reaction to Flair and Artillery Fire Training. The Reaction to Flair Training is really nothing more than just dropping to the ground and covering our head. The Reaction to Artillery Fire Training is when you hear incoming rounds, you run (in this case, in the dark). I don't mind walking or marching in the dark, but I'm not going to run in the dark. The DSs reluctantly let me stay at camp and be 'detail', guarding the Ammo Point with a battle buddy. It's a good thing, because one of our best soldiers (he ran the 2-mile in 11:43) didn't see a ditch and face-planted himself into the dirt. He was so far ahead of everyone else he was able to give them warning. Fortunately, he wasn't injured. Also, as the platoon came back 4 or 5 of them fell into a 'stand-to'. ...

See! Isn't the Lord good! David didn’t even have to do the worst of the night-time exercises. ;>)

And I thought some of you would enjoy reading this, too. I can just see David grinning from ear to ear after this episode:

"We got bussed to our range site and had breakfast, then did MOUNT - where we basically do SWAT maneuvers to clear buildings, but in this case it was a compound. My group ran it twice - once as Americans, and then as the enemy. Both yesterday at STX and today at MOUNT, I got to carry the SAW for our squad. Since I had the SAW at MOUNT, I had a 'support large fire' position outside the compound and wasn't able to go in. The 2nd time as the enemy (I couldn't use SAW) I hid underneath a bus inside the compound. A team came up and cleared the bus, but didn't look under it. A second team came up to enter the building it was near, so I 'took them out', including a DS—one of the meanest at that!
Anyway, we were told we did the best of the 4 platoons."

So there you go.
I think David's having too much fun to come home on Friday! OK. Maybe not THAT much fun. But he is most certainly enjoying many of the field exercises,
Family Day is this coming Thursday March 29th, and Graduation is Friday morning!
Lord willing, he'll be able to come home Friday evening, and then on Saturday, I'll take him to his AIT training at Fort Eustis, VA where he'll be until mid-May.

Thanks again, for all your prayers and words of encouragement! This has been a real 'trial' in many ways for our family, but the Lord is good.
Always.

Check back for pictures of Graduation this next weekend! (Hopefully I can get them up pretty quickly.)

TTFN....Ta Ta for Now!

(I think I just wrote my longest blog ever!!! Well, David 'wrote' half of it!)