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Published: April 25th 2006
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As promised, I'll catch you all up on all the "old news" from the last six months. Most of which will, I sure, be a big bore; but I'll attach a bunch of fun pictures to make the browsing worth your time.
Summer & Fall The rest of the summer after my mom visited consisted of lots of hiking, geocaching, and grilling out. There is nothing like Alaska in the summer. During this time, I completed some training and earned my "Expert Infantryman's Badge"
I started my OCS packet in September after waiting the obligitory 6 months after arriving at your unit that is required by unofficial Army etiquitte. Right from the start, I hit road block after road block; but being the stubborn person that I am I trudged on. Special thanks to those of you who sent letters of recommendation. More on the OCS packet later.
Laura's Mom Visits & Denali Laura's Mother, Jan, came up to visit in October. Luckily the snow was holding off so we were able to get some hiking in. It was certainly cold but unusually dry. The highlight of her visit was a road trip we took up to Palmer,
Denali
A view of Denali from the plane. While it's peak altitude is lower that Everest, Denali is actually the tallest mountain in the world. Talkeetna, and Denali. Well, we didn't actually drive to Danali; we took a flightseeing trip in a small plane over the mountain. It's a little pricey, but the unique views you can get of the tallest mountain in the world are worth it. Laura doesn't recommend flying on a small plane if you're prone to motion sickness. It turns into a really expensive way to vomit.
Christmas This year was the first time I've hung lights on the outside of my house for Christmas. Granted it wasn't a lot of lights since we live in a town house, but it did make it feel more like home. We had a freakishly warm streak for a few days in December where it got up to 40 degrees and some of the snow melted. There was still well over a foot on the ground everywhere, but it was a dingy gray. We were all worried that we would have a gray Christmas, but God dropped another 8 inches of fresh powder on us right before his birthday. It was the prettiest Christmas I've ever had, but then I grew up in the south.
Tony Goes to Ninja School in GA The Beat Down
Tony pounds a fellow student in the combatives level 3 course. Tony finished this fight by choking out his opponent. FUN!!! Note the sticks with which we hit each other. I mentioned in a previous Blog that I went to Level One Hand to Hand Combatives training and did fairly well in May or June. We had a tournament in which we fought for the honor graduate position, and I came in third. In November, I went to the level 2 course. We learned advanced Ju Jitsu techniques for two weeks. I won the honor graduate position for that course and earned a slot in the Level 3 Combatives Course at the US Army Combatives School at Ft. Benning, GA.
The school was awesome. I had to be away from Laura and Jaeden for a month which was the only majpr downside. They had to upgade our rental car at the airport because they were out of the economy cars and we ended up with a new mustang for a month. Cool! The school itself was both physically exhausting and tons of fun. Instead of grappling, we learned boxing, kick boxing, muy tai, advanced takedowns, and stick fighting. My favorite was stick fighting - and yes we hit each other with sticks as hard as we could. You just don't know what fun is until you hit someone with
Jaeden in Her Ninja Hat
Jaeden wearing my combatives instructor hat. a stick and don't get in any trouble. ;-)
The other upside of the level 3 training in GA was I missed out on going to the field in -26 degree weather (yes that is NEGATIVE 26 degrees). To put that in perspective, that is as far below freezing as freezing is below 90 degrees. It was so cold, my best friend's lips were too numb for him to talk clearly on the radio. Darn, and I had to be wearing shorts in 70 GA weather at that time. ;-)
OCS While I was away in GA, my OCS Packet got lost for 6 weeks by the always efficient admin guys in my unit's HQ. While it was lost, my OCS direct selection slot was given to someone else whose packet was not lost. And I've been working since I got back to repair the damage. When will I go to OCS??? I don't know. My unit is scheduled to got to Iraq in October, and I would really like to have orders by then.
Februray and March Our lives aren't that exciting. We pretty much hibernated and waited for spring.
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Eric
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More Selah pics please!
Loved the pics! Thought I thought you were in the army or something. -26 degrees, that's like igloo weather. Are you going to be training to be an eskimo? Wait, ninja eskimo?