The Stars at Night, are Big and Bright Deep in the Heart of Texas

I thank Ute girl in Colorado for helping me on the above mentioned title. I have spent the last week here in lovely El Paso (The pass for those non Spanish speakers who are reading this). Anyway I have survived CRC. That is Army talk for CONUS Replacement Center. CONUS stands for Contential United States. All of the folks going "down range" (yet another Army term for going to war) process through the CRC. Here I have recieved four shots in the arm, a duplicate dentist exam, some really "hi speed" (that is also Army for really good) gear and hi quality instruction in desert combat and I qualified on my weapon, which is a hand gun, along with what seemed about sixty billion death by Microsoft Power Point presentations. All and all it has not been a bad time here in El Paso. I was also issued four new ACUs (this is more Armybonics or alphabet talk) for Army Combat Uniforms. For nostalgic purposes I have included a picture of me in my BDUs. (yes more of that Armybonics stuff coming through BDU= Battle Dress Uniforms.) These are rapidly coming a Cold War thing of the past.

I have also gone from one duffel bag to about three with all of the equipment I have been issued. You can look at my room picture above and see how much stuff I have accumulated over the course of one week. I also have body armor, which is that thing that looks like a very heavy fishing vest below. I can be be shot with this stuff in the chest and other middle body portions and about all it will do is make me very angry at the person who shot me and want to kill them!!! I will be going to Iraq about a day sooner than I expected, but that is okay. I am very anxious and ready to head out.