April 6th

The 0430 wakeup came early this morning. Did you know there was such thing as 0430? Tomorrow I will get to find out what 0400 is like. Well, it's one way to get on east coast time. I think I ran across one of the most priceless moments of this entire trip this morning. I don't think it will be topped. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture to prove that I'm not making this up but I imagine the EYE-denitcal will happen again. Soooo...muster at 0500. RUSH to get to breakfast (a 30 second walk) because we don't want to be late to our 0630 brief. Seriously, they leave 90 minutes to eat breakfast (which as you will discover shortly doesn't take 90 minutes) and walk the 400m or so to the auditorium. So in we rush thinking we were going to be served breakfast. Guess what it is? A package that contains the following: 2 mini bowls of three cereal choices - fruit loops, apple jacks or corn pops, Boxed milk (boxed milk???? eeeewwwwww!!!), canned orange juice (about 4 oz worth), poptarts and a nutragrain bar. This is what we're feeding our warriors folks. Pure sugar. At 0500. Follow that up with an MRE at....drumroll please....1:30 in the afternoon. One of the first things they told us when we got here was that they were "going to take care of us". If this is getting taken care of, I certianly don't want to be left out in the cold. Plus it's like product placement central. Every junk food known to man must want to get their crap into military distribution. Too bad they can't get Red Man and Jack Daniels in that breakfast pack. Follow that up with the courtesy bottle of Purell (in a neat little cammie bottle - how cute). Deep down inside (ok, not so deep down inside) I'm majorly freaking out here. Thank God for the trip to the commissary yesterday for a loaf of bread and some peanut butter. I didn't realize my stash of organic bars, the loaf of bread and jar of PB would be gone in a matter of days. I pondered this over a Red Bull that got me through at 2:00 pm this afternoon. After this is all over, I just may never touch fast food or junk food ever again. (Beer doesn't count.) So today, we were issued out "battle rattle". It includes: one tactical vest, steel chest plate 1" thick, steel back plate 1" thick, shoulder protectors, side protectors and one groin protector. Additionally, we were issued one kevlar helmet (that weights about 10# - I finally have a 10# head!!), and a bunch of other shit that I will never use including a tent, 4 mosquito nets (yup, four - your tax dollars hard at work), two sets of gloves, 4 sports bras, watch belt, two canteens, canteen carriers, camel back, helmet goggles, two sets of sunglasses (cheap Oakley knock-offs), sleeping bag, ground mat and a packable shovel. Not to mention the fact that this stuff weights about 60 pounds which is damn near half my body weight, this is waste, fraud and abuse at it's best. Do you wonder why the military spends so much of our money? This is why. Some guy wrote to his congressman about how badly he was outfitted and as a result, the entire military heading over there is geared up with more shit than you can shake a stick at. Supposedly lots of it is returned but not the stuff that touches skin (gloves, helmet liner, cold weather fleece and raingear, cammies, etc.) That is prime tax money hard at work. Depsite the fact that I will likely be doing most of my stuff behind a desk, I now am the proud owner of a sleeping bag and packable shovel. Yippee skippee! Tell me then, folks, why we can't spend more money on, like, a loaf of bread or whatever and a pack of banana muffins along with some fruit for breakfast? It'd be cheaper that the freakin' fruit loops any way. Just wondering. Score one more victory for me despite the day: 5.5 miles on the tack and 30 minutes on an eliptical. Now that deserves a yippee skippee. Tomorrow: rifle issue and range firing in full battle gear after about three hours in the class room. Did I mention the 0400 wake up? I'll be in Kuwait time before I leave this place if they have their way. Some one drink a beer for me please?