This past Saturday was my first Family Readiness Group meeting to lead on my own. The most important part of the meeting was, of course, the update from Kandahar courtesy of my commander hubby. I was sweating bullets, refreshing my e-mail inbox throughout the night (each time that Emmy woke up--but that's a different post entirely), in the hopes of finding Nick's very important e-mail. Four hours prior to meeting time, it arrived! Nick did a wonderfully thorough job explaining to our spouses what their loved ones have been up to since D-Day. Here's a summary:
Nick's brigade (which is made up of of several battalions which are made up of several companies like Nick's) is replacing the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade. Since the majority of Nick's company of soldiers (he now has 70 troops under his command) arrived "in theater" on March 19th, they have been completing mandatory classes and briefs, orienting to the area and completing training flights. His company has been performing exceptionally well at dust landings, two-wheel landings, gunnery, mountain operations and knowledge of the Kandahar flying area (which is very congested with aircraft). He has been told that their 82nd counterparts are impressed by their performance and how quickly they have learned the ropes.
Nick and his soldiers are now situated in their permanent living quarters called a "Mod". The Mod is comprised of seven 21'x15' rooms with one bathroom, consisting of three showers, four sinks, three toilets and two urinals for 36 men. It's definitely tight quarters! And that's just half of Nick's company! The others live in a different Mod about 100 feet away. Nick is hoping to build some sort of an elevated bed with a desk space underneath to maximize his tiny space. Fortunately, his company packed wood and power tools for such projects before they left. I have already been told by other spouses that their soldiers were green with envy when they laid eyes on Nick's Tempurpedic mattress topper...There was a whole lot of planning that went into packing for this deployment!
Nick is hoping that they will settle into their "ground hog's day" routine in the next week or so and then, hopefully, the days will begin to fly by...It feels great to have two weeks behind us already (although it will feel even better to have 12 months behind us, with him on a plane headed for home!) One day at a time...
Wiped out after our FRG meeting...She was on her best behavior!
great update!!! Glad your first meeting was a success!
ReplyDeleteGlad he's safe and doing well.
ReplyDelete--cat