Deployment Preparation

Preparation for deployment continues:

Yesterday I ran my pre-deployment physical fitness test - I did one extra push up (“one for the Corps,” as they say) and cut an entire minute off of my run time, which I was very happy about. Unfortunately, I missed maxing out the sit up event by two sit ups. Hard to believe that I was knocking out 300 sit ups every morning back in Iwakuni. It’s really hell getting old, you know?

This morning I went through the gas chamber for refresher NBC training. There are few things in this world that I truly hate, but I can say without reservation that I HATE gas. Even without the damned gas you can hardly breathe in those evil rubber mask-contraptions. I vomited, although thankfully I was able to demask in time. I really hope we never have to do that for real!!

More paperwork today and pistol qual this Friday. If I have time, I’ll also re-qual on the M16 (I know an officer is supposed to direct fires, but if it ever came down to it I’d really rather be able to take out a target at rifle range that (500 meters) than at pistol range (50 meters).