Still In Training

Well, here I am in day 2 of official IA (Individual Augmentee) training, South Carolina. So far so good. The only thing that has made it tough for me so far is the fact that as a Chaplain, I cant carry a weapon and 75% of the training here is weapons related. I have made some good friends already and of course, as is the case with any military unit, I have met some rather interesting characters.

This training is a far cry from my Marine Corps basic training at Paris Island, of course, I suppose it makes a bit of a difference when you outrank the drill instructors. I actually sat down to lunch with my platoon drill instructor today. Definitely a first. This young man is actually an Army reservist and is considering the chaplaincy, with the Army of course.

What's next, well, the rest of this first week will be filled with weapons familiarization, predominantly the M-4 and the M-9. The command chaplain here has arranged for me to go to the other side of the base to visit the Chaplains School where I graduated from last year. I'll get to hang out with a couple Chaplain instructors who were there when I went through, so that will be pretty cool.

I certainly don't want to be isolated from the rest of the Sailors going through this training, so Im trying to look for and even pray for opportunities to minister to and encourage the men and women that are here with me. Which reminds me, I need to head to the store to buy some candy to pass out, always a good conversation starter and ice-breaker.

In case you were wondering how my wife and I are doing, we are holding up. This is our second deployment as a married couple, so we know a little of deployment whoa's. We were also corresponding during my final deployment when I was still in the Marine Corps, so we are used to keeping up a long distant relationship, but make no mistake, it NEVER gets easier. I'm thankful that we are going to get one last opportunity to see each other the weekend before I fly out from Fort Jackson. We'll see how it goes from there.

Thanks for listening/reading, I'll let you know how the rest of the week goes.