Wow an update!

Sometimes Life gets in the way. I know it's been almost a year since I posted here, But now the time seems ripe. Either that or my concerns have gown to the point where I need to air them out.

First an update on my where-abouts. Less than a week after my last post I left for the army and the WTC course (Warrior Transition course). It seemed like all my prayers were answered. I was very happy to be back in the military and ready to do what it took to ensure my success.

WTC was only a month but it seemed like a year. There was so much crammed into that little space of time. We got about four hours of sleep a night and were running around everywhere. We got up at 4 am and went to bed at midnight. It started with in-processing at Ft. Sill in Lawton Oklahoma, and ended at White sands missile range just north of El paso Texas. We relearned urban assault. we threw hand grenades and shot our guns on the range. Basically we did everything that the kids in boot camp did but only in a shorter time.

Here is a shot of the mountains to the west of the chow hall/ pool house were we sometimes ate our "meals"





Being 40 years old I was expecting a certain amount of pain in my bones as I am no longer a young gun. and well It happened. My knees and lower back just didn't want to play. But My resolve was stronger and I made it.

From there, I went to Huntsville Alabama and Redstone Arsenal which was quite the place being the birthplace of the space program and all. Once there, I got a crash course in electronics which I still don't really understand.

The living accommodations were good as the army kept the prior service people seperate from the new kids. We again would get up around 4 am do PT and then shower before class would start around 7:30 am. class ended around 4pm, we would have a formation and sometimes some extra army training and be of until the next morning. Initally things were a little tough for me as I was fighting off my prior injuries from WTC but I recovered and my resolve again kicked in.

After passing my basic eletronics crash course, It was back to El paso for a more specific course in Patriot Missile repair. And that is were things started to go south.

Don't get me wrong, all the important things in life got better. Lori moved down from Boston and we found an incredible home to live in. Its quite stunning and everything I thought it would be. External from the army, Lori and I are very happy. I am disappointed that Lori's family hasen't expressed any intrest in visiting for the holidays. But I understand they all have their own lives to live and school to get through. So thats not such a big deal.

But the way this whole school is set up is very detrimental to my health, weight, and quality of life. For some odd reason I was put on night shift. That means school from 6pm until 2am. That in and of itself is not such a bad thing. However that means PT at 3pm. which again is not such a bad thing, if that were the schedule. What gets lost in the translation of that simple schedule is that PT is at 5am on Mondays (and now Fridays as well sees a 5am saftey brief). and then 3pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays Thursdays. Fridays PT is up in the air as to weather its at 5am or 3pm. Either way each week I am so screwed up by Fridays it really dosen't matter.


Now sick call is at 6am (only if you get permission at 5am) which means I further have to screw up my schedule if something happens on any other day besides Mondays or Fridays. And even then I have to worry if I am going to get enough sleep during the day so I can make it through the night without falling asleep in the middle of class.


Becouse of all this mess I have subsequently gained weight and I can't run. The army's solution to this is to tell me to PT on my own. Yeah, When? 3am? Yes that is what I am told.

In all this the one thing I was afraid of has also come to pass. The Army doesn't really care HOW I lose weight, Only that I do. Well I am sorry, I my health comes first. If the army wants to send me to a dietitian thats fine. But I am not going to become an Ex-lax warrior and stick my fingers down my throat just to pass weight. I will let myself get chaptered out to the world before that happens again.

Thanks to the kindness of my mother I have been given her knees. That means that arthritis seemly has set in. When I run I have extreme pain in my knees to the point where I have fallen down when getting out of the car after driving home from morning PT. Now couple that with the fact that I have to uproot my whole schedule in order to be seen by a doctor (in the middle of what passes for night with this schedule) is maddening. Further couple that fact that when I do go to the doctor They don't really want to do anything about it because I am still in school.

They are playing pass the buck with my health until I get to my permanent duty station. Thats all good, I can wait until then to get this all sorted out but they are telling me that if I don't lose this weight by the time I graduate then I am not going to a permanent duty station.

My initial plan was to get some kind of Liposuction so I could make the weight, But that is too expensive for us.

At this point, I think all I can do is keep doing what I am doing and if the army dosen't want me they can send me packing.