Another Letter

Warning: This letter has A LOT of acronyms--even more than usual. I don't know what most of them mean, but I can usually get the general idea from context. I need to find a military to English dictionary!

Amanda,

As I sit here writing this letter I realize how little I really have to say. Welcome to my world! And yet, somehow I manage to fill up at least both sides of a piece of copy paper...it's amazing how much I find to say when I have nothing to say. I told you about missing CATM. That was the big thing this past week. Later on in the week we dedicated a lot of time to BEAST preparation. In case I didn't mention BEAST to you at all (he didn't), it's basically the week-long event that brings all the training together. We separated most of the flight into four groups. These groups will specialize in their field during evaluation day (Thursday), but they spent some time teaching the rest of us about it so everyone knows everything.

We have a group for Integrated Base Defense (sitting in your DFP and knowing when to apply minimal or deadly force), a group for SABC (first aid stuff), one for PAR (post attack reconnaissance), and one for Mission Oriented Protection (gas mask, etc.). Everyone's pretty excited about it. From what we've seen, our flight is well ahead of our peer flights as far as speed as organization go. For the most part, everyone gets along. I expect us to perform well this week. (And of course, he leaves off the part where he tells me what group he's in. I guess that question will go in tomorrow's letter.)

Yesterday was July 4th. They served ribs in the dining facility yesterday, and everyone loved it. You can tell that Nathan and I appreciate food--besides just looking at our size, that is. It's funny that it something as inconsequential as ribs is noteworthy. Oh, also our chow runner (the guy who reports to the snake pit that our flight is ready to come in and eat) had to go play in the off-base parade yesterday, along with half of the flight. So we needed a replacement. I volunteered. Brave, but I guess it shows initiative. So I had the proper procedure explained to me. So I thought. So I march into the dining facility, stop in front of the snake pit (where luckily only female TI was sitting), right face, and open my mouth to report my flight. Unlucky for me I was about eight inches off center from the table. So she yells, "What the ---- is this? You're nowhere NEAR where you're supposed to be! Get the ---- out of here! You're done! Find someone else!" So ended my tenure as chow runner. It was a little funny. I guess initiative doesn't always pay off. I just think it's cool he thought it was funny. He's probably used to stuff like that by now, but that would have put me into a sobbing, quivering pile of goo. And I know this about myself, which is why I always laughed at the recruiters who called me my senior year in high school.

Last night, about 5 minutes after lights out, Hoffman (one of our flight) ran through the dorm announcing that you could see fireworks from our dayroom window. So about 15-20 of us sat in there all huddled around a small corner where you could barely see the fireworks. Oddly, it made me feel more connected to them than I ever had. I just got a feeling like this is what we're all in business for, you know, defending our country. I understand that sentiment exactly. I think for both us the Air Force is sometimes viewed as a means to an end. And that end is a career and paycheck. Those are great things, but with the military it truly is bigger than that.

Well, time for church is quickly approaching. Time to wrap things up. Wish me luck at BEAST. Hopefully I work hard, lose some weight, and don't get injured. I'm going to do absolutely everything to make sure I get out of this place on time. You're in my prayers. I love you.

Nathan