Almost time to deploy

Howdy all, sorry for the delay in posting. The military net in certian locations does not allow me to use the MySpace site, the reason for this bog site. As for my progress I am currently stuck in Germany, not a bad place to be stuck. I thought we were leaving this morning, but no. We have one more chance today at 1800 local time otherwise it might not be until the 15th.
The trip so far:
Salem on the 20th: Chris (the other PA) and I had dinner with a Real hero. TSGT Don Marlarkey (from Band of Brothers). He is a great man. We talked for about 2.5 hrs about the war and is wife, she passed in April 06. You could tell how much he loved her. He has had a good life without regrets. It was a pleasure and honor to talk with him and we hope to do it again upon our return.
The next 3 days were great to spend with our families. I cherish them very much, and miss them constantly. Please keep them in your prayers!!!!
On Saturday I spent the day flying to Benning - it took the entire day. The plane left early, sorry to those that showed up to see me off and I was already gone. We started training the next day and it went fairly smooth except with our housing. We started at one place, they kicked us out thinking we belonged in another, so being good soldiers we moved out. 2 days later they wanted us back, but we didn't move then. Our rooms were much better and in the middle of base - not out in the sticks. We rented a car for dinners and needed shopping. We missed a tornado by 2 miles one night. That was the same night as the bus roll over in Georgia and in the same location.
Training was good, we got to do some cool army stuff. Picked up too much gear to carry and got ready to go. Getting out of the US was easy. Getting out of Germany seems to be harder. Vets say getting to the war is harder than being there, I hope they are right!
Take care and I hope to write more often and in clearer thoughts
mike