This is the beginning of a very long journey. Over the next year I will be going to Iraq. Things are still up in the air as to when exactly. We have begun our training by spending a month in CA. I did most of the training in January 09, so this trip was primarly to perform my job as a PA. Below are some of the pictures of that training.

In many of the pictures you will find a special little friend

named Captain. He was given to me by my kids to take with

me and watch over me. In these first pictures it is pretty clear

where Captain is, but there will be times that

he is more hidden as well.

Here he is on our first day at Camp Roberts, CA, resting in our lovely WWII barracks before we decided to change the room around. He said that it didn't work for him.

One of the many classes that we had to attend was how to disassemble the M9 pistol 9mm. SGT Barnes gave a very good class and we all had hands on training. This was what the barracks looked like, if you weren't lucky enough to have your own room.

This is my buddy Will. The first day out on the M4 range, we were zeroing our weapons. He did much better than me and came off the range after only 9 rounds. The target is suppose to represent a target at 300m and he nailed it. Took me a little longer to get.

What the over all area of the zeroing range looked like.

CLS class. Combat Lifesaver Course. This course is designed to teach non medical soldiers some basic medical skills including sticking an IV.

This is the IV portion of the class. You buddy up with 2 other soldiers who you hope have steady hands and a strong stomach and then you get to stick needles in their arm and pray they can do the same for you. It helps out the line medics a lot during emergency situations. They can then direct medical care for more than one soldier at a time. The best medicine that a CLS can supply is to kill the enemy so that none of his buddies get hurt!

I hope the Chaplin's son is saying a prayer as he is about to get stuck. By the way they both did a good job!

After all that good training Captain was just a little too tired and needed to be perked up a little - so he had his tank topped off!

This is the main lobby of the TMC (Troop Medical Center) at Camp Roberts. This is where I spent most of my days from 0600 to 1600 (6am to 4pm for the rest of you). We would see anywhere from 50 to 100 patients a day between me and the Dr.

This is the BUB our nightly meeting to make sure everything is going well. It includes all the commanders, staff and special staff (that's me, I'm special!) We talk about what has happened each day and what is going to happen over the next 72 hrs. Pretty informative, but can be long too.

This is the SCO (Squadron Commander). GO CAV!

(where is Captain??)

This is my room again after I changed it to work around the one plug in the room, behind the desk.

On our first leg of the journey back to Oregon - luckily Captain can sleep on busses and planes.

Just a brief little picture of my adventure so far. Two days prior to leaving for Georgia I was informed that I could skip the 2 month training and go directly to Iraq without passing go or collecting $200. I get phone calls almost daily from my guys down there, so we can coordinate things for when I join them in Iraq. I don't mind the calls because I get to spend 2 more months with my family!

Thanks for following along and for all the prayers during this journey!