In the middle

I'm in Kuwait. I'll be heading to Afghanistan tomorrow. It could take a couple of days to get up to my location, which is Harat (north-western Afghanistan). I was able to Skype my family today from a building that the USO maintains. We lost our connection a handful of times, but it was great to see them.

I'm so tired. On the flight to Germany I slept off-and-on for 15/20 minutes at a time. We sat on the plane for 2 hours prior to take off because there was a leak in the septic system. Once we got to Germany a friend of mine paid to use a computer at the airport and he let me send an email to Jen. The German keyboard is messed up by the way.

Tonight I'll be sleeping on a bunk bed with no linens. I brought my sleeping bag, but it's at the VERY bottom of my duffel and I don't feel like unpacking everything for one night.

I anticipate a pretty nice set up at my final destination. So what's another night of sleep off-and-on when I'm in the middle of my transition?

Get Your Gear On

It's Jen here, blogging for Dr. Drew.
Tomorrow is the big day of flight.

All clad in protective gear,
Drew will fly for the next couple of days to about 3 or 4 different countries
before landing at his final destination.

I saw Victoria Beckham on a talk show once.
(What was her Spice Girl name?)
She said she always flies in a track suit for optimum comfort.

This is Drew today in his travel gear.
Does anything in this picture look comfortable?

This is the firing range where Drew qualified with his M-9 pistol (seen on his leg in pic above). In order to "qualify" you had to shoot 15 of 30 targets. Drew got 24 of his and said the really good guys got 28 at least.

The task was difficult because the target didn't immediately disappear after it was hit. There was a delay of a couple of seconds. The whole thing was timed so if you didn't hit a target in the allotted time, it disappeared anyway.

Confused?

The prep work is done. He is on his way to the theater (as they say in the military). Pray for him.

CRC

Base living = 4 men in a room; one who snores, one who emigrated from Ireland, one who is sick (me), and another random Joe. Some of us are on our way out to the theater and some just got back -they're here to debrief.

While my bed (top bunk) might not look too cozy, it's really like sleeping at the Hilton when compared to the cot I'll be married to once I get to Afghanistan.

locker for personal belongings
lines for gear issue
endless lines of formation - guy at left looking at my camera is an ER doc who is going with us, the 31st CSH (we are called a cash - Combat Support Hospital)
So according to the gossip floating around here it seems that hospital staff in the 31st are going to be split up for the first part of our tour. The support positions in the 31st (all other soldiers needed to run/maintain a base) aren't arriving in the theater until March. This means all of us docs and the nurses who are deploying now will be dispersed until the rest of the 31st arrives. Then we'll likely all make our way to a location where we'll join up and serve together.

Tomorrow they are going to issue me my personal weapon (gun) and I'll spend time at the range insuring that it works properly.

I caught a cold from my 4 year old the day I left.

tired and sick.

Oh, skyped with the family today for the first time since I arrived. It was great to see them in person, but it makes me miss them all the more.