The next phase

Past history, and friends who have been called up before me, led me to believe that there were 3 phases of activation before I actually deploy to Iraq. The 1st phase would be in-processing and common Soldier training at Fort Jackson, and would last about 2 weeks. The next phase would be refresher training for our specialty, and would be another 2 weeks at the place we originally had our military specialty training (mine was at Ft. Lee, VA, which is about 20 min. south of Richmond). The 3rd phase would be joining up with our unit and conducting several weeks of training at another major Army installation. My unit would be doing this at Fort Riley, KS.

During our stay at Fort Jackson, we met with a rep from the unit we'll eventually join. He told us that we wouldn’t be going to refresher training; we'd all go directly to Kansas and join the unit. I was pretty upset when I heard this, since going to Richmond would have meant the opportunity to go home for a weekend. A week went by, and the day before we left Ft. Jackson all of us got our orders - to Ft. Lee, VA. Boy do I love the Army!! Just when things cant get any worse they go and do something like this, and totally make up for it! (Ok, there's actually nothing they can do to make up for anything. However, I liked the line from Dumb and Dumber, and that’s sort of how I felt since after 2 weeks of ornery drill sgts I was going to be able to see my family). Next stop: Richmond!