The Last Days of Pompeii (aka Army Basic Training)

I got the last of Dela's blog notes from BCT. After this, I'm relieved of duty and she will begin to update her blog again.

Wed. Oct. 14

Today was Omaha Beach day. It was raining buckets again so it was cancelled. They are taking no chances with the live fire I guess. There is a RUMOR (on the PNN -- Private News Network) that a bullet ricocheted and hit someone at this exercise at one time. I have not been able to verify this though. There are so many safeties in place for trainees that if it did happen, it had to be a freak accident.

Instead of Omaha, we had a locker inspection. Mine was the first locker inspected. I had nothing I wasn't supposed to have so there were no worries for me. The only comment Drill Sergeant had was when he was holding two handfuls of letters from my hubby. "I suspect that there is no fraternization going on with you." I told him, "No, my husband certainly would not approve." :) One of the other privates had a bag of leftover food from her MRE's and two others were found fraternizing. They were disciplined quite severely. They lost pay and had extra duty. Such stupid things to do and especially so close to graduation. DUH!

--------

Thur. Oct. 15

Today I spent half the day at Dental being a Battle Buddy. I missed PT in Full Battle Rattle. Bummer. It was pretty grueling from what I have heard. It included a 1/2 mile run, 50 yard sprint, drag your battle buddy, fireman carry your battle buddy, then carry two 25 lb. jugs across the field over an obstacle, and hang from the pull up bar for 30 seconds. UGH! It will be nice if I don't have to make that up!

Tonight we worked on our Berets (shaving and shaping) [editor's note: I have no idea what "shaving" a beret entails. Do they come with whiskers?] and everyone got excited for when Victory Forge is over and we could legitimately wear them. Hooah!

A church service completed my night. We leave for Victory Forge on Saturday!

*We also ordered our Battalion and Platoon t-shirts. I thought they were cool. And I just had to get 2 shot glasses. :)

--------

Fri. Oct. 16

Today we spent packing Victory Forge. Making sure we had everything we needed for the week in the field. And, of course, we had to make sure our weapons were clean.

--------

Sat. Oct. 17

Not a typical Saturday. Today we leave for Victory Forge. Never really thought this day would ever come. It seemed both quick in its arrival and long in getting here. Breakfast was at the DFAC. A decent meal for our sendoff.

We were motormoved to our F.O.B. (Forward Operating Base) and threw our stuff in tent. Our tent held all 2nd platoon females. All 23 of them. Our cots were 10 inches apart. Much too close for comfort. We motormoved a short distance away and practiced direct and indirect fire. We were there all day. It was pretty chilly out and a lot of the day was spent sitting, waiting on our turn. Then we did it all again in the dark with NVG's on. It was a fairly easy day and it would have been even better if the weather was just a little bit warmer. My fireguard shift was frigid!

--------

Sun. Oct. 18

Not a typical Sunday either. We were up in the dark and motormoved to the range for Omaha Beach (we are doing it -- finally!). In Basttle Buddy teams we had to traverse an obstacle course (barriers and tires, walls, barrels, etc.) firing live rounds at the "enemy" (pop up targets). We were each followed by a drill sergeant to ensure safety. It really was easy and despite the chilly morning the day ended up being quite gorgeous.

We were then moved, by bus, back to the F.O.B. where we had chow and a little personal time.

It was dark so fast that I had to "bathe" and change clothes, arrange my stuff and roll out my sleeping bag in the pitch dark. Joy!

It is a bitter cold night and I have fireguard in the middle of the night. Brrrr! Someone said our nights were going to down to 28° F! Mega BRRRR!

--------

Mon. Oct. 19

This morning was super chilly. We can see our breath but not feel our fingers, toes or noses. I have definitely been in the South too long. My blood has thinned. After breakfast we were told we had ECP duty today. ECP is "Entry Control Point" and consists of staggered barricades, barbed wire, a tower and weapon points. There is also a vehicle search area. Our first rotation would be to providce extra security for the ECP in case of attack. If attacked and in need of us, they would call us in over the radio. We would then respond as we would for direct fire. We posted at our patrol point and waited.

It was a nice break to stand around and plan our response, chat with the drill sergeants. It was starting to warm up into a nice, sunny day. We heard gunfire and soon after were called into action. Our maneuver squad eliminated most of the opposition before the flanking squad ever got there. It was a well planned response. We were later told that an enemy sniper had been concealed and shot us all dead. Oh well. It was a really good time anyway.

The maneuver squad was then posted at the ECP to relieve the other platoon and we went back to the tent to await our turn. Since security was a 24 hr assignment, we were told to sleep when we could. I napped a bit but was mostly just enjoying some down time.

We waited all day. And most of the night. Our ECP orders ended up being from 11 pm to 2 am. It was SO COLD! Even the drill sergeant was not immune to the temperature. (I thought they had classes on how to be immune to the cold, pain and no sleep but this is not so.) I was hoping we would get attacked just so the adrenaline rush would warm me up, but alas, nothing happened. I manned a SAW on the right side of the twoer facing the woods and pretended to shoot phantom enemy which were really only shadows. Bummer.

I was sure glad to crawl into that sleeping bag finally! Warmth!

--------

Tues Oct. 20

An early morning march of about 3 miles greeted us. We marched to a range for another live fire exercise. First a "dry run" with blanks and then again with live rounds.

In squads, we went up a hill in a wedge formation until we heard gunfire. Then we dropped to the ground and the two teams in the squad used the 3-5 second rush to bound from cover to cover until we were all on line. Once on line we moved forward to a grey wall. Over thew wall we went and all posted up in various spots to hit pop up targets down range. My squad was very successful and we all got "go's". We had no safety violations and executed our manuever well. We ended up being at the range all day.

A motormove took us back to the FOB where we climbed into our sleeping bags. Cold and exhausted.

I slept pretty well despite it all.

--------

Wed Oct. 21

Motormove to the MOUT range. It was still dark when we got there.

All day we practiced entering a building, clearing rooms, safely going upstairs (the video guy got us doing this ) covering a team exiting one building and entering another, how to use cover and concealment in an urban terrain, etc.

Once everyone did this in squads we practiced some more. Once night fell we donned the NVG's and executed our drills once again. Practicing direct fire maneuvers in the dark was the only really hard part of the day. I continued to roll my ankle on the pine needles, rocks, holes, etc. found everywhere here. I am not sure it will ever really have a chance to heal correctly. It just seems to get worse each day. I hope I make it to graduation.

--------

Thur Oct. 22

Everyone is excited -- today is our last day in the field. Hooah!

Validation lanes took up the whole day -- along with getting everything ready to go and policing the area. I was a little tired form doing both my fireguard and my battle buddy's. She was giving me $40 though for one hour -- how could I say no?

Overall, I really enjoyed the things we got to do. My squad works well together and firing my M16 is always fun.

Our drill sergeant let us put our weapons on burst and fire off the rest of our rounds. That was pretty cool -- there was a a lot more flame coming out of the barrel than before. I could see it clearly in the daylight.

Right before chow I had my ankles taped by an athletic trainer for the 6-mile Victory March "home". My DS caught and bawled me out for going without his permission. I felt bad because I hadn't realized I had to go through my chain of command for it.

I had some chow and while eating, the DS told me to get my stuff together and get into the 5-ton. There were about 16 of us that were chosen from among the platoons to ride the 5-ton back to the bay. My DS and I had a staring contest -- me pleading to be allowed to march with my platoon. Finally, he just looked at me and said, "Soldier! You are not marching!" I couldn't help it but I started to cry. He came over to me and asked me why was I crying?

I told him that I wanted to march -- I wanted to complete everything. He said, "I can't send you to AIT broken. If you hurt yourself more in this march, which is not required, you would have to remain here as a holdover. You have completed everything. Let me do my job."

I understood. But I didn't have to like it! On the ride back to the bay, DS Potter told me, "There is a fine line between pride and stupidity. And the only better than going to Basic Training at 40 and graduating, would be going to basic training and graduating at 41!" He really cheered me with those words.

Once back at the bay we cleaned up and got things ready for the Beret Ceremony. Seeing our Company come around the corner was a great sight! We were at the top of the hill by the drill pad cheering them all on. I wanted SO BAD TO HAVE BEDEN ONE OF THEM!! It made the night rather bittersweet.

The Beret Ceremony was nice. A little ceremony, some laughter, and a bonfire. Nice.

The best part of the day, besides being called soldiers and donning our new headgear, was making up my cheap twin mattress and snuggling under that Army green wool blanket.

Warmth!

--------

Fri Oct. 23

So this is our first day of recovery -- and all we have done is turn in, and clean of course, all our gear. It has to be all laid out in a particular fashion so inventory can be taken. Also this is the time for worn equipment and obsolete equipment to be replaced or taken away. It was a frustrating day with too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

And there are always those who conveniently "disappear" when any real work needed to be done.

--------

Sat Oct. 24

More of the same, laying stuff out, counting, scavenger hunting up missing equipment, more counting, etc., etc.

Blah.

The days are dragging! And I am having a hard time getting along with some of my battle buddies.

Ugh.

--------

Sun Oct. 25

Church! Bible Study! Yay!

We also had to complete one more Battlemind Survey. [I don't know what this is, but I think it's some kind of psycho-kinetic exercise. -- ed.] It was hard staying awake long enough to fill in the little bubbles. Some of my little bubbles had stray lines... hope it doesn't mess anything up. :)

These days are so long. I think I liked it better when we were insanely busy -- at least then the time moved faster!!

--------

Mon Oct. 26

Out processing! I fought to stay awake through the briefing. Then back at the bay we received our freshly pressed Class A uniforms. Nice!

Not much else going on besides the inventory checks, rechecks and more rechecks... I am not sure that process will ever truly end...

--------

Tues Oct. 27

Today was Graduation Practice. In the pouring rain. We got soaked!

--------

Wed Oct. 28

Today was Graduation Practice. In beautiful weather. We dried out.

--------

Thurs Oct. 29

Family Day! We came running across the field through smoke and simulated mortars. Cool stuff!

Lynnze and Dani found me first. Then David and Mom. It was a very happy reunion. We hung out on post for the day. It was heaven!

--------

Fri Oct. 30

Graduation Day -- off post. More heaven!! :)

Debutante Denoument

I got a call from our soldier today! We got to talk for an entire 12 minutes and 38 seconds!!

Okay, they're all back from Victory Forge and the result is...

She passed everything and is all set to graduate on Friday!

So Victory Forge wasn't hard and in fact was a lot of fun. The big disappointment was that she wasn't allowed to march back with her platoon. She'd hurt her ankle again during some of the exercises and the drill sergeant made her ride back. She tried to insist and even begged a little. She wanted to be with her platoon as they marched up Victory Hill. But the sergeant patiently explained that he couldn't send her to AIT broken and that if her ankle were injured any more she'd be held over. So she rode back and cheered her platoon on as they marched up the hill.

(As it turns out, keeping her from marching was a good thing. The hill is treacherous and it was dark. Many people fell, including one of the drill sergeants.)

Next week is all about administrative tasks and practicing for graduation.

Hoo-ah!

A message from the past...

I got another letter from the wifey today, sent late last week. It's probably the last one I'll get for awhile, as I doubt she'll be able to write (or least send mail out) while at Victory Forge. I got one page of letter, you get 9 pages of blog notes. I hope you're happy.

Oct. 3

We spent this whole beautiful day getting our Class A uniforms issued. Although tedious, it was exciting to get them. Not only are we expected to clean ourselves up and graduate, we are expected to do it in style.

------

Oct. 4

Finally, a restful Sunday. And a phone call. A really, truly perfect day. :)

------

Oct . 5

So today was our first real rainy day here. It was both rainy and cold. And we spent the whole day in it, out at the range.

It was the US Weapons range where we got to fire some of the bigger weapons.

I fired the M240B machine gun, the 50 cal, the M203 grenade launcher, the AT4 rocket launcher, and the SAW [Squad Automatic Weapon, an M249 light machine gun]. The sound vibrated through our bodies. Every third round or so was a tracer round so we could see where they went.

Despite the weather, it was one of the best days here. I think the sound of the 50 cal was the best.

------

Oct. 6

Wake up was at 4:30 am with first formation at 4:55 am. Full Battle Rattle. And then we started our 9 mile march. I re-sprained my ankle in the third mile when I fell. The pace was fast and it was still dark. With my bad ankle I was an accident waiting to happen. But I made it. I had to move back to the front during the last rest stop but from then on remained with my platoon. It took 3 1/2 hours for us to march 9 miles with 3 rest stops. Not too bad.

We got to the training area, had breakfast (yes, we marched all that way on an empty stomach) and then set up our hooches [huts].

We had a briefing and then had lunch. After lunch we went through the Validation Lane -- going over an obstacle, under an obstacle, indirect fire, direct fire, treating a casualty and the 9-line Medevac. We also go to fire blanks at our "enemy".

After chow it got dark rather quickly. We donned our Night Vision Goggles and proceeded to do a night patrol where we encountered direct fire. We responded as well as we could in the pitch dark with ill-fitting and unfocused NVGs. It was great fun. Everything looked a little eerie.

I did a fireguard shift and then sacked completely out in the sleeping bag. It was a cool night and the bugs left me alone. The moon was bright through the clouds. It looked like it was starting to clear up. :)

------

Oct. 7

Now I know I have been in the South for far too long. It was down right chilly this morning! I did not want to get out of my sleeping bag -- and it was still dark out. How am I supposed to find anything? Chow was lukewarm food trucked in from the DFAC. Blech.

Then we had MOUT Training (Military Operations in Urban Terrain). We went to the MOUT Range and practiced "swat style" building entries. Kick the door in , clear the room and safely exiting. All without getting killed. It was a pretty fun day -- we had a nice breeze that kept it form getting too hot and the training was fairly easy to pick up.

We then had the chance to do the same exercises with the NVGs. I looked up at the sky with them on and was in awe! The NVGs pick up even the most miniscule bits of light so the sky was peppered in stars. [Editor's note: I would have said "salted" but that's just me.] I could have stayed looking at that incredible sight all night long.

Then it was a motormove back to the training area and we marched back to camp. On the "FOB" as it is called.

The sleeping bag felt wonderful to crawl into.

*Oh, I almost forgot -- the Chaplain came out to the range to see me today. We had a really nice conversation and he was greatly encouraging. Taking a risk is a leap of faith -- and I must trust in Him to take me where I need to go. God is good.

------

Oct. 8

Now today was Round Robin. It was easy going to the different stations and learning, fine tuning the skills we would need for Victory Forge. None of it is hard -- you just have to keep your head. We did direct and indirect fire, CLS exercises, patrolling and IED training (that was really fun -- especially since we were the only squad that didn't set off the trip wire). We did lose a person to a roadside IED though. :( We got back to the bay via a motormove after marching out in the fading light.

The hot shower felt so wonderful, even if it was short.

I did my fireguard shift and fell into bed. It isn't the greatest mattress, but damn, it was nice to be in a bed. These old bones were grateful. :)

------

Oct. 9

Today was Post Detail. We went to the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment to help with some research/testing. This is where they train Poloygraph Examiners. The students were being tested on us by taking us through a security interview.

Even though I knew it was for research I was still nervous. I even cried at the end when the man doing my interview/screening was sympathetic towards my 40 years of baggage. :) My "lawyer" came in and "saved" me. In between testing we got to watch movies, read magazines, and write letters. It was a really nice day. The school treated us like real humans for the day and not scummy little know-nothing privates. It was a nice change of pace.

We marched to chow, did hydration formation, and went to bed. Sleep is a rare and treasured commodity here.

------

Oct. 10

Happy Birthday my love! (I was thinking of you ALL DAY LONG!!) And this was quite a feat seeing as how today I got to throw 2 live hand grenades. Awesome! I felt like Marvin the Martian waiting for the "Ka-boom!" That explosion rocked me to my bones. Never thought much about them before. No more underestimating their power. It was a good, fun day. And it was made even better when the Drill Sergeant let me call my man for his birthday! Sweet!

*We phased from White to Blue today. I even got kind of emotional over it. I think it finally hit me that I am almost done with Basic Training and I will be able to see it through to the end. I am sore and I have some growing issues in my knees and feet, but I am making it! I will graduate! I will see my man! :)

------

Oct. 11

Yay Sunday! The sermon was pretty good today. Bible Study was incredible! So many things to pray about!!

An easy day today. Eat, church, clean weapons, eat, go to PX, eat, clean weapons, beautification... typical Sunday.

------

Oct. 12

It is raining buckets. And we are going to the range for Combat Shoot. Should be a good time. I hope I can keep my feet dry...

Well, it poured all day long. I managed to qualify again with score of 17 -- which was not easy.

Targets were hard to see and my front sight post kept getting a water bubble in it that I had to keep blowing out. All 3 magazines also had silver bullets (duds) that caused me misfire, so I had to clear it. And I had to change empty magazines twice.

I also managed to keep my left foot dry. The right one went swimming.

*We got to call home tonight! Sweet!! I love making phone calls when we don't expect it. :)

------

Oct. 13

PT Test! 18 push ups, 70 sit ups, and my 2 mile run in 19:01. (I took off another 3 minutes!) All totaled I achieved a score of 247 out of 300. Not too shabby for an old lady! :)

We had a little down time here and there but mostly we trained. We had to negotiate obstacles and "fire" on the enemy in buddy pairs. We were all pretty beat but managed to make it through just in time for NIC at Night. No, not TV. Night Infiltration Course. We lined up in a trench (did I mention the 2 feet of cold water?) We had to go up the side of the trench as fast as we could, high crawl [hands and knees] to our first low crawl [belly] under barbed wire, between stakes 24" high, around mortar pits and under another barbed wire. We could only low and high crawl or do a modified crawl on our back. Total distance we crawled was about 85 yards. I was full of sand. And now I have 2 pairs of wet boots.

A fireguard shift completed my night. 1-3 am. Blah!

*The low crawl was a real bear. And it just seemed like I would never get there. I did though and I was so completely exhausted.

It pissed me off that the weapon I had so meticulously cleaned this afternoon now had so much sand in it that it probably just needed a batch! So, I did that on Fireguard. :)

Victory (Forge) is in sight!

3-34 (Rock Force!) had their final PT Test this last week. For most companies it was on Tuesday, including our girl in Charlie Company. I received a letter from her today that she wrote Wednesday night, and she didn't mention the test at all. So I'm going to assume that's a good thing and that she passed. (The only thing she was worried about was doing enough "correct form" push ups.)

The 3-34 Facebook page had this to say this morning:

Rock Force Soldiers are preparing to leave right now for Victory Forge. The field training exercise (FTX) is a six day, five night culminating event that validates all training that the Soldiers received during Basic. They will be returning from the field late on 22 Oct and will be begin recovery operations on 23 Oct in preparation for Graduation Week.

It's a big deal and will be very demanding for the soldiers. At least it looks like the weather will be favorable. To get a flavor for Victory Forge, go HERE or Google it. There's lots of info out there.

Less than 2 weeks until graduation! I should consider showering soon.

Rock on, Rock Force!

If it's raining, it must be the weekend

More blog notes from Soulja Girl:

Sept. 21

PT and an AGR started our morning. Then it was chow and a march to "play" the video game range again. This time it was pop up targets and I did horribly. My eyepro kept fogging up and my helmet was falling forward. Both of these issues made even sighting a target impossible. I felt pretty bad, physically and mentally most of the day. Here it is almost October and it is still as hot as hell and twice as humid. Blah!

------

Sept. 22

Happy Anniversary to me and my hubby! 8 years together and I cannot imagine ever loving him more than I do right now. Baby! You are the very best husband ever! In the whole world! I don't even remember anything about the day. My thoughts were filled with how I would spend our anniversary when I am finally out of this place!

[Editor's note: I didn't make any of that up.]

------

Sept. 23

Today we marched. And marched. And marched. This was our 6-mile march in full gear. I managed to finish it but I fell all the way to the back. We finally got to Range 19 and had some breakfast -- lukewarm from the DFAC.

Then we got in line to shoot on the lanes we would be qualifying in. The pop up targets were at various distances: 50-75-100-150-200-300. I enjoyed the practice but was only able to hit 20 out of 40 targets. I don't even know the score I had the second time because my targets malfunctioned :( and I had a malfunction. It also would have helped if I had been firing at my own targets! Oops. It was a very long hot day at the range. We were all very happy to get on the buses home!

Never thought I would love buses so much -- or that I would think of the bay as "home".

Hot shower! Yes!!

------

Sept. 24

Another motormove to the range today. I was able to shoot a 25 and a 27 (out of 40). Both are qualifying but I really want to get Sharpshooter. My last coach -- a guy by the name of Merkley helped me very much. I left the range with a good feeling. My goal -- Sharpshooter. 30+ targets!

------

Sept. 25

I made my goal -- I think the prayer and coaching from the day before really helped. I shot 30 our of 40 targets on my first try -- both qualifying and getting Sharpshooter. Life is good.

I can't believe how many people we have lost. Our company started out with about 218 privates. We are now down to about 182. our platoon alone is losing 5 more people sometime next week. That isn't counting any from the other 3 platoons. Most are young too. Sad! :(

------

Sept. 26

Today we got to sleep in until 6am! LOL.

Combatives was the order of the day. We got to spar each other. I got kicked in the head and saw stars but no other side effects. I made it through the sessions okay. Mostly everyone treated me like I was their mom, with a few exceptions. It was a good day overall. A little company "beautification" ended our day.

------

Sept. 27

No phone call today. :( This one "lifeline" is the highlight of my week. It was a fairly restful day. Church was good. Bible Study was the best, and we got to go to the PX. If I had been able to make my phone call to my man it would have been a perfect day.

Oh well. It is BCT.

------

Sept. 28

Today we did combat shooting at Range 19. It really was pretty fun and nerve-wracking as well. We had to run up to a barrier in the "ready" -- weapon pointed at the enemy. Then kneel and shoot the pop up targets. We had 3 magazines with 10 rounds each. Then we had to switch to the prone position and fire around the barrier from the ground. One of the the 3 magazines gave me a double feed. So I had to clear my weapon before firing on more targets. Next was firing from a standing position using the barrier for cover.

The first time I only hit 14 targets (standard is 16) but the second time I hit 18. I think we get to do it again. I hope so -- it was pretty cool even with the weapon malfunction. :)

------

Sept. 29

Today we marched to the confidence course. (See David's letter for details.) [Editor's note: I'm going to have to dig through her letters for details on this. Watch for an update.]

The balance beam to the zip line almost took me out. I hated having such a hard time with it. For whatever reason I just couldn't wrap my head around actually walking across it. My DS was very encouraging. :) His push helped me finally make my way across. It was actually a really great day -- even marching back was fine. I conquered some fears and even had my picture taken (with the other golden girls) for the Facebook page! We won't talk about the video...

------

Sept. 30

PT Test! I got 11 push ups! 59 sit ups and ran my 2 miles in 21:27. Total points were 204 out of 300. :) Then we spent some time at EST to practice close range combat shooting. 25m and less. I didn't do too bad either. Things are looking good.

------

Oct. 1

We are going to the range this afternoon for some close combat shooting (live fire this time) and for night fire with Night Vision Goggles and a PAQ 4 laser. Should be fun... SO AWESOME!

Motormove to the range -- buses here are such a glorious sight! The shoot was for a streamer. We had to shoot at a silhouette target from various distances and angles. Total possible pts were 300 and I scored 294. :)

Not sure yet who won the streamer. The night fire was cool -- everything was green and surreal, and frustrating. It was hard to see since the goggles were not personalized to me and the laser was set to a larger circle (instead of pinpoint) and hid my target. Oh well, it was just familiarization anyway.

We got motormoved at 2230. Exhausted of course.

Family Day / Graduation info

Family Day

Date:	Thursday, October 29, 2009
Time:	9:00am - 10:00am
Location:	Hilton Field, Fort Jackson, SC

Family Members of the almost 1,200 Soldiers of the Rock Force Battalion will finally be able to see their loved ones as the battalion hosts the 3-34th Infantry Family Day Ceremony on 29 October at 0900 on Hilton Field. The ceremony lasts only about 30 minutes and afterwards Soldiers are given an ON POST pass until 8:00pm. Please allow yourself plenty of time to get on post as traffic is very heavy getting to Hilton Field. To get on post, you must have a valid driver's license, proof of insurance, and vehicle registration. If you are driving a rental car, then the rental car agreement is sufficient. Adult Passengers must simply have a photo ID.

Graduation Day

Start Time:	Friday, October 30, 2009 at 9:00am
End Time:	Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 10:00am
Location:	Hilton Field, Fort Jackson, SC

After 10 long weeks, the almost 1,200 Soldiers of the Rock Force Battalion will walk across Hilton Field at Fort Jackson and officially become US Army Soldiers. The ceremony will begin at 0900 and usually lasts about 30 to 45 minutes. Traffic is very heavy, so plan on arriving on post at least an hour before the ceremony. In order to get on post, you must have a valid driver's license, proof of insurance, and vehicle registration. If you are driving a rental car, then the rental car agreement will be sufficient. Adult Passengers must simply have a photo ID.

Seeking maid. No experience necessary. Must fit uniform.

So I have our girl's graduation information:

Family Day is on Oct. 29.

Graduation is on Oct. 30.

On Family Day, she should have an on-post pass, meaning she can move freely around most of the base to show family and friends different things.

On Graduation Day, she should have an off-post pass for the day and will have to be back at her post by 8:30pm.

Just so ya'll know, I call dibs on my wife for the entire afternoon/evening of Graduation Day. I'm willing to share her through lunch time, but after that she's mine and only mine. Just so you know. :)

If you're planning on attending either or both days, please let me know and I can get you the details. More on this as the end of the month approaches.