Moving

I'm being moved from being the Assistant S1 to a platoon leader position and also moving to a different battalion. More to follow on this.

Indiana is flat, Afghanistan is mountainous

It's been 11 days since I've hit the ground here at Camp Atterbury. Temperatures here have thankfully risen past the freezing point which makes for more bearable living conditions but the melting snows do create different problems.

I've settled somewhat into a routine here at Camp Atterbury. Most days begin between 4 and 6 in the morning. We wake up, do hygiene and eat. Most days after that, we do classes from everything ranging from hot/cold weather injuries to CIED (Counter Improvised Explosive Device) to briefs about the culture and history of Afghanistan. Often, this is done through PowerPoint and it's a challenge attempting to stay awake for 8-10 power point presentations.

After classes, we'll generally split off into our respective sections and shops. My "shop" is the S1 shop which has the primary task of conducting the administration and personnel issues at the squadron/battalion level. As noted before, I have been assigned as the Assistant S1. The best way to look at this from a civilian side would be that I'm an assistant manager. We have several soldiers who work in the shop. As an infantry officer without any time in a staff position, I am often lost as to what to do, but I'm trying to learn - ever so slowly. I generally work there until around 8 pm and then we do PT. We're doing a program called "Crossfit" which is an excellent full-body workout which incorporate endurance and muscular strength activities. As one of the other officers said, "You may work behind a desk, but I'll have physically fit officers sitting behind desks." If you're interested, you can find the link here http://www.crossfit.com/.

There's not a lot of free time or personal time. Most days last from early in the morning until late at night. I'm learning that even when most soldiers may be resting, relaxing and recovering from the day, officers and non-commissioned officers (Sergeants) are busy through those times. I'll often collapse at the end of the day into my bunk and sleep until the next morning when it's all done again. We work 7 days a week, most days are around 17-18 hours. It's exhausting at times and exhilarating at others. I suppose my natural laziness is being challenged working here.

All in all, I'm having a decent time out here. Privacy is nil, but I'm OK with that. Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for those who have written. God bless. J

Camp Atterbury, you are so very cold.

It's another cold day here at Camp Atterbury. Then again, I've only been here 2 days, but it's still cold. The temperature this morning was around 7 degrees. I used to complain about sub-40 degree temperatures, but I can't do that in good conscience anymore. What to say about post? It's non-descript in appearance, but now it's holding some number of soldiers here from all over the country. New soldiers are coming in every day. We arrived on 7 January 2010. After being shuttled to Camp Atterbury, we disembarked our vehicles and began unpacking our gear. The next morning, chaos settled in. Orders were changed overnight and I was moved from 1-101 FA to 1-172 CAV. We arrived at our unit and were then told that there were no platoon leader or executive officer positions available as they were all filled. There were 3 Lieutenants who arrived at the same time and we were told that there were 3 positions in the battalion to be filled and that they were 2 battle captain positions (working with the S-3 or the operations shop) or to work as the assistant S1 (Personnel/administration). I was assigned to be the Assistant S1. They told me that there might be a possibility for a platoon leader position to open up, but there's no guarantee. I guess we'll have to see. So far, most everything is inprocessing and working on getting all gear and equipment and being sped up on my job which at the moment seems... fluid.

Going, going... gone

Everything is packed or given away. Best of luck to you all back in Maryland. More on the flip-side. Hoosier state, here I come.