On Saturday, April 4th we departed on buses from NB San Diego to NAS Coronado, where we boarded a Marine DC-9 for Manhattan, Kansas (Ft. Riley, Kansas). As you can see Thuy was there to see me off. This is picture of me right before I stepped onto the flight from NAS Coronado.
Although, I've had almost five months notice for this deployment, I think it finally hit me the moment I stepped into the tail of the DC-9 that I was deploying. It was both a moment of excitment and nervousness at the same time.
Once we arrived in Ft. Riley, we were bused to our temporary barracks on Custer Hill. We'd only be staying for one week here. Basically long enough for the Army to issue us the rest of our gear. We arrived from NMPS with one seabag of uniforms and boots. After this week was completed we'd have another three seabags of gear to include: more boots, more ACUs (Army Combat Uniform) both flame retardant and regular, IBA (individual body armor), cold weather gear, M4 rifle, and M9 handgun.
The big red one is also known as the 1st Infantry Division. This is the unit that has been assigned to train us at Ft. Riley and get us ready for deployment. Our team SGA (small group advisor) is SSGT Walters. We'll be working with us as our liasion. The Navy liasion officers are CDR Troup and HMCS Osoroz.
happy birthday andrew!!
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