Fun, laid back day

Today was a relatively fun day. Woke up this morning and walked a short distance to a small make shift town. There are about 20 small houses that are more or less just 15 by 15 foot plywood shacks. We spent a few hours practicing room clearing. Basically, a small group moves into a room as quickly and silently as possible to either make sure that it's secure, or catch bad guys by surprise (Mom's not gonna like this post). This is the fun kind of training. It has some pretty serious real world consequences, but I really enjoy the team work and strategy involved.
In the afternoon we had to complete a driving course. It wasn’t so much of a course, it was more like a few acres of desert complete with dried up river beds, ravines, and large dirt mounds. We spent the better part of two hours off-roading in our HUMVEE’s. Quite a bit of military equipment is garbage, but these vehicles really are something. We climbed some nearly vertical dunes today going about 30mph. You can drive over just about anything. Going down some of these dunes I thought I was going to fall through the windshield if I hadn’t been hanging securely by my seat belt. If you ever get a chance to test the limits of one of these things take it. When I get back, I’d be glad to take a few people out to the field with us to tear up the country side.
After lunch my platoon sat in an empty classroom cleaning our weapons and pro-masks (glorified gas masks), and watched the first three episodes of the excellent HBO series Band of Brothers. I just finished the book (by the same name) that the series was based on. Definitely recommended reading for anyone interested in the inside story behind one of the greatest combat units to fight in WWII (composed, interestingly enough, entirely of citizen soldiers). Read the book, watch the movie, period.