"Official" training begins

Alright, this shack town is really cramping my social life. Not only is it nearly impossible to get cell phone service, but this blasted internet card never freakin' works. I have to walk around outside for a half hour with my laptop in my hands looking for a shred of a signal. Believe me, I realize that these are petty concerns considering where I'm training to go and what I'm training to do. But I figure that I have a whole year (or more) in Iraq to get use to complete isolation. While I'm in the U.S. of A. I want a few creature comforts, damn it! Anyway, I'll keep working on it. So far I'm still able to access this site for long enough to post a quick rant or two. Seeing as I don't have the time to reread these entries or check them for spelling, forgive my errors.

Today, as I wrote yesterday, was the first day of our formal training since we got here. We spent all day today working on the process of setting up "traffic control points." Basically, you use a whole bunch of razor wire to redirect and disrupt traffic long enough to conduct searches on persons and their vehicles. This is done for a bunch of reasons. Obviously to check for weapons and other things that Iraqis should not have, but also just for the sake of pissing off terrorists by disrupting their travel. I guess it works pretty well. Yesterday a unit in Iraq stopped a car, and while searching it notices a bunch of wires hanging from underneath. Upon closer inspection they found a whole crap load of explosives. Nice catch.

Tomorrow we should have some fun learning some more room and building clearing techniques. This is the training area where I personally have the most fun. Practicing clearing a room is actually pretty exciting. When I stop to think of the actual act of busting into a room in Iraq, it just doesn't seem quite as much like a fun game. I have a feeling this is one of the activities that my friends and family like to read about the least. I guess they can take solace in the fact that were getting pretty good at it, and that I'm pretty quick on the draw, so to speak. I know that doesn’t help much, but what else can I say. I am essentially here to learn nothing but a bunch of stuff that scares the crap out of my mommy. But not to worry. The more we practice and learn the more confident I am that everything will be just fine. Well, I better end this post for fear that I'll lose signal and al this typing will be for naught. Goodnight, and thanks for reading the ramblings.