One Month Later

I have let a month go by without posting. I will try not to do that again. It is too dificult to catch up on events.
I am in training now, but all of my training is for official use only so I wont be saying anything about that, at least not directly. For this post, I will try to get caught up on the event of the last month.
As it turned out, a lot of the preparations I made ahead of mobilization weren't really necessary. I collected a lot of paperwork to justify this and that that was never asked for. It was just assumed. I arrived in Norfolk with about twenty other Navy officers. A handful were still on active duty, with the rest of us coming from the Reserve. None of the reservists got any more notice than I did. On that note, we were told that we just missed being covered by a new policy that will require no less than 60 days notice for mobilization. We will likely be the last group with so little notice. No one really complained of any real hardship in getting ready. For as little deliberate preparation that I had done since leaving active duty, it was remarkably easy to get ready. Fortunately, for what I couldn't handle myself, my brother Charles can.
Check in at Norfolk went pretty quickly. The staff was really good at managing our time and cutting us loose when there was nothing to do. Of the six days there, we had three days off. The only part that was even annoying was the medical check in, because I had to have four vaccinations, including small pox and anthrax. When it was time to head to Fort Bragg, I had two seabags stuffed full. That was just the beginning. When I head over the Iraq, I will have at least four seabags to haul around.
At Fort Bragg, we met up with thirty other Army officers. They had much better stories about the callup than we did. Most of them had more notice than we did. They got their calls right around Christmas. About a dozen were called out of the individual ready reserve. Some hadn't even drilled for up to ten years. One was called out of retirement. All of them have been a big help to us in aclimatizing to the Army. The Navy way of life is really different, and we are going to be in the Army until we come home.
Today, out first weekend is starting. I have to find a place to do my laundry, and hopefully, a little shopping. My next post wont take me a month to write.