Training Winding Down

Good evening all. We found out today we will be leaving for Kuwait this Thursday afternoon, so I don't know when I will get a chance to post again. We will be in Kuwait for about 10 days for more training and acclimation to the area before heading to Afghanistan. We are tentatively scheduled to arrive in Kandahar, Afghanistan and spend a week there before being transferred to our final destination - which we are told is "somewhere in Eastern Afghanistan" near the Pakistan border. I have been corresponding with R.K. "Rejectafier" Bills who is the Director for Administration at the hospital in Kandahar and I should get to spend some time with him there. Its too bad I have to go to a war zone to see him. Hopefully I'll get some good pics of him and I to post. Rumor has it he's down about 30 pounds. I bet he's still a monster though. If anyone who knows RK and I would have told me 30 years ago we would both be Lieutenant Commanders in the United States Navy serving our country in a war I would have thought they were nuts. I can't believe how far we both have come. Which reminds me of something that happened to me the week before I left Carrolltown to start this journey. I ran into Joe Bearer one night while I was out at the Legion. For those of you who don't know Joe, he is a rather large gentleman of Italian decent who served in combat in the Army in Vietnam. He was also known as a guy you did NOT want to get into a fight with in a bar. Anyway, when I was getting ready to leave that night - after several hours of me getting well-wishes for a safe return from many of the Legion faithful - Joe approached a group of people near where I was sitting and simply said, "I don't know what all of you are worried about. John will be just fine over there. He's a Carrolltown boy." And that's what I will remember every day until I get home. The same holds true for RK. Just thought I would share.

Peace out.