Long hard week

Friday
6 March 09

It has been a long hard week for me (and most of my peers, I suppose). We spent much of the week concentrating on death and marriages. Hummm, interesting combination! They hit us hard with memorial ceremonies and services, as well as graveside services. We got to observe a few "mock" services of each kind, complete with honor guard and a 21-gun salute and flag folding honors. It's a pretty impressive ceremony when you think about it, and every veteran is entitled to full funeral benefits like this. Having a Chaplain lead the ceremony is part of that death benefit, so I may be involved in many of these over the years -- sometimes for Soldiers in my Unit killed in action, and other times for a WWII vet who died in the local community.

We also went to the morgue last night at the Univ. of South Carolina medical center. The object was to expose everyone to death and to help us get over initial fears of working with the Mortunary Affairs department of the Army, or even with a Soldier who is injured badly and dies in our presence. It was pretty cool, although it lasted too long. It had been a long and hard day to begin with , and then we spend 3 hours after class at the University (from 6 - 9 pm). I used to work in a morgue years ago, so that was nothing new for me. The smell alone brought back a whole host of memories! But I have never seen a cadaver, and these were in various stages of dissection by the medical students, which was kind of wild (and gross). One of my peers almost passed out and had to be helped to a chair. Most people were cautiously curious, and others were downright into it. They showed us a heart that still had the pacemaker cable attached to it. That was cool.

The marriage theme wame in the form of three days of training with a program called "PREP", which the Army uses for its Strong Bonds Programs (marriage conferences for Soldiers and their spouses after deployment). We were all certified to use the material and possibly become trainers and lead Strong Bonds weekends. That takes a little bit more training, but it is something I hope to pursue.

Today, however, started off on the wrong foot, literally. We went for another long foot march this morning at 0515. We covered over 4 miles in 2 hours, but I developed a blister on my left heel along the way. It was one of those mornings where I knew I was getting the blister, but there was nothing I could do about it (way out in the woods). So now I'm hobbled and concerned about my final and official PT test (the one that counts for graduation) a week from today. I hope this thing heals and does not cause me problems in that run.

Well that's about it. Sorry I do not have any new pictures to share, but they would not let us take cameras to the morgue! I do have good news however.... my family will be here in less than a month, and I graduate 4 weeks from today! That's exciting. I'm hoping it flies by from here on out.