Day Thirty Seven

Day Three of the exercise:

MUCH better night's sleep! Nothing like an exhausting day in the heat to get you good and tired. We found it was 103 yesterday, with a heat index of 115. And today was supposed to be worse. We also lost another troop. One of the CAs was having horrible heat rashes breaking out all over his body, and was taken to the clinic on base.

The big news of the day was that the "Cadillac" was opened! The Cadillac was the better latrine - it was a converted cargo container. The main thing was there was AC!!

The Men's Cadillac!!

Inside the Cadillac - sinks on the right, behind the partition is the urinal, and to the left are the commodes.

A commode. There is a foot lever in front of the commode. You press it lightly to fill the bowl with water, and when done with your "businss", you press it all the way, and it flushes into a compartment under the bowel. The place STUNK!! NO ONE breathed through the nose in that place!!! But the AC sure felt good...

Today, Alpha was going to start inside, and Bravo would have the morning in the field. We had a class on battlefield ministry, and then we did an indoor scenario. I was assigned, with my RST partner, to run the CCC. That means we were coordinating everyone's efforts. In the middle of it, we were informed there was a bombh outside our door, so Ray and I had to gather all the equipment and redeploy to the back up CCC. All the time, we were still coordinating everything. When it was over, we had lunch, and afterwards we were told we'd have the major scenario of the day - a MASCAL (mass casualty situation). I asked for feedback on the morning's program. Ch Hamel said, "Feedback? That was the best CCC coordinating I have ever seen in a BCC class. In fact, you continue to run the CCC for the MASCAL." Nice.

Afterwards, both Alpha and Bravo reconvened in the chapel. Ch Hamel publicly reiterated the fact that Ray and I ran the CCC perfectly. We then had a joint class on running a memorial service, and all the jobs were given out. As it was going to be a Protestant service, I was not involved. Then Ch Hamel asked who would volunteer to be the point chaplain if any participant fell apart during the service. Of course, I volunteered. And during the service for SrA John Snuffy, one of the CAs ran out crying. I ran after him and counseled him outside in a concrete bunker. Thank God, the observer cut it short, because it was HOT!!!

Ch Hamel critiquing us on the Memorial Service. You can't see well in either picture, but Ch Tilley, and amazing cartoonist, made a picture of Airman Snuffy. There was a Powerpoint memorial (all made up in under an hour). We even had Taps play at the end. It was really amazing - considering there is no Airman Snuffy!

Can you see Snuffy on the right?

 After Dinner, we started doing the initial cleaning. We were also told the schedule for the rest of the exercise. There would be five optional services starting at 1730 (30 minutes each), including my second Bible study. at 2030, there would be a showing of "True Grit" with snacks and junk. We were told that in the morning, we had to have our sleeping bags and clothes on the vans at 0600, then we would clean out our tents. AT 0630 would be breakfast, than at 0700, we would do our duty assignment. Mine was the Men's Showers - thank God I didn't get latrine duty!!

Instead of going to the movie at 2030, I took a shower and called Melissa. By the time I was done it was 2115 so I went to the movie then. There were Oreos and Twizzlers, soda and chips (not kosher)... and apples! By about 2200, I decided to go to bed so I took a Unisom (it was in my pocket) and started heading for the door... where I was stopped by a group of people coming. It seems a MAJOR thunderstorm had moved in and everyone was told to leave their tents and head to the chapel. The movie ended at 2230, and I was falling on my face from the Unisom! The storm was huge, and we had no choice but to stay put. So we started playing Charades. That went on until 2330 - it was a lot of fun, as tired as I was - and then we were told to go to the tents. It was still raining, and there was thunder in the distance, but I didn't care. I got in bed and was asleep in two minutes. I was told that the storm came back and it was like WWIII over the tents. I didn't hear a thing...