Day 1

I am off to Camp Pendleton. It was a little crazy getting ready to go. The LCpl booked me arriving tomorrow at 10am which is not good because it would mean I would miss my report time of 8am. I fixed that by switching flights as I am a 1K on United. But, the only flight that worked and left late enough was DEN-LAX-SAN arriving at 11:28pm. Not a great way to start a deployment. Then the 7:10 to San Diego opened up. Then it got severely delayed so I moved to the 7:15 to SNA which also got delayed due to a severe storm and late flight attendants (but not too late).

We wanted to go to Buffalo Wild Wings because William really wanted to do this before deployment. But, being NFL Sunday there was a major wait. I had to leave to get a haircut while we were just getting seated but I ended up getting a great military haircut at the Great Clips off of Sheridan and Hampden. We the. Went to T-Mobile and got everyone iPhone XS. Then a huge storm hit, all the drivers were going slow and we had to hammer it to the airport in the rain after getting soaked at T-Mobile and then at home loading suitcases.

I got to SNA, rented my car and eventually made it to Talega at Camp Pendleton. When I got there I had a hard time finding the duty hut. After several calls I found the hut and they told me I could sleep in Building # ?. They have me the wrong building number so it took some looking around to find an unlocked squad bay. When I got there it was dark and I went inside. I made my way to a rack in the squad bay and sat down. While sitting there I could hear the smoke detector beeping and after a few minutes decided there was no way I could fall asleep in that room. So, I pulled up the Hilton app and found the Hampton Inn available just outside the base gate and off I went.

I woke up on time to get to Talega (Camp where I am doing my deployment processing) by 0730. Upon arriving I met the SSGt in charge and got seated in the classroom. After talking to the SSGt I found out I would likely be flying out to Qatar two weeks from Wednesday.

We sat through a couple of classes (Truamaric Brain Injury, USESERA, etc) and got briefed on our whole schedule. I worked on my security clearance and getting my usmc.mil email going.

Eventually I decided that the squad bays were too horrible so I would stay somewhere else. So I called around and ended up at Ward Lodge this week and Sharky’s next week.

That I’m night I picked up Braden and we headed to watch the Broncos at BJs.

The Broncos looked terrible. Looks like my 2-14 prediction may be a reality.

The day started early today because I had the CFT at 0645. It was a longer drive from Ward Lodge then expected. But I got there with 15 minutes to spare and warmed up. Then we started late so no big deal.

However, while I crushed the movement to contact (2:39) and movement under fire (2:22) I screwed up the ammo can lift and only got 103 out of 106 for a total score of 296 out of 300. I thought that the ammo can lift was a lock, but it was harder then expected and then I think the counter messed up by 10 and I panicked and set the van down too much. This resulted in me barely getting 103 and the time ran out. Next time I need a plan (get to 70, then rest, and future rests with can on chest ... I was strong enough to power through and just should of .... arghh ... always missing the perfect score).

After that I started to work on medical. I was asked about 5 times (literally) how much alcohol I drink, if I’m on medications, etc. The number of duplicative forms is incredible. My records showed my DNA was not in the registry so I had to go to the main Camp Pendleton hospital and stand in line, get my blood drawn, etc.

I ended the work day by heading to the exchange. It took 3 hours to get my evening dress, dress blues updated (needed new blue and alpha coat). It was mind numbing ... and I still need to go back and figure out what accessories I need.

Then some fun ... I went with Lt Col Braden to the Padres game. We took the Coaster down, hit the game and ended up unerring back. Great evening, but I need to take some rime to work on taxes.

A little tired from the game last night, but it’s all good.

I turned on CNN and saw it was the anniversary of 9/11. It felt good to be in uniform on such an important day.

The day started at medical getting multiple blood drawn and multiple shots. I started the hep series again for probably the 12th time. Anthrax (told not a fan favorite), tetanus, and hello fever (pretty sure I just for this for Africa).

After the shots I felt like garbage so I took a nap and did not accomplish much the rest of the day. At medical surprisingly enough my hearing was rated as excellent and pretty much the same as 2005 when it was last done. Don’t tell Abby as it’s better if I don’t hear her maybe ...

And now I remember ... after medical I had to get an ANAM test which is a test on a computer to get

So, I need to do way better on this journal. We do some cool stuff and I have some exciting emotions, but then I end up having to catch up.

Today was actually a fun day, but sleeping was awful. After staying at the Hampton Inn the first day I got a room at Ward Lodge for the rest of this week and Sharky’s for next week.

I would have thought I would get way more running and work from home done. But, Braden is out here so I am ending up going out with him and not getting as much done.

This night I slept horribly. I had the chills, etc. I think maybe getting the yellow fever vaccine for at least the fourth time (and Abby is pretty sure I got it in May as well for Africa) as well as anthrax, Hep series 1 (this is for sure the third time I have gotten series 1), TB and something else ...

I could not sleep so I worked on taxes from 2-5:30 which was good as I got a shit ton of taxes done. But, bad for work.

Also our bank is driving me crazy. The online system is broken so I cannot download transactions into excel or import to qb. So it’s looking at statements one at a time and is awful. And I can’t get the statements before March 2018. Arghhh ...

Well, onto training. It was a super fun training day. First we did simulated rollover training. This was super cool. The group of us who are in this cycle at the Deployment Processing Center (DPC) went into a simulator truck that pretends to roll over and you have to escape. When it rolls over you are hanging sideways or upside down by your seatbelts. Then you have to release your seatbelts, get out, and pretend to provide security around the simulator ... all while carrying a fake M-16. We did pretty good getting out. However when we were upside down a bunch of the Marines would just pop their seatbelts and fall to the ceiling. This banged then pretty good. I did it rock climbing style and put my foot down and my had which totally braced me and I had no impact ... win one for me in that training evolution.

Next we had the gas chamber .. I hiked with another Major over and we had to bush whack some. That Major is super grumpy and kept complaining about the immaturity of the Captains.

The new gas masks (last time I did this was at TBS with these gas masks with huge metal canisters) are fantastic. I had a little burning on my face where I had shaved and that’s it. Clearing the mask was easy, etc.

Not a bad day. Went into Oceanside for dinner with Braden and Captain Flores.

Friday is here. This week went by fast and it continues to be exciting to be inactive duty. One of my runners, Josh Reynolds, emailed me and that was great to hear from him.

Today we had IED training and we learned how to use the Thor jamming system as well as another vehicle mounted system. That was a pretty interesting class. Great instructor who had tons of combat experience.

Then I got down to MCRD, had a good run/core workout and caught a plane back home.

Day 205 of 210.

I’m excited for this deployment. Good to be going home for the weekend to see the family. And good to catch up on this journal. I’m not too happy about having to do taxes this weekend though.

I felt so bad this week I did not run and do core so it was good to be back. But, the run was super hard. I seriously think those immunizations are impacting me big time.

I got new boots yesterday. They are awesome and the new Danner boots ...

Got upgraded to first class so that was a major plus.

Really great day of training and now on my way back to Denver for the weekend.