Week In Review (Dec 6th-12th 2010)

This week was highlighted by my first trip out in the field with the Marines. 

Monday was a typical Monday for me fraught with meetings all day.  While I'm not the biggest fan of scheduling meetings all day, it does free up the rest of the week for getting out of the office to be with the Marines I serve.  We also had a chaplain and RP training that focused on the gear we carry and how to put it all together so that training had some great value.  Plus, we were shown some of the new gear coming out next year that may lighten the load a bit. 

Tuesday was spent in the field all day.  I got out there around 1000 with one company to see them do some training on a variety of topics focusing on their squad level leadership.  At about 1600 I went to visit a second company which is the one I stayed overnight with.  It was extremely cold that night with a low around 15 without the wind chill.  I'm grateful for an effective sleeping bag they issued me as that was the warmest I was all day once I got in the bag for the night.  I now know what gear I need to buy to stay warmer when we do the Battalion wide Field Exercise next month. 

Wednesday was fairly light as I was recovering/warming up from the previous night.  I did get to PT with the Navy Corpsmen for the first time and of course I decide to go on the day they get in trouble with the HMC so he decides to make PT memorable for them.  I felt that one for a day or so. 

Thursday included a visit to the barracks to talk with the Marines on duty, something I try to make time for each week.  Got some great conversations in and really enjoyed those visits.  I think I ended up out there for about 2 hours. 

Friday was a day full of counseling and checking in 65 new Marines that just graduated from the School of Infantry.  After that was done I had to take off to the lawyer's office to close on the house and then went back to work for a few minutes to check on any last minute issues that might have come up.  Then I got to enjoy the first weekend here since I moved and got a good run in on Saturday and visited a local church today as well as getting things unpacked at bit and getting a new washer and dryer then doing three weeks worth of laundry.