Hello Bloggers,

It’s Wednesday night, and I’m cleaning the house in preparation for my wonderful girlfriend Alexandra to arrive for the weekend. Today marks a month with my unit, and this week has been a long one. Probably because Sunday was a work-day for me, as I covered an M2 Machine Gun range. Although always an awesome thing to watch, I could have used the day off. The Army is making up for it though, offering a three-day weekend now, and a four day weekend for labor day.

So far getting used to the “Real Army” has involved some growing pains. Primarily, I’m bored. Everything was always so structured in training, and although it made for long days, there was always something going on, and it kept me busy and happy. Here, it’s more of a daily job, and it’s hit or miss if something interesting will happen or not. The other side of this coin is that my training primarily focused on Combat Medicine. Running into the line of fire, dragging buddies off the battlefield, and performing life-saving procedures used to stabilize my patient, until they can receive definitive care was the name of the game. Here, I’m in a clinical environment. My job involves dispensing cold and cough medicines for runny noses, writing long, drawn-out, clinical notes for patients with ankle sprains and the like, and occasionally, dealing with cysts, bed-sores, and toenail fungus. It’s definitely not the heart-pumping, adrenaline filled side of medicine, and although it’s important in it’s own right, and an essential learning tool that I need to have if I’m to be successful as a Physician Assistant someday….it just doesn’t fit the picture in my head I had when I said to myself “I’m going to go join the Army and be a Combat Medic”.

I shouldn’t be whiny. I have solid employment, great health insurance, decent pay, and well, lots of people don’t have that. I’m also a soldier in the greatest and most powerful Army in the world. That alone is enough to put a smile on my face. Things are definitely getting better too, part of my initial frustration involved not knowing anyone, not having a car to get around, and not having internet access. To say I was feeling a little isolated was an understatement. I’m better than some at being alone, but loneliness tied with a feeling of a lack of freedom was making me just a little stir-crazy. As it stands, having connected with some of my friends around the world who attended training with me, I may be one of the few actually doing ANY medical care. My friends who work in units that deploy as field hospitals are mowing lawns, pulling weeds, and washing windows. So…count my blessings I suppose. I know that it provides some comfort to those who love me that I’m not “in the line of fire” and that at the moment, deployment to the active war zone looks fairly remote. I just hope I can eventually make this experience my own, and turn it into an enjoyable one.

A closing administrative note: I forgot to mention in my introduction post, but being a member of the aforementioned Army carries with it some important responsibilities to ensure that I don’t unwittingly post information to the internet that could be harmful to our mission in the wrong hands. The Army has a term for this, it’s called Operational Security (OPSEC) and it governs how soldiers interact with the outside world both online and in real life, to ensure that we don’t aid the enemy, albeit unintentionally. The end result means that while I will do my best to share my experiences here, I will also do my best to avoid revealing publically my specific Unit, information regarding specific dates of any deployments, troop movements, or information regarding any end-strength capabilities of my or any other unit. I don’t hold any security clearances, and as such I lack any access to anything classified, but studies have shown that it’s often the smallest details, made available by parties who “don’t think the info is important” that allows our enemies to piece together the intelligence “puzzle” that diminishes our tactical advantage. I hope my audience understands, and forgives any information I have to redact from my posts for this purpose.

Goodnight World!  – Adam

Current Music: If I could do it again – Corey Smith
Current Mood: Relaxed