Chemical Burns

Just a short post today, but I thought you'd be interested in hearing about Jordan's ordeal Saturday. They had to be sprayed with a substance similar to pepper spray, only much much stronger. I believe he called it OSD? Anyway, he said it was made with Habenero peppers! For those of you not familiar with the culinary world, Habeneros are the hottest peppers on earth. When you cook with them you have to be extremely careful not to touch your eyes, and you have to wash your hands frequently to prevent the burning sensation. So of course, the military creates a powerful stunning spray out of them, and in order to be allowed to carry it, our soldier had to be sprayed from ear to ear, then go through a mild obstacle course, pretty much completely blind. I believe he was sprayed in early afternoon, and he was still burning when he called me around 8:30, even AFTER taking a long shower! He said that the soldiers had to be very careful when showering to lean over so the water didn't run down their bodies, spreading the burn to certain valuable areas. I imagine there was quite a lot of screaming and shouting in that locker room! A fellow soldier, Matt, got sprayed today, I'm anxious to find out how he fared. He is the fiance of a new friend of mine, Lauren, who I met through the Family Readiness Group. She's my so-called Battle Buddy. He was teasing Jordan the other day because Jordan was burning, so we'll just see how HE handled it! Haha!

Well this ended up longer than I meant it to, but that's how it usually goes. Keep Jordan in your prayers tomorrow. He has to be awake and ready in "Full-Battle Rattle" (all of his gear) at 5 am tomorrow so he can stand in line to get yet another Anthrax shot. He STILL has a wound from his smallpox shot that he was administered a few weeks ago! (He isn't the only one, don't worry, that was the first thing I asked, to make sure that was normal!) These shots really take their toll on Jordan, he is NOT a fan of needles, and it seems like every time he turns around he's getting stuck again, so keep him in your thoughts (as if he wasn't already there!).