Letters

Hey, I wanted to shoot you a quick update before I left for church. Jordan has asked that you not send anymore letters to Texas. They are getting ready to leave in a few weeks, and things are just very hectic. His superiors have asked that the soldiers try to cut back on their mail load. While he loves hearing from all of you, he needs to focus on getting ready to leave. I'll let you guys know when I have his new address and he can start accepting mail again.

Oh Jordan...

Remember how I told you he was acting much more like himself? Yeah..I now have some proof. Prepare to roll your eyes...and don't ask me what they are wearing, because I just don't really know. That is his roommate, friend, phone provider Spc. Regendanz.

Article about the detainee training

Last week I posted about the extensive 14 hour training that Jordan went through to practice his actual job. I ran across this article today and thought I'd pass it along. It focuses on the Navy going through similar training at Fort Bliss, but in the bottom right hand corner there is a picture of some of Jordan's unit members. I thought you might find it interesting!

Oh, by the way, you have to have Adobe installed on your computer to read this.

http://www.lavenpublishing.com/monitor/2007/04%20April/040507/PDF/05.pdf

Needles

Wow, our soldier was in quite the good mood last night. Giggly and silly, the Jordan we all know and love...and constantly roll our eyes at. "I'm finally comfortable stabbing other people with needles, but I really hate it when its my turn to get stuck!" He's been doing a lot of medical training this week, starting out "stabbing" dummies, and then moved on to practice on his fellow soldiers. Not sure who he "stabbed" last night, but he was pretty excited about it. However, he is getting very frustrated with sand. It has been pretty windy in Texas this week, he said his gun has never touched the ground, but is completely filled with sand because of all the wind. I told him to get over it, these sandstorms are NOTHING compared to the ones he's gonna experience in Iraq. I included a picture with this post to show you guys the sandstorms in Iraq. One minute it will be bright and calm, and the next minute it will be dark as night.

Pretty powerful and impressive in my opinion, but I sure wouldn't want to get stuck in one. Something tells me we won't be going to the beach anytime soon after he gets back hehe. (Sorry, bad joke, but it is only 9:18 on a Saturday morning.)

Ok, that's all I have for you right now, have a great week, and keep sending our soldier letters! He loves them!

BTW, the picture came from: http://photos14.flickr.com/15908314_643b14ede9_o.jpg
(That way I don't get in trouble for using a pic not my own.)

14 Hour days

The past few days have been pretty rough. They've been working them hard from noon to 1:30. He's hardly had any sleep this week and sounds completely exhausted. I could hardly understand him on the phone this morning because he was mumbling so much. They are going back to their normal schedule after Friday, but keep Jordan in your prayers for the next few days. The reason they are doing this is because they are going through all day simulations of life in a detainee camp. They are working on their actual jobs, with soldiers trained to act like detainees that they have to check-in and monitor, and Jordan has to be weary of any attack or ambush.