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.

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.

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!).

1 Month Down...

17 left to go.

Can you believe how fast this first month has gone? So far it is going pretty well for Jordan, and hopefully it continues to. They've had some rough exercises lately. He had to learn some kind of hand-to-hand combat yesterday, he told me it was the same kind of thing Steven Segal uses in his movies, but as I've never seen a Steven Segal movie, I have NO idea what he's talking about. He was pretty sore last night when I talked to him, thinks he pulled the muscle behind his knee, but I'm sure he'll be fine. He had to go up against 5 trainers wearing big pads. "Haley, I so kicked ass in that ring! I only got pushed down once, and when I did, I landed in a roll and jumped right back up again like it never happened!" His confidence is growing with every training exercise, and his perspective on life is starting to change. He's still the silly, obnoxious Jordan we love, but I think he is growing up. As much as I hate to quote that ridiculously stupid motto, he really is becoming "Army Strong."

Jordan has a Mustache

Sigh...for some reason he thinks he looks good with a mustache...anyway, here's the most recent picture. That is Specialist Maag next to him.

Funny story, we were talking on the phone and I was teasing him about his mustache. All of the sudden he started yelping like a wounded puppy. He had switched positions, and in doing so, raked the phone across his face, yanking out some of his new mustache hairs. I TOLD him that mustache was a bad idea!!

Short Update

The training continues...classes on GPS and radio-speak, driving around the desert in a Humvee, things like that. He seems to be doing well, he's gotten into a basic routine. I hear from him almost every night, unless there is night training.

Also, I created a Facebook profile for Jordan, so if you are online, you might add him. He misses his friends and I think wants a way to communicate more easily. He may not check it every day, but if you leave messages, he'll get back to you when he can. Also, I've set it up so this blog is imported onto his Facebook Note section, to make it easier for his friends to read.

Unfortunately that's about all I can give you for now, just keep praying for him, as the time away is starting to show in his fellow soldiers and himself.

Jordan's New Toy

Hey, I know some of you will like this pic. Apparently he got a new gun, but to tell you the truth, aside from the brand new scope, I really can't tell the difference between this one and his last one. It is pretty awesome though!

Lightening in the Sky

I just got off the phone from our soldier, and he was in an amazing mood. He said he spent the day in classes learning about Iraqis and their culture. I expected him to say it was really boring (he's not one for lectures and classes), but he loved it. There's so much to learn about the people that the media does not portray. He was sitting outside when he called, waiting on his laundry to get done, and a ways away he could hear artillery fire. A Canadian unit was training their soldiers and setting off major weaponry. I could hear it in the background, pretty impressive sounding! Every so often , he said, the sky would light up in a big dome of light, kind of like when you see heat lightening in the summer.

It looks like he's having a great time, so far (unfortunately for us) he doesn't seem to be too homesick. Let's hope for his sake that his attitude stays this positive!