Almost Done

I took these pictures off the FRG Website. FRG stands for "Family Readiness Group." This site provides families with updates and photos of the 3-116th. Each company has their own site and soon each platoon will have a site. Eli has been asked to be the FRG Officer for their platoon - a logical choice given his ability to talk and write. He's been taking lots of pictures - they call him for the "Kodak moments." When we get together in Mississippi I'll get all his photos and be able to post some of them here. The photos here are ones I took off the FRG site for Bravo Company. You can pick Seth out waiting his turn for Marksmenship Qualification. If you click on the picture you can enlarge it and see his smiling face.....actually, he's looking a little bored! The other photo is Bravo Company....Seth and Eli's company.
Jan and I took a walk with Eli last night. Or at least it seemed that way. Jan and I had just set out for our usual evening walk over at the Rehab Center. This is a beautiful walk around the lake and down through the woods that we enjoy. Right at the start of our walk Eli called. I put him on speakerphone on the cell and we walked and talked during the entire walk. When we were finished I thanked Eli for walking with us. They had just returned from five days at the FOB (a mock forward operating base where they can practice real life situations.) They had spent the week doing MPC - mounted patrol convoys. Eli had been pressed into service as a humvee driver since they are short of drivers and he has his humvee license. He is licensed to drive the humvee ambulance and I guess if you can drive one humvee you can drive another. They did a lot of scenario practice and Eli noted that when the 50 cal gun fired from the top of his humvee it shook the entire vehicle. Seth was manning the 240 in the humvee in front of Eli's so he got to watch Seth in action firing the big gun. The 50 cal is a mounted machine gun and as Eli has said the 240 is just a BIG GUN! Imagine how that shakes the humvee.
They leave Sunday for five more days of training at the FOB. Training will be over at that point and we'll be a few days from our time at the Gulf. There's no departure date set in stone, but the boys feel it will be the week after leave. They have been told that they'll go to Kuiwait first and probably spend about two weeks there before heading to their destination in Iraq. One step at a time.....looking forward to spending time in Gulfport, Mississippi.