Relax

Alright, relax people, take a joke. I did get Anthrax and Small Pox, but they were vaccines! Geez, if it were something serious you'd know. Stop watching the news for a minute and thinking of the worst case scenario. All that "Troops dying in Iraq" BS will not ease your mind any.

On another note, I did manage to crack and chip some teeth during training. I'm beginning to think I should start wearing a mouth-piece.

Training is going well. Its hard at times, especially being a team leader (I got promoted). It sucks a lot of the time too, but you have to drive on and accomplish the mission. 18 months of this isn't going to be easy, but it isn't going to be impossible either.

Today is the first partial day off we've had since the start of the deployment a month ago. 16 hour days for over 21 days straight make one long for even a few moments of personal time. Next time you complain about going to work for 8 or 9 hours think of us. Its a 24 hour a day job.

that's about all I have. I don't want to get in depth with training, just know that we're learning the necessary skills we need to apply when we get to Iraq in order to accomplish our mission.

Disease

Its not every day you can say you got small pox and anthrax.

The South

Hello from southern USA, and I do mean southern. The area we're in is like a completely different world, complete with its own other language. Yesterday we seriously thought about getting an interpreter to translate Mississippin' to Minnesotan'. The food is daaaamn good though. Southern women sure know how to cook.

There is hurricane damage everywhere. They are working every day on cleaning up Mississippi, but it is going to take months. We are 60 miles north of the coast, and there are thousands of trees and hundereds of roofs that are destroyed. People are sleeping in campers and RV's everywhere. There are buildings around base that are laying in big piles, remenents of what they used to be.

Training is going slow but well. The six months we're down here is gonna be long, but manageable. So far I'm doing ok as far as supplies go. I haven't really had much personal time, so don't worry about looking for things to pass my time. I don't think that's going to happen until I get to Iraq around March or April.

I'll be home for xmas, but only for a few days (until like the 3rd of Jan.) Sorry if you haven't heard from me, its a challenge to keep in contact with everyone. Just know that I'm doing ok, and we're training hard for 12 months in the sand box. I'll write more when I have time.

"Ya'll take care now."

New Address.

J.R. gave me the wrong address the other night so here we go with the correct one. He doesn't yet have an APO address, but when he recieves one either J.R. or I will post it for everyone.

Specialist Salzman
A Co 1-133
Building 2135-2490
25th Street
Camp Shelby, MS 39407

The picture he e-mailed me tonight from his cell phone and is of the tent that he is currently living in while training.

-Josie

Address

This is the address JR text messaged to me earlier tonight. He wanted me to post it so that everyone could have it. He has safely made it to MS and they are already out in the field training for two-three weeks. Unfortunately they aren't allowed to use their phones at this time so don't panic if you don't hear back from him right away. Josie

Specialist Salzman
A Co 1-133
Building 2136
2490 25th Street
Camp Shelby, MS
39407

Shipping Off

Next time we talk it'll be from Mississippi.

First Post

This weblog is going to be used on my deployment when I can post. Hopefully I can keep people updated on what is going on with me, so people don't have to worry while I'm gone. Keep checking here for updates. I'll do what I can.