Ft. Benning

I'm sitting here alone in the hallway of a barracks located at Ft. Benning, GA. It's 10 pm and I have an hour to go on my shift as "fire guard." Basically, I'm just supposed to sit here and make sure a fire doesn't burn everyone alive. Apparently smoke detectors do not fit into the military's multi-billion dollar budget. I'm alone because we have formation at 4:15 tomorrow morning (just like we did today) and so everybody else is asleep. I'm going to be very tired, but at least I don't have the 1-3 am shift.
I'm here at Ft. Benning for six weeks of Army training, which is really infantry training. Each week consists of a different skill. This week is first responder training, so we'll be out in the field with our tactical gear learning first aid, etc. Next week is the obstacle course and the third week is land navigation. The fourth is weapons certification (9mm and M-4) and the fifth is combatives (martial arts). The last week is mainly outprocessing and then I'll move on to San Antonio. The schedule here is pretty intense and it's very different being with infantrymen as opposed to the JAG officers who were in charge of us at Charlottesville. For one thing, they focus a lot more on killing. Our first morning, they took us out on a slow jog and had us singing cadence. One went like this: "left, right, left, right, kill, kill, kill; left, right, left, right, you know I will." And that was one of the tamer cadences they had us chanting.
The hardest part is that Lorein and Carter are back in Temecula. I guess Carter loves it because he finally has some space to play in and some toys to play with. On my part, however, I miss them a lot. It's made doubly difficult by the fact I hardly have any time to talk with them. Oh well, it should hopefully go by fast. As one of my friend says, it's only 25 business days, and 2 of them are done with! Plus, we get a four-day weekend this weekend for Columbus Day. It will be the first time this westerner has ever gotten Columbus Day off and I am looking forward to it. Man, I should've been in bed 2 hours ago.