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[Org]

Hop?
 

[Heron TSG]

I wonder when I'll get mine...?

[Aqizzar]

Well, it apparently took mine a week to travel from Louisville to DFW, so I wouldn't get too concerned about it.

[Heron TSG]

Oh, right. I forgot about how slow paper moves across the country. It'll take weeks for it to get here at that rate, though. Coast to Coast mailing speeds are hampered somewhat by huge distance. Good to hear that his JROTC paid off.

[Jackrabbit]

This is really awesome. Hope to hear from him again soon.

[Aqizzar]

As long as this is here and anyone's paying attention, once I get a letter from Strife I can respond to, I'll be sending something.  Anyone have something to want in a letter?

[Jackrabbit]

I can't actually think of anything. Tell him hi from me, and I'm looking forward to hearing about what it's like.

[sonerohi]

Make sure he informs us of zany shenanigans, should he get up to any.

[Heron TSG]

Spoiler: Letter (click to show/hide)

Dear Barbarossa,

   Life's easy in the army, at the moment I'm currently stuck in reception, waiting for assignment to a tanker training unit. 200 or so other 19 kilos [A type of tank] waiting here as well. We've got a few 19 deltas [Another type of tank] as well, but half of them are a bit too concerned with the tank/scout rivalry (Deltas are cavalry scouts, eventually going into Bradley IFU's when they aren't dismounted.) Hopefully, I'll be shipping on Thursday, the 22nd. Until then, I don't have a return address.
   Apologies for the stationary, we were all run through the PT to buy stuff, and this somewhat tacky stationary set was on the list. Easier than tear pages out of my notebook, I guess.
   Not a hell of a lot else going on, I've volunteered for 4 hour long shifts of guard duty, so that'll probably be fun. I'll write again when there's something to report, I suppose.

                           Strife26,
                              [Indecipherable word, maybe farewell? for now?]!

Anyone have anything they want to say before I write back? It'll be a bit before I get a return address, though.

[smigenboger]

I say hi, though I'm sure so many people will say hi we can either overwhelm him with a massive list, or say GD in general. How's the food, once he gets shipped out?

[Org]

Hi.

[Heron TSG]

Spoiler: letter (click to show/hide)

June 22, 2010: 0635

Dear Barbarossa,

   Today should be the last day that I'm stuck in reception. The current plan is for the 19 kilos to ship at 0900 tomorrow. [There's an] Annoy[ing] shortage of washing machines and dryers, so I'm stuck waiting until I get one before I can pack my rucksack. I've fallen into third in command for my group, it appears. Nothing official in our organization yet, but the guy who sleeps under me has been taking charge while 039 has been backing him up. I've been making sure that they're doing okay and trying to get them to sleep enough (somewhat successfully) I don't have the personal charisma or mindset to lead at the moment, so I'm happy with this arrangement. We'll see how platoon assignments work out once we're down range. I'm running low on writing supplies, helped a bit when I traded some of my stamps for envelopes, low on stamps now. I'll send a letter with my address as soon as possible, but after that, I'll probably have to resort to sending two letters per envelope, at least until we're allowed to go buy more stamps and envelopes. In any case, morale's high, and I'm damned ready to get down range and get this done.

                                                                                                            No fear, Strife26.

It looks like all is well, and the mail transit time is shorter than I thought, to boot.

[Aqizzar]

Letter came a couple days ago, timestamped before Barbarossa's last letter.  Just because, hey, we do this now.  I forgot to type it up, whatever, six day mail lag makes it kinda pointless.

Spoiler: Folded letter (click to show/hide)

July 20^th     0207

Too fucking early ^

Dear Aqizzar,

Life continues in the 46^th AG (reception) Battalion.  It looks like myself and my fellow 195 group 19K's [sic] have finished everything we need for processing.  Just a matter of waiting for a group to be taken down-range to basic now.  Hopefully, it won't be six months and a couple states away.

I spent Sunday down with God-awful chest pains, we've got a trained paramedic (several, actually) amongst our number, and he guessed that it was probably just my heart and other organs trying to catch up to the rest of my body.  Seriously considered going to the hospital, but didn't want to bother the drill sergeants (who've got it much worse than us).  Spent the night wishing I'd fall asleep.  Happliy, considering I probably couldn't go taken much more, I was feeling better on Monday.  Just a bit of pressure left at the moment, nothing I can't handle.

I still managed to get to church service on Sunday.  Strange mix of new-age Lutheran stuff, like a giant screen, music videos, and a movie clip for part of the sermon vs. the old form for parts of the service (words that even my ultra independent, slow-moving, arch-lib old-fashioned, arch-liberal church changed years ago).  Good service overall, but bussing to and from it was a pain.

I regret not visiting my own church before I left home.  I'd been out of town doing something every Sunday, but I'm not sure if it would have been better to leave St. Paul early and go to church instead of visiting the Mall of America.

Tired as hell, but feeling pain free and happy.  Still no address.  A few of the psychopathic/suicidal/injured privates were allowed to rejoin the group (the guarded room where the line of sight privates sleep isn't all that big).  Sent another guy to the hospital with as a heat causulty [sic]. I've been eating and drinking less since Sunday, but I'm going to try to rectify that today.  Overall, life's good.  I'll probably write again when I have a real address.

- Strife26

Post Signing: Crappy small envelopes.  Appologies [sic] for the folding.

I'm only including the strikes and misspellings for the sake of good faith.  Bootcamp sounds like nothing I imagined so far; everyone's cordial, but you have to wait for weeks before doing anything apparently, and the suicidal/psychopathic people are temporarily quarantined before rejoining the system.  I have no idea how any of this works.  He's not kidding about these cheapass envelopes either.

[JoshuaFH]

Now, reading this, I feel I took Strife for granted. Even though I was never one to converse with others frequently, I think that perhaps I should've talked with him more before he went off to boot camp or whereever he is.

[Heron TSG]

Letter came a couple days ago, timestamped before Barbarossa's last letter.  Just because, hey, we do this now.  I forgot to type it up, whatever, six day mail lag makes it kinda pointless.

Six days from Kentucky to Texas? That's weird. It only took two days for my last letter to get to Washington. They must have an air service for coast-to-coast mail.