Another Sunday, another week down, and four days away from getting out of New Mexico. From here, I go to Arizona for my AIT… big improvement, huh?

The past week has been occupied with rifle ranges, assault courses (low crawl under barbed wire… fun, fun, fun) a 5km road march with rucksack, and lots of practice at houseclearing. All this stuff is old hat for the infantry types here, but after ten years of not using it, it DOES get a bit rusty.

The range roads here at White Sands are lined with old telephone poles, glass insulators, and the copper wires are long since gone, salvaged for their metal, and replaced with underground fibre optics. A lot of the post is like this… relics of the past that sit, slowly decaying, remnants of the cold war. It’s a bit spooky at times.

Had my first encounter with a rattlesnake, the other day. Didn’t see him, just heard him. Not much else happening, and I’m just counting down the days. Hope y’all are doing well, and I’ll post again when I get the chance.

Salut!

Greetings from White Sands Missile Range, NM.

Just outside of Alamagordo, NM, home of Trinity nuclear test site, the mountains overlooking the base are stark, there are antelope and rattlesnakes, and I’m living pretty nicely compared to the two weeks I spent in Santa Fe.
The messhall here is GOOD… unlike Santa Fe, I haven’t had to eat powdered eggs for breakfast. I will give Sante Fe this much - They made great salsa, but considering how many of their food items needed to be drenched in salsa in order to make them palatable… well, enuf said.

So far, this week, we’ve done grenade ranges and basic Rifle ranges (my first time up I hit 32 out of 40 - Sharpshooter) and I’ve got ten more days to go here before I get to Ft. Huachuca. This is kinda’ like a short basic-training course. Road-marching, brushing up on infantry skills (tactical movement, house-clearing, and weapons skills).
While I’m not the best soldier in the company, I’m in the upper 50%, I haven’t really pissed anyone off yet, and the only member of the cadre who knows my name can’t even say ‘Enzenauer’ correctly - he keeps calling me ‘Enzyme’.

My face is sunburnt, my lips are chapped, my body is sore from all the physical activity, and I’m actually having fun doing this. If I’ve got any single complaint, it’s that there’s really nowhere to sit down in New Mexico without some kind of spiny plant poking my butt.

Life is good for now, people. Hope things are going well for y’all.
I’ll post again when I get a chance.

Tah rah-rah Boom dee-ay!
Did you get yours today?
I just got mine, today,
That’s why I walk this way!

Today was a literal pain-in-the-ass… shots, shots, and more shots. I get interview #3 for my security clearance tomorrow, and then we ship Friday for Santa Fe. This’ll probably be my last posting for about four weeks, and then I should be able to get online again.

So, until further notice, kids, have fun and give each other a hug for me!