or fries, whatever........
Ok, maybe I'll just be in and out.
Welcome to Tacoma, where the sun never shines and the children run scared..........It's not a bad place, just wet. According to the oh so wonderful wikipedia, Tacoma is one of the most livable cities in the country, and the most walkable. Also, one of the most stressed out, based off of un-employment, depression, poverty rates, crime, rape, suicide rates, and number of days the sun shines (about 10 minutes total since I've been here.)
And just for fun, it has one of the highest rates of registered sex offenders in the country. Yay!!!! It seems that there's an island in the sound where they have a prison (McNeil Island Corrections Center) that is the only one in the country where they send sexual predators from all over. And naturally upon getting out, they settle here. Wheee!!!!!!! Over 2500 in Tacoma and still going up, up, up!!!!!!
At any rate, I am overjoyed to find myself going back to the 2nd Infantry Division...........sigh................Second to None, my ass, where I should be deploying with the 4th Stryker Brigade in March. On the plus side, I got some totally cool gear at CIF (central issue facility) today, including the new new flak vests, with plates!!!, the new style rucksack, the new uber light kevlar helmets, a nifty brand new camel bag, more polypros, my eighteen gazillionth neck gaiter, a woobie (God bless the man that invented the woobie), and a self inflating sleeping mat. And just who says that going to war is all bad?
Inprocessing here is not bad. They don't lock you down; you can drink; you can drive (just not at the same time, and neither one in the barracks), it's just excruciatingly slow. It takes six business days, and with the long weekend, that's 11 or 12 days overall. As opposed to the usual 3 at most places. Meh. So I'm over at the post rec center tonight. King of the pool tables, baby. Oh yeah, and I turned 30 yesterday.
Stay tuned for exciting developments in our hero's story.
Yours truly,
Nbs.