It's The Final Countdown...

I've got less than a week to go before I ship out to Kabul, so we're definitely in the Final Countdown (it's a little embarrassing to think how much I liked this song when I was in high school)

Hard to believe it's almost time to go. I think we're all as ready as we can be - I'm all trained, immunized, packed and completely paperworked. The pantry is stocked with extras, the finances and vehicles and wills and powers of attorney are all in good shape. We even made Christmas ornaments and wrapped some of the gifts. And yet the list of extra little things we could / should do before I depart always seems about the same length as ever.

Getting ready has certainly been an adventure. From the time my deployment manager sent me to the wrong training ("Can you get on a plane to Seattle this afternoon, sir?" *Two days later* "Oops, you were actually supposed to go to Norway...") to the surprisingly mild Texas weather for my (correct) combat training to the surprisingly claustrophobic feeling I got when I first put on a gas mask, there's been a lot of surprises.

For example, on Thursday I went to pick up my M4 rifle, only to be told it wasn't there. And they didn't have any spares. And could I come back on Monday to re-shoot and re-sight a new rifle? ("We'll probably have one by Monday..."). Sure, no prob. See ya on Monday.

It's just the latest example of the need to be flexible and patient. And maybe that's the best training I've had so far - training in being understanding when things go wonky no matter how much I pay attention to detail (When I shot my first M4, I asked twice to confirm whether that specific rifle would be held for me to pick up. I got a "yes, sir" twice, and I watched them tag it with my name. God knows what happened to it after that).

No doubt there will be many opportunities to practice being flexible and patient during the next 6 months. But I'm not worried. Like I said, I've been well trained.