Life at Fort Drum

"They say that Fort Drum is the Army's best kept secret. I now know why...it's buried under snow damn near year-round!" - PV2 Evans

Let it Snow...
Snow, snow and more snow...and when your platoon is on snow removal, what do you do...shovel snow, snow and of course more snow...

Army Life...
Josh has been settling into Army life at Fort Drum...there is down time, Army busy work, platoon duties and PT that fill his day. He has had a few four day weekends tossed into the mix as well. He has made new friends and found a few survivors from his days at Fort Leonard Wood, they share rides to Walmart and Best Buy and other locations around Watertown NY, the town ten miles from the Fort.

Off Duty...
His new Army family gets together for Halloween parties for the kids, Thanksgiving potlucks and other social activities...Josh was "adopted" by a buddy and spent Thanksgiving at their home, they had a big dinner with all the trimmings and settled in for a video-game marathon later...

Army Exodous...
The Army likes to send soldiers home whenever possible to be with family in a program called "Army Exodous" simply put, they send as many soldiers home as possible, even from BCT...I have connected with a couple of of other Army moms and they are all expecting their soldiers home from Germany, Iraq and Fort Riley Kansas. Josh gets to come home too...he will be here in Phoenix for a week and a half starting December 27 and he leaves the day after my 50th birthday...we are literally counting down the minutes to the trip to the airport...

Josh's actual Christmas was 24 hour guard type duty for the barracks...from 7am Christmas Eve to 7am Christmas day...I imagine as I type this, he is still sleeping...we are hoping for a Skype later...

The Road Ahead...
When Josh gets back to Fort Drum he will start a two and a half month field training cycle, then his platoon will take to the roads for a couple of months and then once again they will embark on another field training cycle. Sometime after this second training cycle, Josh and his platoon will be deployed. Most likely in the last quarter of the year, destination is not official...

Trent...
For those of you keeping track of Trent, Josh's buddy in Afghanistan, he is very busy but checks into Facebook from time to time and his folks post updates too. He is in a cycle where he's off base for six to seven days, back for one and then back out on patrol...his deployment ends February 15th, 2011. Then back to Fort Drum...I know these two soldiers will be happy to see each other...

So, from our family to yours, a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year!

If you are inclined to prayer, please keep all of our troops in yours...