I'm back from Boot Camp and boy is my skin tired

Just a quick recap of my trip. I drove all of the way to Fort Benning, Georgia on Thursday. The trip was uneventful except that I hit rush hour traffic in Atlanta which was particularly un-fun. I had a GPS for the trip and it was really helpful. When I pulled out of my driveway in the morning at 8:30am it indicated that I would arrive at 8:04pm (eastern). This turned out to be like playing a video game and trying to beat the clock. I did learn, what we have already all been told, is that speeding does not really get you anywhere a whole lot faster. If the speed limit is 70mph and you are travelling at roughly 15mph over the speed limit, you have to drive a long way at that speed just to knock a single minute off of your arrival time. Meanwhile, every time you pull over to a rest stop, gas up, or hit traffic congestion, you 'lose' minutes at a rapid pace.

Before I hit Atlanta I was almost thirty minutes 'ahead of schedule' due to cruise control and a constant effort to stay with the other lead foots in the left hand Lane the entire way. After sloughing through Atlanta rush hour traffic I was well off of my schedule. I tried to make up time and ended up arriving at my destination at 8:02pm, two minutes earlier than the GPS had predicted ten and a half hours earlier.

On Friday morning I drove to Fort Benning for my son's graduation from boot camp. They put on quite a show. First the army marching band played while, unbeknownst to me, the woods behind the parade field were slowly getting filled with camouflaged soldiers. At the appointed time, all of the sudden gunfire rang out, grenades went off, large fire ball explosions occur ed, colored smoke bombs filled the air, a tank and an APC came tearing onto the field, and a group of heavily armed soldiers came walking through the smoke. It was very impressive! All of this to say, "This is what your son has learned how to do."

After some speeches the ceremony concluded with the soldiers oath and I was able to meet my son. He is largely the same but certainly has been transformed into a competent soldier. As he is going into the Army Ranger program his boot camp experience was particularly intense. I won't go into the details, but it was extremely impressive.

For anyone out there who thinks the Army has lowered its standards or just anyone can get in, it is about time you rethink that. My son estimates about thirty people were cut from his group and the mental and physical training he endured was of the highest caliber.

Starting on Monday he enters airborne training and, a few weeks later, will entire the RIP program to become an Army Ranger. This, let me assure you, is no joke. His dedication to becoming the best soldier he can be is very impressive and I am incredibly proud of him.

After graduation we spent the day together, had some nice meals, and saw some movies at the theatre. On Saturday he went off to spend the rest of his rare weekend pass with one of his friends. During 14 weeks of boot camp he had only a single 36 hour pass for that time. The rest was a full twenty four hour a day, seven days a week, intense experience of complete and total immersion training.

I drove back yesterday and dodged thunderstorms the entire way. On the way I stopped and visited with the Widow's Son of the Burning Taper weblog. It was a very pleasant visit and I'm glad I took the time to meet up with one of my Internet brethren. It was also a nice opportunity to drive through some of the more rural areas of Georgia which was absolutely beautiful.

After driving for well over twenty four hours with the top down on my car in a few days, my skin is both sunburned and windburned. I'm figuring spending this afternoon boating should pretty much top the whole weekend off nicely.

That's about all of the time I have to share for now. I will try to upload some photographs from conclave sometime this week.