It's hoTT outside!

We've been coming back from the field on a daily basis (a pleasant surprise) to shower. The temperature has been in the upper 90's with the heat index in the 110's - 120's. We weren't supposed to return from the field yesterday but there was a severe thunderstorm in the area. A private on Sand Hill (basic training side of Ft. Benning -- for those non-military folks) was struck by lightning; and we had over 20 heat casualties (3 serious enought to be sent to the ER). People were dropping left and right. Luckily only one person from my platoon was a casualty, he just needed to sit in the air conditioned truck for a few minutes. Apparantly, the ones who were dropping weren't eating their MRE's. I know that they suck and have 3000 calories in them, but I'll eat it to not allow myself to become a heat victim. I only fell victim to fire ant bites, heat rash, and a blister on the back of my heal the size of a silver dollar.

We had our land navigation practice test on Tuesday morning. If we passed, we didn't have to go out again the next morning. I passed because I knew that I wasn't going to wake-up at the butt crack of dawn (aka 0230). 44 out of 110 failed so they went out again the second morning, Wednesday. On the final day, 17 had to go out again. The entire company passed. Thank goodness, no one was recycled due land navigation failures.

Last night we came back and spent the night in the barracks. Today we conducted squad movements and expected to spend the night in the field. But NO, we came back about 1300, ate a MRE, showered, and are currently resting for our 7 mile tactical ruck march.