Hurricane Duty, Sept '08

Well, Hurricane Gustav scared the tar out of people in Louisiana, and I guess Governor Mark Sanford didn't want to look like he'd been caught not doing his homework, because when Hanna looked like she might impact Florida, Georgia, and SC, they decided to activate the SCARNG.

I got the call Tuesday afternoon, and had to report on Wednesday morning. We were doing prep-work at the armory Wednesday and Thursday, and then by Thursday afternoon, things looked pretty good, so the govt. decided not to pre-deploy us to the coast, and instead sent us all home.












That was the drill floor as we were getting ready. Most of the black boxes are stuff that got shipped home from Afghanistan. We have about 50% of the unit as guys who were deployed, and about 50% who were "stay behinds" for whatever reason.

I got reassigned to SSG Anderson's squad, in SSG Simpson's platoon. This is the best place for me, honestly, because SSG Simpson was my squad leader when he first joined the unit, and SSG Anderson and I were junior enlisted soldiers together, many years ago (like 10+), so I know both of them and have a lot of respect for them.

No pictures of my gear all spread out to be packed, nor pictures of the hurricane, sadly. Maybe next time.