Contingency Skills Training Completed

Contingency Skills training concluded with several days in the classroom learning more about how to counsel those with combat related stress and injuries. While some of this was a refresher of earlier training, there were new insights as well. I was glad when Friday rolled around so that I could join my family for a long 4th of July weekend. I took some leave over the holiday and we went to the beach, which is not far from Andrews. We needed some down time.

Here are a few pictures from our days in the field.

This is my chaplain assistant who will be going down range with me soon as we deploy.















Here I am geared up riding in a "hummer". It's amazing how fun it is to run around in the woods being shot at with simulated rounds while wearing 75 pounds in body armour, kevlar helmet, and other gear. The truly amazing thing is how fast one gets used to the extra weight.



















Here we are returning from the field and my fire team is getting ready to turn in weapons and vehicles. (Of course chaplains don't carry weapons.) You can see on of the Security Forces people from McDill who made up my fire team standing in the open turrent of the hummer.


















Here you can see a guard tower at a compound on Fort Dix that is now used for Fire Base defense training -- which reportedly was once used as a compound in World War II to house prisioners of war.