Guess Who's Back...

Hello, everyone. Yes, it's me...the Nigh family soldier! I've returned to the lofty forefront of our tiny little corner of cyberspace. I don't know that I necessarily have a whole lot of news to share on here, so much as I have my own perspective to offer on some of the things that Lisa has already posted about my time in Basic Training and Officer Candidate School. But, it is a lot of time to cover in just one post. So, forgive the repeats.

So, going all the way back to March 9, the day that I left. At the MEPS in Milwaukee, while I was sitting and waiting for hours on end, my sweetheart came and tapped me on the shoulder. It was wonderful to see her and difficult at the same time, as I knew that I would not be seeing her again for a very long time. I was called back with a number of other people to receive our travel briefing, then we had to wait for the MEPS people to call us up to get on a shuttle for the airport. Then, I bid a tearful goodbye to my Lisa before leaving her for what would seem like a very long time. My flight got delayed a little and we got into Atlanta fairly late. They couldn't fit all of us onto the bus that was there to take us down to Fort Benning, and I ended up with the unfortunate lot who got to stay behind and wait for the next bus. We did finally make it to 30th AG, the reception battalion at Fort Benning, around midnight. But, rather than put us to bed when we got there, they took us to get our PT issue and fill out our first round of paperwork. It was a really late night. The next week or so would be very much the same, wake up early to screaming drill sergeants, go eat, then stand in line for shots, stand in line for paperwork, stand in line for haircuts, stand in line for eye exams, stand in line for clothing, stand in line for dental x-rays, I swear we sometimes stood in line just for the sake of standing in line. Then of course, we would eat lunch, followed by more standing in line, then eat dinner, followed by standing in formation (a nice change from standing in line...I guess) and finally going to bed. I'm fairly certain that one of the missions of the reception battalions is to make certain that the new soldiers are all familiarized with the Army's standing principle of "hurry up and wait" before they even get out into the regular Army. They did a good job. I got it.

Then, on a Tuesday afternoon, all of us who were lucky enough to be leaving 30th AG brought out our bags and threw them on trucks which drove off to be delivered to our new home for the next 10 weeks. We were not as fortunate as our bags. To the sound of our new Drill Sergeant's cadence, we marched over to the company area of Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry Regiment on Sand Hill. Over the next 10 weeks, we would crawl through dirt and mud, climb ropes, repel down ropes, throw grenades, go through a gas chamber, march many miles with heavy packs, practice room clearing, learn combatives, march more miles with heavy packs, shoot M-16s, shoot machine guns (including the 50 cal, ooooooh baby!) Of course, you mingle that with a good smoking from our Drill Sergeants from time to time. Every letter from friends or family was like manna from heaven! Every letter from Lisa was like pizza from heaven!! It was easily the hardest thing I had done in my life to that point. But, it was worth it. I would never want to do it again, but it was worth it.

After Family Day and Graduation, where I got to spend the better part of the day with my wife, as well as with my Mother and Father-in-law, including a visit from my brother-in-law and fellow soldier, Chris, I was shipped off to OCS. It seemed like a very long bus ride across post when it really wasn't. It probably felt like a long ride because I was under the impression that I would not get to spend the weekend with my wife as I had thought I would. The new area was an intimidating one, probably because it was new and unfamiliar. But, I would learn to enjoy the new freedoms that I would have as an officer candidate. Unlike Basic Training, we were permitted to have our cell phones, which allowed me to call Lisa every night! The barracks we stayed in were laid out like a dorm, so I didn't sleep in the same room with 60 other guys and get every cold or other upper respiratory infection that everyone else got. We got every weekend off, which was the best thing of all! I actually got to spend an occasional night with Lisa. This was all such a nice, pleasant change from Basic where I barely heard from Lisa, let alone saw her. Of course, one pleasant little surprise out of all that time with Lisa was that we would discover that we were expecting our first child!

Graduation and commissioning was great! Lisa's parents were there, as well as our nephew, Lucas. My friend and former roommate, Sean, and his girlfriend (now, fiance), Heidi, were there. My parents were able to come! That was really nice as I had not seen them since I left for Basic. They were out in Utah so that they could attend my sister, Becky's, wedding which was the day after my graduation from Basic.

So, I was a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant. What was the first thing I did? Along with Lisa, I packed up all of our things at our apartment in Phenix City, AL and we drove the five hours up to Columbia, SC where we currently reside.

For the time being, I am snowbirding (which really only means working until my class starts.) I was able to go up to Fort Lee, VA and compete in a 5K run at the Sustainment Bowl. It was fun! I finished 7th out of 20 runners and my team took first! Other than that, my job here at Fort Jackson has me recording classes at the NCO academy on post. It's a pretty decent job that, if nothing else, keeps me from going stir crazy until my class starts. I look forward to moving on in my career, though.

So, there you have it. Not the glorious, trite, witty missive one might expect...but, hey...I've been out of it for awhile. Give me some time, it's just my first entry in awhile. Hopefully, I can muster some more...soon.

Another new apt

So just when I was feeling settled in Phenix City, we packed everything up and moved to South Carolina. We will be here for a little longer than our last residence, but not much longer. We've been here for 2 weeks and finally unpacked everything and cleaned so we could take pics. So here's the tour of our apt. We will start in the garage because we almost never use the front door.

Dave bought a shelf and set it up in the corner there to hold all the boxes we are saving for the next move, along with a few other things that didn't have a home inside. Walking in and to the left is the living room.

You can see the front and patio door and the office area.

Here's the office area/laundry room. The apt came with a built in desk, which we weren't expecting, but was really nice to not have to buy one. Behind the closet doors are the washer a dyer, they also came with the apt! We get to put off buying new ones a little longer. Dave didn't take a pic of them but they are nice. They are full sized which seems huge after the little ones we had in Phenix City.

Here's the other side if the living room. Now you can see the garage door and the dining room. We have another little bar area from the kitchen, but our stools are way to short. They sit there anyway and make a great horizontal surface to catch things when we come in.


Close up on the dining room, it's still empty.

Here's the kitchen. There isn't nearly as much cabinet space as Phenix City, but I fit everything in and I like it.

Here's the hallway as seen from the living room, by the office. The kitchen entrance is on the right, the bedroom straight ahead and the bathroom on the left.

Here's the bathroom, it's big which is new for us. Plenty of counter space for both of us.


It has a huge garden tube! Neither of us have taken a bath in it yet, but we've sat in it and discovered that we can both actually stretch out and the faucet is above the tube so that's not in the way either.

The bathroom has a door into the bedroom (as you could see in the first bathroom pic) and here is the view from there. The bedroom door is just to the right.

Here is the other side. You can see the door now and the closet.

The closet is bigger than the bathroom in Phenix City. Ok, that might be a stretch, but it is BIG and came with shelves for my shoes.

Well that's the apartment. And as a bonus for reading all about it....
You get to see the first baby bump picture. This is 13 weeks.

wishing for our scanner...

So we have a scanner in WI, but if I had it hear with me in GA/AL I would scan in the sonogram picture I got today. Yes! I'm pregnant. I've made it past the date of my previous miscarriages and today I got to see the baby and hear it's heartbeat, so I'm feeling very confident and ready to tell people. Honestly, you aren't missing much with the pic. I'm not very far along yet, due in March. As the ultrasound tech said right now our baby pretty much looks like a grain of rice in the pic. The other thing I wish was that I knew how to get a recording off my phone, then you could enjoy the muffled sound of the baby's heart. The Dr is very pleased with baby's heart rate and development thus far. He said everything is right on track and looking great. I go back in again in 3 weeks. I started another blog about the pregnancy. Dave and I are both very excited and hoping for the best.

The last few weeks...plus apartment pics!

So, Dave has graduated from basic and is now in his 6th week of OCS. He will be branching this week, which is where he chooses what he will do in the army. More on that later in the week.



In the last 6 weeks, I found a apt, went to WI for a week, flew home with my kitchen aid mixer, drove 7 hours to get to new apt (over 2 days), drove back 2 1/2 hours to my sister for a few days, bought a ton of furniture and other apartment necessities, and best of all have spent every weekend (but the one I was in WI of course) with Dave. On the final walk-through before moving in to the apartment we discovered that the AC, ice maker, and garbage disposal were all broken. Because it is unbelievably HOT here our very kind land-lady found someplace with AC for us to stay until it was fixed. Since moving in I found a leak in the water line that runs to the ice maker, the chain in the toilet broke so it wouldn't flush, a leak under the bathroom sink that was over an inch deep and moldy, something else wrong with the toilet so it wouldn't flush again, and 3 live roaches (3 dead/dying). Despite that I really like our little place and as the maintenance man said I'm just getting all these problems out of the way now (it's been over a week since anything has broke)



Here is the living room from the corner of the room by the front door. We bought almost all our furniture on craigslist. The couches have safari printed pillows, which isn't really my thing but they are growing on me. I LOVE the coffee table, it's huge and has 4 baskets under it. By the way no kitchen table here we just eat on the couch or on the stools.


Here is the living room from the opposite corner. Now you can see our awesome TV cabinet.


This is the view from the front door down the hallway. There are 3 closets on the right. 1 a "coat" closet but it is the same size as a bedroom closet. 2 the linen closet that I use as the pantry. 3 the water/ac closet which also has room for the vacuum cleaner, the trash can, and a few other cleaners and things. The kitchen is on the left.


The kitchen is small, but not too small. It has a lot of cabinets, some are still empty.

The bathroom is down the hall on the left just past the kitchen.

This is a close-up of the towel rack/shelf that I installed all by my self. I'm so very proud of it. Dave looked at it when he came home on the weekend and said I did a good job.

Walking into the bedroom this is what you see.

Here's the bedroom from the far corner. The bed is a queen size elevated air mattress. It's actually pretty comfy.

Last is the laundry "room" it is actually inside one of the bedroom closets. I didn't know how I felt about this, but we liked that the washer/dyer was included. Now it doesn't bother me at all. If is was still a closet it would likely be empty anyway.

That's the apartment!

The Final Countdown...

I can't beilieve it's already here. The time moved so slow and yet so fast. In just 3 days I will see my sweetheart again. Sadly we will only be together for a few days then he's off to OSC. Happily he will get weekends off in OCS sometime.

I got a letter from him ealier this week. He wrote about his FTX 3. They go out in the field for several days (I think Wed to Sun) and they run missions as though they are in a war zone. Dave said it went really well. He got to lead his squad a couple times and really enjoyed that. At the end of the exersice they march back, a 10 mile march back. He said it was long and hot as it was Sun afternoon/evening, but not to bad.

I talked with Dave today! He sounded so good. We of course can't wait to see eachother.

I don't really have much else to add. Next week will be a busy week and I will have lots to update on after that. I cn't wait!

3 letters and 1 phone call later

Thats right, I've put off writing for not 1 or 2 letters, but now 3 letters and 1 phone call. Sorry...I kept meaning to write but time just got away from me and before I knew it it was time for bed and I was exhausted. Today I determined I had to write before I got any more behind. So I suppose the best way to catch up is to just start at the begining. So the first letter is from 4/19-4/25.

This week was very full for Dave. Monday he had a 5 mile march to the hand grenade range. I bet you can guess what they did there. That's right he learned how to properly throw a grenade. I guess I knew there was a right way to throw one, but I'd never given it much thought, just a chuck it in the direction of the bad guys kinda thing. Dave was so nervous on his first turn with a live one, thats exactly what he did. All the practice went out the window. "I just whipped that sucker out there and ducked. " His next turn was much better, he used technique and was able to throw them farther. Then they marched back.

Tuesday they had to rehearse for a change of responsibilty ceremony. One of the Drill Sargents left and they got a new one. After that he went to the pharmacy to get his Rx for his ear infection. The remander of the day was spent moving gym equipment around and setting up a classroom. I think for the ceremony, but I'm not really sure.

Wednesday he learned more about IEDs and other field drills. They slpet out that night. He said it was beautiful and now wants to go camping when we are together again. He didn't have a tent, but if he wants to camp with me we will be in a tent.

Thursday morning they packed up their "camp" and went to learn how to shoot an anti-tank rocket launcher and a M203 grenade launcher. Sadly they only got to launch dummies, except for 2 lucky ones, Dave was not one of the ones picked :(

Friday, Dave had his second PT test he did 56 push-ups, 74 sit-ups, and a 13:25 2 mile. His score were 78 (P-U) 91 (S-U) and 98 (run). A total score of 267! Only 3 points away from graduating with honors! I'm so proud of him. I know he will do it easy and I told him so. For the rest of the day they were at the range and worked with red dot sights and weapons malfunction. Once it was dark they got to use night vision goggles and infared lasers. How cool is that?

Saturday they did pugils which he explained as using the gladiator stics to beat eachother up. He did very well at this as he fought a guy who was easily 40 lbs heavier and trained in Kendo.

He says his health so slowly improving, his ear infection is almost gone and doesn't mention it in his next 2 letters so I assume it is all better.

Next came a phone call...

He called because he thought our bank account seemed lower than it should be and was worried that something was wrong with his pay check. Nothing was wrong, he just wasn't thinking about how much the few bills we have do add up. No matter why he called, he called and we got to talk for about 10 min. It was so wonderful. Hearing his voice was the highlight of my week.

My next letter came on Monday. It was a special surprise letter just for me! He just wanted to write me a tell me how much he loves me and send it on it's own so it would be different. I deffinitly wasn't expecting it and it made my day.

I got the 3rd letter today and it picks up right were the 1st letter left off in his week. He mentions getting letters from friends and family and how nice that is. Thank you to all who have written him.

Monday was as he said "an honest to goodness training day." They were at the range and shot a M249 SAW and a M240 B machine gun. He liked both of them but the M240 B was his favorite of the 2. Uncool part of the day the 6 mile hike at 18:00 (6:00PM), super hot and humid.

Tuesday was a easy day. Getting fitted for Class As. He loves his and can't wait to wear it at family day and graduation....though part of that is that he gets to see me.

Wednesday was a long slow day. 1st and 2nd platoon went and did one thing and 3rd and 4th had to wait till Thurs to do it. Dave is in 3rd fyi. While they waited they didnt do much at all. Some of the OCS candidates put packets for graduation together.

Thursday, as I said they switched and 3rd and 4th got to go and 1st and 2nd did nothing. They were trained in bounding and overwatch drills. I'm not really sure what that is, sorry. He did have to do something with a partner that involved going down ranage and covering your partner. I think that is bounding, but I could be wrong. His DS said Dave and his partner "Too Tall" did great. Dave really likes that DS because he is rough and tough when needed, but also cool and laid back. Dave said the DS reminds him of my brother, Chris, but he hasn't quite figured out why yet.

Friday was the best day at the range so far. He got to shoot a M2 .50 cal. He LOVED it.

Saturday, he worked on urban ops. Sorry don't really know what that is either. Sometimes I think he forgets that I don't know all this military stuff yet. He did talk about clearing rooms so it must be somthing about that.

He is loving Basic. He has had several oprotunities to share the gospel with others. Wearing garments has started lots of conversations. He has had one friend that has been coming to church with him on a regular basis and a couple others who have gone once or twice. I'm so proud of him and what he is doing.

OK....so I think it's time for a little update on what I've been doing, though it is not nearly as exciting as Dave. Most days I play with my niece and nephews and hang out with my sister. I write Dave every night and mail a letter every Mon, Wed, and Fri. We are getting ready for her baby, which should come next week. My brother-in-law said something today that has sparked an interest with me on something I might like to do. A book review blog. I read so many books already and I can never remember what I've read and haven't read and what I thought about it, why not write a little review. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I am deffinitly intrigued by the idea.

The Latest Letter, 4/12-4/18

Picking up right were the last letter left off, Dave went to sick call on Monday to have his ear infection re-evaluated. The doctor said it was still a little red, but that it would be alright. It wasn't...He went back to sick call on Sun and spent the enitre day there. Hopefully by now he is feeling better, but please keep him in your prayers.

Tuesday: They had to do some timed target shooting. They shot at 75, 175, and 300 Meters. He hit 27 out of 44, which is good.

Wednesday: MAC, Modern Army Combatives. He didn't enjoy this very much because they were all on a mat together, and there wasnt much room to really do the things they were learning, otherwise it would have been fun.

Thursday: pre-qualification. If they shot a 36+ they didn't have to do it again the next day. Sadly Dave only shot a 27 :(

Friday: Qualification Day. He shot a 29! 1 shot away from a Sharp-Shooter.

Saturday: bayonet training. Other than the "beastly heat" it would have been great. In the afternoon they had a class on combat opics and close quaters marksmanship. Dave says it was cool but sitting in a chair in the heat made him sleepy and he had a hard time staying awake. That night they got pizza. He really misses pizza and so was very happy to have some.

Sunday: Back in sick call.

That was his week in a nut shell. He says there is a lot more down time now than before, mostly because they are waiting in line to shoot or something. He is still really enjoying himself and once again aside from his ear doing quite well. So everyone knows I'm doing well too.

Please keep Dave in your prayers.