Hyrum the Soldier

Doesn't he make a good looking soldier?

I realized I don't write much about the Army; so now that I have some pictures from a training Hyrum participated in, I'll take advantage and post them.  

During the upcoming deployment, Hyrum will be continuing some of his current responsibilities (human resources) but he will also be part of a small advisory team to the Afghan security forces.  (There are several of these teams in operation that are spread throughout the country.)  

Currently one of the major threats in Afghanistan is the insider threat, so the teams participated in an intense 3-day training in preparation for possible situations they may face.  The military newspaper Stars and Stripes ran an article on their front page this week.  (See more here).  The article said, "about 80 soldiers in training used more than 95,000 rounds for the M-4 and nearly 70,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, the latter amount being three times the squadron’s annual allocation."  That's a lot of ammo! 

He came home with a few minor battle wounds: his arm was bruised from the weapon recoiling, and he got a burn between his eyebrows from a bullet casing.  

Below are some more pictures from the training:

• one out on the range (they did target-type practice and shooting patterns as teams), 
• and another in a simulation room (acting out meetings and different dangerous scenarios they might need to react to). 

I hate to see him go, but it does bring some peace of mind knowing the types of training they've been through!

And one more piece of news... Hyrum gets to stay just a little longer than we'd anticipated!  When he came home yesterday and told me he had news, I just assumed it was bad news.  So I was pleasantly surprised.

During the whole pre-deployment phase one of his responsibilities has been tracking the movements of the troops.  He's done such a good job that one of the main officers in charge wants him to hang around until the last group leaves to make sure things continue to go smoothly, and to lend a helping hand in the office for whatever might come up.

Ironically, this really might put him within a week or two of missing our baby's arrival.  So close.  But not quite.  Typical Army life.