Ghost of Exercises Past

So, just my luck... I got here to Osan just before an Operational Readiness Exercise. That's right, this week was one of the many exciting military exercises we get to endure, I mean take part in, during our tour here. Since I was still going through my base inprocessing that meant I didn't have to participate in the exercise. What a shame. Good news there is that I didn't have to don all my chem warfare equipment, wear the gas mask, or any of that "fun" stuff. Bad news... I had to wear my blues (service dress) all week instead of my BDUs. Let's just say that the number of times I've worn my blues during my career is not a very large number. And considering that I haven't had to replace any parts of my blues since Basic Training they tend to be "slightly" tight and a little on the uncomfortable side.

The exercise is also the reason I didn't update anything the last week. Nothing happened. I was either inprocessing or I was sitting in my dorm room. Woohoo! What an exciting time. But the exercise ended yesterday so everyone was jumping for joy. I had to laugh a little bit though. The base commander had issued General Order (GO) 1 during the exercise. That means no drinking alcohol during the exercise. None, Nada, Zip, Zilch. Of course this makes no difference to me since I don't partake, but others of my workmates were disappointed. Following the end of the exercise GO1 was amended to GO1A... meaning no drinking of alcohol off base until 1200 (noon) Saturday. This had some folks miffed, but I'm sure the on base clubs were loving it.

I made the most of the exercise's end and headed off this morning for Seoul to go to the temple again. Peaceful and serene as always. I don't know what more I can say than that. I am certainly glad I made the committment to Veronica, and myself, to attend the temple once a week while I'm here. And to take part in sessions there in Korean is really interesting. I'm certain that regular participation will help out my own language skills. The Lord blesses us when we put forth effort and when we keep our eyes single to His glory.

I wish I would have had my camera again this week though because in exactly the same spot as I saw the bus last weekend there were about 5 cars parked on the sidewalk. Thankfully Jake reminded me in his response to last post of something I had forgotten... this is the Land of the Not Quite Right. Still it made me laugh as I saw that.

Hopefully this next week I will have more to say and update. I have some time off during the MLK Day holiday so I'll have to see what I can get out and do.