8 Hours = Not Enough Time

Jordan had his first 8-hour pass from Ranger School on Friday, which means...he passed Benning Phase! One down, two more phases to go. I would have been proud no matter how he did, but considering that roughly half of the (about) 460 guys that started the school have either failed or recycled already, my pride has swelled to button-popping proportions knowing that he'll be moving on to the next phase.

We literally had 8 hours to refit him for Mountain Phase. We shopped, ate, did laundry, and before we knew it we were on our way back to post to drop him off. It was just so nice to see him in person, to see for myself that he's ok.

Here he is getting his gear out of the car to head back in. Of course I managed to wait to take pictures until those 5 minutes before he reported again.

And I thought dropping him off the first time was hard...

He's skinny, hungry, tired and humbled, but he's determined and I know that he's committed to this, no matter how long it takes!

He's been keeping a bullet-point journal and sending me sections a little at a time. He said that I could blog some of it to let everyone know what he's been up to. I found that some of it is personal and some of it I just can't read; you can tell when he's tired by his handwriting, bless his heart. Some of it's technical Army jargon, and some of it's just downright difficult to swallow. When a man is broken down physically and mentally, it's not easy to relate his thoughts. So what's left? You just get a few snippets.

Here are some highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you look at it).

"The Brigade Commander says our minds will tell us that our body has maxed out. Supposedly it's not true and our body will give us 25% more if we tell it to. So that's what I did."

"I've decided this is the hottest place I've ever lived."

"It's all about perspective. I'm just a guy, in a place, eating and sleeping (sometimes), and doing things, just like everyone else. I'm not far and things could be worse."

"Got a med brief as a battalion. Saw nasty pics (he said 60% of us will get poison something)."

"There are 460(?) men. They say that by day 5 we'll have 260 left."

"Battalion Commander gave us "the facts": give all, don't do for self, hydrate."

"Combat Water Survival was entirely too high and wobbly:

Balance Beam: 35'

Rope Drop: 30'

Zipline: 75'

On zipline they told me I had a wasp on my feet just to make me look down."

"BDE CSM and Company Brief:

25% of candidates are 1st time goes

50% of all candidates eventually graduate with recycles

50% never make it"

(now that I'm looking at this, the math doesn't make sense...)

"I have decided that sleep is the most important need. If a man needs sleep there is only so much you can do to stop him from getting it. It affects every other aspect of his life."

"Got shots in my butt. I thought those stories were jokes, but no."

"Gideon had too many people for his army: 32,000. He said it was "not for the weak-hearted," just like the Ranger School sign says. He cut them down to 10,000, then down to 300, per God. Just like our class."

"Everyone is religious in Ranger School...it was funny to see all these Rangers turn to each other and tell them God loves them."

"Ha ha. Dude next to me is writing to his girl. Other dude next to me is too."

"Learned stuff, got hands-on training, got to make things go boom."

"I had no idea what my body was capable of, but I'm impressed!"

"I got diagnosed with Cellulitis today. No, not the fat kind..." (It's a skin infection)

"Smells like ammonia around here. They say it's our bodies burning muscle instead of fat."

"I'm going to say that this is the hardest thing I've done in my life."

I will also note that almost every exclamation mark he used throughout was reserved for entries about food and sleep :) Now he's in Northern Georgia for 22 days of Mountain Phase, and then off to Florida for Swamp Phase. Hang in there, Babe. We love you!