Time flies when you're having fun

Today was a relatively short day (from 6am to about 4pm) but we did a lot. We started out with our "capstone" exercise, where we all rode a convoy to a city, planning to rid it of insurgents. Along the way we passed a few IEDs and got ambushed. We were using our laser gear, and our guns loaded with blanks, so when we shot them it would send out a laser beam. If we hit the enemy, they were dead. Of course, if they hit us, the same thing. I didn't last very long in the city assault. That seemed to be true of most of us high ranking officers... we got picked off by the bad guys, signaled by a very loud beeping tone on our laser toys. Oh, well. At least we got to sit out the rest of the battle while everyone else went running around shooting more! It was fun. Really. Although tiring! After that, we did our land navigation exercise. We got a set of three points on a map that we had to visit and record the number on a post there. All we had was a compass, and we had to pace out our steps. (I think it's really similar, or the same thing, as orienteering. Very similar to geocaching, which I do a bit, but without the benefit of a GPS!) Our group did well, only getting really lost once. We're done with wearing our armor around (yay!), at least until we get over to Kuwait. The drill sergeants did hint at a "Graduation PT run" tomorrow morning, which has me mildly worried. I'm guessing a three-miler. I'll let you know tomorrow. For now, I think I need to rest these sore muscles!