Hi everybody! I'm back in Mississippi after almost a month in Louisiana. Both places have been very cold for the south, rainy and grey. Both places have the same drab cement block buildings with run-down exteriors, the same beds that were around in WWII, and the same bunch of guys in Army green uniforms. But, back here at Camp Shelby, at least we have cell phones and Internet, so I can connect with the outside world.

For nearly two weeks of the last month, I was "in the box" at the Joint Readiness Training Center. I lived with 700 soldiers in a FOB (Forward Operating Base) that was about the same size as a couple city blocks. That might seem pretty big, but once you park all of the vehicles and set up the maintenance section, there's not much room left for anything else. We had sixteen showers for all 700 of us; unfortunately, there was often no water available and when it was there, the water often wasn't hot. When it's 30 degrees outside and the shower trailer isn't heated, you do NOT want to be standing in a stream of cold water.

From the minute I arrived, we were in "game" status, meaning we all wore laser tag receivers on our helmets and body armor. By the way, we had to wear our full "battle rattle" everywhere we went, even to get up and go to the port-a-john in the middle of the night. Think about having to put on 50+ pounds of gear and walk a block outside to use the latrine. But, some places in Iraq require you to do exactly that, and for good reason. Anyway, everybody had a laser transmitter on their weapon, so when they pulled the trigger, a blank round went off and the laser shot at the target.

When you are "hit", the Observer/Controllers (kind of like referees) asked for your injury card, which you carried around at all times. Some people were "killed" instantly; others were wounded and had to be treated just as if it were a real injury. It gave us a chance to practice our first aid skills, up to and including real IV's in the arm from the Combat Lifesavers. I saw some of the work those guys did. It was effective, but they were definitely NOT as gentle as nurses in the hospital. Thank goodness I never got shot.

But it wasn't just combat games. The base had phony towns set up with actors as Iraqi townspeople, and we had to fight the civil/military, information, win-the-hearts-and-minds war as well. So we built phony wells, set up phony medical assistance programs, and trained phony Iraqi police while keeping the bad guys away from the police station. Sound like a lot of work? It was. We got anywhere from 0 to 5 hours of sleep a night, and we ran at red line speeds during the day.

We did stop on both Sundays for organized worship. We also stopped for a phony memorial ceremony. Let me tell you, with the empty boots, 21 gun salute, and playing of Taps, the emotional impact was anything but phony. We know we'll be doing this for real someday, and it will be some young soldier who was torn apart by a bomber just for putting on his uniform and trying to do his job.

But the whole JRTC taught us a lot about how to survive and do our job in a real combat environment. It's not cheap sending this many soldiers through this kind of training, but it is worth it. Thanks to this training, we will keep the number of memorial ceremonies far lower than if we just charged in guns ablaze.

I miss you and think of you and speak to Jesus about you as often as I can. I've been so relieved to know Michelle and my kids are doing well. Thanks to all of you who are helping her out, because you are helping me out, too.

God be good to you!
CH Steve Timm