Hi everybody. Today is my last day at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, and tomorrow it's back to Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Both other times I've gone to Fort Jackson for training, it's seemed like forever to be gone from my family for a whole month. My perspective is a little different this time. Fort Jackson is the only thing between me and an entire year in Iraq -- I have a feeling it will fly by before I can blink.

I had a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Pensacola, FL with my parents. I've been mobilized for two months now, and it already seems strange to go four whole days without lacing up a pair of Army boots. You get so used to the routine of "one more Army day". I think it's a mental survival method, probably not much different than the routines that help prisoners pass the time.

Anyway, the break from the war was good, but now I'm back to work. I find myself feeling slightly ill and lethargic -- I suspect it's the emotional effect of saying goodbye to my parents at the end of the weekend. They cried for several minutes of the long Minnesota goodbye. Of course I feel sad myself, and guilty for being the one to cause them pain. I know, I'm not intending to hurt them, but still -- they wouldn't be crying at this goodbye if I hadn't made the decision to become a soldier.

My parents haven't been the only ones with tears this week. All the soldier's families are invited to a departure ceremony tomorrow and Thursday. The cauldron of emotions is at full boil. Forget the dollar figures that go through Congress; this is where you see the full cost of this war. And we bear that cost knowing full well that the situation in Iraq may or may not get better. But still we bear it willingly, and this is the time when I'm both so sad and so proud of the men I work with that I may start to cry myself.

OK, enough deep thoughts.  I'll write again when I get to Fort Jackson.

God be good to you!
CH Steve Timm