Saturday

We woke up this morning, and, after a drive that was at least three hours into Chicamauga, Tennessee, we "enjoyed" a "battle simulation" (*cough* tour *cough*) in the rain.  And, as if that wasn't bad enough, I was wearing a white shirt.  Hard to believe I passed AP US, right?  Anyways, I spent the entire three-hour bus ride back to the hotel in my jacket.

Today we have lectures.  Fun.

~~Kami Strife

JSW (Get some!)

Paintball was awesome!!!!!!!!!  Hell yes!!!!  I actually got a few people out!!!!

I got shot quite a few times, but the paintball bounced off more often than it splattered.  The first time, it just grazed my upper arm.  As I was walking back to our base (with my hands in the air), I was shot in the back.  It bounced off, but that was the first time I got hit by a paintball.  It stung, but only for a little bit.  It wasn't as bad as I had thought that it would be.  I also got shot in the forearm, once more in the back, and my foot (none of them broke).  I was also hit in each thigh and my chest.  I even have this big purple and red bruise on my chest.  It hurts.

Then we went through this Leadership Reaction Course.  We had to get over this really high wall and across a bridge thingie with wire ropes across it.  It was difficult to cross.  We lifted Aaron, the guy who's going into the Marines straight out of high school, up onto the wall.  And damn, that guy is strong.  He lifted me up that wall like I was a feather!!  Insane...

We all got across, and then we learned actual squad movements.  It was fun... until we got into a "firefight" with "enemy forces".  So we hit the ground and crawled around a bit until we "killed" the others.  Yay.

Then we went through a grenade course.  I...wow... I'm not quite sure what to say...  I went through the course pretty well, other than this wall thing we had to jump.  That took me a few tries (but I got over it).  One of the people that worked there commented that I was the most enthusiastic one to do the course (yay me).  So, it was pretty kewl.  I didn't blow anybody up (*sob*), but I did this one bad-ass slide on my back!!  And then I threw the "grenade" at one of the Team Leaders (and almost hit him).  I got a hair full of dirt, though.  No, scratch that.  My entire boy was covered in dirt.  And then, at the end, I did this flip-slash-roll-thing down a hill-like mound.  A friend of mine caught it on video, and, I have to say, it looked really cool!!!  Of course, I got dirt in my mouth, eyes, and all over my arms.  In fact, my skin was two distinct shades.  Lol.

We got the rest of the evening off, so I'm hanging out in my room, posting.  Tomorrow we visit Dobbins AFB and Lockheed Martin.  I'm not sure how excited I should be.  But sometime next week we go paintballing again!!!!

Hope y'all are enjoying your summer!!!

~~Kami Strife

I Kinda Disappeared...

Wow.  June 18th, an entire month since my last post.  I am sooooo sorry, you guys!  You are my wonderful, amazing, faithful readers, and I repay you by not posting.  I'll try to be better about it.

One of my reasons for not posting is that I have no internet connection on my computer at home.  The only way that I can get internet on my Mac is by sitting out in the front driveway of my house.  Which, considering the heat, isn't all that fun.  But that's no excuse.

However, I am currently in an air-conditioned barracks room at North Georgia College and State University, one of six military colleges in the nation.  (It's in Georgia, in case you didn't realize, so hello from Georgia.)  What am I doing here, you ask?  Well, I am participating in a LeadAmerica conference on Defense and Military Strategy: Junior War College.  It's... interesting, to say the least.  There are six girls (including myself) out of almost 100 high schoolers.  I'm the only female in my fifteen-man group (Alpha Team).  In these first two days, I have become a squad commander, in charge of seven other guys.  (I know, it's an Army conference.  Shame on me.)  I have to make sure that they are awake and ready every morning, and that they report to all of the lectures and stuff.  So far, we have listened to two lectures by retired Army Generals, conducted a surveillance mission (which Alpha won), taught everyone else in Alpha how to march and had a drilling competition with the other groups (which we also won), visited Fort McPherson, and established that blood makes the grass grow.

Ft. McPherson was pretty cool.  We drove for an hour and a half this morning to get there (ugh), but we visited US Forces Command (and got to sit in really comfy chairs while being briefed), then USARC (US Army Reserve Command), where we spoke to a woman who just returned from her sixth deployment, and, finally, we went to the Third Army, where I spoke with an Apache pilot (she was kewl), an NCO who works with satellite communications, and a Green Beret (he kept looking straight at me, even though he was speaking to the entire group... it was kinda unnerving, actually).  Then we went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial and the National Museum of Patriotism.  We even got to speak to a retired General who had been awarded a Purple Heart in Vietnam.  He told us about how his helicopter was shot down and stuff.  It was interesting.

Intriguing is the best way to describe being one of very few girls among teenage guys.  YOU ARE ALL PERVERTS!!!!  (No offence, you guys.  I love y'all.)  But the guys here are.  I'm tempted to beat them all up.  But I'll get in trouble if I do that...  There is one guy who is really kind.  I don't know his name, and he doesn't know mine, but he smiles at me ever time we make eye contact.

Moving on...

We're paintballing tomorrow.  I've never done it before, but it should be fun.  I'm looking forward to it.

I'll be home in seven days, and then it's off to Hawaii!!!!!!  Adios!!