Life Is About Decisions...

And military life is all about decisions, or people die. I was confronted with a life or death decision this morning as we prepared to go to our first real training day here at the Army training facility. It took a barracks full of officers all evening and the following morning to determine which one of these hats we were going to wear:

Decisions such as this need to be unanimous and swift. We were gung ho for the boonie cap but as time wore on the resistance began to fade and slowly everyone began to switch to the standard cap. All your life you're taught to not follow the crowd...until you get in the military. By the end of the day we had all decided tomorrow we wear the boonie cap. Why, you ask? Because South Carolina was designed to mimic the climate of the seventh level of Hell and you will do anything to keep the sun off your neck.  Viva la resistance.

My faithful readers have become accustomed to me displaying my latest and greatest gear issued to me every day and today is no exception!  All my childhood dreams had been fulfilled when I received my dog tags, but that was before I got my high tech ballistic vest.  Commonly known as the bulletproof vest, this device is impervious to all attacks.  I know because we spent most of the evening testing them.  We began first by taunting each other with jokes about each other's moms...no pain.  Then we moved on to more serious tests:

 

Please note that this punch had little effect on me.  Of course, my abdominals of steel may have played an important role.  We did find the one weakness to the vest:

The one complaint I do have is that all of our military gear is made by Ikea and requires assembly.  I spent most of the evening and my manicure trying to put together a helmet, but that's my life now as a super soldier.  Adapt and overcome:

Superfly