It's been such a long day that I'm not sure where we started this morning...Wait. Oh yes! We had to report downstairs by 6:30 AM. That was fun. To add to the pleasantness of that, it was QUITE a cold day here in San Antonio. Many of the soldiers that are here didn't bring cold weather gear because they assumed the weather would be warmer than the northern posts and cities they came from. Normally, this isn't really an issue but the wind today literally took my breath away. I walked outside and felt that first gust and had to actually think about breathing.

Aside from the weather, this morning was a typical great day in the US Army.

When the Army preps for anything from a Change of Command Ceremony (when a new commander takes over a company, battalion, etc.) to an awards ceremony or a visiting VIP, you can bet there's going to be a whole lot of "hurry up and wait," confusion, last minute changes and generally just a lot of organized chaos. No matter how good the rehearsal goes, there will be changes at the moment of execution so we all just try to remain flexible.

Everyone that was at this morning's rehearsal was in relatively good spirits. We all know better. We all know there are far worse places we have come from and we all know that there are a great many of our brothers and sisters in arms, still down range in Afghanistan, Iraq and many locations throughout the world. It's really not worth complaining about too much because we're all just feeling very lucky and grateful to be here.

We ran through a few different options for the pre-game show and after a few hours, most of us were released for the day. The Reserve troops reported back at 1:00 PM to meet with Army Reserve, Major General Steve Abt. He asked us where we were from, what units we serve with and then talked to us briefly. It was nice to get to know one of our senior leaders as we are so spread out in the Army Reserve that we don't always get the opportunity to do so.

After that, I went back up to my room and took a long and very much needed nap. Despite having slept for over two hours, I was still tired when I woke up and went downstairs to meet everyone for the trip to the Alamo Dome.

Tonight's event was a BBQ dinner with our players and at our table, we also had a coach from Aurora, Nebraska and his lovely family.

Dinner was decent and it was good to see Ego again. He didn't seem as lively as last night but his mind was on the UT/Bama game. He also said they'd practiced early this morning in the super cold weather. I didn't envy those guys at all.

The grand finale to today's events? A series of performances for the benefit of the soldiers and the families. It started with an awesome presentation of the Colors (as all good military ceremonies do) by a group of young ladies from the Alamo Heights Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, Color Guard. They were *quite* impressive. I got them on video along with the Army's a cappella quartet, the US Army Old Guard Drill Team and of course country music star, Darryl Worley.

The concert was pretty awesome. Darryl had us all come down out of the stands and get right up next to the stage. I think the thing I enjoyed the most was being able to attend a concert without a huge crowd of people. I realize that's not really what performers prefer but for myself and probably a few others there, crowds of people are something I'd prefer to avoid. We had our own private concert and I for one, greatly appreciated it.

It's now after midnight and I can barely keep my eyes open. Tomorrow's a 9:00 AM start so we'll get to sleep in a bit...

Tomorrow, we have a number of activities but the main one will be the Awards Banquet tomorrow evening.

Class A's and Dress Uniforms for that event means we get a few hours to prep...

Maybe I can sneak in another nap. : )

SSG Chase