To the left is a picture of my immediate family and me from our Departure Ceremony, which was held at Joint Force Headquarters shortly before we left Colorado for Ft. Polk.  Even though we are a rather crazy bunch at times, I do love my family and am greatly appreciate of their support and encouragement.  And, as I write this, I am praying for my brother and his wife – that they may get pregnant soon because I am wholeheartedly convinced that they will be outstanding, loving parents (just like my sister and her husband are with their little girl).

I bring up the idea of family because it’s a huge aspect of life.  I’m jumping on a soapbox here, but bear with me, I’m writing this with purpose.  I ardently believe that God created us for relationship.  Initially, this is relationship with Him.  Secondarily, it’s relationship with other humans.  In fact, some food-for-thought here:  in Genesis, God is creating the world and keeps declaring things as “good.”  The first time that He declares something as “not good” is when he sees Adam alone (Genesis 2:18).  Loneliness then is deemed a bad thing.  Consequently, He creates Eve to be Adam’s partner, companion, and wife.  Accordingly, part of our human existence is to know one another in relationship. 

What concerns me, though, is when we hide ourselves behind our computers (or other technological guises) and imitate friendship instead of spending legitimate time with people.  Yes, I know that technology provides for amazing communication; however, I think that spending physical time with people is healthier for us. 

Ok, to the point:  I write all of this because I look at myself, my life, the soldiers around me, and my family back home and realize just how much we truly need others.  There’s a good line from the beginning of the film Crash (2004), in which a character says, “It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.”  We truly need others; it’s in our nature.  And if it's not there, we risk (as the film quote states) hurting ourselves to experience it.  Here in the military, I am beginning to understand how, for some, the soldiers to our left and right become our new family.  If suffering breeds unity, then the suffering in military training, life, and deployments breeds true “philia” (the Greek word for brotherly love).  As you may have heard, many soldiers who’ve deployed claim that they aren’t fighting for America, freedom, or some political/ideological agenda back home; instead, they’re fighting for the soldier at their side.  They’re fighting for one another.  And I’m slowly learning just how true and factual that really is.  If we were suddenly under attack, I’m not thinking about America’s great Constitution or which political party I side with.  Instead, I’m thinking about surviving with SFC Inlow or SPC Bloms, my team-members with whom I’m presently working, living, and experiencing life.  They’re part of the word “family” to me now – representing the other half of relationship: that which God partly created us for.

Finally, I’ll get back to explaining our mission at hand.  We’ve finally finished in-processing and have begun training.  A couple of days ago, we went through familiarization training on the M4 and the M9 pistol.  We then went into EST (Engagement Skills Trainer), which is basically like playing a very large video game in which your weapon has a hose attached to it, and there’s no real ammo.  EST is not 100% realistic, but it does give a semi-accurate idea of how one will do on a real range.  I ended up firing pretty well, shooting 24/30 targets on the M9 and 35/40 targets on the M4.  Hopefully, I will be able to mimic those numbers on qualification day.

Random song recommendation of the day: “Parting Words” from the soundtrack to season one of the TV series Lost (composed by Michael Giacchino)

I hope you enjoy your weekend,
- SGT Griebel