Field Ops

Riley is off to Field Ops training for a week in Indianapolis. We've been working on getting him ready for a week or so, making sure he has all the right gear, the military is a little particular about everything being all matchy-matchy. Had to have the right kind of socks, t-shirts, camo's, etc.

David ordered his patches (only, as per the military, they are called "flashes") and I bought a second hand sewing machine a while back, thinking I'm tired of hand sewing, or bumming a sew off my Girl Scout leader! But, I haven't had a chance to even look at it lately.  Well, Riley's patches never came in, and David didn't get to Camp Mabry to get his name patches sewn on (those are the only ones we did have) so guess who was up till 1am the night before he leaves trying to learn how to thread a bobbin? Yep, that was fun. Oh, and Riley didn't see the part about having to have an "athletic supporter" for his training, so David and I had to make a midnight run to Walmart for a cup and olive green thread! Oh, the crazy life we lead.

So, David got him to the airport at 6:30am, for his 7:30am flight, but for some reason, the Southwest Airlines counter was SUPER packed. So David sent Riley ahead to go through security so he would be able to make the flight, while David went through the line to check his sea bag. Well, they frown on people checking bags for flights they won't be on these days. So they were giving David a hard time about that, but he explained and they finally said they would get it on, cause they were boarding the flight right then. Except, Riley locked his sea bag and had the key around his neck. So, they had to call him off the plane to run up, BUT not go through security again, and hand off the key so they could unlock it. Finally, he gets on the flight, but no guarantee his bag will make it since they were supposed to leave soon.

So David left, and Riley texted that there was an oil leak so they weren't leaving for another 30 minutes or so. Okay, great, the bag should be able to get on the flight now! Only, the part they need to fix the oil leak is in Houston and can't get here until after 10am. Well, that will make him miss his connection in Denver. So, he gets off the plane while we try to make some phone calls and get his flights moved around. Finally, get him on a flight scheduled to leave Austin at 11:30, fly through Houston this time, and get to Indy around 6:30 (much later than the 2:00 he WAS on!) So nothing to do now but wait a few more hours (I'm sure he would have much rather been at home, sleeping in or something, poor thing!)

And then, he calls, they are evacuating the Austin airport, no idea why. Found out it was a big water leak, not sure WHY they had to evacuate for that, but then he had to go through security again, and the flight to Houston ended up leaving later than expected! Finally, he gets to Indy, gets off the plane, finds the USO office, only to find out, his bag never made it! They said oh, it was a late check in. Um, yeah, but not once you took him off that flight and put him on a flight 4 HOURS LATER!! So he showed up to training with nothing.

They got him a sleeping bag, toothbrush and some camo's for today, but I'm sure he was just not too happy. We finally heard that his bag was on a late flight and they will shuttle it out to Camp Atterbury today, but now we have no communication with Riley, so we hope he gets it. David is going to call the CO later and see if it finally made it there. What a mess. Only his 2nd time flying solo, and he got it all thrown at him this time! But, he handled it well, and I'm sure it was a great opportunity for him to grow up a little and learn to take care of things for himself. Can't wait to hear about his training!