Day 30

It is Day 30 in the pull-up challenge. Today I did the first twenty in a row, just like I would in a PFT, except wearing a pistol belt and my cammies. Then about 10 minutes later, I came back and knocked out the other 10.

This is not as hard as I was thinking it would be (said the man with most of the pull-ups to go). I really do think that the hard part is developing the habit and remembering to knock them out daily. The body will adjust slowly to the exercises, but the mental remembering and determination are the hard parts.

The day was a usual day. Intermittent, often distant gunfire was heard through out the day. We worked to get Iraqi's proper badges and filed paperwork. We set up mentoring opportunities for the upcoming week and training sessions for us to give.

Our internet was down for about half the day, but now that it is back up, I am back to blogging.

Sgt Garrett and I got into some relatively deep conversations today about values. We discussed the concept as it relates to different cultures and then different individuals we know.

Some cultures really seem to value human life (modern, Western cultures) and other cultures don't value it as much (Middle Eastern cultures and African cultures). We were obviously generalizing, based on our own personal experiences and not intending to offend, but making the link back to terrorism, tactics and military operations. You know, how some would be willing to be suicide bombers to further a cause and others wouldn't even get off their butts to support their candidate in a Presidential election. ...values...

We considered how one President valued public opinion more than another and how some Americans value material things more than others. We discussed what some would do for money and what money others would give up for things they valued more.

(There at the end of the conversation, we both hit each other in the chest, grunted and cleaned our guns, just to get back to our masculine side...).

Semper Fi,
m