Hello, again, to the Requiem's readers. :) This is Spyder/John's wife, Wisp/Christine writing to let his friends and family know how he's doing.John was able to fly out to Fort Bragg on Dec. 10 (a day later than had been scheduled). But, it allowed the storms to finish passing through so he had a nice flight out of Salt Lake City. He spent from the time he arrived until today doing in-processing (paperwork and getting put into the system, basically). Today John joined his unit. He will be with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade. He has a buddy out there he knew threw all of Basic and AIT and now they will even be in the same unit! However, this buddy deployed to Afghanistan the day before John got there so they won't actually get to see each other until April. :S But they're both glad, just the same.
We were able to get on the housing list, and we will most likely have a place to live in 2-3 weeks. We are glad that the wait will not be very long. We won't have Christmas together, though, but we'll talk together on the phone and once we're together we'll celebrate the holiday in full force. :)
Also, for anyone that doesn't know through facebook or my blog, John was promoted to Private First Class a few days before shipping out. It helped him to be more confident about joining a new unit at such a big base.
John is suffering a bit with a cold, though. It isn't a surprise, though. He has changed elevation, humidity, climate, time zone, sleeping schedule (he's been working graveyards for several months), and he got a swine flu vaccine the day after he landed. His body's going through a lot. He's tough, though - practically untouchable - and he will be fine.
We're really looking forward to this new part of our lives. It's going to be scary and exciting and full of changes. But, if you've seen his eyes when he's talking about the military, it's definitely worth it. :)
