Queen Elizabeth’s Barracks, Strensall England. 1 October 2011

Long flight to England, although straight from Atlanta to London.  We had to wait a while for all of our military bags to deplane and then we had to go through customs with our weapons.  Like most of us, I had three full duffel bags and my backpack.  They actually had everything pretty well organized and we got out of the airport after about 3 hours.  The bus ride from London to Strensall (near York) took about 4 and a half hours.  While on the bus ride our Navy liaison gave us some of the low down on the place we are going in Afghanistan.  It was a little eye opening.  After hearing everything he had to say I was a little overwhelmed.

We’ve been here about a week now just training with the 208^th Field Hospital.  Our training is designed to replicate almost exactly what we have down there so that when we get there we will already have a pretty good idea of where things are and how our patients are supposed to move through the facility.  Apparently we are going to a very busy trauma hospital.  It has all been very intimidating.  After this week’s training however, and getting the chance to speak with some radiologists who are there, I feel much better.  The anticipation is building along with the fear that I may not be up to the job…

The accommodations here are horrible.  Slightly worse than at Ft Benning.  Four man rooms with only two showers and three toilets for about 40 guys.  The showers operate with a single push button that gives you about 8 seconds of scalding hot water.  The beds are metal frames with springs and about a two inch mattress.  Very sway back.  I have not been able to sleep on my stomach for two weeks now.

One of four in the room at QEB

The food is a little different but not bad.  There are a few odd things such as baked beans for breakfast.  Their bacon is more ham slice than ours.  Their toast is liked deep fried bread.  We do have scrambled eggs and blood pudding.  We also have some Frosted Flakes if you get there early enough.  Fish and chips downtown has been very good.  Their salty food is not quite salty enough and their sweet food is also not quite sweet enough.  Everyone describes everything as a little bland.

The days have not been very strenuous as far as timeline goes.  First formation is at 0745 and we have been done about 1600 every day.  It’s a short walk to our training facility or they shuttle us over.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful since we’ve been here.

Saturday a couple of us went and saw Leeds United play against Portsmouth in a Champion’s League soccer game.  It was good but not great.  Leeds won 1-0 on a nice goal.  The field was immaculate.  I have been able to work out more this week, including some soccer.

I miss home.