December 14

Hello everyone,

An update for you as per what's been happening the past two days here at CST.

On Saturday we spent the entire day dealing with Maps and Compasses. We went over every sort of map for the areas where we will be stationed overseas. We were taught the landmarks, roads, streams, hills, valleys and more. We spent several hours properly learning how to grid the maps so as to know the proper coordinates if or when we have to call in an evacuation or an
air strike. It was a lot of information which should help us a lot for when we actually get into the country.

Today, Sunday we took our newly found map reading skill and went out into the field. Since most map reading is generic to any map we should do fine anywhere, right. It snowed last night and the temp was right around 20 degrees, clear and very nice. We left the barracks at 0500, a bit early but they wanted to ensure that we knew how to function in the dark as well as the daylight. Anyway, we were given a map of a section of the national forest in this area and then coordinates to reach. It took me about two hours to traverse the distance which was about 0730. We were all given different directions and places/signs to record so one couldn't use someone
elses paperwork. At about 0900 we found out that three of our members had yet to arrive. We then spent the next four hours looking for those three lost Airman. It turns out that they were all way out of the proper grid area, close to three miles off. They simply read their maps wrong. Anyway, it sure does prove the value to learning to read a map and compass correctly.

Being four hours late, we missed an important class in Muslim Cultural Ethics which we now get to make up during what would have been our free time. That's all for now, from the great Northwest, see you later.

Lincoln.