Man Down

There hasn't been too much news from Ben lately so nothing to post. He's probably busy writing to his friends instead. :-)

However, he called this past Sunday to give us a quick update. First, their platoon was finally out of the Red Phase! And since their platoon is doing really well amongst the others (winning some sort of awards), they were given extra privileges. We come to find out that the platoons move in phases all at the same time, so even they were doing well, they cannot move forward to the next phase. He had a 4 hr leave so he went and got a hamburger, soda and candy. They were not allowed off the base but can freely roam around.

The other excitement he had was he got sick the week before from lack of sleep & extraneous physical activities out in the hot sun. He had a fever of 103 and the action started! The 'man-down' drill. He was stripped (down to his undies) and packed him up in ice in every nooks and crannies on his body. They rushed him to the hospital & give him an IV. After 1/2 day, they took him to the infirmary and he spent 2 days there. They took the IV out and left a big hole and blood was squirting everywhere on the floor! But he got some really good R & R during that time. He was able to eat well and normally (no time limits) and even got to watch 'Transformer 2'. He said that was a real blessing from the Lord!

Other than that, he sounded well and said he has 4 more weeks to go in BCT (basic combat training) and then off to AIT (advanced individual training: infantry). There's a small ceremony for the BCT but there's a large graduation event on Oct 2. The whole family will go out there and celebrate with him.