HE'S HOME!!!!!

Blake got home yesterday morning for 2 weeks leave. His plane arrived and no one recognized him. What a difference! He looks and sounds great and is going to try to see everyone here in the next couple of weeks.

I'm spending the rest of the time today uploading pictures of him. Enjoy!

Week 6 & Leave

If all of the calculations that I've done are correct, and there's really no reason to assume that they are, this should be week 6 for Blake. In just two more days, he'll be flying in from Dallas for a two-week leave, and we'll have lots to post, cause we've got lots of questions and will take plenty of pictures.

We got an email from his commander yesterday just giving us some last minute info on the upcoming leave. It sounds like almost everyone will be gone, and there are a lot of restrictions, but he stressed that they needed to do all they could to stay in shape and practice their runs and the like for the next physical fitness qualification.

Everyone in Blake's unit qualified on the weapon and got the red-dot optics installed. They practiced "live fire buddy rushes" where one covers for the other while he rushes forward and then he covers for the other. Sounds very exciting. And dangerous. I know that Blake was very excited to have the red dot. There's got to be a story there, and we can't wait to hear it.

Well, only two more days and we'll have lots of info.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and thanks for keeping up with Blake's new adventure.

Basic Training: Half Way Through

It's the middle of week 5 now for Blake and he sounds like a completely different person. We haven't gotten a call from him, but the tone in his letters sounds like he's doing great. This Friday, the 14th, will be the last day that he will receive mail before coming home on leave, so we sent him a birthday card and some birthday well wishes.

He still hasn't gotten his glasses, but it didn't seem to be too much of a hindrance on the firing range. He qualified as marksman, and wants to try again as he is sure he can qualify as sharpshooter when they go back. Which just goes to show that a Texas boy, even a blind one, can shoot a rifle better than most.

He wants to see everyone on the short visit home, so we're all going to do whatever we can to see that he gets to do just that.

Here are his travel plans:

• Thursday, December 20th, his plane will arrive about 8:30 in the morning.
• January 3rd, he'll leave to go back and finish his basic training.

He has to be back the afternoon of the 3rd, but if everything goes well, he'll be home again in early February before he heads off to his AIT in Virginia.

We're all looking forward to seeing him and hearing all about what he's been doing in basic training. Only a few more days, and then, we'll know.

More when we know more.

Basic Training: End of Week 4

We got an email from Blake's commander. It's the one he said he would send out at the end of every week to tell us what they had been doing the whole time that week. It was great to finally hear from him. This has been such an ordeal getting the email address right to get on his mailing list.

He said that they would be purchasing their tickets home this Tuesday. Looks like from the letter he sent that we'll see Blake on the 20th. He will fly home that day after a bus ride to either Dallas or Lawton and fly home from there. He also said that they had had a qualification on the range that week. The goal was to create a pattern with their shooting. He has to get so many in the target out of 60 rounds fired. At least I think that's the number fired. Blake didn't have his new glasses, so it's a toss up as to whether he was able to hit the target or not.

Well, another weekend went by and we didn't hear from Blake. I guess he is pretty busy during the week now. As long as we keep getting the positive letters, it's all good.

Well, that's about it for now. We'll post more when we learn more.