Soldiers as Guinea Pigs

As long as there have been state doctors, soldiers have given those doctors a perfect test group for new drugs, new surgical procedures, new life-saving techniques. Sometimes big things, sometimes small. On May 11, I broke three of the seven vertebra in my neck. The surgeon who replaced my C-7 vertebra with a bone from a cadaver recently returned from Baghdad. I am not dead or paraplegic because he has had a lot of recent practice in the kind of surgery I needed.
At drill this coming weekend I get a flu shot. Actually I am one of four men in my unit to get a flu shot. The rest get their flu vaccine by inhalation. This new technique promises to offer better protection, but needs testing. Soldiers are a great test group—young, in good shape, and well fed. And they do what they are told, so they all take the new vaccine and give researchers a great set of data points. So why do four of us get shots? We are in shape and well fed, but we are also over 50. In the Army more than 80% of the troops are under 25. The over-50 guys are so rare, leaving us out gives them a much better sample than having to deal with the 99th percentile (by age) soldiers.

Training Squeeze

I'll be very busy between now and March 9, now being defined as whenever the paperwork is approved and processed for me to take chemical weapons training on line. The second phase of my training--two weeks at Aberdeen--is already scheduled for March 9. I have to complete the first phase on line before March 9, but that will occur when the paperwork is approved and that might take weeks. So maybe I will be spending the Christmas holidays learning about Chemical Weapons.

Lauren's Team Makes the Championship

In the final game of the regular season, my oldest daughter Lauren's soccer team made qualified for the playoffs. With an 8-4-4 record they just made it to the championship. This is Lauren's freshman year at Juniata College. The current starting goalkeeper is a senior and Lauren should be playing a lot more next year when she and another freshman goalkeeper will step up as Russo graduates. Lauren had high hopes for the first-round championship game against Scranton. Unfortunately, the Juniata title bid ended in the first game with a 3-2 loss. I am looking forward to seeing Lauren in the goal next season. It was strange this year going to her games and seeing her on the bench for the first time since the sixth grade. She has started every game in middle school and high school on defense and, the last tow years of high school, in the goal.

Re-enlistment: When the paperwork is done

The latest word on re-enlistment is the paperwork is filed, but it might be several weeks until it is completed. So no word yet, but maybe by Christmas.

State Cross Country Championships

OK This is not about the Army, but I am also a dad and my youngest Daughter ran in the Pennsylvania AAA High School Cross Country Championships today. This is her first season in Cross Country and she is doing great. she was first finisher on her team in every regular season meet this year. She finished first once, second four times and fifth once--although there is a different scoring system that followers of the sport know and would be too long to explain here. In the post season, she finished ninth among more than 200 girls in the Lancaster-Lebanon AAA League meet; 39th in the district championship which allowed her to make the state meet; then 82nd today in the PA State Championship among the 300 best runners in the state. Her time today was 20:22. Her best time of the season for the 5k distance was 19:22.

Chemical Weapons Training Scheduled for March

I just received confirmation that I will attend 63J--chemical weapons systems maintenance--training phase 2 from March 9 through March 22 of 2008. I should be receiving a link soon to on-line phase one training in 63J. So I will have from receipt of that link until March 9 to complete phase 1. I'll be spending a lot of time on line between now and then.

Linking Viet Nam and Iraq

Today's Philadelphia Daily News has a 20-page section on Viet Nam. I am quoted in the lead of the first article in the section--partly about the Starbucks story below. Here's the link: PDNews