-- Shipped out for the U.S. Air Force, after enlisting in September 2003.
-- Graduated Basic Military Training without being recycled, which included folding shirts in six-inch squares, going into a gas chamber and taking my gas mask off to prove that it worked (I trusted them anyway, but they still made me, oh well
), running Hell's Half-Mile Field Training Exercise, and transitioning from a Civilian to a Trainee to an Airman in the World's Best Air Force.
--Spent the summer in extremely hot and humid Biloxi, Mississippi, where I studied and learned how to do my job for the Air Force, Communications and Computer Systems Operator, all while being an Airman Leader and basically being the one in charge when the Sergeants were gone, and transitioning from having a weekend curfew and having to stay on base to where I would spend all night on the beach (when it was actually cool).
--Escaped Biloxi mere hours before every base in the Southeastern U.S. shut down in preperation of the impending landfall of Hurricane Ivan, of which Biloxi was scheduled to get the brunt. The normally 60 minute shuttle to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport took over four as everyone was trying to leave the coast for safer places up north. The Airport apparantly shut down about an hour after my flight took off.
--Spent two weeks home on leave where I got to celebrate my birthday at home, but without my mom, who was called out to be a Red Cross disaster volunteer in Florida.
--Arrived back in San Antonio, this time as permanent party, where i'm enjoying Air Force life but hating Texas. Attention San Antonians: There is more to the world than The Alamo, The Spurs, and Mexican Food!!!!!!
--Took a trip to Chicago to watch my brother graduate the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy and become an officer of the Northbrook, IL Police Department (remember that high school scandal a few years back....yup....)