Down in the South

Family and friends,

I am now at Camp Shelby, Mississippi for our mission training to Iraq. I made it in yesterday evening to Gulfport and then bussed to the base. I live in the barracks with the rest of the enlisted men. I have a top bunk and a locker, that is it. Let me phrase it this way, I have a 3'x6' area to myself. I will put pictures up on yahoo when I get the chance because it costs 4$ an hour to use this internet and I can't access it in the barracks. Needless to say, I don't know how often I will be updating the blog but I hope once or twice a week. My phone does have service here so I can make calls or people can leave a message and I can get back to you. Here is the address for those of you still writing snail mail:

Sgt. Bope, Nicholas
C Co. 134 BSB 1-34 BCT
2490 25th Street
Camp Shelby, MS
39407

Tomorrow I am going through more briefings and by the end of the week I will training with my unit again until Christmas. Then, in January I have to go to the 21 day medical refresher course. It is good to see everybody has been having fun down here, lots of hard work, but good training. I don't really need anything sent to me right now, so letters are just fine. I know a lot of you are wondering why we are spending so much time here and not leaving for Iraq sooner and I'll explain briefly.

First off, we need to go through the medical refresher course to make sure we are all prepared to treat battle injuries.
Second, we are deploying with a combat team and we are expected to be prepared to engage in combat and react appropriately.
Third, we must get used to the active duty lifestyle which doesn't include a whole lot fun, but long days and hard work.

Once we have completed these things we will head out to Iraq, and be more prepared then any of the other military units present. If we can be better prepared, then we can reduce the number of combat casualties and send more people back home. Have a great weekend everyone!

Sgt. Bope