Chris' first week in Arizona

Oh, so I should probably update everyone about what Chris is doing. We've been able to talk to him every day by cell phone.

His training is going very smoothly. All the training he receives in Arizona is classroom training done during normal business hours. The training is run by the Army and there are Army and Navy personnel in the class, along with two other Air Force captains. The three of them should be together throughout the rest of their training and beginning stages of their deployment, which Chris was happy about.

The Air Force is paying for Chris to have a rental car and a nice hotel room. He's in one of those extended stay hotels with a full kitchen in his "suite". All the circumstances of the training (normal hours, not getting yelled at, etc.) and the circumstances of the area (nice hotel room, rental car, plenty of restaurant choices...) have made this a pretty enjoyable trip for Chris.

They learn a block of the course then they have a test. In order to pass the students must get better than 80%. Some of the other students complained about that; in their jobs the pass % is 70, but Chris was THRILLED. In missiles the pass % is 90 and the standard is 100%. They took their first test earlier this week; Chris missed one and went through various stages of panic (oh my gosh I missed one! am I in trouble?) and then relief (I'm so glad to be doing something where I can miss one).

The big thing this week has been relief. Since this deployment happened so fast and because it's a joint military deployment and not an Air Force deployment we haven't been entirely sure what Chris was getting into. The training this week has confirmed that we did indeed know what Chris is going to be doing, that he will be relatively very safe while in Iraq, and that he will be completely prepared when he gets to his station.