Pathfinder's Page

Greetings Cub Pack 432.

Since duty calls and I can't be with you personally, I've established this page to keep you updated on how and what I'm doing. I will update it as I get the chance, so check back often. I'll be posting some pictures and stories of my adventures to give you a first-hand look at life as a deployed soldier.

I have some limited access to e-mail. You can reach me here: Pathfinder@cubpack432.org.

I will write back as often as possible, but be sure to check here also. I may post your mail to this page since your questions and comments may be of interest to the other Scouts.

Thanks,

Pathfinder

Hi Scouts.

We arrived in Ft. Hood, TX in early January. We are going to train here for a few months before we go on to the Middle East. Almost immediately we found that there were a few things wrong with the barracks. All of the Soldiers in this picture have at least reached the rank of Major, so you are looking at about 20 years of service in the Army for each person in the picture. So, how many senior officers does it take to change a light bulb? Roll over the picture to find out....

The Army is the world's greatest team, and also the biggest. Soldiers watch out for each other all the time. Lots of Soldiers have special skills and we all have to work together to get our mission accomplished. We organize in fire teams (4 Soldiers), squads (8), platoons (40), companies (150), and on up to several thousand in a Division or even more in an Army. You may think this sounds very similar to Patrols and Troops in the Boy Scouts. You're right! As a matter of fact, when the Boy Scouts was formed by Lord Baden-Powell, he took the troop structure from his experience in the British Army.

At the very least, a Soldier always has a Battle Buddy. Here's a picture of me with my Battle Buddy.

There are some pretty nasty diseases in the Middle East, so we end up having to get a lot of shots. This is a picture of what it looks like when 500 people have to get shots all at the same time. There's a lot of waiting, even though there are about 10 medics giving people shots at the same time..

Roll over to see a picture of the medics doing their job.

People say that you should pick up something new when you deploy. It helps you to pass the time and you just might find that you enjoy your new pastime and will have some skills when you get back. I've always liked music, but never played the guitar very well, so I got a guitar and brought it with me. It's a Traveler Guitar Speedster model. It's sort of a funny looking thing, but it plays nicely, and packs up really small, so it's great to have along. I also play around with the computer doing some graphic stuff, as well as editing this web page when I get the chance.