Hello all,

Just a quick post. We have our address in Al Asad:

SSgt Dave Bennett
RCT-2 HQ Co S-2 HET-10
Unit 73910
FPO AE 09509-3910

That should get anything you send to me. Also my .mil email address is:

david.m.bennett@usmc.mil

That might change so I will be sure to keep you updated. Our leave block starts tomorrow, back to the cold of Colorado, let me tell you I can't wait.

Another week down and continuing to conduct training in preparation for leaving. The last week was our the Battalion Field Exercise, basically a week of us wearing all of our gear and running around. For the most part it was good training and gave us knowledge about things we might not have known. It was also week of early mornings and late nights, which added some realism with the level of fatigue that we were dealing with. We practiced MOUT operations (Military operations in urban terrain) and got the opportunely to shoot some of the bigger guns that Marines shoot (Mark 19 grenade launcher, 240-G machine gun and a 50 Cal machine gun), so that was fun. We finished on Friday with a run in our combat gear (or battle rattle) and we got a CS gas attack while we ran. The gas attack wasn't too bad and the run was only 1 1/2 miles. The attached photos show some of the things that we were doing and the members of our team.

We have arrived in California! The Colorado Team flew in on the 6th and will be operating here for the next few months. We will be conducting training and pre-deployment preparations. Right now we are checking into the unit in Pendleton and getting settled. Today was getting together with our team that we will deploy with and got in a good 5.2 mile run. The run included the 7 steps, a good 500 ft elevation gain in a 1/4 mile clime, not the incline but a definite lung buster.

For the next few months we are living in the Marriott Residence Inn in Carlsbad. Nice accommodations and comfortable living. Ate at In-n-Out for the first time and have decided to make it a weekly stop.

Not much else in the way of excitement happening right now. But as we know more and I have some photos of our training and what we are doing I will post them for you all to see.

Starting off the new year.

This blog is my answer to the mass e-mail thing that I didn't do too well last time out. I will do my best up give regular updates about the things that are going on and what we are doing. This should be the best way for people to get in touch with me as well. Hope it works like I want it to.

To start off..... As you might have read in the Christmas letter I am getting ready to deploy for a second time. The deployment will return me to Al Asad with Marines from Camp Pendelton, CA. I will be heading out with a Marines from my unit in Denver and we will join the guys in Pendelton for a couple of months of training and pre-deployment work ups. We will then head over to Iraq for our seven month deployment. Once I know more of the mailing and information about what we are doing I will let everyone know.

As training goes on I hopefully will be able to visit family and friends in California. It looks like we will get a week or so of leave at the end of February/beginning of March. I don't know the dates yet, but I will update you as I know more.

Hope all is well and I will keep you posted.