I survived

Today's excitement, besides changing my sheets, was that we had to upgrade to battle dress alpha. A couple of rockets were fired somewhere outside our base in our general direction and missed our base, but better safe than sorry. Battle dress alpha includes the 11 pieces of Army body armor, your helmet, and safety glasses. My helmet and body armor were on the other side of the base since I was at the hospital, but I had my safety glasses. Anyway, if I got hit I was already at the hospital. Oddly, safety glasses are the only thing we are required to wear at all times when outdoors. I haven't figured that particular regulation out yet, but at least I have a pair that can change between tinted and non-tinted lenses. Of the 13 pieces of potential body protection we are issued, the glasses are the lightest. If I had to carry the main body armor vest around all the time I would have a backache.