Norfolk, VA

Quick overview for those who I haven't talked to in a while: I am deploying to Afghanistan in the upcoming months to do construction/reconstruction/humanitarian stuff with the Army for the people of Afghanistan. I will be training with the Army for three months and will end up spending about nine months total in Afghanistan (exact location TBD).

First leg of the journey includes a stop at NMPS to be medically cleared and issued uniform gear. I've only been at NMPS Norfolk for a couple days now and already two major events have occurred: 1) I was almost NPQ'd (read: disqualified) for my deployment because of some paperwork mix-up regarding my LASIK, and 2) my arch-nemesis and THE ONLY OTHER CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS IN THE NAVY is in my class. Yes that's right, LT Christopher Saunders. Two Christopher Saunders' in the same class (class size = 34 people....out of THOUSANDS OF ELIGIBLE NAVY PERSONEL). The Navy really does have a sick sense of humor.
On the left is a pic of the gear I'm taking with me. This includes a heavy duty briefcase, a super small laptop, external hard drive, the Amazon Kindle, and a shock-proof dust-proof water-proof camera. Not to sound like an Amazon salesman, but the Kindle is definitely awesome.